Digital Commons Network^™

Megf10 Deficiency Impairs Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Migration And Muscle Regeneration, Chengcheng Li, Dorianmarie Vargas-Franco, Madhurima Saha, Rachel M. Davis, Kelsey A. Manko, Isabelle Draper, Christina A. Pacak, Peter B. Kang

Faculty Publications

Biallelic loss-of-function MEGF10 mutations lead to MEGF10 myopathy, also known as early onset myopathy with areflexia, respiratory distress, and dysphagia (EMARDD). MEGF10 is expressed in muscle satellite cells, but the contribution of satellite cell dysfunction to MEGF10 myopathy is unclear. Myofibers and satellite cells were isolated and examined from Megf10 and wild-type mice. A separate set of mice underwent repeated intramuscular barium chloride injections. Megf10 muscle satellite cells showed reduced proliferation and migration, while Megf10 mouse skeletal muscles showed impaired regeneration. Megf10 deficiency is associated with impaired muscle regeneration, due in part to defects in satellite cell function. Efforts to …

The Iron-Responsive Genome Of The Chiton Acanthopleura Granulata, Rebecca M. Varney, Daniel Isaac Speiser, Carmel Mcdougall, Bernard M. Degnan, Kevin M. Kocot

Faculty Publications

Molluscs biomineralize structures that vary in composition, form, and function, prompting questions about the genetic mechanisms responsible for their production and the evolution of these mechanisms. Chitons (Mollusca, Polyplacophora) are a promising system for studies of biomineralization because they build a range of calcified structures including shell plates and spine- or scale-like sclerites. Chitons also harden the calcified teeth of their rasp-like radula with a coat of iron (as magnetite). Here we present the genome of the West Indian fuzzy chiton Acanthopleura granulata, the first from any aculiferan mollusc. The A. granulata genome contains homologs of many genes associated …

Virtual Reality As A Versatile Tool For Research, Dissemination And Mediation In The Humanities, Paul François, Jeffrey Leichman, Florent Laroche, Françoise Rubellin

Faculty Publications

The VESPACE project aims to revive an evening of theatre at the Foire Saint-Germain in Paris in the 18th century, by recreating spaces, atmospheres and theatrical entertainment in virtual reality. The venues of this fair have disappeared without leaving any archaeological traces, so their digital reconstruction requires fusing many different sources, including the expertise of historians, as well as of historians of theatre and literature. In this article, we present how we have used video game creation tools to enable the use of virtual reality in three key research stages in the human sciences, and particularly, in history or archaeology: …

Preliminary Report On The 2018 Season Of Excavations At Khirbat As-Safrā, Paul Z. Gregor, Constance E. Gane, Trisha Broy, Jacob A. Moody

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Prepare For Takeoff: Improving Asset Measurement And Audit Quality With Drone-Enabled Inventory Audit Procedures, Margaret H. Christ, Scott A. Emett, Scott L. Summers, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Auditors increasingly employ technologies to improve audit quality. Using a design science approach, we examine whether using drones and automated counting software can improve audit quality and thereby improve financial reporting. We assess three dimensions of audit quality—efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of audit documentation. We provide evidence that auditors can perform inventory counts with these technologies much more efficiently than they can with manual techniques, decreasing count time in our study from 681 hours to 19 hours. At the same time, auditors can maintain or improve audit effectiveness with these technologies, decreasing error rates in our study from 0.15% to …

Corporate Governance And Tax Avoidance: Evidence From Governance Reform, Jon Kerr, Richard Price, Francisco J. Román, Miles A. Romney

Faculty Publications

Prior literature struggles to find evidence in U.S. settings to support the Desai and Dharmapala (2006) theory on how corporate governance affects tax avoidance. Most studies rely on equity incentive compensation as their governance proxy. We use a Mexican setting to examine this association and find firms with stronger governance engage in less tax avoidance. We rely on both a hand-collected governance index and governance reform to show improved corporate governance pushes tax avoidance toward a new equilibrium. Supplementary analyses show associations between governance and tax avoidance are greatest for tax-cost-sensitive familyowned firms and non-cross-listed firms with naturally weaker governance. …

Association Between Toxoplasma Gondii Seropositivity And Serointensity And Brain Volume In Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study, Bruce L. Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

The intracellular protozoal parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been associated with worsened cognitive function in animal models and in humans. Despite these associations, the mechanisms by which Toxoplasma gondii might affect cognitive function remain unknown, although Toxoplasma gondii does produce physiologically active intraneuronal cysts and appears to affect dopamine synthesis. Using data from the UK Biobank, we sought to determine whether Toxoplasma gondii is associated with decreased prefrontal, hippocampal, and thalamic gray-matter volumes and with decreased total gray-matter and total white-matter volumes in an adult community-based sample. The results from adjusted multivariable regression modelling showed no associations between Toxoplasma gondii and …

Less Common Bacterial, Fungal And Viral Infections: Review Of Management In The Pregnant Patient, Alyssa P. Gould, Hana R. Winders, Kayla R. Stover, P Brandon Bookstaver, Brooke Griffin, Christopher M. Bland, Lea S. Eiland, Milena Murray

Faculty Publications

This review is a comprehensive summary of treatment options for pregnant patients with less common bacterial, fungal, and viral infections. It offers guidance to clinicians based on the most recently published evidence-based research and expert recommendations. A search of MEDLINE (inception to March 2021) and the CDC website was performed. Liposomal amphotericin B is the preferred therapy for cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, oesophageal candidiasis, and coccidioidomycosis, especially during the first trimester due to teratogenic concerns with azole antifungals. For oral candidiasis, clotrimazole troches or miconazole mucoadhesive buccal tablets are recommended. A β-lactam antimicrobial is preferred over doxycycline for various manifestations of Lyme …

Economic Regulation And Rural America, Ann M. Eisenberg

Faculty Publications

Rural America today is at a crossroads. Widespread socioeconomic decline outside cities has fueled the idea that rural communities have been “left behind.” The question is whether these “left behind” localities should be allowed to dwindle out of existence, or whether intervention to attempt rural revitalization is warranted. Many advocate non-intervention because rural lifestyles are inefficient to sustain. Others argue that, even if the nation wanted to help, it lacks the law and policy tools to redirect rural America’s course effectively.

This Article argues that we do have the law and policy tools necessary to address rural socioeconomic marginalization, and …

The Bounds Of Energy Law, Shelley Welton

Faculty Publications

U.S. energy law was born of fossil fuels. Consequently, our energy law has long centered on the material and legal puzzles that bringing fossil fuels to market presents. Eliminating these same carbon-producing energy sources, however, has emerged as perhaps the most pressing material transformation needed in the twenty-first century—and one that energy law scholarship has rightfully embraced. Yet in our admirable quest to aid in this transformation, energy law scholars are largely writing into the field bequeathed to us, proposing changes that tweak, but do not fundamentally challenge, last century’s tools for managing the extraction, transport, and delivery of fossil …

Swimming Against The Flow: Environmental Dna Can Detect Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus Leucas) Across A Dynamic Deltaic Interface, James Marcus Drymon, Katherine E. Schweiss, Emily A. Seubert, Ryan N. Lehman, Toby S. Daly-Engel, Mariah Pfleger, Nicole M. Phillips

Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Human activities in coastal areas are accelerating ecosystem changes at an unprecedented pace, resulting in habitat loss, hydrological modifications, and predatory species declines. Understanding how these changes potentially cascade across marine and freshwater ecosystems requires knowing how mobile euryhaline species link these seemingly disparate systems. As upper trophic level predators, bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) play a crucial role in marine and freshwater ecosystem health. Telemetry studies in Mobile Bay, Alabama, suggest that bull sharks extensively use the northern portions of the bay, an estuarine–freshwater interface known …

Lower Socioeconomic Status Neighborhoods In Puerto Rico Have More Diverse Mosquito Communities And Higher Aedes Aegypti Abundance, Nicole A. Scavo, Roberto Barrera, Limarie J. Reyes-Torres, Donald A. Yee

Faculty Publications

Mosquito community dynamics in urban areas are influenced by an array of both social and ecological factors. Human socioeconomic factors (SEF) can be related to mosquito abundance and diversity as urban mosquito development sites are modified by varying human activity, e.g., level of abandoned structures or amount of accumulated trash. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships among mosquito diversity, populations of Aedes aegypti, and SEF in a tropical urban setting. Mosquitoes were collected using BG Sentinel 2 traps and CDC light traps during three periods between late 2018 and early 2019 in San Juan, Puerto …

The Rise And Fall Of The Ancient Northern Pike Master Sex Determining Gene, Qiaowei Pan, Romain Feron, Elodie Jouanno, Hugo Darras, Amaury Herpin, Ben Koop, Eric Rondeau, Frederick W. Goetz, Wesley A. Larson, Louis Bernatchez, Mike Tringali, Stephen S. Curran, Eric Saillant, Gael P.J. Denys, Frank A. Von Hippel, Songlin Chen, J. Andrés López, Hugo Verreycken, Konrad Ocalewicz, Rene Guyomard, Camille Eche, Jerome Lluch, Celine Roques, Hongxia Hu, Roger Tabor, Patrick Dehaan, Krista M. Nichols, Laurent Journot, Hugues Parrinello, Christophe Klopp, Elena A. Interesova, Vladimir Trifonov, Manfred Schartl, John Postlethwait, Yann Guiguen

Faculty Publications

The understanding of the evolution of variable sex determination mechanisms across taxa requires comparative studies among closely related species. Following the fate of a known master sex-determining gene, we traced the evolution of sex determination in an entire teleost order (Esociformes). We discovered that the northern pike (Esox lucius) master sex-determining gene originated from a 65 to 90 million-year-old gene duplication event and that it remained sex-linked on undifferentiated sex chromosomes for at least 56 million years in multiple species. We identified several independent species-or population-specific sex determination transitions, including a recent loss of a Y-chromosome. These findings highlight the …

Thermal-Induced Unfolding-Refolding Of A Nucleocapsid Covn Protein, Warin Rangubpit, Pornthep Sompornpisut, R. B. Pandey

Faculty Publications

Unfolding of a coarse-grained COVN protein from its native configuration shows a linear response with increasing temperature followed by non-monotonic double peaks in its radius of gyration. The protein conforms to a random coil of folded segments in native state with increasingly tenuous and globular structures in specific temperature regimes where the effective dimensions of corresponding structures D ≈ 1.6–2.4. Thermal agitation alone is not sufficient to fully eradicate its segmental folding as few local folds are found to persist around such residues as ⁶⁵L, ¹¹⁰Y, ²²⁴L, ³⁷⁴P even at high temperatures.

Marine Vehicles Localization Using Grid Cells For Path Integration, Ignacio Carlucho, Manuel F. Bailey, Mariano De Paula, Corina Barbalata

Faculty Publications

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are platforms used for research and exploration of marine environments. However, these types of vehicles face many challenges that hinder their widespread use in the industry. One of the main limitations is obtaining accurate position estimation, due to the lack of GPS signal underwater. This estimation is usually done with Kalman filters. However, new developments in the neuroscience field have shed light on the mechanisms by which mammals are able to obtain a reliable estimation of their current position based on external and internal motion cues. A new type of neuron, called Grid cells, has been …

In The Beginning: Foundations Of A Successful Deanship, Neil Fulton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Balaam In The Book Of Numbers, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Balaam, the non-Israelite who prophesied positively about the Israelites, remains an enigmatic biblical figure, at least in part, because we cannot fully or confidently answer several important questions about him. The account of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 is oddly unique and reads like an independent unit, but it connects in several ways with the content and themes of the rest of the book of Numbers. So, however this account developed and was incorporated into the book of Numbers, it can at least be appreciated as part of the organic whole of the book.

Environmental Crimes And Green Victimization, Averi R. Fegadel

Faculty Publications

The field of criminology continues to give little attention to the behaviors and crimes that adversely impact the environment although decades of research has highlighted these crimes result in greater social harms, losses, and deaths compared to traditional street crimes. Moreover, these crimes are met with little consequences despite several laws and regulations charged with protecting the environment and public welfare. As a result, residents of minority and poor communities are faced with social, racial, and economic inequalities. This draws attention to the green victimization of marginalized groups and underrepresented populations worldwide. In the United States, these groups include Native …

The Road To Free-Market Family Policy, Maxine Eichner

Faculty Publications

This essay investigates and ultimately rejects the claim that the United States’ comparatively heavily reliance on markets over government to provide the resources that families need is a natural outgrowth of the country’s longstanding veneration of capitalism. In tracing the nation’s economic ideology over time, it demonstrates that, at least until the end of the twentieth century, the constant in US history has not been the expectation of a free-market economy, but rather a commitment to ensuring that the economy, however structured, will enable families to thrive. The dramatic recent shift in economic ideology, when the prevailing commitment to government …

Standing And Contracts, F. Andrew Hessick

Faculty Publications

In Spokeo v. Robbins, the Supreme Court held that, to establish Article III standing to bring suit in federal court, a plaintiff cannot simply allege the violation of a legal right. Instead, the plaintiff must allege an injury in fact. Although it addressed standing to bring suit for statutory violations, Spokeo raises serious questions about limits on the ability to bring breach of contract actions in federal court. After all, contracts simply create legal rights. Under Spokeo’s logic, the breach of contractual rights should not support standing; instead, standing exists only if the breach results in factual harm. …

Meta Rules For Ordinary Meaning, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

“Ordinary meaning” is a notoriously undefined concept in statutory interpretation theory. Courts and scholars sometimes describe ordinary meaning as the meaning that a “reasonable reader” would ascribe to the statutory language at issue, but it remains unclear how judges and lawyers should go about identifying such meaning. Over the past few decades, as textualism has come to dominate statutory interpretation, courts increasingly have employed dictionary definitions as (purportedly) neutral, and sometimes dispositive, evidence of ordinary meaning. And in the past few years especially, some judges and scholars have advocated using corpus linguistics — patterns of usage across various English …

Ethical Compass: Three Different Judicial Treatments For Settlement Fever, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This is the first of a three-part series that examines different aspects of the settlement fever that has stricken our justice system. What can we learn from judicial decisions about how individual judges assess the settlement means that lawyers, in consultation with their clients, have chosen to resolve their case?

Co-Opting Coronavirus, Assailing Asylum, Ashley B. Armstrong

Faculty Publications

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an Order on March 26, 2020, under Title 42, Section 265 of the Public Health Service Act, in the name of combatting the spread of coronavirus. The Order has been called the “Asylum Ban” because it effectively has sealed the southern border to protection-seekers, resulting in the pushback of nearly 400,000 asylees and unaccompanied children. This Article argues that the Trump administration has contravened the rule of law by using the coronavirus pandemic as a convenient pretext to end asylum in the U.S., and by violating the rights of protection-seekers. In doing so, …

User Guide For Dust Modeling Using Cmaq 5.3.1 And Wrf 4.2.1, Zachary D. Lawless, Ariel S. Cable, Cameron B. Van Dyke, Bradley R. Adams

Faculty Publications

Researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) have developed a software framework for modeling dust emission and transport using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system in conjunction with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and other utility programs. This framework uses meteorological data, land use data, and soil properties to predict dust concentrations for a specified area. This User Guide describes the start-to-finish process required to install and utilize relevant software to calculate and visualize dust concentrations. Note that the examples and figures provided in the guide are specific to Utah in the western United States, where this …

Toward Uncharted Territory Of Cellular Heterogeneity: Advances And Applications Of Single-Cell Rna-Seq, Brandon Lieberman, Meena Kusi, Chia Nung Hung, Chih Wei Chou, Ning He, Yen Yi Ho, Josephine A. Taverna, Tim H.M. Huang, Chun Liang Chen

Faculty Publications

Among single-cell analysis technologies, single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) has been one of the front runners in technical inventions. Since its induction, scRNA-seq has been well received and undergone many fast-paced technical improvements in cDNA synthesis and amplification, processing and alignment of next generation sequencing reads, differentially expressed gene calling, cell clustering, subpopulation identification, and developmental trajectory prediction. scRNA-seq has been exponentially applied to study global transcriptional profiles in all cell types in humans and animal models, healthy or with diseases, including cancer. Accumulative novel subtypes and rare subpopulations have been discovered as potential underlying mechanisms of stochasticity, differentiation, proliferation, tumorigenesis, and …

Implementation Of Brain Breaks® In The Classroom And Its Effects On Attitudes Towards Physical Activity In A Chinese School Setting, Ke Zhou, Sensen He, Yanli Zhou, Biljana Popeska, Garry Kuan, Li Chen, Ming Kai Chin, Magdalena Mo Ching Mok, Christopher R. Edginton, Ian Culpan, J. Larry Durstine

Faculty Publications

This study aimed to examine the effects of three-months of classroom-based Brain Breaks Physical Activity Solution (Brain Breaks®) on attitudes toward physical activity levels of primary school children in Henan Province, China. The participants were 704 children enrolled in grades 3-5 who were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The experimental group participated in Brain Breaks® video intervention for 3-5 min daily, at low-to-moderate intensity for three consecutive months. The control group resumed their normal routine. The children’s attitudes in both groups towards physical activity (PA) were evaluated using the self-reported Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale …

Nutritional Approach For Increasing Public Health During Pandemic Of Covid-19: A Comprehensive Review Of Antiviral Nutrients And Nutraceuticals, Vahideh Ebrahimzadeh-Attari, Ghodratollah Panahi, James R. Hébert Scd, Alireza Ostadrahimi, Maryam Saghafi-Asl, Neda Lotfi-Yaghin, Behzad Baradaran

Faculty Publications

Background: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is considered as the most life-threatening pandemic disease during the last decade. The individual nutritional status, though usually ignored in the management of COVID-19, plays a critical role in the immune function and pathogenesis of infection. Accordingly, the present review article aimed to report the effects of nutrients and nutraceuticals on respiratory viral infections including COVID-19, with a focus on their mechanisms of action.

Methods: Studies were identified via systematic searches of the databases including PubMed/ MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar from 2000 until April 2020, using keywords. All relevant clinical and experimental studies …

How Policies Portray Students: A Discourse Analysis Of Codes Of Conduct In Academic Libraries, Megan Bresnahan

Faculty Publications

In academic libraries, “codes of conduct” are policies that define what people who use those libraries are allowed to do in library spaces and serve as rules for enforcement. In this policy discourse analysis, the author examines these policies to understand what dominant discourses emerge about students who use libraries. The discourses represented in these policies portray students through frames of deficit thinking, adultism, exclusion, and surveillance. The study advocates for a critical shift in the design and purpose of these policies, and the results may inspire academic librarians to revise their policies to center care and respect for students.

Photoreceptor Phosphodiesterase (Pde6): Activation And Inactivation Mechanisms During Visual Transduction In Rods And Cones, Rick H. Cote

Faculty Publications

Rod and cone photoreceptors of the vertebrate retina utilize cGMP as the primary

intracellular messenger for the visual signaling pathway that converts a light stimulus into an electrical response. cGMP metabolism in the signal-transducing photoreceptor outer segment reflects the balance of cGMP synthesis (catalyzed by guanylyl cyclase) and degradation (catalyzed by the photoreceptor phosphodiesterase, PDE6). Upon light stimulation, rapid activation of PDE6 by the heterotrimeric G-protein (transducin) triggers a dramatic drop in cGMP levels that lead to cell hyperpolarization. Following cessation of the light stimulus, the lifetime of activated PDE6 is also precisely regulated by additional processes. This review summarizes …

Trademarks In Conversation: Assessing Genericism After Booking.Com, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

It is a fundamental principle of U.S. trademark law that to serve as a trademark, a word or phrase must “indicate the source” of the goods or services with which it is associated and, conversely, that a term that is understood to be the common name of a good or service is “generic” and cannot be protected as a trademark. Yet it still seems difficult to determine exactly what each concept means, particularly when the actual “source” of any goods or services might be opaque to consumers.

In part, this difficulty comes from the fact that status as a trademark …