Digital Commons Network^™

Male And Female Victims Experience Different Types Of Sexual Assault, Carolyn Allen, Samuel Payne, Julie Valentine

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Intro:

• Sexual assault kits (SAKs) contain forensic evidence and are collected following an assault
• Most research on SAK processing has been done with combined male and female assaults
• 10% of victims are male
• There is lots of research on female victims, but very little research on male victims

In-Class Evolution Discussions Change Bible Interpretation, Jessica Abele

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Conflict between religion and evolution is a major barrier for religious biology students. Educators have been working to increase evolution acceptance by using a variety of methods (e.g., increasing evolution knowledge, addressing creationism in class, etc.) with little success. However, recent research shows using a reconciliatory approach to evolution and religion increases evolution acceptance while overall religiosity is unaffected (Lindsay et al., 2019).

Dietary And Energetic Trends Of The Invasive Asian Shore Crab, Tanner Reese, Blaine D. Griffen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

The Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus , is an invasive crab species that lives on the East Coast of the United States. It has become an important part of its invaded ecosystems and their energetic interactions. We studied this species’ energetics to better understand how they vary across season and latitude.

• The ratio of gut width to carapace width (“standardized gut size”) is indicative of long term diet quality in crabs (a larger gut corresponds to a lower average diet quality) (Griffen & Mosblack 2011)
• We measured standardized gut size and gut energy content to examine how this species’ diet …

Eeg As Successful Diagnostic Tool For Immune Effector Cell Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome, Daniel Jones, Christine Eckhardt, Haoqi Sun, Ryan Tesh, Brandon Westover

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

CAR T cell therapy was first proven effective in 2013¹ for the treatment of certain cancer s . However, its widespread adoption is still hindered by side effects like immune effector cell associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). Current research aims to better predict, diagnose, and treat ICANS so that CAR T cell therapy can be more widely applied. Although prior studies have attempted to identify an objective biomarker of ICANS² , current practice relies on clinical assessment to diagnose ICANS. We hypothesize that qualitative features of the EEG may be utilized to develop a physiological grading system of the …

Introducing Xanthoria Parietina: Invasive, Naturalized, Or Opportunistic?, Mikele Baugh, Steve Leavitt

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Lichens are one of the world’s ubiquitous group of organisms. They have been documented from frigid tundras to arid deserts. While some species are known to be particularly hardy and flexible in their habitats, many species are linked to specific growing conditions. As the global climate changes, the geographical range for different growing conditions shifts. Economic trade and human travel provide new opportunities for species to access new locations that are beginning to develop habitable conditions. Xanthoria parietina has been observed in the Great Basin (a region outside of its typical coastal distribution) found in newly built horticultural landscapes. Individuals …

Salicylic Acid And N-Hydroxypipecolic Acid At The Fulcrum Of The Plant Immunity-Growth Equilibrium, Alyssa Shields, Vanessa Shivnauth, Christian Danve M. Castroverde

Biology Faculty Publications

Salicylic acid (SA) and N-hydroxypipecolic acid (NHP) are two central plant immune signals involved in both resistance at local sites of pathogen infection (basal resistance) and at distal uninfected sites after primary infection (systemic acquired resistance). Major discoveries and advances have led to deeper understanding of their biosynthesis and signaling during plant defense responses. In addition to their well-defined roles in immunity, recent research is emerging on their direct mechanistic impacts on plant growth and development. In this review, we will first provide an overview of how SA and NHP regulate local and systemic immune responses in plants. We …

The Mrna/Protein Relationship Is Fluid And Changes Across Tissue And Diseased States, Jose Humberto Giraldez Chavez, Sam Payne

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

• Cancer is a dysregulated cell
• Molecular typing via DNA/RNA/protein
• Is RNA a proxy for cell?

Does Bathing After Sexual Assault Or Time Elapsed Have A Greater Effect On The Development Of Codis Eligible Dna Profiles?, Emily Black, Sam Payne, Julie Valentine, Leslie Miles

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Which has a greater effect on the development of CODIS eligible DNA profiles from SAKs – bathing/showering status of the victim or time between the assault and examination?

Comparison Of Tardigrade Extraction Methods, Abigail Andros

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

It is a time-consuming process to pick tardigrades for an experiment. The standard method is to add water to the sample, then look through it and pick out tardigrades with a micropipette or small wire loop (Tsujimoto et al. 2015).

Whole-Body Vibration Alleviates Symptoms Of Morphine Withdrawal, Gavin C. Jones, Christina A. Small, Dallin Z. Otteson, Scott C. Steffensen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Whole body vibration at 80 Hz has been shown to blunt neuropathological markers and behavioral symptoms of alcohol dependence Here, we evaluate its ability to ameliorate symptoms of morphine use and withdrawal.

Reviewing The Effects Of Human-Induced Limb Damage In Crabs, Jacob B. Spencer, Blaine D. Griffen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Limb damage in crabs comes in various forms, each with unique consequences. Brachyuran crabs shed limbs as a defensive reflex, with natural breakage occurring along a plane, otherwise known as autotomy. In addition to autotomy, crabs commonly lose limbs due to fishing practices such as declawing. In many areas, taking the limbs and releasing the crab is a common practice. The logic is that the populations won’t decline if the crab is put back. Other practices such as nicking, or cutting the main claw tendon, are used to restrict claw movement. Various effects of these fishery practices have been documented …

Overcoming Detrimental Potato Fungi With The Secondary Metabolites Of Naturally Occurring Streptomyces In A Greenhouse, Hansan Jones, Jacob Anderson, Erik Kemp, Brad Geary, Matthew Madsen, Ryan Stewart

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

• Fungal disease Silver scurf can cause 13% water loss and give poor aesthetic appeal, both of which reduce farmers profits (1,2).
• Pythium leak can result in up to 50% total loss of potatoes in storage (3).
• Streptomyces is the right candidate to mitigate or eliminate these losses because of its ability to survive in soil (4) and its history as a proven biocontrol for other plant pathogens (5).

Morphological Changes Of The Asian Shore Crab Across Latitudes, Ainslee Mcmullin, Blaine D. Griffen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

The Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus , is an invasive species that has rapidly spread across the Eastern United States coastline. First observed in North America in 1988, its range currently extends from Maine to North Carolina. H. sanguineus has adapted very well to this region and has displaced several native species as the dominant crab in rocky intertidal habitats. Although the Asian shore crab’s biology and interactions with native species has been well studied, larger scale impacts (economic, potential further spread, community ecology, etc.) are under researched. We collected specimen samples of H. sanguineus throughout its entire East coast …

Species Invasion Vs. Abundance In The Northern And Southern Regions Of Lake Powell, Amanda Lebarge, Mark Belk

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Lake Powell is a dynamic system, evidenced by its yearly fluctuations in water level. In the last 20 years, this reservoir has experienced invasions from two different invasive species: the gizzard shard, and quagga mussel. Due to the unique nature of Lake Powell, our research seeks to understand if there were catastrophic effects of these invasions on fish biomass and abundance patterns, and do these impacts vary based on region? We hypothesize that both species will have a major impact in all regions on the native species in Lake Powell; however, the southern region will be more catastrophic.

Drivers Of Flight Performance Of California Condors (Gymnogyps Californianus), Sophie R. Bonner, Sharon A. Poessel, Joseph C. Brandt, Molly T. Astell, James R. Belthoff, Todd E. Katzner

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Flight behavior of soaring birds depends on a complex array of physiological, social, demographic, and environmental factors. California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) rely on thermal and orographic updrafts to subsidize extended bouts of soaring flight, and their soaring flight performance is expected to vary in response to environmental variation and, potentially, with experience. We collected 6298 flight tracks described by high-frequency GPS telemetry data from five birds ranging in age from 1 to 19 yr old and followed over 32 d in summer 2016. Using these data, we tested the hypothesis that climb rate, an indicator of flight performance, …

The Coastal Monitor: Vol. 8 No. 4, John Tanacredi Ph.D.

The Coastal Monitor

The original five acre of land portion of the historic Blue Points Oyster Company is located at the southern end of Atlantic Ave in West Sayville, Islip Town, Suffolk County, New York on the shore of Great South Bay. The Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring (CERCOM) is the science field station serving Molloy College’s BCES programs in Earth & Environmental Sciences and Biology. Our mission is to provide unique hands-on educational opportunities in the physical and life sciences, in collaboration with a host of Federal, State, and local and NGO groups, to bolster students’ career path. Great …

Current Water Quality Guidelines Across North America And Europe Do Not Protect Lakes From Salinization, Matthew Schuler

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Human-induced salinization caused by the use of road deicing salts, agricultural practices, mining operations, and climate change is a major threat to the biodiversity and functioning of freshwater ecosystems. Yet, it is unclear if freshwater ecosystems are protected from salinization by current water quality guidelines. Leveraging an experimental network of land-based and in-lake mesocosms across North America and Europe, we tested how salinization—indicated as elevated chloride (Cl²) concentration—will affect lake food webs and if two of the lowest Cl² thresholds found globally are sufficient to protect these food webs. Our results indicated that salinization will cause substantial …

Functional And Conformational Plasticity Of An Animal Group 1 Lea Protein, Brett Janis, Clinton Belott, Tyler Brockman, Michael Menze

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Group 1 (Dur-19, PF00477, LEA_5) Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) proteins are present in organisms from all three domains of life, Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. Surprisingly, Artemia is the only genus known to include animals that express group 1 LEA proteins in their desiccation-tolerant life-history stages. Bioinformatics analysis of circular dichroism data indicates that the group 1 LEA protein AfLEA1 is surprisingly ordered in the hydrated state and undergoes during desiccation one of the most pronounced disorder-to-order transitions described for LEA proteins from A. franciscana. The secondary structure in the hydrated state is dominated by random coils (42%) and β-sheets (35%) …

Ancestral State Reconstruction Of Oviposition Techniques In New World Stick Insects, Ellie Mcgregor, Jackson Linde, Michael F. Whiting

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Phasmids, commonly known as stick bugs, are unique and interesting creatures, both phenotypically and genotypically. Their cryptic abilities are what draws most people to them, but their oviposition techniques, or how they disperse eggs, has become a new source of interest. While most phasmids are known to flick or drop their eggs from the canopy, there are several other techniques including inserting the eggs into the soil or gluing them to a substrate. New world phasmids have not been thoroughly studied, especially in understanding which technique was ancestral. The purpose of this paper was to construct a phylogenetic tree to …

Brain Barriers Virtual: An Interim Solution Or Future Opportunity?, Brianna M. Holder, Shaina E. Tolan, Kaleb K. Heinrich, Kaitlin C. Miller, Natalie Hudson, Geetika Nehra, Michelle E. Pizzo, Steffen E. Storck, William F. Elmquist, Britta Engelhardt, Irena Loryan, Michal Toborek, Bjoern Bauer, Anika M. S. Hartz, Brandon J. Kim

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Scientifc conferences are vital communication events for scientists in academia, industry, and government agencies. In the brain barriers research feld, several international conferences exist that allow researchers to present data, share knowledge, and discuss novel ideas and concepts. These meetings are critical platforms for researchers to connect and exchange breakthrough fndings on a regular basis. Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, all in-person meetings were canceled in 2020. In response, we launched the Brain Barriers Virtual 2020 (BBV2020) seminar series, the frst stand-in virtual event for the brain barriers feld, to ofer scientists a virtual platform to present …

The Global Virome In One Network (Virion): An Atlas Of Vertebrate-Virus Associations, Colin J. Carlson, Rory J. Gibb, Gregory F. Albery, Liam Brierley, Ryan P. Connor, Tad Dallas, Evan A. Eskew, Anna C. Fagre, Maxwell J. Farrell, Hannah K. Frank, Renata L. Muylaert, Timothée Poisot, Angela L. Rasmussen, Sadie J. Ryan, Stephanie N. Seifert

Faculty Publications

Data that catalogue viral diversity on Earth have been fragmented across sources, disciplines, formats, and various degrees of open sharing, posing challenges for research on macroecology, evolution, and public health. Here, we solve this problem by establishing a dynamically maintained database of vertebrate-virus associations, called The Global Virome in One Network (VIRION). The VIRION database has been assembled through both reconciliation of static data sets and integration of dynamically updated databases. These data sources are all harmonized against one taxonomic backbone, including metadata on host and virus taxonomic validity and higher classification; additional metadata on sampling methodology and evidence strength …

Convergent Developmental Patterns Underlie The Repeated Evolution Of Adhesive Toe Pads Among Lizards, Aaron H. Griffing, Tony Gamble, Martin J. Cohn, Thomas J. Sanger

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

How developmental modifications produce key innovations, which subsequently allow for rapid diversification of a clade into new adaptive zones, has received much attention. However, few studies have used a robust comparative framework to investigate the influence of evolutionary and developmental constraints on the origin of key innovations, such as the adhesive toe pad of lizards. Adhesive toe pads evolved independently at least 16 times in lizards, allowing us to examine whether the patterns observed are general evolutionary phenomena or unique, lineage-specific events. We performed a high-resolution comparison of plantar scale development in 14 lizard species in Anolis and geckos, encompassing …

Endemism, Projected Climate Change, And Identifying Species Of Critical Concern In The Scrub Mint Clade (Lamiaceae), Andre A. Naranjo, Anthony E. Melton, Douglas E. Soltis, Pamela S. Soltis

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent studies have revealed that narrow endemics, particularly those native to the North American Coastal Plain, are experiencing range contractions due to human development and anthropogenic-driven climate warming. We model how the projected distributions of a group of scrub-adapted plant species with similar evolutionary histories change in response to warming climates. The Scrub Mint clade (Lamiaceae) (SMC), which comprises 24 species in Dicerandra, Conradina, Stachydeoma, Piloblephis, and Clinopodium, including federally or state-listed threatened and endangered species, occurs in the scrub and sandhill biomes of the North American Coastal Plain. Georeferenced occurrence points were used to …

Importance Of Local Weather And Environmental Gradients On Demography Of A Broadly Distributed Temperate Frog, Hallie Lingo, James C. Munger

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Amphibian populations are sensitive to environmental temperatures and moisture, which vary with local weather conditions and may reach new norms and extremes as contemporary climate change progresses. Using long-term (11–16 years) mark-recapture data from 10 populations of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) from across its U.S. range, we addressed hypotheses about how demographic relationships to weather depend upon a population’s position along climate gradients. We estimated the effect of seasonal weather on annual survival probability and recruitment rates both within populations and across the species’ range from subalpine forests to semi-arid deserts. We calculated population-specific weather variables …

Ungulates Alter Plant Cover Without Consistent Effect On Soil Ecosystem Functioning, Miguel Ibañez-Alvarez, Elena Baraza, Emmanuel Serrano, Antonia Romero-Munar, Carles Cardona, Jordi Bartolome, Jennifer Adams Krumins

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Shifts in animal husbandry and landscape use have significantly changed ungulate grazing effects on ecosystem functioning. These changes are now the subject of extensive research with respect to plant and soil communities, but the results of these studies are highly varied and context dependent. The objective of this study is to address contextual variation by holding all sampling methods and analytical approaches constant and analyse the effect of the feral goat (Capra hircus) population of Mallorca Island, Spain, on soil physical, chemical and biological characteristics across five controlled sites. Specifically, vegetation cover and soil properties in fenced plots excluded from …

Bacteriophage That Infect Gordonia Species Show Varying Host Specificity And Infection, Lindsay Birge

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Bacteriophage (phage) are an incredibly abundant species of virus that infect bacteria. One major characteristic of phage is their small host range- many phage are known to infect only one or a few hosts. This phage and host relationship has led to phage therapy recently becoming highlighted as a possible alternative to traditional antibiotics in light of the growing antibiotic resistance crisis. The study of phage host specificity has risen in line with this concept, as a phage with a more extensive host range can provide more opportunities for use as an antibiotic. Samples of phage previously isolated on a …

Data From Callery Pear Prairie Survey, Michaela J. Woods, Grace Dietsch, Ryan W. Mcewan

Five Rivers MetroParks Collaboration Data Archive

This dataset was curated following the examination of two prairies invaded by Callery pear, and two that were not invaded. We assessed soil nutrients and chemistry, plant cover, and proximity to different land uses to see if they impacted Callery pear abundance, presence/absence or cover.

A Literary Examination Of The Efficacy Of Zoological Conservation In The United States Versus Foreign Efforts, Madeleine M. Lecorre

University Honors Theses

Falling into the top four threats to biodiversity, human activity is impacting species around the globe like never before. Zoological conservation of threatened species aids in the support and reestablishment of these dwindling populations. The examination of conservation work done in the U.S compared to foreign efforts provides insight into strengths, reveals weaknesses, and will help us better serve threatened species around the world. The status of conservation in the U.S. as well as foreign efforts were assessed through literary review of published reports from accredited organizations. As zoologic conservation aims to conserve threatened species, it is also important to …

Global Education In Stem And Healthcare: Implications Of Covid-19, Jessica Hallet, Santanu De

Biology Faculty Articles

The Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in March of 2020. Since then, most schools, colleges, and universities across the globe stopped delivering classes face-to-face and transitioned into virtual modalities of instruction. This reformation of academics has had an impact on every field of study, especially those students in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and in the realm of healthcare education. Ranging from middle/high school to undergraduate and graduate programs, STEM degrees require intensive curricula integrating extensive lectures on theoretical topics and laboratory exercises to apply those concepts in a practical setting. Likewise, …

Relating Metabolic Phenotypes To Movement Behavior In Brook Trout, Jacob E. Bowman

All NMU Master's Theses

Brook trout movement-related life history strategies vary considerably and range from individuals that stay within the same 100 meters their entire life to individuals that are potamodromous or anadromous. Potential drivers of movement life histories have been the subject of much research in fish, with genetic subpopulation explanations often failing to explain the phenomenon. Metabolic phenotypes have been suggested as a possible driver for expression of different movement life histories. I investigated if metabolic phenotypes are related to movement strategies within a population of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in Unnamed Creek, a tributary to the Rock River, Alger …