Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of An Open Hardware 3-D Printed Conveyor Device For Continuous Cryopreservation Of Non-Batched Samples, Yue Liu, Melissa Eskridge, Amy Guitreau, Jacob Beckham, Megan Chesnut, Leticia Torres, Terrence R. Tiersch, William Todd Monroe

Faculty Publications

A great challenge among communities participating in germplasm repository development is to obtain suitable cryopreservation equipment and devices. Commercial programmable freezers are costly and thus unaffordable to many users. Self-made devices have substantial variability, resulting in few opportunities for standardization across communities. The development of open hardware with the increasing accessibility of three-dimensional (3-D) printing offers rapid prototyping and easy fabrication of devices by users around the world at low cost. The present study explored the feasibility of developing operational prototypes of 3-D printed motorized cryopreservation devices for continuous freezing of non-batched samples. A controlled cooling conveyor device (CCCD) was …

Grow Fast, Die Young: Does Compensatory Growth Reduce Survival Of Juvenile Blacktip Sharks (Carcharhinus Limbatus) In The Western Gulf Of Mexico?, Philip Matich, Jeffrey D. Plumlee, Mark Fisher

Faculty Publications

Effective conservation and management necessitate an understanding of the ecological mechanisms that shape species life histories in order to predict how variability in natural and anthropogenic impacts will alter growth rates, recruitment, and survival. Among these mechanisms, the interaction between parturition timing and prey availability frequently influences offspring success, particularly when postnatal care is absent. Here, we assess how parturition timing and nursery conditions, including prey abundance and environmental conditions, influence the growth and potential survival of blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) in western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) estuaries over their first year. Catch data from long-term gillnet monitoring allowed for …

Survival Of Western Gulf Coast Mottled Ducks (Anas Fulvigula) In The Path Of A Category 4 Hurricane, Kevin M. Ringelman, Elizabeth S. Bonczek, Joseph R. Marty, Ashley R. Booth, Alexandre L. Dopkin

Faculty Publications

Tropical cyclones are the most powerful storms on earth, causing catastrophic damage to human lives and infrastructure. Hurricanes also cause wildlife mortality when they make landfall, but the severity of these effects is difficult to quantify because data collection is either logistically impossible or deprioritized in the wake of human tragedy. On August 27, 2020, Hurricane Laura made landfall in southwestern Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 241 kph (150 mph), making it one of the most powerful storms to strike the mainland United States. Hurricane Laura passed directly over the core breeding range of the western Gulf Coast population …

Morphological Consequences Of Climate Change For Resident Birds In Intact Amazonian Rainforest, Vitek Jirinec, Ryan C. Burner, Bruna R. Amaral, Richard O. Bierregaard, Gilberto Fernández-Arellano, Angélica Hernández-Palma, Erik I. Johnson, Thomas E. Lovejoy, Luke L. Powell, Cameron L. Rutt, Jared D. Wolfe, Philip C. Stouffer

Faculty Publications

Warming from climate change is expected to reduce body size of endotherms, but studies from temperate systems have produced equivocal results. Over four decades, we collected morphometric data on a nonmigratory understory bird community within Amazonian primary rainforest that is experiencing increasingly extreme climate. All 77 species showed lower mean mass since the early 1980s-nearly half with 95% confidence. A third of species concomitantly increased wing length, driving a decrease in mass:wing ratio for 69% of species. Seasonal precipitation patterns were generally better than temperature at explaining morphological variation. Short-term climatic conditions affected all metrics, but time trends in wing …

Erratum: Range-Wide Population Genetic Analysis Of Seaside Sparrows (Ammospiza Maritima) Supports At Least Five Distinct Population Segments That Do Not Align With Current Subspecies Descriptions (The Condor Doi: 10.1093/Ornithapp/Duab019), Kathryn E.C. Davis, Amie E. Settlecowski, Mackenzie R. Roeder, Carolyn Enloe, Thomas Virzi, Margaret E. Hunter, Stefan Woltmann, Sabrina S. Taylor

Faculty Publications

In the originally published version of this manuscript, the author Stefan Woltmann was erroneously given affiliation 3, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Lovett E. Williams Jr. Wildlife Research Lab, Gainesville, Florida, USA. Dr. Woltmann s correct information is affiliation 2, Department of Biology and Center of Excellence for Field Biology, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, USA, and this has been updated in the original article. The publisher regrets this error.

Exploring Text Mining For Recent Consumer And Sensory Studies About Alternative Proteins, Ziyang Chen, Cristhiam Gurdian, Chetan Sharma, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul, Damir D. Torrico

Faculty Publications

Increased meat consumption has been associated with the overuse of fresh water, under-ground water contamination, land degradation, and negative animal welfare. To mitigate these problems, replacing animal meat products with alternatives such as plant-, insect-, algae-, or yeast-fermented-based proteins, and/or cultured meat, is a viable strategy. Nowadays, there is a vast amount of information regarding consumers’ perceptions of alternative proteins in scientific outlets. Sorting and arranging this information can be time-consuming. To overcome this drawback, text mining and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are introduced as novel approaches to obtain sensory data and rapidly identify current consumer trends. In this study, …

Examining The Size-Specific Photosynthesis-Irradiance Parameters And Relationship With Phytoplankton Types In A Subtropical Marginal Sea, Haoran Liu, Yuyuan Xie, Yong Qiu, Lei Wang, Feipeng Wang, Edward A. Laws, Bangqin Huang

Faculty Publications

Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton initiate material cycling and the flow of energy through marine ecosystems. The structure of marine ecosystems is sensitive to the size of primary producers, and size-specific photosynthesis-irradiance (P-I) parameters are required for modeling the size-specific primary production. We defined a phytoplankton type to be a group of phytoplankton communities with similar compositions and hypothesized that a function of phytoplankton types might be used to quantify systematic differences of P-I parameters between size classes (structural effects) and variations of the magnitudes of those parameters if the overlap between habitats was small (environmental effects). To test this hypothesis, we …

Event-Triggered Control Using A Positive Systems Approach, Frédéric Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata, Zhong Ping Jiang

Faculty Publications

We provide a new event-triggered control strategy that relies on the notion of positive systems. Our results cover output feedback, and robustness with respect to uncertain dynamics. Our proofs are based on interval observers. Our examples show potential advantages of our approach over earlier event-triggered methods.

Twin Reactor Catalytic Assisted Pyrolysis For Food Court Waste Conversion Into High End Chemicals, Răzvan Nicolae State, Gabriela Ionescu, Mariana Pătrașcu, Adrian Volceanov, Dorin Boldor, Cosmin Mărculescu

Faculty Publications

Waste generation is growing every day and its disposal presents multiple challenges. One particular type of waste consists of food court waste (FCW) from food areas in malls. Its disposal requires many stages, starting with transportation, continuing with sorting and recycling, and ending with landfilling or combustion. Thus, this study managed to convert FCW into valuable products, disposing of it at the same time in an environmentally friendly way. For this ex situ catalytic pyrolysis process, experiments were performed by passing products from pyrolysis performed at 500 °C through HZSM5 or MeHZSM5 catalyst (Me = Co, Mo) kept at 300, …

Making Spatial-Temporal Marine Ecosystem Modelling Better – A Perspective, Jeroen Steenbeek, Joe Buszowski, David Chagaris, Villy Christensen, Marta Coll, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Stelios Katsanevakis, Kristy A. Lewis, Antonios D. Mazaris, Diego Macias, Kim De Mutsert, Greig Oldford, Maria Grazia Pennino, Chiara Piroddi, Giovanni Romagnoni, Natalia Serpetti, Yunne Jai Shin, Michael A. Spence, Vanessa Stelzenmüller

Faculty Publications

Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared perspective, MEMs remain underutilized because they still lack formal validation, calibration, and uncertainty quantifications that undermines their credibility and uptake in policy arenas. We explore why these shortcomings exist and how to enable the global modelling community to increase MEMs’ usefulness. We identify a clear gap between proposed solutions to assess model …

Low Light Intensity Delays Vegetative Phase Change, Mingli Xu, Tieqiang Hu, R Scott Poethig

Faculty Publications

Plants that develop under low light (LL) intensity often display a phenotype known as the “shade tolerance syndrome (STS)”. This syndrome is similar to the phenotype of plants in the juvenile phase of shoot development, but the basis for this similarity is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that the STS is regulated by the same mechanism that regulates the juvenile vegetative phase by examining the effect of LL on rosette development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We found that LL prolonged the juvenile vegetative phase and that this was associated with an increase in the expression of the master …

Effects Of Sesame Consumption On Inflammatory Biomarkers In Humans: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Randomized Controlled Trials, Shabnam Rafiee, Roghaye Faryabi, Mohammad Ali Zareian, Jessie Hawkins, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Laila Shirbeigi

Faculty Publications

Objectives. Existing evidence produces conflicting findings regarding the effect of sesame intake on inflammatory biomarkers; thisknowledge gap has yet to be met through systematic review and meta-analysis. )is meta-analysis of randomized, controlledclinical trials (RCTs) was conducted to evaluate the effects of sesame consumption on markers of inflammation in humans. Methods. PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched through August 2020 to identify relevant papers for inclusion. Using the random-effects model, data were evaluated as weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Cochrane’s Q and I-squared (I2) tests were used to …

Sexual Dimorphism In Titi Monkeys’ Digit (2d:4d) Ratio Is Associated With Maternal Urinary Sex Hormones During Pregnancy, Alexander Baxter, Elizabeth K. Wood, Lynea R. Witczak, Karen L. Bales, James Dee Higley

Faculty Publications

The second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio is a sexually-dimorphic biomarker for prenatal sex hormone exposure. We investigated whether titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus) exhibit sexually-dimorphic 2D:4D ratio, and whether variation in 2D:4D ratio correlates with maternal testosterone and estrogen levels during early pregnancy. Subjects were 61 adult titi monkeys (32 males, 29 females). For 26 subjects, maternal urine samples were collected approximately 15–20 weeks before birth and assayed for testosterone and estrone conjugate (E1C). Titi monkeys exhibited a human-like pattern of sexual dimorphism in right-hand 2D:4D ratio, with females exhibiting higher 2D:4D ratio than males (β = −0.29, p = .023). For …

Vaccine Clinical Trials And Data Infrastructure, Ana Santos Rutschman

Faculty Publications

We find ourselves at a momentous turn in the history of vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a quasi-global vaccine race that not only compressed vaccine research and development (R&D) timelines, but also paved the way for the administration of a new type of vaccine technology – mRNA vaccines, which work in substantially different ways from the vaccines in use before the pandemic.

While the process of bringing emerging COVID-19 vaccines to market has taken place in an unusually short timeframe, it was largely predicated on the same scientific and regulatory processes that govern the development, approval and deployment of new …

Editorial: Fresh Faces, A New Look, And A Bright Future For Lajam, Miriam Marmontel, Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Seasonal Heat Stress On Transcriptomic Profiles And Global Dna Methylation Of Bovine Oocytes, Fabian A. Diaz, Emilio J. Gutierrez-Castillo, Brittany A. Foster, Paige T. Hardin, Kenneth R. Bondioli, Zongliang Jiang

Faculty Publications

Heat stress affects oocyte developmental competence and is a major cause of reduced fertility in heat stressed cattle. Negative effects of heat stress on the oocyte have been observed at morphological, biochemical and developmental levels. However, the mechanisms by which heat stress affects the oocyte at the transcriptional and epigenetic levels remain to be further elucidated. Here we aimed to investigate the effect of heat stress on oocyte quality, transcriptomic profiles and DNA methylation of oocytes collected through the transition from spring to summer under Louisiana conditions. Summer season resulted in a lower number of high quality oocytes obtained compared …

Very Young Child Survivors’ Perceptions Of Their Father’S Suicide: Exploring Bibliotherapy As Postvention Support, Cortland L. Watson, Elizabeth Cutrer, Melissa A. Heath, Erica E. Miller, Terrell A. Young, Suzanne Wilson

Faculty Publications

Each year in the United States, 7000 to 30,000 children experience their parent’s suicide. Due to the stigma associated with suicide, feelings of guilt, and intense grief, surviving family members avoid talking about suicide. Over time, children struggle with confusion and intense emotions associated with their parent’s suicide. In this study, seven adults, who reported being younger than six years old at the time of their father’s suicide, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Participants’ responses highlight the challenges that young children face due to limited memories of their deceased parent. Interviews concluded with an opportunity for participants to review and …

Ross Sea Dissolved Organic Matter Optical Properties During An Austral Summer: Biophysical Influences, Eurico J. D'Sa, Hyun-Cheol Kim, Sun-Yong Ha, Ishan Joshi

Faculty Publications

The Ross Sea, one of the most productive regions in the Southern Ocean, plays a significant role in deep water formation and carbon cycling. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) absorption and fluorescence (FDOM) properties were studied in conjunction with biophysical properties during austral summer. Elevated values of both DOC (mean 47.82 ± 5.70 μM) and CDOM (absorption coefficient at 325 nm, acdom325: mean 0.31 ± 0.18 m–1) observed in the upper shelf waters in the southwest (SW), north of the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), the northwest and along a transect inward of the shelf …

Microbial Ecology Of Oxygen Minimum Zones Amidst Ocean Deoxygenation, Andrew M. Long, Sophie K. Jurgensen, Ariel R. Petchel, Emily R. Savoie, Jennifer R. Brum

Faculty Publications

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) have substantial effects on the global ecology and biogeochemical processes of marine microbes. However, the diversity and activity of OMZ microbes and their trophic interactions are only starting to be documented, especially in regard to the potential roles of viruses and protists. OMZs have expanded over the past 60 years and are predicted to expand due to anthropogenic climate change, furthering the need to understand these regions. This review summarizes the current knowledge of OMZ formation, the biotic and abiotic factors involved in OMZ expansion, and the microbial ecology of OMZs, emphasizing the importance of bacteria, …

The Fmr1 Premutation Phenotype And Mother-Youth Synchrony In Fragile X Syndrome, Carly Moser, Laura Mattie, Leonard Abbeduto, Jessica Klusek

Faculty Publications

A subset of mothers who carry the FMR1 premutation may express a unique phenotype. The relationship between the FMR1 phenotype and mother-child interaction in families with fragile X-associated disorders has not been well characterized, despite the importance of high-quality mother-child interaction for child development. This study examined the association between the FMR1 phenotype and the quality of interactions between mothers and their adolescent/young adult sons with fragile X syndrome. Mother-youth synchrony was coded from a dyadic interaction. Maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, executive function deficits, and pragmatic language difficulties were evaluated. Results indicated that pragmatic language was associated with mother-youth …

A Comparison Of Bayesian Spatial Models For Hiv Mapping In South Africa, Kassahun Abere Ayalew, Samuel Manda, Bo Cai Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Despite making significant progress in tackling its HIV epidemic, South Africa, with 7.7 million people living with HIV, still has the biggest HIV epidemic in the world. The Government, in collaboration with developmental partners and agencies, has been strengthening its responses to the HIV epidemic to better target the delivery of HIV care, treatment strategies and prevention services. Population-based household HIV surveys have, over time, contributed to the country’s efforts in monitoring and understanding the magnitude and heterogeneity of the HIV epidemic. Local-level monitoring of progress made against HIV and AIDS is increasingly needed for decision making. Previous studies have …

Implications Of Community-Based Management Of Marine Reserves In The Philippines For Reef Fish Communities And Biodiversity, Sara E. Marriott, Courtney Cox, Rizaller C. Amolo, Dean Apistar, Roquelito H. Mancao, Kim De Mutsert

Faculty Publications

Overfishing and destructive fishing practices are major threats to marine biodiversity in the Philippines, where over 1.9 million small-scale fishers are supported by these biodiverse marine communities. Nearly 50% of all marine fish capture in the Philippines is from artisanal fisheries, with much of it not reported or under-reported. Marine reserves, where fishing is prohibited have been created in many local government units to help restore and preserve this biodiversity. The success of these marine reserves is still under serious debate with effective management still representing a significant challenge. The lack of a governance system to centrally managed marine reserves …

Energy Compensation And Adiposity In Humans, Vincent Careau, Lewis G. Halsey, Herman Pontzer, Philip N. Ainslie, Lene F. Andersen, Liam J. Anderson, Lenore Arab, Issad Baddou, Kweku Bedu-Addo, Ellen E. Blaak, Stephane Blanc, Alberto G. Bonomi, Carlijn V.C. Bouten, Maciej S. Buchowski, Nancy F. Butte, Stefan G.J.A. Camps, Graeme L. Close, Jamie A. Cooper, Sai Krupa Das, Richard Cooper, Lara R. Dugas, Simon D. Eaton, Ulf Ekelund, Sonja Entringer, Terrence Forrester, Barry W. Fudge, Annelies H. Goris, Michael Gurven, Catherine Hambly, Asmaa El Hamdouchi, Marije B. Hoos, Sumei Hu, Noorjehan Joonas

Faculty Publications

Understanding the impacts of activity on energy balance is crucial. Increasing levels of activity may bring diminishing returns in energy expenditure because of compensatory responses in non-activity energy expenditures.1–3 This suggestion has profound implications for both the evolution of metabolism and human health. It implies that a long-term increase in activity does not directly translate into an increase in total energy expenditure (TEE) because other components of TEE may decrease in response—energy compensation. We used the largest dataset compiled on adult TEE and basal energy expenditure (BEE) (n = 1,754) of people living normal lives to find that energy compensation …

Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals That Municipal Wastewater Effluent Enhances Vibrio Vulnificus Growth And Virulence Potential, Karlen Enid Correa Velez, Robert Sean Norman

Faculty Publications

Vibrio vulnificusis an opportunistic pathogen indigenous to estuarine and marine environments and associated with aquatic organisms. Vibrio vulnificusis of utmost importance because it causes 95% of the seafood-related deaths in the United States due to rapid progression of septicemia. Changes in environmental parameters associated with climate change and coastal population expansion are altering geographical constraints, resulting in increased Vibrio spread, exposure, and rates of infection. In addition, coastal population expansion is resulting in increased input of treated municipal sewage into areas that are also experiencing increased Vibrio proliferation. This study aimed to better understand the influence of treated …

Regularized Heuristic Method For Activation Monitor Neutron Spectrum Unfolding, Nicholas J. Quartemont, James E. Bevins

Faculty Publications

his paper describes an activation foil measurement based neutron flux unfolding method utilizing a heuristic optimization approach. A regularization parameter based on the differential neutron flux was introduced into the optimization cost function to remove large nonphysical oscillations in the unfolded neutron energy spectrum. The procedure was completed for two example case studies ranging from thermal energies up to 20 MeV demonstrating recovery of neutron flux energy information on radiation environments where a model was partially missing or there was a discrepancy in a reaction channel. The unfolded results provided a distribution of unfolded spectra that conformed to the activation …

Occurrence And Removal Of Engineered Nanoparticles In Drinking Water Treatment And Wastewater Treatment A Review, Cheng Yu, Sewoon Kim, Min Jang, Chang Min Park, Yeomin Yoon

Faculty Publications

Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) are widely used in various industrial products and consumer goods, resulting in their widespread existence, particularly in natural water systems and water and wastewater treatment plants. Their presence in surface water for human consumption may severely harm human health. Therefore, this review examines new findings and developments in the removal technology of ENPs in drinking water and wastewater treatment processes since the publication of the literature by Park et al. [1]. By evaluating recent articles, this review investigates the occurrence of ENPs, discusses the transport of nanoparticles (NPs) in various drinking water and wastewater treatment …

Cytotoxicity Analysis Of Pre- And Post-Hurricane Harvey Soil Samples Collected From Greater Houston Bayous, Djene Keita, Shishir Shishodia, Balaji Bhaskar Maruthi Sridhar

Faculty Publications

Rapid urbanization, anthropogenic pollution and frequent flooding events are affecting the soil and water quality along the streams and bayous of Houston. Soil acts as sink and reservoir of heavy metals and nutrients affecting human and animal health. The objectives of the study are 1) to analyze the effects of the metal and nutrient concentration of bayou flood plain surface soil samples on the gut cell cytotoxicity and 2) to evaluate the spatial and temporal difference in soil contamination on cell viability of colon cancer (HT-29) and normal colon epithelial (CCD 841 CoN) cell lines. To evaluate soil contamination between …

Binary And Ternary Toxicological Interactions Of Clothianidin And Eight Commonly Used Pesticides On Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera), Yanhua Wang, Yu Cheng Zhu, Wenhong Li, Jianxiu Yao, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Lu Lv

Faculty Publications

Although many toxicological evaluations have been conducted for honey bees (Apis mellifera), most of these studies have only focused on the effects of individual chemicals. However, honey bees are usually exposed to pesticide mixtures under field conditions. In this study, we examined the effects of individual pesticides and mixtures of clothianidin (CLO) with eight other pesticides [carbaryl (CAR), thiodicarb (THI), chlorpyrifos (CHL), beta-cyfluthrin (BCY), gamma-cyhalothrin (GCY), tetraconazole (TET), spinosad (SPI) and indoxacarb (IND)] on honey bees using a feeding method. Toxicity tests of a 4-day exposure to individual pesticides revealed that CLO had the highest toxicity to A. mellifera, with …

Integration Of Host Plant Resistance And Cultural Tactics For Management Of Root- And Stem-Feeding Insect Pests In Rice, James M. Villegas, Blake E. Wilson, Michael J. Stout

Faculty Publications

The rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel, is the most important early-season pest of rice in the U.S. Additionally, lepidopteran stem-boring pests particularly the invasive Mexican rice borer, Eoreuma loftini (Dyar), are increasingly becoming problematic in Louisiana rice. Although insecticidal seed treatments have been widely adopted and have proven highly effective against weevils and stemborers, alternative management tactics are needed. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of flood timing and rice cultivar on rice water weevil and stemborer infestations. Field experiments were conducted in Crowley, Louisiana, from 2019–2020. In each year, early- and late-planted trials were established according …

Simplifying The Development Of Portable, Scalable, And Reproducible Workflows, Stephen Piccolo, Zachary E. Ence, Elizabeth C. Anderson, Jeffrey T. Chang, Andrea H. Bild

Faculty Publications

Command-line software plays a critical role in biology research. However, processes for installing and executing software differ widely. The Common Workflow Language (CWL) is a community standard that addresses this problem. Using CWL, tool developers can formally describe a tool’s inputs, outputs, and other execution details. CWL documents can include instructions for executing tools inside software containers. Accordingly, CWL tools are portable—they can be executed on diverse computers—including personal workstations, high-performance clusters, or the cloud. CWL also supports workflows, which describe dependencies among tools and using outputs from one tool as inputs to others. To date, CWL has been used …