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Ontogenetically Driven Changes In The Endocranial Anatomy Of Maiasaura Peeblesorum And Its Implications For Sensory Functions, Emma Puetz

Masters Theses

"Hadrosaurids exhibited extreme morphological diversity and behavioral characteristics that can be compared with other, closely related members of Dinosauria – particularly through the study of neuroanatomy. X-ray CT generated endocrania of the Late Cretaceous saurolophine hadrosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum, known as the “good mother” dinosaur, offers a unique opportunity to compare complex ecological behaviors between non-avian dinosaurs and their modern archosaur relatives. The 3D reconstruction software ORS Dragonfly provided linear and volumetric measurements taken from the digital cranial endocast and endosseous labyrinths of three ontogenetically varied M. peeblesorum specimens from the Two Medicine Formation in Montana that were used to …

Metal-Ion Doped Borate Bioactive Glasses- A Novel Direction In Minimizing Nosocomial Infections And Antibiotic Resistance, Sarah Fakher

Masters Theses

"Nosocomial infections represent a formidable challenge and induce a substantial burden on patients and healthcare systems. These infections result from the interaction of numerous pathogenic microorganisms, particularly bacteria, and lead to increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Extensive research has been carried out to devise innovative solutions, mainly focusing on antimicrobial natural and synthetic substances. However, the proclivity of bacterial strains to form biofilms complicates treatment and elevates antibiotic resistance, prompting research into pioneering more effective and versatile antibacterial strategies. Borate bioactive glasses (BBGs) are the latest, remarkable classes of biomaterials with a wide array of medical applications, owing to …

Human Arm Stiffness Estimation Method Developed For Overground Physical Interaction Experiments: Experimental Validation And Perspectives For Future Applications, Tarani Kanth Kamma

Masters Theses

"To build a physically interactive robot for overground applications, it is crucial to first understand the biomechanics of humans underlying overground physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) tasks. Estimating human arm stiffness during overground interactive tasks is a promising first step toward this goal. For this, an arm stiffness estimation technique was developed in our previous works that consider the unique challenges involving overground pHRI, such as the need to estimate the arm stiffness from a short duration of data with fewer repetitions. In this work, our stiffness estimation method is further validated with a passive spring setup with known stiffness values, …

Protein Turnover Rate And Life History As An Explanation Of The Extreme Difference In Cost Of Biosynthesis In Cockroach Nymphs And Painted Lady Butterfly Larva, Kyara Nicole Holloway

Masters Theses

The cost of biosynthesis in painted lady caterpillars is far lower than that of a red runner cockroach. A promising explanation for this phenomenon is the protein turnover rate for the animal during biosynthesis and tissue maintenance. Previous research has shown that, per gram of body weight, the painted lady butterfly can synthesize a biomass using up to 15x less energy and resources than the cockroach, even under similar conditions. The resulting ratios, especially in respect to growth rate, show a wide disparity between species in such a manner that does support a protein synthesis and degradation rates as a …

Association Between Untreated Caries And Cariogenic Bacteria In Adolescents In Taiwan, Po-Yen Lin, Hsin-Yuan Mai, Ching-Yi Wu, Hui-Ching Lin, Lin-Yang Chi

Journal of Dental Sciences

Abstract Background/purpose There is a paucity of research focused on salivary bacteria analyzed through real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) among adolescents. The current study determined the quantity of Streptococcus mutans (SM) and Lactobacillus (LB) in saliva obtained from Taiwanese adolescents and investigated the association between the oral bacteria and untreated dental caries. Materials and methods This cross-sectional study recruited Taiwanese students aged 10−18. Saliva was collected using a Salivette kit and then analyzed through qPCR. The relative quantification values of SM and LB were coded based on mean fold ratios, with values > 2 coded as high and other values coded …

How To Believe In Immortality, Carol Zaleski

Religion: Faculty Publications

All the cards seem to be stacked against belief in immortality. Nonetheless, the resources of particular religious traditions may avail where generic philosophical solutions fall short. With attention to the boredom and narcissism critiques, intimations of deathlessness in Śāntideva’s radical altruism, and recent Christian debates on the soul and the intermediate state, I propose two criteria for a coherent religion-specific belief in immortality: (1) the belief is supported by a fully realized religious tradition, (2) the belief satisfies the demand for self-transcendence as well as for self-preservation. Where self-transcendence and self-preservation are kept in balance, and where the whole idea …

In Situ High Temperature Fiber-Optic Raman Sensor For Industrial Applications, Bohong Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Continuous casting in steel production uses specially developed oxyfluoride glasses (mold fluxes) to lubricate a mold and control the solidification of the steel in the mold. The composition of the flux impacts properties, including basicity, viscosity, and crystallization rate, all of which affect the stability of the casting process and the quality of the solidified steel. However, mold fluxes interact with steel during the casting process, resulting in flux chemistry changes that must be considered in the flux design. Currently, the chemical composition of mold flux must be determined by extracting flux samples from the mold during casting and then …

Design And Development Of Biocompatible Mofs And Silica-Based Nanocarriers With Controlled Pharmacokinetics For Drug Delivery Applications, Neila Pederneira

Doctoral Dissertations

"In the past decade, a big interest has drawn into nanoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and silica-based materials as nanocarriers for drug delivery applications, owing to their exceptionally high surface area and highly structured porous network. The overall goal of this research was to optimize the pharmacokinetic behavior of several highly porous biocompatible drug carriers that have the potential to carry Ibuprofen, 5-Fluorouracil, and Curcumin to the desired tissue without creating a burst effect and minimizing the amount of dosage and size that conventional capsules require. The specific objectives of this study are to (i) assess the effect of drug solubility …

Drug Dealing And The Internal Morality Of Medicine, Matt Lamkin

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

Which practices qualify as “medical” in nature? This question has important legal implications. Every state has laws prohibiting the “unauthorized practice of medicine.” Health insurance policies generally limit coverage to procedures that are “medically necessary.” And physicians can be prosecuted as drug traffickers if they prescribe controlled substances without a “legitimate medical purpose.” Each of these questions—and many others—hinge on how medicine is defined.

As with many common terms, we all have a general understanding of what medicine is and this heuristic suffices to carry us through our daily lives without complication. Yet when called on to produce a precise …

Unveiling The Mechanisms Of Bromate Formation And Nom Treatment In Drinking Water Via Plasmon-Enhanced Catalytic Ozonation, Amir Ahmadi Zahrani

Dissertations

High energy consumption and the formation of harmful byproducts are significant challenges in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). While much research has focused on improving treatment efficiency, controlling byproduct formation requires more attention. The focus of this dissertation is divided into three main focuses: Firstly, the underlying mechanism of bromate formation inhibition during a plasmon-enhanced catalytic ozonation (PE catalytic ozonation) process using silver-doped spinel ferrite (0.5wt%Ag/MnFe2O4) as the catalyst was investigated by scrutinizing the effects of each factors involved in PE catalytic ozonation including irradiation, catalyst, and ozone, both individually and in combination, on major bromine species involved in bromate formation. …

Simulation Of Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharges At Low Driving Frequencies, Shanti K. Thagunna

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the self-pulsing of Dielectric Barrier Discharges (DBDs) at low driving frequencies, in particular, (a) the dependence of current on the product pd of gas pressure p and the gas gap length d, (b) the effects of lossy dielectrics (in resistive discharges) and large dielectric permittivity (in ferroelectrics) on current dynamics, (c) the transition from Townsend to a dynamic Capacitively Coupled Plasma (CCP) discharge with changing pd values, and (d) the transition from Townsend to a high-frequency CCP regime with increasing the driving frequency. A one-dimensional fluid model of Argon plasma is coupled to an equivalent RC circuit …

Mitigation Of Inflammation In Early Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis Through Low-Intensity Ultrasound, Shahid Khan

Dissertations

Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), a subset of OA caused by direct injury or repetitive microtrauma, results in a robust release of inflammatory mediators. If inadequately controlled, this pro-inflammatory phase leads to early tissue damage. The biomedical burden of PTOA is significant and inadequately addressed due to difficulties in identifying the disease onset, slow progression, and incomplete understanding of its etiology and pathogenesis. However, PTOA's distinct initiating events allow for early intervention. This thesis investigates whether fibronectin fragments (FnFs) can induce an early inflammatory response in a triple cellular in vitro model of early PTOA and whether continuous low-intensity ultrasound (cLIUS) can …

Psychological And Psychosocial Effects Of Contemplative Practices In The Athletic Population: A Systematic Review, Victoria Baker

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Mental health concerns in athletes are becoming a primary focus for institutions, companies, coaches, and more. An athlete carries an abundant load of stressors due to their lifestyle. The stressors can negatively impact an athlete by producing anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental health issues. Previous studies have found a connection between the use of contemplative practices on psychological and psychosocial effects in athletes, creating an opportunity to evaluate the research of contemplative practices in the athletic population. A systematic review was conducted using nine electronic databases. Seven studies were included in this review, each assessing how contemplative practices affect …

Neuroticism And Rumination As Mechanisms By Which Adverse Childhood Experiences Increase Vulnerability To Depression In College Students, Christopher Popielarz

West Chester University Master’s Theses

There is a high prevalence of depression among college students, and the consequences of untreated depression negatively impact those students’ academic and life outcomes. The following study analyzes the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the development of depression in college years as potentially mediated by neuroticism and rumination factors. The purpose of this research is to fill a gap in the current literature to determine whether neuroticism and rumination act together as mechanisms in conferring depression in college students following ACEs. Data from four questionnaires administered to undergraduate students at West Chester University (n = 127, 55.5% female, …

Empowered: Rebuilding The Black Teacher Pipeline In American Public Schools, Zoie Jones

West Chester University Master’s Theses

There is currently a disparity within K-12 education between the percentage of Black and Brown students in the classroom and the percentage of educators and administrators that look like them. Black educators comprise a small percentage of the teacher workforce. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 79 percent of teachers identified as white, while only 7 percent identified as Black. Additionally, Black educators experience higher rates of turnover in comparison to their white counterparts. Black teachers have a turnover rate of 18.9 percent, compared to 15 percent for their white counterparts. Black K-12 students in American public schools …

Cognitive Content Moderation: Freedom Of Thought And The First Amendment Right To Receive Subconscious Information, Mason Marks

Scholarly Publications

In the television series Severance, employees of Lumon Industries receive brain implants that divide their memories of work and home life. When employees arrive at work, implants block access to memories of the outside world and unlock memories formed on the job. By manipulating the flow of information in employees' brains, Lumon engages in what this Article calls cognitive content moderation. Though Severance is science fiction, emerging technologies, including drugs and electronic devices, promote cognitive content moderation by influencing thought, memory, and perception. Constitutional law is unprepared. To clarify freedom of thought and make it more useful, this Article presents …

Sars-Cov-2 Infectivity, And Interaction With Ace2 In The Human Oral Cavity: A Comprehensive Study, Blake Joseph Henkel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The oral cavity has the ability to transport infections throughout the body and be infected by bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the virus that led to the most recent pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 has unique ways of interacting with the human body to infect individuals, which has led researchers and scientists to have limited knowledge on its long-term impact on human health. However, there are ways to identify various oral cavity infections and prevent infection now and in the future. Many studies have been conducted in an attempt to understand the body’s …

Fp-24-13 Recently Divorced Adults With Resident Minor Children, 2022, Corrine E. Wiborg

National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

After reaching a 40-year low for two consecutive years (2020 and 2021 at 14.0 divorces per 1,000 married women), divorce rates have risen slightly in 2022 to 14.6 divorces per 1,000 married women (FP-23-24). Among recently divorced individuals, many may be parents with resident children. Using the American Community Survey (ACS) data from 2022, we estimate whether minor children (either biological, stepchildren, or adopted) are present in the household among recently divorced (within the last year) parents aged 18-55. Currently, the ACS does not capture divorced individuals with nonresident children and thus these figures underestimate the percentage of recently divorced …

Fp-24-17 Older Adults Living With An Adult Roommate Or Sibling, 2022, Jaden Loo, Krista K. Westrick-Payne

National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

Since the mid-1960s, the living arrangements of older adults (those aged 50 and above) have shifted significantly. Today, most older adults either live alone, with a spouse, or with a partner (Ausubel, 2020; Vespa, 2017). Although the proportion of older adults living with a spouse remains stable (Vespa, 2017), a declining share of older adults lives alone (Stepler, 2020) and an increasing share are in multigenerational households (Washington, Gryn, Anderson, & Kreider, 2023). However, less is known about other living arrangements, such as living with roommates (home sharing) or siblings. Previous research by the NCFMR revealed an increase in the …

Fp-24-24 Adult Children’S College Completion By Parental Stepfamily Status And Race/Ethnicity, Leo Lapata, Jaycob Applegate, Jenjira Yahirun

National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

No abstract provided.

Design Of A Targeted Blood Transcriptional Panel For Monitoring Immunological Changes Accompanying Pregnancy., Tobias Brummaier, Darawan Rinchai, Mohammed Toufiq, Mohammed Y Karim, Tanwir Habib, Jürg Utzinger, Daniel H Paris, Rose Mcgready, Alexandra K Marr, Tomoshige Kino, Annalisa Terranegra, Souhaila Al Khodor, Damien Chaussabel, Basirudeen Syed Ahamed Kabeer

Faculty Research 2024

BACKGROUND: Immunomodulatory processes exert steering functions throughout pregnancy. Detecting diversions from this physiologic immune clock may help identify pregnant women at risk for pregnancy-associated complications. We present results from a data-driven selection process to develop a targeted panel of mRNAs that may prove effective in detecting pregnancies diverting from the norm.

METHODS: Based on a

RESULTS: We identified 176 transcripts that were complemented with eight housekeeping genes. Changes in transcript abundance were seen in the early stages of pregnancy and similar patterns were observed in both datasets. Functional gene annotation suggested significant changes in the lymphoid, prostaglandin and inflammation-associated compartments, …

Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells In Cancer: Dual Roles, Complex Interactions And Therapeutic Potential., Mesut Yigit, Omer Faruk Basoglu, Derya Unutmaz

Faculty Research 2024

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells play diverse roles in cancer, infectious diseases, and immunotherapy. This review explores their intricate involvement in cancer, from early detection to their dual functions in promoting inflammation and mediating anti-tumor responses. Within the solid tumor microenvironment (TME), MAIT cells can acquire an 'exhausted' state and secrete tumor-promoting cytokines. On the other hand, MAIT cells are highly cytotoxic, and there is evidence that they may have an anti-tumor immune response. The frequency of MAIT cells and their subsets has also been shown to have prognostic value in several cancer types. Recent innovative approaches, such as programming …

Learning From Conect4children: A Collaborative Approach Towards Standardisation Of Disease-Specific Paediatric Research Data, Anando Sen, Victoria Hedley, Eva Degraeuwe, Steven Hirschfeld, Ronald Cornet, Ramona Walls, John Owen, Peter N Robinson, Edward G. Neilan, Thomas Liener, Giovanni Nisato, Neena Modi, Simon Woodworth, Avril Palmeri, Ricarda Gaentzsch, Melissa Walsh, Teresa Berkery, Joanne Lee, Laura Persijn, Kasey Baker, Kristina An Haack, Sonia Segovia Simon, Julius O. B. Jacobsen, Giorgio Reggiardo, Melissa A. Kirwin, Jessie Trueman, Claudia Pansieri, Donato Bonifazi, Sinéad Nally, Fedele Bonifazi, Rebecca Leary, Volker Straub

Faculty Research 2024

The conect4children (c4c) initiative was established to facilitate the development of new drugs and other therapies for paediatric patients. It is widely recognised that there are not enough medicines tested for all relevant ages of the paediatric population. To overcome this, it is imperative that clinical data from different sources are interoperable and can be pooled for larger post hoc studies. c4c has collaborated with the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) to develop cross-cutting data resources that build on existing CDISC standards in an effort to standardise paediatric data. The natural next step was an extension to disease-specific data …

Node-Degree Aware Edge Sampling Mitigates Inflated Classification Performance In Biomedical Random Walk-Based Graph Representation Learning., Luca Cappelletti, Lauren Rekerle, Tommaso Fontana, Peter Hansen, Elena Casiraghi, Vida Ravanmehr, Christopher J Mungall, Jeremy J Yang, Leonard Spranger, Guy Karlebach, J Harry Caufield, Leigh Carmody, Ben D Coleman, Tudor I Oprea, Justin Reese, Giorgio Valentini, Peter N Robinson

Faculty Research 2024

MOTIVATION: Graph representation learning is a family of related approaches that learn low-dimensional vector representations of nodes and other graph elements called embeddings. Embeddings approximate characteristics of the graph and can be used for a variety of machine-learning tasks such as novel edge prediction. For many biomedical applications, partial knowledge exists about positive edges that represent relationships between pairs of entities, but little to no knowledge is available about negative edges that represent the explicit lack of a relationship between two nodes. For this reason, classification procedures are forced to assume that the vast majority of unlabeled edges are negative. …

Genetic And Multi-Omic Risk Assessment Of Alzheimer's Disease Implicates Core Associated Biological Domains., Gregory Cary, Jesse C Wiley, Jake Gockley, Stephen Keegan, Sai Sruthi Amirtha Ganesh, Laura Heath, Robert R Butler, Lara M Mangravite, Benjamin A Logsdon, Frank M Longo, Allan Levey, Anna K Greenwood, Gregory W. Carter

Faculty Research 2024

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the predominant dementia globally, with heterogeneous presentation and penetrance of clinical symptoms, variable presence of mixed pathologies, potential disease subtypes, and numerous associated endophenotypes. Beyond the difficulty of designing treatments that address the core pathological characteristics of the disease, therapeutic development is challenged by the uncertainty of which endophenotypic areas and specific targets implicated by those endophenotypes to prioritize for further translational research. However, publicly funded consortia driving large-scale open science efforts have produced multiple omic analyses that address both disease risk relevance and biological process involvement of genes across the genome.

METHODS: Here we …

Pediatric Tumors As Disorders Of Development: The Case For In Vitro Modeling Based On Human Stem Cells., Cullen D Clairmont, Joanna J Gell, Ching C Lau

Faculty Research 2024

Despite improvements in patient outcomes, pediatric cancer remains a leading cause of non-accidental death in children. Recent genetic analysis of patients with pediatric cancers indicates an important role for both germline genetic predisposition and cancer-specific somatic driver mutations. Increasingly, evidence demonstrates that the developmental timepoint at which the cancer cell-of-origin transforms is critical to tumor identity and therapeutic response. Therefore, future therapeutic development would be bolstered by the use of disease models that faithfully recapitulate the genetic context, cell-of-origin, and developmental window of vulnerability in pediatric cancers. Human stem cells have the potential to incorporate all of these characteristics into …

Independent Repeated Mutations Within The Alphaviruses Ross River Virus And Barmah Forest Virus Indicates Convergent Evolution And Past Positive Selection In Ancestral Populations Despite Ongoing Purifying Selection., Alyssa T Pyke, Daniel J Wilson, Alice Michie, John S Mackenzie, Allison Imrie, Jane Cameron, Stephen L Doggett, John Haniotis, Lara J Herrero, Leon Caly, Stacey E Lynch, Peter T Mee, Eugene T Madzokere, Ana L Ramirez, Devina Paramitha, Jody Hobson-Peters, David W Smith, Richard Weir, Mitchell Sullivan, Julian Druce, Lorna Melville, Jennifer Robson, Robert Gibb, Andrew F Van Den Hurk, Sebastian Duchene

Faculty Research 2024

Ross River virus (RRV) and Barmah Forest virus (BFV) are arthritogenic arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) that exhibit generalist host associations and share distributions in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Using stochastic mapping and discrete-trait phylo- genetic analyses, we profiled the independent evolution of RRV and BFV signature mutations. Analysis of 186 RRV and 88 BFV genomes demonstrated their viral evolution trajectories have involved repeated selection of mutations, particularly in the nonstructural pro- tein 1 (nsP1) and envelope 3 (E3) genes suggesting convergent evolution. Convergent mutations in the nsP1 genes of RRV (residues 248 and 441) and BFV (residues 297 and …

A Review Of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Cold Atmospheric Plasma For Surface Sterilization And Decontamination, Kolawole Adesina, Ta Chun Lin, Yue-Wern Huang, Marek Locmelis, Daoru Frank Han

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Numerous investigations have shown that non-equilibrium discharges at atmospheric pressure, also known as "cold atmospheric plasma" (CAP) are efficient to remove biological contaminants from surfaces of a variety of materials. Recently, CAP has quickly advanced as a technique for microbial cleaning, wound healing, and cancer therapy due to the chemical and biologically active radicals it produces, known collectively as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). This article reviews studies pertaining to one of the atmospheric plasma sources known as Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) which has been widely used to treat materials with microbes for sterilization, disinfection, and decontamination purposes. To …

In Vitro Assessment Of The Anti-Biofilm Effectiveness Of Copper And Zinc Enhanced Borate Bioactive Glass Using Processed Microscopic Images, Sarah Fakher, David J. Westenberg

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

The escalating burden of nosocomial infections presents a formidable challenge to healthcare systems worldwide, leading to increased morbidity, prolonged hospital stays, and elevated healthcare costs. These infections are often resistant to conventional antibiotic therapies due to their association with biofilms which contribute to the persistence and resistance of pathogens. In addressing the challenge of biofilm-associated nosocomial infections, borate bioactive glasses (BBGs) have emerged as promising biomaterials. Doping these glasses with antimicrobial metals could potentially harness their antibacterial properties to prevent biofilm formation. This study undertakes a rigorous evaluation of the anti-biofilm efficacy of copper and zinc-doped BBGs by employing processed …

Advanced Detection Of Sars-Cov-2 And Omicron Variants Via Mxene-Graphene Hybrid Biosensors Utilizing Nucleic Acid Probes, Jiaoli Li, Yuwei Zhang, Congjie Wei, Yanxiao Li, Zhekun Peng, Hsin Yin Chuang, Logan Pearce, Adrianus Boon, Yue-Wern Huang, Dong Hyun Kim, Risheng Wang, Chenglin Wu

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Low-cost biosensors that can rapidly and widely detect viruses are critical for faster diagnosis and treatment decision-making, especially for infections. The commonly used field-effect transistor is sensitive to the biomarker's detection but struggles with precise detection, particularly of nontargets such as ions and proteins. To overcome this limitation, we developed a field-effect transistor biosensor design based on MXene-graphene materials to increase the accuracy and sensitivity of virus detection. Based on the hybridization process between two complementary DNA strands, single-stranded nucleic acids were immobilized on the sensing surface via 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and glutaraldehyde to capture the nucleic acids of the target virus. …