Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Differences In Rhesus Monkeys’ Digit Ratio (2d:4d Ratio) And Its Association With Maternal Social Dominance Rank, Alexander Baxter, Elizabeth K. Wood, Parker Jarman, Ashley N. Cameron, John P. Capitanio, James Dee Higley

Faculty Publications

Prenatal androgen exposure (PAE) plays a pivotal role in masculinizing the developing body and brain, and extreme exposure may contribute to autism, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia. One commonly used biomarker for PAE is the pointer-to-ring-finger digit length (2D:4D) ratio. Although this biomarker is widely used in human studies, relatively few studies have investigated 2D:4D ratio in nonhuman primates, particularly rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), one of the most commonly used animals in biomedical research. Thus far, data suggest that sexual dimorphism in 2D:4D ratio may be in the opposite direction in some monkey species, when compared to the pattern …

Large-Scale Social And Behavior Change Communication Interventions Have Sustained Impacts On Infant And Young Child Feeding Knowledge And Practices: Results Of A 2-Year Follow-Up Study In Bangladesh, Sunny S. Kim, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Lan Mai Tran, Tina Sanghvi, Zeba Mahmud, Mohammad Raisul Haque, Kaosar Afsana, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Marie T. Ruel, Purnima Menon

Faculty Publications

Background: Sustained improvements in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) require continued implementation of effective interventions. From 2010-2014, Alive & Thrive (A&T) provided intensive interpersonal counseling (IPC), community mobilization (CM), and mass media (MM) in Bangladesh, demonstrating impact on IYCF practices. Since 2014, implementation has been continued and scaled up by national partners with support from other donors and with modifications such as added focus on maternal nutrition and reduced program intensity. Objective: We assessed changes in intervention exposure and IYCF knowledge and practices in the intensive (IPC + CM + MM) compared with nonintensive areas (standard nutrition counseling + …

Academic Response To Storm-Related Natural Disasters—Lessons Learned, Jerris R. Hedges, Karam F.A. Soliman, Gene D’Amour, Dong Liang, Carlos E. Rodríguez-Díaz, Kenira Thompson, Josefina Romaguera, Silvia E.Rabionet Sabater, Richard Yanagihara

Faculty Publications

On 30 October 2017, selected faculty and administrators from Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) grantee institutions gathered to share first-hand accounts of the devastating impact of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, which had interrupted academic activities, including research, education, and training in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas. The presenters reviewed emergency response measures taken by their institutions to maintain community health care access and delivery, the storm-related impact on clinical and research infrastructure, and strategies to retain locally grown clinical expertise and translational science research talent in the aftermath of natural disasters. A longer-term perspective was provided through a …

The Tick Endosymbiont Candidatus Midichloria Mitochondrii And Selenoproteins Are Essential For The Growth Of Rickettsia Parkeri In The Gulf Coast Tick Vector, Khemraj Budachetri, Deepak Kumar, Gary Crispell, Christine Beck, Gregory Dasch, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

Background

Pathogen colonization inside tick tissues is a significant aspect of the overall competence of a vector. Amblyomma maculatum is a competent vector of the spotted fever group rickettsiae, Rickettsia parkeri. When R. parkeri colonizes its tick host, it has the opportunity to dynamically interact with not just its host but with the endosymbionts living within it, and this enables it to modulate the tick’s defenses by regulating tick gene expression. The microbiome in A. maculatum is dominated by two endosymbiont microbes: a Francisella-like endosymbiont (FLE) and CandidatusMidichloria mitochondrii (CMM). A range of selenium-containing proteins (selenoproteins) in A. …

Congenital Zika Virus Infection In Immunocompetent Mice Causes Postnatal Growth Impediment And Neurobehavioral Deficits, Fengwei Bai, Amber Paul, Dhiraj Acharya, Biswas Neupane, E.A. Thompson, Gabriel Gonzalez-Fernandez, Katherine Copeland, Melanae Garrett, Haibei Liu, Mariper Lopez, Matthew De Cruz, Alex S. Flynt, Jun Liao, Yan-Lin Guo, Federico Gonzalez-Fernandez, Parminder Vig

Faculty Publications

A small percentage of babies born to Zika virus (ZIKV)-infected mothers manifest severe defects at birth, including microcephaly. Among those who appeared healthy at birth, there are increasing reports of postnatal growth or developmental defects. However, the impact of congenital ZIKV infection in postnatal development is poorly understood. Here, we report that a mild congenital ZIKV-infection in pups born to immunocompetent pregnant mice did not display apparent defects at birth, but manifested postnatal growth impediments and neurobehavioral deficits, which include reduced locomotor and cognitive deficits that persisted into adulthood. We found that the brains of these pups were smaller, had …

Draft Genome Sequence Of The Psychrotolerant Bacterium Kurthia Sibirica Atcc 49154t, Abigail E. Goen, Tyler Silverwood, Aria Underriner, Ariel M. Trachtenberg, Carolyn Kelley, Kyle S. Maclea

Faculty Publications

The aerobic, Gram-positive, psychrotolerant bacterium Kurthia sibirica was first isolated from the stomach and intestinal contents of the Magadan mammoth recovered from the permafrost in eastern Siberia in 1977. K. sibirica was sequenced, and the predicted genome size is 3,496,665 bp, with 36.42% G+C content.

The Effect Of E-Book Vocabulary Instruction On Spanish-English Speaking Children, Carla Wood, Lisa Fitton, Yaacov Petscher, Estrella Rodriguez, Gretchen Sunderman, Taehyeong Lim

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effect of an intensive vocabulary intervention embedded in e-books on the vocabulary skills of young Spanish-English speaking English learners (ELs) from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds. Method: Children (N = 288) in kindergarten and 1st grade were randomly assigned to treatment and read-only conditions. All children received e-book readings approximately 3 times a week for 10-20 weeks using the same books. Children in the treatment condition received e-books supplemented with vocabulary instruction that included scaffolding through explanations in Spanish, repetition in English, checks for understanding, and highlighted morphology. Results: There was a main effect of …

Effects Of Maternal Nutrition On The Expression Of Genomic Imprinted Genes In Ovine Fetuses, Jingyue (Ellie) Duan, Mingyuan Zhang, Kaleigh Flock, Sahar Al Seesi, Ion Mandoiu, Amanda Jones, Elizabeth Johnson, Sambhu Pillai, Maria Hoffman, Katelyn Mcfadden, Hesheng Jiang, Sarah Reed, Kristen Govoni, Steve Zinn, Zongliang Jiang, Xiuchun (Cindy) Tian

Faculty Publications

© 2018, © 2018 The Author (s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Genomic imprinting is an epigenetic phenomenon of differential allelic expression based on parental origin. To date, 263 imprinted genes have been identified among all investigated mammalian species. However, only 21 have been described in sheep, of which 11 are annotated in the current ovine genome. Here, we aim to i) use DNA/RNA high throughput sequencing to identify new monoallelically expressed and imprinted genes in day 135 ovine fetuses and ii) determine whether maternal diet (100%, 60%, or 140% of National Research Council …

Improved Growth Estimates For Lethrinus Harak: Measuring Increments, Adjusting Ages, And Fitting Flexible Growth Models, Stephen Midway

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Functional Analysis Of Short Linear Motifs In The Plant Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor Siamese, Narender Kumar, Renee Dale, Daniel Kemboi, Elizabeth A. Zeringue, Naohiro Kato, John C. Larkin

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved. Endoreplication, a modified cell cycle in which DNA is replicated without subsequent cell division, plays an important but poorly understood role in plant growth and in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) SIAMESE (SIM) gene encodes the first identified member of the SIAMESE-RELATED (SMR) family of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors. SIM controls endoreplication during trichome development, and sim mutant trichomes divide several times instead of endoreplicating their DNA. The SMR family is defined by several short linear amino acid sequence motifs of largely unknown function, and …

Designing Agricultural Economics And Agribusiness Undergraduate Programs, Jeffrey M. Gillespie, Maria Bampasidou

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence. Agricultural economics and agribusiness (AEAB) programs offer their graduates unique exposure to agricultural markets, policy, and production systems, which differentiates them from business programs. Despite the advantages associated with AEAB degrees, a significant challenge universities and AEAB graduates face is a general lack of recognition of what agricultural economics is and what an agricultural economist does. Using data collected from U.S. 1862 and 1890 land grant universities, we stress the importance of designing effective AEAB curricula based on enrollment trends, …

Mitochondrial Unfolded Protein Response Gene Clpp Is Required To Maintain Ovarian Follicular Reserve During Aging, For Oocyte Competence, And Development Of Pre-Implantation Embryos, Tianren Wang, Elnur Babayev, Zongliang Jiang, Guangxin Li, Man Zhang, Ecem Esencan, Tamas Horvath, Emre Seli

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Caseinolytic peptidase P mediates degradation of unfolded mitochondrial proteins and activates mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR) to maintain protein homeostasis. Clpp −/− female mice generate a lower number of mature oocytes and two-cell embryos, and no blastocysts. Clpp −/− oocytes have smaller mitochondria, with lower aspect ratio (length/width), and decreased expression of genes that promote fusion. A 4-fold increase in atretic follicles at 3 months, and reduced number of primordial follicles at 6–12 months are observed in Clpp −/− ovaries. This is associated …

Effect Of Dietary Salt Intake On Epithelial Na+ Channels (Enacs) In The Hypothalamus Of Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rats, Natalie J. Mills, Kaustubh Sharma, Katie Huang, Ryoichi Teruyama

Faculty Publications

© 2018 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society. All three epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) subunits (α, β, and γ) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), a known regulator of ENaC, are located in vasopressin (VP) synthesizing magnocellular neurons in the hypothalamic supraoptic (SON) and paraventricular (PVN) nuclei. Our previous study showed that ENaC mediates a Na+ leak current that affects the steady-state membrane potential of VP neurons. This study was conducted in Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl-SS) rats to determine if any abnormal responses in the expression of ENaC …

Ablation Of Ezh2 In Neural Crest Cells Leads To Aberrant Enteric Nervous System Development In Mice, Hana Kim, Ingeborg M. Langohr, Mohammad Faisal, Margaret Mcnulty, Caitlin Thorn, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Kim 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. In the current study, we examined the role of Ezh2 as an epigenetic modifier for the enteric neural crest cell development through H3K27me3. Ezh2 conditional null mice were viable up to birth, but died within the first hour of life. In addition to craniofacial defects, Ezh2 conditional null mice displayed reduced number of ganglion cells in the enteric nervous system. RT-PCR …

Oxytocin Receptor Is Regulated By Peg3, Wesley D. Frey, Kaustubh Sharma, Terri L. Cain, Katsuhiko Nishimori, Ryoichi Teruyama, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Frey 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. Mouse Peg3 encodes a DNA-binding protein involved in the milk letdown process. In the current study, we tested whether PEG3 controls the expression of the oxytocin receptor gene. According to the results, PEG3 directly binds to a genomic region within the 3rd exon of Oxtr, which contains a DNA-binding motif for PEG3. In nursing female mice, removal of PEG3 resulted in …

Evaluation Of Commercial-Scale Approaches For Cryopreservation Of White Crappie, Pomoxis Annularis, Sperm, Charlie M. Culpepper, Amy M. Guitreau, Shay Allred, Terrence R. Tiersch, Peter J. Allen

Faculty Publications

Crappie, Pomoxis spp., are popular game fish throughout North America and are produced by public and private hatcheries. However, production is limited by a lack of information on tank culture and induced spawning methods. Development of techniques for storage of sperm and in vitro fertilization would increase flexibility in spawning. Therefore, techniques for sperm cryopreservation were examined in white crappie, Pomoxis annularis. Sperm from adult wild white crappie were used to evaluate sperm extender, cryoprotectant agent and concentration, and cooling technique based on post-thaw sperm motility. Percent egg fertilization was also compared between sperm stored in the two best cryopreservation …

Addressing Reproducibility In Cryopreservation, And Considerations Necessary For Commercialization And Community Development In Support Of Genetic Resources Of Aquatic Species, Leticia Torres, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

For the past six decades a repeated cycle of developing new cryopreservation protocols or simply reinventing them to counteract a lack of reproducibility has led to hundreds of published studies that have offered little to the establishment of a genetic resources community for aquatic species. This has hampered repository development and inhibited industrial application. Most protocols were developed without standardized approaches, leading to irreproducible studies and questionable or meaningless comparisons. Thus cryopreservation of germplasm in aquatic species would greatly benefit from strategies to facilitate reproducibility. Our objectives were to: (1) identify major sources of irreproducibility across research, small-scale, repository, and …

Biochar Produced From Mineral Salt-Impregnated Chicken Manure: Fertility Properties And Potential For Carbon Sequestration, Ran Xiao, Jim J. Wang, Lewis A. Gaston, Baoyue Zhou, Jong Hwan Park, Ronghua Li, Syam K. Dodla, Zengqiang Zhang

Faculty Publications

In this study, nutrient properties and carbon sequestration potential of biochars derived from chicken manure (CM) impregnated with mineral salts (calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, ferric chloride) were evaluated. Pretreatment with mineral salts reduced phosphorus (P) availability via the formation of insoluble metal phosphate minerals. Less carbon was lost during the pyrolysis of pretreated CM, and the produced biochars (BCCa, BCMg, and BCFe) were more stable (i.e., reduced C loss during chemical oxidation and less CO2 release during incubation) than pristine biochars. Spectroscopic evidence indicated that enhanced biochar stability via metal salt pretreatment before pyrolysis was related to increased aromatization and …

Predictability Matters: Role Of The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex In Disambiguation Of Overlapping Sequences, Justine E. Cohen, Robert Ross, Chantal E. Stern

Faculty Publications

Previous research has demonstrated that areas in the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex (PFC) show increased activation during retrieval of overlapping sequences. In this study, we designed a task in which degree of overlap varied between conditions in order to parse out the contributions of hippocampal and prefrontal subregions as overlap between associations increased. In the task, participants learned sequential associations consisting of a picture frame, a face within the picture frame, and an outdoor scene. The control condition consisted of a single frame-face-scene sequence. In the low overlap condition, each frame was paired with two faces and two …

Divine Appointments, S. Joseph Kidder

Faculty Publications

"A divine appointment is a meeting with another person(s) that God has specifically and unmistakably arranged. The Holy Spirit sets up such encounters because someone needs what He can offer them through you. You are one conversation away from God bestowing His favor on them as you act as His channel of blessing. Often that encounter will be with some-one you have never met before."

Skin Glands Of An Aquatic Salamander Vary In Size And Distribution And Release Antimicrobial Secretions Effective Against Chytrid Fungal Pathogens, Kenzie E. Pereira, Brian I. Crother, David M. Sever, Clifford L. Fontenot, John A. Pojman, Damien B. Wilburn, Sarah K. Woodley

Faculty Publications

© 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. Amphibian skin is unique among vertebrate classes, containing a large number of multicellular exocrine glands that vary among species and have diverse functions. The secretions of skin glands contain a rich array of bioactive compounds including antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Such compounds are important for amphibian innate immune responses and may protect some species from chytridiomycosis, a lethal skin disease caused by the fungal pathogens Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). While the bioactivity of skin secretions against Bd has been assessed for many amphibian taxa, similar studies are lacking for …

Responses Of Non-Native Earthworms To Experimental Eradication Of Garlic Mustard And Implications For Native Vegetation, Kristina A. Stinson, Serita D. Frey, M. R. Jackson, E. Coates-Connor, Mark A. Anthony, K. Martinez

Faculty Publications

Recent studies in invasion biology suggest that positive feedback among two or more introduced organisms facilitate establishment within a new range and drive changes in native plant communities. Here, we experimentally tested for relationships between native plants and two non-native organisms invading forest habitats in North America: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata, Brassicaceae) and earthworms. In two forested sites, we compared understory vegetation and earthworm biomass in plots where garlic mustard was removed for three years, plots without garlic mustard invasion, and plots invaded by garlic mustard that was not removed. Earthworm biomass was highest in the plots with garlic mustard, …

L-Citrulline Supplementation: Impact On Cardiometabolic Health, Timothy D. Allerton, David N. Proctor, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Tammy R. Dugas, Guillaume Spielmann, Brian A. Irving

Faculty Publications

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Diminished bioavailability of nitric oxide (NO), the gaseous signaling molecule involved in the regulation of numerous vital biological functions, contributes to the development and progression of multiple age-and lifestyle-related diseases. While L-arginine is the precursor for the synthesis of NO by endothelial-nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), oral L-arginine supplementation is largely ineffective at increasing NO synthesis and/or bioavailability for a variety of reasons. L-citrulline, found in high concentrations in watermelon, is a neutral alpha-amino acid formed by enzymes in the mitochondria that also serves as a substrate for recycling L-arginine. Unlike L-arginine, …

Smokers' Neurological Responses To Novel And Repeated Health Warning Labels (Hwls) From Cigarette Packages, Johann F. Fridriksson, Chris Rorden, Roger D. Newman-Norlund, Brett Froeliger, Jim Thrasher

Faculty Publications

Graphic health warning labels (HWLs) depicting bodily injury due to smoking are effective for producing changes in affect, cognition and smoking behavior in adult smokers. However, little is known about the effects of repeated presentation of graphic HWL’s on the aforementioned processes. The goal of this study was to examine neural and behavioral responses to graphic HWL’s and evaluate whether the repeated presentation of graphic HWL’s leads to repetition suppression (RS). Smokers (N = 16) performed an event-related HWL cue task while blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal was collected during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experimental session. Consistent …

Future Research Directions In Pneumonia, Charles S. Dela Cruz, Richard G. Wunderink, David C. Christiani, Stephania A. Cormier, Kristina Crothers, Claire M. Doerschuk, Scott E. Evans, Daniel R. Goldstein, Purvesh Khatri, Lester Kobzik, Jay K. Kolls, Bruce D. Levy, Mark L. Metersky, Michael S. Niederman, Roomi Nusrat, Carlos J. Orihuela, Paula Peyrani, Alice S. Prince, Julio A. Ramírez, Karen M. Ridge, Sanjay Sethi, Benjamin T. Suratt, Jacob I. Sznajder, Ephraim L. Tsalik, Allan J. Walkey, Sachin Yende, Neil R. Aggarwal, Elisabet V. Caler, Joseph P. Mizgerd

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2018 by the American Thoracic Society. Pneumonia is a complex pulmonary disease in need of new clinical approaches. Although triggered by a pathogen, pneumonia often results from dysregulations of host defense that likely precede infection. The coordinated activities of immune resistance and tissue resilience then dictate whether and how pneumonia progresses or resolves. Inadequate or inappropriate host responses lead to more severe outcomes such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and to organ dysfunction beyond the lungs and over extended time frames after pathogen clearance, some of which increase the risk for subsequent pneumonia. Improved understanding of such host …

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure In Seaside Sparrows (Ammodramus Maritimus) Following The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Anna A. Perez-Umphrey, Christine M. Bergeon Burns, Philip C. Stouffer, Stefan Woltmann, Sabrina S. Taylor

Faculty Publications

The seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus) is an abundant and permanent resident of coastal salt marshes impacted by the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Such terrestrial species are often overlooked in the aftermath of marine spills, despite the potential for long-term oil exposure. We sampled the livers of seaside sparrows residing in oiled and unoiled sites from 2011 to 2014 and quantified expression of cytochrome p450 1A (CYP1A), a gene involved in the metabolism of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In August 2011, CYP1A expression was markedly higher in birds from an oiled site compared to an unoiled site, but differences …

An Ensemble Stacked Convolutional Neural Network Model For Environmental Event Sound Recognition, Shaobo Li, Yong Yao, Jie Hu, Guokai Liu, Xuemei Yao, Jianjun Hu

Faculty Publications

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with log-mel audio representation and CNN-based end-to-end learning have both been used for environmental event sound recognition (ESC). However, log-mel features can be complemented by features learned from the raw audio waveform with an effective fusion method. In this paper, we first propose a novel stacked CNN model with multiple convolutional layers of decreasing filter sizes to improve the performance of CNN models with either log-mel feature input or raw waveform input. These two models are then combined using the Dempster–Shafer (DS) evidence theory to build the ensemble DS-CNN model for ESC. Our experiments over three …

Litter Identity Affects Assimilation Of Carbon And Nitrogen By A Shredding Caddisfly, Adam C. Siders, Zacchaeus G. Compson, Bruce A. Hungate, Paul Dijkstra, George W. Koch, Adam S. Wymore, A. Stuart Grandy, Jane C. Marks

Faculty Publications

Ecologists often equate litter quality with decomposition rate. In soil and sediments, litter that is rapidly decomposed by microbes often has low concentrations of tannin and lignin and low C:N ratios. Do these same traits also favor element transfer to higher trophic levels in streams, where many insects depend on litter as their primary food source? We test the hypothesis that slow decomposition rates promote element transfer from litter to insects, whereas rapid decomposition favors microbes. We measured carbon and nitrogen fluxes from four plant species to a leaf-shredding caddisfly using isotopically labeled litter. Caddisflies assimilated a higher percentage of …

Hydrogels For Cell Delivery, Esmaiel Jabbari

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Malleilactone Is A Burkholderia Pseudomallei Virulence Factor Regulated By Antibiotics And Quorum Sensing, Jennifer R. Klaus, Jacqueline Deay, Benjamin Neuenswander, Wyatt Hursh, Zhe Gao, Tiffany Bouddhara, Todd D. Williams, Justin Douglas, Kyle Monize, Patricia Martins, Charlotte Majerczyk, Mohammad R. Seyedsayamdost, Blake R. Peterson, Mario Rivera, Josephine R. Chandler

Faculty Publications

© 2018 American Society for Microbiology. Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, encodes almost a dozen predicted polyketide (PK) biosynthetic gene clusters. Many of these are regulated by LuxR-I-type acyl-homoserine (AHL) quorum-sensing systems. One of the PK gene clusters, the mal gene cluster, is conserved in the close relative Burkholderia thailandensis. The B. thailandensis mal genes code for the cytotoxin malleilactone and are regulated by a genetically linked LuxR-type transcription factor, MalR. Although AHLs typically interact with LuxR-type proteins to modulate gene transcription, the B. thailandensis MalR does not appear to be an AHL receptor. Here, we characterize the …