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Rooting Out A Novel Stress Syndrome In Pigs, Dan Nonneman, Sandra Avant

Agricultural Research Magazine

Undergoing surgery, even a minor procedure, can be stressful for anyone. But for people who have malignant hyperthermia, a hereditary disease that’s triggered by certain drugs used for general anesthesia, it can also be dangerous.

Research into this rare, life-threatening condition, which causes a fast rise in body temperature, severe muscle contractions, and sometimes death, was limited until the discovery of a similar disorder in pigs, referred to as “porcine stress syndrome.” The classical syndrome is associated with poor response to stressors like transport and with poor-quality pork. It has been eliminated from commercial herds in the United States, but …

Design And Development Of A Novel Transcranial Doppler Headset For Assessment Of Cerebral Blood Flow, Brian P. Watt

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Examining physiologic responses of cerebral blood flow (CBF) for subjects in challenging situations requires development of new technology. Challenging circumstances include strenuous physical activity, intensive care, and surgical procedures involving the head, neck and thorax. Headset technology to employ transcranial Doppler (TCD), which is commercially available, fails to meet several requirements for monitoring in these situations. These requirements include stable signal acquisition, non-interference with other physiological monitors, ability to fit all head sizes including infants and children. The design and development of a novel TCD headset was performed to meet these requirements. The new device theoretically allows the user to …

Gut Microbiome Composition Is Linked To Whole Grain-Induced Immunological Improvements, Ines Martinez, James M. Lattimer, Kelcie L. Hubach, Jennifer A. Case, Junyi Yang, Casey G. Weber, Julie A. Louk, Devin J. Rose, Gayaneh Kyureghian, Daniel A. Peterson, Mark D. Haub, Jens Walter

Food for Health: Publications

The involvement of the gut microbiota in metabolic disorders, and the ability of whole grains to affect both host metabolism and gut microbial ecology, suggest that some benefits of whole grains are mediated through their effects on the gut microbiome. Nutritional studies that assess the effect of whole grains on both the gut microbiome and human physiology are needed. We conducted a randomized cross-over trial with four-week treatments in which 28 healthy humans consumed a daily dose of 60 g of whole-grain barley (WGB), brown rice (BR), or an equal mixture of the two (BR+WGB), and characterized their impact on …

Gut Immune Maturation Depends On Colonization With A Host-Specific Microbiota, Hachung Chung, Sünje J. Pamp, Jonathan A. Hill, Neeraj K. Surana, Sanna M. Edelman, Erin B. Troy, Nicola C. Reading, Eduardo J. Villablanca, Sen Wang, Jorge R. Mora, Yoshinori Umesaki, Diane Mathis, Christophe Benoist, David A. Relman, Dennis L. Kasper

United States Department of Veterans Affairs: Publications

Gut microbial induction of host immune maturation exemplifies host-microbe mutualism. We colonized germ-free (GF) mice with mouse microbiota (MMb) or human microbiota (HMb) to determine whether small intestinal immune maturation depends on a coevolved host-specific microbiota. Gut bacterial numbers and phylum abundance were similar in MMb and HMb mice, but bacterial species differed, especially the Firmicutes. HMb mouse intestines had low levels of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells, few proliferating T cells, few dendritic cells, and low antimicrobial peptide expression—all characteristics of GF mice. Rat microbiota also failed to fully expand intestinal T cell numbers in mice. Colonizing …

Wildland Fire In Ecosystems Effects Of Fire On Cultural Resources And Archaeology, Krista Deal, Leaonard Debano, Michael L. Elliot, Charles Haecker, Ann Trinkle Jones, Roger Kelly, Kristine M. Lee, Daniel F. Mccarthy, Elizabeth Oster, Trisha Rude, Samantha M. Ruscava-Barz, Kevin C. Ryan, Nelson Siefkin, Rebecca S. Timmons, John R. Welch

Joint Fire Science Program Synthesis Reports

This state-of-knowledge review provides a synthesis of the effects of fire on cultural resources, which can be used by fire managers, cultural resource (CR) specialists, and archaeologists to more effectively manage wildland vegetation, fuels, and fire. The goal of the volume is twofold: (1) to provide cultural resource/archaeological professionals and policy makers with a primer on fuels, fire behavior, and fire effects to enable them to work more effectively with the fire management community to protect resources during fuels treatment and restoration projects and wildfire suppression activities; and (2) to provide fire and land management professionals and policy makers with …

Connectionist-Based Rules Describing The Pass-Through Of Individual Goods Prices Into Trend Inflation In The United States, Richard G. Anderson, Jane M. Binner, Vincent A. Schmidt

United States Air Force: Publications

This paper examines the inflation ‘‘pass-through’’ problem in American monetary policy, defined as the relationship between changes in the growth rates of individual goods and the subsequent economy-wide rate of growth of consumer prices. Initial relationships are established with Granger causality tests robust to structural breaks. A feed forward artificial neural network (ANN) is used to approximate the functional relationship between selected component subindexes and the headline CPI. Moving beyond the ANN ‘‘black box’’, we illustrate how decision rules can be extracted from the network.

Identification And Characterization Of A Spore-Like Morphotype In Chronically Starved Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis Cultures, Elise A. Lamont, J. P. Bannantine, Anibal Armien, Don Sanjiv Ariyakumar, Suelee Robbe-Austerman

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Mycobacteria are able to enter into a state of non-replication or dormancy, which may result in their chronic persistence in soil, aquatic environments, and permissive hosts. Stresses such as nutrient deprivation and hypoxia provide environmental cues to enter a persistent state; however, a clear definition of the mechanism that mycobacteria employ to achieve this remains elusive. While the concept of sporulation in mycobacteria is not novel, it continues to spark controversy and challenges our perceptions of a non-replication. We investigated the potential role of sporulation in one-year old broth cultures of Mycobacterium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). We show that dormant cultures …

Evolution Of The Globin Gene Family In Deuterostomes: Lineage-Specific Patterns Of Diversification And Attrition, Federico G. Hoffmann, Juan C. Opazo, David Hoogewijs, Thomas Hankeln, Bettina Ebner, Serge N. Vinogradov, Xavier Bailly, Jay F. Storz

Jay F. Storz Publications

In the Metazoa, globin proteins display an underlying unity in tertiary structure that belies an extraordinary diversity in primary structures, biochemical properties, and physiological functions. Phylogenetic reconstructions can reveal which of these functions represent novel, lineage-specific innovations, and which represent ancestral functions that are shared with homologous globin proteins in other eukaryotes and even prokaryotes. To date, our understanding of globin diversity in deuterostomes has been hindered by a dearth of genomic sequence data from the Ambulacraria (echinoderms + hemichordates), the sister group of chordates, and the phylum Xenacoelomorpha, which includes xenoturbellids, acoelomorphs, and nemertodermatids. Here, we report the results …

Gene Transcription In Sea Otters (Enhydra Lutris); Development Of A Diagnostic Tool For Sea Otter And Ecosystem Health, Lizabeth Bowen, A. Keith Miles, Michael Murray, Martin Haulena, Judy Tuttle, William Van Bonn, Lance Adams, James L. Bodkin, Brenda Ballachey, James A. Estes, M. Tim Tinker, Robin Keister, Jeffrey L. Stott

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Gene transcription analysis for diagnosing or monitoring wildlife health requires the ability to distinguish pathophysiological change from natural variation. Herein, we describe methodology for the development of quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays to measure differential transcript levels of multiple immune function genes in the sea otter (Enhydra lutris); sea otter-specific qPCR primer sequences for the genes of interest are defined. We establish a ‘reference’ range of transcripts for each gene in a group of clinically healthy captive and free-ranging sea otters. The 10 genes of interest represent multiple physiological systems that play a role in immuno-modulation, …

Effect Of Sodium Nitrite, Sodium Erythorbate And Organic Acid Salts On Germination And Outgrowth Of Clostridium Perfringens Spores In Ham During Abusive Cooling, Mauricio A. Redondo

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The effect of sodium nitrite (NaNO₂), sodium erythorbate, sodium chloride (NaCl) and organic acid salts (potassium lactate and sodium diacetate) on C. perfringens spore germination and outgrowth in ham was evaluated. The research was divided in two parts. The first experiment consisted of potential C. perfringens spore germination and outgrowth in ham containing combinations of NaNO₂ (0, 50, 100, 150 or 200 ppm) and sodium erythorbate (0 or 557 ppm) during cooling. This experiment included the evaluation of residual nitrite levels as affected by temperature (heat shock at 75°C for 20 min and subsequent cooling from 54.4°C …

Understanding Of Functions Of Selenoproteins And Dietary Selenium By Using Animal Models, Marina V. Kasaikina

Department of Biochemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Selenium (Se) is a trace element that is incorporated into proteins in the form of the 21^st amino acid, selenocysteine (Sec). Se supplementation was reported to have beneficial roles in prevention of cardiovascular and muscle disorders, cancer prevention and enhancement of the immune function. However, recent studies also showed that excessive dietary Se increases the risk of development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Thus, better understanding of Se and selenoprotein functions is required. We used three approaches to address this problem.

First, we used high-throughput sequencing to examine composition of the gut microflora in mice maintained on selenium-deficient, selenium-sufficient, …

Effects Of Malting And Fermentation On The Composition And Functionality Of Sorghum Flour, Onesmo N.O. Mella

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sorghum is an ancient crop grown almost everywhere in the world and used for different purposes. In the U.S, and other developed countries, sorghum is used largely for animal feeding.  In developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, it is used primarily as human food.

Sorghum is a dependable food crop in Tanzania and its production and use ranks second after maize. Different traditional methods including malting and fermentation have been used in addition to decorticating and milling to process sorghum for the purpose of providing diverse materials. However, sorghum has major drawbacks of poor starch and protein digestibilities that …

Dietary Selenium Affects Host Selenoproteome Expression By Influencing The Gut Microbiota, Marina V. Kasaikina, Marina A. Kravtsova, Byung Cheon Lee, Javier Seravalli, Daniel A. Peterson, Jens Walter, Ryan Legge, Andrew K. Benson, Dolph L. Hatfield, Vadim Gladyshev

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Colonization of the gastrointestinal tract and composition of the microbiota may be influenced by components of the diet, including trace elements. To understand how selenium regulates the intestinal microflora, we used high-throughput sequencing to examine the composition of gut microbiota of mice maintained on selenium-deficient, selenium-sufficient, and selenium-enriched diets. The microbiota diversity increased as a result of selenium in the diet. Specific phylotypes showed differential effects of selenium, even within a genus, implying that selenium had unique effects across microbial taxa. Conventionalized germfree mice subjected to selenium diets gave similar results and showed an increased diversity of the bacterial population …

Experimental Evaluation Of Transmission Link Characteristics In Body Area Networks, Apoorva Kiran Pandya

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent advances in digital electronics, embedded systems, and wireless communications have led the way to a new class of distributed Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). A Body Area Network (BAN) is a WSN consisting of miniaturized, low-power, autonomous, wireless biosensors, which are seamlessly placed or implanted in the human body to provide an adaptable and smart health care system. The possible applications of BAN are in health care services and medicine, assisting persons with disabilities, and entertainment and sports. The nodes in a BAN generally use IEEE 802.15.4 radios which have low- power consumption and are relatively immune to interference. In …

Lineage-Specific Patterns Of Functional Diversification In The Α- And Β-Globin Gene Families Of Tetrapod Vertebrates, Federico G. Hoffmann, Jay F. Storz, Thomas A. Gorr, Juan C. Opazo

Jay F. Storz Publications

The α- and β-globin gene families of jawed vertebrates have diversified with respect to both gene function and the developmental timing of gene expression. Phylogenetic reconstructions of globin gene family evolution have provided suggestive evidence that the developmental regulation of hemoglobin synthesis has evolved independently in multiple vertebrate lineages. For example, the embryonic β-like globin genes of birds and placental mammals are not 1:1 orthologs. Despite the similarity in developmental expression profiles, the genes are independently derived from lineage-specific duplications of a β-globin pro-ortholog. This suggests the possibility that other vertebrate taxa may also possess distinct repertoires of globin genes …

Urban And Community Forests Of The North Central West Region, David J. Nowak, Eric J. Greenfield

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

This report details how land cover and urbanization vary within the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota by community (incorporated and census designated places), county subdivision, and county. Specifically this report provides critical urban and community forestry information for each state including human population characteristics and trends, changes in urban and community lands, tree canopy and impervious surface cover characteristics, distribution of land-cover classes, a relative comparison of urban and community forests among local government types, determination of priority areas for tree planting, and a summary of urban tree benefits. Report information can improve …

Evolution And Human Nature: Comparing Honors And Traditional Pedagogies For The New Science Of The Mind, Scott M. James, Kate Bruce

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

A class on evolutionary psychology can take many forms but always involves an interdisciplinary approach because of the subject matter and topics covered. In this paper, we describe and compare three different pedagogical techniques we have used to teach the topic of evolutionary psychology; two are honors seminars and one a traditional lecture-style course.

Engineering@Nebraska - Spring 2008

Engineering@Nebraska (Alumni Magazine)

Table of Contents:

Front & Center
Engineering Students Enjoy Spain Firsthand: With Nebraska Engineering’s focus on international education, “live and learn” happens in amazing settings. Warm up to the wonders of winter break in Spain.
Spring Break at 35,000 Feet: Nebraska Engineering’s undergraduate research reaches new heights in service to NASA. Ride along with blog posts from an uplifting experience in microgravity.
UNL Experts Build Better Bridges: Atorod Azizinamini—professor of Civil Engineering, researcher and director of UNL's National Bridge Research Organization (NABRO)—leads a team in applying a $2 million grant for safer spans.
Tiny Fibers, Huge Potential: The longterm research …

Meeting The Challenges Of Integrative Learning: The Nexia Concept, Jane Love

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Integrative learning challenges faculty developers to facilitate integrative and connective experiences not only for students, but for faculty as well. For many faculty, curricular requirements impede connective teaching, and the widespread assumption that connectivity must be taught on the course level also limits their ability to enrich students’ learning through diverse perspectives and interactions. Nexia is an approach to this problem based on the concept of ad hoc connectivity, or small-scale, focused, short-term connections that allow students from two or more courses to interact around points of interest to both classes. By releasing connective teaching from expensive curricular constraints, the …

When Does Nitrate Become A Risk For Humans?, David S. Powlson, Tom M. Addiscott, Nigel Benjamin, Kenneth G. Cassman, Theo M. De Kok, Hans Van Grinsven, Jean-Louis L'Hirondel, Alex A. Avery, Chris Van Kessel

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Is nitrate harmful to humans? Are the current limits for nitrate concentration in drinking water justified by science? There is substantial disagreement among scientists over the interpretation of evidence on the issue. There are two main health issues: the linkage between nitrate and (i) infant methaemoglobinaemia, also known as blue baby syndrome, and (ii) cancers of the digestive tract. The evidence for nitrate as a cause of these serious diseases remains controversial. On one hand there is evidence that shows there is no clear association between nitrate in drinking water and the two main health issues with which it has …

American Society Of Parasitologists Newsletter, V. 29, No. 3, Fall 2007, Scott Lyell Gardner

American Society of Parasitologists: Newsletter

An issue of the American Society of Parasitologists' quarterly newsletter, also called the Journal of Parasitology Newsletter.

A Dialogue On Interdisciplinary Collaboration To Bridge The Gap Between Plant Genomics And Crop Sciences, P. C. Struik, Kenneth G. Cassman, M. Koornneef

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In the future, more food needs to be produced with increasingly scarce natural resources. Genomics can play a key role in accelerating yield gains because it helps to improve our understanding of genetic traits and assists in breeding for better crop performance. The scientific muscle of genomics attracted tremendous research investments, but the efficiency with which these investments are paying off is still low. How can we accelerate the application of molecular genetics to our understanding of crop physiology and subsequently to crop improvement? The missing link is a more detailed understanding of the effects of gene function on crop …

The Neural Basis Of Representative Democracy, John R. Alford, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Hendricks Symposium

In politics specifically and society generally people often make decisions on behalf of others or experience the results of decisions made on their behalf. In exactly what manner is this important class of decisions different from traditional situations in which people make decisions on their own behalf? How are people’s behavioral and thinking patterns altered by shifting from personal to representational decision-making? Empirical social science research has provided little information on these questions, so in this paper, we draw on evolutionary theory and current knowledge of neuroanatomy to formulate a set of expectations regarding the differences between the decisions and …

Early Days: Genomics And Human Responses To Infection, Minghsun Liu, Stephen J. Popper, Kathleen H. Rubins, David A. Relman

United States Department of Veterans Affairs: Publications

DNA microarray-based gene transcript-profiling of the responses of primates to infection has begun to yield new insights into host–pathogen interactions; this approach, however, remains plagued by challenges and complexities that have yet to be adequately addressed. The rapidly changing nature over time of acute infectious diseases in a host, and the genetic diversity of microbial pathogens present unique problems for the design and interpretation of functional genomic studies in this field. In addition, there are the more common problems related to heterogeneity within clinical samples, the complex, non-standardized confounding variables associated with human subjects and the complexities posed by the …

Animal Science Alumni Newsletter, Winter 2006

Department of Animal Science: Departmental News

Contents:

Nielsen Named Kermit Wagner Distinguished Professor of Animal Science
Animal Science Alumnus is UNL Masters Week Recipient
From the Department Head’s Desk
Animal Breeding Symposium Honors Dr. Dale Van Vleck
New Faces for Old Places
New Faculty
Larry Larson to Retire
2006 SSR New Investigator Award
UNL Animal Science Students Benefit from the NC/NCW Annual Convention in More Ways than One
Block & Bridle Activities
2007 Upcoming Activities
Ambassador Activities
Beermann and Calkins Attend Congress in Ireland
Mexico 2006 – A Trip to Remember
Former Student Fernando Lagos Experiences
Former Graduates Receive CASNR Awards
Recent Department Awards and Recognitions …

Effects Of Food Attributes And Feeding Environment On Acceptance, Consumption And Body Weight: Lessons Learned In A Twenty-Year Program Of Military Ration Research, Edward S. Hirsch, F. Matthew Kramer, Herbert L. Meiselman

United States Army: Publications

Twenty years of testing in the field has consistently revealed that food intake is inadequate when packaged military rations are fed as the sole source of food. Food intake is much lower and there is a loss of body weight. Conversely when these rations are fed to students or military personnel for periods ranging from 3 to 42 days in a cafeteria-like setting, food intake is comparable to levels of a control group provided with freshly prepared food. Under these conditions, body weight is maintained. In this review, the consumption pattern is considered in terms of characteristics of the food …

Central And North America (Nearctic), E. M. Gese, M. Bekoff

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Coyotes appear slender with “a long, narrow, pointed nose; small rounded nose pads; large pointed ears; slender legs; small feet; and a bushy tail...” (Young and Jackson 1951). Size varies geographically (Young and Jackson 1951) (Table 4.1.1), although adult males are heavier and larger than adult females. They range in color from pure grey to rufous; melanistic coyotes are rare (Young and Jackson 1951). Fur texture and color varies geographically: northern subspecies have long coarse hair, coyotes in the desert tend to be fulvous in color, while coyotes at higher latitudes are darker and more grey (Young and Jackson 1951). …

Heterotrophic Plate Count Bacteria—What Is Their Significance In Drinking Water?, Martin J. Allen, Stephen C. Edberg, Donald J. Reasoner

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

While the literature documents the universal occurrence of heterotrophic plate count (HPC) bacteria in soils, foods, air, and all sources of water, there is a lingering question as to whether this group of organisms may signal an increased health risk when elevated populations are present in drinking water. This paper reviews the relevant literature on HPC bacteria in drinking water, the lack of clinical evidence that elevated populations or specific genera within the HPC flora pose an increased health risk to any segment of the population, and the appropriate uses of HPC data as a tool to monitor drinking water …

Endocytic Function, Glycosaminoglycan Specificity, And Antibody Sensitivity Of The Recombinant Human 190-Kda Hyaluronan Receptor For Endocytosis (Hare), Ed Harris, Janet A. Weigel, Paul H. Weigel

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

The human hyaluronan receptor for endocytosis (hHARE) mediates the endocytic clearance of hyaluronan (HA) and chondroitin sulfate from lymph fluid and blood. Two hHARE isoforms (190 and 315 kDa) are present in sinusoidal endothelial cells of liver, spleen, and lymph nodes (Zhou, B., McGary, C. T., Weigel, J. A., Saxena, A., and Weigel, P. H. (2003) Glycobiology 13, 339–349). Here we report the specificity and function of the 190-kDa HARE, expressed without the larger isoform, in Flp-In 293 cell lines (190hHARE cells). Like the native protein, recombinant hHARE contains ~25 kDa of N-linked oligosaccharides, binds HA in a ligand blot …

Iowa Physicians: Legitimacy, Institutions, And The Practice Of Medicine, Part One: Establishing A Professional Identity, 1833-1886, Susan C. Lawrence

Department of History: Faculty Publications

IN JUNE 1850, twenty-five physicians met in Burlington, Iowa, to establish the Iowa Medical and Chirurgical Society. John Sanford, the organizing force behind the new society, had attended the third annual meeting of the American Medical Association in 1849 and had been inspired by the call for physicians to organize state, district, and county associations. Physicians needed to band together not only to improve medical knowledge and practice by giving papers and discussing their experiences among their peers, but also to promote their professional interests through political and social action. The founding members of the Iowa society expressed their anxieties …