Digital Commons Network^™

Are West Virginia Banks Unique?, Eduardo Minuci, Scott Schuh

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Many factors contribute to weak economic growth in Appalachia, but little research has examined the role of banking heterogeneity and efficiency across states. This paper documents how West Virginia (WV) banks' financial behavior differs from other U.S. banks and shows these differences cannot be explained fully by the composition of banks in the state. Despite experiencing faster banking consolidation, West Virginia still has more and smaller banks that are less efficient and profitable. WV banks' customers and managers heavily favor liabilities (time deposits) and assets (real estate loans) with longer maturity and lower risk and returns. Although shares of time …

Congestive Heart Failure And Sepsis: A Retrospective Study Of Hospitalization Outcomes From A Rural Hospital In Southwest Missouri, Alexandra Skovran, Mason Hinke, Shelly N.B. Sloan, Greg Stahl, Kerry Johnson, Scott Goade, Robert Arnce

Faculty and Staff Publications

Background

Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitalized patients and significant effort has been made to facilitate early diagnosis and management. However, aggressive treatment can have negative effects, especially in patients with unstable volume status, such as those with congestive heart failure.

Methods

We used electronic medical records to perform a retrospective study looking at hospital outcomes in patients from Southwest Missouri who were admitted with sepsis and had a comorbid diagnosis of hypertensive heart failure. Our primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Results We studied a total of 184 patients with the diagnosis of hypertensive heart failure with …

Low Soil Nitrogen And Moisture Limit The Expansion Of The Invasive Grass, Megathyrsus Maximus (Guinea Grass) In Semi-Arid Soils, E. Penelope Holland, Vanessa Thomas, Pushpa G. Soti

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

The goal of this study was to predict the range expansion potential of an invasive forage grass, Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus). We collected rhizosphere soil samples of M. maximus and coexisting species from 150 different locations and analysed them for soil properties. We estimated the probability of M. maximus presence as a function of soil moisture, organic matter, pH, salinity, total N, and CN ratio using logistic regression. Presence of M. maximus was associated with higher soil moisture, higher organic matter, pH, and nitrogen, but lower salinity and CN ratio. Soil nitrogen and moisture …

Jennifer Holberg Talks With Makoto Fujimura, Jennifer Holberg, Makoto Fujimura

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In this episode, Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell interviews Jennifer Holberg, professor of English at Calvin University, co-director of Calvin Center for Faith and Writing, and frequent writer for the Reformed Journal Blog. Jennifer discusses her childhood as an army brat, the effects of the early death of her mother, and her forthcoming book “Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape our Faith,” which is expected to come out in July 2023.

Tuning The Thermodynamic, Optical, And Rheological Properties Of Thermoresponsive Polymer Solutions Via Silica Nanoparticle Shape And Concentration, Christopher A P Neal, Valeria León, Michelle C. Quan, Nondumiso O. Chibambo, Michelle A. Calabrese

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Hypothesis

The shape and quantity of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles (NPs) can be used to tune the microstructure, rheology, and stability of phase-separating polymer solutions. In thermoresponsive polymer systems, silica nanospheres are well-studied whereas anisotropic NPs have little literature precedent. Here, we hypothesize that NP shape and concentration lower the onset of rheological and turbidimetric separation of aqueous poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM) solutions.

Experiments

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), turbidimetry, and oscillatory rheology are utilized to examine interactions between NPs, PNIPAM, and water and to track changes in phase separation and mechanical properties due to NP concentration and shape. …

A New Classification Network For Diagnosing Alzheimer’S Disease In Class-Imbalance Mri Datasets, Ziyang Chen, Zhuowei Wang, Meng Zhao, Qin Zhao, Xuehu Liang, Jiajian Li, Xiaoyu Song

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Automatic identification of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data can eectively assist to doctors diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s. Current methods improve the accuracy of AD recognition, but they are insufficient to address the challenge of small interclass and large intraclass dierences. Some studies attempt to embed patch-level structure in neural networks which enhance pathologic details, but the enormous size and time complexity render these methods unfavorable. Furthermore, several self-attention mechanisms fail to provide contextual information to represent discriminative regions, which limits the performance of these classifiers. In addition, the current loss function is adversely aected by outliers …

2022 September - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Pueraria Mirifica Can Modulate The Ovarian Activity Of Crossbred-Thai Native Does, Phubet Satsook, Sukanya Rattanatabtimtong, Lak Piasai, Patcharapa Towiboon, Chalermchart Somgird, Anuchai Pinyopummin

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

To evaluate the effect of P. mirifica supplementation on ovarian activity in crossbred Thai native does, a study was carried out for three consecutive estrus cycle periods: 1) D0-D21(pre-treatment), 2) D21-D42 (treatment) and 3) D42-D63 (post-treatment); D0, D21 and D42 were the days of expected estrus. P. mirifica was orally fed at 1000 mg/kg BW/d for 21 days in supplemented groups. Twenty-one does were equally divided into three groups: 1) CON – control, no supplementation and 2) supplemented groups included 2.1) FEC – start feeding at early-cycle (D21-D42), and 2.2) FMC – start feeding at mid-cycle (D32-D53). Estrus behavior was …

Sex-Associated Differences In Patellotrochlear Morphology In Small-Breed Dogs, Radka S. Garnoeva

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

The purpose of this study was to make a between-sex comparison of trochlear groove and patellar metrics in healthy dogs on tangential radiographs. A total of 38 stifle joints from 19 healthy dogs (9 males; 10 females) from three small breeds (Pomeranian, Pinscher, Chihuahua) were evaluated. The following morphometric parameters of patella and trochlear groove were measured: trochlear sulcus angle (SA), lateral and medial trochlear inclination angles (LTI; MTI), trochlear groove depth (TD), retropatellar angle of Wiberg (WA), lateral and medial patellar facet angles (LFA, MFA), lateral and medial facet lengths (LF, MF), horizontal and vertical patellar diameters. In the …

Suspected Malignant Mesothelial Cells In Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid Of A Dog With Respiratory Distress, Junseok Kim, Jimin Oh, Taesik Yun, Yoonhoi Koo, Dohee Lee, Yeon Chae, Byeong-Teck Kang, Mhan-Pyo Yang, Hakhyun Kim

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

An 11-year-old neutered female Labrador Retriever presented with a 1-week history of respiratory distress, lethargy and anorexia. On physical examination, the dog exhibited dyspnea with a rapid and shallow breathing pattern. Thoracic radiography showed diffuse nodular or miliary interstitial patterns, which raised suspicion of bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections and metastatic tumors. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed and the culture yielded no growth of infectious agents, including bacteria and fungi. A presumptive diagnosis of pulmonary mesothelioma was made based on malignant mesothelial cells on BAL fluid cytology. Therefore, this is a report identifying suspected pulmonary mesothelioma using BAL fluid in …

Rosenberg Institute For East Asian Studies At Suffolk University Annual Report For 2021-2022, Rosenberg Institute

Rosenberg Institute Annual Reports

These reports summarize the activities of the Rosenberg Institute during the academic year, including information related to public programming, visiting scholars, cooperation with the Asian Studies program at Suffolk College of Arts & Sciences, promotion of Suffolk's Asia-related activities, community outreach, and funding. Most reports also contain photographs of scholars, staff, and events.

Leukapheresis Guidance And Best Practices For Optimal Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Manufacturing., Muna Qayed, Joseph P. Mcguirk, Douglas Myers, Vinod Parameswaran, Edmund K. Waller, Peter Holman, Margarida Rodrigues, Lee F. Clough, Jennifer Willert

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an individualized immunotherapy that genetically reprograms a patient's T cells to target and eliminate cancer cells. Tisagenlecleucel is a US Food and Drug Administration-approved CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy for patients with relapsed/refractory (r/r) B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and r/r diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Manufacturing CAR T cells is an intricate process that begins with leukapheresis to obtain T cells from the patient's peripheral blood. An optimal leukapheresis product is essential to the success of CAR T-cell therapy; therefore, understanding factors that may affect the quality or T-cell content is imperative. CAR T-cell therapy …

Micro-Scale Pedestrian Streetscapes And Physical Activity In Hispanic/Latino Adults: Results From Hchs/Sol., James F. Sallis, Jordan A. Carlson, Adrian Ortega, Matthew A. Allison, Carrie M. Geremia, Daniela Sotres-Alvarez, Marta M. Jankowska, Stephen J. Mooney, Earle C. Chambers, David B. Hanna, Krista M. Perreira, Martha L. Daviglus, Linda C. Gallo

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

We examined associations of micro-scale environment attributes (e.g., sidewalks, street crossings) with three physical activity (PA) measures among Hispanic/Latino adults (n = 1776) living in San Diego County, CA. Systematic observation was used to quantify micro-scale environment attributes near each participant's home. Total PA was assessed with accelerometers, and PA for transportation and recreation were assessed by validated self-report. Although several statistically significant interactions between individual and neighborhood characteristics were identified, there was little evidence micro-scale attributes were related to PA. An important limitation was restricted environmental variability for this sample which lived in a small area of a single …

Independent Phenotypic Plasticity Axes Define Distinct Obesity Sub-Types., Chih-Hsiang Yang, Luca Fagnocchi, Stefanos Apostle, Vanessa Wegert, Salvador Casaní-Galdón, Kathrin Landgraf, Ilaria Panzeri, Erez Dror, Steffen Heyne, Till Wörpel, Darrell P. Chandler, Di Lu, Tao Yang, Elizabeth Gibbons, Rita Guerreiro, Jose Bras, Martin Thomasen, Louise G. Grunnet, Allan A. Vaag, Linn Gillberg, Elin Grundberg, Ana Conesa, Antje Körner, Permute, J Andrew Pospisilik

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Studies in genetically 'identical' individuals indicate that as much as 50% of complex trait variation cannot be traced to genetics or to the environment. The mechanisms that generate this 'unexplained' phenotypic variation (UPV) remain largely unknown. Here, we identify neuronatin (NNAT) as a conserved factor that buffers against UPV. We find that Nnat deficiency in isogenic mice triggers the emergence of a bi-stable polyphenism, where littermates emerge into adulthood either 'normal' or 'overgrown'. Mechanistically, this is mediated by an insulin-dependent overgrowth that arises from histone deacetylase (HDAC)-dependent β-cell hyperproliferation. A multi-dimensional analysis of monozygotic twin discordance reveals the existence of …

Consensus-Based Recommendations On Priority Activities To Address Acute Kidney Injury In Children: A Modified Delphi Consensus Statement., Stuart L. Goldstein, Ayse Akcan-Arikan, Rashid Alobaidi, David J. Askenazi, Sean M. Bagshaw, Matthew Barhight, Erin Barreto, Benan Bayrakci, Orville N R Bignall, Erica Bjornstad, Patrick D. Brophy, Rahul Chanchlani, Jennifer R. Charlton, Andrea L. Conroy, Akash Deep, Prasad Devarajan, Kristin Dolan, Dana Y. Fuhrman, Katja M. Gist, Stephen M. Gorga, Jason H. Greenberg, Denise Hasson, Emma Heydari Ulrich, Arpana Iyengar, Jennifer G. Jetton, Catherine Krawczeski, Leslie Meigs, Shina Menon, Jolyn Morgan, Catherine J. Morgan, Theresa Mottes, Tara M. Neumayr, Zaccaria Ricci, David Selewski, Danielle E. Soranno, Michelle Starr, Natalja L. Stanski, Scott M. Sutherland, Jordan Symons, Marcelo S. Tavares, Molly Wong Vega, Michael Zappitelli, Claudio Ronco, Ravindra L. Mehta, John Kellum, Marlies Ostermann, Rajit K. Basu, Pediatric Adqi Collaborative

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Importance: Increasing evidence indicates that acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs frequently in children and young adults and is associated with poor short-term and long-term outcomes. Guidance is required to focus efforts related to expansion of pediatric AKI knowledge.

Objective: To develop expert-driven pediatric specific recommendations on needed AKI research, education, practice, and advocacy.

Evidence Review: At the 26th Acute Disease Quality Initiative meeting conducted in November 2021 by 47 multiprofessional international experts in general pediatrics, nephrology, and critical care, the panel focused on 6 areas: (1) epidemiology; (2) diagnostics; (3) fluid overload; (4) kidney support therapies; (5) biology, pharmacology, and …

The Effects Of False Heartbeat Feedback On Moral Judgment, Scott Koenig

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research on human morality is at a crossroads, with one side claiming that moral judgment is the result of rational inference and the other side claiming that it is the result of emotion-laden intuition. This study investigated whether emotion drives moral judgment by manipulating a core component of the experience of emotion: physiological arousal. The sample consisted of 77 undergraduate students at Brooklyn College (57% women, 43% men; mean age = 20.1). One group of participants was led to believe their heart was beating quickly, and another group slowly, while they read and evaluated a series of text vignettes depicting …

Carceral Calisthenics: Physical Culture In The Hood, Albert L. De La Tierra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How do racialized men who reside in structurally marginalized locales that are putatively regarded as “the hood” navigate and manage their social conditions? This dissertation sheds light on this question by treating “street workout,” a physical culture centered around calisthenics exercises performed in public space, as an empirical site for generating a situated understanding of how some Black men assert themselves in social space at the same time that they are asserted upon by social forces. Taking an ethico-onto-epistem-ological stance that refuses the colonial gaze (a ubiquitously employed optic that dehumanizes racialized people), this dissertation asks: (1) What embodied practices …

Essays On Machine Learning Methods In Economics, Mani Bayani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters on machine learning modeling in economics. Chapter 1 - Robust PCA Synthetic Control: In this chapter, I propose an algorithm for comparative studies called robust PCA synthetic control. My algorithm builds on the synthetic control model of Abadie et al., 2015 and the robust synthetic control model of Amjad et al., 2018. I apply all three methods (robust PCA synthetic control, synthetic control, and robust synthetic control) to answer the hypothetical question, what would have been the per capita GDP of West Germany if it had not reunified with East Germany in 1990? I …

Essays On Impacts Of Women Empowerment On The Health Outcomes Of Children, Sagnik Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1: Taking cognizance of the lack of representation of women in politics, the Indian government in 1993, enacted the 73rd constitutional amendment which led to a sudden increase in the representation of women in the local governments. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the timing of implementation of the 73rd amendment across the states, I study the spillover effects of this mandated empowerment of women on the health outcomes of children by using nationally representative survey data and employing a difference-in-difference estimation strategy. In this study, I find evidence of a positive impact of mandated women empowerment on the survival …

Problematic Social Media Use, Social Comparison, And Defeat: An Intensive Longitudinal Investigation, Natalia Macrynikola

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) have steadily risen over the past two decades. The simultaneous dramatic increase in social media use has fueled concerns that using social media may be contributing to suicide risk. Although an emerging body of evidence reveals associations between certain patterns of social media use and SITBs, most research studies have not been designed to assess the temporal order of these variables and have neglected to investigate mechanisms underlying such associations. As a result, whether and how social media use may be conferring suicide risk remains unclear. To address this gap, the present study examined a …

Novel Therapeutic Strategies For Alzheimer’S Disease: Prostaglandin D2 Signaling And Its Human Polymorphisms As Well As A Polypharmacological Approach, Charles H. Wallace

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age related neurodegenerative disease with pathology that includes amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles and non-resolving neuroinflammation. Non-resolving neuroinflammation lasts the entire course of the disease and has deleterious effects and is often thought to accelerate AD pathology. Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) have commonly been used as therapeutics to treat pain, inflammation and vascular. NSAIDs work by altering the cyclooxygenase (COX) mediated biosynthesis of prostaglandins which are lipid mediators that have many physiological functions, for example nociception, inflammation and vasodilation. Epidemiological studies support the notion that NSAIDs could be used to treat AD. Yet, clinical trials using …

Consciousness, Culture, And Comradeship: Narratives Of South African Exile And Anti-Apartheid Activism In West Berlin, Claudia R. Crowie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Exile is still an emotionally and politically charged topic and experience in South African history. It evokes emotional and contrasting responses in relation to its role in the struggle for liberation of the Black majority, and reveals tensions along organizational lines in relation to the contributions, influences, and outcomes of the ANC, PAC and the BCM. In this dissertation, I focus on a small group of exiles of various political persuasions in the 1980s, who arrived in West Berlin as exiles in the late 1970s and 1980s, most remaining until the ANC came to power in the first democratic election …

Globalism And Identity In Taiwanese Contemporary Art, 1978–2009, Chu-Chiun Wei

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Taiwanese contemporary art emerged in the 1980s and rapidly flourished in the 1990s, nourished by the process of democratization and the construction of Taiwanese consciousness prompted by the lifting of martial law in 1987. This dissertation makes two claims. Firstly, that Taiwanese contemporary art after 2000 can be understood as “post-national,” due to the country’s marginal position in the world and contentious status as a nation-state. Secondly, that Taiwanese post-national art differentiates itself from postcolonial/post-martial law art of the late 1980s and 1990s on the basis of its globalism. The three artists surveyed by the dissertation each exemplify different …

Examining The Linguistic Ideology "Throaty Sounds Are Bad For Performers": The History Of Negative Attitudes Towards Glottal Stops And Laryngealization In English, Dayle M. Towarnicky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes explicit metadiscourse (Johnstone et al 2006) on throaty sounds, primarily focused on glottal segments and non-modal constricted voice quality in English. Authors contributing to this metadiscourse are argued to be an offshoot of the speech chain network which valorized and circulated the English accent known as RP or Received Pronunciation, studied by Agha (2003). The evaluated texts center on English-speaking elocution, singing training, voice, speech, and voice care. The analysis shows glottal and guttural articulations are framed negatively and often discouraged by appeals to both health and aesthetics. Many authors in this performance speech chain network …

Del Ornitorrinco A La Radio Ambulante: La Nueva Crónica Latinoamericana En La Era Neoliberal, Ulises Gonzales

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the presence of neoliberal hegemonic imaginaries in narrative journalism written in Latin America between 1995 and 2021.

There are strong connections between a period of decline in the readership of some of the authors of the so-called “Latin American Boom,” the penetration of neoliberal economic policies in the region (with the privatization of State companies and the expansion of the telecommunications industry), and the renewed interest in non-fiction writing published by a number of print publications in the region during the last decade of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century, as in magazines …

Topological Shadow Of Higher-Order Topological Phases And Non-Hermitian Phases Protected By Generalized Rotational Symmetry, Kai Chen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Topological phenomena in condensed matter physics have been investigated intensively in the past decades since the discovery of the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE). For the IQHE, the energy band can be characterized by its topological invariants (Chern number or TKNN invariant), which relates to the quantized Hall conductance directly. Later, this expression was recognized as the first Chern class of a U(1) principal fiber bundle on a torus, where the fibers and torus correspond respectively to the magnetic Bloch waves and the magnetic Brillouin zone. And then, the discoveries of time-reversal symmetric topological insulators in two and three dimensions …

Tell Me A Story: The Normative Power Of Storytelling, Zoe Cunliffe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Few would dispute that stories are powerful: they have the capacity to inform, to persuade, and to engage our imaginations and sympathies. However, the contemporary philosophical literature on stories focuses exclusively on the functions of narrative stories, and in particular on the role that novels can serve in cultivating our moral and political competencies. I argue that this narrow focus is theoretically pernicious in two ways. First, it leads to an unfortunate myopia regarding the value of non-narrative storytelling practices. Second, it results in analysis that is disproportionately likely to exclude forms of storytelling that originate in marginalized groups. My …

Historical Ecology Of Norse Greenland: Zooarchaeology And Climate Change Responses, Konrad Smiarowski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis invokes Historical Ecology approach to better understand human impacts on marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and the creation of cultural landscapes and seascapes in Norse Greenland. It also investigates climate impacts on human economic strategies, as they vary substantially by island and region in the North Atlantic but were especially important in arctic Greenland.

The analysis centers on the animal bone data and uses both existing and newly generated zooarchaeological collections to contribute to the study of Norse Greenland and its place in human ecodynamics research. The newly analyzed archaeofauna shows that the culturally Nordic European settlers used to …

Clarinet And Shadow, Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Clarinet and Shadow is a musical composition for clarinet and electronics. In the piece, live electronics pitch shift the sound of the clarinet to create harmonies and add the sound of an artificial instrument. The electronics are the clarinet's shadow: unreal, always there, and tied to its movement.

Novel Therapeutic Strategies For Alzheimer’S Disease: Targeting Toll-Like Receptor Signaling And A Multi-Target Approach, Giovanni Oliveros

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is multifactorial, and its hallmarks include the formation of amyloid-beta (Ab) plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles, accompanied by an increase in glial cell activation, culminating in neurodegeneration, chronic neuroinflammation, and cognitive decline in human patients. AD will cost the United States over $300 million this year alone and is projected to cost over $1 trillion by 2050, AD is a serious concern for the aging population, and efforts need to be redirected towards more effective therapeutic intervention strategies. Drugs aimed at halting AD progression have so far proven unsuccessful due to the development of pharmaceuticals that target …