Digital Commons Network^™

Syndemics And Social Factors: Infectious Disease Patterns Within The Population Of People Experiencing Homelessness In The United States, Kathleen Berzonsky

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Individuals experiencing homelessness are at increased risk of suffering from infectious diseases. This is due to a number of social factors and healthcare disparities, as well as the idea of syndemics, by which diseases cluster together to worsen disease burden. Current intervention strategies approach treatment from a post-infection perspective, but reducing transmission rates of infectious diseases within the population of people experiencing homelessness will require a shift in the healthcare framework. The issue of people experiencing homelessness must be viewed through a biosocial lens, focusing on preventative care and treatment. I provide an overview of the social factors governing infectious …

Cell Volume As A Determinant Of Virus-Mediated Population Growth In Ciliates, Jace Miller, John Paul Delong Phd

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Many protists and other small aquatic organisms consume virus particles, a behavior known as virovory. Some species of protists, such as the ciliate Halteria grandinella, can grow and divide using viruses as their sole food source. Other ciliate species have previously been shown to consume large quantities of viral particles, but it is unclear if they are able to support population growth with viruses alone. Because large ciliates have a higher energy demand, we hypothesize that they will be unable to support population growth on a virus-only diet. We fed nine ciliate species a diet of chloroviruses and found …

Using Game Theory To Model Tripolar Deterrence And Escalation Dynamics, Grace Farson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The study investigated how game theory can been utilized to model multipolar escalation dynamics between Russia, China, and the United States. In addition, the study focused on analyzing various parameters that affected potential conflict outcomes to further new deterrence thought in a tripolar environment.

A preliminary game theoretic model was created to model and analyze escalation dynamics. The model was built upon framework presented by Zagare and Kilgour in their work ‘Perfect Deterrence’. The model is based on assumptions and rules set prior to game play. The model was then analyzed based upon these assumptions using a form of mathematical …

Association Of Excessive Precipitation And Agricultural Land Use With Honey Bee Colony Performance, Gabriela M. Quinlan, Rufus Isaacs, Clint R. V. Otto, Autumn H. Smart, Meghan O. Milbrath

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Context From landscape variables to weather, multiple environmental factors affect honey bees and other pollinators. Detailed honey bee colony assessments in a variety of landscape and weather conditions offer the opportunity to develop a mechanistic understanding of how landscape composition, configuration, and weather are associated with colony nutrition, demography, and productivity.

Objectives Our objective was to test if weather and landscape characteristics (e.g., agricultural versus forested land use) are associated with different honey bee colony outcomes (foraged nectar mass, foraged pollen mass, pupal population size, and adult population size change).

Methods We collected detailed colony measurements on over 450 honey …

A Multiscale Mechanistic Model Of Human Dendritic Cells For In-Silico Investigation Of Immune Responses And Novel Therapeutics Discovery, Sara Sadat Aghamiri, Bhanwar Lal Puniya, Rada Amin, Tomáš Helikar

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) with the unique ability to mediate inflammatory responses of the immune system. Given the critical role of DCs in shaping immunity, they present an attractive avenue as a therapeutic target to program the immune system and reverse immune disease disorders. To ensure appropriate immune response, DCs utilize intricate and complex molecular and cellular interactions that converge into a seamless phenotype. Computational models open novel frontiers in research by integrating large-scale interaction to interrogate the influence of complex biological behavior across scales. The ability to model large biological networks will likely pave the …

Spectral Features Of Non-Nutritive Suck Dynamics In Extremely Preterm Infants, Steven M. Barlow, Chunxiao Liao, Jaehoon Lee, Seungman Kim, Jill L. Maron, Dongli Song, Priya Jegatheesan, Balaji Govindaswami, Bernard J. Wilson, Kushal Bhakta, John P. Cleary

United States Public Health Resources

Background: Non-nutritive suck (NNS) is used to promote ororhythmic patterning and assess oral feeding readiness in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). While time domain measures of NNS are available in real time at cribside, our understanding of suck pattern generation in the frequency domain is limited. The aim of this study is to model the development of NNS in the frequency domain using Fourier and machine learning (ML) techniques in extremely preterm infants (EPIs).

Methods: A total of 117 EPIs were randomized to a pulsed or sham orocutaneous intervention during tube feedings 3 times/day …

Architecture And New Urbanism’S Relationship To Biomimicry And Floral Design, Alycia Timmerman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The craft of floral design is classified as an art and a science. Similarly, architecture is rooted in the two disciplines. After conducting research and exploring biomimicry through the design process, it became evident that the process of design for architecture and floral design are similar. This relationship can also be extended into the field of planning and the New Urbanism movement. This study explores the integration of floral design and biomimicry with architecture and New Urbanism at the scale of the building and city block.

The Earliest Dipodomyine Heteromyid In North America And The Phylogenetic Relationships Of Geomorph Rodents, Joshua X. Samuels, Jonathan J.-M. Calede, Robert M. Hunt Jr.

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Dipodomyine heteromyids (kangaroo rats and mice) are a diverse group of aridadapted ricochetal rodents of North America. Here, a new genus and species of a large dipodomyine is reported from early Miocene-aged deposits of the John Day Formation in Oregon that represents the earliest record of the subfamily. The taxon is known from a single specimen consisting of a nearly complete skull, dentary, partial pes, and caudal vertebra. The specimen is characterized by a mosaic of ancestral and highly derived cranial features of heteromyids. Specifically, the dental morphology and some cranial characteristics are similar to early heteromyids, but other aspects …

Evidence For A Causal Role For Escherichia Coli Strains Identified As Adherent-Invasive (Aiec) In Intestinal Inflammation, Hatem Kittana, Joao Carlos Gomes-Neto, Kari Heck, Anthony Juritsch, Jason Sughroue, Yibo Xian, Sara Mantz, Rafael R. Segura Muñoz, Liz Cody, Robert J. Schmaltz, Christopher L. Anderson, Rodney A. Moxley, Jesse M. Hostetter, Samodha C. Fernando, Jennifer Clarke, Stephen D. Kachman, Clayton E. Cressler, Andrew K. Benson, Jens Walter

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Enrichment of adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) has been consistently detected in subsets of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Although some AIEC strains cause colitis in animal models, these studies did not systematically compare AIEC with non-AIEC strains, and causal links between AIEC and disease are still disputed. Specifically, it remains unclear whether AIEC shows enhanced pathogenicity compared to that of commensal E. coli found in the same ecological microhabitat and if the in vitro phenotypes used to classify strains as AIEC are pathologically relevant. Here, we utilized in vitro phenotyping and a murine model of intestinal inflammation to systematically compare …

Emotionally Concussed: The Impact Of Pre-Existing Anxiety On Concussion Recovery, Grace Szucs

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Recent advances in concussion research have shed light on numerous mental and physiological factors that may complicate concussion recovery. Systematic reviews of the existing literature have found that premorbid mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety may be a predictor of complicated concussion recovery, but studies have not had an appropriate design to isolate anxiety or depression as a predictor of lengthened recovery. This study investigated if athletes with a history of premorbid anxiety and/or depression would have a longer time of recovery than athletes without this history. Male and female athletes from a Division-1 athletic department treated for …

Facilitating Transformative Innovations In Sustainability Education [Version 2], Martin Melin, Geir Lieblein, Tor Arvid Breland, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Educational strategies globally are changing from an authoritative, top-down model to one focused on greater student and stakeholder participation in planning and implementation of research and educational activities. In addition to emphasis on student-centered education, strategies currently evolve to encompass learning organizations and multistakeholder learning networks. These are essential to address the complexity and scope of tomorrow’s challenges, involving issues that could be called ’wicked problems’ not easily addressed by single disciplines nor resulting in solutions that please all the players. In this study we describe how a transformative innovation – the NEXTFOOD educational approach – may contribute substantially to …

Social Science Researchers' Perceptions Of Inclusive Research Practices For Transgender And Gender Diverse Communities, Christen Seyl

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Social sciences research has historically excluded or marginalized of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. Although TGD affirming research materials can help improve relationships with TGD communities, these sorts of materials are not standard practice. The present study aimed to determine what factors influence social science researchers’ (SSR) willingness to incorporate affirming practices into their research. We hypothesized that more culturally competent SSR will view TGD affirming research materials as more affirming and be more willing to use similar materials in their work. In this study, SSR (n = 32) viewed and rated affirmation and willingness to use five affirming …

Systematic Review Of Reflection Spectroscopy-Based Skin Carotenoid Assessment In Children, Saima Hasnin, Dipti Dev, Taren Swindle, Susan B. Sisson, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Tirna Purkait, Shari C. Clifton, Jocelyn Dixon, Virginia C. Stage

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Assessing children’s skin carotenoid score (SCS) using reflection spectroscopy (RS) is a non-invasive, widely used method to approximate fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC). The aims for the current review were to (1) identify distributions of SCS across demographic groups, (2) identify potential non-dietary correlates for RS-based SCS, (3) summarize the validity and reliability of RSbased SCS assessment, and (4) conduct meta-analyses of studies examining the correlation between RS-based SCS with FVC. A literature search in eight databases in June 2021 resulted in 4880 citations and peer-reviewed publications written in English that investigated children’s (2–10 years old) SCS using RS. We …

Planning For The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (Libre) Continental Scientific Drilling Project In Eastern Guatemala, Jonathan Obrist-Farner, Andreas Eckert, Peter M. J. Douglas, Liseth Perez, Alex Correa-Metrio, Bronwen L. Konecky, Thorsten Bauersachs, Susan Zimmerman, Stephanie Scheidt, Mark Brenner, Steffen Kutterolf, Jeremy Maurer, Omar Flores, Caroline M. Burberry, Anders Noren, Amy Myrbo, Matthew Lachniet, Nigel Wattrus, Derek Gibson, The Libre Scientific Team

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

As Earth’s atmospheric temperatures and human populations increase, more people are becoming vulnerable to natural and human-induced disasters. This is particularly true in Central America, where the growing human population is experiencing climate extremes (droughts and floods), and the region is susceptible to geological hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and environmental deterioration in many forms (soil erosion, lake eutrophication, heavy metal contamination, etc.). Instrumental and historical data from the region are insufficient to understand and document past hazards, a necessary first step for mitigating future risks. Long, continuous, well-resolved geological records can, however, provide a window into past …

Blind Luck: A Narrative Exploration Of French Sayings And Superstitions, Isabella North

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The goal of this Honors Thesis was to explore French superstitions and idioms through a fictional story. To facilitate the inclusion of a range of sayings and superstitious beliefs, the short story “Jamais Deux Sans Trois” is a borderline paranormal piece of fiction which is meant to call into question how the reader interprets the world. The story, written in French, revolves around a pair of best friends and their experiences with a series of events which may or may not be explained through the lens of superstitions, depending on which character is asked at which point in the story. …

Do Ceo Gratification Preferences Influence Accounting Choices Near Retirement?, Nicholas Wilson

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

CEOs near retirement are less motivated to act in shareholders' best interests than those planning to remain indefinitely; this is the horizon problem. Financial reporting that personifies the horizon problem includes an abrupt reduction in discretionary spending and an increase in current accounting earnings; this abrupt change in reporting is potentially detrimental to long-term gains. Gratification preference, defined by observable tendencies, is a personal characteristic reflecting one's prior life experiences and environments. This study offers an archival measure of these gratification preferences and examines whether these preferences mitigate or exacerbate the CEO horizon problem. The results suggest that discretionary accounting …

Myzus Fataunae Shinji (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Pilea Aphid, New To North America, Susan E. Halbert, Jade S. Allen, Matthew R. Moore, Katherine E.O. Fairbanks, Masakazu Sano, Gary L. Miller

Insecta Mundi

Minute aphids belonging to the species Myzus fataunae Shinji (Hemiptera: Aphididae) were found at a nursery in Seminole County, Florida. Morphological and molecular data support this determination. The Florida population only colonized species of Pilea Lindl. in our host range experiments. It did not colonize Fatoua villosa. Nakai. Likewise, it did not colonize tested common Florida species of Urticaceae other than Pilea spp. Myzus fataunae is adventive, and it appears to be established in the United States.

Description Of A New Species Of Crossidius Leconte (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae: Trachyderini) From Texas, Frederick W. Skillman Jr.

Insecta Mundi

Crossidius wappesi Skillman, new species (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is described from Presidio County, Texas, USA.

I discovered a new species of Crossidius LeConte (Cerambycinae) in the fall of 2018 while collecting with Jim Wappes in Presidio County, Texas. Additional specimens were collected at the same location in 2019 by Jim Wappes and Kenneth Kuckartz.

This large, predominately western trachyderine genus presently contains 17 species and 37 subspecies (Bezark 2022). It should be noted that in the study of the genus by Linsley and Chemsak (1961), numerous popu­lations, known from short series, were mentioned, given short descriptions and left nameless. It is …

A New Species Of Cymatodera Gray (Coleoptera: Cleridae) From Honduras, Jacques Rifkind

Insecta Mundi

Cymatodera batleth new species (Coleoptera: Cleridae) is described from Honduras. It appears to belong to a group of Central American congeners that share similar facies and coloration, deeply emarginate elytral apices and elaborately modified male pygidia.

Heretofore ten species of Cymatodera Gray have been recorded from Honduras: C. conflagrata (Klug), C. depau­perata Gorham, C. guatemalensis Schenkling, C. prolixa (Klug), C. sallei Thomson, C. sinuosa Burke, C. rileyi Rifkind, C. crassa Burke and Sole, C. nigrofasciata Burke and Sole, and C. parva Burke which have distributions extending into neighboring Central American countries (Burke 2013; Burke et al. 2017). The known Honduran …

Functional Annotation Of The Animal Genomes: An Integrated Annotation Resource For The Horse, Sichong Peng, Anna R. Dahlgren, Callum G. Donnelly, Erin N. Hales, Jessica Lynn Petersen, Rebecca R. Bellone, Ted Kalbfleisch, Carrie J. Finno

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

The genomic sequence of the horse has been available since 2009, providing critical resources for discovering important genomic variants regarding both animal health and population structures. However, to fully understand the functional implications of these variants, detailed annotation of the horse genome is required. Due to the limited availability of functional data for the equine genome, as well as the technical limitations of short-read RNAseq, existing annotation of the equine genome contains limited information about important aspects of gene regulation, such as alternate isoforms and regulatory elements, which are either not transcribed or transcribed at a very low level. To …

Social Transmission Of Predator Information Through Referential Alarm Calls Within And Across Species, Carly Trebac

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Animals can encode information about a predator’s size, identity, or threat through alarm calls. This can provide referential information that can be used by individuals within and across species receiving the information. Referential alarm calls can encode information through changes in structure or rate of the call, and these variances in their call can elicit different responses, such as fleeing or mobbing, in conspecifics and heterospecifics. We aimed to investigate whether white-breasted nuthatch alarm calls can encode referential information and elicit different responses from conspecifics. Previous studies showed that a related species of nuthatch varies their call rate in the …

Ecological Boundaries And Constraints On Viable Eco-Evolutionary Pathways, Kyle E. Coblentz, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Evolutionary dynamics are subject to constraints ranging from limitations on what is physically possible to limitations on the pathways that evolution can take. One set of evolutionary constraints, known as ‘demographic constraints’, constrain what can occur evolutionarily due to the demographic or dynamical consequences of evolution leading to conditions that make populations susceptible to extinction. These demographic constraints can limit the strength of selection or the rates of environmental change populations can experience while remaining extant and the trait values a population can express. Here we further hypothesize that the population demographic and dynamic consequences of evolution also can constrain …

Pan-Arctic Soil Moisture Control On Tundra Carbon Sequestration And Plant Productivity, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Koen Hufkens, Beniamino Gioli, Barbara Bailey, George Burba, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Jennifer D. Watts, Kyle A. Arndt, Mary Farina, John S. Kimball, Martin Heimann, Mathias Göckede, Martijn Pallandt, Torben R. Christensen, Mikhail Mastepanov, Efrén López-Blanco, Albertus J. Dolman, Roisin Commane, Charles E. Miller, Josh Hashemi, Lars Kutzbach, David Holl, Julia Boike, Christian Wille, Torsten Sachs, Aram Kalhori, Elyn R. Humphreys, Oliver Sonnentag, Gesa Meyer, Gabriel H. Gosselin, Philip Marsh, Walter C. Oechel

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Long-term atmospheric CO₂ concentration records have suggested a reduction in the positive effect of warming on high-latitude carbon uptake since the 1990s. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the reduced net carbon sink of northern ecosystems with increased air temperature, including water stress on vegetation and increased respiration over recent decades. However, the lack of consistent long-term carbon flux and in situ soil moisture data has severely limited our ability to identify the mechanisms responsible for the recent reduced carbon sink strength. In this study, we used a record of nearly 100 site-years of eddy covariance …

Center For Grassland Studies, March 2023

Center for Grassland Studies: Newsletters

Contents

New Assistant Director for The Center for Grassland Studies, David Wedin

Center for Grassland Studies Policy Advisory Committee

Director's Column by Jerry Volesky (Interim Director)

Congratulations December 2022 Graduates

New Grazing Lands Ecologist for Grassland Studies, Nic McMillan

New Administrative Associate for Grassland Studies, Ashley Branting

Apply Now for CGS Scholarships and Assistantship, https://grassland.unl.edu/grassland-systems/grazing-livestock-scholarships

New Guidelines for Reducing Eastern Redcedar in Grasslands by Dillon Fogarty

Year One Barta Brothers Ranch Collaborative Adaptive Management Update by Craig Allen

Nebraska Grazing Conference, August 8-9, 2023 by Daren Redfearn

Forty Years Reflection on Grassland Fire Weather by David Wedin

Nebraska Youth Range …

Socioeconomic Factors In The Diagnosis And Treatment Of Malignant Melanoma In Hispanic Vs. Non-Hispanic Patients: A National Cancer Database (Ncdb) Study, Julia Griffin, Sarah J. Aurit, Timothy Malouff, Peter Silberstein

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

Background: The incidence of melanoma is rapidly increasing in the United States. There is a paucity of research of how melanoma affects the Hispanic population, the quickest growing population.

Objective: To identify and understand how socioeconomic factors affect a Hispanic patients health outcome and treatment of malignant melanoma with comparisons to white, non-Hispanic (WNH) patients.

Methods: A retrospective study utilizing the National Cancer Database (NCDB) was completed investigating Hispanic patients (n=2282) and WNH patients (n=190,469) with Stage I-IV malignant melanoma. Outcome and socioeconomic variables were identified and compared across groups. Data was analyzed with SPSS and SAS …

Annual Treasurer's Report For 2022, Jan Johnson

Nebraska Bird Review

No abstract provided.

The Nebraska Bird Review: A Magazine Of Ornithology Of The Nebraska Region. Volume 91, Number 1. March 2023, Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union

Nebraska Bird Review

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2022 - Feb. 2023 by W. Ross Silcock

Annual Color Photo Section

Annual Treasurer's Report for 2022 by Jan Johnson

Subscription and Organization Information

2022-2023 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Sixteen counts were run in the 2022-2023 CBC season. Because of weather and rescheduling issues, the Crawford, Harrison, and Harlan County counts were cancelled. Eight of the counts were completed during the first week of the count period and the other eight were scattered throughout the remainder of the count period. An early December cold snap seemed to drive many of the birds south, but the weather on actual count days was fairly benign: mostly dry with an average high of 34˚F and an average low of 19˚F and with three circles reporting light snow. The total number of species …

The Nebraska Bird Review Annual Color Photo Section

Nebraska Bird Review

Virginia Rail and chick, Washboard Road, North Platte, Lincoln Co., 28 June 2023. Photo by Boni Edwards.

American Coot, Eagle Scout Lake, Hall Co., April 2020. Photo by Colleen Childers.

Hudsonian Godwit, Marsh Wren Community Wetlands, Lancaster Co., 21 May 2022. Photo by Kirill Belashchenko.

American Avocet, N.P. Dodge Park, Omaha, Douglas Co., 2 May 2023. Photo by Thane Dinsdale

Female Cape May Warbler, photographer's backyard, Bellevue, Sarpy Co., 10 May 2022. Photo by Loren Padelford.

Male Cape May Warbler, Ft. Niobrara NWR, Cherry Co., 13 May 2022. Photo by Gordon Warrick.

Tennessee Warbler, Fontenelle Forest Wetlands, Sarpy Co., 24 …

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2022 - Feb. 2023, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Since this is a Winter Seasonal Report, it seems appropriate to lead off with notable reports of occurrences that might be considered unexpected for midwinter, of which there were several. A range of species was involved, suggesting an encompassing cause such as climate change. Of interest were northerly wintering groups of waterfowl including Gadwall, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Ringnecked Duck, and Hooded Merganser. Reports of wintering Tundra Swans, Whitewinged Doves, and Lesser Goldfinches continue to increase, and numerous Redwinged Blackbirds in the northeast in midwinter were unexpected. Also quite unexpected were two Sandhill Cranes wintering in the east, the state’s first …