Digital Commons Network^™

'Never Cry For Food': Food Security, Poverty, And Recurring Themes In News Media Regarding Rabbit Farming In East Africa, Kimberly E. Johnson, Julia Hayes, Patricia Davidson, Chiwoneso B. Tinago, Geoffrey Anguyo

Nutrition Faculty Publications

Rabbit farming is a form of low input agriculture that has potential to address food security and poverty in East Africa and beyond. For low input agriculture, farmers utilize local and affordable farm resources making it accessible across income levels. Understanding barriers and facilitators to rabbit farming could increase effectiveness of this form of low input agriculture in communities struggling with low food security and poverty, particularly for indigenous, smallholder farms. News media is an available source of data about community perceptions and practices on issues such as rabbit farming, food security, and poverty. For this qualitative study, researchers applied …

2023’S Billion-Dollar Disasters List Shattered The Us Record With 28 Big Weather And Climate Disasters Amid Earth’S Hottest Year On Record, Shuang-Ye Wu

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The U.S. set an unwelcome record for weather and climate disasters in 2023, with 28 disasters that exceeded more than US$1 billion in damage each.

While it wasn’t the most expensive year overall – the costliest years included multiple hurricane strikes – it had the highest number of billion-dollar storms, floods, droughts and fires of any year since counting began in 1980, with six more than any other year, accounting for inflation.

Scalable And Consolidated Microbial Platform For Rare Earth Element Leaching And Recovery From Waste Sources, Nathan M. Good, Christina S. Kang-Yun, Morgan Z. Su, Alexa M. Zytnick, Colin C. Barber, Huong N. Vu, Joseph M. Grace, Hoang H. Nguyen, Wenjun Zhang, Elizabeth Skovran, Maohong Fan, Dan M. Park, Norma Cecilia Martinez-Gomez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Chemical methods for the extraction and refinement of technologically critical rare earth elements (REEs) are energy-intensive, hazardous, and environmentally destructive. Current biobased extraction systems rely on extremophilic organisms and generate many of the same detrimental effects as chemical methodologies. The mesophilic methylotrophic bacterium Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 was previously shown to grow using electronic waste by naturally acquiring REEs to power methanol metabolism. Here we show that growth using electronic waste as a sole REE source is scalable up to 10 L with consistent metal yields without the use of harsh acids or high temperatures. The addition of organic acids increases …

Coded Social Control: China’S Normalization Of Biometric Surveillance In The Post Covid-19 Era, Michelle Miao

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article investigates the longevity of health QR codes, a digital instrument of pandemic surveillance, in post-COVID China. From 2020 to 2022, China widely used this tri-color tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. A commonly held assumption is that health QR codes have become obsolete in post-pandemic China. This study challenges such an assumption. It reveals their persistence and integration - through mobile apps and online platforms - beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency. A prolonged, expanded and normalized use of tools which were originally intended for contact tracing and pandemic surveillance raises critical legal and ethical concerns. Moreover, their …

Cyber Security: A Lawyer’S Ethical Duty, Meagan Folmar

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.

Reducing Global Food Loss And Waste Could Improve Air Quality And Lower The Risk Of Premature Mortality, Alessandro Gatto, Maksym Chepeliev

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

While the global food system substantially contributes to environmental degradation and climate change, significant amounts of lost or wasted foods along the food supply chain actively contribute to global air pollution and related health risks. In this study, we use an environmentally-extended input–output model to quantify air pollution embedded in global food loss and waste (FLW) and investigate how FLW reduction policies can mitigate air pollution linked to food consumption, decreasing associated premature mortality risks across global regions. While estimating a positive impact of FLW reduction policies on decreasing air pollution levels (from −1.5% of SO2 emissions to −10.2% of …

Gastric Lipomas: A Case Series And Review Of The Literature, Simone A. Jarrett, Sahana Tito, Matthew Chan, Dominic E. Jarrett, Kevin B. Lo, Richard Depalma

Einstein Health Papers

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this case series was to review a rare subset of tumors known as gastric lipomas, which are typically found incidentally. The motivation for this study arose from the identification of 2 cases within our institution in a short period.

CASE PRESENTATION: The study involved a review of the diagnosis and management of 2 patients presenting with gastric lipomas at our institution after symptoms of gastrointestinal bleeding. With the advent of new radiologic investigations such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging and advances in endoscopy, there are new approaches to identifying and managing these tumors. On …

Somali Students In The American Elementary General Music Classroom, Alice L. Charland

Masters Theses

Education must be cognizant of the Somali culture’s inclination to classify music as a morally charged entity. It must also be careful not to forget American cultural values that have defined the music classroom. The purpose of this research was to identify Somali cultural expressions that occur in the American elementary general music classroom and to identify underlying concepts that contribute to these cultural expressions. Additionally, the research sought to bring light to the relationship between the two, so that future music educators might be inspired to create assessments and activities that better suit the needs of all learners.

Tiktok’S Influence On Generation Z Female’S Comparative Behavior, Brookelynn Dinkler

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to address TikTok’s role in the comparative behaviors among Generation Z females. This study specifically evaluated the communication of society’s perception of beauty standards and how it resonates with and influences TikTok users. A qualitative approach was taken to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of participants and fill the gap in qualitative media effects research. The research question being addressed was: How has TikTok influenced society's idea of physical beauty and body image concerns among Generation Z females? Through the lens of social comparison theory, the research found that the application …

Mei Ling Chow V. English

All Decisions

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Peoples And Local Communities Report Ongoing And Widespread Climate Change Impacts On Local Social-Ecological Systems, Victoria Sharakhmatova, Victoria Reyes-García, David García-Del-Amo, Santiago Álvarez-Fernández, Petra Benyei, Laura Calvet-Mir, André B. Junqueira, Vanesse Labeyrie, Xiaoyue Li, Sara Miñarro, Vincent Porcher, Anna Porcuna-Ferrer, Anna Schlingmann, Christoph Schunko, Ramin Soleymani, Adrien Tofighi-Niaki, Mariam Abazeri, Emmanuel M.N.A.N. Attoh, Ayansina Ayanlade, Julia Vieira Da Cunha Ávila, Daniel Babai, Rodrigo C. Bulamah, Joao Campos-Silva, Rosario Carmona, Julián Caviedes, Rumbidzayi Chakauya, Mouna Chambon, Zhuo Chen, Fasco Chengula, Esther Conde, Aida Cuní-Sanchez

Faculty Publications

The effects of climate change depend on specific local circumstances, posing a challenge for worldwide research to comprehensively encompass the diverse impacts on various local social-ecological systems. Here we use a place-specific but cross-culturally comparable protocol to document climate change indicators and impacts as locally experienced and analyze their distribution. We collected first-hand data in 48 sites inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities and covering all climate zones and nature-dependent livelihoods. We documented 1,661 site-agreed reports of change corresponding to 369 indicators. Reports of change vary according to climate zone and livelihood activity. We provide compelling evidence that climate …

Unh Experts Share How To Safely View Upcoming Solar Eclipse, Scott Ripley, David Vogt, Beth Potier, Rebecca Irelan

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Light That Appears To Come From A Source That Does Not Exist, Itamar Stern, Yakov Bloch, Einav Grynszpan, Merav Kahn, Yakir Aharonov, Justin Dressel, Eliahu Cohen, John C. Howell

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Superoscillatory, band-limited functions oscillate faster than their fastest Fourier component. Superoscillations have been intensively explored recently as they give rise to many out-of-the-spectrum phenomena entailing both fundamental and applied significance. We experimentally demonstrate a form of superoscillations which is manifested by light apparently coming from a source located far away from the actual one. These superoscillations are sensed through sharp transverse shifts in the local wave vector at the minima of a pinhole diffraction pattern. We call this phenomenon “optical ventriloquism.”

Examining Factors Associated With The Use Of Community Food Resources: An Application Of The Andersen Model To Inform Future Interventions, Abiodun T. Atoloye, Oluyemisi Akinsola, Melissa Murillo

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

The role of the food environment in shaping nutrition and health has gained substantial attention from policymakers, public health researchers, and advocacy groups. To promote equities in food access and nutrition outcomes, understanding factors linked with the utilization of local community food resources is crucial. Using Andersen’s service utilization model, we explained how adults use their neighborhood food resources. In a cross-sectional study design, an online survey was conducted in REDCap Version 13.4.0 via the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) involving 1830 adults with a mean age of 37.9 ± 12.1 years. Participants answered questions on predisposing, enabling, and need factors …

Comparison Of Empirical And Analytical Eigenfunctions As Bases For Reduced Order Methods In Heat Transfer, Jakob G. Bates, Matthew R. Jones, Christopher R. Dillon, John Tencer

Student Works

Reduced order methods using spectral representations show promise in facilitating and accelerating heat transfer analyses. This paper proposes a taxonomy for reduced order methods, classifying a method as reduced order compression, modelling, or analysis. The performance of bases formed with analytical and empirical eigenfunctions are compared for representative reduced order tasks. The Akaike Information Criterion is applied in a novel way to compare the performance of these bases. The present study finds that both bases are parsimonious for reduced order compression tasks. Empirical eigenfunctions are more robust to for reduced order modelling with variations in modelling parameters such as thermal …

Pearls & Oy-Sters: Cacna1a-Related Paroxysmal Tonic Upgaze With Ataxia Responsive To Acetazolamide

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

A 9-month-old male infant was evaluated for sudden onset of paroxysmal episodes of forced, conjugate upward eye deviation. Extensive in-hospital evaluation including electrophysiology and neuroimaging studies were reassuring against seizures or a structural abnormality. Given the clinical presentation of sudden onset intermittent upward eye deviations, downbeating saccades, associated ataxia, and typical development, a clinical diagnosis of paroxysmal tonic upgaze (PTU) with ataxia was made. Targeted genetic testing of CACNA1A was performed, which revealed a variant of undetermined significance, which was later classified as a de novo pathogenic variant after protein modeling and parental testing performed. Off-label use of oral acetazolamide …

Unmasking The Resistance: A Comprehensive Study Of Anti-Ku Klux Klan Endeavors In Upcountry South Carolina During The Reconstruction Era, Jacob Spencer Moule

Masters Theses

To many in 1865, the American Civil War ended in McLean’s Parlor when Robert E Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S Grant. In reality, however, the American Civil War continued to rage on in the American South, especially in South Carolina, till 1876 when Federal Troops were withdrawn from the South. The South, like most defeated nations, accepted that it had lost the conventional war with the North and with it independence but refused to accept the results of this fighting; primarily the introduction of free-labor principles, equal rights, and voting rights for freedmen. The South …

Rhapsody, Hannah Pennington

Masters Theses

This thesis delves into the topics of love, despair, and perseverance. Rhapsody balks at the cliche of "Love will find a way" and instead embraces the theme of "Love is not always enough." This paper aims to show how flawed characters can still be heroes in their own way, even if they do not receive their happy ending. It takes place in Italy during the late Renaissance and follows the life of a young man named Niccolo, who has just killed a man in the name of love. In an adaptation of Queen's song, Bohemian Rhapsody, Niccolo flees from his …

Influence Of Preaching’S Rhetorical Appeal On Evangelical Listeners’ Motivation, Nicholas Anene Oji

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Preaching is a form of rhetorical narratology aimed at persuading its audience via sermons to experience a renewal of the mind and the transformation of their life. While previous research established the fact that listeners comprehend sermons through their rhetorical appeal, it has been unclear how this has motivated evangelical listeners to act. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore how the rhetorical appeal of preaching influences evangelical listeners’ motivation at evangelical churches in Savannah, Georgia. A comprehensive approach to exploring a sermon’s rhetorical appeal was utilized by focusing jointly on individual perception and social context. The …

The Effects Of High School Instrumental Music Performance Anxiety On The Accelerated Recovery Of Social Anxiety, Staci Leigh Hatmaker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative correlational study aims to examine the challenges secondary students encounter in sustaining positive mental health and how the benefits of music performance anxiety in secondary school students can aid in the accelerated recovery of social anxiety. There is a present gap in the research exploring the benefits of situational anxiety on clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders and noting that this situational anxiety is a standard expectation and volunteered for when participating in performing arts environments. The objective is to understand the therapeutic benefits of micro-dosing the brain with music performance anxiety in a controlled environment and its potential uses …

Embracing Racial Diversity In The Workplace, Iris J. Kugmeh

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The United States’ equality law system policy has mandated ethnic equality in securing employment and job prospects. According to current national workplace racial equity guideline figures, substantially all companies in the United States have difficulty recruiting multiethnic candidates with comparable qualifications and credentials as their white counterparts. This is a problem because businesses that place a high priority on equal opportunity are considerably more likely to enjoy long-term prosperity since there are many more advantages than disadvantages associated with diverse workplaces. This study seeks to identify institutional or structural hurdles to employment and advancement for African Americans to better understand …

Steeper Size Spectra With Decreasing Phytoplankton Biomass Indicate Strong Trophic Amplification And Future Fish Declines, Angus Atkinson, Axel G. Rossberg, Ursula Gaedke, Gary Sprules, Ryan F. Heneghan, Stratos Batziakas, Maria Grigoratou, Elaine Fileman, Katrin Schmidt, Constantin Frangoulis

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Under climate change, model ensembles suggest that declines in phytoplankton biomass amplify into greater reductions at higher trophic levels, with serious implications for fisheries and carbon storage. However, the extent and mechanisms of this trophic amplification vary greatly among models, and validation is problematic. In situ size spectra offer a novel alternative, comparing biomass of small and larger organisms to quantify the net efficiency of energy transfer through natural food webs that are already challenged with multiple climate change stressors. Our global compilation of pelagic size spectrum slopes supports trophic amplification empirically, independently from model simulations. Thus, even a modest …

Development Of A Suspended Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor (Sambr) For Sustainable Wastewater Treatment On Early Planetary Bases, Talon James Bullard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) ideally should treat all “waste” streams for recovery in a sustainable and near closed-loop manner. This will be critical for Partial Gravity Habitats (PGH) and Early Planetary Bases (EPB) that will be established on the Moon and Mars due to the lack of readily available resources. Currently, the Water Recovery System (WRS), onboard the International Space Station (ISS), recovers and purifies water from urine and graywater. While efficient, this system is not optimized for future missions and utilizes physical-chemical technologies that operate with single-use and hazardous consumables. In response to the lack of …

Arab Journalists Have No Place: Authorities Use Digital Surveillance To Control Investigative Reporting, Miral Sabry Alashry

Faculty Journal Articles

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of digital surveillance by Arab authorities, who face risks and threats of surveillance, and how journalists seeking press freedom use tools and techniques to communicate securely, such as open source in journalism. These journalists share and rely heavily on an opensource data ideology. With novel methods and tools, they integrate a new set of actors, competencies, and technologies into journalistic practice, renegotiating and transcending professional boundaries. The methodology of the study was based on in-depth interviews from Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, and Tunisia with a selection of journalists …

Cell Membrane-Anchored And Tumor-Targeted Il-12 T-Cell Therapy Destroys Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts And Disrupts Extracellular Matrix In Heterogenous Osteosarcoma Xenograft Models, Jiemiao Hu, Alexander J Lazar, Davis Ingram, Wei-Lien Wang, Wendong Zhang, Dristhi Ragoonanan, Xueqing Xia, Kris Mahadeo, Richard Gorlick, Shulin Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The extracellular matrix (ECM) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play major roles in tumor progression, metastasis, and the poor response of many solid tumors to immunotherapy. CAF-targeted chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy cannot infiltrate ECM-rich tumors such as osteosarcoma.

Method: In this study, we used RNA sequencing to assess whether the recently invented membrane-anchored and tumor-targeted IL-12-armed (attIL12) T cells, which bind cell-surface vimentin (CSV) on tumor cells, could destroy CAFs to disrupt the ECM. We established an in vitro model of the interaction between osteosarcoma CAFs and attIL12-T cells to uncover the underlying mechanism by which attIL12-T cells penetrate …

Toward Standardization, Harmonization, And Integration Of Social Determinants Of Health Data: A Texas Clinical And Translational Science Award Institutions Collaboration, Catherine K Craven, Linda Highfield, Mujeeb Basit, Elmer V Bernstam, Byeong Yeob Choi, Jonathan A Gelfond, Vaishnavi Kannan, Paula K Shireman, Heidi Spratt, Kayla J Torres Morales, Chen-Pin Wang, Zhan Wang, Meredith N Zozus, Edward C Sankary, Susanne Schmidt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: The focus on social determinants of health (SDOH) and their impact on health outcomes is evident in U.S. federal actions by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minorities and communities of color heightened awareness of health inequities and the need for more robust SDOH data collection. Four Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hubs comprising the Texas Regional CTSA Consortium (TRCC) undertook an inventory to understand what contextual-level SDOH datasets are offered centrally and which individual-level SDOH are collected in structured fields in each …

Prediction Of Hydrogel Degradation Time Based On Central Composite Design, Manlai Zhang, Xiaohui Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In this study, a self-degrading hydrogel was formed by free-radical-initiated copolymerization, which can be used for oil and gas well strip pressure operations. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry (TGA-MS) were used to study the reaction mechanism as well as the microstructure of the gels. Then, the effects of the four factors and their interactions on gel degradation time were determined by central composite design (CCD). Then, the effects of copolymer concentration, cross-linker, initiator, and reaction temperature and their interactions on gel degradation time were determined by central composite …

Clpfudatabase: A Suite Of R Packages For Energy Conversion Chain Analysis, Matthew Kuperus Heun, Zeke Marshall, Emmanuel Aramendia

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Energy flowing through societal energy conversion chains (ECCs) enables economic activity and facilitates human flourishing. To understand economic growth and human well-being, the field of societal energy analysis (Common, 1976) evaluates ECCs from the primary stage (resources extracted from the environment, such as coal, oil, natural gas, wind, and solar), to the final stage (energy purchased by consumers, such as refined petroleum and electricity), to the useful stage (energy desired by the end user, such as heat, motion, and light), and sometimes to energy services (such as thermal comfort, transport, and illumination). Societal exergy analysis (SEA) (Ertesvåg, 2001), an extension …

January 9, 2024 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

The Experience Of Physical Recovery And Physical Rehabilitation Following Hospital Discharge For Intensive Care Survivors—A Qualitative Systematic Review, Sian Goddard, Hilary Gunn, Bridie Kent, Rachel Dennett

School of Health Professions

Background: Over 120,000 people in the UK survive critical illness each year, with over 60% of these experiencing mobility issues and reduced health-related quality of life after discharge home. This qualitative systematic review aimed to explore critical care survivors’ perceptions, opinions, and experiences of physical recovery and physical rehabilitation following hospital discharge. Methods: This review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and was conducted between January 2020 and June 2022. The search was conducted using the following databases: Embase, CINAHL, Medline Ovid, Cochrane, and the Joanna Briggs Institute, …