Digital Commons Network^™

Dart-Hrms And Chemometric Analysis For Applications In Forensic Entomology, Amy Marie Osborne

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Forensic entomology, the utilization of insects in the course of legal investigations, is a broad field which encompasses three main branches: medico-legal, stored-product, and urban. This body of research focuses on the first two branches. The first branch, medico-legal forensic entomology, generally applies to death investigations. In death investigations it is imperative to establish the time since death (postmortem interval) and cause of death. Both of these queries can be difficult to assess for remains that are in mid- to late- stages of decay. Carrion insects found on and near the body can assist forensic investigators in this task, as …

Business Meeting Report (Secretary's And Treasurer's Report), Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Inclusion Complexes Of Squalene With Beta-Cyclodextrin And Methyl-Beta-Cyclodextrin: Preparation And Characterization, Anh Van Nguyen, Victor Ivanovic Deineka, Anh Thi Ngoc Vu, Tuan Dinh Le, Hieu Tran Trung, Tien Anh Nguyen

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

The present work aimed to investigate inclusion complexes of squalene with various cyclodextrins (native ß-cyclodextrin and methyl-ß-cyclodextrin). The production of squalene-ß-cyclodextrin inclusion complex was obtained using Response Surface Methodology and obtained inclusion complexes were studied with FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, thermal analysis, and 1H-NMR spectrometry. At the same time, squalene content was determined by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. All results confirmed that squalene was successfully involved in the cyclodextrin cavities. Optimizing the condition in preparation for the squalen-ß-cyclodextrin inclusion complex yielded 54.3% with squalene content of 9.01%. The essential difference for the inclusion complex of squalene with methylated beta-cyclodextrin was …

Fecal Dna Metabarcoding Shows Credible Short-Term Prey Detections And Explains Variation In The Gut Microbiome Of Two Polar Bear Subpopulations, M. Franz, L. Whyte, T. C. Atwood, D. Menning, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, S. L. Talbot, K. L. Laidre, E. Gonzalez, M. A. Mckinney

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Pakistan's Contribution To The Global Rise In Conventional Pollution, Emily Warner

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of conventional pollutants on the environment, communities, and individuals in Pakistan. It begins by investigating the causes of conventional pollutants and exploring Pakistan’s agricultural industry, domestic practices, non-renewable energy sources, and industrial practices (the brick industry, leather tanning industry, and textile industry). It then analyzes factors that continue to contribute to conventional pollution in Pakistan such as economic incentives, politics, and traditional practices within industries. Exploring the measures that have been taken by Pakistan and other organizations to decrease conventional pollutants, it then suggests potential opportunities for improvement.

A Monitoring Infrastructure To Improve Flipped Learning In Technological Courses, Francisco Ortin, Jose Quiroga, Miguel Garcia

Department of Mathematics Publications

Flipped learning changes the traditional instructional approach of lectures. In flipped classrooms, the students work at home, while in-class sessions are used for other more interactive and active learning approaches guided by the lecturer. While flipped learning has shown many benefits, it is not easy to include remote students in face-to-face in-class sessions, and there is still reluctance from shy students to participate. In technological courses, classroom sessions in flipped learning require the installation of many software packages together with those tools commonly used by the students. Our objective is to improve these limitations in flipped learning by using an …

Scaffolds From Natural Polymers And Soy Protein For Cultured Meat Production, Utumporn Butkatanyoo

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

To overcome the problems of livestock farming, cultured meat technologies have been developed. Cultured meat is an alternative way to produce meat by culturing cells in vitro using tissue engineering technology. The construction of cultured meat requires a scaffold to support cell proliferation and differentiation. Herein this research, polysaccharides namely high acyl gellan gum (HG) and konjac (KJ) together with a plant-based protein, soy protein isolate (SP) were used to develop scaffolds for cultured meat production. The composite scaffolds were prepared by freeze-drying and followed by ionic crosslinking. The composition of HG, KJ, and SP had a strong influence on …

Characterization Of Volatile Organic Compounds In Black Goji Berry Lycium Ruthenicum Juice Fermented With Lactobacillus Spp. Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Sehrish Javed

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In this work, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in fermented black goji berry juice with Lactobacillus spp. (L.rhamnosus and L.paracasei) were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry combined with headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME-GC-MS). The fermented black goji berry juice samples were found to contain at least 60 VOCs, including alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, phenols and organic acids, with five major VOCs such as 3,7-dimethylocta-1,6-dien-3-ol, 2-ethylidene-6-methylhepta-3,5-dienal, (E)-1-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1,3-cyclohexadien-1-yl)-2-buten-1-one, 2,5-ditert-butylcyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-dione, 2-ethyl-3-hydroxyhexyl-2-methylpropanoate. In overall comparison, fermented black goji berry (GB) samples promoted VOCs in order (i) 24HF > 0HF, and (ii) 10% GB slightly > 5% GB > 2.5% GB. In addition, L. rhamnosus predominantly promoted particular VOCs in …

Epiphytic Diatom Production On The Seagrass Thalassia Testudinum In Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Jonathan L. Venable, Shayna A. Sura, Jeffrey W. Krause

Gulf and Caribbean Research

No abstract provided.

Biodiversity Of Philippine Marine Fishes: A Dna Barcode Reference Library Based On Voucher Specimens, Katherine E. Bemis, Matthew G. Girard, Mudjekeewis D. Santos, Kent E. Carpenter, Jonathan R. Deeds, Diane E. Pitassy, Nicko Amor L. Flores, Elizabeth S. Hunter, Amy C. Driskell, Kenneth S. Macdonald Iii, Lee A. Weigt, Jeffrey T. Williams

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Accurate identification of fishes is essential for understanding their biology and to ensure food safety for consumers. DNA barcoding is an important tool because it can verify identifications of both whole and processed fishes that have had key morphological characters removed (e.g., filets, fish meal); however, DNA reference libraries are incomplete, and public repositories for sequence data contain incorrectly identified sequences. During a nine-year sampling program in the Philippines, a global biodiversity hotspot for marine fishes, we developed a verified reference library of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences for 2,525 specimens representing 984 species. Specimens were primarily purchased …

Quantifying Antarctic Krill Connectivity Across The West Antarctic Peninsula And Its Role In Large-Scale Pygoscelis Penguin Population Dynamics, Katherine L. Gallagher, Michael S. Dinniman, Heather J. Lynch

CCPO Publications

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are considered a keystone species for higher trophic level predators along the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) during the austral summer. The connectivity of krill may play a critical role in predator biogeography, especially for central-place foragers such as the Pygoscelis spp. penguins that breed along the WAP during the austral summer. Antarctic krill are also heavily fished commercially; therefore, understanding population connectivity of krill is critical to effective management. Here, we used a physical ocean model to examine adult krill connectivity in this region using simulated krill with realistic diel vertical migration behaviors across …

Silica Particles Convert Thiol-Containing Molecules To Disulfides, Yangjie Li, Kurt W. Kolasinski, Richard N. Zare

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Synthetic amorphous silica is a common food additive and a popular cosmetic ingredient. Mesoporous silica particles are also widely studied for their potential use in drug delivery and imaging applications because of their unique properties, such as tunable pore sizes, large surfaces areas, and assumed biocompatibility. Such a nanomaterial, when consisting of pure silicon dioxide, is generally considered to be chemically inert, but in this study, we showed that oxidation yields for different compounds were facilitated by simply incubating aqueous solutions with pure silica particles. Three thiol-containing molecules, L-cysteine, glutathione, and D-penicillamine, were studied separately, and it was found that …

Digital Nudges: An Investigation Of Both Consumer And Designer Perspectives, Ja-Naé Duane

2023

This dissertation explores how knowledge of digital nudges impacts consumer decisions, and how consumer preferences based on that knowledge impacts design decisions. Paper 1 presents a systematic narrative literature review on the evolution of digital nudge literature. This investigation uncovers several themes and provides a basis for a revised definition of digital nudges and a taxonomy wheel of digital nudges. Paper 2 (co-authored with Jeffrey Livingston, Jonathan Ericson, and Patrick McHugh) investigates how knowledge about digital nudges impacts consumer preferences to have them within the digital experiences they use. This paper highlights how knowledge of digital nudges impact consumer online …

Use Gpt-J Prompt Generation With Roberta For Ner Models On Diagnosis Extraction Of Periodontal Diagnosis From Electronic Dental Records, Yao-Shun Chuang, Xiaoqian Jiang, Chun-Teh Lee, Ryan Brandon, Duong Tran, Oluwabunmi Tokede, Muhammad F Walji

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study explored the usability of prompt generation on named entity recognition (NER) tasks and the performance in different settings of the prompt. The prompt generation by GPT-J models was utilized to directly test the gold standard as well as to generate the seed and further fed to the RoBERTa model with the spaCy package. In the direct test, a lower ratio of negative examples with higher numbers of examples in prompt achieved the best results with a F1 score of 0.72. The performance revealed consistency, 0.92-0.97 in the F1 score, in all settings after training with the RoBERTa model. …

Knowledge Discovery On The Integrative Analysis Of Electrical And Mechanical Dyssynchrony To Improve Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy, Zhuo He

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a standard method of treating heart failure by coordinating the function of the left and right ventricles. However, up to 40% of CRT recipients do not experience clinical symptoms or cardiac function improvements. The main reasons for CRT non-response include: (1) suboptimal patient selection based on electrical dyssynchrony measured by electrocardiogram (ECG) in current guidelines; (2) mechanical dyssynchrony has been shown to be effective but has not been fully explored; and (3) inappropriate placement of the CRT left ventricular (LV) lead in a significant number of patients.

In terms of mechanical dyssynchrony, we utilize an …

Predicting The Effects Of Climate Change On Irish Agriculture, Rodrigo Matsumoto, Sarah Kuprian Carrinho

ICT

The impact of climate change on agriculture is a growing concern worldwide, and Ireland is no exception. The purpose of this project is to use machine learning techniques to predict the effects of climate change on Irish agriculture and identify strategies for adaptation and mitigation. The project uses the Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM) methodology to guide the data analysis process, MoSCoW prioritization to identify the most critical needs, and SWOT analysis to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats our project may encounter. Historical temperature data for Ireland and Dublin will be used as our data sources. …

Small Mammal Community Structure And Bait Preference In Missouri Prairie Patches, Sofia L. Orlando

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Ecological community studies provide insights on how species interact with biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. Community assembly is dynamic and often mediated by stochastic processes or deterministic properties. Establishing patterns in community composition could help to predict the suitability of a patch, which is crucial in endangered ecosystems. Small mammals are a model indicator for community change as their populations experience perplexing fluctuations. Many mechanisms have been proposed to drive small mammal species composition, but inconsistencies in past studies warrant further investigation. A previous study on prairie patches in Missouri revealed that there was an unknown catalyst for …

The Biological Responses Of Vitamin K2: A Comprehensive Review, Quanxiang Yan, Tao Zhang, Christine O'Connor, James W. Barlow, John Walsh, Gaia Scalabrino, Feng Xu, Helan Sheridan

Articles

Vitamin K1 (VitK1) and Vitamin K2 (VitK2), two important naturally occurring micronutrients in the VitK family, found, respectively, in green leafy plants and algae (VitK1) and animal and fermented foods (VitK2). The present review explores the multiple biological functions of VitK2 from recently published in vitro and in vivo studies, including promotion of osteogenesis, prevention of calcification, relief of menopausal symptoms, enhancement of mitochondrial energy release, hepato-and neuro-protective effects, and possible use in treatment of coronavirus disease. The mechanisms of action associated with these biological effects are also explored. Overall, the findings presented here suggest that VitK, especially VitK2, is …

Teaching Agroecology: Preparing Students For Navigating Uncharted Territory, Charles A. Francis, Steve Gliessman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Agroecologists understand that farming and food systems are more complex than the aggregation of their components. This realization drives our choices of learning strategies and activities that will prepare students for complexity and uncertainty. Our quest for a just, sustainable, and nutritious food system adequate to equitably serve everyone on the planet today and into the future is an enormous challenge. An undertaking of this magnitude will be met only with major adjustments informed by thoughtful teaching and practicing problem solving skills through a new educational lens. The principles of agroecology help us focus this lens on the wicked problems …

An Explainable Artificial Intelligence Framework For The Predictive Analysis Of Hypo And Hyper Thyroidism Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Md. Bipul Hossain, Anika Shama, Apurba Adhikary, Avi Deb Raha, K. M. Aslam Uddin, Mohammad Amzad Hossain, Imtia Islam, Saydul Akbar Murad, Md. Shirajum Munir, Anupam Kumur Bairagi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The thyroid gland is the crucial organ in the human body, secreting two hormones that help to regulate the human body's metabolism. Thyroid disease is a severe medical complaint that could be developed by high Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) levels or an infection in the thyroid tissues. Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are two critical conditions caused by insufficient thyroid hormone production and excessive thyroid hormone production, respectively. Machine learning models can be used to precisely process the data generated from different medical sectors and to build a model to predict several diseases. In this paper, we use different machine-learning algorithms to …

Selective Photodegradation Of Food Contaminants Using Titania-Silica-Iron Oxide Nanocomposites With Molecularly Imprinted Technology, Mehak Un Nisa

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

In this study, magnetic imprinted photocatalysts (Fe3O4@SiO2@TiO2@MIP and Fe3O4@SiO2@MIP@TiO2) have been synthesized successfully by surface molecular imprinting technique. 5,7-dimethoxy-coumarin was used as a dummy template to give specific recognition ability to AFB1. A range of analytical techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and Branauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were employed to study the crystal structure, morphology, and chemical composition of the nanocomposites. The HPLC-DAD was used to quantify the photodegradation efficiency of imprinted photocatalysts under different factors such as the source of irradiation light, initial concentration of analyte, amount of photocatalyst, and …

River Report. State Of Lower St. Johns River Basin, Florida: Water Quality, Fisheries, Aquatic Life, Contaminants, 2023, Environmental Protection Board, Jacksonville Florida, University Of North Florida, Jacksonville University, Gerry Pinto, Brian P. Zoellner, Christopher Baynard, Gretchen Bielmyer-Fraser, Dale Casamatta, Charles Closmann, Nisse Goldberg, Ashley Johnson, Scott Jones, William Penwell, Radha Pyati, Adam Rosenblatt

State of the River Report

No abstract provided.

Movements And Resource Selection Of Wild Pigs Associated With Growth Stages Of Corn, Bethany A. Friesenhahn, Randall W. Deyoung, Michael J. Cherry, Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Nathan P. Snow

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are one of the most successful invasive species globally and are often implicated in agricultural damage. This damage is expected to increase as ranges of wild pigs expand, impacting the human food supply and increasing costs of food production. Our objective was to evaluate movement behaviors of wild pigs relative to resource availability and landscape features in an agriculture-dominated landscape, with a goal of informing management practices for reducing damage to corn. We monitored hourly movements of adult wild pigs relative to corn crops using GPS collars during the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons (Feb–Sept) in …

Effects Of Corn Supplementation On Serum And Muscle Microrna Profiles In Horses, Clarissa Carver, Jason E. Bruemmer, Stephen Coleman, Gabriele Landolt, Tanja Hess

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Laminitis associated with equine metabolic syndrome causes significant economic losses in the equine industry. Diets high in non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) have been linked to insulin resistance and laminitis in horses. Nutrigenomic studies analyzing the interaction of diets high in NSCs and gene expression regulating endogenous microRNAs (miRNA) are rare. This study's objectives were to determine whether miRNAs from dietary corn can be detected in equine serum and muscle and its impacts on endogenous miRNA. Twelve mares were blocked by age, body condition score, and weight and assigned to a control (mixed legume grass hay diet) and a mixed legume hay …

Using Drones To Detect And Quantify Wild Pig Damage And Yield Loss In Corn Fields Throughout Plant Growth Stages, Bethany A. Friesenhahn, Lori D. Massey, Randy W. Deyoung, Michael J. Cherry, Justin W. Fischer, Nathan P. Snow, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Humberto L. Perotto‐Baldivieso

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Presently, there are an estimated 6.9 million wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in the U.S., which cause over US$1 billion in damage to agriculture, environmental impacts, and control costs. However, estimates of damage have varied widely, creating a need for standardized monitoring and a method to accurately estimate the economic costs of direct wild pig damage to agriculture. The goal of our study was to integrate remotely sensed imagery from drones and crop harvest data to quantify wild pig damage in corn fields. We used drones with natural color (red, green, blue) cameras to monitor corn fields at different …

Lead Induced Differences In Bone Properties In Osteocalcin +/+ And −/− Female Mice, G. Yildirim, W. C. Budell, O. Berezovska, S. Yagerman, S. S. Maliath, P. Mastrokostas, S. Tommasini, T. L. Dowd

Publications and Research

Lead (Pb) toxicity is a major health problem and bone is the major reservoir. Lead is detrimental to bone, affects bone remodelingand is associated with elderly fractures. Osteocalcin (OC) affects bone remodeling, improves fracture resistance and decreases with age and in some diseases. The effect of lead in osteocalcin depleted bone is unknown and of interest. We compared bone mineral properties of control and Pb exposed (from 2 to 6 months) femora from female adult C57BL6 OC+/+ and OC−/− mice using Fourier Transform Infrared Imaging (FTIRI), Micro-computed tomography (uCT), bone biomechanical measurements and serum turnover markers (P1NP, CTX). Lead significantly …

Effects Of Peri-Urbanization On Coastal Sage Scrub Ant Species In Baja California, Alejandro E. Mieles, Margaret A. Voss, Estelí Jiménez-Soto

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Increasing urbanization on the Baja California Peninsula threatens ant diversity. Reductions in ant species diminish ecosystem services provided to semiarid coastal scrub areas. Peri-urban areas in particular are at high risk of reductions in ant biodiversity due to development. To document and evaluate ant species diversity and richness in a rapidly developing area, nine sites were sampled within areas of coastal sage scrub (CSS) encircling the urban periphery of Ensenada, Baja California. Forty species and 17 genera of ants were collected, only one of which was non-native. Although the sampled area represents less than 1% of the peninsula and 3% …

Illegal Unreported And Unregulated Fishing And Overfishing Policymaking In A Caribbean Island Country, Anya J. Moses

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small island developing states, especially those within the Caribbean community, are faced with the challenges of overfishing and illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing activities. Despite global legal reforms, enforcement continues to be ineffective. In the policymaking process, the perspectives of those critically impacted are rarely taken into consideration The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the issues leading to the lack of inclusion of fisherfolk knowledge in the policymaking process and policies that promote SDG 14. The goal was to explore the importance of fisherfolk involvement in the policymaking process. The research question focused on identifying the …

The Encyclopedia Of Neutrosophic Researchers, Vol. 6, Florentin Smarandache, Maikel Yelandi Leyva Vázquez, Jesús Estupiñán Ricardo

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Este es el Sexto volumen de la Enciclopedia de Investigadores Neutróficos, editados a partir de materiales ofrecidos por los autores que respondieron a la invitación del editor. Los autores se enumeran alfabéticamente. La introducción contiene una breve historia de la neutrosófica, y en especial se sus impacto en latinoamérica junto con enlaces a los principales artículos y libros. Conjunto neutrosófico, lógica neutrosófica, probabilidad neutrosófica, estadística neutrosófica, medida neutrosófica, precálculo neutrosófico, cálculo neutrosófico, psicología neutrosófica, sociología neutrosófica etc., están ganando una atención significativa en resolver muchos problemas de la vida real que implican incertidumbre, imprecisión, vaguedad, incompletitud, inconsistencia e indeterminación. En …

A Chromosome-Scale Genome Sequence Of Sudangrass (Sorghum Sudanense) Highlights The Genome Evolution And Regulation Of Dhurrin Biosynthesis, Paul W. Bible, Jieqin Li, Wenmiao Tu, Jian Zheng, Peng Jin, Yanlong Liu, Junli Du, Jiacheng Zheng, Yi-Hong Wang, Qiuwen Zhan

Computer Science Faculty publications

Sudangrass [ Sorghum sudanense (Piper) Stapf] is a hybrid between grain sorghum and its wild relative S. bicolor ssp. verticilliflorum and is grown as a forage crop due to its high biomass production and low dhurrin content compared to sorghum. In this study, we sequenced the sudangrass genome and showed that the assembled genome was 715.95 Mb with 35,243 protein-coding genes. Phylogenetic analysis with whole genome proteomes demonstrated that the sudangrass genome was more similar to US commercial sorghums than to its wild relatives and cultivated sorghums from Africa. We confirmed that at seedling stage, sudangrass accessions contained significantly lower …