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A Remnant Chosen By Grace, Felix H. Cortez Oct 2018

A Remnant Chosen By Grace, Felix H. Cortez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Too Ill To Be Killed: Mental And Physical Competency To Be Executed Pursuant To The Death Penalty, Linda A. Malone Oct 2018

Too Ill To Be Killed: Mental And Physical Competency To Be Executed Pursuant To The Death Penalty, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

Mentally ill individuals are being housed in prisons and jails throughout the country. Due to decreased funding and overpopulation of correctional facilities, individuals with pre-existing illnesses, as well as others who develop illnesses, are in severe need of mental health services and punished for their ailments through the use of solitary confinement, long prison sentences, and lack of care. The stress created by such conditions is amplified for mentally ill prisoners who are awaiting execution or the dismissal of their death row sentences. These individuals must show that they are competent to stand trial, exhibit the mental state required for …


A Requirement For Slc15a4 In Imiquimod-Induced Systemic Inflammation And Psoriasiform Inflammation In Mice, Alexis D. Griffith, Asifa K. Zaidi, Ashley Pietro, Matthew Hadiono, Jessica S. Yang, Rachel Davis, Daniel L. Popkin Sep 2018

A Requirement For Slc15a4 In Imiquimod-Induced Systemic Inflammation And Psoriasiform Inflammation In Mice, Alexis D. Griffith, Asifa K. Zaidi, Ashley Pietro, Matthew Hadiono, Jessica S. Yang, Rachel Davis, Daniel L. Popkin

Faculty Publications

There is competing evidence that plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC), the most potent source of IFN-I, may initiate psoriasis. We targeted pDC function using the slc15a4 loss-of-function mouse whose pDC are unresponsive to TLR agonists. slc15a4 treated with the topical TLR7-agonist imiquimod (IMQ) demonstrated decreased epidermal thickening 24 hours post-treatment which was more pronounced by day 5 as compared to wildtype mice. These findings were specific to the acute IMQ model and not the protracted IL23 model that drives inflammation downstream of TLR activation. Systemically, slc15a4 was required for IMQ-induced weight loss and cutaneous accumulation of CD4+ and Siglec H+, but …


Using Satellite Remote Sensing To Study The Impact Of Climate And Anthropogenic Changes In The Mesopotamian Marshlands, Iraq, Reyadh Albarakat, Venkat Lakshmi, Compton J. Tucker Sep 2018

Using Satellite Remote Sensing To Study The Impact Of Climate And Anthropogenic Changes In The Mesopotamian Marshlands, Iraq, Reyadh Albarakat, Venkat Lakshmi, Compton J. Tucker

Faculty Publications

The Iraqi Marshes in Southern Iraq are considered one of the most important wetlands in the world. From 1982 to the present, their area has varied between 10,500 km2 and 20,000 km2. The marshes support a variety of plants, such as reeds and papyrus, and are home to many species of birds. These marshes are Al-Hammar, Central or Al-Amarah, and Al-Huwaiza. Freshwater supplies to the marshes come from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq and from the Karkha River from Iran. For this analysis, we used the Land Long-Term Data Record Version 5 (LTDR V5) Normalized …


Tweeting A Social Movement: Black Lives Matter And Its Use Of Twitter To Share Information, Build Community, And Promote Action, Candice Lashara Edrington, Nicole Lee Sep 2018

Tweeting A Social Movement: Black Lives Matter And Its Use Of Twitter To Share Information, Build Community, And Promote Action, Candice Lashara Edrington, Nicole Lee

Faculty Publications

Public relations research has gradually incorporated the study of advocacy organizations. However, little research has focused on social movements in particular. Through a content analysis of all public tweets sent by Black Lives Matter (BLM) over a four-year period, this study examined the message strategies used on Twitter by the social movement as a means to share information, build community, and promote action. Consistent with research on other types of organizations, informational messages proved to be the most common. The study also analyzed the influence that these strategies had on audience engagement in terms of replies and retweets. Findings suggest …


Comparison Of Thermally Actuated Retro-Diels-Alder Release Groups For Nanoparticle Based Nucleic Acid Delivery, Mohammad Abu-Laban, Raju R. Kumal, Jonathan Casey, Jeff Becca, Daniel Lamaster, Carlos N. Pacheco, Dan G. Sykes, Lasse Jensen, Louis H. Haber, Daniel J. Hayes Sep 2018

Comparison Of Thermally Actuated Retro-Diels-Alder Release Groups For Nanoparticle Based Nucleic Acid Delivery, Mohammad Abu-Laban, Raju R. Kumal, Jonathan Casey, Jeff Becca, Daniel Lamaster, Carlos N. Pacheco, Dan G. Sykes, Lasse Jensen, Louis H. Haber, Daniel J. Hayes

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. The present study explores alternate pericyclic chemistries for tethering amine-terminal biomolecules onto silver nanoparticles. Employing the versatile tool of the retro-Diels-Alder (rDA) reaction, three thermally-labile cycloadducts are constructed that cleave at variable temperature ranges. While the reaction between furan and maleimide has widely been reported, the current study also evaluates the reverse reaction kinetics between thiophene-maleimide, and pyrrole-maleimide cycloadducts. Density Functional Theorem (DFT) calculations used to model and plan the experiments, predict energy barriers for the thiophene-maleimide reverse reaction to be greatest, and the pyrrole-maleimide barriers the lowest. Based on the computational analyses, it is projected …


Edwardsiella Ictaluri Type Iii Secretion System (T3ss) Effector Esen Is A Phosphothreonine Lyase That Inactivates Erk1/2, Lidiya P. Dubytska, Ronald L. Thune Sep 2018

Edwardsiella Ictaluri Type Iii Secretion System (T3ss) Effector Esen Is A Phosphothreonine Lyase That Inactivates Erk1/2, Lidiya P. Dubytska, Ronald L. Thune

Faculty Publications

© The authors 2018. EseN is a type III secretion system (T3SS) effector that is encoded on the Edwardsiella ictaluri chromosome and is homologous to a family of T3SS effector proteins with phosphothreonine lyase (PTL) activity, including OspF from Shigella and SpvC from Salmonella. A yeast-2-hybrid system was used to identify the major vault protein (MVP) as a specific host-cell binding partner for EseN, and the proximity ligation assay (PLA) confirmed the interaction. Similar to other pathogens, E. ictaluri invasion activates extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) early in the infection, which are subsequently inactivated by EseN. Structurally, EseN …


Ubiquitin Receptor Rpn13 Mediates The Inhibitory Interaction Of Diphenyldihaloketones Clefma And Ef24 With The 26s Proteasome, Geeta Rao, Gregory Nkepang, Jian Xu, Hooman Yari, Hailey Houson, Chengwen Teng Pharm.D., Ph.D., Vibhudutta Awasthi Sep 2018

Ubiquitin Receptor Rpn13 Mediates The Inhibitory Interaction Of Diphenyldihaloketones Clefma And Ef24 With The 26s Proteasome, Geeta Rao, Gregory Nkepang, Jian Xu, Hooman Yari, Hailey Houson, Chengwen Teng Pharm.D., Ph.D., Vibhudutta Awasthi

Faculty Publications

The proteasome is a validated target in drug discovery for diseases associated with unusual proteasomal activity. Here we report that two diphenyldihaloketones, CLEFMA and EF24, inhibit the peptidase activity of the 26S proteasome. The objective of this study was to investigate interaction of these compounds with the proteasome and identify a putative target within the protein components of the 26S proteasome. We employed standard fluorogenic peptide-based proteasome activity assay for trypsin-like, chymotrypsin-like, and caspase-like activities of human purified 26S proteasome in cell-free conditions. GFPu-1 and HUVEC cells were used as proteasome reporter cells. Direct binding studies used purified 19S, 20S, …


Managing The Risks And Rewards Of Death In Eusocial Insects, Qian Sun, Kenneth F. Haynes, Xuguo Zhou Sep 2018

Managing The Risks And Rewards Of Death In Eusocial Insects, Qian Sun, Kenneth F. Haynes, Xuguo Zhou

Faculty Publications

Eusocial insects frequently face death of colony members as a consequence of living in large groups where the success of the colony is not dependent on the fate of the individual. Whereas death of conspecifics commonly triggers aversion in many group-living species due to risk of pathogens, eusocial insects perform cooperative corpse management. The causes and social context of the death, as well as feeding and nesting ecology of the species, influence the way that corpses are treated. The corpse itself releases cues that dictate the colony's response. As a result, social insects exhibit behavioural responses that promote disease resistance, …


Selective Habitat Use By Moose During Critical Periods In The Winter Tick Life Cycle, Christine Healy, Peter J. Pekins, Lee Kantar, Russell G. Congalton, Shadi Atallah Sep 2018

Selective Habitat Use By Moose During Critical Periods In The Winter Tick Life Cycle, Christine Healy, Peter J. Pekins, Lee Kantar, Russell G. Congalton, Shadi Atallah

Faculty Publications

High calf mortality attributed to winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) parasitism occurs in moose (Alces alces) populations along their southern range in the northeastern United States. We analyzed habitat use of cow and calf moose during the critical drop-off and questing periods in the winter tick life cycle to determine a potential relationship between tick density and habitat. We measured habitat use using geospatial analyses of locational data from > 200 radio-marked animals at 3 sites in New Hampshire and Maine. Moose selected for optimal habitat, defined as 4–16 year-old forest openings, regardless of season or site; this was the only land …


Little Lasting Impact Of The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum On Shallow Marine Molluscan Faunas, Linda Ivany, Carlie Pietsch, John Handley, Rowan Lockwood, Warren Allmon, Jocelyn Sessa Sep 2018

Little Lasting Impact Of The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum On Shallow Marine Molluscan Faunas, Linda Ivany, Carlie Pietsch, John Handley, Rowan Lockwood, Warren Allmon, Jocelyn Sessa

Faculty Publications

Global warming, acidification, and oxygen stress at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) are associated with severe extinction in the deep sea and major biogeographic and ecologic changes in planktonic and terrestrial ecosystems, yet impacts on shallow marine macrofaunas are obscured by the incompleteness of shelf sections. We analyze mollusk assemblages bracketing (but not including) the PETM and find few notable lasting impacts on diversity, turnover, functional ecology, body size, or life history of important clades. Infaunal and chemosymbiotic taxa become more common, and body size and abundance drop in one clade, consistent with hypoxia-driven selection, but within-clade changes are not …


Transgene-Assisted Genetic Screen Identifies Rsd-6 And Novel Genes As Key Components Of Antiviral Rna Interference In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Tianyun Long, Fei Meng, Rui Lu Sep 2018

Transgene-Assisted Genetic Screen Identifies Rsd-6 And Novel Genes As Key Components Of Antiviral Rna Interference In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Tianyun Long, Fei Meng, Rui Lu

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Society for Microbiology. RNA interference (RNAi) is a widespread antiviral mechanism triggered by virus-produced double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs). In Caenorhabditis elegans, antiviral RNAi involves a RIG-I-like RNA helicase, termed DRH-1 (dicer related RNA helicase 1), that is not required for classical RNAi triggered by artificial dsRNA. Currently, whether antiviral RNAi in C. elegans involves novel factors that are dispensable for classical RNAi remains an open question. To address this question, we designed and carried out a genetic screen that aims to identify novel genes involved in worm antiviral RNAi. By introducing extra copies of known antiviral RNAi genes …


Gene Regulation By Redox-Sensitive Burkholderia Thailandensis Ohrr And Its Role In Bacterial Killing Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Anuja Pande, Todd C. Veale, Anne Grove Sep 2018

Gene Regulation By Redox-Sensitive Burkholderia Thailandensis Ohrr And Its Role In Bacterial Killing Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Anuja Pande, Todd C. Veale, Anne Grove

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Society for Microbiology. Fatty acid hydroperoxides are involved in host-pathogen interactions. In both plants and mammals, polyunsaturated fatty acids are liberated during infection and enzymatically oxidized to the corresponding toxic hydroperoxides during the defensive oxidative burst that is designed to thwart the infection. The bacterial transcription factor OhrR (organic hydroperoxide reductase regulator) is oxidized by organic hydroperoxides, as a result of which the ohr gene encoding organic hydroperoxide reductase is induced. This enzyme converts the hydroperoxides to less toxic alcohols. We show here that OhrR from Burkholderia thailandensis represses expression of ohr. Gene expression is induced by …


Circular Rna Identified From Peg3 And Igf2r, Bambarendage P.U. Perera, Subash Ghimire, Joomyeong Kim Sep 2018

Circular Rna Identified From Peg3 And Igf2r, Bambarendage P.U. Perera, Subash Ghimire, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

Copyright: © 2018 Perera et al. Circular RNA is a newly discovered class of non-coding RNA generated through the back-splicing of linear pre-mRNA. In the current study, we characterized two circular RNAs that had been identified through NGS-based 5'RACE experiments. According to the results, the Peg3 locus contains a 214-nucleotide-long circular RNA, circPeg3, that is detected in low abundance from the neonatal brain, lung and ovary. In contrast, the Igf2r locus contains a group of highly abundant circular RNAs, circIgf2r, showing multiple forms with various exon combinations. In both cases, the expression patterns of circPeg3 and circIgf2r among individual tissues …


4c-Seq Characterization Of Drosophila Beaf Binding Regions Provides Evidence For Highly Variable Long-Distance Interactions Between Active Chromatin, Shraddha Shrestha, Dong Ha Oh, J. Keller Mckowen, Maheshi Dassanayake, Craig M. Hart Sep 2018

4c-Seq Characterization Of Drosophila Beaf Binding Regions Provides Evidence For Highly Variable Long-Distance Interactions Between Active Chromatin, Shraddha Shrestha, Dong Ha Oh, J. Keller Mckowen, Maheshi Dassanayake, Craig M. Hart

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Shrestha et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Chromatin organization is crucial for nuclear functions such as gene regulation, DNA replication and DNA repair. Insulator binding proteins, such as the Drosophila Boundary Element-Associated Factor (BEAF), are involved in chromatin organization. To further understand the role of BEAF, we detected cis-and trans-interaction partners of four BEAF binding regions (viewpoints) using 4C (circular chromosome conformation capture) and analyzed their association with …


Adipose Tissue Dysfunction Occurs Independently Of Obesity In Adipocyte-Specific Oncostatin Receptor Knockout Mice, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Jennifer L. Bailey, Hardy Hang, Victoria Rittell, Marilyn A. Dietrich, Randall L. Mynatt, Carrie M. Elks Sep 2018

Adipose Tissue Dysfunction Occurs Independently Of Obesity In Adipocyte-Specific Oncostatin Receptor Knockout Mice, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Jennifer L. Bailey, Hardy Hang, Victoria Rittell, Marilyn A. Dietrich, Randall L. Mynatt, Carrie M. Elks

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Obesity Society Objective: This study examined the phenotypic effects of adipocyte-specific oncostatin M receptor (OSMR) loss in chow-fed mice. Methods: Chow-fed adipocyte-specific OSMR knockout (FKO) mice and littermate OSMRfl/fl controls were studied. Tissue weights, insulin sensitivity, adipokine production, and stromal cell immunophenotypes were assessed in epididymal fat (eWAT); serum adipokine production was also assessed. In vitro, adipocytes were treated with oncostatin M, and adipokine gene expression was assessed. Results: Body weights, fasting blood glucose levels, and eWAT weights did not differ between genotypes. However, the eWAT of OSMRFKO mice was modestly less responsive to insulin stimulation than …


Variation Across Mitochondrial Gene Trees Provides Evidence For Systematic Error: How Much Gene Tree Variation Is Biological?, E J. Richards, J M. Brown, A J. Barley, R A. Chong, E J. Richards Sep 2018

Variation Across Mitochondrial Gene Trees Provides Evidence For Systematic Error: How Much Gene Tree Variation Is Biological?, E J. Richards, J M. Brown, A J. Barley, R A. Chong, E J. Richards

Faculty Publications

The use of large genomic data sets in phylogenetics has highlighted extensive topological variation across genes. Much of this discordance is assumed to result from biological processes. However, variation among gene trees can also be a consequence of systematic error driven by poor model fit, and the relative importance of biological vs. methodological factors in explaining gene tree variation is a major unresolved question. Using mitochondrial genomes to control for biological causes of gene tree variation, we estimate the extent of gene tree discordance driven by systematic error and employ posterior prediction to highlight the role of model fit in …


Variation Across Mitochondrial Gene Trees Provides Evidence For Systematic Error: How Much Gene Tree Variation Is Biological?, E J. Richards, J M. Brown, A J. Barley, R A. Chong, E J. Richards Sep 2018

Variation Across Mitochondrial Gene Trees Provides Evidence For Systematic Error: How Much Gene Tree Variation Is Biological?, E J. Richards, J M. Brown, A J. Barley, R A. Chong, E J. Richards

Faculty Publications

The use of large genomic data sets in phylogenetics has highlighted extensive topological variation across genes. Much of this discordance is assumed to result from biological processes. However, variation among gene trees can also be a consequence of systematic error driven by poor model fit, and the relative importance of biological vs. methodological factors in explaining gene tree variation is a major unresolved question. Using mitochondrial genomes to control for biological causes of gene tree variation, we estimate the extent of gene tree discordance driven by systematic error and employ posterior prediction to highlight the role of model fit in …


An Overview Of Extant Conifer Evolution From The Perspective Of The Fossil Record, Andrew B. Leslie, Jeremy Beaulieu, Garth Holman, Christopher S. Campbell, Wenbin Mei, Linda R. Raubeson, Sarah Mathews Sep 2018

An Overview Of Extant Conifer Evolution From The Perspective Of The Fossil Record, Andrew B. Leslie, Jeremy Beaulieu, Garth Holman, Christopher S. Campbell, Wenbin Mei, Linda R. Raubeson, Sarah Mathews

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Botanical Society of America Premise of the Study: Conifers are an important living seed plant lineage with an extensive fossil record spanning more than 300 million years. The group therefore provides an excellent opportunity to explore congruence and conflict between dated molecular phylogenies and the fossil record. Methods: We surveyed the current state of knowledge in conifer phylogenetics to present a new time-calibrated molecular tree that samples ~90% of extant species diversity. We compared phylogenetic relationships and estimated divergence ages in this new phylogeny with the paleobotanical record, focusing on clades that are species-rich and well known from …


New Mouse Model Of Pulmonary Hypertension Induced By Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis, Dai Kimura, Jordy Saravia, Sridhar Jaligama, Isabella Mcnamara, Luan D. Vu, Ryan D. Sullivan, Salvatore Mancarella, Dahui You, Stephania A. Cormier Sep 2018

New Mouse Model Of Pulmonary Hypertension Induced By Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis, Dai Kimura, Jordy Saravia, Sridhar Jaligama, Isabella Mcnamara, Luan D. Vu, Ryan D. Sullivan, Salvatore Mancarella, Dahui You, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Physiological Society. All rights reserved. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) has been observed in up to 75% of infants with moderate to severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in infants with congenital heart disease. The purpose of the present study was to establish a mouse model of PH secondary to RSV bronchiolitis that mimics the disease etiology as it occurs in infants. Neonatal mice were infected with RSV at 5 days of age and then reinfected 4 wk later. Serum-free medium was administered to age-matched mice as a control. Echocardiography and …


Dispersal Records Of The Sugarcane Aphid, Melanaphis Sacchari (Zehntner) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Through The Midwest Suction Trap Network, Doris Lagos-Kutz, David Voegtlin, Jeffrey Davis, Glen Hartman Sep 2018

Dispersal Records Of The Sugarcane Aphid, Melanaphis Sacchari (Zehntner) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Through The Midwest Suction Trap Network, Doris Lagos-Kutz, David Voegtlin, Jeffrey Davis, Glen Hartman

Faculty Publications

Summary Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), the sugarcane aphid, is an invasive species in the United States. This species is a threat to crops of economic importance including sorghum and sugar cane. Therefore, monitoring dispersal of this pest is necessary to document its geographic expansion. Based on trap catches obtained from the Midwest Suction Trap Network during 2015 to 2017, sugarcane aphids arrived late in the growing season as far as northern Wisconsin. We will continue to monitor the dispersal of this aphid species through the Midwest Suction Trap Network in order to provide information to researchers, extension agents, and …


Production Of Live Young With Cryopreserved Sperm From The Endangered Livebearing Fish Redtail Splitfin (Xenotoca Eiseni, Rutter, 1896), Yue Liu, Harry Grier, Terrence R. Tiersch Sep 2018

Production Of Live Young With Cryopreserved Sperm From The Endangered Livebearing Fish Redtail Splitfin (Xenotoca Eiseni, Rutter, 1896), Yue Liu, Harry Grier, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Previous studies of sperm cryopreservation of livebearing fish have been limited to two genera within the family Poeciliidae. The goal of the present study was to investigate the feasibility to produce live young of livebearing goodeids (family Goodeidae) with cryopreserved sperm, using aquarium-trade populations of the endangered species Redtail Splitfin (Xenotoca eiseni, Rutter, 1896). Reproductive condition of females was evaluated by histological categorization of ovarian development. A total of 117 females were inseminated with cryopreserved sperm, 81 were inseminated with fresh sperm, 27 were mixed with males for natural breeding, and 30 were maintained without males or insemination. Histological images …


Isolation By Marine Barriers And Climate Explain Areas Of Endemism In An Island Rodent, Thomas C. Giarla, Sean P. Maher, Anang S. Achmadi, Meagan K. Moore, Mark T. Swanson, Kevin C. Rowe, Jacob A. Esselstyn Sep 2018

Isolation By Marine Barriers And Climate Explain Areas Of Endemism In An Island Rodent, Thomas C. Giarla, Sean P. Maher, Anang S. Achmadi, Meagan K. Moore, Mark T. Swanson, Kevin C. Rowe, Jacob A. Esselstyn

Faculty Publications

Aim: The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to thousands of endemic terrestrial animal species. Phylogeographical studies of some of these taxa revealed concordant distribution patterns (areas of endemism; AoEs), suggestive of a shared evolutionary or ecological mechanism driving divergence among various terrestrial taxa. Generally, AoEs have been attributed to Pleistocene marine incursions, geological fault zones and Sulawesi's history as an archipelago. We test, for the first time, the hypothesis that population divergences are associated with unsuitable climate spaces at the boundaries between these areas. Location: Sulawesi, Indonesia. Taxon: Maxomys musschenbroekii, a common murid rodent endemic to Sulawesi. Methods: We …


Ants Alter Molecular Characteristics Of Soil Organic Carbon Determined By Pyrolysis-Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, Zhongsheng Zhang, Zhuo Wei, Jim Jian Wang, Ran Xiao, Yili Meng, Haitao Wu, Xianguo Lyu Sep 2018

Ants Alter Molecular Characteristics Of Soil Organic Carbon Determined By Pyrolysis-Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, Zhongsheng Zhang, Zhuo Wei, Jim Jian Wang, Ran Xiao, Yili Meng, Haitao Wu, Xianguo Lyu

Faculty Publications

Colonization by ecosystem engineers, such as ants, have important but occasionally unnoticed roles in regulating soil carbon cycles. However, little information is available pertaining to ant effects on changing molecular features of soil organic matter. In this study, we characterized total soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen, water extractable organic carbon (WEOC) as well as molecular characteristics of humic acids (HAs) of ant mound soils (SoilAnt) and the surrounding soils (SoilCon) using pyrolysis-chromatography/mass (py-GC/MS). SOC, total nitrogen and WEOC contents of SoilAnt were significantly lower than those of SoilCon. SoilAnt samples had significant higher nitrogen containing compounds proportions in pyrolysis …


Bgge: A New Package For Genomic-Enabled Prediction Incorporating Genotype × Environment Interaction Models, Italo Granato, Jaime Cuevas, Francisco Luna-Vázquez, Jose Crossa, Osval Montesinos-López, Juan Burgueño, Roberto Fritsche-Neto Sep 2018

Bgge: A New Package For Genomic-Enabled Prediction Incorporating Genotype × Environment Interaction Models, Italo Granato, Jaime Cuevas, Francisco Luna-Vázquez, Jose Crossa, Osval Montesinos-López, Juan Burgueño, Roberto Fritsche-Neto

Faculty Publications

One of the major issues in plant breeding is the occurrence of genotype × environment (GE) interaction. Several models have been created to understand this phenomenon and explore it. In the genomic era, several models were employed to improve selection by using markers and account for GE interaction simultaneously. Some of these models use special genetic covariance matrices. In addition, the scale of multi-environment trials is getting larger, and this increases the computational challenges. In this context, we propose an R package that, in general, allows building GE genomic covariance matrices and fitting linear mixed models, in particular, to a …


Jonah: A Preacher God Wanted To Save—A City God Wanted To Reach, Ranko Stefanovic Sep 2018

Jonah: A Preacher God Wanted To Save—A City God Wanted To Reach, Ranko Stefanovic

Faculty Publications

"The book of Jonah records one of the most provocative stories in the Bible. It contrasts God’s and humans’ attitudes toward sinners.1 It is a story of God’s love and compassion that stands in contrast to human indifference, condemnation, and bigotry toward wayward sinners who are in need of salvation. Its primary purpose was to teach Israel that God’s love is for all people, not just for Israel. The book is also for God’s people throughout history who find it hard to accept the truth that no person is out of the reach of God’s love and salvation."


Challenges, Pitfalls And Surprises: Development And Validation Of A Monoclonal Antibody For Enzyme Immunoassay Of The Steroid 1Α-Hydroxycorticosterone In Elasmobranch Species, Catharine J. Wheaton, Natalie D. Mylniczenko, John M. Rimoldi, Rama S.V.S. Gadepalli, R. Hart, Bobbi R. O'Hara, Andrew N. Evans Sep 2018

Challenges, Pitfalls And Surprises: Development And Validation Of A Monoclonal Antibody For Enzyme Immunoassay Of The Steroid 1Α-Hydroxycorticosterone In Elasmobranch Species, Catharine J. Wheaton, Natalie D. Mylniczenko, John M. Rimoldi, Rama S.V.S. Gadepalli, R. Hart, Bobbi R. O'Hara, Andrew N. Evans

Faculty Publications

Sharks and rays are popular species used in wildlife ecotourism and aquariums to educate the public on the behavior, ecology and conservation challenges of elasmobranchs. To understand long-term physiological health and welfare under varying social and husbandry conditions, we developed and validated an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to measure stress/ionoregulatory hormones in managed and semi-free range southern rays (Hypanus americanus). Banked serum and interrenal samples from 27 female rays managed at Disney’s The Seas with Nemo and Friends® and Castaway Cay were used to evaluate measurement of 1α-hydroxycorticosterone (1αOHB) relative to corticosterone (B). Although commercial EIAs are available …


A Macro-Level Order Metric For Self-Organizing Adaptive Systems, David W. King, Gilbert L. Peterson Sep 2018

A Macro-Level Order Metric For Self-Organizing Adaptive Systems, David W. King, Gilbert L. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Analyzing how agent interactions affect macro-level self-organized behaviors can yield a deeper understanding of how complex adaptive systems work. The dynamic nature of complex systems makes it difficult to determine if, or when, a system has reached a state of equilibrium or is about to undergo a major transition reflecting the appearance of self-organized states. Using the notion of local neighborhood entropy, this paper presents a metric for evaluating the macro-level order of a system. The metric is tested in two dissimilar complex adaptive systems with self-organizing properties: An autonomous swarm searching for multiple dynamic targets and Conway's Game of …


Influenza Virus Infectivity Is Retained In Aerosols And Droplets Independent Of Relative Humidity, Karen A. Kormuth, Kaisen Lin, Aaron J. Prussin, Eric P. Vejerano, Andrea J. Tiwari, Steve S. Cox, Micheal M. Myerburg, Seema S. Lakdawala, Linsey C. Marr Sep 2018

Influenza Virus Infectivity Is Retained In Aerosols And Droplets Independent Of Relative Humidity, Karen A. Kormuth, Kaisen Lin, Aaron J. Prussin, Eric P. Vejerano, Andrea J. Tiwari, Steve S. Cox, Micheal M. Myerburg, Seema S. Lakdawala, Linsey C. Marr

Faculty Publications

Pandemic and seasonal influenza viruses can be transmitted through aerosols and droplets, in which viruses must remain stable and infectious across a wide range of environmental conditions. Using humidity-controlled chambers, we studied the impact of relative humidity on the stability of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus in suspended aerosols and stationary droplets. Contrary to the prevailing paradigm that humidity modulates the stability of respiratory viruses in aerosols, we found that viruses supplemented with material from the apical surface of differentiated primary human airway epithelial cells remained equally infectious for 1 hour at all relative humidities tested. This sustained infectivity was …


Advancing Social Connection As A Public Health Priority In The United States, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Theodore Robles, David A. Sbarra Sep 2018

Advancing Social Connection As A Public Health Priority In The United States, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Theodore Robles, David A. Sbarra

Faculty Publications

A robust body of scientific evidence indicates that being embedded in high-quality close relationships and feeling socially connected to the people in your life is associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality as well as a range of disease morbidities. Despite mounting evidence that the magnitude of these associations is comparable to many leading health determinants (that receive significant public health resources), government agencies, healthcare providers and associations, and public/private healthcare funders are slow to recognize human social relationships as either a health determinant or health risk marker in a manner that is comparable to other public health priorities. This …