Digital Commons Network^™

Environmental Dna Sequencing Primers For Eutardigrades And Bdelloid Rotifers, Byron J. Adams, Jeremy Whiting, Elizabeth K. Costello, Kristen R. Freeman, Andrew P. Martin, Michael S. Robeson, Steve K. Schmidt

Faculty Publications

Background: The time it takes to isolate individuals from environmental samples and then extract DNA from each individual is one of the problems with generating molecular data from meiofauna such as eutardigrades and bdelloid rotifers. The lack of consistent morphological information and the extreme abundance of these classes makes morphological identification of rare, or even common cryptic taxa a large and unwieldy task. This limits the ability to perform large-scale surveys of the diversity of these organisms. Here we demonstrate a culture-independent molecular survey approach that enables the generation of large amounts of eutardigrade and bdelloid rotifer sequence data directly …

Three-Way Tiling Sets In Two Dimensions, David R. Larson, Peter Massopust, Gestur Ólafsson

Faculty Publications

In this article we show that there exist measurable sets W⊂ℝ2 with finite measure that tile ℝ2 in a measurable way under the action of a expansive matrix A, an affine Weyl group W ̃ and a full rank lattice Γ⊂ ℝ 2 . This note is follow-up research to the earlier article "Coxeter groups and wavelet sets" by the first and second authors, and is also relevant to the earlier article "Coxeter groups, wavelets, multiresolution and sampling" by M. Dobrescu and the third author. After writing these two articles, the three authors participated in a workshop at the Banff …

Existing Biomass Infrastructure And Theoretical Potential Biomass Production In The U.S, Jeremy R. Porter, Frank M. Howell, Philip B. Mason, Troy C. Blanchard

Faculty Publications

The recent and projected status of energy production and consumption in the U.S., resulting in substantial dependencies upon foreign oil, has continued to provide pressure on domestic energy security. All told, bio-energy systems, and biomass crop production in particular, will be important elements of national security, economic vitality, and public policy. Using biomass crop estimates based upon models developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we identify potential biomass crop production zones within the contiguous 48 states of the United States using spatially centered analytic methods. The Midwest and the South regions of the United States are, by far, the …

Heterologous Expression Studies Of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Reveal Two Distinct Trypanosomatid Caax Protease Activities And Identify Their Potential Targets, David Z. Mokry, Surya P. Manandhar, Kristen A. Chicola, George M. Santangelo, Walter K. Schmidt

Faculty Publications

The CaaX tetrapeptide motif typically directs three sequential posttranslational modifications, namely, isoprenylation, proteolysis, and carboxyl methylation. In all eukaryotic systems evaluated to date, two CaaX proteases (Rce1 and Ste24/Afc1) have been identified. Although the Trypanosoma brucei genome also encodes two putative CaaX proteases, the lack of detectable T. brucei Ste24 activity in trypanosome cell extracts has suggested that CaaX proteolytic activity within this organism is solely attributed to T. brucei Rce1 (J. R. Gillespie et al., Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 153: 115-124. 2007). In this study, we demonstrate that both T. brucei Rce1 and T. brucei Ste24 are enzymatically active when …

Cellular Biophysics During Freezing Of Rat And Mouse Sperm Predicts Post-Thaw Motility, Mie Hagiwara, Jeung Hwan Choi, Ramachandra V. Devireddy, Kenneth P. Roberts, Willem F. Wolkers, Antoine Makhlouf, John C. Bischof

Faculty Publications

Though cryopreservation of mouse sperm yields good survival and motility after thawing, cryopreservation of rat sperm remains a challenge. This study was designed to evaluate the biophysics (membrane permeability) of rat in comparison to mouse to better understand the cooling rate response that contributes to cryopreservation success or failure in these two sperm types. In order to extract subzero membrane hydraulic permeability in the presence of ice, a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) method was used. By analyzing rat and mouse sperm frozen at 5°C/min and 20°C/min, heat release signatures characteristic of each sperm type were obtained and correlated to cellular …

Improved Hydrogeophysical Parameter Estimation From Empirical Mode Decomposition Processed Ground Penetrating Radar Data, Adrian Addison, Bradley M. Battista, Camelia C. Knapp

Faculty Publications

Various techniques have been designed to maximize the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) as an exploration tool. Improvements in signal processing are expected to further facilitate the accuracy of parameters derived from using GPR in certain geologic environments. Common-offset GPR data were collected at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Beaufort, South Carolina, and dielectric constants were calculated following the application of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) for dewowing GPR traces. Conventional signal processing is applied to the GPR traces to provide hydrogeophysical parameter estimates such as volumetric water content, porosity, and hydraulic conductivity. The results are validated …

Open For Learning: The Cms And The Open Learning Network, Jon Mott, David Wiley

Faculty Publications

The course management system (CMS) reinforces the status quo and hinders substantial teaching and learning innovation in higher education. It does so by imposing artificial time limits on learner access to course content and other learners, privileging the role of the instructor at the expense of the learner, and limiting the power of the network effect in the learning process. The open learning network (OLN)—a hybrid of the CMS and the personal learning environment (PLE)—is proposed as an alternative learning technology environment with the potential to leverage the affordances of the Web to dramatically improve learning.

Structured P2p Technologies For Distributed Command And Control, Daniel R. Karrels, Gilbert L. Peterson, Barry E. Mullins

Faculty Publications

The utility of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems extends far beyond traditional file sharing. This paper provides an overview of how P2P systems are capable of providing robust command and control for Distributed Multi-Agent Systems (DMASs). Specifically, this article presents the evolution of P2P architectures to date by discussing supporting technologies and applicability of each generation of P2P systems. It provides a detailed survey of fundamental design approaches found in modern large-scale P2P systems highlighting design considerations for building and deploying scalable P2P applications. The survey includes unstructured P2P systems, content retrieval systems, communications structured P2P systems, flat structured P2P systems and …

Ultrafast Vibrational Spectroscopy Of A Degenerate Mode Of Guanidinium Chloride, Dmitriy Yu Vorobyev, Chun Hung Kuo, Jian Xin Chen, Daniel G. Kuroda, J. Nathan Scott, Jane M. Vanderkooi, Robin M. Hochstrasser

Faculty Publications

Nearly degenerate asymmetric stretches with perpendicular transition dipóle moments of the deuterated guanidinium cation (DGdm-) in D2O and D-glycerol/D2O mixtures at 1600 cm-1 were investigated by linear FTIR spectroscopy and polarization dependent femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. The vibrational coupling of the asymmetric stretches of guanidinium occurs within 0.5 ps and leads to fast decay of the anisotropy to a level of 0.1. A systematic study of the influence of the coherence transfer on pump-probe signals is given. Following this decay, the anisotropy decays with a time constant of 4.1 ps in D2O by rotational diffusion about an axis perpendicular to the …

Edwardsiella Ictaluri Encodes An Acid-Activated Urease That Is Required For Intracellular Replication In Channel Catfish (Ictalurus Punctatus) Macrophages, Natha J. Booth, Judith B. Beekman, Ronald L. Thune

Faculty Publications

Genomic analysis indicated that Edwardsiella ictaluri encodes a putative urease pathogenicity island containing the products of nine open reading frames, including urea and ammonium transporters. In vitro studies with wild-type E. ictaluri and a ureG::kan urease mutant strain indicated that E. ictaluri is significantly tolerant of acid conditions (pH 3.0) but that urease activity is not required for acid tolerance. Growth studies demonstrated that E. ictaluri is unable to grow at pH 5 in the absence of urea but is able to elevate the environmental pH from pH 5 to pH 7 and grow when exogenous urea is available. Substantial …

Arabidopsis Actin-Related Protein Arp5 In Multicellular Development And Dna Repair, Muthugapatti K. Kandasamy, Elizabeth C. Mckinney, Roger B. Deal, Aaron P. Smith, Richard B. Meagher

Faculty Publications

Actin-related protein 5 (ARP5) is a conserved subunit of the INO80 chromatin-remodeling complex in yeast and mammals. We have characterized the expression and subcellular distribution of Arabidopsis thaliana ARP5 and explored its role in the epigenetic control of multicellular development and DNA repair. ARP5-specific monoclonal antibodies localized ARP5 protein to the nucleoplasm of interphase cells in Arabidopsis and Nicotiana tabacum. ARP5 promoter-reporter fusions and the ARP5 protein are ubiquitously expressed. A null mutant and a severe knockdown allele produced moderately dwarfed plants with all organs smaller than the wild type. The small and slightly deformed organs such as leaves and …

A National Physical Activity Plan For The United States, Russell R. Pate

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Historians And The Many Lyndon Johnsons: A Review Essay, Kent B. Germany

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Review Of The National Physical Activity Plans Of Six Countries, Daniel B. Bornstein, Russell R. Pate, Michael Pratt

Faculty Publications

Background: Architects of the United States national physical activity plan can benefit from a thorough understanding of national physical activity plans from other nations. The purpose of this paper was to search for and analyze comprehensive national physical activity plan documents that can best inform the development of the U.S. plan. Methods: Electronic databases were searched for national physical activity plan documents, yielding 252 documents from 56 countries. After eliminating documents that were not written in English, did not address physical activity primarily, and did not meet our definition of a national physical activity plan, we were left with physical …

Openness, Dynamic Specialization, And The Disaggregated Future Of Higher Education, John L. Hilton Iii, David Wiley

Faculty Publications

Openness is a fundamental value underlying significant changes in society and is a prerequisite to changes institutions of higher education need to make in order to remain relevant to the society in which they exist. There are a number of ways institutions can be more open, including programs of open sharing of educational materials. Individual faculty can also choose to be more open without waiting for institutional programs. Increasing degrees of openness in society coupled with innovations in business strategy like dynamic specialization are enabling radical experiments in higher education and exerting increasing competitive pressure on conventional higher education institutions. …

Openness, Dynamic Specialization, And The Disaggregated Future Of Higher Education, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley

Faculty Publications

Openness is a fundamental value underlying significant changes in society and is a prerequisite to changes institutions of higher education need to make in order to remain relevant to the society in which they exist. There are a number of ways institutions can be more open, including programs of open sharing of educational materials. Individual faculty can also choose to be more open without waiting for institutional programs. Increasing degrees of openness in society coupled with innovations in business strategy like dynamic specialization are enabling radical experiments in higher education and exerting increasing competitive pressure on conventional higher education institutions. …

Synthetic Science: A Response To Rainbow, David S. Caudill

Faculty Publications

Rabinow’s description of the unique collaborative goal of synthetic biology at Berkeley, to foster a coproduction among multiple disciplines and perspectives from the outset (as opposed to downstream reflection upon ethical, legal, and social implications), is somewhat misleading. While that particular assemblage is represented as coproductive, the inevitability of science as a coproduction is eclipsed. That shortcoming may well be a strategic compromise to ensure effective collaboration, but it could backfire. Idealized images of science, which might be termed synthetic or artificial, have had adverse consequences in legal and administrative assessments of reliable science.

Magnetic And Nonmagnetic Nanoparticles From A Group Of Uniform Materials Based On Organic Salts, Aaron Tesfai, Bilal El-Zahab, Algernon T. Kelley, Min Li, Jayne C. Garno, Gary A. Baker, Isiah M. Warner

Faculty Publications

The size and uniformity of magnetic nanoparticles developed from a group of uniform materials based on organic salts (GUMBOS) were controlled using an in situ ion exchange, water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsion preparation. Most of these nanoGUMBOS are in fact ionic liquids (i.e., melting points less than 100 °C), while others have melting points above the conventional 100 °C demarcation. Simple variations in the reagent concentrations following a w/o approach allowed us to smoothly and predictably vary nanoparticle dimensions across a significant size regime with excellent uniformity. Average sizesofGUMBOS particles ranging from 14 to 198 nm were achieved by manipulation of the …

Incorporating Civility Into Public Education: An Empirical Survey Of School Professionals, Keely Wilkins, Paul Caldarella, K. Richard Young

Faculty Publications

Those working in schools are encouraged to model and directly teach civil behaviors. There are no definitive answers for what specific behaviors should be addressed, but this research provided ideas for what might be done to increase students’ civil behaviors.

Knockdown Of The Drosophila Gtpase Nucleostemin 1 Impairs Large Ribosomal Subunit Biogenesis, Cell Growth, And Midgut Precursor Cell Maintenance, Raphyel Rosby, Cui Zhengfang, Emily Rogers, Megan A. Delivron, Victoria L. Robinson, Patrick J. Dimario

Faculty Publications

Mammalian nucleostemin (NS) is a nucleolar guanosine triphosphate-binding protein implicated in cell cycle progression, stem cell proliferation, and ribosome assembly. Drosophila melanogaster contains a four-member nucleostemin family (NS1-4). NS1 is the closest orthologue to human NS; it shares 33% identity and 67% similarity with human NS. We show that NS1 has intrinsic GTPase and ATPase activity and that it is present within nucleoli of most larval and adult cells. Endogenous NS1 and lightly expressed green fluorescent protein (GFP)-NS1 enrich within the nucleolar granular regions as expected, whereas overexpressed GFP-NS1 localized throughout the nucleolus and nucleoplasm, and to several transcriptionally active …

St. John's Wort Inhibits Adipocyte Differentiation And Induces Insulin Resistance In Adipocytes, Zhaleh Amini, Bryant Boyd, Julie Doucet, David M. Ribnicky, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

Adipocytes are insulin sensitive cells that play a major role in energy homeostasis. Obesity is the primary disease of fat cells and a major risk factor for the development of Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. Obesity and its related disorders result in dysregulation of the mechanisms that control adipocyte gene expression and function. To identify potential novel therapeutic modulators of adipocytes, we screened 425 botanical extracts for their ability to modulate adipogenesis and insulin sensitivity. We observed that less than 2% of the extracts had substantial effects on adipocyte differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells. Two of the botanical …

What Kinds Of Statutory Restrictions Are Jurisdictional?, Scott Dodson

Faculty Publications

Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides that “no civil action for infringement of the copyright in any United States work shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of the copyright claim has been made.” In this case, a district court approved a class action settlement that purported to resolve both registered and unregistered copyright claims. The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether that registration requirement is a limitation on federal court subject-matter jurisdiction.

Your Personal Renaissance: 12 Steps To Finding Your Life’S True Calling By D. Dreher, E Michael Brady Phd

Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book Your Personal Renaissance: 12 Steps to Finding Your Life's True Calling, by Diane Dreher.

Using Facebook To Connect With Students, Jared L. Howland

Faculty Publications

This poster was presented at the Library Information and Technology Association's 2009 National Forum in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Don Reitz: Out Of The Ashes, Jo Farb Hernandez

Faculty Publications

The writer discusses the work of ceramic sculptor Don Reitz on the occasion of an exhibition of his work at the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery at San Jose State University in San Jose, California, from October 28 to December 19, 2008. Over the past 50 years, Reitz has worked unflaggingly, investigating different clays, types of firing, and ceramics traditions. This master technician and unique potter opts to dramatically alter his thrown forms, manipulating classic contours by pushing, pulling, stabbing, marking, and painting.

The Impact Of News Coverage On Conflict: Toward Greater Understanding, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

This article develops an approach for the empirical study of the news media’s impact on the conflict that it covers. While mass communications research has studied how the news media covers conflict, it has not taken the next step of assessing the impact of that coverage. This article contends that such an inquiry is necessarily an inter-disciplinary task, and joins conflict theory with mass communications research to identify the kinds of questions that may be empirically tested to determine whether the news media is having a constructive or destructive effect on the conflict that it covers.

Protecting Quantum Information With Entanglement And Noisy Optical Modes, Mark M. Wilde, Todd A. Brun

Faculty Publications

We incorporate active and passive quantum error-correcting techniques to protect a set of optical information modes of a continuous-variable quantum information system. Our method uses ancilla modes, entangled modes, and gauge modes (modes in a mixed state) to help correct errors on a set of information modes. A linear-optical encoding circuit consisting of offline squeezers, passive optical devices, feedforward control, conditional modulation, and homodyne measurements performs the encoding. The result is that we extend the entanglement-assisted operator stabilizer formalism for discrete variables to continuous-variable quantum information processing. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Encoding Properties Of Auditory Neurons In The Brain Of A Soniferous Damselfish: Response To Simple Tones And Complex Conspecific Signals, Karen P. Maruska, Timothy C. Tricas

Faculty Publications

The fish auditory system encodes important acoustic stimuli used in social communication, but few studies have examined response properties of central auditory neurons to natural signals. We determined the features and responses of single hindbrain and midbrain auditory neurons to tone bursts and playbacks of conspecific sounds in the soniferous damselfish, Abudefduf abdominalis. Most auditory neurons were either silent or had slow irregular resting discharge rates ~130 Hz but ranged from 80 to 400 Hz with strong phase-locking. This low-frequency sensitivity matches the frequency band of natural sounds. Auditory neurons were also modulated by playbacks of conspecific sounds with thresholds …

Copper Oxide Nanoparticles Induce Oxidative Stress And Cytotoxicity In Airway Epithelial Cells, Baher Fahmy, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

Metal oxide nanoparticles are often used as industrial catalysts and elevated levels of these particles have been clearly demonstrated at sites surrounding factories. To date, limited toxicity data on metal oxide nanoparticles are available. To understand the impact of these airborne pollutants on the respiratory system, airway epithelial (HEp-2) cells were exposed to increasing doses of silicon oxide (SiO2), ferric oxide (Fe2O3) and copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles, the leading metal oxides found in ambient air surrounding factories. CuO induced the greatest amount of cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner; while even high doses (400 μg/cm2) of SiO2 and Fe2O3 were non-toxic …

Nutrition Literacy Status And Preferred Nutrition Communication Channels Among Adults In The Lower Mississippi Delta, Jamie Zoellner, Carol L. Connell, Wendy Bounds, Lashaundrea Crook, M. Kathleen Yadrick

Faculty Publications

Introduction

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the nutrition literacy status of adults in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Methods

Survey instruments included the Newest Vital Sign and an adapted version of the Health Information National Trends Survey. A proportional quota sampling plan was used to represent educational achievement of residents in the Delta region. Participants included 177 adults, primarily African Americans (81%). Descriptive statistics, X(2) analysis, analysis of variance, and multivariate analysis of covariance tests were used to examine survey data.

Results

Results indicated that 24% of participants had a high likelihood of limited nutrition literacy, 28% …