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2026 Abstract Book (Pdf), School Of Public Health

School of Public Health Delta Omega Honors Day Poster Sessions

The collection of abstracts for the 2026 Delta Omega Honors Day Poster Session.

Pleistocene Glacial Effects On North American Phylogeographic Patterns, Noah Garland, Ingrid Jordon-Thaden

Scholars Week

The biodiversity of alpine ecosystems are grossly underestimated, in turn threatening habitat loss. Much work is needed in this respect to better understand the process of speciation and extinction in these environments, given the threat of global climate change. We are testing hypothesis regarding rapid radiation of plant lineages both into and out of refugia in the context of dispersal during post-glacial and inter-glacial periods, focusing on the phylogeny of trans-Beringian alpine plant species by observing circumpolar lineages extending into southern portions of the North American Cordillera, the Rocky Mountains and the Intermountain Region.  Focal taxa include species of Draba …

English Language Programs As Facilitators Of Soft Diplomacy, Cheryl Ernst, Tong Li

EnglishUSA Journal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue - Englishusa, V. 13, English Usa

EnglishUSA Journal

No abstract provided.

Site-Directed Mutagenesis Of The He1Α Subunit Of Human Branched Chain Α-Ketoacid Dehydrogenase Complex, Riley B. Corcoran, Isabel Wilson, Bálint Csuka-Nagy, Stephen Baron

ASPIRE 2026

No abstract provided.

They Write Themselves: Romancing The Vampire Of Lighthouse Landing, Dezi Vaile

Masters Theses

Many fantasy creatures have dark pasts; supernatural, often disturbing, stories that have been tossed in a sauce of romance to appeal to a wider palette. While vampires are typically regarded as creations of nightmares, these creatures of the night have been no exception to this cycle. Although legends of blood suckers far predate the birth of Bram Stoker, Dracula is arguably the most enduring and important example of vampire literature. By beginning with Dracula, alongside earlier works like The Vampyre and Carmilla, we will track what has and has not changed within the genre of vampire literature. With the passage …

Protocol For Inducing Focal Striatal Stroke In Mice Using Photothrombosis, Bridget R. Boyle, Eileen Collyer, Andrea P. Berghella, Elena Blanco-Suarez

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Here, we present a protocol for inducing focal striatal stroke in mice using photothrombosis. We describe steps for photothrombotic striatal surgery, magnetic resonance imaging, open field behavioral assessment of stroke-induced motor deficits, and post-stroke monitoring. We then detail procedures for tissue collection and immunofluorescence. This protocol provides a standardized approach for consistently modeling striatal stroke in mice, enabling mechanistic studies and preclinical therapeutic testing.

The Impact Of Doulason The Parental And Newborn Outcomes Of Black And Hispanic Birthing People: A Secondary Data Analysis, Nicole Amanquanor

ETD Collection

Black and Hispanic birthing people in the United States continue to experience disproportionately high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality compared with White birthing people, even after controlling for sociodemographic factors and comorbidities. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to examine the impact of racially congruent doula support on the parental and newborn outcomes of Black and Hispanic birthing people in two urban safety-net hospitals. Quantitative data were derived from “The HoPE Doula Study”, a mixed-methods study conducted between June 2022 and December 2023, which followed 81 birthing people and 12 doulas across prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. …

Property Without Shelter: How Anti-Public-Camping Laws Violate The Substantive Due Process Rights Of The Homeless, Aaron Rissman

University of Miami Law Review

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court held that enforcing anti-public-camping ordinances against homeless individuals does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on status crimes. While the Court foreclosed the Eighth Amendment as a vehicle for challenging such laws, it suggested that other constitutional protections may remain available. This Note takes up the Court’s invitation and argues that many anti-public-camping laws violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s substantive due process guarantees.

Drawing on historical sources from common-law England through the Founding and Reconstruction eras, this Note demonstrates that the right to acquire, own, control, use, enjoy, and protect …

2026 U.S. News Grad School Rankings Includes 13 Ud Schools, Programs, University Of Dayton

News Releases

Thirteen University of Dayton schools and programs are listed among the '2026 U.S. News Best Graduate Schools Rankings.'

April 2026 Faculty Senate Packet, University Of Nebraska At Kearney Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Packets

No abstract provided.

Heck Coupling Of Α-Vinyl Β-Lactne, Adaobi I. Udokwu, Jimena Garcia Nunez, Barnabas Otoo

ASPIRE 2026

Antibiotic resistance remains a critical global health challenge, underscoring the urgent need for novel antibiotics with unique structural frameworks. β-Lactones represent a promising class of bioactive molecules with significant therapeutic potential. Interestingly, most β-lactone-based antibiotics reported to date share a common structural feature: relatively long α-side chains. Our research focuses on expanding the structural diversity of β-lactones to explore new biological activities. We have synthesized a series of β-lactones via boron-mediated aldol reactions of substituted acetic acids with aldehydes and ketones, followed by dialkyl carbodiimide-mediated lactonization of the resulting β-hydroxy acids. However, this approach imposes limitations on the length and …

The Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Fresh Produce Distribution In Rockingham County And The City Of Harrisonburg, Lauren A. Fisher, Alisa Hart

ASPIRE 2026

Fresh produce is essential to a balanced diet; however, many families struggle to access consistent sources of it. In 2022, about 17 million households were without access to nutritionally sound food from an easy to access source (Godoy 2023). About 10% of the populations of Rockingham County (approximately 17,000 people) are considered to be food insecure with at least 1,000 of those being children (Map the Meal Gap 2016).  Many of those experiencing food insecurity rely heavily on the emergency food system (e.g. food pantries).  Highly processed foods tend to be less expensive and shelf stable than the healthier fresh, …

Artificial Intelligence Assisted Evaluation Of Fungicide Efficacy In Acorn Squash, Olivia Grace Daniels

ASPIRE 2026

Powdery Mildew is a common fungus that infects a multitude of plants. This project will be working with Podosphaera Xanthii, the fungal pathogen that causes powdery mildew in cucurbits. Cucurbitaceae is a plant family that includes squash, pumpkins, melons and watermelons. Powdery mildew ends up significantly reducing the plants yield and infection causes an economic loss for growers which poses a great threat to the farmer’s lively hood. Powdery mildew is also extremely contagious and spreads rapidly to nearby plants. It can be absolutely decimating to populations. So there has been a push to find methods to control the spread …

Self-Assembly Interactions In Magnetite-Coated Cellulose Nanocrystals: Implications For Magnetic Hyperthermia Applications, Mohammad J. Hasan, Erin L. Mcneill, Kishore Chand, Juganta Roy, Monishita Deb, Katherine Schlaak, Sydney Herzog, Yvonne Sun, Sarah Watzman, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides, Erick S. Vasquez-Guardado

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Magnetic cellulose nanocrystal (MCNC) nanocomposites are promising sustainable and biocompatible platforms for magnetic hyperthermia; however, the molecular mechanisms governing Fe3O4 adsorption and deposition onto CNCs remain poorly understood. Here, sulfated (S-CNC) and TEMPO-oxidized CNCs (T-CNC) were used to prepare nanocomposites at 1:2 and 1:4 CNC:Fe3O4 mass ratios, enabling a systematic evaluation of how surface chemistry and nanoparticle loading dictate interfacial interactions and magneto-colloidal behavior. Bare magnetite nanoparticles were 21 ± 5 nm by TEM but grew to 144 ± 18 in the DLS measurement at pH 7. The S-CNC nanocomposites had hydrodynamic sizes between 144 and 210 nm, not much …

The Unsovereign Citizen: The Reconfiguration Of Rights And Belonging In Fascist Italy, Roberta Pergher

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Modern political thought tends to associate citizenship with democracy, equality, and political participation. This article demonstrates that citizenship can be profoundly important also for authoritarian rule. In Fascist Italy, citizenship remained central to political life, not as a vehicle of democratic participation, to be sure, but as a category through which the regime redefined belonging, hierarchy, and sovereignty. Drawing on citizenship legislation, imperial ordinances, racial laws, police reports, and ministerial commentary between 1912 and 1943, this article shows how the dictatorship hollowed out liberal citizenship within the peninsula, stratified it across imperial territories, consolidated it across diasporic populations, and ultimately …

Implications Of Leisure Activities On Veterinarian Mental Health Outcomes, Kevin Garuccio

Undergraduate Theses

While there are many professions that are stressful enough to be linked with negative mental health outcomes, few measure up to the mental dangers of veterinary medicine, with suicide rates twice that of the dental and medical professions and four times that of the general population (Stoewen, 2015). The current study aimed to focus on veterinarians and their mental health. While there have been a few studies done about the veterinary workplace, none thus far have investigated how veterinarians are spending their leisure time outside of work and how it could be impacting their mental health. The current study was …

Progesterone Receptors Drive Advanced Breast Cancer Phenotypes Including Circulating Tumor- And Stem-Like Cell Expansion In The Context Of Esr1 Mutation, Thu H. Truong, Noelle E. Gillis, Amy R. Dwyer, Rosemary J. Huggins, Kyla M. Hagen, Sai Harshita Posani, Nuri A. Temiz, Carlos Perez Kerkvliet, Ellie M. Piepgras, Julie H. Ostrander, Geoffrey L. Greene, Carol A. Lange

Department of Urology Faculty Papers

Endocrine therapy resistance remains a major challenge in the treatment of advanced estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer. This can be driven by acquired mutations in the estrogen receptor gene (ESR1), such as Y537S or D538G, that results in constitutive estrogen-independent ER activity. Progesterone receptors (PR) are important modifiers of ER activity, in part via direct binding. We previously showed that PR mediates expansion of cancer stem-like cell (CSC) populations. In this study, we sought to define whether PR function changes in the context of ESR1 mutations. PR readily interacted with wild type (WT), but not Y537S or D538G ERs. …

The Mommy Wine Culture: A Scoping Review Using The Person-Environment-Occupational Model., Sabina Khan

Student Dissertations

Maternal alcohol use as a coping response to parenting-related stress has received growing attention in public health and psychology but remains underexplored within occupational therapy. This gap limits understanding of how daily role demands, environmental pressures, and individual vulnerabilities combine to shape drinking as a functional coping behavior. This dissertation aimed to identify and synthesize factors associated with maternal alcohol use in the context of parenting stress and interpret these determinants using the person–environment–occupation model. A scoping review was conducted following the Arksey and O’Malley framework and reported according to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Five databases were systematically searched without date or …

Gene-To-Population Level Responses To Multiple Stressors On The Rocky Shore, Ramesh Wilson, Katie Driver, James Orr, Manuela Truebano, Michael Collins, Michelle Jackson

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Coastal ecosystems are exposed to both global and local stressors operating across multiple scales. However, research rarely considers how their combined effects propagate over time and across levels of biological organisation. Here, we employ an in situ warming experiment across two rocky shore sites with contrasting sewage pollution to quantify independent and interactive effects of warming and nutrient pollution from genes to populations. Passively warmed and control settlement plates were deployed at polluted and non-polluted sites and surveyed across a summer to quantify temporal dynamics in the responses of key intertidal taxa. Barnacles were further employed as a model for …

The Intermediate State: Scriptural, Philosophical, And Scientific Evidence For Conscious Existence After Death, Timothy R. Perry

Masters Theses

This thesis examines whether Scripture and supporting evidence affirm that believers enter the immediate presence of Christ in a conscious and possibly embodied state prior to the resurrection. It argues that compelling scriptural, scientific, and philosophical evidence supports the doctrine that believers enter the presence of Christ immediately after death, in a conscious and possibly embodied state until the final resurrection. The study employs a multidisciplinary argument drawing upon biblical exegesis, philosophical reasoning, and relevant scientific insights from the emerging field of near-death experiences. This study uniquely frames the intermediate state as an apologetic issue, offering hope to Christians who …

Transcriptomic Analysis Of Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group C Skin Samples, Austen N. Gleave

Theses and Dissertations

Xeroderma Pigmentosum is a rare genetic disorder caused by defective DNA damage repair enzymes. This condition results in an increased risk of developing skin cancer and other symptoms in those affected. In this thesis, we examined the effects of Xeroderma Pigmentosum on gene expression in patient skin biopsy samples. To accomplish this, we utilized statistical analysis of spatial transcriptomic and single-cell RNA sequencing techniques to discover differences between patient and heterozygous carrier skin samples. We found that the skin samples from Xeroderma Pigmentosum patients showed elevated levels of inflammation, immune activation, and cellular stress, while the carrier skin samples leaned …

Strategies To Address Employee Shortages In Allied Health, John O. Delozier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Continuing shortages of allied health (AH) workers have become a critical business challenge for health care organizations, driven by an aging population, rising service demand, and the lasting effects of the COVID 19 pandemic. AH leaders remain concerned about meeting essential staffing requirements, as persistent recruitment and retention difficulties threaten the delivery of high-quality health care. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore strategies successful health care leaders used to recruit and retain skilled AH employees. The participants were seven Maryland health care leaders with experience successfully implementing recruitment and retention strategies …

Elizabeth Craig Awarded Class Of 1937 Professorship In Marine Biology, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Ai Method For Classification Of Diagnosis Of Near-Infrared Breast Lesion Images, Kaiquan Chen, Fangyang Shen, Honggang Wang, Zhengchao Dong, Jizhong Xiao, Ming Ma, Afroza Aktar, Christopher Chow, Wenxiong Zhang

Publications and Research

In near-infrared optical breast lesion screening and diagnosis systems, high-speed four-dimensional scanners can dynamically acquire tens of thousands of lesion images within a five-minute period. Currently, manual computer annotation is required to generate standard samples from these scanned breast lesion images, a process that depends heavily on physicians with clinical expertise. On average, a single physician can annotate only approximately ten samples per working day. As a result, this process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the collected samples often suffer from low accuracy, large variability, and limited diagnostic reliability. Several AI-based annotation tools, such as QuPath, HALO AI™, and X-AnyLabeling, …

The Role Of Glu/Gly/Zif-8 Edible Film In Improving The Superior Rheological And Water Vapor Barrier Properties And Antibacterial Activity For Active Food Packaging, Nancy Siti Djenar, Kardian Rinaldi, Dina Nur Rahma, Dina Kustiana

Chimica et Natura Acta

The low barrier to water vapor and gas is a critical limitation of glycerol-plasticized gluten-based edible films (GBEF) for food packaging applications. In this study, gluten (Glu) and glycerol (Gly) were cross-linked with 0.25–1.00% (w/v) zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) to improve interfacial compatibility and enhance the structural integrity of the film matrix. The formation of hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions between ZIF-8 and the Glu/Gly matrix strengthened the chemical network, resulting in increased tensile strength (TS). The water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of Glu/Gly/ZIF-8 edible films (Glu/Gly/ZIF-8 EF) ranged from 1.085 to 1.453 g/m²/24 h, indicating significantly improved barrier properties. …

Evaluation Of Thrombotic Markers In Diabetic Septic Foot: A Study Of Coagulation And Hematological Parameters In Khartoum State, Anwar S. Alhussan, Sahar Elbagir, Sarah O. Alsawmhi, Hassn Pyar

Chimica et Natura Acta

Diabetes mellitus is a globally prevalent chronic disease. It is characterized by a metabolic dysregulation in insulin secretion, resulting in persistent hyperglycemia. Uncontrolled HbA1c levels may lead to various complications, including diabetic Septic foot (DSF), which in severe cases can progress to lower limb amputation. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate coagulation profiles and hematological parameters as potential thrombotic and inflammatory markers associated with diabetic foot infections. Preventive measures, patient education, and proper diabetic foot care remain the cornerstone strategies for reducing the risk and progression of such complications. The Total of 120 participants were divided into three groups by …

Correlation Between Ftir Fingerprint Spectra And Inhibition Of Α-Glucosidase Activity Of Andrographis Paniculata Using Partial Least Squares Regression Analysis, Mohamad Rafi, Stevanus Stevanus, Zuhelmi Aziz, Retti Hanggia Anggela, Agus Saputra

Chimica et Natura Acta

Andrographis paniculata has been used empirically by people as traditional medicine to treat diabetes. In this study, we correlated the FTIR spectra and α-glucosidase inhibition by using chemometrics analysis to obtain a functional group from the metabolite present in A. paniculata herb exhibited α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. A. paniculata herb powder was extracted using water, ethanol, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane using ultrasonication method. The dried extract obtained was then measured for its FTIR spectra and determined for α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. Absorbance data from the FTIR spectra of A. paniculata herb extracts were used as a principal component analysis (PCA) variable for …

Green Synthesis And Characterization Of Silver Nanoparticles Using Dadap Serep (Erythrina Lithosperma) Leaves Extract As A Bioreductor, Fairuz Hammad Albahi, Suyatno Sutoyo, Tukiran Tukiran

Chimica et Natura Acta

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) had been widely applied in various fields such as health, food, environment, catalysts, optics, and electronics. The synthesis of silver nanoparticles can be carried using a bottom-up method using by bioreductants derived from natural extracts (green synthesis). This study aims to describe the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using a bioreductants from dadap serep (E. lithosperma) leaves extract and to determine its characteristics. The synthesis was carried out by varying the volume ratio of dadap serep leaves extract to silver nitrate solution at ratios of 1: 1, 1: 2, 1: 3, and 1: 4, followed by optimization …

The Chemistry Profile Of Essential Oil Of The Roots, Stems, And Leaves Of The Plant Litsea Firma (Blume) Hook F., Rafiunisa Rafiunisa, Rini Muharini, Erlina Erlina

Chimica et Natura Acta

Indonesia, as an agrarian country rich in natural resources, holds enormous potential in the essential oil industry. There are approximately 150–200 species of essential oil-producing plants worldwide, 40 of which are found in Indonesia, including those from the Lauraceae family. The genus Litsea within the Lauraceae family is known for producing essential oils, with Litsea cubeba being the most popular. However, high demand for Litsea’s essential oils encourages the exploration of essential oils from other Litsea species, such as Litsea firma. This study used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to look at the chemical profile of essential oils from the roots, stems, …