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Assessing The Climate Water Balance Model’S Ability To Predict Soil Moisture Variability And Species Distribution Of A Forested Watershed In The Northern Cumberland Plateau, Katherine J. Love

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Spatial patterns of moisture and tree species have been studied using environmental gradients, often represented by terrain attributes in GIS. With climate change, GIS terrain variables, which are static as long as the elevation remains unchanged, will not reflect alterations in temperature, water cycle, and atmospheric conditions. In this thesis, the commonly used terrain variables and climate water balance variables were evaluated and compared for their ability to explain soil moisture and tree species distributions in a forested watershed in the Northern Cumberland Plateau. The results suggest that GIS terrain variables generally perform better than climate water balance variables, however, …

An Ethnobotanical Survey Of Medicinal Plants In Ballakayati (Erbil, North Iraq), Awara Mohammed A.M.A. Kawarty, Lütfi̇ Behçet, Uğur Çakilcioğlu

Turkish Journal of Botany

This study aims to identify wild plants used for medical purposes by local people of the Ballakayati district of Erbil in North Iraq, and to determine the local names and uses of those plants. The study was carried out for approximately 3 years between 2016 and 2018. During this period of time, 85 plant specimens were collected. Demographic characteristics of the participants, names of the local plants, used parts of these plants and their preparation methods were investigated and recorded. In the literature analysis of the plants used in this study, 85 plants were found to be used for medicinal …

Molecular Cytogenetic Characterization Of Common Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.) Accessions, Gülsemi̇n Savaş Tuna, Gülru Yücel, Tansel Kaygisiz Aşçioğul, Duygu Ateş, Dursun Eşi̇yok, Muhammed Bahatti̇n Tanyolaç, Meti̇n Tuna

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

With an annual global production of approximately 25 million tons, the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L), a member of the genus Phaseolus, is one of the major protein sources used as food for humans. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the genome size of the common bean genetic resource collection (154 common bean accessions) in Turkey by flow cytometry (FCM) and determine whether geographical variables affected the genome size. In addition, the number and distribution of 5S and 45S ribosomal DNA loci were designated by performing a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis in some of the accessions. …

Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems To Identify Invasive Species, Tithe Ahmed

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Invasive species serve as a threat to native biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability. Combatting the spread of invasive species requires long-term physical and monetary commitments. In Balule Nature Reserve of Greater Kruger National Park, South Africa, Opuntia ficus-inidica (the common prickly pear) has been a relentless invader, displacing the local flora and fauna. The goal of this project is to battle invasive species such as prickly pear using efficient and inexpensive technology: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) and multispectral sensors.

Using a 4-bandwidth Parrot Sequoia multispectral sensor in tandem with the DJI Phantom Pro 3^TM UAV, images of land …

Bridging The Food Gap: Founding And Sustaining A Food Recovery Network Chapter At Wku, Elaine Losekamp

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Food waste is a pervasive global issue with many environmental and social repercussions. While about one-third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste, many people in the United States and the world are affected by food insecurity. Food recovery, the process of rescuing edible food that would otherwise go to waste and delivering to hungry people, is an effective solution for both food waste and food insecurity. The author of this capstone created a food recovery program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) in January 2019 and has grown the program’s scope and impact since that time. This …

The Influence Of Diet On The Gut Microbiome, Kayla Wede

Health and Nutritional Sciences Graduate Students Plan B Capstone Projects

There is growing research that directly looks at the relationship between the human diet and the gut microbiome. This paper is a narrative review of the current literature on how the human diet can influence the gut microbiome. Without a healthy gut, bacterial imbalances can occur which have been linked to health complications. There are many factors that affect the gut microbiome such as diet, medications, and exercise. There is also limited research that looks at the macronutrients and their role in gut health. It is known that the type of food that people consume is a major influencer of …

Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo Lineatus) Predation On North American Racer (Coluber Constrictor) In The Arkansas Ozarks, Gary R. Graves

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) predation on North American Racer (Coluber constrictor) in the Arkansas Ozarks

Sampling The Local Fare: Fishes At The Sam Israel House Pit (45gr76), Soap Lake, Washington, Adam Fruge

All Master's Theses

The Sam Israel site is a precontact archaeological complex with numerous fish bones at the north end of Soap Lake, Washington. Excavated in 1976, the fish remains recovered from there were never fully analyzed prior to this research. Since this inland Columbia Plateau site had thousands of fish bones, it contained untapped potential for our understanding of ancient local fish procurement. As such, I conducted a detailed analysis of 2,862 fish bone specimens from the Sam Israel House Pit locus to: study a larger sample of fish bones in greater detail than was done before; compare the distribution of fishes …

Structural And Ecological Characteristics Of Mixed Broadleaved Old-Growth Forest (Biogradska Gora - Montenegro), Milic Curovic, Velibor Spalevic, Paul Sestras, Renzo Motta, Catalina Dan, Matteo Garbarino, Alessandro Vitali, Carlo Urbinati

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Biogradska Gora National Park in Montenegro is part of the Dinaric Mountains mixed forest, which belongs to the montane region of the Dinaric Alps. This paper presents some of the main structural and ecological characteristics of the mixed broadleaved old-growth forest with beech [Fagus moesiaca (Domin, Maly) Czecz.], sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.) and European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) from the preserve area of the Biogradska Gora. These forest ecosystems are characterized by the high species richness and potential productivity. In the study area, 58 vascular plant species were recorded in 4 sample plots of 0.25 ha each. The average …

Evaluation Of The Relationship Between Land Use And Water Quality In Kittitas County, Wa, Lindsay Schulz

All Master's Theses

Water in Kittitas County is extremely valuable since it supports farming, recreation, and cultural activities, as well as environmental processes and a diversity of biological life while providing many ecosystem services. However, land conversions required by agricultural and urban land uses can negatively impact water quality and the biological function of the stream. I studied how forested, agricultural, and urban land use affect six streams. Fourteen sites were sampled, once each in July, August, and September 2019. Land use was calculated as a percentage of forested, agricultural, and urban land use within a 100-m buffer of the stream, upstream of …

Identification Of Novel Antimalarials From Natural Product Inspired Libraries, David Perry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

To identify novel antimalarials from unexplored areas of chemical space, we have utilized two approaches: (a) using Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (TPIMS) proprietary high-density combinatorial libraries containing a large number of small molecule compounds residing largely in the underexplored areas of chemical space; and, (b) using novel, complexity-to-diversity/ring distortion of available natural products. The first approach involved the screening of more than 30 million compounds derived from 81 small molecule libraries, built on 81 distinct scaffolds. From this, we identified the pyrrolidine bis-cyclic guanidine library (TPI-1955) to be one of the most active and selective for antiplasmodial activity. …

Disturbance Refugia Within Mosaics Of Forest Fire, Drought, And Insect Outbreaks, Meg A. Krawchuk, Garrett W. Meigs, Jennifer M. Cartwright, Jonathan D. Coop, Raymond Davis, Andres Holz, Crystal Kolden, Arjan Jh Meddens

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Disturbance refugia – locations that experience less severe or frequent disturbances than the surrounding landscape – provide a framework to highlight not only where and why these biological legacies persist as adjacent areas change but also the value of those legacies in sustaining biodiversity. Recent studies of disturbance refugia in forest ecosystems have focused primarily on fire, with a growing recognition of important applications to land management. Given the wide range of disturbance processes in forests, developing a broader understanding of disturbance refugia is important for scientists and land managers, particularly in the context of anthropogenic climate change. We illustrate …

Genetic Diversity Of The Critically Endangered Ferula Sinkiangensis K.M.Shen (Apiaceae) And The Implications For Conservation, Wenjun Li, Zhihao Su, Lei Yang, Qiumei Cao, Ying Feng

Turkish Journal of Botany

Research on the genetic diversity and structures of endangered plant species with small population sizes is a prerequisite for developing reasonable conservation strategies. Ferula sinkiangensis K.M.Shen is a critically endangered herbaceous perennial and monocarpic medical plant growing in semiarid steppe ecosystems with a small population size within the Yili Valley in Xinjiang, China. Unfortunately, the lack of genetic information has limited our ability to initiate effective conservation strategies for the species. In this study, 14 polymorphic microsatellite primers of F. sinkiangensis were developed and characterized using Illumina HiSeq paired-end reads from genomic DNA. Primers were used to assess the genetic …

Phylogenetic And Biogeographical History Confirm The Anatolian Origin Of Bornmuellera (Brassicaceae) And Clade Divergence Between Anatolia And The Balkans In The Plio-Pleistocene Transition, Bariş Özüdoğru, Klaus Mummenhoff

Turkish Journal of Botany

Understanding disjunct distribution patterns in the Balkan Peninsula and Anatolia is important in order to reconstruct robust biogeographical hypotheses. This is instrumental in understanding the recolonization patterns of Europe during the Quaternary glaciation/interglaciation periods and the potential role of Anatolia as a refugium. Unfortunately, only a few studies have been conducted to uncover such processes. Here, we used all eight species of the genus Bornmuellera (Brassicaceae) with a scattered distribution in the Balkans and Anatolia to reconstruct its biogeographic history. We applied nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and plastid trnL-F regions and showed that 1) Bornmuellera is monophyletic and, 2) …

Users’ Perception Of Print Media Retention In A Digital Era., Obia Inyang, Margaret Umoh Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Print media usage presented some important qualities overtime, which have made it an advantageous medium of study regardless of the technological advancements of the contemporary times popularly described as the information age. The value, as perceived by scholars in training (users of academic libraries especially), were sort by this research to analyze why prints are still glamour for, in a digital era with all the improvements made by digital adoptions. This study revealed that 378 respondents returned their questionnaire copies out of the 500 sent out and constituted 75.6% returns. Results for objective 1, revealed among others that, clients’ have …

Ice Algae Resource Utilization By Benthic Macro- And Megafaunal Communities On The Pacific Arctic Shelf Determined Through Lipid Biomarker Analysis, Chelsea Wegner Koch, Lee W. Cooper, Jacqueline M. Grebmeier, Karen Frey, Thomas A. Brown

Geography

We studied ice algae utilization by benthic fauna from the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas using highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) biomarkers. We assessed whether various food acquisition strategies influence the observed HBI signatures. The proportion of phytoplankton to ice algae-sourced HBIs was determined through the H-Print approach that is presumed to reflect the percentage of sea ice organic carbon (iPOC) incorporated into tissues, relative to phytoplankton organic carbon. Cluster analysis separated 3 groups based on location and feeding strategy that were significantly influenced by annual sea ice persistence. Ice algae utilization was most significant in the northeast Chukchi Sea, where …

Forest-Linked Livelihoods In A Globalized World, Johan A. Oldekop, Laura Vang Rasmussen, Arun Agrawal, Anthony J. Bebbington, Patrick Meyfroidt, David N. Bengston, Allen Blackman, Stephen Brooks, Iain Davidson-Hunt, Penny Davies, Stanley C. Dinsi, Lorenza B. Fontana, Tatiana Gumucio, Chetan Kumar, Kundan Kumar, Dominic Moran, Tuyeni H. Mwampamba, Robert Nasi, Margareta Nilsson, Miguel A. Pinedo-Vasquez, Jeanine M. Rhemtulla, William J. Sutherland, Cristy Watkins, Sarah J. Wilson

Geography

Forests have re-taken centre stage in global conversations about sustainability, climate and biodiversity. Here, we use a horizon scanning approach to identify five large-scale trends that are likely to have substantial medium- and long-term effects on forests and forest livelihoods: forest megadisturbances; changing rural demographics; the rise of the middle-class in low- and middle-income countries; increased availability, access and use of digital technologies; and large-scale infrastructure development. These trends represent human and environmental processes that are exceptionally large in geographical extent and magnitude, and difficult to reverse. They are creating new agricultural and urban frontiers, changing existing rural landscapes and …

Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) With A Thermal Sensor To Map And Count Deer Population, Maxwell C. Ott

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The number of deer in an area is an important statistic for land managers to know, as overabundance has many negative effects. There are many methods that have been used to count deer in the past, such as using manned helicopters and airplanes, walking on foot, and conducting controlled hunts. UAS (unmanned aerial systems) is a growing field that provides many benefits over traditional methods of counting deer, such as lower cost and missions being less time consuming. Using a thermal sensor attached to a UAS makes it simple to spot any deer during a flight. Two main methods of …

Leaf Angle And Leaf Stomata Responses To Experimental Drought In Quercus Velutina And Acer Saccharum, Brittany Nichole Casey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The possibility of increased severity and frequency of drought conditions, as a result of global climate variability, greatly complicates our ability to forecast future forest functions such as productivity and carbon sequestration. Assessing how tree species vary in their response to drought can aid in predicting the impact on forest ecosystems as a whole. Throughfall exclusion (TfE) experiments are potentially useful tools to simulate realistic drought conditions within intact forest ecosystems. We employed a TfE experiment during the 2018 growing season within the WV Land Trust’s Elizabeth’s Woods Nature Preserve, near Morgantown, WV, to assess the leaf angle and leaf …

Utilizing Conservation Genetics As A Strategy For Recovering The Endangered Candy Darter (Etheostoma Osburni) In West Virginia, Brin E. Kessinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Candy Darter (Etheostoma osburni) is a small freshwater fish native to the New River drainage in West Virginia and Virginia that was listed as endangered in November 2018. It has been extirpated from much of its historic range in West Virginia, restricting it to the Gauley and Greenbrier river drainages. In addition to extirpations, the species is threatened by introgressive hybridization with the invasive Variegate Darter (E. variatum). Previous research primarily focused on hybridization, but population genetic analyses were limited. Population genetic analyses aim to identify distinct populations through genetic structure and characterize the levels …

Progressive Shifts In The Gut Microbiome Reflect Prediabetes And Diabetes Development In A Treatment-Naive Mexican Cohort., Christian Diener, María De Lourdes Reyes-Escogido, Lilia M Jimenez-Ceja, Mariana Matus, Claudia M Gomez-Navarro, Nathaniel D Chu, Vivian Zhong, M Elizabeth Tejero, Eric Alm, Osbaldo Resendis-Antonio, Rodolfo Guardado-Mendoza

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a global epidemic that affects more than 8% of the world's population and is a leading cause of death in Mexico. Diet and lifestyle are known to contribute to the onset of T2D. However, the role of the gut microbiome in T2D progression remains uncertain. Associations between microbiome composition and diabetes are confounded by medication use, diet, and obesity. Here we present data on a treatment-naive cohort of 405 Mexican individuals across varying stages of T2D severity. Associations between gut bacteria and more than 200 clinical variables revealed a defined set of bacterial genera that …

From Genes To Species: Ecological Speciation With Gene Flow In Neodiprion Pinetum And N. Lecontei, Emily E. Bendall

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

My dissertation focuses on how differences accumulate across the genome during ecological speciation with geneflow. To do this I used two species of Neodiprionpine sawflies, which are plant-feeding hymenopterans with high host specificity. I used experimental crosses to measure both intrinsic and extrinsic postzygotic isolation and to understand the contribution of specific traits to reproductive isolation. Despite substantial genetic divergence and haploid males in which all recessive incompatibilities should be expressed, I found surprisingly little evidence of intrinsic postzygotic isolation. Recombination in hybrid males may reconstitute viable genotypes and counteract the effects of haploidy in males. Nevertheless, hybrids have …

Advancing Knowledge Management (Km) As An Ich Q10 Enabler In The Biopharmaceutical Industry, Paige Kane, Martin Lipa, Anne Greene (Editor), Nuala Calnan (Editor), Anne Murphy (Editor)

Books

A monograph based on doctoral research by the authors through the School of Chemistry & Pharmaceutical Science, Technological University Dublin, Ireland

Efficient Coi Barcoding Using High Throughput Single-End 400 Bp Sequencing, Chentao Yang, Yuxuan Zheng, Shangjin Tan, Guanliang Meng, Wei Rao, Caiqing Yang, David G. Bourne, Paul A. O'Brien, Junqiang Xu, Sha Liao, Ao Chen, Xiaowei Chen, Xinrui Jia, Ai-Bing Zhang, Shanlin Liu

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Background

Over the last decade, the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing platforms has accelerated species description and assisted morphological classification through DNA barcoding. However, the current highthroughput DNA barcoding methods cannot obtain full-length barcode sequences due to read length limitations (for example, a maximum read length of 300 bp for the Illumina’s MiSeq system), or are hindered by a relatively high cost or low sequencing output (e.g. a maximum number of eight million reads per cell for the PacBio’s SEQUEL II system).

Results

Pooled cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcodes from individual specimens were sequenced on the …

An Updated Genetic Marker For Detection Of Lake Sinai Virus And Metagenetic Applications, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, Judy Wu-Smart, Tugce Olgun, Autumn H. Smart, Clint R.V. Otto, Dawn Lopez, Jay D. Evans, Robert Cornman

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Background. Lake Sinai Viruses (LSV) are common RNA viruses of honey bees (Apis mellifera) that frequently reach high abundance but are not linked to overt disease. LSVs are genetically heterogeneous and collectively widespread, but despite frequent detection in surveys, the ecological and geographic factors structuring their distribution in A. mellifera are not understood. Even less is known about their distribution in other species. Better understanding of LSV prevalence and ecology have been hampered by high sequence diversity within the LSV clade.

Methods. Here we report a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay that is compatible with currently known lineages with …

A Perspective On Changes Across The U.S. Corn Belt, Eric D. Hunt, Hannah E. Birge, Christopher R. Laingen, Mark A. Licht, William J. Baule, Tom Connor

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Corn (Zea mays L.) has long been a staple crop of the Corn Belt of the U.S., which today extends latitudinally from central Nebraska to central Ohio and longitudinally from northeast Kansas to the eastern Dakotas and western Minnesota. However, the production of corn in the Corn Belt has been transformed in both magnitude and spatial extent since the 1960s. Previous research has shown that there has been an overall increase in the number of acres planted to corn across the Corn Belt (e.g. Johnston 2014, Lark et al 2015), with a pronounced increase in the eastern Dakotas and …

Fecal Short-Chain Fatty Acid Concentrations Increase In Newly Paired Male Marmosets (Callithrix Jacchus), Lifeng Zhu, Mallory J. Suhr Van Haute, Haley R. Hassenstab, Caroline Smith, Devin J. Rose, Aaryn C. Must, Andrew K. Benson, Jeffrey A. French

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

The role by which the gut microbiome influences host health (e.g., energy equilibrium and immune system) may be partly mediated by short-chain fatty acids, which are bacterial fermentation products from the dietary fibers. However, little is known about longitudinal changes in gut microbiome metabolites during cohabitation alongside social contact. In common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), the gut microbiome community is influenced by social contact, as newly paired males and females develop convergent microbial profiles. Here, we monitored the dynamics of short-chain fatty acid concentrations in common marmoset feces from the prepairing (PRE) to postpairing (POST) stages. In males, we observed that …

Wild Primate Microbiomes Prevent Weight Gain In Germ-Free Mice, Dimitrios N. Sidiropoulos, Gabriel A. Al-Ghalith, Robin R. Shields-Cutler, Tonya L. Ward, Abigail J. Johnson, Pajau Vangay, Dan Knights, Purna C. Kashyap, Yibo Xian, Amanda E. Ramer-Tait, Jonathan B. Clayton

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Background: The gut microbiome harbors trillions of bacteria that play a major role in dietary nutrient extraction and host metabolism. Metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes are associated with shifts in microbiome composition and have been on the rise in Westernized or highly industrialized countries. At the same time, Westernized diets low in dietary fiber have been shown to cause loss of gut microbial diversity. However, the link between microbiome composition, loss of dietary fiber, and obesity has not been well defined.

Results: To study the interactions between gut microbiota, dietary fiber, and weight gain, we transplanted captive and …

Amphiphiliccyclobutenes And Cylobutanes, Wantanee Sittiwong, Patrick H. Dussault, Raul Barletta, Robert Power

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

This disclosure relates to amphiphilic compounds containing a cyclobutene or cyclobutane moiety. In some embodiments, the compounds are useful for treating infection by Mycobacterium such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Cyclobutene containing compounds are also useful as monomers in the preparation of amphiphilic polymers.

Multi-Isotopic (Δ2h, Δ13c, Δ15n) Tracing Of Molt Origin For European Starlings Associated With U.S. Dairies And Feedlots, Scott Werner, J. W. Fischer, Keith A. Hobson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Introduced bird species can become invasive in agroecosystems and their management is inhibited if their origin and movements are not well understood. Stable isotope measurements of feathers can be used to infer molt origins and interstate movements in North America. We analyzed stable-hydrogen (δ²H), carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ ¹⁵N) isotope ratios in feathers to better understand the molt origin of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) collected at dairies and feedlots throughout the United States. Primary feathers were used from 596 adult and 90 juvenile starlings collected during winter at dairies …