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A Comparative Review Of Soil Carbon Sequestration Methods In Brazil’S Agriculture, Skylar Cheng Jun 2024

A Comparative Review Of Soil Carbon Sequestration Methods In Brazil’S Agriculture, Skylar Cheng

Discussions

Brazil is under unique pressure to adopt sustainable agricultural practices due to its intricate biodiversity and globally dominant agricultural sector. Increasing soil degradation, agricultural land expansion, and rising levels of atmospheric carbon are nationwide concerns that require multifaceted solutions. Integrated agricultural systems, which rehabilitate soils through crop, forage, and livestock rotation as well as biochar—a carbon-rich soil amendment—can address such concerns. These sustainable farming practices improve carbon sequestration and soil fertility; however, uptake remains minimal due to environmental, economic, and policy barriers. Accordingly, this paper proposes a comprehensive model of integrated systems and biochar, in which the benefits of one …

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Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Meropenem Tolerance In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Nowrosh Islam Dec 2023

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Meropenem Tolerance In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Nowrosh Islam

Biology Dissertations

The emergence and proliferation of Gram-negative bacterial infections has become a serious public health concern due to their rapid rise of resistant to all the clinically available antibiotics. The increasing incidence of bacterial infections has prioritized the invention of new therapeutics to prevent the antibiotic treatment failure. Typically, Gram-negative bacteria use several defensive strategies such as modification of the cell envelope to escape the lethal effects of bactericidal antibiotics. Carbapenem beta-lactam considered last resort antibiotic to treat Gram-negative bacteria infections, while they are considered first line prescription against nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii (denoted as Ab). Beside resistance, the susceptible populations …

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Partitioning The Role Of Myocardial Steatosis On Left Ventricular Function, Andrew Oneglia Aug 2023

Partitioning The Role Of Myocardial Steatosis On Left Ventricular Function, Andrew Oneglia

Kinesiology Dissertations

Preclinical studies have long suggested that excess lipid accumulation within cardiomyocytes (myocardial steatosis) leads to adverse cardiac remodeling and ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Whether myocardial steatosis negatively affects the human heart is less clear. Innovations in 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), introduced nearly 20 years ago, provide a method for in vivo quantification of myocardial triglyceride content that has been used to describe myocardial steatosis in obesity, type-2 diabetes, and across multiple disease states. However, most of this literature consists of cross-sectional observations. While these studies identify associations between myocardial steatosis and adverse remodeling and/or cardiac function, the presence …

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Determining How Anthropogenic Change Filters Biological Communities And How Species Modify Their Traits In Response To Urbanization, Kristopher Warren Row Aug 2023

Determining How Anthropogenic Change Filters Biological Communities And How Species Modify Their Traits In Response To Urbanization, Kristopher Warren Row

Biology Dissertations

Humans are significantly altering the environment at an alarming pace, leading to a reduction in species diversity. This transformation has created modified habitats where some species struggle to survive, while a few others not only manage to survive but thrive. One of the most drastic forms of habitat modification is urbanization, which is spreading worldwide and contributing to the decline of biodiversity. Urbanization has given rise to urban-tolerant species that differ ecologically from species that avoid urban areas across various niche dimensions. These urban-tolerant species must adapt to changes in food sources, microhabitat conditions, and alterations in physical habitat structures. …

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Molecular Mechanisms That Regulate The Stress Response In A. Baumannii, Feroz Ahmed Aug 2023

Molecular Mechanisms That Regulate The Stress Response In A. Baumannii, Feroz Ahmed

Biology Dissertations

Acinetobacter baumannii is particularly problematic in hospital settings, where infections can occur in a range of tissues. This bacterium can endure extreme stress from various antimicrobial agents, biocides, host immune response etc. Not much is known about how these bacteria react to such high stress. A. baumannii also possesses a unique ability to inactivate lipooligosaccharide (LOS) biosynthesis, which is an essential molecule in most Gram-negative bacteria. LOS is enriched in the outer membrane and is the targeted by the last-resort antibiotic, colistin. LOS-deficient A. baumannii is highly resistant to the list-line antimicrobial. Previously, our lab discovered that a two-component system, …

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Biodiversity In The Anthropocene, Understanding The Impacts Of Land-Use Change, And Species Interactions., Alexander H. Murray Aug 2023

Biodiversity In The Anthropocene, Understanding The Impacts Of Land-Use Change, And Species Interactions., Alexander H. Murray

Biology Dissertations

The extent of human influences on the environment and biodiversity has led to naming our current time period the Anthropocene. A primary way in which humans impact biodiversity is through habitat modification. Despite the knowledge that habitat modification is negative for many species, we still don’t understand why some species are able to persist despite habitat modification while others do not. In my first chapter I used a trait-based approach to understand what determines species’ sensitivity to habitat modification. Trait-based approaches from different regions often disagree on the importance of the same traits, and I thought climate and land use …

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Impacts Of Dam Removal On Cyanobacteria Blooms And Zooplankton Community In Hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Pruett Noelle Kasey Aug 2023

Impacts Of Dam Removal On Cyanobacteria Blooms And Zooplankton Community In Hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Pruett Noelle Kasey

Biology Theses

The Chiloquin Dam was removed from the Sprague River in 2008 to restore the natural hydrology of Upper Klamath Lake (UKL), allow fish access to historical spawning grounds, and alleviate the effects of long-term eutrophication. This provided a natural opportunity to investigate the effects of restoration efforts on eutrophication. Using a 10-year dataset including 5 years before and 5 years after dam removal, we developed a consensus modeling approach to investigate factors contributing to the cyanobacteria blooms, observe changes in the ecosystem since the recovery efforts, and to assess the performances of three model types: logistic regression, random forest, and …

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Sympathetic Control Of Blood Pressure In Young Non-Hispanic Black Women, Brandi Stephens May 2023

Sympathetic Control Of Blood Pressure In Young Non-Hispanic Black Women, Brandi Stephens

Kinesiology Dissertations

Non-Hispanic Black women in the United States have a greater prevalence of hypertension compared to non-Hispanic White women, which contributes to a parallel rise in excessive cardiovascular disease burden. Although women of other race/ethnic groups have a lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease compared to their respective male counterparts, Black women have a similar or greater prevalence to Black men, and early cardiovascular disease markers can manifest even in young adulthood. Heightened sympathetic nervous system reactivity and its transduction to blood pressure (i.e., sympathetic vascular transduction) have been proposed as potential mediators of elevated hypertension risk. In addition, it has been …

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Investigation Of The Evolution And Structural Basis Of Caspases: Insights Into Conformational Dynamics, Stability And Allostery, Isha Joglekar May 2023

Investigation Of The Evolution And Structural Basis Of Caspases: Insights Into Conformational Dynamics, Stability And Allostery, Isha Joglekar

Biology Dissertations

Caspases, a class of cysteinyl proteases, are well known for their roles in apoptosis or programmed cell death. However, at lower levels of activation in the body, they also play other non-apoptotic roles in cell proliferation, cell differentiation, neuronal development, cell migration and motility, and embryonic development, all of which are poorly understood. Caspases provide an excellent model to study protein evolution since, they evolved from a common ancestral state into two subfamilies having different oligomeric properties: initiators, which exist as monomers, and effectors, which exist as dimers, under physiological conditions in a cell. However, the evolutionary basis for the …

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Leveraging Population Genomics Across Two Taxonomically Diverse Non-Model Systems To Understand Patterns Of Disease Transmission And Consequences Of Hybridization, Zachary Lamar Nikolakis May 2023

Leveraging Population Genomics Across Two Taxonomically Diverse Non-Model Systems To Understand Patterns Of Disease Transmission And Consequences Of Hybridization, Zachary Lamar Nikolakis

Biology Dissertations

The field of population genomics has been mainly applied to questions centered around understanding molecular variation, impacts of evolutionary processes, and the history of populations. Here I leverage population genomic techniques across two different systems to understand patterns of disease transmission across heavily monitored and controlled parasite populations and consequences of hybridization between divergent rattlesnake lineages. I employed multiple genome sequencing techniques with new methods to infer close-order relatedness from highly inbred human blood fluke populations in order to understand transmission pathways across a region experiencing a resurgence in disease. I then use a comparative population genomic approach by sampling …

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Cell Division In Mycobacteria: The Role Of Sepiva, Angela H. Freeman May 2023

Cell Division In Mycobacteria: The Role Of Sepiva, Angela H. Freeman

Biology Dissertations

Today, about a quarter of the world’s population are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and therefore, are at risk of developing tuberculosis (TB) disease. Tuberculosis, on average, takes about six months to treat, and even longer for those with drug resistant Mtb infections (World Health Organization, 2022). Extended treatment times for these infections are caused by the inherent tolerance to antibiotics conveyed by mycobacteria’s distinct cell wall. Mycobacteria have a wide variety of cell wall regulators that help the cell adapt to stress, such as antibiotics. By understanding how these regulators work, we can learn how mycobacteria evade killing by …

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Stress Response Pathways And The Origins Of Novelty: How Snakes Regenerate Organs And Regulate Venom, Aundrea Kristene Westfall May 2023

Stress Response Pathways And The Origins Of Novelty: How Snakes Regenerate Organs And Regulate Venom, Aundrea Kristene Westfall

Biology Dissertations

Snakes have captured evolutionary biologists’ attention for decades as extreme examples of adaptive evolution models for studying how novel and extreme traits evolve in nature, but research has long overlooked or been unable to determine the molecular and genomic bases of these traits, and their underlying mechanisms. Here, I dissect the molecular mechanisms and associated signaling pathways underlying two such extreme traits – extreme intestinal regenerative capacity and the evolution of venom regulation – using functional genomics approaches to understand the conserved and non-canonical gene regulatory cascades that drives them. I first combined physiological data with RNA sequencing, proteomics, and …

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Endophytic Bacteria Isolated From Aeschynomene Indica Plants And Their Role In Nod-Factor Independent Nodule Formation And Nitrogen Fixation, Meaghan Alyssa Rose May 2023

Endophytic Bacteria Isolated From Aeschynomene Indica Plants And Their Role In Nod-Factor Independent Nodule Formation And Nitrogen Fixation, Meaghan Alyssa Rose

Biology Dissertations

The formation of specialized root organs known as nodules is the most defining characteristic of leguminous plants due to the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen to bioavailable forms enabled by rhizobial endosymbionts. This relationship has played an integral role in the agricultural practice of using such crop plants as biofertilizers to reduce the use of and dependency on synthetic chemical fertilizers. Tropical legumes, such as members of the genus Aeschynomene, are particularly recognized for their ability to form stem nodules through an unknown mechanism independently of the canonical Nod Factor signaling pathway used in standard root nodulation. The works in this …

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Evolution Of Allostery And Conformational Dynamics Of Caspases Involved In The Extrinsic Pathway Of Apoptosis, Mithun Nag Karadi Giridhar May 2023

Evolution Of Allostery And Conformational Dynamics Of Caspases Involved In The Extrinsic Pathway Of Apoptosis, Mithun Nag Karadi Giridhar

Biology Dissertations

Caspases are a class of cysteine proteases that play a crucial role in programmed cell death (apoptosis). We complete an evolutionary picture of folding of caspases in the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis. The folding models show that the conformational free energy of the monomeric fold is conserved in the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis. In addition, with molecular dynamics and mass spectrometry we also show that the small subunit is less stable than the large subunit and charges destabilize allosteric regions in caspases allowing for dynamics. In order to gain insight into the evolution of allostery in caspases across different species, …

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Age, Growth And Maturity Of The Yellow Stingray (Urobatis Jamaicensis), A Biannually Reproductive Tropical Batoid., Jessica Schieber, Daniel P. Fahy, John K. Carlson, David W. Kerstetter Mar 2023

Age, Growth And Maturity Of The Yellow Stingray (Urobatis Jamaicensis), A Biannually Reproductive Tropical Batoid., Jessica Schieber, Daniel P. Fahy, John K. Carlson, David W. Kerstetter

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Urobatis jamaicensis is a coastal batoid species affected by habitat loss and small-scale exploitation from fisheries and the aquarium trade, yet the life-history information available is limited. This is the first study to assess the vertebral centra from 195 stingrays to estimate age and growth patterns and compare them with the biannual reproductive pattern previously reported for this species. Age-at-size data were compared using five different growth models and found a two-parameter von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF), the Gompertz model, and a modified VBGF fit best for males, females and sexes combined, respectively. Maturity was achieved before one year. However, …

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Refined Teaching Methods, Systems Thinking, And Experiential Approaches Enhanced Students Learning Through Covid-19, Osler Ortez, Alyssa Kuhn, Meghan Sindelar Jan 2023

Refined Teaching Methods, Systems Thinking, And Experiential Approaches Enhanced Students Learning Through Covid-19, Osler Ortez, Alyssa Kuhn, Meghan Sindelar

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The Soil Nutrient Relationships course serves juniors and seniors with a major or minor in agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Pre-pandemic enrollment averaged 65 students. In 2021 and 2022, course enrollment was 42 and 55, respectively. The course was adjusted to a flipped design in 2017. Moving into 2021, the Soil Nutrient Relationships course underwent a major overhaul by changing the content source materials and organization of lab activities while maintaining the flipped delivery format. While responding to the COVID-19 pandemic limitations, the redesign was intended to focus limited face-to-face meetings (in person or webconference) on problem-solving activities. This …

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Research Infrastructure Core Facilities At Research Centers In Minority Institutions: Part I-Research Resources Management, Operation, And Best Practices, Paul B Tchounwou, Mohamad Malouhi, Elizabeth O Ofili, Emma Fernández-Repollet, Daniel F Sarpong, Richard Yanagihara, Renato J Aguilera, Cecilia Ayón, Xiaoxin Chen, Asok Dasmahapatra, Song Gao, Cimona V Hinton, Robert Holt, Vladimir Kolesnichenko, Michael D Powell, Fatima Merchant, Kinfe K Redda, Abiel Roche-Lima, Cecilia M Shikuma, Jacqueline J Stevens, Jose A Torres, Robert T Trotter, James Wachira, Paul Wang, Kristen J Wells, Jason White, Yanyuan Wu Dec 2022

Research Infrastructure Core Facilities At Research Centers In Minority Institutions: Part I-Research Resources Management, Operation, And Best Practices, Paul B Tchounwou, Mohamad Malouhi, Elizabeth O Ofili, Emma Fernández-Repollet, Daniel F Sarpong, Richard Yanagihara, Renato J Aguilera, Cecilia Ayón, Xiaoxin Chen, Asok Dasmahapatra, Song Gao, Cimona V Hinton, Robert Holt, Vladimir Kolesnichenko, Michael D Powell, Fatima Merchant, Kinfe K Redda, Abiel Roche-Lima, Cecilia M Shikuma, Jacqueline J Stevens, Jose A Torres, Robert T Trotter, James Wachira, Paul Wang, Kristen J Wells, Jason White, Yanyuan Wu

Student and Faculty Publications

Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program fosters the development and implementation of innovative research aimed at improving minority health and reducing or eliminating health disparities. Currently, there are 21 RCMI Specialized (U54) Centers that share the same framework, comprising four required core components, namely the Administrative, Research Infrastructure, Investigator Development, and Community Engagement Cores. The Research Infrastructure Core (RIC) is fundamentally important for biomedical and health disparities research as a critical function domain. This paper aims to assess the research resources and services provided and evaluate the best practices in …

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The Role Of Muscle Damage On Joint Tissue, Logan Nicholas Moore Dec 2022

The Role Of Muscle Damage On Joint Tissue, Logan Nicholas Moore

Kinesiology Dissertations

The musculoskeletal system is a highly diverse network of tissue that operates in conjunction to one other, both mechanically and biochemically. In states of disorder such as musculoskeletal disorders, this cross-communication between tissues is pivotal in the progression of disease state in other tissues, or the prevention and healing of the effected tissue. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSkD) are a broad term encompassing disorders to bones, joints, muscles and connective tissues. These disorders include Osteoarthritis, Osteopenia, Sarcopenia, Tendonitis, Myopathies, and muscle weakness. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder, characterized as damage to the articulating cartilage and alterations in other joint …

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Transcriptomic Signal Of Reproductive Modes And Early Speciation In Daphnia Pulex-Pulicaria System, Trung Viet Huynh Dec 2022

Transcriptomic Signal Of Reproductive Modes And Early Speciation In Daphnia Pulex-Pulicaria System, Trung Viet Huynh

Biology Dissertations

Daphnia have been gaining recognition as a key model system for studies of evolution, ecology, toxicology, and more recently genomics. The defining characteristic of this particular model system is its phenotypic plasticity and its responsiveness to environmental cues. At the same time, the advent of RNA sequencing technology has helped researchers gain new insights on the plasticity of gene expression and its role linking environmental cues with the physiological response mounted by the organism. Although many RNA-seq studies have been conducted in Daphnia, surprisingly no one has recorded the gene expression profile of one of Daphnia’s most famous phenotypic plastic …

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An Effective Deep Learning Approach For The Classification Of Bacteriosis In Peach Leave, Muneer Akbar, Mohib Ullah, Babar Shah, Rafi Ullah Khan, Tariq Hussain, Farman Ali, Fayadh Alenezi, Ikram Syed, Kyung Sup Kwak Nov 2022

An Effective Deep Learning Approach For The Classification Of Bacteriosis In Peach Leave, Muneer Akbar, Mohib Ullah, Babar Shah, Rafi Ullah Khan, Tariq Hussain, Farman Ali, Fayadh Alenezi, Ikram Syed, Kyung Sup Kwak

All Works

Bacteriosis is one of the most prevalent and deadly infections that affect peach crops globally. Timely detection of Bacteriosis disease is essential for lowering pesticide use and preventing crop loss. It takes time and effort to distinguish and detect Bacteriosis or a short hole in a peach leaf. In this paper, we proposed a novel LightWeight (WLNet) Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model based on Visual Geometry Group (VGG-19) for detecting and classifying images into Bacteriosis and healthy images. Profound knowledge of the proposed model is utilized to detect Bacteriosis in peach leaf images. First, a dataset is developed which consists …

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Uses And Benefits Of Algae As A Nutritional Supplement For Honey Bees, Benjamin J. Nichols, Vincent A. Ricigliano Nov 2022

Uses And Benefits Of Algae As A Nutritional Supplement For Honey Bees, Benjamin J. Nichols, Vincent A. Ricigliano

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Honey bees are essential agricultural pollinators that are threatened by various interacting stressors, posing risks to beekeeping industries and human food security. Malnutrition is a major factor underlying managed bee colony losses that can be countered by feeding artificial diets, which aim to deliver essential macro- and micronutrients. Current bee nutritional supplements show room for improvement and require resources that compete with human food production. Algae and microalgae in particular have been gaining traction in the literature as alternative feed sources and nutritional supplements for livestock, including honey bees. Herein, we review the current literature and categorize the effects of …

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Elevated Cardiovascular Disease Risk In Black Females: The Impact Of Social Determinants Of Health And Novel Preventive Strategies, Zachary Thomas Martin Aug 2022

Elevated Cardiovascular Disease Risk In Black Females: The Impact Of Social Determinants Of Health And Novel Preventive Strategies, Zachary Thomas Martin

Kinesiology Dissertations

Among females in the United States, Black females suffer from the highest rates of hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, and total cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Blunted peripheral and cerebral vascular function contribute to the development of CVD and are predictive of CVD risk. Although the causes of disparate cardiovascular health among Black females are multifactorial, upstream contributors such as psychosocial stress attributable to structural and interpersonal racism are likely critical. However, the societal changes required to dismantle structural racism and thus improve health outcomes may take decades to implement. Therefore, in addition to such policy changes, populations who face health …

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Reducing Disparities In Physical Activity And Early Child Development: A Systematic And Observational Approach, Samantha Moss Aug 2022

Reducing Disparities In Physical Activity And Early Child Development: A Systematic And Observational Approach, Samantha Moss

Kinesiology Dissertations

Engaging in adequate (180 minutes per day) physical activity (PA) is an important component in positioning a young child towards optimal health. PA engagement has been linked to improved cardiovascular health, developmental outcomes (i.e., motor, social, and cognitive development), and weight status. Even with the known benefits PA posits, many young children do not receive enough PA during their day. More specifically, children that are of low socio-economic status (SES) pose a greater risk for inactivity, excessive sedentary behavior, and developmental delays. Knowing these disparities exist, even starting in the early childhood years, children’s PA and development remain complex. Using …

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Investigating The Short-Term And Long-Term Impact Of Covid-19 On Cardiovascular Health, Damsara Nandadeva Aug 2022

Investigating The Short-Term And Long-Term Impact Of Covid-19 On Cardiovascular Health, Damsara Nandadeva

Kinesiology Dissertations

Recent data indicates that the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) is augmented following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Moreover, emerging data indicates that almost 50% of individuals who had COVID-19 experience persisting symptoms which are often debilitating, beyond the acute phase of the illness. This condition that is given the diagnosis post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 (PASC), also appears to be associated with cardiovascular complications. However, it is unclear what factors contribute to CVD risk following COVID-19 and PASC. Accordingly, the aim of this dissertation was to investigate potential factors that may contribute to adverse cardiovascular outcomes following COVID-19 with a …

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Microbial Diversity And Immunogenetics Of Whiptail Lizards (Aspidoscelis), Kathleen Currie Aug 2022

Microbial Diversity And Immunogenetics Of Whiptail Lizards (Aspidoscelis), Kathleen Currie

Biology Dissertations

Whiptail lizards of the genus Aspidoscelis are a complex of both sexual and asexual species with distributions in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. The parthenogenetic lineages arose through hybridization events between divergent sexual species; further backcrossing of the diploid parthenogens to the parentals is possible, and even hybridization with a third species produce triploid lineages. Here, we leverage the unique biology of whiptail lizards to evaluate and compare gut microbial communities between reproductive modes, investigate whether host genetic variation correlates with microbial diversity, and characterize MHC class II beta genes.

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Investigating Gene Expression Changes In Daphnia: The Role Of Ems-Induced Mutations And Reproductive Modes, Marelize Snyman Aug 2022

Investigating Gene Expression Changes In Daphnia: The Role Of Ems-Induced Mutations And Reproductive Modes, Marelize Snyman

Biology Dissertations

Gene expression variation is a common source of phenotypic variation between species. Understanding how changes in gene expression are associated with a particular phenotype will aid in understanding the molecular basis and evolution of complex traits. For the first chapter, I investigated the role that changes in gene expression play in the origin of obligate parthenogenesis using the microcrustacean Daphnia pulex. I conducted a genome-wide differential expression and splicing analysis comparing early subitaneous and early resting egg production in OP D. pulex isolates to investigate the genes and mechanisms underlying these parthenogenetic modes. Results from the KEGG pathway and GO …

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Elucidating The Molecular Genetic Basis Of Behaviors Related To The Loser Effect, Marquerite Alizabeth Herzog Aug 2022

Elucidating The Molecular Genetic Basis Of Behaviors Related To The Loser Effect, Marquerite Alizabeth Herzog

Biology Dissertations

Across the animal kingdom, when individuals experience social defeat (losing an aggressive conflict with a conspecific), it elicits stereotypical loser behavior such as isolation or submissiveness. In many species, social defeat is a precursor to the "loser effect" (LE), the propensity for individuals who lose a contest to lose subsequent competitions. Experiments in rodent systems reveal physiological consequences of social defeat and loser behaviors, but underlying genetic mechanisms of the LE remain elusive. Furthermore, of the recent studies investigating gene expression changes associated with social defeat, there is little focus on the recovery of LE, wherein some animals naturally exit …

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Niche And Dispersal Effects On Biodiversity, Community Composition And Species Co-Occurrences In Stream Ecosystems, Joseph Leonardo Mruzek Aug 2022

Niche And Dispersal Effects On Biodiversity, Community Composition And Species Co-Occurrences In Stream Ecosystems, Joseph Leonardo Mruzek

Biology Dissertations

Niche and dispersal processes are major ecological drivers of freshwater communities but their relative roles across latitudinal gradients, scales, and organismal groups are not well understood. Thus, we performed three studies with sub-continental datasets of stream algae, insects, and fish. In chapter 2 we predicted that: i) niche processes would dominate at high latitudes due to increased climatic stress, consistent with the physiological tolerance hypothesis and the Dobzhansky-MacArthur hypothesis and ii) dispersal limitation would prevail at low latitudes due to narrower niches and smaller range sizes, consistent with the dispersal-ecological specialization tradeoff hypothesis, the latitude-niche breadth hypothesis, and Rapoport’s rule. …

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Signatures Of Genome Evolution In Two Divergent Lizard Species From Texas, Jose A. Maldonado Aug 2022

Signatures Of Genome Evolution In Two Divergent Lizard Species From Texas, Jose A. Maldonado

Biology Dissertations

The continual reduction of the cost of high-throughput sequencing is now making it feasible to sequence large genomic and transcriptomic datasets for non-model organisms. Many of these under study non-model organisms have no available molecular data available. Yet, many of these organisms are of interest for their usefulness in addressing long-standing unanswered questions in the field of evolutionary biology or of conservational concern and need immediate intervention. Now we can quickly generate large datasets for these organisms, and here we generate two large datasets for lizards that are both of in interest in the genus Holbrookia and Aspidoscelis. In chapter …

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Investigation Into The Relationship Between Posture And Psychology: The Psychological Ramifications Of Forward Head And Rounded Shoulder Posture, Samuel Thomas Lauman May 2022

Investigation Into The Relationship Between Posture And Psychology: The Psychological Ramifications Of Forward Head And Rounded Shoulder Posture, Samuel Thomas Lauman

Kinesiology Dissertations

Embodied cognition speaks to the notion that the mind and body are inherently linked, and directly influence one another. Nonverbal communication experts hold the thought that sustaining chronic postures can impact an individual’s psychological disposition and vice versa. Therefore, the potential to intervene on these postures from a musculoskeletal rehabilitation perspective provides the opportunity to improve not only an individual’s posture, but also their psychological state. Forward head posture (FHP) and rounded shoulder posture (RSP) are common postural adaptations that occur from musculoskeletal dysfunction, and often lead to acute and chronic changes that can be a precursor to etiological pathologies. …

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