Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Photophysical And Optical Properties Of Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles Prepared From Hyaluronic Acid And Polysorbate 80, Adam Langlois, Gage T. Mason, Michael H.L. Nguyen, Mehdi Rezapour, Paul Ludovic Karsenti, Drew Marquardt, Simon Rondeau-Gagné

Chemistry and Biochemistry Publications

Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. A nanoprecipitation procedure was utilized to prepare novel diketopyrrolopyrrole-based semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) with hyaluronic acid (HA) and polysorbate 80. The nanoprecipitation led to the formation of spherical nanoparticles with average diameters ranging from 100 to 200 nm, and a careful control over the structure of the parent conjugated polymers was performed to probe the influence of π-conjugation on the final photophysical and thermal stability of the resulting SPNs. Upon generation of a series of novel SPNs, the optical and photophysical properties of the new nanomaterials were probed in solution using various techniques including …

Connectivity Differences Between Gulf War Illness (Gwi) Phenotypes During A Test Of Attention, Tomas Clarke, Jessie Jamieson, Patrick Malone, Rakib U. Rayhan, Stuart Washington, John W. Vanmeter, James N. Baraniuk

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

One quarter of veterans returning from the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War have developed Gulf War Illness (GWI) with chronic pain, fatigue, cognitive and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Exertion leads to characteristic, delayed onset exacerbations that are not relieved by sleep. We have modeled exertional exhaustion by comparing magnetic resonance images from before and after submaximal exercise. One third of the 27 GWI participants had brain stem atrophy and developed postural tachycardia after exercise (START: Stress Test Activated Reversible Tachycardia). The remainder activated basal ganglia and anterior insulae during a cognitive task (STOPP: Stress Test Originated Phantom Perception). Here, the role of attention …

A 100-M-Scale Modeling Study Of A Gale Event On The Lee Side Of A Long Narrow Mountain, Halie Xue, Jian Li, Tingting Qian, Hongping Gu

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

In this study, a gale event that occurred on the lee side of a long narrow mountain was investigated, together with the associated mountain flows, using a realistic-case large-eddy simulation (LES) that is based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model. The mountain is located on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, where approximately 58 gales occur annually, mostly in the afternoons during the winter season. Benefitting from realistic topography and high horizontal resolution as fine as 111 m, the LES can replicate features similar to the wind fields observed during the gale period. Investigation of the early morning wind structure over …

Diel Temperature And Ph Variability Scale With Depth Across Diverse Coral Reef Habitats, Tyler Cyronak, Yuichiro Takeshita, Travis A. Courtney, Eric H. Decarlo, Bradley D. Eyre, David I. Kline, Todd R. Martz, Heather Page, Nichole Price, Jennifer Smith, Laura Stoltenberg, Martin Tresguerres, Andreas J. Andersson

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Coral reefs are facing intensifying stressors, largely due to global increases in seawater temperature and decreases in pH. However, there is extensive environmental variability within coral reef ecosystems, which can impact how organisms respond to global trends. We deployed spatial arrays of autonomous sensors across distinct shallow coral reef habitats to determine patterns of spatiotemporal variability in seawater physicochemical parameters. Temperature and pH were positively correlated over the course of a day due to solar heating and light‐driven metabolism. The mean temporal and spatial ranges of temperature and pH were positively correlated across all sites, with different regimes of variability …

Green Strategic Planning Approach For International Shipping Activities, Xiaofang Wu, Luoping Zhang, Huan Feng

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Sustainability is a long-term and ultimate goal for international shipping, although it is slowly making progress. The shipping perspective that moves away from “port-to-port” operations to “door-to-door” services also requires international shipping to take a long-term and holistic view instead of fragmented efforts. How to achieve the long-term sustainability goal becomes a key issue for door-to-door international shipping. Hence, green strategic planning for door-to-door international shipping was proposed with green development that puts forward the eco-centric point of view as its basic theory for sustainability. This study used a strategic decision-making approach, a so-called multi-dimensional decision-making (MDDM), coupled with the …

A Model For The Prediction Of Antimicrobial Resistance In Escherichia Coli Based On A Comparative Evaluation Of Fatty Acid Profiles, Randal S. Stahl, Bledar Bisha, Sebabrata Mahapatra, Jeffrey C. Chandler

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to agricultural production and public health. In this proof-of-concept study, we investigated predicting antimicrobial sensitive/resistant (S/R) phenotypes and host sources of Escherichia coli (n = 128) based on differential fatty acid abundance. Myristic (14:0), pentadecanoic acid (15:0), palmitic (16:0), elaidic (18:19) and steric acid (18:0) were significantly different (α = 0.05) using a two-way ANOVA for predicting nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, aztreonam, cefatoxime, and ceftazidime S/R phenotypes. Additionally, analyses of palmitoleic (16:1), palmitic acid (16:0), methyl palmitate (i-17:0), and cis-9,10-methyleneoctadecanoic acid (19:0Δ) showed these markers were significantly different (α = 0.05) between isolates obtained from cattle …

Sixteen Years Of Social And Ecological Dynamics Reveal Challenges And Opportunities For Adaptive Management In Sustaining The Commons, Josh Eli Cinner, J. D. Lau, Andrew G. Bauman, David A. Feary, Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley, C. A. Rojas, M. L. Barnes, B. J. Bergseth, E. Shum, R. Lahari, J. Ben, N. A. J. Graham

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Efforts to confront the challenges of environmental change and uncertainty include attempts to adaptively manage social–ecological systems. However, critical questions remain about whether adaptive management can lead to sustainable outcomes for both ecosystems and society. Here, we make a contribution to these efforts by presenting a 16-y analysis of ecological outcomes and perceived livelihood impacts from adaptive coral reef management in Papua New Guinea. The adaptive management system we studied was a customary rotational fisheries closure system (akin to fallow agriculture), which helped to increase the biomass of reef fish and make fish less wary (more catchable) relative to openly …

Vintage Report 2019: North Willamette Valley, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report describes the impacts of climate and phenology on vintage for the North Willamette Valley in Oregon in 2019. A relatively mild early winter in 2018 was followed by a cold and wet second half of winter in 2019 and then a wet, but warm, spring. The growing season saw a few mild frosts during late April, but started off warmer than average, moderating through mid-vintage with fewer than average heat spikes. Near-record precipitation amounts during late June and early July brought increased disease pressure to the region. The vintage will be remembered for the early rains in September …

Bridging The Gaps In Elementary Life Science Lessons, Kaitlin Cook

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The United States is experiencing a rise in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers while facing a shortage of STEM workers. This could partly be due to a decline in the amount of time allowed for science in elementary schools or possibly because many life science lessons in elementary school lack originality and may not stimulate an interest in science. Lack of captivating STEM education prior to college may be contributing to the decline of students graduating with STEM based degrees. My thesis focuses on getting out of the routine of using monotonous life science lesson plans. I identify …

Oh Chemistry Of Non-Methane Organic Gases (Nmogs) Emitted From Laboratory And Ambient Biomass Burning Smoke: Evaluating The Influence Of Furans And Oxygenated Aromatics On Ozone And Secondary Nmog Formation, Matthew M. Coggon, Christopher Y. Lim, Abigail R. Koss, Kanako Sekimoto, Bin Yuan, Jessica B. Gilman, David H. Hagan, Vanessa Selimovic, Kyle J. Zarzana, Steven S. Brown, James M Roberts, Markus Müller, Robert Yokelson, Armin Wisthaler, Jordan E. Krechmer, Jose L. Jimenez, Christopher Cappa, Jesse H. Kroll, Joost De Gouw, Carsten Warneke

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Chamber oxidation experiments conducted at the Fire Sciences Laboratory in 2016 are evaluated to identify important chemical processes contributing to the hydroxy radical (OH) chemistry of biomass burning non-methane organic gases (NMOGs). Based on the decay of primary carbon measured by proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS), it is confirmed that furans and oxygenated aromatics are among the NMOGs emitted from western United States fuel types with the highest reactivities towards OH. The oxidation processes and formation of secondary NMOG masses measured by PTR-ToF-MS and iodide-clustering time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometry (I-CIMS) is interpreted using a box model employing …

Weather And Climate Summary And Forecast: December 2019 Report, Gregory V. Jones

Linfield University Wine Studies Reports

This report provides a summary of the weather and climate forecast for December 2019. It includes forecast information specific to the Pacific Northwest and the western United States, as well as forecast information for other portions of the United States and abroad.

Multidisciplinary Observing In The World Ocean's Oxygen Minimum Zone Regions: From Climate To Fish - The Voice Initiative, V Garcon, J Karstensen, A Palacz, Et Al, Kevin C. Weng

VIMS Articles

Multidisciplinary ocean observing activities provide critical ocean information to satisfy ever-changing socioeconomic needs and require coordinated implementation. The upper oxycline (transition between high and low oxygen waters) is fundamentally important for the ecosystem structure and can be a useful proxy for multiple observing objectives connected to eastern boundary systems (EBSs) that neighbor oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). The variability of the oxycline and its impact on the ecosystem (VOICE) initiative demonstrates how societal benefits drive the need for integration and optimization of biological, biogeochemical, and physical components of regional ocean observing related to EBS. In liaison with the Global Ocean Oxygen …

Individual Based Model To Simulate The Evolution Of Insecticide Resistance, William B. Jamieson

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Insecticides play a critical role in agricultural productivity. However, insecticides impose selective pressures on insect populations, so the Darwinian principles of natural selection predict that resistance to the insecticide is likely to form in the insect populations. Insecticide resistance, in turn, severely reduces the utility of the insecticides being used. Thus there is a strong economic incentive to reduce the rate of resistance evolution. Moreover, resistance evolution represents an example of evolution under novel selective pressures, so its study contributes to the fundamental understanding of evolutionary theory.

Insecticide resistance often represents a complex interplay of multiple fitness trade-offs for individual …

Chronic Muscle Weakness And Mitochondrial Dysfunction In The Absence Of Sustained Atrophy In A Preclinical Sepsis Model, Allison M. Owen, Samir P. Patel, Jeffrey D. Smith, Beverly K. Balasuriya, Stephanie F. Mori, Gregory S. Hawk, Arnold J. Stromberg, Naohide Kuriyama, Masao Kaneki, Alexander G. Rabchevsky, Timothy A. Butterfield, Karyn A. Esser, Charlotte A. Peterson, Marlene E. Starr, Hiroshi Saito

Physiology Faculty Publications

Chronic critical illness is a global clinical issue affecting millions of sepsis survivors annually. Survivors report chronic skeletal muscle weakness and development of new functional limitations that persist for years. To delineate mechanisms of sepsis-induced chronic weakness, we first surpassed a critical barrier by establishing a murine model of sepsis with ICU-like interventions that allows for the study of survivors. We show that sepsis survivors have profound weakness for at least 1 month, even after recovery of muscle mass. Abnormal mitochondrial ultrastructure, impaired respiration and electron transport chain activities, and persistent protein oxidative damage were evident in the muscle of …

Importance Of Refractory Ligands And Their Photodegradation For Iron Oceanic Inventories And Cycling, Christel Hassler, Damien Cabanes, Sonia Blanco-Ameijeiras, Sylvia G. Sander, Ronald Benner

Faculty Publications

Iron is an essential micronutrient that limits primary production in up to 40% of the surface ocean and influences carbon dioxide uptake and climate change. Dissolved iron is mostly associated with loosely characterised organic molecules, called ligands, which define key aspects of the iron cycle such as its residence time, distribution and bioavailability to plankton. Models based on in situ ligand distributions and the behaviour of purified compounds include long-lived ligands in the deep ocean, bioreactive ligands in the surface ocean and photochemical processes as important components of the iron cycle. Herein, we further characterise biologically refractory ligands in dissolved …

Recent Observations Of Water Shrews In Northeastern South Dakota, Dennis Skadsen, Robert M. Timm

The Prairie Naturalist

North American water shrews in the genus Sorex are a complex of at least five species, three of which were recognized historically, Sorex alasksans, S. bendirii, and S. palustris (Hall 1981). Within what was previously considered the single, widespread northern species, S. palustris, two additional species are now recognized, S. albibarbis in the eastern US and Canada and S. navigator in the western United States and Canada (Hope et al. 2014; Nagorsen et al. 2017; Woodman 2018). The American water shrew (Sorex palustris) originally was documented in South Dakota by three females, two were collected 1876 and …

The Prairie Naturalist, Vol. 51, Issue 2, December 2019

The Prairie Naturalist

45 EDITOR’S NOTE: Final Thoughts as Editor-in-Chief, by Christopher N. Jacques

RESEARCH ARTICLES

47 Bats of the Loess Hills Ecoregion of Southeast Nebraska, by Virgil Brack, Jr., Dale W. Sparks, and Darwin C. Brack

58 Serological Survey and Pathogen Exposure of Adult Female White-tailed Deer in the Western Dakotas, by Katherine L. Moratz, Bailey S. Gullikson, Eric S. Michel, Daniel M. Grove, Jonathan A. Jenks, and William F. Jensen

68 Factors Limting Reintroduced Plains Topminnow, Fundulus sciadicus, Populations in Central Great Plains Streams, by Joseph D. Thiessen, Keith D. Koupal, and Casey W. Schoenebeck

NOTES

77 Recent Observations of Water …

Final Thoughts As Editor-In-Chief, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

Greetings GPNSS members! I write this editorial during a time of reflection as Editor-in-Chief of The Prairie Naturalist (TPN), and during unprecedented times as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues. In full disclosure, I do not have a particular topic for this editorial, other than to offer a few final thoughts as my time serving the Great Plains Natural Science Society and TPN.

Serological Survey And Pathogen Exposure Of Adult Female White-Tailed Deer In The Western Dakotas, Katherine L. Moratz, Bailey S. Gullikson, Eric S. Michel, Daniel M. Grove, Jonathan A. Jenks, William Jensen

The Prairie Naturalist

Establishing baseline values for pathogen exposure and nutritional indices is necessary to monitor population health. However, little is known about white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) pathogen exposure and nutritional condition in the Northern Great Plains. Our objective was to assess pathogen exposure and establish nutritional indices for female white-tailed deer in Dunn and Grant counties, North Dakota and Perkins County, South Dakota. During 2014, we collected blood serum from 150 adult female white-tailed deer. Pathogens with the highest antibody prevalence included West Nile Virus (WNV; 85%), epizootic hemorrhagic disease (48%), and malignant catarrhal fever (32%). Serum values for creatine …

Review Of Grasslands And Climate Change By David J. Gibson And Jonathan A. Newman, Neal D. Noemuth

The Prairie Naturalist

The last decade has seen an explosion of information about climate change, some of which is contradictory, much of which is confusing, and the entirety of which is too much for the typical biologist or scientist to assemble and comprehend. This is why reviews such as Grasslands and Climate Change, edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Newman, are so valuable. To produce this review of climate change issues and influences relative to grasslands, Gibson and Newman recruited 30 scientists—predominantly from Europe and North America—who wrote 19 chapters dealing with various aspects of grasslands and climate change. The chapters are grouped …

Factors Limiting Reintroduced Plains Topminnow, Fundulus Sciadicus, Populations In Central Great Plains Streams, Joseph Thiessen, Keith D. Koupal, Casey W. Schoenebeck

The Prairie Naturalist

The plains topminnow (Fundulus sciadicus) is an endemic Great Plains stream fish that has experienced declines in geographic range and local abundance. Due to these declines, the species has been considered for federal protection and designated with conservation status in states throughout its historic range. The reasons for declines are likely similar to hypothesized factors for other endemic stream fish declines in the Great Plains. To investigate potential limiting factors a suite of 17 historic sites with reintroduced plains topminnow populations across Nebraska were evaluated for current populations and if plains topminnow were absent, additional fish were introduced. …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Wind Cave National Park, 2019 Data Report, Theresa L. Schaffner, Daniel J. Swanson, Stephanie L. Rockwood

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire) vegetation monitoring at Wind Cave National Park (WICA) in 2019. This was the ninth year of combined monitoring efforts.

Crew members from NGPN visited 18 long-term monitoring plots to collect data representing the plant communities at WICA. The NGPFire program collected pre- and post-burn data from an additional 37 plant community and forest structure monitoring plots. This work is part of a long-term monitoring effort designed to evaluate the condition of the vegetation community and understand …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2019 Data Report, Molly B. Davis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2019 at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and the Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire). This was the ninth year of combined monitoring efforts.

In 2019, crew members from NGPN visited 6 long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots to collect data on the upland mixed-grass prairie plant communities at AGFO. This work is part of a long-term monitoring program established to better understand the condition of the vegetation community and how it changes over time. NGPN staff …

Hunters And Their Perceptions Of Public Access: A View From Afield, Joseph J. Fontaine, Alexis D. Fedele, Lyndsie S. Wszola, Lindsey N. Messinger, Christopher J. Chizinski, Jeffery J. Lusk, Karie L. Decker, J. Scott Taylor, Erica F. Stuber

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Declining hunter participation threatens cultural traditions and public support for conservation, warranting examination of the forces behind the downward trajectory. Access to lands for hunting, an often-cited reason for non participation, may play a critical role in the retention and recruitment of hunters. Meeting the access needs of a diverse hunting constituency requires understanding how hunters use and perceive access opportunities, particularly public-access sites. Given that perceptions of access are entirely place based and degrade with time, traditional postseason survey methods may fail to adequately quantify the value of public access to the hunting constituency. To overcome the potential limitations …

Groundwater Investigations To Support Irrigated Agriculture At La Grange, Western Australia: 2013–18 Results, Robert J. Paul, Gregory Paul Raper, Richard J. George Dr, Nicholas J. Wright, Adam M. Lillicrap, Peter S. Gardiner

Resource management technical reports

The Broome Sandstone aquifer is the main aquifer and groundwater resource in the La Grange area, near Broome in the West Kimberley, Western Australia. Land use is dominated by cattle grazing on pastoral stations, dispersed mining and tourism. Irrigated agriculture has developed at a small scale, with about 470 hectares under cultivation in 2014. Groundwater abstraction is licensed under the La Grange groundwater allocation plan (Department of Water 2010) and managed by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. The La Grange groundwater allocation area is split into the La Grange North subarea and La Grange South subarea, with groundwater …

Bats Of The Loess Hills Ecoregion Of Southeast Nebraska, Virgil Brack Jr, Dale W. Sparks, Darwin C. Brack

The Prairie Naturalist

We surveyed bats at 49 sites in the Loess Hills Ecoregion of southeastern Nebraska, along the western edge of the eastern forest biome in eastern Richardson, Nemaha, and Otoe counties. We completed this study shortly before the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) was listed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. The expectation of listing, along with potential presence of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), motivated the study. We captured 183 bats of five species: eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) (n = 103; 56 %), big brown …

Review Of Sky Dance Of The Woodcock: The Habits And Habitats Of A Strange Little Bird, By Greg Hoch, David E. Andersen

The Prairie Naturalist

American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) have enthralled conservationists (including Aldo Leopold), bird watchers, wildlife enthusiasts, hunters, and others interested in the natural world for centuries. No doubt, woodcock also have enthralled humans in North America for millennia prior to written descriptions of the woodcock’s courtship displays, habitat preferences, and curious behavior and anatomy. As perhaps the most extensively studied species of shorebird in the world, there is a rich and extensive literature, both scientific and popular, focused on woodcock ecology, behavior, and hunting. To that extensive body of literature, Sky Dance of the Woodcock provides an updated summary of …

Vegetation Classification And Mapping, Missouri National Recreational River, Tom Baldvins, Matt Ley, David Jones, Joe Stevens, Hannah Pilkington

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The vegetation inventory project at Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR) classified and mapped vegetation within the park administrative boundary and estimated thematic map accuracy quantitatively. The project was conducted over a four year period from the summer of 2015 to the winter of 2019.

The project follows guidance provided by the National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Mapping Inventory (VMI) Program. The overall process includes initial planning and scoping, imagery procurement, field data collection, data analysis, imagery interpretation and classification, and accuracy assessment. The initial planning and scoping meetings to support study plan development took place in December, 2009, …

Growth Phase Proteomics Of The Heterotrophic Marine Bacterium Ruegeria Pomeroyi, Dasha Krayushkina, Emma Timmins-Schiffman, Jessica Faux, Damon H. May, Michael Riffle, H. Rodger Harvey, Brook L. Nunn

OES Faculty Publications

The heterotrophic marine bacterium, Ruegeria pomeroyi, was experimentally cultured under environmentally realistic carbon conditions and with a tracer-level addition of ¹³C-labeled leucine to track bacterial protein biosynthesis through growth phases. A combination of methods allowed observation of real-time bacterial protein production to understand metabolic priorities through the different growth phases. Over 2000 proteins were identified in each experimental culture from exponential and stationary growth phases. Within two hours of the ¹³C-labeled leucine addition, R. pomeroyi significantly assimilated the newly encountered substrate into new proteins. This dataset provides a fundamental baseline for understanding growth phase differences in molecular …

Tree Cover In The Surrounding Landscape Reduces Burrowing Owl (Athene Cunicularia) Occupancy Of Black-Tailed Prairie Dog Colonies In South Dakota, Jason P. Thiele, Kristel K. Bakker, Charles D. Dieter

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) population declines have led to the owl’s designation as a species of conservation concern in South Dakota. Burrowing Owls nest primarily in black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies, but a significant proportion of colonies in South Dakota are not occupied by owls. We studied the influence of landscape-level habitat variables on colony selection by Burrowing Owls. We used call-playback surveys to document presence or absence of Burrowing Owls at 613 prairie dog colonies throughout western and central South Dakota. We used a geographic information system to calculate the percent cover of prairie dog colonies, grassland, cropland, …