Digital Commons Network^™

Targeting Pathological Changes In The Gut Protects The Cns From Neuropathology., Benjamin Tyler Charpentier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is growing evidence that the health of the gut microbiome (GM) has an important role on multiple host organ systems. Ethanol-related neuropathologies and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) currently have no effective clinical treatment. Therefore, we developed a novel mouse model of fecal matter transplantation (FMT) utilizing the microbiome from alcoholic hepatitis (AH) patients, characterized by a loss of butyrogenic potential. Minimal neuroinflammation occurred in AH-FMT mice, but significant increases in the endoplasmic reticulum stress response (ERSR) across the majority of neurons in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus were observed. In the cerebellum, Purkinje cells were specifically affected. Targeting the loss …

The On-Line Width Of Various Classes Of Posets., Israel R. Curbelo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An on-line chain partitioning algorithm receives a poset, one element at a time, and irrevocably assigns the element to one of the chains. Over 30 years ago, Szemer\'edi proved that any on-line algorithm could be forced to use $\binom{w+1}{2}$ chains to partition a poset of width $w$. The maximum number of chains that can be forced on any on-line algorithm remains unknown. In the survey paper by Bosek et al., variants of the problem were studied where the class is restricted to posets of bounded dimension or where the poset is presented via a realizer of size $d$. We prove …

Statistical Methods For Personalized Treatment Selection And Survival Data Analysis Based On Observational Data With High-Dimensional Covariates., Don Ramesh Dinendra Sudaraka Tholkage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to the wide availability of functional data from multiple disciplines, the studies of functional data analysis have become popular in the recent literature. However, the related development in censored survival data has been relatively sparse. In Chapter 2, we consider the problem of analyzing time-to-event data in the presence of functional predictors. We develop a conditional generalized Kaplan Meier (KM) estimator that incorporates functional predictors using kernel weights and rigorously establishes its asymptotic properties. In addition, we propose to select the optimal bandwidth based on a time-dependent Brier score. We then carry out extensive numerical studies to examine the …

Characterization Of Microbotryum Lychnidis-Dioicae Secreted Effector Proteins That Manipulate Its Host Plant, Silene Latifolia., Ming-Chang Tsai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The smut fungal species Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae is an obligate phytopathogen colonizing the plant host, Silene latifolia. A significant feature of M. lychnidis-dioicae infection is that the fungus can replace pollen on the anthers of susceptible host plants with fungal teliospores, thus earning the fungus the name: anther smut disease of flowers. The fungus synthesizes and secretes effector proteins into the cells of the plant host during infection, and the protein-protein interactions may interfere with and modify metabolism, plant development, and gene expression of the host to allow fungal colonization. Two potential fungal effector proteins, MVLG_06175 and MVLG_05122, were identified …

Long-Term Trends In Extreme Environmental Events With Changepoint Detection, Mintaek Lee

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines long-term trends in extreme environmental events with considerations for changepoints and autocorrelation. Due to changes in measurement location, observer, instrument, sampling protocol, local ecosystem, etc., many environmental time series often contain inhomogeneous changes in their distributions. If ignored in the modeling process, these inhomogeneities could produce misleading estimation of the long-term trends in these environmental extremes. Because documentations for these changepoint-inducing events could be incomplete or missing in many cases, those changepoints need to be estimated from the data. Here, we use a genetic algorithm to estimate the number and times of changepoints in the environmental extremes …

Product Search Algorithm Based On Improved Ant Colony Optimization In A Distributed Network, Zhishuo Liu, Fang Tian, Lida Li, Zhuonan Han, Yuqing Li

All Faculty Open Access Publications

The crowd intelligence-based e-commerce transaction network (CIeTN) is a distributed and unstructured network structure. Smart individuals, such as buyers, sellers, and third-party organizations, can store information in local nodes and connect and share information via moments. The purpose of this study is to design a product search algorithm on the basis of ant colony optimization (ACO) to achieve an efficient and accurate search for the product demand of a node in the network. We introduce the improved ideas of maximum and minimum ants to design a set of heuristic search algorithms on the basis of ACO. To reduce search blindness, …

Spacecraft Formation Flying Control Switching Surface Based On Relative Orbital Elements, Tyson K. Smith, John Akagi, Greg Droge

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

The development of a switching surface constraint based on the D’Amico relative orbital elements (ROE) is presented in this paper. Relative orbital elements give a more intuitive understanding of how the relative motion of a cluster of satellites changes with time and allows the control algorithm to take advantage of the natural dynamic motion. This work models each vehicle using a model predictive control (MPC) approach, based on the Hill-Clohessey-Whiltshire (HCW) equations, to plan maneuvers which are simulated using a high-fidelity motion model. An ROE based convex polytope switching surface is added to the MPC formulation to force the states …

Gaging Downstream Transport Of Cyanobacteria In The Raritan River Basin, Kyle R. Clonan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Cyanobacteria dominated Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have the potential to release toxic compounds harmful to human health. Few studies have examined the potential for cyanobacteria travelling from lacustrine HAB sources through fluvial systems used for potable water supply. The Raritan Basin Water Supply Complex (RBWSC) sources potable water for several utilities serving more than 1.5 million people in central New Jersey. The RBWSC features three lentic waterbodies with persistent HABs; discharges from these waterbodies all reach the downstream drinking water intakes. The objectives of this study were to 1) review the persistence of cyanobacteria during fluvial transport from upstream, cyanobacteria-dominated …

A Scoping Review Of Penile Implant Biofilms-What Do We Know And What Remains Unknown?, Joon Yau Leong, Courtney E Capella, Maria J D'Amico, Selin Isguven, Caroline Purtill, Priscilla Machado, Lauren J Delaney, Gerard D Henry, Noreen J Hickok, Flemming Forsberg, Paul H Chung

Department of Urology Faculty Papers

Background: Penile prosthesis (PP) is a gold standard for treatment of erectile dysfunction given its reliability and efficacy. Infection remains the most feared complication of prosthetic surgery, which usually results in device removal, and places a significant economic burden on the healthcare system. While biofilms have shown to support the persistence of microorganisms, the degree by which this matrix is truly pathogenic remains unknown given its high prevalence even in asymptomatic patients. We aim to review and summarize the current literature pertaining to biofilm formation in the setting of PP surgeries in clinically infected and non-infected cases.

Methods: Searches were …

Rectifying Wrongful Convictions Through The Dormant Grand Jury Clause, Colin Miller

Faculty Publications

In 1995, Lamar Johnson was convicted of a murder in St. Louis. Twenty-two years later, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner created a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) to review possible wrongful convictions. After reviewing Johnson’s case, the CIU concluded that Johnson was innocent. Then, consistent with her special responsibility as a prosecutor to seek to remedy wrongful convictions, Gardner filed a motion for a new trial. The court, however, denied the motion, holding that there was no enabling legislation in Missouri authorizing CIUs to seek relief for wrongful convictions. Gardner is not alone in her inability to rectify wrongful convictions. …

Search For Spatial Correlations Of Neutrinos With Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays, A. Albert, S. Alves, M. André, M. Anghinolfi, S. Ardid, J. J. Aubert, J. Aublin, B. Baret, S. Basa, B. Belhorma, M. Bendahman, V. Bertin, S. Biagi, M. Bissinger, J. Boumaaza, M. Bouta, M. C. Bouwhuis, H. Brânzaş, R. Bruijn, J. Brunner, J. Busto, B. Caiffi, D. Calvo, A. Capone, L. Caramete

Physics: Faculty Publications and Other Works

For several decades, the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) has been an unsolved question of high-energy astrophysics. One approach for solving this puzzle is to correlate UHECRs with high-energy neutrinos, since neutrinos are a direct probe of hadronic interactions of cosmic rays and are not deflected by magnetic fields. In this paper, we present three different approaches for correlating the arrival directions of neutrinos with the arrival directions of UHECRs. The neutrino data are provided by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and ANTARES, while the UHECR data with energies above ∼50 EeV are provided by the Pierre Auger Observatory and …

Graduate Student Perceptions Of Academic Advising During A Global Pandemic, Carson L. Perry

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Magnifying the historical challenges faced by graduate students, the COVID – 19 global pandemic caused significant disruption to graduate education and forced abrupt changes to personal, professional, and academic aspects of life. Though high attrition rates plague many graduate programs, advising is recognized as crucial to graduate student persistence and success. This qualitative phenomenological study explored graduate student perceptions of advising during the COVID – 19 global pandemic. The sample consisted of eight individuals who were enrolled as full-time graduate students during the 2019 – 2020 and 2020 – 2021 academic years. Four components of Situated Learning Theory, as identified …

Building A Community Of Mentors In Engineering Education Research Through Peer Review Training, Karin Jensen, Lisa Benson, Kelsey Watts, Gary Lichtenstein, Evan Ko, Rebecca Bates

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Peer review of scholarship is critical to the advancement of knowledge in a scholarly discipline. Despite this, scholars receive little or no training in effective and constructive peer review. The process of peer review has been routinely criticized in higher education for lack of quality reviews and reviewers, and reviews that are personal and not constructive. As a discipline, engineering education research (EER) benefits from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives of scholars, and as such relies on peer review of scholarship to generate, interpret, and translate knowledge. Supported by funding through the National Science Foundation, this project is developing, implementing, …

Creating Threads, Making Archives: A Study Of Organizing And Indexing Practices Around Idols’ Photos On Twitter, Susrita Das

Proceedings from the Document Academy

ARMY (short for “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth”), who are the fans of the boy band Bangtan Sonyeondan or BTS, are credited with making effective use of social media to direct fan engagement toward meeting fandom goals like trending comebacks, topping charts, and organizing charitable projects on a global scale before such fannish activities had become mainstream. While their ingenious use of social media has been the subject of much scholarly interest, the multifarious ways in which the fans organize and archive information to participate in the fandom are relatively less explored. Building on this possibility, this study analyses ARMY’s …

Fanbinding And A Community-Generated Information Environment, Kimberly Kennedy, Shira Belén Buchsbaum

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Fanbinding is the practice of printing and binding fanfiction and other fanworks in codex form either by hand or using online print services. In June 2020, fanbinder ArmoredSuperHeavy created Renegade Bindery, a Discord server for fanbinders of any experience to gather, discuss, and exchange resources, advice, and files to support one another’s artistic object-making. The foundation of Renegade Bindery generated an increase in community-oriented practices in online spaces that support fanbound work creation. In the last two years, the bindery has grown to over 900 members and offers an increasing number of channels dedicated to databases, exchanges, and community events, …

The Design Of Printed Fanfiction: A Case Study Of Down To Agincourt Fanbinding, Naomi Jacobs, Jsa Lowe

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this paper, we examine the design process of fanbinding, through which physical, printed copies of fanfiction works are created and shared. These are often bespoke, samizdat, singular objects that cannot usually be mass-produced, and include unique hand-bound objects for the designer’s own affective, aesthetic pleasure. Fanbinding suggests durability and preservation, and printed objects can be transformative works in themselves: designed, typeset, and perhaps featuring artwork, maps or other specifically created front/back matter and illustrations. Readers of these born-digital works may produce these in reaction to the fact that texts are published purely in digital, intangible forms, finding themselves craving …

Your Discomfort Is Valid: Big Feelings And Open Pedagogy, Liz Pearce, Silvia L. Lin Hanick, Amy R. Hofer, Lori Townsend, Michaela Willi Hooper

Publications and Research

This article explores the affective reactions of 13 community college students engaged in an open pedagogy textbook creation project. The instructor and first author, a human development and family services faculty member and department chair at a community college in Oregon, received feedback from her students that the project impacted them differently than past learning experiences. Student engagement with research and the diverse personal experiences of their classmates fostered both personal challenges and growth. This article groups these experiences into themes and explores different theoretical lenses, including scaffolding (constructivism), transformative learning, threshold concepts and safe spaces/brave spaces. We discuss the …

Simulating The Changes Of Invasive Phragmites Australis In A Pristine Wetland Complex With A Grey System Coupled System Dynamic Model: A Remote Sensing Practice, Danlin Yu, Nicholas A. Procopio, Chuanglin Fang

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Biological invasion has been one of the reasons that coastal wetlands gradually lose their ecological services. The current study investigates the spread of a commonly found invasive species in coastal wetlands in Northeastern US, the Phragmites australis. Within a relatively pristine wetland complex in coastal New Jersey, we collected high-resolution multispectral remote sensing images for eight years (2011–2018), in both winter and summer seasons. The land cover/land use status in this wetland complex is relatively simple, contains only five identifiable vegetation covers and water. Applying high accuracy machine learning algorithms, we are able to classify the land use/land cover in …

Effects Of Shade Nets On Microclimatic Conditions, Growth, Fruit Yield, And Quality Of Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.): A Case Study In Carnarvon, Western Australia, Giao N. Nguyen, Neil Lantzke, Andrew Van Burgel

Horticulture Research Articles

Carnarvon has a hot, semi-arid climate with high temperatures and solar radiation during spring–summer, which damages crops and limits the production season for the local vegetable industry. Protective cultivation is one of the promising approaches to mitigate these adverse weather conditions and avoid the resulting damage to vegetable crops. This study, which is part of the protected cropping research program for vegetable crops in Western Australia, was conducted to understand how the shade nets of a protective net house modify the microenvironment affecting the growth, physiology, and fruit yield of eggplants, a model vegetable crop. The eggplant crop was grown …

Laboratory-Reported Normal Value Ranges Should Not Be Used To Diagnose Periprosthetic Joint Infection., Salvador A. Forte, Joseph A. D'Alonzo, Zachary Wells, Brett Levine, Stephen Sizer, Carl Deirmengian

Orthopedic Surgery Resident Research

INTRODUCTION: Clinical laboratories offer several multipurpose tests, such as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), which are not intended to diagnose any specific disease but are used by clinicians in multiple fields. The results and laboratory interpretation (normal/abnormal) of these multipurpose tests are based on laboratory-reported normal thresholds, which vary across clinical laboratories. In 2018, the International Consensus Meeting on Musculoskeletal Infection (2018 ICM) provided a gold-standard definition to diagnose periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) which included many multipurpose laboratory tests, along with thresholds optimized to diagnose PJI. The discrepancy between laboratory-reported normal thresholds and 2018 ICM-recommended PJI-optimized …

Tennessee Bed Space And Operating Capacities Report, August 2022, Tennessee. Department Of Correction.

Bed Space & Capacity Reports

No abstract provided.

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter, August 2022, University Of Northern Iowa. Iowa Waste Reduction Center.

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter

Contents:

--- Welcome Back Students!
--- Don't Miss Out: Community Training Workshops are winding down
--- Painter Training: IWRC Contributes to UNI Campus-wide Initiative
--- Free Energy Assessments
--- Industry News

Fixed Income Fund Report, August 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Equity Fund Monthly Report, August 2022, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Kindergarten Immunization Compliance Assessment Report 2021-2022 School Year, Tennessee. Department Of Health.

Immunization Rates

No abstract provided.

The Online Environments Of Sexual And Gender Minority Youth: Contexts Of Risk And Resilience, Alexa Martin-Storey, Alicia A. Lapointe, Alice Girouard, Marie-Michèle Paquette, Sophie Bergeron

Journal of Family Strengths

Adolescents, in general, are spending more time in online environments, and understanding how youth navigate these contexts may be particularly important for addressing and improving outcomes among sexual and gender minority youth. Taking a developmental perspective, this review discusses online environments as contexts of both risk and resilience for youth in gender and sexual minority communities. In particular, we review literature highlighting how online environments provide a context for many salient aspects of adolescent development, including the promotion of identity development and the exploration of intimate, romantic and sexual behavior. The potential for online environments to serve as contexts for …

Parental Understanding Of Mental Health In Early Childhood Development: A Human Capabilities Approach, Fatiema Benjamin, Inge K. Sonn, Edna G. Rich Dr., Jenny Rose Dr., Nicolette V. Roman Prof.

Journal of Family Strengths

Background: the family is central to a child’s development and well-being. Parental understanding of mental health or psychological distress have a significant effect on child development including their mental health. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore parents understanding of mental health in early childhood development.

Methods: semi-structured interviews with 12 parents of children in early childhood development were conducted. Five themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (1) Understanding mental health; (2) Perceptions of parental mental health in relation to the child; (3) Child’s behaviour when experiencing different emotions; (4) Child’s behaviour when witnessing parent’s emotions; and (5) …

2022-August-01-'Y'All Don't Hear Me: The Black Appalachia' Exhibition Happening Now, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – “Y’all Don’t Hear Me: The Black Appalachia,” curated by East Tennessee State University graduate Kreneshia Whiteside-McGee and featuring artists, poets and musicians from the 13 states of the Appalachian region, is on display over the next month at both the Slocumb Galleries and Tipton Gallery.  

Whiteside-McGee said the title “Y’all Don’t Hear Me” was inspired by her grandfather, a pastor, and as a “statement by someone who feels disregarded.”  

“You don’t hear us because you’re not listening. You’re not listening because you don’t know we exist,” she said. “I want to amplify our narrative and remind people …

2022-August-01-Broadway Has Arrived, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – Four touring shows will kick off the inaugural Broadway series at East Tennessee State University’s Martin Center for the Arts.

“Some announcements are a decade in the making, and this unveiling of our inaugural Broadway series has been anticipated for years,” said ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland. “From the moment we broke ground on the Martin Center back in 2013, we have been waiting for this moment, and I am thrilled to see these four award-winning shows take the stage here on our campus.”

The “sun will come out” in January with the arrival of “Annie,” Jan. …

2022-August-01-Etsu Launches Podcast Highlighting Research, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – Want to learn more about what unfolded in Southern Appalachia during the Civil War and Reconstruction? Curious about what it means that the official state climate office is housed in Johnson City? How about some of the health issues facing the people of Appalachia? 

These topics and more are the focus of a new podcast launched by East Tennessee State University called “Primary Sources.” The podcast highlights some of the research happening at ETSU.  

“ETSU is home to world-class researchers and eminent scholars doing fascinating work,” said Jessica Vodden, chief marketing and communication officer at ETSU. “This …