Digital Commons Network^™

Varietal Resistance And Chemical Ecology Of The Rice Stink Bug, Oebalus Pugnax, On Rice, Oryza Sativa, Santhi Bhavanam, Michael J. Stout

Faculty Publications

The rice stink bug, Oebalus pugnax F. (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a key pest of heading rice in the southern United States. Chemical insecticide application is currently the primary method of control of O. pugnax, warranting an improved management program for this species. The potential other management tactics for O. pugnax include eco-friendly measures such as host-plant resistance, silicon application, and the use of semiochemicals. In this study, the feeding preference and performance of O. puganx on cultivated and non-cultivated rice varieties were examined. Choice tests showed that the rice varieties Cheniere and Kaybonnet were most and least preferred by O. …

Mortality Of The Crapemyrtle Bark Scale (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae) By Commercial Biopesticides Under Greenhouse And Field Conditions, Giovana Matos Franco, Yan Chen, Vinson P. Doyle, Stephen A. Rehner, Rodrigo Diaz

Faculty Publications

The crapemyrtle bark scale (CMBS), Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae, is an important pest of crapemyrtles, Lagerstroemia spp. Biopesticides are frequently used to control soft-bodied insects; however, there is no information on their efficacy against CMBS. The objectives of this study were to test the use of selected biopesticides against CMBS under different seasons, evaluate their pathogenicity to CMBS, and determine optimum temperature for spore germination. Commercial formulations of the fungal biopesticides Isaria fumosorosea PFR97, Beauveria bassiana ANT-03, and the bacterial biopesticides Burkholderia rinojensis A396 and Chromobacterium subtsugae PRAA4-1 T were tested in greenhouse settings and did not have significant treatment effect on …

Lethal Concentration And Sporulation By Contact And Direct Spray Of The Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria Bassiana On Different Stages Of Nezara Viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), Maribel Portilla, Minling Zhang, James Paul Glover, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Chris Johnson

Faculty Publications

The southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is the most significant pest of soybean worldwide. The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of a Delta native strain NI8 of Beauveria bassiana by contact and direct spray on nymphs (2nd to 5th instar) and adults of N. viridula. Water control and four concentrations of B. bassiana were used to evaluate the survival, mortality, and molting percentage and to estimate median lethal concentration (LC50), median lethal sporulation (LS50), and resistance ratio (RR50). Direct spray at all concentrations observed the greatest reduction in survival on all life stages. …

Carbon Dioxide Degassing And Lateral Dissolved Carbon Export During The Unprecedented 2019 Mississippi River Mega Flood – Implications For Large River Carbon Transport Under Future Climate, Y. J. Xu, Z. Xu

Faculty Publications

In 2019, the Mississippi River experienced the longest and largest flood that surpassed by far the 1927, 1973, and 2011 mega floods. This unprecedented event provided an unique opportunity to test the hypotheses that summer floods increase not only lateral dissolved carbon transport but also carbon dioxide (CO2) degassing, and that the increase in CO2 outgassing from river surface occurs mainly due to higher terrestrial carbon inputs and warmer temperatures. To test the hypotheses, we conducted intensive river sampling and in-situ measurements on partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and other water physical, chemical and biological parameters in 6-day intervals throughout …

Hydrologic Connectivity And Residence Time Affect The Sediment Trapping Efficiency And Dissolved Oxygen Concentrations Of The Atchafalaya River Basin, Daniel E. Kroes, Richard H. Day, Michael D. Kaller, Charles R. Demas, William E. Kelso, Tiffany Pasco, Raynie Harlan, Steven Roberts

Faculty Publications

Little is known about water movement, volume, or residence time (RT), and how those characteristics affect sediment trapping efficiency (TE) and dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO) in the United States' largest remaining bottomland hardwood swamp, the Atchafalaya River Basin. To better understand these dynamics, this study used bathymetry, lidar, and stage records to determine volumes in the Basin's hydrologically distinct water management units (WMUs). Discharge measurements determined flow distribution and RT. Residence time was compared with DO to identify conditions that coincided with DO increases or decreases. Suspended sediment concentrations (SSC) were used to determine TE relative to calculated and measured …

Louisiana Black-Bellied Whistling-Duck Clutch Characteristics In The Presence Of Conspecific And Interspecific Brood Parasitism, Dylan L. Bakner, Katie E. Miranda, Kevin M. Ringelman

Faculty Publications

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis; Whistling-Duck) are undergoing a rapid range expansion northward and now breed throughout the Southeastern United States. As a facultative cavity-nesting species, they have the potential to compete with Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) and Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) for nest sites. Little is known about Whistling-Duck breeding biology, and estimates of clutch characteristics and rates of conspecific and interspecific brood parasitism (CBP and IBP, respectively) are lacking. We monitored Whistling-Duck nests in Louisiana to describe nesting chronology, clutch size of parasitized and unparasitized (normal) nests, and hatchability (i.e., the portion of eggs that hatched) for clutches of …

Modeling The Sorption Of Ni(Ii) And Zn(Ii) By Mn Oxide–Coated Sand: Equilibrium And Kinetic Approaches, Joshua T. Padilla, H. Magdi Selim, Lewis A. Gaston

Faculty Publications

The behavior of metal cations in oxide-dominated systems is controlled by sorption reactions, which in turn depend on pH. Descriptions of such reactions are of interest for contaminant monitoring or remediation efforts; however, widely used isotherms such as Freundlich or Langmuir neglect the effect of pH and are therefore limited in their applicability. Two pH-dependent isotherms and their kinetic analogs were developed and evaluated regarding their ability to describe equilibrium and time-dependent sorption of Ni and Zn by Mn oxide–coated sand (MOCS). The sorption of Ni and Zn by MOCS at pH 4.0, 5.5, and 7.0 was investigated using batch …

Impact Of Biochar, Fertilizers And Cultivation Type On Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals In Agricultural Soil, Edita Baltrėnaitė-Gedienė, Slawomir Lomnicki, Chuqi Guo

Faculty Publications

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) have been considered as emerging contaminants due to their detrimental effects on human health. The adverse health impacts are attributed to oxidative stress induced by EPFRs through the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The biochar pyrolysis process entails the thermal decomposition of organic compounds in the biomass, with the carbonization conditions and feedstock type facilitating the formation of EPFRs. When biochar is used to amend soil, these radicals may promote the formation of ROS, and thus influence the transformation of organic and inorganic contaminants in soil and impact the rhizosphere. Agricultural soils are being …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of Machine Learning Econometrics In Asset Pricing, Hector O. Zapata, Supratik Mukhopadhyay

Faculty Publications

Machine learning (ML) is a novel method that has applications in asset pricing and that fits well within the problem of measurement in economics. Unlike econometrics, ML models are not designed for parameter estimation and inference, but similar to econometrics, they address, and may be better suited for, problems of prediction. While some ML methods have been applied in econometrics for decades, their success in prediction has been limited, and examples of this abound in the asset pricing literature. In recent years, the ML literature has advanced new, more efficient, computation methods for regularization, modeling nonlinearity, and improved out-of-sample prediction. …

The Global Regulator Mftr Controls Virulence And Siderophore Production In Burkholderia Thailandensis, Sudarshan S. Thapa, Ahmed Al-Tohamy, Anne Grove

Faculty Publications

Burkholderia thailandensis is a member of the Burkholderia pseudomallei complex. It encodes the transcription factor MftR, which is conserved among the more pathogenic Burkholderia spp. and previously shown to be a global regulator of gene expression. We report here that a B. thailandensis strain in which the mftR gene is disrupted is more virulent in both Caenorhabditis elegans and onion. The DmftR strain exhibits a number of phenotypes associated with virulence. It is more proficient at forming biofilm, and the arcDABC gene cluster, which has been linked to anaerobic survival and fitness within a biofilm, is upregulated. Swimming and swarming …

High-Resolution Ribosome Profiling Reveals Translational Selectivity For Transcripts In Bovine Preimplantation Embryo Development, Linkai Zhu, Tong Zhou, Rajan Iyyappan, Hao Ming, Michal Dvoran, Yinjuan Wang, Qi Chen, R. Michael Roberts, Andrej Susor, Zongliang Jiang

Faculty Publications

High-resolution ribosome fractionation and low-input ribosome profiling of bovine oocytes and preimplantation embryos has enabled us to define the translational landscapes of early embryo development at an unprecedented level. We analyzed the transcriptome and the polysome- and non-polysome-bound RNA profiles of bovine oocytes (germinal vesicle and metaphase II stages) and early embryos at the two-cell, eight-cell, morula and blastocyst stages, and revealed four modes of translational selectivity: (1) selective translation of non-abundant mRNAs; (2) active, but modest translation of a selection of highly expressed mRNAs; (3) translationally suppressed abundant to moderately abundant mRNAs; and (4) mRNAs associated specifically with monosomes. …

Multiscale Analysis Of Cancer Service Areas In The United States, Changzhen Wang, Tracy Onega, Fahui Wang

Faculty Publications

The purpose of delineating Cancer Service Areas (CSAs) is to define a reliable unit of analysis, more meaningful than geopolitical units such as states and counties, for examining geographic variations of the cancer care markets using geographic information systems (GIS). This study aims to provide a multiscale analysis of the U.S. cancer care markets based on the 2014–2015 Medicare claims of cancer-directed surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The CSAs are delineated by a scale-flexible network community detection algorithm automated in GIS so that the patient flows are maximized within CSAs and minimized between them. The multiscale CSAs include those comparable in …

Subpredictor Approach For Event-Triggered Control Of Discrete-Time Systems With Input Delays, Frédéric Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata, Zhong Ping Jiang

Faculty Publications

We propose a new output event-triggered control design for linear discrete-time systems with constant arbitrarily long input delays, using delay compensating subpredictors. We prove input-to-state stability of the closed loop system, using framers and the theory of positive systems. A novel feature of our approach is our use of matrices of absolute values, instead of Euclidean norms, in our discrete-time event triggers for our delay compensating control design. We illustrate our approach using a model of the BlueROV2 marine vehicle, where our new event triggers lead to a smaller number of control recomputation times as compared with standard event triggers …

Agr2-Associated Er Stress Promotes Adherent-Invasive E. Coli Dysbiosis And Triggers Cd103+ Dendritic Cell Il-23-Dependent Ileocolitis, Monica Viladomiu, Manirath Khounlotham, Belgin Dogan, Svetlana F. Lima, Ahmed Elsaadi, Emre Cardakli, Jim G. Castellanos, Charles Ng, Jeremy Herzog, Alexi A. Schoenborn, Melissa Ellermann, Bo Liu, Shiying Zhang, Ajay S. Gulati, R. Balfour Sartor, Kenneth W. Simpson, Steven M. Lipkin, Randy S. Longman

Faculty Publications

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is associated with Crohn’s disease (CD), but its impact on host-microbe interaction in disease pathogenesis is not well defined. Functional deficiency in the protein disulfide isomerase anterior gradient 2 (AGR2) has been linked with CD and leads to epithelial cell ER stress and ileocolitis in mice and humans. Here, we show that ileal expression of AGR2 correlates with mucosal Enterobactericeae abundance in human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and that Agr2 deletion leads to ER-stress-dependent expansion of mucosal-associated adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC), which drives Th17 cell ileocolitis in mice. Mechanistically, our data reveal that AIEC-induced epithelial cell …

The Biblical Imperative For Pastoral Self-Care, Petr A. Činčala, René Drumm

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Searching For Life Beyond Our System, Ryan T. Hayes

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Hierarchy Of Interactions Between Pathogenic Virus And Vertebrate Host, Robert Friedman

Faculty Publications

This review is of basic models of the interactions between a pathogenic virus and vertebrate animal host. The interactions at the population level are described by a predatory-prey model, a common approach in the ecological sciences, and depend on births and deaths within each population. This ecological perspective is complemented by models at the genetical level, which includes the dynamics of gene frequencies and the mechanisms of evolution. These perspectives are symmetrical in their relatedness and reflect the idealized forms of processes in natural systems. In the latter sections, the general use of deep learning methods is discussed within the …

A Saturated Map Of Common Genetic Variants Associated With Human Height, Loïc Yengo, Sailaja Vedantam, Eirini Marouli, Julia Sidorenko, Eric Bartell, Saori Sakaue, Marielisa Graff, Anders U. Eliasen, Yunxuan Jiang, Sridharan Raghavan, Jenkai Miao, Joshua D. Arias, Sarah E. Graham, Ronen E. Mukamel, Cassandra N. Spracklen, Xianyong Yin, Shyh Huei Chen, Teresa Ferreira, Heather H. Highland, Yingjie Ji, Tugce Karaderi, Kuang Lin, Kreete Lüll, Deborah E. Malden, Carolina Medina-Gomez, Moara Machado, Amy Moore, Sina Rüeger, Xueling Sim, Scott Vrieze, Tarunveer S. Ahluwalia, Masato Akiyama, Matthew A. Allison

Faculty Publications

Common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are predicted to collectively explain 40–50% of phenotypic variation in human height, but identifying the specific variants and associated regions requires huge sample sizes1. Here, using data from a genome-wide association study of 5.4 million individuals of diverse ancestries, we show that 12,111 independent SNPs that are significantly associated with height account for nearly all of the common SNP-based heritability. These SNPs are clustered within 7,209 non-overlapping genomic segments with a mean size of around 90 kb, covering about 21% of the genome. The density of independent associations varies across the genome and the regions of …

Simulation Modeling Of A High-Throughput Oyster Cryopreservation Pathway, Sarah Bodenstein, Isabelina Nahmens, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

The genetic resources of oysters in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico are threatened due to high unexplained oyster mortality. Germplasm repositories are collections of cryopreserved genetic material stored alongside associated information that are used to protect genetics resources and facilitate breeding programs in agricultural industries. Therefore, there is great need for oyster repositories. Development of repositories has been slow despite research on high-Throughput cryopreservation protocols because of logistical complexities. The goal of this study was to begin to address the gap between cryopreservation research and repository development in oyster aquaculture by modeling a cryopreservation protocol to understand and improve …

Higher Adherence To A Mediterranean Diet Is Associated With Improved Insulin Sensitivity And Selected Markers Of Inflammation In Individuals Who Are Overweight And Obese Without Diabetes, Surbhi Sood, Jack Feehan, Catherine Itsiopoulos, Kirsty Wilson, Magdalena Plebanski, David Scott, James Hébert Scd, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Aya Mousa, Elena S. George, Barbora De Courten

Faculty Publications

Insulin resistance (IR) and chronic low-grade inflammation are risk factors for chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to investigate two dietary indices: Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®), and their associations with direct measures of glucose metabolism and adiposity, and biochemical measures including lipids, cytokines and adipokines in overweight/obese adults. This cross-sectional study included 65 participants (males = 63%; age 31.3 ± 8.5 years). Dietary intake via 3-day food diaries was used to measure adherence to MDS (0–45 points); higher scores indicating adherence. Energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) scores were calculated with …

A Latitudinal Signal In The Relationship Between Species Geographic Range Size And Climatic Niche Area, Tad Dallas, Andrew Kramer

Faculty Publications

Species with broader niches may have the opportunity to occupy larger geographic areas, assuming no limitations on dispersal and a relatively homogeneous environmental space. Here, we use data on a large set of mammal (n = 1225), bird (n = 1829) and tree (n = 341) species to examine the 1) relationship between geographic range size and climatic niche area, 2) influence of species traits on species departures from this relationship and 3) sensitivity of these relationships to how species range size and climatic niche area are estimated. We find positive geographic range size–climatic niche area relationships for all taxa, …

Household Salt Production By The Late Classic Maya: Underwater Excavations At Ta'ab Nuk Na, Heather Mckillop, E. Cory Sills

Faculty Publications

Salt is an essential commodity; archaeological remains around the world attest to the importance of its production, exchange and consumption. Often located in coastal locations, many production sites were submerged by rising seas, including the Paynes Creek Salt Works on the southern Belize coast. Survey and excavation of these sites has identified 'kitchens' for brine boiling, as well as Terminal Classic residential structures at Ek Way Nal. The authors report the discovery of an earlier residential building alongside salt kitchens at the nearby site of Ta'ab Nuk Na. This finding indicates that surplus household production began during the Late Classic, …

High-Dielectric Pvp@Pani/Pdms Composites Fabricated Via An Electric Field-Assisted Approach, Huaixiao Wei, Yuan Yuan, Tianli Ren, Lijuan Zhou, Xueqing Liu, Haroon A.M. Saeed, Pingliang Jin, Yuwei Chen

Faculty Publications

Polymer-based composite films with multiple properties, such as low dielectric loss tangent, high dielectric constant, and low cost are promising materials in the area of electronics and electric industries. In this study, flexible dielectric films were fabricated via an electric field-assisted method. Polyaniline (PANI) was modified by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to form a core–shell structure to serve as functional particles and silicone rubber polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) served as the matrix. The dielectric constant of the composites prepared under electric fields was improved by the micro-structures formed by external electric fields. With the addition of 2.5 wt% PVP@PANI, the dielectric constant could be …

Metabolome-Wide Associations Of Gestational Weight Gain In Pregnant Women With Overweight And Obesity, Jin Dai, Nansi S. Boghossian, Mark Sarzynski Ph.D., Faha, Facsm, Feng Luo, Xiaoqian Sun, Jian Li, Oliver Fiehn, Jihong Liu Sc.D., Liwei Chen

Faculty Publications

Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. This metabolome-wide association study aimed to identify metabolomic markers for GWG. This longitudinal study included 39 Black and White pregnant women with a prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) of ≥ 25 kg/m². Untargeted metabolomic profiling was performed using fasting plasma samples collected at baseline (mean: 12.1 weeks) and 32 weeks of gestation. The associations of metabolites at each time point and changes between the two time points with GWG were examined by linear and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses. Pearson correlations between the …

Direct Measurement Of Stokes–Einstein Diffusion Of Cowpea Mosaic Virus With 19 Μs-Resolved Xpcs, Kacper Switalski, Jingyu Fang, Luxi Li, Miaoqi Chu, Erik Sarnello, Pete Jemian, Tao Li, Qian Wang, Qingteng Zhang

Faculty Publications

Brownian motion of Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) in water was measured using small-angle X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (SA-XPCS) at 19.2 mu s time resolution. It was found that the decorrelation time tau(Q) = 1/DQ(2) up to Q = 0.091 nm(-1). The hydrodynamic radius R-H determined from XPCS using Stokes-Einstein diffusion D = kT/(6 pi eta R-H) is 43% larger than the geometric radius R-0 determined from SAXS in the 0.007 M K3PO4 buffer solution, whereas it is 80% larger for CPMV in 0.5 M NaCl and 104% larger in 0.5 M (NH4)(2)SO4, a possible effect of aggregation as well as …

Direct Material Property Determination: One-Dimensional Formulation Utilising Full-Field Deformation Measurements, Sreehair Rajan-Kattil, Michael A. Sutton, Subramani Sockalingam, Frank Thomas, Tusit Weerasooriya, Stephen Alexander

Faculty Publications

A direct approach is described to determine the elastic modulus distribution in a nominally heterogeneous material subject to tensile/compression loading and primarily experiencing deformations in the axial direction. The formulation is developed for uniaxial applications using basic theoretical constructs, resulting in a computational framework that has a matrix form [A] {E} = {R}, where the [A] matrix components are known functions of measured axial strains and axial positions, {R} components are known functions of axial body forces, applied loads and reactions and {E} components are the unknown elastic moduli at discrete locations along the length of the specimen. For a …

The Exercise Metabolome: Acute Aerobic And Anaerobic Signatures, Joseph K. Pellegrino, Tracy G. Anthony, Peter Gillies, Shawn M. Arent

Faculty Publications

Background

Exercise modality differentially alters body composition and physical performance. Metabolic changes underlying these outcomes can be tracked through assessment of circulating metabolites. Here, global responses to an acute bout of aerobic or anaerobic exercise were compared in the serum of male and female subjects using a discovery-based metabolomics platform.

Methods

On separate days, 40 healthy, active participants completed 45 min of aerobic cycling or resistance exercise, and blood samples were collected at rest, immediately after (T1) and 1 hour post-exercise (T2) to examine the serum metabolomic landscape.

Results

The two exercise metabolomes appeared more similar than different in this …

Hospital Value-Based Payment Programs And Disparity In The United States: A Review Of Current Evidence And Future Perspectives, Hyunmin Kim, Asos Mahmood, Noah E. Hammarlund, Cyril F. Chang

Faculty Publications

Beginning in the early 2010s, an array of Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) programs has been developed in the United States (U.S.) to contain costs and improve health care quality. Despite documented successes in these efforts in some instances, there have been growing concerns about the programs' unintended consequences for health care disparities due to their built-in biases against health care organizations that serve a disproportionate share of disadvantaged patient populations. We explore the effects of three Medicare hospital VBP programs on health and health care disparities in the U.S. by reviewing their designs, implementation history, and evidence on health care disparities. …

Low Levels Of Hybridization Between Domestic And Wild Mallards Wintering In The Lower Mississippi Flyway, J. Brian Davis, Diana C. Outlaw, Kevin M. Ringelman, Richard M. Kaminski, Philip Lavretsky

Faculty Publications

The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) duck is a ubiquitous and socio-economically important game bird in North America. Despite their generally abundant midcontinent population, Mallards in eastern North America are declining, which may be partially explained by extensive hybridization with human-released domestically derived game-farm Mallards. We investigated the genetic composition of Mallards in the middle and lower Mississippi flyway, key wintering regions for the species. We found that nearly 30% of wild Mallards carried mitochondrial (mtDNA) haplotypes derived from domestic Mallards present in North America, indicating that the individuals had female game-farm Mallard lineage in their past; however, nuclear results identified only …

The Risk And Clinical Implications Of Antibiotic-Associated Acute Kidney Injury: A Review Of The Clinical Data For Agents With Signals From The Food And Drug Administration’S Adverse Event Reporting System (Faers) Database, Kalin M. Clifford, Ashley R. Selby, Kelly R. Reveles, Chengwen Teng, Ronald G. Hall Ii, Jamie Mccarrell, Carlos A. Alvarez

Faculty Publications

Antibiotic-associated acute kidney injury (AA-AKI) is quite common, especially among hospitalized patients; however, little is known about risk factors or mechanisms of why AA-AKI occurs. In this review, the authors have reviewed all available literature prior to 1 June 2022, with a large number of AKI reports. Information regarding risk factors of AA-AKI, mechanisms behind AA-AKI, and treatment/management principles to decrease AA-AKI risk were collected and reviewed. Patients treated in the inpatient setting are at increased risk of AA-AKI due to common risk factors: hypovolemia, concomitant use of other nephrotoxic medications, and exacerbation of comorbid conditions. Clinicians should attempt to …