Digital Commons Network^™

Comparison Study Of Mold Growth Resistance Of Plastic Based Material Flooring (Pbm Flooring) And Ceramic Tile Flooring, Jyothi Rangineni, Jeremy Tzeng

Publications

Clemson University Department of Biological Sciences and Tile Council of North America Product Performance Testing Laboratory evaluated whether ceramic tile and Plastic Based Material (PBM¹) flooring support mold growth when exposed to fungal spores.

Mold grows in moisture-rich environments and requires only minimal sources of nutrition to support growth. It has long been identified to cause damage to buildings and construction materials and its presence in buildings has been connected to many major health concerns with various studies and reviews published on this matter.²

The method used to evaluate mold growth was ASTM G21-96 (2015).³ This …

Discovery Of Genomic Variations By Whole-Genome Resequencing Of The North American Araucana Chicken, Rooksana E. Noorai, Vijay Shankar, Nowlan H. Freese, Christopher M. Gregorski, Susan C. Chapman

Publications

Gallus gallus (chicken) is phenotypically diverse, with over 60 recognized breeds, among the myriad species within the Aves lineage. Domestic chickens have been under artificial selection by humans for thousands of years for agricultural purposes. The North American Araucana (NAA) breed arose as a cross between the Chilean “Collonocas” that laid blue eggs and was rumpless and the “Quetros” that had unusual tufts but with tail. NAAs were introduced from South America in the 1940s and have been kept as show birds by enthusiasts since then due to several distinctive traits: laying eggs with blue eggshells, characteristic ear-tufts, a pea …

Gluten Detection Methods And Their Critical Role In Assuring Safe Diets For Celiac Patients, Claudia E. Osorio, Jaime H. Mejias, Sachin Rustgi

Publications

Celiac disease, wheat sensitivity, and allergy represent three different reactions, which may occur in genetically predisposed individuals on the ingestion of wheat and derived products with various manifestations. Improvements in the disease diagnostics and understanding of disease etiology unveiled that these disorders are widespread around the globe affecting about 7% of the population. The only known treatment so far is a life-long gluten-free diet, which is almost impossible to follow because of the contamination of allegedly “gluten-free” products. Accidental contamination of inherently gluten-free products could take place at any level from field to shelf because of the ubiquity of these …

The Impact Of Ergot Alkaloid Consumption During Gestation On Maternal Performance And Fetoplacental Development, Jessica Lynn Britt

All Dissertations

Tall fescue is the primary cool season perennial forage grass in southeastern US for grazing livestock. Tall fescue the is known to be drought tolerant , disease resistant, grazing tolerant and overall very hardy. Many of these attributes common to fescue are due to a symbiotic relationship between the fescue plant and an endophyte, Epichloë coenophiala , which produces a class of mycotoxins known as ergot alkaloids. These ergot alkaloids are similar in structure to several biogenic amines, such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. When consumed, ergot alkaloids cause a syndrome known as fescue toxicosis which causes problems with weight …

An Analysis Of Common Forest Management Practices For Carbon Sequestration In South Carolina, Lucas Clay, Marzieh Motallebi, Bo Song

Publications

South Carolina (SC) has a variety of different forest types, and they all have potential to sequester a certain amount of carbon. Private forest landowners control a significant portion of the overall forestland in SC, and their management efforts can maintain or improve forest carbon stocks. Currently, the second largest carbon market in the world is the California Carbon Market, which gives a monetary value to sequestered carbon. One carbon credit is equal to one metric ton of carbon and is currently worth around $15.00. Forest management plans are geared toward increasing carbon sequestration over time. This study aims to …

Non-Enzymatic Roles Of Human Rad51 At Stalled Replication Forks, Jennifer M. Mason, Yuen-Ling Chan, Ralph W. Weichselbaum, Douglas K. Bishop

Publications

The central recombination enzyme RAD51 has been implicated in replication fork processing and restart in response to replication stress. Here, we use a separation-of-function allele of RAD51 that retains DNA binding, but not D-loop activity, to reveal mechanistic aspects of RAD51’s roles in the response to replication stress. Here, we find that cells lacking RAD51’s enzymatic activity protect replication forks from MRE11-dependent degradation, as expected from previous studies. Unexpectedly, we find that RAD51’s strand exchange activity is not required to convert stalled forks to a form that can be degraded by DNA2. Such conversion was shown previously to require replication …

Thermal Cues Drive Plasticity Of Desiccation Resistance In Montane Salamanders With Implications For Climate Change, Eric A. Riddell, Emma Y. Roback, Christina E. Wells, Kelly R. Zamudio, Michael W. Sears

Publications

Organisms rely upon external cues to avoid detrimental conditions during environmental change. Rapid water loss, or desiccation, is a universal threat for terrestrial plants and animals, especially under climate change, but the cues that facilitate plastic responses to avoid desiccation are unclear. We integrate acclimation experiments with gene expression analyses to identify the cues that regulate resistance to water loss at the physiological and regulatory level in a montane salamander (Plethodon metcalfi). Here we show that temperature is an important cue for developing a desiccation-resistant phenotype and might act as a reliable cue for organisms across the globe. …

Expanding Beyond Carnivores To Improve Livestock Protection And Conservation, Shari L. Rodriguez, Christie Sampson

Publications

Promoting human–wildlife coexistence is critical to the long-term conservation of many wild animal species that come into conflict with humans. Loss of livestock to carnivore species (e.g., lions, tigers, wolves) is a well-documented occurrence and the focus of mitigation strategies around the world. One area that has received little research is the impact of noncarnivores on livestock. Both African and Asian elephant species are known to cause livestock injuries and deaths. Livestock owners within elephant ranges perceive elephants as a risk to their livestock, which may reduce their tolerance towards elephants and jeopardize conservation efforts in the area. Though feral …

Cover Crop Biomass Production And Effects On Soil Moisture In The Upstate Of South Carolina, Ricardo St Aime

All Theses

Cover crops can protect soil health and increase climate resilience of the crop production systems. However, few agronomic crop producers in the southern USA currently use them. Constraints on producer use of cover crops in this region include, lack of knowledge regarding the best cover crops for their locality and cropping system and potential impacts on plant-available soil moisture along with concerns about the cost and labor associated with cover cropping. The present research evaluated biomass production, soil moisture retention, and water use efficiency of single species and multi-species fall-winter cover crops in South Carolina. Overall, a mixture of Austrian …

Folian-Cv1 Is A Member Of A Highly Acidic Phosphoprotein Class Derived From The Foliated Layer Of The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Shell And Identified In Hemocytes And Mantle, Mary Beth Johnston, A. P. Wheeler, Elizabeth P. Falwell, Meg E. Staton, Christopher A. Saski, Andrew S. Mount

Publications

The proteins derived from the foliated shell layer of the oyster, Crassostrea virginica, are unusually acidic and highly phosphorylated. Here we report the identification of a gene encoding a member of this class of phosphoproteins that we collectively refer to as folian. Using an in silico approach, a virtual probe was constructed from an N-terminal sequence (DEADAGD) determined for a 48 kDa folian phosphoprotein and used to screen an oyster EST databank. A sequence that matched the N-terminus of the 48 kDa protein was found and used to identify the full-length gene from a C. virginica BAC library. The …

Seed Rain Along A Gradient Of Degradation In Caribbean Dry Forest: Effects Of Dispersal Limitation On The Trajectory Of Forest Recovery, Brett T. Wolfe, Raúl Macchiavelli, Skip Van Bloem

Publications

Questions

Tropical dry forests that experience severe disturbances (e.g., fires) often remain degraded for long time periods, during which non-native grasses and trees dominate. One barrier to native tree regeneration in degraded areas may be seed dispersal limitation. To better understand how dispersal limitation influences recovery from degradation, we tested whether the mode and rates of seed dispersal differed in degraded sites dominated either by the exotic tree Leucaena leucocephala or open areas dominated by introduced pasture grasses. We also tested whether L. leucocephala stands facilitate the recruitment of native trees by increasing their seed input compared to open grass …

Evaluation Of Soybean [Glycine Max (L.) Merr.] Genotypes For Yield, Water Use Efficiency, And Root Traits, Harrison Gregory Fried, Sruthi Narayanan, Benjamin Fallen

Publications

Drought stress has been identified as the major environmental factor limiting soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yield worldwide. Current breeding efforts in soybean largely focus on identifying genotypes with high seed yield and drought tolerance. Water use efficiency (WUE) that results in greater yield per unit rainfall is an important parameter in determining crop yields in many production systems, and is often related with crop drought tolerance. Even though roots are major plant organs that perceive and respond to drought stress, their utility in improving soybean yield and WUE under different environmental and management conditions are largely unclear. The …

Visualizing Relative Potential For Aquatic Ecosystem Toxicity Using The Epa Toxics Release Inventory And Life Cycle Assessment Methods, Theodore Langlois, Michael Carbajales-Dale, Elizabeth Carraway

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

The U.S. EPA Toxic Release Inventory has been available since 1987 as a record of industrial releases of toxic chemicals following the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Combining this release data with estimates of relative toxicity of these chemicals to aquatic systems increases the value of the database by providing a common basis for comparison. The Tool for Reduction and Assessment of Chemicals and Other Environmental Impacts is a database of characterization factors to assess environmental impacts. It was used to develop relative ecotoxicity impacts and interpreted using Life Cycle Assessment concepts. The visualization software Tableau was used …

An Online Tool For Estimating Evapotranspiration And Irrigation Requirements Of Crops In South Carolina, Jose O. Payero

Journal of South Carolina Water Resources

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in South Carolina regarding the amount of water used by different consumers, especially agricultural producers. This interest has sparked conversations among different stakeholders, including the media, policy makers, producers, scientists, and the general public, regarding the current state and future of water resources in the state. Central to these discussions, from the agricultural sector perspective, is the question of how much water producers really need to grow crops. The objective of this study was, therefore, to develop an online tool to use local South Carolina historic weather data to estimate daily …

Evaluating Myopic Loss Aversion Of Forestland Owners, Mustapha Alhassan, Marzieh Motallebi

Publications

Attracting forestland owners to participate in carbon markets can be challenging for several reasons including offset price volatility, legislative uncertainties, high costs of offset project development, long contract lengths, and landowners’ risk preferences. In this article, we elicit risk preferences and investigate Myopic Loss Aversion (MLA) of forestland owners using an economic experiment. The economic experiment is a betting game and we find that forestland owners exhibit MLA because they bet higher when returns from their investments are evaluated less frequently. Our results provide valuable information for developing carbon market protocols, especially in setting optimal evaluation periods of forest carbon …

Key Habitat Features Facilitate The Presence Of Barred Owls In Developed Landscapes, Marion A. Clement, Kyle Barrett, Robert F. Baldwin

Publications

As urbanization continues to transform landscapes, it is imperative to find ways to conserve biodiversity within fragmented habitats. Forest interior dwelling birds are particularly vulnerable to development pressures because they require large tracts of forest to support their life cycles. Although Barred Owls (Strix varia) are frequently described as an obligate mature forest species, they have been found in urbanized landscapes. To determine if certain habitat characteristics, such as mature trees, facilitate the presence of Barred Owls in developed regions, we modeled Barred Owl occupancy probability along a development gradient in the Piedmont region of the southeastern United …

Sibling Sex, But Not Androgens, Shapes Phenotypes In Perinatal Common Marmosets (Callithrix Jacchus), Brett M. Frye, Lisa G. Rapaport, Michael W. Sears, Talia Melber, Suzette D. Tardif

Publications

When offspring share a womb, interactions among fetuses can impart lasting impressions on phenotypic outcomes. Such intrauterine interactions often are mediated by sex steroids (estrogens and androgens) produced by the developing fetuses. In many mammals, intrauterine interactions between brothers and sisters lead to masculinization of females, which can induce fitness consequences. Many litter-bearing primates, though, seem to escape androgen-mediated litter effects, begging why? Here, we investigated how the sex composition (i.e., same- or mixed-sex) of litters influences perinatal outcomes in the common marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus), using a combination of physiological, morphological, and behavioural assays. We hypothesized that …

Phylogenetic Origins For Severe Acetaminophen Toxicity In Snake Species Compared To Other Vertebrate Taxa, Peter Van Den Hurk, Harold M.I. Kerkkamp

Publications

While it has been known for a while that some snake species are extremely sensitive to acetaminophen, the underlying mechanism for this toxicity has not been reported. To investigate if essential detoxification enzymes are missing in snake species that are responsible for biotransformation of acetaminophen in other vertebrate species, livers were collected from a variety of snake species, together with samples from alligator, snapping turtle, cat, rat, and cattle. Subcellular fractions were analyzed for enzymatic activities of phenol-type sulfotransferase and UDP‑glucuronosyltransferase, total glutathione S‑transferase, and N‑acetyltransferase. The results showed that none of the snake species, together …

Sibling Sex, But Not Androgens, Shapes Phenotypes In Perinatal Common Marmosets (Callithrix Jacchus), Brett M. Frye, Lisa G. Rapaport, Talia Melber, Michael W. Sears, Suzette D. Tardif

Publications

When offspring share a womb, interactions among fetuses can impart lasting impressions on phenotypic outcomes. Such intrauterine interactions often are mediated by sex steroids (estrogens and androgens) produced by the developing fetuses. In many mammals, intrauterine interactions between brothers and sisters lead to masculinization of females, which can induce fitness consequences. Many litter-bearing primates, though, seem to escape androgen-mediated litter effects, begging why? Here, we investigated how the sex composition (i.e., same- or mixed-sex) of litters influences perinatal outcomes in the common marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus), using a combination of physiological, morphological, and behavioural assays. We hypothesized that …