Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Roles Of Corticosterone And Familiarity In Prosocial Helping Tasks, Taylor Anne Kimball-Sabatella

Doctoral Dissertations

Studies have suggested that rats may be motivated by empathy, a characteristic that has been historically viewed as uniquely human, when engaging in helping other individuals escape stressful situations. Some researchers refute this idea, suggesting rats may be motivated by social interaction or other factors. To better understand what is driving helping behavior, it is critical to investigate the effectiveness of the stressors used in previous studies, how stress levels change over time, and how the stress of the recipient is related to the actions of the helper. If restraint is causing sufficient stress to the trapped individual and a …

Logistic Regression And Cox Hazard Modeling With Sparse High Dimensional Data Via Elastic Net Regularization And Graph-Guided Aggregation, Matthew Duckett

Doctoral Dissertations

Rare features are predictor variables with excessively low rates of nonzeros. It is not uncommon to encounter rare features in settings where data is quantified through one-hot encoding, such as text mining data or genomic data. Rare features pose problems for classic regression techniques due to instability of effect estimates. The problem is compoundedwhen the dimension of the feature space is high. Yan and Bien (2020) explored methods for aggregating rare features in high dimensions by leveraging side-information about relations between features that can be organized as a tree graph. While their work is restricted to standard Gaussian regression, we …

Dimensions Of Green Crabs, Carcinus Maenas (Linnaeus 1785), And Oysters, Crassostrea Virginica (Gmelin 1791), In Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire, Kelsey Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Invasive species may alter how an ecosystem functions, such as the Great Bay Estuary (GBE) inNew Hampshire. In GBE, an invasive species of particular interest is the green cab (Carcinus maenas) because historically (and currently) there are no mitigation or eradication plans that have been implemented. It is not well-known how green crabs are interacting with oysters in GBE, whether that be wild, restored, or aquacultured. The aim of this dissertation was to document NH oyster growers’ perspectives on the issue of green crabs and oyster predation, understand their abundance, distribution and diet among natural/restored oyster areas and oyster farms …

The Last Snail In The Coffin: Climate Change Facilitates The Rise Of A Native Slipper Limpet To The Detriment Of Gulf Of Maine Ecosystems, Kaitlin Van Volkom

Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is thought to favor invasive species and harm native species, but the native slipper limpet, Crepidula fornicata, may prosper under climate change scenarios. C. fornicata is widely distributed along the East Coast of the United States and has been known to increase its reproductive output in response to warming water temperatures. This species is an ideal model organism for studying the impacts of climate change because this species has a large latitudinal distribution, are very common, and are present in many different ecosystems. However, little is known about C. fornicata population dynamics, trophic relationships, or population level differences …

Age Distribution Of Minors Portrayed In Image-Based Sexual Abuse And Child Sexual Abuse Material, Samantha Jean Sutton

Doctoral Dissertations

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) poses a significant threat, especially in the current technological age. A better understanding of victim characteristics is needed to direct investigation and prevention efforts properly. However, determining the age distribution of children in CSAM has been difficult due to numerous factors, including differing laws governing CSAM, the priority placed on investigating younger victims, and the difficulty of determining from images alone the age of young people. This meta-analysis sought to understand the proportion of image abuse victims who are under the age of 13 compared to those who are 13 years or older and whether …

Probing Neutron Star Interiors: Insights Into Asymmetric Dark Matter, Dark Energy, And The Cold Dense Matter Equation Of State, Nathan Rutherford

Doctoral Dissertations

The combination of derived neutron star mass-radius measurements from NASA's Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) mission, constraints from chiral effective field theory (chiEFT), and mass-tidal deformability constraints from gravitational waves has led to significant improvements in the understanding of the cold dense matter equation of state (EoS) of neutron stars. Interestingly, asymmetric dark matter (ADM) and dark energy may also be present within neutron star interiors, potentially impacting their global properties. Taking these effects into account, neutron star measurements can not only offer new insights into the dense matter EoS, but also serve as a hunting ground for dark …

Investigating The Role Of Soundscape Properties And Genetic Material As Sentinel Indicators Of The Acoustic Environment In Gulf Of Maine Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Grant Alexander Milne

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT By identifying soundscape properties and taxa detected with metabarcoding that accurately predict substrate composition, assumptions about propagative properties of the environment can be rapidly formed without the use of active acoustic sensing or invasive environmental sampling techniques. “Sentinel indicators,” are variables, processes, or components within ecosystems that can be measured or quantified and have sensitivity to environmental pressures. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and metabarcoding of seawater samples (MSS) are two minimally invasive potential methods of identifying sentinel indicators of soundscape and propagation properties of marine habitats by detecting the presence of marine taxa and extracting information from soundscapes. To …

The Role Of The Gut Microbiota In Opioid Use Disorder, Izabella Jannae Sall

Doctoral Dissertations

Opioids are highly effective analgesics for acute and chronic pain management but carry dangerous side effects that limit their utility and increase the risk of opioid use disorder (OUD). Yet not all individuals prescribed opioids develop an OUD, presenting a conundrum: why are so some individuals develop an OUD and others do not? While genetics, social environment, and behavior contribute to risk, they fail to explain why some individuals transition from prescribed use to an OUD. My doctoral research investigates an increasingly likely culprit that is also a promising therapeutic target: the gut microbiota. The gut microbiota is essential for …

Responding To Range Expansion: Assessing Insect Communities, Tree Decline Symptoms, And Tree Mortality Risk As The Southern Pine Beetle Moves North, Caroline Rachel Kanaskie

Doctoral Dissertations

Climate change is shifting species distributions. In New England, warmer winters allow southern species to survive further north. The northward range expansion of the tree-killing southern pine beetle is the focus of this dissertation. Outbreaks of this beetle cause both ecological and economic damage, which threaten the globally rare pine barrens ecosystem. I used an interdisciplinary approach to study this insect: 1) I synthesized literature on the beetle’s natural enemies; 2) I used a suite of chemical attractants to investigate the insect community attracted to the beetle’s pheromones and assessed the diversity and abundance of its potential predators; 3) I …

Acetylcholine Release In The Dorsal Lateral Straitum During Social Approach Task, Taylor Good, Oyku Dinckol, Noah Wenger, Jake Caselli, Munir Gunes Kutlu

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Nicotine Decreases ACh Release in the DS leading to a Serenic Effect during Social Approach Task

Acetylcholine (ACh) regulates attention, learning, and stress responses (Benarroch E. E., 2012). The dorsal striatum (DS), essential for stimulus-response learning, is also linked to anxiety and compulsivity (Casado-Sainz et al., 2021). We used behavioral pharmacology and in vivo fiber photometry to study ACh responses during social approach tasks in the dorsal striatum. Male and female C57BL/6J mice underwent stereotaxic surgeries to inject a fluorescent ACh sensor (ACh.Sn.Fr) and implant fiber optic cannulas in the DS. Using in vivo fiber photometry, we tracked ACh release …

Hypoxia Induced Ribosomal Rna Fragmentation Mediated By Rnase L, Vanessa Kristina Pizutelli, Dimitri G Pestov

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Ischemic injury contributes to a range of global pathologies. Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury (IRI) is a paradoxical phenomenon that involves an initial restriction of blood flow followed by a sudden restoration of perfusion. This type of injury takes place in conditions such as myocardial infarction, acute kidney disease, and ischemic stroke and often leads to cellular death. Additionally, IRI exacerbates post-surgical outcomes and plays a role in graft dysfunction and transplant rejection. Despite efforts to develop therapies targeting known IRI pathways, clinical trials have largely been unsuccessful, underscoring the need for alternative mechanisms and biomarkers associated with IRI-induced apoptosis. Reactive oxygen species …

Modulation Of Opioid Receptor Expression In The Ventral Tegmental Area Following Stress Exposure In Rats, Maya Patel, John Tkaczynski, Jordan Riser, Nicole Shellenbarger, Jin Park, Daniel Manvich, Daniel J. Chandler

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background: The ventral tegmental area (VTA) contains dopamine-producing neurons projecting to various brain regions. VTA dysfunction is linked to addiction and depression. Delta opioid receptor upregulation relates to chronic pain, inflammation, cancer, and early adversity. Kappa receptors in the VTA influence stress, drug-seeking, mood, and reward. Notably, chronic substance abuse upregulates the κ-receptor/dynorphin system, and the opioid system regulates social interaction needs.

Hypothesis: Stress will upregulate opioid receptors.

Methods: We compared group-housed and individually-housed rats using stress tests, analyzing behavior and quantifying VTA opioid receptor expression.

Results: Social isolation upregulated delta and kappa opioid receptors in …

Case Report: Alpha Gal Syndrome, Eric Haljasmaa, David Parkes, Wayne Tamaska

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

We report a case of a 40-year-old male who presented with sensation of throat closing and shortness of breath while at work at a meat processing facility. The differential diagnosis of shortness of breath is throat closing includes, but is not limited to, allergic reactions to antibiotics in meat, allergy to food additives, Symptom triggers are useful in identifying causes and a good supporting history and exposures can help with diagnosis. In this case, the patient had a known diagnosis of Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) which is a tick-bite associated, possibly life-threatening immunoglobin E-mediated (IgE) hypersensitivity to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal). The patient …

Horror Films And Why We Enjoy The Genre, Jessica Thomason

Theses

This project focuses on the research of horror films and why certain individuals enjoy the genre despite having taboo subjects. The primary focus is to find the answer to the research question “why do some individuals enjoy horror?”. The aim of this research was to identify a connection between why individuals enjoy horror through the content. The research then informed the creative process behind the painting series that accompanies this project.

Definitively Unfinished: Abraham Cruzvillegas’ Autoconstrucción, Disability Aesthetics, And Crip Materiality, Benjamin Brobst-Renaud

Theses

Abraham Cruzvillegas’ Autoconstrucción project is the sculptural manifestation of an approach to artmaking rooted in the self-built and continually evolving forms of the neighborhood where Cruzvillegas grew up (Colonia Ajusco near Mexico City). While it might seem surprising to draw a comparison between the forms of Autoconstrucción and Disability Studies, and while Cruzvillegas does not literally depict the disabled human form, Autoconstrucción resonates deeply with this critical space. Disability Aesthetics, in Tobin Siebers’ formulation, is “an attempt to theorize the representation of disability in modern art and visual culture.” Similarly, Jessica Cooley’s Crip Materiality is a methodology that “locates disability …

Summit Disease: The Ecological Horror Of Empire, Nicholas Moore

Theses

This project focuses on the use of insect imagery in art and media and the theories and concepts that have been instrumental in understanding the cultural and political significance of insect species extinction and decline. I center my work on the concept of ecohorror and highlight several artists whose work depicts insect species and conveys anxieties over ecoprecarity and climate dysfunction. I argue that depictions of insects in art and media can be interpreted in two ways - insects as destructive, monstrous contaminants and insects as constructive, beneficial terraformers - and I rely on Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley …

Presence Through Absence: The Ark Of The Covenant And The Aniconic Image Of God In Early Israelite Religious Art, Natalie Rivas

Theses

This thesis investigates the Ark of the Covenant as a paradoxical visual and theological artifact within early Israelite religious art. While the Israelite tradition has long been characterized as aniconic (eschewing anthropomorphic representations of the divine) the Ark occupied a central role in ritual, worship, and religious identity. Prior scholarship has focused either on the Ark’s narrative function in biblical texts or its formal attributes as a cultic object. However, limited attention has been given to how the Ark embodies divine presence through the visual strategy of absence. This study argues that the Ark does not merely avoid figural representation …

Leveraging Ai For Enhanced Multimedia Content Creation: College Students’ Perception On The Innovation, Georgina Amankwa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized multimedia content creation, enhancing efficiency and personalization. However, this rapid evolution has raised concerns about originality and ethical responsibility. This study explored college students’ perceptions of AI in content creation and its implications. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combined surveys and qualitative insights to analyze how students engaged with AI tools. Findings revealed that while AI streamlined workflows, improved content quality, and boosted audience engagement, concerns about authenticity, intellectual property, and the diminishing role of human creativity persisted. Statistical analyses showed a strong correlation between frequent AI use and perceived benefits, yet ethical dilemmas …

Investigating The Effects Of Prenatal E-Cigarette Exposure On Postnatal Liver Histology, Emma Mcclellan

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) entered the American market in the mid-2000s and quickly became popular. This product poses a significant threat to youth with 1.63 million students reporting use in 2024. Adverse health effects to different organs are well known. The liver is less studied, and despite its role in detoxification of e-cigarette chemicals, is a target of injury. Unlike the known effects of cigarettes and nicotine on the liver from adult or prenatal exposure, effects of prenatal exposure to e-cigarettes on liver remain to be defined. The current study investigated the effects of prenatal exposure of e-cigarettes on liver …

Effects Of Cadmium And Diet On Metal Accumulation And Kidney Cell Death Pathways., Justin Xu

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Cadmium (Cd) is a non-biodegradable environmental toxin and accumulates in the body with an estimated half-life of 30-45 years. Humans can be exposed to Cd through diet, drinking water, tobacco smoking, and industrial pollution. Cd can especially accumulate in the kidney due to the release of Cd from protein-metal complexes when filtering blood in the tubules causing oxidative stress and inducing kidney injury. Obesity is another risk factor for kidney disease therefore we examined the dual effects of Cd and obesity on the accumulation of essential metals in mouse kidneys. Starting in utero and continuing until 24 weeks postweaning, male/female …

Understanding The Properties Of Repair Protein P26 For Dry-State Preservation Of Biological Materials., Hannah Skaggs

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The preservation of complex biological materials in the frozen state has been well established and plays a critical role in the advancement of clinical applications and the pharmaceutical industry. Cryopreservation of complex biological materials has several clinical applications, including vaccine preservation, bone marrow transplants, cell therapeutics, and increasing the shelf life of red blood cells (RBCs) for transfusion. However, many challenges are present, including the use of toxic protective agents and the financial burden of maintaining extremely low temperatures between 193.15 and – 77.6 K (Parihar, Kumar et al. 2023). Lyophilization, or freeze-drying, presents an opportunity to mitigate such challenges. …

Behavior Change: Actions To Restore Piedmont Prairie And Adopt Sustainable Behavior, Kacey Marie Kaibery

All Theses

Restoration of an ecosystem or adoption of sustainable behavior could benefit the environment. Valuable ecosystem services, like water filtration and habitat for pollinators, inspire investigation into the restoration of grasslands, like Piedmont prairies. This research endeavors to determine the impact of disturbance type (tilling, herbicide, mowing, fire, control with seed or no seed). The second-year aboveground biomass was harvested, identified, counted, and weighed to understand plant species’ response after the application of the disturbance. Target species and plant community diversity did not significantly vary between disturbance types. Planting methods (hand dispersal, drill, one-month and six-month transplanting) on Asclepias tuberosa establishment …

Investigation Of Anhedonia: A Literature Review, Austin G. Littlejohn

Honors Capstones

"Investigation of Anhedonia" serves as an independent study where a Literature Review was conducted to research different aspects and elements of the psychological phenomenon known as Anhedonia. With the support of psychology mentors and utilization of the library's resources, the research investigated what Anhedonia is and how it is connected to stress and trauma, the trajectory or progression of Anhedonia and its symptoms, the connection to more well known psychological disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, and Anhedonia's status of a stress response and whether or not it could be considered a separate disorder. The significance of the literature in …

Reviving Baybayin: The Pre-Hispanic Writing System Of The Philippines, And Raising Awareness In The United States, Richana K. Stone

Honors Thesis

Baybayin is an Indigenous system of writing in the Philippines that has been preserved, but has seen rapid decline in usage throughout the centuries. This paper explores the history of Baybayin and the methods of reviving the written script that have been suggested and used to reimplement Baybayin into the daily lives of Filipinos. Furthermore, this paper will look at how Lakota and Peruvian recording systems, the winter count and the khipu, respectively, have been preserved and used in modern times. Viewing the history of these groups and how they preserved these writing systems sparks a potential for the adoption …

Looking Back While Moving Forward: Four Musical Works That Signify Complex Emotions Regarding The Passage Of Time Through Ambiguous Endings, Bailey Griggs

Music Undergraduate Honors Theses

Defying expectations is a useful and overlooked tool in music composition. Despite all their differences, the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony, Joe Hisaishi’s score to the 2001 film Spirited Away, Joni Mitchell’s popular song “Both Sides Now,” and electronic artist The Caretaker’s album set Everywhere at the End of Time all share similar programmatic content. Each presents a protagonist who is coming to terms with the passage of time and is conflicted about how they should cope with change. Upon examination of these four works, they all use unexpected and ambiguous endings to signify complex ideas about time through …

Characterization Of 3d Printed Microdialysis Probes For Solute Recovery And Non-Specific Adsorption, Bailey N. Scoggins

Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Honors Theses

Microdialysis is an important sampling technique that has uses in a wide range of disciplines, such as neuroscience and pharmacokinetics. 3D printing aims to address adaptability and customization issues that are present in standard “off-the-shelf” microdialysis probes. This work aims to lay the groundwork for characterizing a 3D printed microdialysis probe designed at the University of Arkansas. One experiment involved measuring solute recovery of caffeine as a function of flow rate of a standard CMA 11 probe to assess its membrane performance. The other goal was to learn about non-specific adsorption tendencies of enzymes (i.e., to what degree proteins stick …

James Baldwin's Classroom And What He Can Teach Educators About Queer Representation, Matthew Callahan

Honors College Theses

This is an extended analysis of James Baldwin's "A Talk to Teachers" about how to bring representation into the classroom. I use Baldwin's other essays and fiction along with educational research to look into the way Baldwin understands education and the importance of bringing healthy queer representation into the classroom. I provide both theoretical observations along with practical implications of what this means for educators in the classroom and what they can do to help all their students feel seen, represented, and welcome in the classroom.

Immigration Policy In The Second Trump Administration: Restriction, Removal, And The Limits Of Maga Nativism, Caroline R. Nagel

Faculty Publications

Donald Trump's three presidential campaigns have centred on promises to stop unauthorised immigration, whether by ‘building the wall’ or by enacting the largest mass deportation in American history. To deliver on these promises, Trump has appointed Stephen Miller—an anti-immigration hardliner who was responsible for the first Trump administration's draconian border policies – to a key White House position. Trump is often described as breaking from liberal-democratic norms; but when it comes to immigration policy, he is following a well-worn path by hiring Miller. This brief commentary places the Trump/Miller brand of anti-immigration politics in historical context, showing how anxieties over …

Immigration Policy In The Second Trump Administration: Restriction, Removal, And The Limits Of Maga Nativism, Caroline R. Nagel

Faculty Publications

Donald Trump's three presidential campaigns have centred on promises to stop unauthorised immigration, whether by ‘building the wall’ or by enacting the largest mass deportation in American history. To deliver on these promises, Trump has appointed Stephen Miller—an anti-immigration hardliner who was responsible for the first Trump administration's draconian border policies – to a key White House position. Trump is often described as breaking from liberal-democratic norms; but when it comes to immigration policy, he is following a well-worn path by hiring Miller. This brief commentary places the Trump/Miller brand of anti-immigration politics in historical context, showing how anxieties over …

The Ethics And Legality Of Artificial Intelligence Artwork: A Vulnerability Theory Analysis, Gayatri Rajamony

Computer Science Honors Theses

No abstract provided.