Digital Commons Network^™

Controls Over Visitation Rates To Mineral Licks By Snowshoe Hares (Lepus Americanus) In Northern Alaska, Laura Knutsen

Biological Sciences

Geophagy, or soil consumption, is a common behavior of several avian and mammalian herbivore species. This activity has been attributed to providing essential nutrients and improving digestion of forage high in plant secondary metabolites. Recently, this behavior has been observed in snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) and is thought to influence both their nutritional ecology and population dynamics. The purpose of this study was to examine the possible ecological controls over snowshoe hare visitation rates to mineral licks using a camera trap study at four sites near Wiseman, AK, from 2017 to 2020. Data visualization and modeling showed hare activity was …

Geochemical Variation In The Muscle Of Aleutian Steller Sea Lion Prey, Scott Chandler

Biological Sciences

Body tissue chemistry has been extensively utilized as biomarkers about the cryptic life histories of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in the western and central Aleutian Islands, Alaska, specifically tissue total mercury concentrations and stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen. As patterns in these biomarkers can be associated with either trophic dynamics or environmental conditions, I examined spatiotemporal and biological variability of bulk carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios and total mercury concentrations in the muscle tissue of ten fishes and two cephalopods found in Steller sea lion diets. I hypothesized that the complex bathymetry and oceanography of the …

Effects Of Hunting Pressure On The Spatial Dynamics Of A Subarctic Caribou Herd, Jeffrey Wells

Biological Sciences

Indirect effects of hunting can have important ecological and hunt management implications, and little has been done to quantify these indirect effects on caribou (Rangifer tarandus). To assess effects of hunting pressure on caribou spatial dynamics, we used GPS locations that spanned fall and winter 2010-2022 from the semi-migratory Fortymile caribou herd in interior Alaska. We analyzed these locations using integrated step selection analysis to evaluate step lengths (i.e., movement rates) and selection of distance to roads and trails, and forest cover across 3 hunting pressure levels (none, low, and high) as well as road crossings during hunting compared to …

Biogeographic History Of The World's Marmots And The Genetic Basis Of Melanism In An Alaskan Population Of Hoary Marmots, Kendall K. Mills

Biological Sciences

This dissertation addresses questions related to the phylogenetics, molting phenology, and genetic basis of melanism in marmots. Marmots (genus Marmota) are large, diurnal ground squirrels that hibernate for 7-8 months each year and have a broad Holarctic distribution. In Chapter 1, I use ultraconserved elements from all 15 extant species to better resolve the phylogeny of Marmota and shed light on the biogeographic history of marmots. The results indicate marmots originated in North America ~16.3 Ma and crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Eurasia ~3-4 Ma. In addition, the Woodchuck (M. monax) and the Alaska Marmot (M. broweri) are more …

Differential Equations For Modeling Pathways Leading To Diabetes Onset, Viktoria Savatorova, Aleksei Talonov

CODEE Journal

This paper presents a mathematical model that explains potential pathways leading to diabetes onset. By utilizing a system of nonlinear differential equations to describe the dynamics of the glucose regulatory system, the model can serve as a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning differential equations, dynamical systems, mathematical modeling, and introduction to biomathematics. Within this framework, students can analyze equilibrium solutions, investigate stability, assess parameter sensitivity, and explore the potential for bifurcations. Theoretical analysis is complemented by illustrative numerical examples. Instructors have the flexibility to adapt and incorporate suggested activities according to their teaching preferences and objectives.

Who Wrote It? Comparing Attitudes About Ai V. Human Written News, Aimee Ritchey, Karma Elven

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a part of our everyday life. With the rapid growth of AI generation technology, and easy public access, we're starting to see AI content show up in video, audio, and photo content. Reception of AI is mixed, and there are many topics that are bringing questionable AI usage to light. Trusted news organizations, like the Associate Press and Gannett, have already begun to experiment with the idea of AI written news stories. It has not been received without backlash. Companies have utilized AI for many years now, with anthropomorphized AI like Siri and Alexa being …

David Freestone And Janet Freestone Plaintiffs/ Appellants V. Corey Walton And Heather N. Walton Defendants/ Appellees : Brief Of Appellee, Utah Court Of Appeals

Utah Court of Appeals Briefs (2020 –)

APPEAL FROM THE SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR WEBER COUNTY, STATE OF UTAH, FROM AN ORDER WHICH GRANTED SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN FAVOR OF THE DEFENDANTS/APPELLEES, BEFORE THE HONORABLE JOSEPH BEAN

Russell A. Cline, Attorneys for Appellees/Defendants

Brett D. Cragun, Attorneys for Appellants/Plaintiffs

Optimal Duration Of Physical Therapy Following Total Knee Arthroplasty, Gregory Benes, Zachary Adams, Michael Dubic, Justin David, Claudia Leonardi, Amy Bronstone, Vinod Dasa

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Aims & Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify patient characteristics associated with engagement and completion of physical therapy (PT) following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and examine the relationship between number of PT sessions attended and outcomes during the first 12 weeks after surgery. Methods: Patients underwent unilateral primary TKA by a single surgeon and were advised to complete 17 PT sessions over 6 weeks at a hospital-affiliated facility. Analyses examined predictors of PT engagement (attendance of ≥ 2 sessions) and completion (attendance of 17 ± 1 sessions) within 6 weeks and associations between number of PT sessions …

Exchangeability And A Model Of Biological Evolution, Renee Haddad

Honors Scholar Theses

A sequence of random variables (RVs) is exchangeable if its distribution is invariant under permutations. For example, every sequence of independent and identically distributed (IID) RVs is exchangeable. The main result on exchangeable sequences of random variables is de Finetti's theorem, which identifies exchangeable sequences as conditionally IID. In this thesis, we explore exchangeability, provide an elementary proof of de Finetti's theorem, and present two applications: the classical Polya's urn model and a toy model for biological evolution.

The Beautiful Place: Understanding, Perceiving, And Participating In Beauty According To The Doctrine Of The Two Kinds Of Righteousness, Martin Bartholomew Dressler

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Nearly everyone agrees with this statement: Beauty is powerful. But what exactly is beauty? Is it objective or subjective? Is beauty bound up with reality, or even the being of God? Or is beauty “nothing but” a social construct, rendering all judgments concerning beauty mere opinion, or else the fruit of culturism? This dissertation examines beauty through the lens of the Lutheran distinction of the Two Kinds of Righteousness. It will enable Christians to account for their experience with beauty by attending to the following three questions: (1) What is beauty? (2) How do we perceive beauty? and (3) How …

Enhancing Ethical Leadership: The Impact Of Governance Mechanisms On Nonprofit Organizations, Norma Guerrero

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research is dedicated to uncovering the complex connections between ethics and effective governance within nonprofit organizations. The study focuses on identifying factors that influence ethical behavior, addressing ethical challenges specific to the nonprofit sector, and developing strategies to encourage ethical practices within these entities. By integrating literature reviews, case studies, and expert interviews, the research underscores the vital link between ethical decision-making and organizational efficiency, as well as public trust. The study aims to enrich the ongoing discourse on nonprofit governance, providing key insights and actionable recommendations for board members, executives, professionals, volunteers, and scholars to strengthen governance and …

Early Life Biology And Ecology Of King And Tanner Crabs In The Bering And Chukchi Seas, Jared Weems

Fisheries

Pelagic larvae and early benthic juveniles are believed to be the most vulnerable life stages for crabs. Where and when young crab occur and their response to environmental conditions is poorly understood. I present two case studies that demonstrate the importance of monitoring crab early life stages of economically and ecologically important species in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. First, collapsed fisheries and poor juvenile recruitment are recurring issues for many Alaska king crab stocks. Among the most notable examples, Pribilof Islands blue king crab is a federally overfished stock that has failed to rebuild after decades of conservation. Comparison …

Feasibility Of Fit24, A Digital Diabetes Prevention Program For Hispanic Adolescents: Qualitative Evaluation Study, Erica G Soltero, Salma M Musaad, Teresia M O'Connor, Debbe Thompson, Keith Norris, Bettina M Beech

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Digital health interventions are promising for reaching and engaging high-risk youth in disease prevention opportunities; however, few digital prevention interventions have been developed for Hispanic youth, limiting our knowledge of these strategies among this population.

OBJECTIVE: This study qualitatively assessed the feasibility and acceptability of Fit24, a 12-week goal-setting intervention that uses a Fitbit watch (Fitbit Inc) and theoretically grounded SMS text messages to promote physical activity and sleep among Hispanic adolescents (aged between 14 and 16 years) with obesity.

METHODS: After completing the intervention, a subsample of youth (N=15) participated in an in-depth interview. We categorized the themes …

Missing Wedge Completion Via Unsupervised Learning With Coordinate Networks, Dave Van Veen, Jesús G Galaz-Montoya, Liyue Shen, Philip Baldwin, Akshay S Chaudhari, Dmitry Lyumkis, Michael F Schmid, Wah Chiu, John Pauly

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET) is a powerful tool in structural biology, enabling detailed 3D imaging of biological specimens at a resolution of nanometers. Despite its potential, cryoET faces challenges such as the missing wedge problem, which limits reconstruction quality due to incomplete data collection angles. Recently, supervised deep learning methods leveraging convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have considerably addressed this issue; however, their pretraining requirements render them susceptible to inaccuracies and artifacts, particularly when representative training data is scarce. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a proof-of-concept unsupervised learning approach using coordinate networks (CNs) that optimizes network weights directly against input …

The Impact Of Behavior Change Counseling Delivered Via A Digital Health Tool Versus Routine Care Among Adolescents With Obesity: Pilot Randomized Feasibility Study, Maura Kepper, Callie Walsh-Bailey, Zoe M Miller, Min Zhao, Kianna Zucker, Angeline Gacad, Cynthia Herrick, Neil H White, Ross C Brownson, Randi E Foraker

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Youth overweight and obesity is a public health crisis and increases the risk of poor cardiovascular health (CVH) and chronic disease. Health care providers play a key role in weight management, yet few tools exist to support providers in delivering tailored evidence-based behavior change interventions to patients.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this pilot randomized feasibility study was to determine the feasibility of implementing the Patient-Centered Real-Time Intervention (PREVENT) tool in clinical settings, generate implementation data to inform scale-up, and gather preliminary effectiveness data.

METHODS: A pilot randomized clinical trial was conducted to examine the feasibility, implementation, and preliminary impact …

Climate Influences Emerge Within Two Decades Of Observations For Pelagic Tunicates And Pelagic Snails In The Northern Gulf Of Alaska, Emily Stidham

Oceanography

Mucus-net feeders are under-appreciated organisms that can have large impacts on how organic matter moves through food webs. In the Northern Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound they are represented primarily by pelagic tunicates (larvaceans, doliolids, salps) and pelagic snails (pteropods). Over a 20-year time-series (2001-2021) there was strong seasonality of larvacean abundance and species composition. Spring was dominated by Oikopleura labradoriensis and Fritillaria borealis, with higher diversity during autumn, due largely to the periodic presence of warm-water species. There was a distinct cross-shelf gradient with Oikopleura dioica, spreading across the lower salinity shelf during the autumn, and Fritillaria …

State Public Morality Regulation And The Dormant Commerce Clause, Douglas Kysar

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Note From The Editor

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Still Broken": Alaska Rule Of Professional Conduct 8.4(F) And (G)'S Insufficient Response To Workplace Harassment By Lawyers, Sam Turner

Alaska Law Review

A report by Women Lawyers On Guard, entitled "Still Broken," reported the results of a 2019 survey about sexual harassment and misconduct in the legal profession. It concluded that issues relating to sexual harassment and misconduct in the legal profession had not improved in the past thirty years. This Article looks at the Alaska Rules of Professional Conduct's rule regarding harassment and discrimination by lawyers and argues that the rule does not sufficiently address workplace harassment by lawyers.

Alaska Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(f), enacted in 2021, prohibits harassment or invidious discrimination by a lawyer "in the lawyer's dealings with …

Facial Recognition Ai: Alaska Is An Ideal Forum For Introducing Regulation, Sarah Edwards

Alaska Law Review

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly commonplace, we are all exposed to shockingly dystopian forms of surveillance. This Note details the unique danger of facial recognition technologies powered by artificial intelligence. First, this Note examines the rise of facial recognition technologies in both the public and the private sector. It illustrates this phenomenon by highlighting a few key players in both the development and implementation of facial recognition. Second, it proceeds by examining the current privacy landscape in Alaska. Alaska's unique focus on privacy rights makes the State a promising forum for regulation. Finally, it provides possible statutory and judicial solutions …

Blight Made Right: Defects In State Condemnation Laws And A Roadmap For Reform In Alaska And Beyond, Sam Spiegelman

Alaska Law Review

Susette Kelo's old house in New London, Connecticut is long gone, as is the entire Fort Trumbull neighborhood that once surrounded it. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case—Kelo v. City of New London—that cost her and her neighbors their homes and sparked a wave of state-level reforms to mitigate its potential damage to private property. In Kelo, the Court held that "economic development" as a "public purpose" was also a legitimate "public use" under the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause, which provides "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." As Justice …

Alaska's Recognition Of Tribes: Alaska House Bill 123 And Tribal Trust Lands, Gloria R. Jacobsen

Alaska Law Review

For decades, the United States Department of the Interior's land acquisition regulations included an "Alaska Exception" that barred acquisition of land into trust in Alaska apart from those acquisitions made for the Metlakatla Indian Community. Although the "Alaska Exception" was initially removed from the regulations in 2014, the fight continues over land-into-trust acquisitions within Alaska. Throughout these debates, the state of Alaska has consistently opposed land-into-trust acquisitions. This Practitioner Guide provides an overview of the recent history of land-into-trust acquisitions in Alaska and analyzes the juxtaposition of the intent behind Alaska's "State Recognition of Tribes" in House Bill 123 and …

Journal Staff

Alaska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Travel-Time Disparities In Access To Proton Beam Therapy For Cancer Treatment, Todd Burus, Alexander D. Vanhelene, Michael K. Rooney, Krystle A. Lang Kuhs, W. Jay Christian, Christopher Mcnair, Sanjay Mishra, Arnold C. Paulino, Grace L. Smith, Steven J. Frank, Jeremy L. Warner

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

IMPORTANCE Proton beam therapy is an emerging radiotherapy treatment for patients with cancer that may produce similar outcomes as traditional photon-based therapy for many cancers while delivering lower amounts of toxic radiation to surrounding tissue. Geographic proximity to a proton facility is a critical component of ensuring equitable access both for indicated diagnoses and ongoing clinical trials.

OBJECTIVE To characterize the distribution of proton facilities in the US, quantify drive-time access for the population, and investigate the likelihood of long commutes for certain population subgroups.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This population-based cross-sectional study analyzed travel times to proton facilities in …

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease-Induced Liver Cirrhosis: A Common But Preventable Disease With Appropriate Screening And Prevention, Hillary Deveaux, Anjali Gundeti, Kristjana Mitrollari, Melanie Gordon

Advocate GME

No abstract provided.

Making The Granite State Great For Youth, Aaron Sanborn

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Pro-Resolving Lipid Mediator Reduces Amyloid-Β42-Induced Gene Expression In Human Monocyte-Derived Microglia, Ying Wang, Xiang Zhang, Henrik Biverstål, Nicolas G. Bazan, Shuai Tan, Nailin Li, Makiko Ohshima, Marianne Schultzberg, Xiaofei Li

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

JOURNAL/nrgr/04.03/01300535-202503000-00031/figure1/v/2024-06-17T092413Z/r/image-tiff Specialized pro-resolving lipid mediators including maresin 1 mediate resolution but the levels of these are reduced in Alzheimer's disease brain, suggesting that they constitute a novel target for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease to prevent/stop inflammation and combat disease pathology. Therefore, it is important to clarify whether they counteract the expression of genes and proteins induced by amyloid-β. With this objective, we analyzed the relevance of human monocyte-derived microglia for in vitro modeling of neuroinflammation and its resolution in the context of Alzheimer's disease and investigated the pro-resolving bioactivity of maresin 1 on amyloid-β42-induced Alzheimer's disease-like inflammation. Analysis of …

Design, Synthesis And Anticolorectal Cancer Activity Of 2- Bromoalkoxyanthraquinones, Yean Kee Lee, Wati Mekzali Nurhaliza, Wui Chee Cheok, Abdullah Iskandar, Nor Rashid Nurshamimi, Sanghiran Lee Vannajan, Othman Rozana, Mohd Hashim Najihah, Fei Chee Chin

Research Publications (2021 to 2025)

The impact of alkoxy chain length and the presence of a 1-hydroxy group in synthesised 2-bromoalkoxyanthraquinones was evaluated against HCT116, HT29, and CCD841 CoN cell lines. Molecular docking was employed to elucidate the interactions between these compounds and potential p53 and KRAS targets. Results indicated that 2-bromoalkoxyanthraquinones with the 1-hydroxy group exhibited greater anticancer activity compared to their counterparts. Specifically, compound 6b bearing C3 alkoxy chain displayed the most promising antiproliferation activity against HCT116 cells (IC50 = 3.83 ± 0.05 μM) and demonstrated high selectivity for HCT116 over CCD841 CoN cells (SI = 45.47). Molecular docking analysis revealed additional hydrogen …

On Usage Of Ict Tools For Japanese Language And Science-Related Subjects Learning By Malaysian Students, Kamal Maisarah, Shuichi Kuchikata, Kishi Takanobu

Research Publications (2021 to 2025)

This study reports the results of a survey conducted through questionnaires to investigate the usage of ICT learning tools by students of the preparatory education program of “Rancangan Persediaan Khas Jepun (RPKJ)” in Universiti Malaya, both during Japanese language and science-related subjects learning outside the classroom. In this study, we focused on the usage and purposes of smartphone apps and websites. The survey results revealed that many students use both apps and websites when learning Japanese, whereas there are fewer students who use them when studying science-related subjects. Additionally, it was found that during Japanese language learning, the use of …

Optimization Of Triage Documentation In A Large Urban Emergency Department, Monica Reynoso-Prieto

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem California ranks ninth nationwide in terms of longest emergency department wait times. The project aims to reduce patient triage times by refining the workflow of triage documentation, achieved through strategic rearrangement of triage documentation questions. Context This quality improvement project took place in the emergency department of a large urban Bay Area hospital. Intervention The intervention was implementation of changes to the triage documentation based on staff feedback from an opinion survey, such as: elimination of redundant questions, consolidation of related categories, and logical reorganization of triage topics. Measures Measures used in the project were triage times and pre …