Digital Commons Network^™

A Conservation Checklist Of The Amphibians And Reptiles Of Mexico City, With Comparisons With Adjoining States, Julio A. Lemos-Espinal, Geoffrey R. Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Collection Weeding: Innovative Processes And Tools To Ease The Burden, Gregory M. Nelson, Michael C. Goates, David S. Pixton, Megan Frost, Dan Broadbent

Faculty Publications

Evaluating collections and ultimately removing content poses a variety of difficult issues, including choosing appropriate deselection criteria, communicating with stakeholders, providing accountability, and managing the overall timetable to finish projects on time. The Science and Engineering librarians at Brigham Young University evaluated their entire print collection of over 350,000 items within one year, significantly reducing the number of items kept on the open shelves and the physical collection footprint. Keys to accomplishing this project were extensive preparation, tracking progress and accountability facilitated by Google Sheets and an interactive GIS stacks map, and stakeholder feedback facilitated by a novel web-based tool. …

Like Sand From The Pyramids: Using Rare Books And Manuscripts To Facilitate Object-Based Learning In The Law School Classroom, Melissa M. Hyland

Faculty Publications

This article advocates adding object-based learning, utilizing rare legal books and manuscripts, to the legal education toolbox. Object-based learning is an educational methodology that explains the many learning benefits resulting from student engagement with tangible objects of material culture. Studies into the use of this methodology with undergraduate and graduate students are rather new, but research indicates that object-based learning produces measurable positive results across the curriculum.

Part I of this article provides an overview of object-based learning, with subsections addressing its relationship to active learning, its incorporation of multiple learning styles, and its ability to encourage affective learning. Part …

A Multi-Stage Machine Learning Approach To Predict Dengue Incidence: A Case Study In Mexico, Annalisa Appice, Yulia R. Gel, Iliyan Iliev, Vyacheslav Lyubchich, Donato Malerba

Faculty Publications

© 2013 IEEE. The mosquito-borne dengue fever is a major public health problem in tropical countries, where it is strongly conditioned by climate factors such as temperature. In this paper, we formulate a holistic machine learning strategy to analyze the temporal dynamics of temperature and dengue data and use this knowledge to produce accurate predictions of dengue, based on temperature on an annual scale. The temporal dynamics are extracted from historical data by utilizing a novel multi-stage combination of auto-encoding, window-based data representation and trend-based temporal clustering. The prediction is performed with a trend association-based nearest neighbour predictor. The effectiveness …

Distribution, Relative Abundance, And Reproductive Output Of Spawning Female Blue Crab (Callinectes Sapidus) In Offshore Waters Of The Gulf Of Mexico, Adam A. Kemberling, M. Zachary Darnell

Faculty Publications

Effective assessment and management of migratory species require an understanding of stock boundaries and habitat use during critical life history periods. The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is considered a primarily estuarine species and has traditionally been assessed and man-aged on a state basis, relying on abundance estimates derived from estuarine sampling. Females undertake a sea-ward spawning migration, and recent evidence indicates that coastal and offshore waters may provide important spawning habitat. We investigated occurrence and reproductive output of spawning blue crab in offshore waters of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and results indicate that these waters may be …

A Road Map To Indoos-2: Better Observations Of The Rapidly Warming Indian Ocean, L. M. Beal, J. Vialard, M. K. Roxy, J. Li, M. Andres, H. Annamalai, M. Feng, W. Han, R. Hood, T. Lee, M. Lengaigne, R. Lumpkin, Y. Masumoto, M. J. Mcphaden, M. Ravichandran, T. Shinoda, B. M. Sloyan, P. G. Strutton, A. C. Subramanian, T. Tozuka, C. C. Ummenhofer, A. S. Unnikrishnan, J. Wiggert, L. Yu, L. Cheng, D. G. Desbruyères, V. Parvathi

Faculty Publications

The Indian Ocean Observing System (IndOOS), established in 2006, is a multinational network of sustained oceanic measurements that underpin understanding and forecasting of weather and climate for the Indian Ocean region and beyond. Almost one-third of humanity lives around the Indian Ocean, many in countries dependent on fisheries and rain-fed agriculture that are vulnerable to climate variability and extremes. The Indian Ocean alone has absorbed a quarter of the global oceanic heat uptake over the last two decades and the fate of this heat and its impact on future change is unknown. Climate models project accelerating sea level rise, more …

American Buddhist Protection Of Stones In Terms Of Climate Change On Mars And Earth, Daniel Capper

Faculty Publications

A number of scientific writers have proposed manipulating the ecology of Mars in order to make the planet more comfortable for future immigrants from Earth. However, the ethical acceptability of such ‘terraforming’ proposals remains unresolved. In response, in this article I explore some of these scientific proposals through the lens provided by Buddhist environmental ethics that are quantitatively expressed by practitioners in the ethnographic field of the United States. What I find is that contemporary Buddhists combine philosophical notions of interconnectedness with moral considerations not to harm others and then creatively extend this combined sensibility to the protection specifically of …

Development Of Highly Sensitive Environmental Dna Methods For The Detection Of Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus Leucas (Müller And Henle, 1839), Using Droplet DigitalTm Pcr, Katherine E. Schweiss, Ryan N. Lehman, J. Marcus Drymon, Nicole M. Phillips

Faculty Publications

Background: As apex and mesopredators, elasmobranchs play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem function and balance in marine systems. Elasmobranch populations worldwide are in decline as a result of exploitation via direct and indirect fisheries mortalities and habitat degradation; however, a lack of information on distribution, abundance, and population biology for most species hinders their effective management. Environmental DNA analysis has emerged as a cost‐effective and non‐invasive technique to fill some of these data gaps, but often requires the development of species‐specific methodologies.

Aims: Here, we established eDNA methodology appropriate for targeted species detections of Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus …

Age-Related Changes In Speech And Voice: Spectral And Cepstral Measures, Christopher Dromey, Sammi Taylor, Shawn L. Nissen, Kristine Tanner, Dennis Eggett, Kim Corbin-Lewis

Faculty Publications

Purpose

This study examined differences in selected acoustic measures of speech and voice according to age and sex and across families.

Method

Participants included 169 individuals, 79 men and 90 women, from 18 families, ranging in age from 17 to 87 years. Participants reported no history of articulation disorders, stroke or active neurologic disease, or severe-to-profound hearing loss. They read aloud two passages to facilitate examination of the following speech and voice acoustic parameters: fricative spectral moments (center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis), the proportion of time spent speaking, mean speaking fundamental frequency, semitone standard deviation (STSD), and …

Mphaea & Marble Cake: Parity & The Forgotten Frame Of Federalism, Taleed El-Sabawi

Faculty Publications

Federal parity laws, and their state equivalents, have been shown to increase access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, by decreasing the cost of SUD treatment borne by the insured, and has resulted in little increase in health plan costs. Despite these improvements, the effects of parity on access to SUD treatment have been lower than expected. Recent reports suggest that states have varied in their enforcement parity, failures which may explain why persons surveyed still report having inadequate insurance coverage for SUD treatment despite the parity legislation. While other articles have offered suggestions for improving parity, most have lumped …

Acid Hydrolysis-Based Sugarcane Bagasse Biorefining For Levulinic Acid Production: Dynamic Mechanistic Modeling Under Varying Operating Conditions, Emília S. Lopes, Julio C.J. Gariboti, Luis H.Z. Feistel, Elmer Ccopa Rivera, Rubens Mac Iel Filho, Laura P. Tovar

Faculty Publications

© 2020, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. The study on the lignocellulosic material conversion into bio-based platform chemicals, such as levulinic acid (LA), is one of the most promising routes to promote the development of advanced biorefineries. In this work, a dynamic mechanistic model is developed to simulate the LA production from lignocellulosic material. A wide operating range is used to estimate the parameters of the reaction kinetics. Because multi-parameter estimation problem is complex, a genetic algorithm-based optimization procedure is used to determine the optimum parameters values. Measurements are obtained for various reaction times (0 - 45 min) temperatures (150 - 200 …

Textiles And Jewelry At Fag El-Gamous, Joyce Smith, Kerry Muhlestein, Brian Christensen

Faculty Publications

Elsewhere in this volume we discuss extensively the burial practices of the common man as represented in the Fag el-Gamous sand cemetery. While these burials must represent the common, or poorer, people of the area due to their large numbers, they are remarkable in regards to the amount of resources used for a common burial.1 The two most frequently used types of goods associated with these burials, and probably the most expensive, are textiles and jewelry. In order to better understand these burials and the requisite resources marshaled by the deceased during their life and their loved ones after their …

Rosegate Projectile Points In The Fremont Region, James R. Allison, Robert J. Bischoff

Faculty Publications

The Fremont projectile point typology was developed in the 1980s. An early revision combined the Rose Spring Corner-notched and Eastgate Expanding-stem types into a combined Rosegate type with an end date of AD 900-1000. Some archaeologists recognize that these projectile points persist to approximately AD 1300 but others use the earlier date range, and much of the relevant information is confined to gray literature. Furthermore, there is a varied approach to these types. Some use the original two types, while others use Rosegate or a combination of Rosegate, Rose Spring, and Eastgate. We used projectile point typology data, illustrations, and …

Pre-Columbian Rock Mulching As A Strategy For Modern Agave Cultivation In Arid Marginal Lands, Hector Ortiz-Cano, Jose Antonio Hernandez-Herrera, Neil C. Hansen, Steven L. Petersen, Michael T. Searcy, Ricardo Mata-Gonzalez, Teodoro Cervantes-Mendivil, Antonio Villanueva-Morales, Pil Man Park, J. Ryan Stewart

Faculty Publications

Cultivation of C3 and C4 crops in semi-arid regions will be severely constrained as global temperatures rise. Consequently, alternative crops need to be sought out that adapt well to heat and drought and are productive despite limited access to water. Traits, such as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), enable economically important species such as those in the Agave genus adapt to drought and high temperatures. The succulence and high efficiency of agaves, which enables them to produce biomass with little water, underscores their feasibility as an alternative crop for semi-arid regions, such as the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern U.S. In …

Association Between Exposure To Air Pollution And Total Gray Matter And Total White Matter Volumes In Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study, Bruce L. Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Jacqueline E. Anderson, Dawson W. Hedges

Faculty Publications

Total brain gray-matter and white-matter volumes can be indicators of overall brain health. Among the factors associated with gray-matter and white-matter volumes is exposure to air pollution. Using data from the UK Biobank, we sought to determine associations between several components of air pollution—PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides—and total gray-matter and total white-matter volumes in multivariable regression models in a large sample of adults. We found significant inverse associations between PM2.5 concentration and total white-matter volume and between PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxide concentrations and total gray-matter volume in models adjusted for age, sex, …

Association Between Exposure To Air Pollution And Thalamus Volume In Adults: A Crosssectional Study, Bruce L. Brown, Dawson W. Hedges, Lance D. Erickson, Shawn D. Gale, Jacqueline E. Anderson

Faculty Publications

Background: Air pollution has been associated with cognitive function and brain volume. While most previous research has examined the association between air pollution and brain volume in cortical structures or total brain volume, less research has investigated associations between exposure to air pollution and subcortical structures, including the thalamus. Further, the few available previous studies investigating associations between air pollution and thalamic volume have shown mixed results.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated the association between PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides and volume of the thalamus in adults using the UK Biobank resource, a large community-based sample, …

Prevalence Of Depressive Symptoms In The Elderly Population Diagnosed With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Wendy C. Birmingham, Beata Dziedzic, Zofia Sienkiewicz, Anna Le ´Nczuk-Gruba, Ewa Kobos, Wieslaw Fidecki, Mariusz Wysokiski

Faculty Publications

Introduction: A sharp rise in the population of elderly people, who are more prone to somatic and mental diseases, combined with the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetes-associated complications in this age group, have an impact on the prevalence of depressive symptoms. Aim of the work: The work of the study was the evaluation of the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the elderly population diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and methods: The pilot study was conducted in 2019 among 200 people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged 65 years and above, receiving treatment in …

William Shea Dies, Paul J. Ray

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Picrat Model For Technology Integration In Teacher Preparation, Royce Kimmons, Charles R. Graham, Richard E. West

Faculty Publications

Technology integration models are theoretical constructs that guide researchers, educators, and other stakeholders in conceptualizing the messy, complex, and unstructured phenomenon of technology integration. Building on critiques and theoretical work in this area, the authors report on their analysis of the needs, benefits, and limitations of technology integration models in teacher preparation and propose a new model: PICRAT. PIC (passive, interactive, creative) refers to the student’s relationship to a technology in a particular educational scenario. RAT (replacement, amplification, transformation) describes the impact of the technology on a teacher’s previous practice. PICRAT can be a useful model for teaching technology integration, …

Science Into Practice: Effective Solutions For Social Isolation And Loneliness., Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ryan Layton, Bonnie Barton, Timothy B. Smith

Faculty Publications

Robust research evidence confirms the adverse health effects of social isolation and loneliness, with increasing focus on finding effective solutions. What can we extract from epidemiology and relationship science to help us design more effective solutions? This article identifies themes in contemporary scholarship that inform effective program and intervention design. The themes include: (1) multiple underlying causal factors that may require tailored approach; (2) the time course of relationships and disease development versus length of interventions; (3) the protective effects of relationships are based on naturally occurring or existing close relationships, yet most programs involve strangers; and (4) not all …

Reinventing High School: Understanding The Challenges And Successes Of Transforming Education To Meet Student, Society, And Industry Needs, Scott R. Bartholomew, Greg J. Strimel, Anne M. Lucietto, Mesut Akdere

Faculty Publications

Efforts to revamp existing educational systems and approaches result in various new models in STEM education. Accordingly, a new urban public charter school, located in a Midwest state in the United States, was established in partnership with the state’s land-grant university to create a transformed integrated STEM educational environment characterized by industry-focused and design-based learning to help prepare students for the future of work and learning. This article presents findings from an exploratory study that examined the experiences of teachers and administrative staff of this innovative high school (IHS) during the first year of school operation. A purposive sample of …

Characterization Of An Extensive Interface On Vitronectin For Binding To Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1: Adoption Of Structure In An Intrinsically Disordered Region, Letitia O. Puster, Christopher B. Stanley, Vladimir N. Uversky, Joseph E. Curtis, Susan Krueger, Yuzhuo Chu, Cynthia B. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements were pursued to study human vitronectin, a protein found in tissues and the circulation that regulates cell adhesion/migration and proteolytic cascades that govern hemostasis and pericellular proteolysis. Many of these functions occur via interactions with its binding partner, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), the chief inhibitor of proteases that lyse and activate plasminogen. We focused on a region of vitronectin that remains uncharacterized from previous X-ray scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance, and computational modeling approaches and which we propose is involved in binding to PAI-1. This region, which bridges the N-terminal …

Being Here And Now: The Benefits Of Belonging In Space And Time, Matthew Baldwin, Lucas A. Keefer

Faculty Publications

Research suggests that a sense of belonging is a critical prerequisite of happiness and well-being. While some have focused on belonging provided by relationships, other work demonstrates the value of belonging in certain places. In the current research we join these efforts to understand belonging by offering a novel framework for exploring an understudied but no less fundamental aspect of human experience—time. We situate this framework within an existential analysis of human action and test general predictions about the psychological value of experiencing a sense of belonging in time, what we call temporal rootedness. Two samples (Studies 1 …

Ethical Consistency And Experience: An Attempt To Influence Researcher Attitudes Toward Questionable Research Practices Through Reading Prompts, Samuel V. Bruton, Mitch Brown, Donald F. Sacco

Faculty Publications

Over the past couple of decades, the apparent widespread occurrence of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) in scientific research has been widely discussed in the research ethics literature as a source of concern. Various ways of reducing their use have been proposed and implemented, ranging from improved training and incentives for adopting best practices to systematic reforms. This article reports on the results of two studies that investigated the efficacy of simple, psychological interventions aimed at changing researcher attitudes toward QRPs. While the interventions did not significantly modify researchers’ reactions to QRPs, they showed differential efficacy depending on scientists’ experience, suggesting …

A New Climbing Shrew From Sulawesi Highlights The Tangled Taxonomy Of An Endemic Radiation, Jacob A. Esselstyn, Anang S. Achmadi, Heru Handika, Thomas C. Giarla, Kevin C. Rowe

Faculty Publications

We describe a new species of Crocidura (Soricidae) from Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, documenting its novelty with both genetic and morphological characters. The new species is widespread on the island, with vouchered records from nine general localities distributed among five of the island's areas of endemism. Morphologically, the new species is readily distinguished from all other described Sulawesi Crocidura by its intermediate body size, gray pelage, and long, hairy tail. The new species was mainly captured in pitfalls placed in the ground, but we also obtained evidence that it readily climbs trees and may be scansorial in its locomotor habits. Populations …

Small Molecules That Inhibit Tnf Signalling By Stabilising An Asymmetric Form Of The Trimer, James O'Connell, John Porter, Boris Kroeplien, Tim Norman, Stephen Rapecki, Rachel E. Davis, David Mcmillan, Tracy Arakaki, Alex Burgin, David Fox Iii, Tom Ceska, Fabien Lecomte, Alison Maloney, Alex Vugler, Bruce Carrington, Benjamin P. Cossins, Tim Bourne, Alastair Lawson

Faculty Publications

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) is a cytokine belonging to a family of trimeric proteins; it has been shown to be a key mediator in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. While TNF is the target of several successful biologic drugs, attempts to design small molecule therapies directed to this cytokine have not led to approved products. Here we report the discovery of potent small molecule inhibitors of TNF that stabilise an asymmetrical form of the soluble TNF trimer, compromising signalling and inhibiting the functions of TNF in vitro and in vivo. This discovery paves the way for …

How Responsiveness From A Communication Partner Affects Story Retell In Aphasia: Quantitative And Qualitative Findings, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Antoine Bailliard

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Because people with aphasia frequently interact with partners who are unresponsive to their communicative attempts, we investigated how partner responsiveness affects quantitative measures of spoken language and subjective reactions during story retell.

Method: A quantitative and a qualitative study were conducted. In study 1, participants with aphasia and controls retold short stories to a communication partner who indicated interest through supportive backchannel responses (responsive) and another who indicated disinterest through unsupportive backchannel responses (unresponsive). Story retell accuracy, delivery speed, and ratings of psychological stress were measured and compared. In study 2, participants completed semi-structured interviews about their story retell …

Divergent Trophic Responses Of Sympatric Penguin Species To Historic Anthropogenic Exploitation And Recent Climate Change, Kelton W. Mcmahon, Chantel I. Michelson, Tom Hart, Matthew D. Mccarthy, William P. Patterson, Michael J. Polito

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Transcriptome-Wide Association Study Identifies Putative Elicitors/Suppressor Of Puccinia Graminis F. Sp. Tritici That Modulate Barley Rpg4-Mediated Stem Rust Resistance, Roshan Sharma Poudel, Jonathan Richards, Subidhya Shrestha, Shyam Solanki, Robert Brueggeman

Faculty Publications

Background: Stem rust is an economically important disease of wheat and barley. However, studies to gain insight into the molecular basis of these host-pathogen interactions have primarily focused on wheat because of its importance in human sustenance. This is the first extensive study utilizing a transcriptome-wide association mapping approach to identify candidate Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) effectors/suppressors that elicit or suppress barley stem rust resistance genes. Here we focus on identifying Pgt elicitors that interact with the rpg4-mediated resistance locus (RMRL), the only effective source of Pgt race TTKSK resistance in barley. Results: Thirty-seven Pgt isolates showing differential …

Cell Velocity Is Asymptotically Independent Of Force: A Differential Equation Model With Random Switching., J. C. Dallon, Emily J. Evans, Christopher P. Grant, William V. Smith

Faculty Publications

Numerical simulations suggest that average velocity of a biological cell depends largely on attachment dynamics and less on the forces exerted by the cell. We determine the relationship between two models of cell motion, one based on finite spring constants modeling attachment properties (a randomly switched differential equation) and a limiting case (a centroid model-a generalized random walk) where spring constants are infinite. We prove the main result of this paper, the Expected Velocity Relationship theorem. This result shows that the expected value of the difference between cell locations in the differential equation model at the initial time and at …