Digital Commons Network^™

Excavations At Khirbat Marmita (Pp. 139–178), Lilly Gershuny

'Atiqot

Three building complexes were uncovered at the site, as well as various installations that were quarried into bedrock. The buildings date from the first half of the first century BCE (Building 20/23), from the Hellenistic–Early Roman period (Building 84) and from the Herodian period (c. 30 to at least 67 CE; Building 104). Among the installations were five simple winepresses, typical of the Roman and Byzantine periods; a lever-and-weights oil press; cisterns with square or circular shafts; 33 cupmarks; caves; quarries; and a miqweh. The finds include pottery vessels, stone and basalt vases, glass vessels and metal artifacts. It seems …

The Coins From Khirbat Marmita (P. 179), Helena Sokolov

'Atiqot

Five coins were found at Khirbat Marmita, all of bronze. Three of the coins date to the reigns of Antiochus VII, Alexander Jannaeus and Nero; one is from the second year of the Jewish Revolt; and one is from the fifth century CE.

An Iron Age Pottery Assemblage From Underground Chambers At Jatt (Tel Gat) (Hebrew, Pp. 1*–7*; English Summary, P. 195), Michael Cohen

'Atiqot

Pottery vessels dating to Iron Age II were recovered from four underground units. They belong to a single ceramic assemblage, comprising bowls, kraters, cooking pots, jars, a jug and a lamp, indicating that they originated in dwellings. The vessels are characteristic of the northern coastal plain, dating primarily to the second half of the tenth–beginning of the ninth centuries BCE. This small-scale excavation sheds light on this early phase of occupation at Tell Jatt. The purpose of the underground units was not determined.

Archaeozoological Finds From The Excavations West Of Tell Qasille (Pp. 135–137), Moshe Sade

'Atiqot

Animal bones were found inside four of the tombs dated to Middle Bronze Age II. Each tomb contained the remains of one sheep/goat, usually within vessels. It seems that the people at this site raised cattle. A large number of donkey bones were also found. Sea shells were also present, probably due to the proximity of the site to the Mediterranean shore. Many animal bones were found in the Hellenistic-period assemblage.

Petrographic Analysis Of Pottery From A Middle Bronze Age Ii Site West Of Tell Qasille (Pp. 129–131), Anat Cohen-Weinberger

'Atiqot

In this study, 32 vessels were examined from the Middle Bronze Age II settlement, tombs and kilns to determine the nature of the raw materials. Most of the samples were related to the same petrographic group, the nature of which points to a coastal origin. The results of this study suggest a homogenous raw material for the examined assemblage.

Anthropological Remains From A Middle Bronze Age Ii Site West Of Tell Qasille (Pp. 133–134), Yossi Nagar

'Atiqot

The human skeletal remains from the Middle Bronze Age II graves were fragmentary, in a poor state of preservation. At least 26 individuals were identified, including infants, children, sub-adults and adults of both sexes, indicating a normal civilian population.

A Middle Bronze Age Ii Site West Of Tell Qasille (Pp. 65–128), Raz Kletter

'Atiqot

The site remains comprise a cemetery, two pottery kilns and a settlement dating to Middle Bronze Age II. Ten burials were excavated, all except one (T800) were rectangular pit-graves dug into kurkar sandstone. Each grave contained one to three individuals; T800, which was round, contained seven individuals in secondary deposition. The average grave assemblage comprised about ten pottery vessels, which were usually placed in a row next to one long side of the burial. The pottery kilns are almost identical in size, direction and structure. They are of the vertical type, with two main superimposed parts: a combustion chamber and …

Chalcolithic Burial Sites At Ma‘Abarot And Tel Ifshar (Pp. 45–63), Yosef Porath

'Atiqot

The two burial sites are located in the Sharon plain, south and north of Naḥal Alexander. The kidney-shaped cave at Ma‘abarot was hewn in the kurkar sandstone. All the burials in the cave were secondary. Of the 63 burials identified, 42 were placed in three types of ceramic vessels—house-shaped ossuaries, chest-shaped ossuaries and large domestic kraters—and 21, in ‘bone heaps’. The finds consisted of pottery vessels typical of the Chalcolithic period, e.g., V-shaped bowls and fenestrated bowls and bottles, and a flake from a flint digging tool. At Tel Ifshar, two burial places were discovered, both damaged by infrastructure work. …

A Chalcolithic Burial Cave At Eṭ-Ṭaiyiba (Pp. 1–44), Eli Yannai, Yosef Porath

'Atiqot

The cave, hewn in soft limestone, is of an irregular oval shape, with high margins that served as benches. A minimum of 38 ossuaries were found in the cave, some open and box-shaped, others closed and house-shaped; ossuary jars and kraters were also found. The ossuaries were decorated with plastic ornamentation, depicting pegs, noses, eyes and rope decoration, as well as painted ornamentation in various patterns, e.g., triangles, lines and arches. Funerary goods included only pottery vessels characteristic of the Chalcolithic period: V-shaped bowls, cornets, amphoriskoi, fenestrated pedestal bowls and cylindrical stands. It seems that the people buried in the …

The Evolution Of Regulatory Architectures Underlying Phenotypic Plasticity, Shweta Agarwal

Biology ETDs

Phenotypic plasticity refers to a mechanism where a single genotype results in distinct phenotypes in response to distinct environments, making it a key mechanism for persistence under environmental change. Phenotypic plasticity can arise from two distinct regulatory architectures: epistatically regulated plasticity or environmentally sensitive loci. The evolutionary forces shaping these architectures remain unclear. I use the recombination modifier framework to explore how the regulatory architecture of plasticity evolves across a range of selection regimes, including the rate of environmental change and the costs and benefits of plasticity. I find that the evolution of the regulatory architecture of phenotypic plasticity requires …

Scale-Dependent Drivers Of Demographic Change For American Pikas (Ochotona Princeps) In Glacier National Park, Montana: Local Habitat Characteristics Vs. Regional Climate Trends, Danielle M. Owens

Biology ETDs

Climate change is shifting thermal environments globally, driving range contractions, upslope movement, and poleward shifts across taxa. However, these changes are not uniform: microclimates, shaped by topography, can amplify or decouple operative temperatures from regional trends. The American pika is an ideal model for studying climate-driven population change given its strong site fidelity and thermal sensitivities. We re-surveyed 173 sites in Glacier National Park, originally surveyed in 2007-2010, using an AIC-based model selection to test competing local and regional hypotheses driving three demographic processes: persistence, colonization, and within-patch density change. Pika occupancy increased over the 15-year period, with a net …

Finding Fish Families: Movement And Demography Of Loach Minnow (Tiaroga Cobitis) Inferred From Gt-Seq-Enabled Kinship Analysis, Patrick C. Baca

Biology ETDs

River fragmentation poses major threats to freshwater biodiversity by reducing connectivity and limiting persistence of imperiled desert fishes. Connectivity in streams is impaired by anthropogenic changes, including road crossings, prompting the installation of engineered fish passage structures at low-water road crossings and raising questions about the dispersal of aquatic species across these structures. This thesis investigates the movement of the threatened Loach Minnow (Tiaroga cobitis) by applying a close-kin mark-recapture (CKMR) framework in a restored stream (including a fish passage) and a stream without rehabilitation efforts. We developed and optimized a GT-seq panel for relatedness analysis and used it to …

Using Temporal Genomic Data To Uncover Patterns Of Genetic Diversity And Signatures Of Selection For Management Of A Threatened Minnow Species, Erika A. Dunn

Biology ETDs

The Little Colorado River (LCR) spinedace persists only in three isolated watersheds within the LCR Basin in Arizona. This imperiled minnow faces ongoing pressure from habitat alteration, climatic shifts, and invasive non-native predators. Over the past two decades, managers have translocated spinedace within watersheds to increase abundance and expand habitat occupancy. We sequenced a reference genome and analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 475 individuals over their geographic range. DNA samples were obtained from a previous study in the mid-1990s and compared with samples from 2024 and 2025, allowing us to track genetic diversity, effective population size, population structure, and …

Autotrophic And Heterotrophic Contributions To Soil Co2 Fluxes And Variability In A Chihuahuan Desert Grassland, Savannah B. Sanchez

Biology ETDs

Drylands are major drivers of interannual variability in the global terrestrial carbon sink, and their influence is expected to increase as climate change promotes the expansion of hotter and drier regions. Predicting the consequences of these shifts remains challenging because ecosystem models are largely developed for mesic systems, which differ from drylands in water and nutrient availability, decomposition rates, respiration dynamics, and microbial communities. Improving our understanding of carbon cycling in drylands is therefore critical. This research focuses on soil CO₂ efflux, a major pathway of terrestrial carbon release driven by plant root respiration and microbial decomposition. I investigated the …

How To Measure A Carnivore: Understanding The Scaling Of Cranial And Postcranial Elements With Body Mass, Marina Casiano Ruiz

Biology ETDs

Body size is a fundamental predictor of ecological function, life history, and population dynamics in mammals. However, direct measurements of body mass remain unavailable for many rare or extinct species, particularly within the order Carnivora. Allometric relationships between skeletal dimensions and body mass provide a tractable solution; however, previous studies have been limited in their taxonomic scope or trait diversity. Here, we quantify the scaling of 82 cranial and postcranial traits across 97 species from 11 carnivoran families spanning four orders of magnitude in body mass (20g to >500kg). Additionally, we examine the influence of phylogenetic relatedness, dietary specialization, and …

Elucidation Of Micro/Nanoplastic Signature Of Human And Murine Lung Tissue Utilizing Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, Aerlin D. Decker

Pharmaceutical Sciences ETDs

Micro-and Nanoplastics (MNPs) are ubiquitous biological pollutants that have been identified throughout a variety of biological samples. MNPs have been detected in several human tissues, such as the brain, kidneys, and liver. Lung tissue remains understudied for MNP accumulation despite the large surface area and clear path for exposure. Using Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), human lung tissue was evaluated for 12 different polymers, enabling quantification of total plastic per gram of tissue to be identified. Further analysis was performed with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to investigate heavy metal accumulation in human lung samples and determine whether a …

De Novo Pyrimidine Synthesis Controls Germinal Center B Cell And Plasma Cell Fates And Systemic Autoimmunity, Julia L. Weber, Tien Bui, Keomonyroth Nuon, Adam J. Fike, Sophia M. Crocker, Kristen N. Bricker, Anju Maharjan, Wujuan Zhang, Aaron R. Goldman, Sathi Babu Chodisetti, Ziaur S. M. Rahman

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Whether and how pyrimidine metabolites promote systemic autoimmunity is unknown. Here, metabolomics and 15N-amide glutamine tracing show enhanced flux through de novo pyrimidine synthesis in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-prone B cells. Temporal inhibition of pyrimidine synthesis dampens SLE-prone but not foreign antigen-specific germinal center (GC), plasma cell (PC), and antibody responses. Uridine monophosphate synthase (UMPS) conditional deletion, however, reveals a B cell-intrinsic requirement of de novo pyrimidine synthesis in foreign antigen-driven and SLE-prone GC, PC, and antibody responses and kidney immune complex deposition. Metabolomics, mitochondrial stress test, metabolic flow cytometry, glycolytic rate assay, and RNA sequencing highlight the importance of …

From Chromosomes To Precision Therapy: Clinical Cytogenetics And Cytogenomics In The Era Of Genomic Medicine, Jinglan Liu

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Uv Damage Mapping Reveals Different Impacts Of Xpd Mutations On Global Genomic And Transcription-Coupled Dna Repair, Allyson Hoag

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) is a fundamental cellular process that removes bulky and helical distorting lesions from the genome through the separate responses of its two subpathways – global genomic (GG-NER) and transcription coupled (TC-NER) DNA repair. The pathways converge with the recruitment of the TFIIH complex, a key step that is mediated by the translocase and helicase activities of  its XPD subunit. Germline mutations in XPD result in the clinical disorders, Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) and XP combined with Cockayne Syndrome (XP/CS). The goal of this thesis was to understand if XPD XP and XP/CS mutations differentially impact GG-NER and …

Mapping And Modeling Threat-Evoked Brain States After Early Life Adversity, Taylor W. Uselman

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Early life adversity (ELA) increases lifelong neuropsychiatric vulnerability. Yet how ELA reorganizes brain-wide activity and circuit coordination across later experience remains unclear. This dissertation tests the hypothesis that ELA alters adult brain-wide activity and responses to threat through disrupted coordination among neural systems that regulate emotional experience, including prefrontal-limbic and monoaminergic systems. Longitudinal manganese-enhanced MRI of adult mice exposed to standard or fragmented early care, combined with computational processing and statistical modeling, quantified brain states before, during, and long after innate predator threat. These studies established that acute threat evokes large-scale, distributed brain activity that evolves over time. ELA potentiates …

Haptic Portable Robotic Device For Automated Guidewire Or Catheter Navigation In Endovascular Procedures, Vahid Mohammadi, Jason Mactaggart, Majid Jadidi, Alexey Kamenskiy

Journal Articles

Purpose

Endovascular therapy is preferred over open surgery due to its minimally invasive nature, faster recovery, and lower perioperative risk; however, fluoroscopy guided procedures are limited by radiation exposure, high equipment costs, and reliance on highly skilled operators. This study aims to develop and evaluate a lightweight, portable robotic system for autonomous guidewire navigation to improve safety, accessibility, and operator independence.

Methods

A compact 400 g robotic device was designed with millimeter scale positioning accuracy, servo current-based real-time haptic feedback, precise axial rotation, automated retraction advance control, and compatibility with standard endovascular tools. Miniature linear actuated servomotors replicate skilled manual …

Establishing Thermal Bleaching Thresholds For Montastraea Cavernosa On Florida’S Coral Reef, Olivia Faris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Marine heatwaves are increasing in frequency and duration, with widespread bleaching events and mortality impacts observed on Florida’s Coral Reef. However, thermal bleaching thresholds for corals in Southeast Florida are not well established, limiting the ability to forecast or manage response to thermal stress events in the region. This study was designed to establish bleaching thresholds for Montastraea cavernosa, a reef-building stony coral, in Southeast Florida. Ex-situ experiments were conducted where triplicate M. cavernosa fragments of multiple genotypes were exposed to acute thermal stress or held at intermediate temperatures to simulate chronic stress. Thermal performance curves based on photosynthetic …

Ionophore-Based Plga Nanosensor For Selective Ion Detection And Imaging, Zhiyu Tang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate detection of electrolyte ions is essential for biological research, disease diagnosis, and the investigation of cellular function. In this study, we developed ionophore-based PLGA nanosensors for the optical detection of biologically important ions. The nanosensors were prepared by encapsulating ionophores, chromoionophore III, and ion exchangers within PLGA nanoparticles. The resulting nanosensors showed uniform morphology, good colloidal stability, and concentration-dependent optical responses toward Na⁺, K⁺, and Ca²⁺ over the range of 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻¹ M. Reversible fluorescence responses under repeated ion concentration changes confirmed the stability and robustness of the sensors. The nanosensors also demonstrated reliable analytical performance for K⁺ …

Vines In The Landscape: Japanese Wisteria, Saroj Burlakoti, Youping Sun, Shital Poudyal

All Current Publications

Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) is a vigorous, woody, deciduous climbing vine known for its spectacular, drooping (pendulous) clusters of pea-like flowers. This fact sheet provides information on planting and management guidelines, as well as its landscape performance in Utah.

Thermal Sensitivity Of Native And Introduced Crabs: Implications For Reproductive Success, Keria Moritsugu-Vandehey

Dissertations and Theses

Temperature is a major driver of physiological and developmental processes in marine organisms, and continued climate warming is expected to affect reproduction and recruitment in estuarine species. Early life stages are often particularly sensitive to environmental stress, yet relatively little is known about how warming influences embryonic development, hatching success, and larval survival across co-occurring native and introduced crab species.

This study examined the effects of temperature on embryonic development, hatching success, and early larval survival in four estuarine crab species from the Pacific Northwest: the introduced European green crab, Carcinus maenas, and the native shore crabs Hemigrapsus nudus …

Behavioral Analysis Of Cryptoprocta Ferox At The Central Florida Zoo And Botanical Gardens, Rita R. Albert

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The fossa, Cryptoprocta ferox, is the largest carnivorous mammal endemic to the island of Madagascar. C. ferox is currently listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN Red List (2015) due to deforestation. Most fossas are now located in zoos for breeding and repopulation purposes, but research on captive mating has been limited due to the low numbers of successful breeding attempts in captivity. The Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens is home to two fossas, one male and one newly introduced female. This study notes behavioral changes in captive mating fossas, with a focus on the male fossa …

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Framework For Enhancing Risk Management In The Architectural Design Process In Egypt, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman, Nadia Mohamed Algheetany, Fatma Othman Alamoudy

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The construction industry is crucial for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, it faces significant risks during the Architectural Design Process (ADP) that affect project quality, cost, schedule, and sustainability. Due to its limitations, traditional risk management (RM) is often inadequate for addressing these challenges. This study aims to develop a novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven framework to enhance RM practices in Egyptian Architectural Design Firms (ADFs) through proactive RM and improved data-driven decision making. A mixed methods research approach was adopted to achieve the research objectives. A comprehensive literature review examined RM, ADP, and AI applications …

Toxic Relationships: Characterization Of A Putative Virally Encoded Toxin In The Thermophilic Archaeal Fusellovirus Ssv1, Jonathan C. Abshier, Patrizia L. Alpapara, Guasåli Tomokane, Kenneth M. Stedman

Center for Life in Extreme Environments Publications

Mechanisms for the maintenance of chronic viruses are poorly understood, particularly for archaeal viruses. Here, we identify the product of Sulfolobus spindle-shaped virus 1 (SSV1) ORF a291 as a putative virally encoded toxin required for growth inhibition but dispensable for viral replication and virion production. Viruses lacking ORF a291 replicated their genomes and formed morphologically normal spindle-shaped particles, yet failed to inhibit the growth of uninfected Saccharolobus solfataricus. Substitution of residues at a predicted N-terminal signal peptide cleavage site abolished growth suppression without affecting replication, suggesting that secretion is essential for toxin function. Despite primary sequence divergence among fusellovirus …

Genetic Associations With Pulmonary Embolism Among Those With A Deep Vein Thrombosis: The International Network Against Venous Thrombosis Consortium, Susana Lozano-Esparza, Gabrielle E Shakt, Jennifer A Brody, Angel Martinez-Perez, Matthew P Conomos, Marine Germain, Katharine R Clapham, Maris Teder-Laving, Astrid Van Hylckama Vlieg, Anni Kauko, Florian Thibord, Ohanna C L Bezerra, Girish N Nadkarni, Gaëlle Munsch, Therese Haugdahl Nøst, Ellen L Goode, Yuekai Ji, Daniel I Chasman, Alexander P Reiner, Constance Turman, Kerri L Wiggins, Colleen M Sitlani, Juan Carlos Souto, Pamela L Lutsey, Tiffany Bellomo, Estonian Biobank, Million Veteran Program, Ruifang Li-Gao, Aleksi Kristian Winstén, Ming-Huei Chen, Ron Do, Lénaick Gourhant, Kristian Hveem, Sebastian M Armasu, Noémie Saut, Nathan Pankratz, Franco Giulianini, Jeffrey Haessler, Mingyang Song, Robert Olaso, Eric Boerwinkle, Daniel Dochtermann, Jose Manuel Soria, Stephen S Rich, David Smadja, Satoshi Koyama, Frits R Rosendaal, Teemu Niiranen, France Gagnon, Ha My T Vy, Neil Zakai, Catherine Lemarie, Anne Heidi Skogholt, Jean-François Deleuze, James S Pankow, Paul M Ridker, Yuxi Liu, Kenneth M Rice, Saiju Pyarajan, Mary Cushman, Jospeh Emmerich, Bruce M Psaty, Pradeep Natarajan, Andrew D Johnson, Marc A Rodger, Pierre Suchon, Francis Couturaud, Pierre-Emmanuel Morange, Weihong Tang, Charles Kooperberg, Christopher Kabrhel, Maria Sabater-Lleal, David-Alexandre Trégouët, Alisa S Wolberg, Scott M Damrauer, Nicholas L Smith

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), the latter of which often originates from DVT and can be fatal.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify causal genetic factors that alter risk of PE among those with a presumed DVT.

Methods: Using a case-only design of VTE, we conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in the International Network Against Venous Thrombosis Consortium. Among participants diagnosed with VTE, each study identified those who had a clinically reported PE, with or without a clinically reported DVT; those remaining had isolated DVT. Logistic regression …

Effects Of Variable Light On Sexual Competition In Kelp Species, Jaycee Lanza

Master's Theses

As foundation species, kelps significantly influence the structure and composition of their surrounding habitat by modifying environmental conditions, including light levels, currents, nutrient availability, sedimentation, and seawater chemistry. Light, in particular, is a critical resource that varies greatly within kelp forests, affecting kelp reproductive processes such as gametogenesis, fertilization, and recruitment, which are vital to population persistence. Biological factors, such as density-dependent competition for resources and sexual competition with other kelps, can also affect such processes. To understand how environmental variables influence kelp populations, it is crucial to recognize their combined effects. This study investigated the impacts of light levels …