Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Post-Wildfire Recovery Of An Upland Oak-Pine Forest On The Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, Usa, Devin E. Black, Zachary W. Poynter, Claudia A. Cotton, Suraj Upadhaya, David D. Taylor, Wendy Leuenberger, Beth A. Blankenship, Mary A. Arthur

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Background: Many forests within the southern Appalachian region, USA, have experienced decades of fire exclusion, contributing to regeneration challenges for species such as oaks (Quercus spp. L.) and pines (Pinus spp. L.), and threatening the maintenance of oak-dominated forests in the future. While the use of prescribed fire as a forest management tool is increasing within this region, there remains a lack of information on the potential role of wildfire. A wildfire within the Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky, USA, provided an opportunity to investigate how wildfire affected forest vegetation response.

Results: We examined the effects of fire …

Discerning Novel Splice Junctions Derived From Rna-Seq Alignment: A Deep Learning Approach, Yi Zhang, Xinan Liu, James N. Macleod, Jinze Liu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background: Exon splicing is a regulated cellular process in the transcription of protein-coding genes. Technological advancements and cost reductions in RNA sequencing have made quantitative and qualitative assessments of the transcriptome both possible and widely available. RNA-seq provides unprecedented resolution to identify gene structures and resolve the diversity of splicing variants. However, currently available ab initio aligners are vulnerable to spurious alignments due to random sequence matches and sample-reference genome discordance. As a consequence, a significant set of false positive exon junction predictions would be introduced, which will further confuse downstream analyses of splice variant discovery and abundance estimation.

Results: …

Quantifying Bee Assemblages And Attractiveness Of Flowering Woody Landscape Plants For Urban Pollinator Conservation, Bernadette M. Mach, Daniel A. Potter

Entomology Faculty Publications

Urban and suburban landscapes can be refuges for biodiversity of bees and other pollinators. Public awareness of declining pollinator populations has increased interest in growing plants that provide floral resources for bees. Various publications and websites list “bee-friendly” plants, but such lists are rarely based on empirical data, nor do they emphasize flowering trees and shrubs, which are a major component of urban landscapes. We quantified bee visitation to 72 species of flowering woody landscape plants across 373 urban and suburban sites in Kentucky and southern Ohio, USA, sampling and identifying the bee assemblages associated with 45 of the most …

The Catalytic Mechanism Of Electron-Bifurcating Electron Transfer Flavoproteins (Etfs) Involves An Intermediary Complex With Nad+, Gerrit J. Schut, Nishya Mohamed-Raseek, Monika Tokmina-Lukaszewska, David W. Mulder, Diep M. N. Nguyen, Gina L. Lipscomb, John Patrick Hoben, Angela Patterson, Carolyn E. Lubner, Paul W. King, John W. Peters, Brian Bothner, Anne-Frances Miller, Michael W. W. Adams

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Electron bifurcation plays a key role in anaerobic energy metabolism, but it is a relatively new discovery, and only limited mechanistic information is available on the diverse enzymes that employ it. Herein, we focused on the bifurcating electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum aerophilum. The EtfABCX enzyme complex couples NADH oxidation to the endergonic reduction of ferredoxin and exergonic reduction of menaquinone. We developed a model for the enzyme structure by using nondenaturing MS, cross-linking, and homology modeling in which EtfA, -B, and -C each contained FAD, whereas EtfX contained two [4Fe-4S] clusters. On the basis …

Dichotomous Scoring Of Tdp-43 Proteinopathy From Specific Brain Regions In 27 Academic Research Centers: Associations With Alzheimer's Disease And Cerebrovascular Disease Pathologies, Yuriko Katsumata, David W. Fardo, Walter A. Kukull, Peter T. Nelson

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

TAR-DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) proteinopathy is a common brain pathology in elderly persons, but much remains to be learned about this high-morbidity condition. Published stage-based systems for operationalizing disease severity rely on the involvement (presence/absence) of pathology in specific anatomic regions. To examine the comorbidities associated with TDP-43 pathology in aged individuals, we studied data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) Neuropathology Data Set. Data were analyzed from 929 included subjects with available TDP-43 pathology information, sourced from 27 different American Alzheimer’s Disease Centers (ADCs). Cases with relatively unusual diseases including autopsy-proven frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD-TDP or FTLD-tau) …

Large-Scale Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis Of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Suggests Shared Genetic Architecture For Different Diagnosis Criteria, Felix Day, Tugce Karaderi, Michelle R. Jones, Cindy Meun, Chunyan He, Alex Drong, Peter Kraft, Nan Lin, Hongyan Huang, Linda Broer, Reedik Magi, Richa Saxena, Triin Laisk, Margrit Urbanek, M. Geoffrey Hayes, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Juan Fernandez-Tajes, Anubha Mahajan, Benjamin H. Mullin, Bronwyn G. A. Stuckey, Timothy D. Spector, Scott G. Wilson, Mark O. Goodarzi, Lea Davis, Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch, André G. Uitterlinden, Verneri Anttila, Benjamin M. Neale, Marjo-Riitta Jarvelin, Bart Fauser

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a disorder characterized by hyperandrogenism, ovulatory dysfunction and polycystic ovarian morphology. Affected women frequently have metabolic disturbances including insulin resistance and dysregulation of glucose homeostasis. PCOS is diagnosed with two different sets of diagnostic criteria, resulting in a phenotypic spectrum of PCOS cases. The genetic similarities between cases diagnosed based on the two criteria have been largely unknown. Previous studies in Chinese and European subjects have identified 16 loci associated with risk of PCOS. We report a fixed-effect, inverse-weighted-variance meta-analysis from 10,074 PCOS cases and 103,164 controls of European ancestry and characterisation of PCOS related …

Spoil Type Influences Soil Genesis And Forest Development On An Appalachian Surface Coal Mine Ten Years After Placement, Kenton L. Sena, Carmen T. Agouridis, Jarrod Miller, Christopher D. Barton

Lewis Honors College Faculty Publications

Surface mining for coal (or other mineral resources) is a major driver of land-use change around the world and especially in the Appalachian region of the United States. Intentional and well-informed reclamation of surface-mined land is critical for the restoration of healthy ecosystems on these disturbed sites. In Appalachia, the pre-mining land cover is predominately mixed hardwood forest, with rich species diversity. In recent years, Appalachian mine reforestation has become an issue of concern, prompting the development of the Forestry Reclamation Approach, a series of mine reforestation recommendations. One of these recommendations is to use the best available soil substitute; …

Dynamics Of Postfire Aboveground Carbon In A Chronosequence Of Chinese Boreal Larch Forests, Yuan Z. Yang, Wen H. Cai, Jian Yang, Megan White, John M. Lhotka

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Boreal forests store a large proportion of the global terrestrial carbon (C), while wildfire plays a crucial role in determining their C storage and dynamics. The aboveground C (AC) pool is an important component of forest C stocks. To quantify the turning point (transforming from C source to C sink) and recovery time of postfire AC, and assess how stand density affects the AC, 175 plots from eight stand age classes were surveyed as a chronosequence in the Great Xing'an Mountains of Northeast China. Linear and nonlinear regression analyses were conducted to describe postfire AC recovery patterns. The results showed …

Understory Community Assembly Following Wildfire In Boreal Forests: Shift From Stochasticity To Competitive Exclusion And Environmental Filtering, Bo Liu, Han Y. H. Chen, Jian Yang

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Understory vegetation accounts for the majority of plant species diversity and serves as a driver of overstory succession and nutrient cycling in boreal forest ecosystems. However, investigations of the underlying assembly processes of understory vegetation associated with stand development following a wildfire disturbance are rare, particularly in Eurasian boreal forests. In this study, we measured the phylogenetic and functional diversity and trait dispersions of understory communities and tested how these patterns changed with stand age in the Great Xing'an Mountains of Northeastern China. Contrary to our expectation, we found that understory functional traits were phylogenetically convergent. We found that random …

A Logitudinal Feature Selection Method Identifies Relevant Genes To Distinguish Complicated Injury And Uncomplicated Injury Over Time, Suyan Tian, Chi Wang, Howard H. Chang

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: Feature selection and gene set analysis are of increasing interest in the field of bioinformatics. While these two approaches have been developed for different purposes, we describe how some gene set analysis methods can be utilized to conduct feature selection.

Methods: We adopted a gene set analysis method, the significance analysis of microarray gene set reduction (SAMGSR) algorithm, to carry out feature selection for longitudinal gene expression data.

Results: Using a real-world application and simulated data, it is demonstrated that the proposed SAMGSR extension outperforms other relevant methods. In this study, we illustrate that a gene’s expression profiles over …

Canvass: A Crowd-Sourced, Natural-Product Screening Library For Exploring Biological Space, Sara E. Kearney, Gergely ZahoráNszky-KőHalmi, Kyle R. Brimacombe, Mark J. Henderson, Caitlin Lynch, Tongan Zhao, Kanny K. Wan, Zina Itkin, Christopher Dillon, Min Shen, Dorian M. Cheff, Tobie D. Lee, Danielle Bougie, Ken Cheng, Nathan P. Coussens, Dorjbal Dorjsuren, Richard T. Eastman, Ruili Huang, Michael J. Iannotti, Surendra Karavadhi, Carleen Klumpp-Thomas, Jacob S. Roth, Srilatha Sakamuru, Wei Sun, Steven A. Titus, Adam Yasgar, Ya-Qin Zhang, Jinghua Zhao, Rodrigo B. Andrade, M. Kevin Brown, Robert B. Grossman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Natural products and their derivatives continue to be wellsprings of nascent therapeutic potential. However, many laboratories have limited resources for biological evaluation, leaving their previously isolated or synthesized compounds largely or completely untested. To address this issue, the Canvass library of natural products was assembled, in collaboration with academic and industry researchers, for quantitative high-throughput screening (qHTS) across a diverse set of cell-based and biochemical assays. Characterization of the library in terms of physicochemical properties, structural diversity, and similarity to compounds in publicly available libraries indicates that the Canvass library contains many structural elements in common with approved drugs. The …

Breeding For Resilience To Increasing Temperatures: A Field Trial Assessing Genetic Variation In Soft Red Winter Wheat, Kathleen Russell, David Van Sanford

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Breeding for resilience to climate change is a daunting prospect. Crop and climate models tell us that global wheat yields are likely to decline as the climate warms, causing a significant risk to global food security. High temperatures are known to affect crop development yet breeding for tolerance to heat stress is difficult to achieve in field environments. We conducted an active warming study over two years to quantify the effects of heat stress on genetic variation of soft red winter (SRW) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Forty SRW cultivars and breeding lines were chosen based on marker genotypes at …

Data On Spectrum-Based Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Measurement Of E. Coli Multidrug Transporter Acrb, Yuguang Cai, Thomas E. Wilkop, Yinan Wei

Chemistry Faculty Publications

This paper presented the dataset of correction parameters used in the determination of the energy transfer efficiencies from the spectrum-based fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurement in a trimeric membrane protein AcrB. The cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and yellow fluorescent protein (YPet) were used as the donor and acceptor, respectively. Two AcrB fusion proteins were constructed, AcrB-CFP and AcrB-YPet. The proteins were co-expressed in Escherichia coli cells, and energy transfer efficiency were determined in live cells. To obtain reliable energy transfer data, a complete set of correction parameters need to be first determined to accommodate for factors such as background …

Modulation Of Auxin And Cytokinin Responses By Early Steps Of The Phenylpropanoid Pathway, Jasmina Kurepa, Timothy E. Shull, Sumudu S. Karunadasa, Jan A. Smalle

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: The phenylpropanoid pathway is responsible for the synthesis of numerous compounds important for plant growth and responses to the environment. In the first committed step of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) deaminates L-phenylalanine into trans-cinnamic acid that is then converted into p-coumaric acid by cinnamate-4-hydroxylase (C4H). Recent studies showed that the Kelch repeat F-box (KFB) protein family of ubiquitin ligases control phenylpropanoid biosynthesis by promoting the proteolysis of PAL. However, this ubiquitin ligase family, alternatively named Kiss Me Deadly (KMD), was also implicated in cytokinin signaling as it was shown to promote the degradation of …

Analysis Of Environment-Marker Associations In American Chestnut, Markus Müller, Charles Dana Nelson, Oliver Gailing

Forest Health Research and Education Center Faculty Publications

American chestnut (Castanea dentata Borkh.) was a dominant tree species in its native range in eastern North America until the accidentally introduced fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr, that causes chestnut blight, led to a collapse of the species. Different approaches (e.g., genetic engineering or conventional breeding) are being used to fight against chestnut blight and to reintroduce the species with resistant planting stock. Because of large climatic differences within the distribution area of American chestnut, successful reintroduction of the species requires knowledge and consideration of local adaptation to the prevailing environmental conditions. Previous studies revealed clear patterns of genetic …

Fractionation And Characterization Of Lignin Streams From Unique High-Lignin Content Endocarp Feedstocks, Wenqi Li, Kirtley Amos, Mi Li, Yunqiao Pu, Seth Debolt, Arthur J. Ragauskas, Jian Shi

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: Lignin is a promising source of building blocks for upgrading to valuable aromatic chemicals and materials. Endocarp biomass represents a non-edible crop residue in an existing agricultural setting which cannot be used as animal feed nor soil amendment. With significantly higher lignin content and bulk energy density, endo-carps have significant advantages to be converted into both biofuel and bioproducts as compared to other biomass resources. Deep eutectic solvent (DES) is highly effective in fractionating lignin from a variety of biomass feedstocks with high yield and purity while at lower cost comparing to certain ionic liquids.

Results: In the present …

Intranasal Rapamycin Ameliorates Alzheimer-Like Cognitive Decline In A Mouse Model Of Down Syndrome, Antonella Tramutola, Chiara Lanzillotta, Eugenio Barone, Andrea Arena, Ilaria Zuliani, Luciana Mosca, Carla Blarzino, D. Allan Butterfield, Marzia Perluigi, Fabio Di Domenico

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Background: Down syndrome (DS) individuals, by the age of 40s, are at increased risk to develop Alzheimer-like dementia, with deposition in brain of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Our laboratory recently demonstrated the disturbance of PI3K/AKT/mTOR axis in DS brain, prior and after the development of Alzheimer Disease (AD). The aberrant modulation of the mTOR signalling in DS and AD age-related cognitive decline affects crucial neuronal pathways, including insulin signaling and autophagy, involved in pathology onset and progression. Within this context, the therapeutic use of mTOR-inhibitors may prevent/attenuate the neurodegenerative phenomena. By our work we aimed to rescue mTOR signalling …

Integrating Multiple Genetic Detection Methods To Estimate Population Density Of Social And Territorial Carnivores, Sean M. Murphy, Ben C. Augustine, Jennifer R. Adams, Lisette P. Waits, John J. Cox

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Spatial capture–recapture models can produce unbiased estimates of population density, but sparse detection data often plague studies of social and territorial carnivores. Integrating multiple types of detection data can improve estimation of the spatial scale parameter (σ), activity center locations, and density. Noninvasive genetic sampling is effective for detecting carnivores, but social structure and territoriality could cause differential detectability among population cohorts for different detection methods. Using three observation models, we evaluated the integration of genetic detection data from noninvasive hair and scat sampling of the social and territorial coyote (Canis latrans). Although precision of estimated density was …

Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung, Jian Yang, Lei Fang

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Surface mining is a major driver of land use land cover (LULC) change in many mountainous areas such as the Appalachian region. Typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and other stakeholders fully understand the benefits of forestry-based reclamation (FRA). The objectives of this study are to (1) identify how surface mining and reclamation changed the LULC of a watershed encompassing the north fork of the Kentucky River, (2) assess the biophysical value of four major ecosystem services under the …

Seqothello: Querying Rna-Seq Experiments At Scale, Ye Yu, Jinpeng Liu, Xinan Liu, Yi Zhang, Eamonn Magner, Erik Lehnert, Chen Qian, Jinze Liu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

We present SeqOthello, an ultra-fast and memory-efficient indexing structure to support arbitrary sequence query against large collections of RNA-seq experiments. It takes SeqOthello only 5 min and 19.1 GB memory to conduct a global survey of 11,658 fusion events against 10,113 TCGA Pan-Cancer RNA-seq datasets. The query recovers 92.7% of tier-1 fusions curated by TCGA Fusion Gene Database and reveals 270 novel occurrences, all of which are present as tumor-specific. By providing a reference-free, alignment-free, and parameter-free sequence search system, SeqOthello will enable large-scale integrative studies using sequence-level data, an undertaking not previously practicable for many individual labs.

Effects Of Red Clover Isoflavones On Tall Fescue Seed Fermentation And Microbial Populations In Vitro, Emily A. Melchior, Jason K. Smith, Liesel G. Schneider, J. Travis Mulliniks, Gary E. Bates, Zachary D. Mcfarlane, Michael D. Flythe, James L. Klotz, Jack P. Goodman, Huihua Ji, Phillip R. Myer

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Negative impacts of endophyte-infected Lolium arundinaceum (Darbyshire) (tall fescue) are responsible for over $2 billion in losses to livestock producers annually. While the influence of endophyte-infected tall fescue has been studied for decades, mitigation methods have not been clearly elucidated. Isoflavones found in Trifolium pratense (red clover) have been the subject of recent research regarding tall fescue toxicosis mitigation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of ergovaline and red clover isoflavones on rumen microbial populations, fiber degradation, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) in an in vitro system. Using a dose of 1.10 mg × L …

Nutrient Addition And Drought Interact To Change The Structure And Decrease The Functional Diversity Of A Mediterranean Grassland, Carla Nogueira, Alice Nunes, Miguel N. Bugalho, Cristina Branquinho, Rebecca L. Mcculley, Maria Conceição Caldeira

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic activities are increasing nutrient availability and altering precipitation regimes. This may lead to critical changes in grasslands functioning. This is particularly important for grasslands in the Mediterranean Basin that have evolved in nutrient poor soils, and where more frequent and prolonged droughts are projected to occur. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the interacting effects of multiple nutrient inputs and rainfall variability on the plant functional structure and diversity of Mediterranean grasslands. We conducted a nutrient addition experiment in a Mediterranean grassland during four contrasting precipitation years. We established four treatments that varied in the number of added nutrients, …

Growth, Yield Performance And Quality Parameters Of Three Early Flowering Chia (Salvia Hispanica L.) Genotypes Cultivated In Southwestern Germany, Samantha J. Grimes, Timothy D. Phillips, Volker Hahn, Filippo Capezzone, Simone Graeff-Hönninger

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

The combination of consumer’s ongoing demand for chia (Salvia hispanica L.) alongside the increased demand for regionally produced food products provided the impetus for this study. Its aim was to test if a regional cultivation of new chia genotypes, which were adapted to day lengths greater than 12 h, is feasible under Central European conditions. Therefore, three early flowering chia genotypes (Sahi Alba 914, W13.1, G8) were cultivated in a randomized block design at two experimental stations in Southwestern Germany (Ihinger Hof, Eckartsweier) over the course of two years (2015, 2016). Mean yields ranged from 100 to 1290 kg …

Iac Gene Expression In The Indole-3-Acetic Acid-Degrading Soil Bacterium Enterobacter Soli Lf7, Isaac V. Greenhut, Beryl L. Slezak, Johan H. J. Leveau

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

We show for soil bacterium Enterobacter soli LF7 that the possession of an indole-3-acetic acid catabolic (iac) gene cluster is causatively linked to the ability to utilize the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) as a carbon and energy source. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling by mRNA sequencing revealed that these iac genes, chromosomally arranged as iacHABICDEFG and coding for the transformation of IAA to catechol, were the most highly induced (>29-fold) among the relatively few (iac cluster were genes for a major facilitator superfamily protein (mfs) and enzymes of the β-ketoadipate pathway (pcaIJD-catBCA), which channels …

Biomass Production Of Herbaceous Energy Crops In The United States: Field Trial Results And Yield Potential Maps From The Multiyear Regional Feedstock Partnership, Do Kyoung Lee, Ezra Aberle, Erik K. Anderson, William Anderson, Brian S. Baldwin, David Baltensperger, Michael Barrett, Jürg Blumenthal, Stacy Bonos, Joe Bouton, David I. Bransby, Charlie Brummer, Pane S. Burks, Chengci Chen, Christopher Daly, Josh Egenolf, Rodney L. Farris, John H. Fike, Roch Gaussoin, John R. Gill, Kenneth Gravois, Michael D. Halbleib, Anna Hale, Wayne Hanna, Keith Harmoney, Emily A. Heaton, Ron W. Heiniger, Lindsey Hoffman, Chang O. Hong, Gopal Kakani, David Williams, Linda Williams

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Current knowledge of yield potential and best agronomic management practices for perennial bioenergy grasses is primarily derived from small‐scale and short‐term studies, yet these studies inform policy at the national scale. In an effort to learn more about how bioenergy grasses perform across multiple locations and years, the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE)/Sun Grant Initiative Regional Feedstock Partnership was initiated in 2008. The objectives of the Feedstock Partnership were to (1) provide a wide range of information for feedstock selection (species choice) and management practice options for a variety of regions and (2) develop national maps of potential feedstock …

Quantifying Climate Sensitivity And Climate-Driven Change In North American Amphibian Communities, David A. W. Miller, Evan H Campbell Grant, Erin Muths, Staci M. Amburgey, Michael J. Adams, Maxwell B. Joseph, J. Hardin Waddle, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Maureen E. Ryan, Benedikt R. Schmidt, Daniel L. Calhoun, Courtney L. Davis, Robert N. Fisher, David M. Green, Blake R. Hossack, Tracy A. G. Rittenhouse, Susan C. Walls, Larissa L. Bailey, Sam S. Cruickshank, Gary M. Fellers, Thomas A. Gorman, Carola A. Haas, Ward Hughson, David S. Pilliod, Steve J. Price, Andrew M. Ray, Walt Sadinski, Daniel Saenz, William J. Barichivich, Adrianne Brand

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Changing climate will impact species’ ranges only when environmental variability directly impacts the demography of local populations. However, measurement of demographic responses to climate change has largely been limited to single species and locations. Here we show that amphibian communities are responsive to climatic variability, using > 500,000 time-series observations for 81 species across 86 North American study areas. The effect of climate on local colonization and persistence probabilities varies among eco-regions and depends on local climate, species life-histories, and taxonomic classification. We found that local species richness is most sensitive to changes in water availability during breeding and changes in …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Treatment And Outcomes Of Low-Grade Diffuse Gliomas, Catherine R. Garcia, Stacey A. Slone, Thomas A. Pittman, William H. St. Clair, Donita D. Lightner, John L. Villano

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Background

Low-grade gliomas affect younger adults and carry a favorable prognosis. They include a variety of biological features affecting clinical behavior and treatment. Having no guidelines on treatment established, we aim to describe clinical and treatment patterns of low-grade gliomas across the largest cancer database in the United States.

Methods

We analyzed the National Cancer Database from 2004 to 2015, for adult patients with a diagnosis of World Health Organization grade II diffuse glioma.

Results

We analyzed 13,621 cases with median age of 41 years. Over 56% were male, 88.4% were white, 6.1% were black, and 7.6% Hispanic. The most …

Systemic Immunosuppression And Risk Of Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Harpal S. Sandhu, Joshua Lambert, Yan Xu, Henry J. Kaplan

Applied Statistics Laboratory Faculty Publications

A local immune response has been implicated in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but it is unclear if systemic immunosuppressive/immunomodulatory therapy (IMT) protects against the onset and/or progression of AMD. We performed a retrospective cohort study using a Cox proportional hazards model of two cohorts. Cohort 1 included patients with stage V chronic kidney disease (CKD) status post kidney transplantation, on at least one IMT agent, and older than 50. Cohort 2 included patients with stage IV or V CKD who had not undergone kidney transplantation, were not on IMT, and were older than 50. The main outcomes …

Phosphorus And Potassium Fertilizer Application Strategies In Corn–Soybean Rotations, Timothy J. Boring, Kurt D. Thelen, James E. Board, Jason L. De Bruin, Chad D. Lee, Seth L. Naeve, William J. Ross, Wade A. Kent, Landon L. Ries

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

To determine if current university fertilizer rate and timing recommendations pose a limitation to high-yield corn (Zea mays subsp. mays) and soybean (Glycine max) production, this study compared annual Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) fertilizer applications to biennial fertilizer applications, applied at 1× and 2× recommended rates in corn–soybean rotations located in Minnesota (MN), Iowa (IA), Michigan (MI), Arkansas (AR), and Louisiana (LA). At locations with either soil test P or K in the sub-optimal range, corn grain yield was significantly increased with fertilizer application at five of sixteen site years, while soybean seed yield was significantly …

Association Analyses Of Repeated Measures On Triglyceride And High-Density Lipoprotein Levels: Insights From Gaw20, Saurabh Ghosh, David W. Fardo

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: The GAW20 group formed on the theme of methods for association analyses of repeated measures comprised 4sets of investigators. The provided “real” data set included genotypes obtained from a human whole-genome association study based on longitudinal measurements of triglycerides (TGs) and high-density lipoprotein in addition to methylation levels before and after administration of fenofibrate. The simulated data set contained 200 replications of methylation levels and posttreatment TGs, mimicking the real data set.

Results: The different investigators in the group focused on the statistical challenges unique to family-based association analyses of phenotypes measured longitudinally and applied a wide spectrum of …