Digital Commons Network^™

An Approach To Robust Homing With Stereovision, Fuqiang Fu, Damian Lyons

Faculty Publications

Visual Homing is a bioinspired approach to robot navigation which can be fast and uses few assumptions. However, visual homing in a cluttered and unstructured outdoor environment offers several challenges to homing methods that have been developed for primarily indoor environments. One issue is that any current image during homing may be tilted with respect to the home image. The second is that moving through a cluttered scene during homing may cause obstacles to interfere between the home scene and location and the current scene and location. In this paper, we introduce a robust method to improve a previous developed …

Walking The Walk: Authentic Science And Mathematics Research Conducted By Preservice And Inservice Teachers, Cherie Mccollough, Tonya D. Jeffery, Kim Moore

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Looking For Answers: A Usability Study Of Online Finding Aid Navigation, Rachel Walton

Faculty Publications

In a practical and user-centered model for online archival description, what navigational features are effective, efficient, and user-valued components for an academic archives’ online finding aid? Using Princeton University’s finding aid website as a prototype, this research study collected quantitative as well as qualitative data from 10 relatively inexperienced online finding aid users as they interacted with and reacted to the finding aid interface. Major navigational difficulties experienced by users included ambiguous and/or unintuitive labeling, unclear relationships between tabs, and insufficient visual cues for certain navigational features. In contrast, user-valued navigational aids included centralized hyperlinked content, nested and hierarchical content …

Rolling Circle Mutagenesis Of Gst-Mcherry To Understand Mutation, Gene Expression, And Regulation, Jessica Cole, Amanda Ferguson, Veronica A. Segarra, Susan Walsh

Faculty Publications

Undergraduates are often familiar with textbook examples of human mutations that affect coding regions and the subsequent disorders, but they may struggle with understanding the implications of mutations in the regulatory regions of genes. We have designed a laboratory sequence that will allow students to explore the effect random mutagenesis can have on protein function, expression, and ultimately phenotype. Students design and perform a safe and time-efficient random mutagenesis experiment using error-prone rolling circular amplification of a plasmid expressing the inducible fusion protein glutathione S-transferase (GST)-mCherry. Mutagenized and wild-type control plasmid DNA, respectively, are then purified and transformed into bacteria …

Stage-Discharge Relationship In Tidal Channels, William S. Kearney, Giulio Mariotti, Linda A. Deegan, Sergio Fagherazz

Faculty Publications

Long-term records of the flow of water through tidal channels are essential to constrain the budgets of sediments and biogeochemical compounds in salt marshes. Statistical models which relate discharge to water level allow the estimation of such records from more easily obtained records of water stage in the channel. Here, we compare four different types of stage-discharge models, each of which captures different characteristics of the stage-discharge relationship. We estimate and validate each of these models on a 2-month long time series of stage and discharge obtained with an acoustic Doppler current profiler in a salt marsh channel. We find …

Bile Acid Sodium Symporter Bass6 Can Transport Glycolate And Is Involved In Photorespiratory Metabolism In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Paul F. South, Berkley J. Walker, Amanda P. Cavanagh, Vivien Rolland, Murray Badger, Donald R. Ort

Faculty Publications

© 2017, American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved. Photorespiration is an energy-intensive process that recycles 2-phosphoglycolate, a toxic product of the Rubisco oxygenation reaction. The photorespiratory pathway is highly compartmentalized, involving the chloroplast, peroxisome, cytosol, and mitochondria. Though the soluble enzymes involved in photorespiration are well characterized, very few membrane transporters involved in photorespiration have been identified to date. In this work, Arabidopsis thaliana plants containing a T-DNA disruption of the bile acid sodium symporter BASS6 show decreased photosynthesis and slower growth under ambient, but not elevated CO2. Exogenous expression of BASS6 complemented this photorespiration mutant phenotype. In …

Biogeography Of A Plant Invasion: Drivers Of Latitudinal Variation In Enemy Release, Warwick J. Allen, Laura A. Meyerson, David Cummings, John Anderson, Ganesh P. Bhattarai, James T. Cronin

Faculty Publications

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: The relationship between herbivory and latitude may differ between native and invasive plant taxa, which can generate biogeographical heterogeneity in the strength of enemy release. Our aim was to compare latitudinal gradients in herbivory between native and invasive plants and investigate whether gradients are driven by local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity. Location: North America. Methods: Using sympatric native and invasive lineages of the wetland grass Phragmites australis and the specialist gall-fly Lipara rufitarsis, we conducted a field survey to examine whether the relationship between herbivory (the proportion of stems galled) and latitude …

Recent Applications Of X-Ray Grating Interferometry Imaging To Evaluate Flame Retardancy Performance Of Brominated Flame Retardant, Mutairu B. Olatinwo, Kyungmin Ham, Jonathan Mccarney, Shashidhara Marathe, Jinghua Ge, Gerald Knapp, Leslie G. Butler

Faculty Publications

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd In this work, fire inhibition performance of four flame retardant formulations of brominated flame retardant (BFR: GreenArmor®), antimony(III) oxide (Sb2O3) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) is reported. The standard Underwriters Laboratory (UL 94) vertical burn test was applied for assessing the flame retardancy of a variety of polymer blends. A formulation having 13.3 wt% GreenArmor®, 4 wt% Sb2O3 and 82.7 wt% HIPS, named sample D, successfully passed the flame test and was rated V-0. The other formulations with deficient composition exhibited low flame retardancy, as expected. The X-ray grating interferometry method is introduced for probing the …

Resveratrol Enhances Brown Adipocyte Formation And Function By Activating Amp-Activated Protein Kinase (Ampk) Α1 In Mice Fed High-Fat Diet, Songbo Wang, Xingwei Liang, Qiyuan Yang, Xing Fu, Meijun Zhu, B. D. Rodgers, Qingyan Jiang, Michael V. Dodson, Min Du

Faculty Publications

© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Scope: Enhancing the formation and function of brown adipose tissue (BAT) increases thermogenesis and hence reduces obesity. Thus, we investigate the effects of resveratrol (Resv) on brown adipocyte formation and function in mouse interscapular BAT (iBAT). Methods and results: CD1 mice and stromal vascular cells (SVCs) isolated from iBAT were treated with Resv. Expression of brown adipogenic and thermogenic markers, and involvement of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)α1 were assessed. In vivo, Resv-enhanced expression of brown adipogenic markers, PR domain-containing 16 (PRDM16) and thermogenic genes, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) and cytochrome C …

Maternal Retinoids Increase Pdgfrα+ Progenitor Population And Beige Adipogenesis In Progeny By Stimulating Vascular Development, Bo Wang, Xing Fu, Xingwei Liang, Zhixiu Wang, Qiyuan Yang, Tiande Zou, Wei Nie, Junxing Zhao, Pengfei Gao, Mei Jun Zhu, Jeanene M. De Avila, Joseph Maricelli, Buel D. Rodgers, Min Du

Faculty Publications

© 2017 The Authors Maternal vitamin A intake varies but its impact on offspring metabolic health is unknown. Here we found that maternal vitamin A or retinoic acid (RA) administration expanded PDGFRα+ adipose progenitor population in progeny, accompanied by increased blood vessel density and enhanced brown-like (beige) phenotype in adipose tissue, protecting offspring from obesity. Blockage of retinoic acid signaling by either BMS493 or negative RA receptor (RARαDN) over-expression abolished the increase in blood vessel density, adipose progenitor population, and beige adipogenesis stimulated by RA. Furthermore, RA-induced beige adipogenesis was blocked following vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) 2 knock …

Can Functional Traits Account For Phylogenetic Signal In Community Composition?, Daijiang Li, Anthony R. Ives, Donald M. Waller

Faculty Publications

© 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust Phylogenetic and functional trait-based analyses inform our understanding of community composition, yet methods for quantifying the overlap in information derived from functional traits and phylogenies remain underdeveloped. Does adding traits to analyses of community composition reduce the phylogenetic signal in the residual variation? If not, then measured functional traits alone may be insufficient to explain community assembly. We propose a general statistical framework to quantify the proportion of phylogenetic pattern in community composition that remains after including measured functional traits. We then illustrate the framework with applications to two …

Costs Of Reproduction And Carry-Over Effects In Breeding Albatrosses, Glenn T. Crossin, Richard A. Phillips, Christine R. Lattin, L. Michael Romero, Xavier Bordeleau, Christopher M. Harris, Oliver P. Love, Tony D. Williams

Faculty Publications

© Antarctic Science Ltd 2016. We investigated the physiology of two closely related albatross species relative to their breeding strategy: black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) breed annually, while grey-headed albatrosses (T. chrysostoma) breed biennially. From observations of breeding fate and blood samples collected at the end of breeding in one season and feather corticosterone levels (fCort) sampled at the beginning of the next breeding season, we found that in both species some post-breeding physiological parameters differed according to breeding outcome (successful, failed, deferred). Correlations between post-breeding physiology and fCort, and links to future breeding decisions, were examined. In black-browed albatrosses, post-breeding …

Global Networks For Invasion Science: Benefits, Challenges And Guidelines, Jasmin G. Packer, Laura A. Meyerson, David M. Richardson, Giuseppe Brundu, Warwick J. Allen, Ganesh P. Bhattarai, Hans Brix, Susan Canavan, Stefano Castiglione, Angela Cicatelli, Jan Čuda, James T. Cronin, Franziska Eller, Francesco Guarino, Wei Hua Guo, Wen Yong Guo, Xiao Guo, José L. Hierro, Carla Lambertini, Jian Liu, Vanessa Lozano, Thomas J. Mozdzer, Hana Skálová, Diego Villarreal, Ren Qing Wang, Petr Pyšek

Faculty Publications

© 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Much has been done to address the challenges of biological invasions, but fundamental questions (e.g., which species invade? Which habitats are invaded? How can invasions be effectively managed?) still need to be answered before the spread and impact of alien taxa can be effectively managed. Questions on the role of biogeography (e.g., how does biogeography influence ecosystem susceptibility, resistance and resilience against invasion?) have the greatest potential to address this goal by increasing our capacity to understand and accurately predict invasions at local, continental and global scales. This paper proposes a framework for the …

Fgf21 Mediates The Thermogenic And Insulin-Sensitizing Effects Of Dietary Methionine Restriction But Not Its Effects On Hepatic Lipid Metabolism, Desiree Wanders, Laura A. Forney, Kirsten P. Stone, David H. Burk, Alicia Pierse, Thomas W. Gettys

Faculty Publications

© 2017 by the American Diabetes Association. Dietary methionine restriction (MR) produces a rapid and persistent remodeling of white adipose tissue (WAT), an increase in energy expenditure (EE), and enhancement of insulin sensitivity. Recent work established that hepatic expression of FGF21 is robustly increased by MR. Fgf212/2 mice were used to test whether FGF21 is an essential mediator of the physiological effects of dietary MR. The MR-induced increase in energy intake and EE and activation of thermogenesis in WAT and brown adipose tissue were lost in Fgf212/2 mice. However, dietary MR produced a comparable reduction in body weight and adiposity …

Efficacy Of Insect Growth Regulators And Diamide Insecticides For Control Of Stem Borers (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) In Sugarcane, B. E. Wilson, M. T. Vanweelden, J. M. Beuzelin, T. E. Reagan, J. A. Prado

Faculty Publications

Field experiments assessed control of the stem borers, Diatraea saccharalis (F.) and Eoreuma loftini (Dyar), in sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) with selected insect growth regulators and diamide insecticides. Tebufenozide, novaluron, chlorantraniliprole, and flubendiamide were evaluated for D. saccharalis control in four field experiments in Louisiana between 2009 and 2014. Aerial application of the same insecticides was evaluated for control of E. loftini in commercial sugarcane fields in southern Texas in 2012 and 2015. Stalk injury from D. saccharalis in nontreated plots ranged from 7.4-28.1% bored internodes across the four experiments. All insecticides reduced D. saccharalis injury compared with nontreated plots (39.1-99.4% …

Stabilization In A Chemostat With Sampled And Delayed Measurements And Uncertain Growth Functions, Frédéric Mazenc, Jérome Harmand, Michael Malisoff

Faculty Publications

We provide a new control design for chemostats, under constant substrate input concentrations, using piecewise constant delayed measurements of the substrate concentration. Our growth functions can be uncertain and are not necessarily monotone. The dilution rate is the control. We use a new Lyapunov approach to derive conditions on the largest sampling interval and on the delay length to ensure asymptotic stabilization properties of a componentwise positive equilibrium point.

Retention Of Stored Water Enables Tropical Tree Saplings To Survive Extreme Drought Conditions, Brett T. Wolfe

Faculty Publications

Trees generally maintain a small safety margin between the stem water potential (stem) reached during seasonal droughts and the stem associated with their mortality. This pattern may indicate that species face similar mortality risk during extreme droughts. However, if tree species vary in their ability to regulate stem, then safety margins would poorly predict drought mortality. To explore variation among species in stem regulation, I subjected potted saplings of six tropical tree species to extreme drought and compared their responses with well-watered plants and pretreatment reference plants. In the drought treatment, soil water potential reached <-10 MPa, yet three species, Bursera simaruba (L.) Sarg., Cavanillesia platanifolia (Bonpl.) Kunth and Cedrela odorata L. had 100% survival and maintained stem near -1 MPa (i.e., desiccation-avoiding species). Three other species, Cojoba rufescens (Benth.) Britton and Rose, Genipa americana L. and Hymenaea courbaril L. had 50%, 0% and 25% survival, respectively, and survivors had stem <-6 MPa (i.e., desiccation-susceptible species). The desiccation-avoiding species had lower relative water content (RWC) in all organs and tissues (root, stem, bark and xylem) in the drought treatment than in the reference plants (means 72.0-90.4% vs 86.9-97.9%), but the survivors of the desiccation-susceptible C. rufescens had much lower RWC in the drought treatment (44.5-72.1%). Among the reference plants, the desiccation-avoiding species had lower tissue density, leaf-mass fraction and lateral-root surface area (LRA) than the desiccation-susceptible species. Additionally, C. platanifolia and C. odorata had reduced LRA in the drought treatment, which may slow water loss into dry soil. Together, these results suggest that the ability to regulate stem during extreme drought is associated with functional traits that favor retention of stored water and that safety margins during seasonal drought poorly predict survival during extreme drought.

Cryobanking Of Aquatic Species, Sonia Martínez-Páramo, Ákos Horváth, Catherine Labbé, Tiantian Zhang, Vanesa Robles, Paz Herráez, Marc Suquet, Serean Adams, Ana Viveiros, Terrence R. Tiersch, Elsa Cabrita

Faculty Publications

This review is focused on the applications of genome cryobanking of aquatic species including freshwater and marine fish, as well as invertebrates. It also reviews the latest advances in cryobanking of model species, widely used by the scientific community worldwide, because of their applications in several fields. The state of the art of cryopreservation of different cellular types (sperm, oocytes, embryos, somatic cells and primordial germ cells or early spermatogonia) is discussed focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure according to different applications. A special review on the need of standardization of protocols has also been carried out. …

Breeding Behavior Of Female White-Tailed Deer Relative To Conception: Evidence For Female Mate Choice, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Stephen S. Ditchkoff, Bret A. Collier, Charles R. Ruth, Joshua B. Raglin

Faculty Publications

Female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are thought to choose between two behavioral strategies to maximize the quality of potential mates: sit and wait, characterized by concentrating activity within a restricted area, and excursive behavior, characterized by increased activity and excursions outside the home range. As movement patterns may influence conception, our goal was to examine the patterns of female white-tailed deer movements to evaluate which breeding strategy was employed. We equipped 36 female white-tailed deer with GPS collars from August 2013 to December 2015. We found that movement rate and probability of activity were greatest near the peak of the …

Investigation On Hemolytic Effect Of Poly(Lactic Co-Glycolic) Acid Nanoparticles Synthesized Using Continuous Flow And Batch Processes, Sumit Libi, Bogdan Calenic, Carlos E. Astete, Challa Kumar, Cristina M. Sabliov

Faculty Publications

With the increasing interest in polymeric nanoparticles for biomedical applications, there is a need for continuous flow methodologies that allow for the precise control of nanoparticle synthesis. Poly(lactide-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) nanoparticles with diameters of 220-250 nm were synthesized using a lab-on-a-chip, exploiting the precise flow control offered by a millifluidic platform. The association and the effect of PLGA nanoparticles on red blood cells (RBCs) were compared for fluorescent PLGA nanoparticles made by this novel continuous flow process using a millifluidic chip and smaller PLGA nanoparticles made by a batch method. Results indicated that all PLGA nanoparticles studied, independent of the …

Use Of A Novel Oleaginous Microorganism As A Potential Source Of Lipids For Weanling Pigs, Jeffery A. Carroll, Ty B. Schmidt, T.R. Callaway, J.G. Wilson, Janet R. Donaldson

Faculty Publications

Weanling pigs are at risk of succumbing to illness due to an immature immune system and insufficient supply of available energy at the time of weaning. This study was aimed at determining whether oleaginous bacteria could serve as a source of lipids to weanling pigs. Weanling pigs were provided a daily dose of 1×109 colony fomring unit (CFU) = kg−1 of the novel oleaginous Enterobacter cloacae strain JD6301 or JD8715 (which is a variant form of JD6301 capable of producing extracellular triglycerides) via oral gavage for 5 d. Serum was collected every 6 h and intestinal samples were collected at …

Doux Commerce, Religion, And The Limits Of Antidiscrimination Law, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

Recent cases involving religious businesses owners who object to providing services for same-sex weddings and resulting lawsuits have generated a vigorous academic and popular debate. That debate centers in part on the proper role of religion in the market. This article develops three theories of the proper relationship between commerce and religion and applies them to these conflicts. The first approach would apply the norms of liberal democratic governments to market actors. The second approach posits that any market outcome is legitimate so long as it results from voluntary contracts. These approaches yield contradictory and indeterminate advice on the conflicts …

Neuroscience Changes More Than You Can Think, Paul S. Davies, Peter A. Alces

Faculty Publications

In this Essay, we consider the contribution of a startling new book, Law & Neuroscience (L&N), by Owen Jones, Jeffrey Schall, and Francis Shen. It is a law school course book (a genre not often the focus of a scholarly review essay) that supports fundamental inquiry into the relationship between emerging neuroscientific insights and doctrinal conceptions in the law. We believe that the book shifts the paradigm and so may profoundly affect the course of normative evaluation of law. In this Essay, we trace and evaluate the “argument” of the book and suggest ways in which its contribution to the …

Justice Scalia And Abortion Speech, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Women In Community Corrections In New York City: Hiv Infection And Risks, Nabila El-Bassel, Phillip Marotta, Stacey Shaw, Mingway Chang, Xin Ma, D Goddard-Eckrich, Tim Hunt, Karen Johnson, Sharun Goodwin, Maria Almonte, Louisa Gilbert

Faculty Publications

Although the incidence of HIV among women on probation, parole and alternatives to incarceration programs is significant to public health, drivers of this concentrated epidemic among women under community corrections remain understudied. This study examined prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections and the associations between substance use, sociodemographic factors and the prevalence of biologically-confirmed HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among a sample of 337 substance-using women recruited from community correction sites in New York City. Prevalence of HIV was 13% and sexually transmitted infections was 26% (Chlamydia, trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhea). After adjusting for covariates, HIVpositive women were …

Relationships Between Root Pathogen Resistance, Abundance And Expression Of Pseudomonas Antimicrobial Genes, And Soil Properties In Representative Swiss Agricultural Soils, Nicola Imperiali, Francesca Dennert, Jana Schneider, Titouan Laessle, Christelle Velatta, Marie Fesselet, Michele Wyler, Fabio Mascher, Olga Mavrodi, Dmitri Mavrodi, Monika Maurhofer, Christoph Keel

Faculty Publications

Strains of Pseudomonas that produce antimicrobial metabolites and control soilborne plant diseases have often been isolated from soils defined as disease-suppressive, i.e., soils, in which specific plant pathogens are present, but plants show no or reduced disease symptoms. Moreover, it is assumed that pseudomonads producing antimicrobial compounds such as 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) or phenazines (PHZ) contribute to the specific disease resistance of suppressive soils. However, pseudomonads producing antimicrobial metabolites are also present in soils that are conducive to disease. Currently, it is still unknown whether and to which extent the abundance of antimicrobials-producing pseudomonads is related to the general disease resistance …

Making Plants Break A Sweat: The Structure, Function, And Evolution Of Plant Salt Glands, Maheshi Dassanayake, John C. Larkin

Faculty Publications

© 2017 Dassanayake and Larkin. Salt stress is a complex trait that poses a grand challenge in developing new crops better adapted to saline environments. Some plants, called recretohalophytes, that have naturally evolved to secrete excess salts through salt glands, offer an underexplored genetic resource for examining how plant development, anatomy, and physiology integrate to prevent excess salt from building up to toxic levels in plant tissue. In this review we examine the structure and evolution of salt glands, salt gland-specific gene expression, and the possibility that all salt glands have originated via evolutionary modifications of trichomes. Salt secretion via …

Inflammatory Potential Of Diet, Weight Gain, And Incidence Of Overweight/Obesity: The Sun Cohort, Alyson Haslam, Sara Wagner Robb, James R. Hébert, Hanwen Huang, Michael David Wirth, Nitin Shivappa, Mark H. Ebell

Faculty Publications

Objective

The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII)TM, which was developed to characterize the inflammatory potential of a person’s diet, has been shown to be associated with inflammatory conditions such as cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the association between DII scores and colorectal adenoma (CRA), a pre-cancerous condition.

Design

Responses to baseline dietary questionnaires were used calculate DII scores. In a cross-sectional study design, the association between DII scores and CRA prevalence was determined in men and women separately using logistic regression models.

Setting

Ten cancer screening centres across the USA.

Subjects

Participants were those included in the screening arm …

Arthropod Diversity And Functional Importance In Old-Growth Forests Of North America, Timothy Schowalter

Faculty Publications

Old-growth forests have become rare in North America but provide habitat for unique assemblages of species that often are rare in younger forests. Insects and related arthropods reach their highest diversity in old-growth forests because of their stable moderate temperature and relative humidity and the rich variety of resources represented by high plant species richness and structural complexity. Old-growth arthropod assemblages typically are distinct from those in younger, managed forests. Major subcommunities include the arboreal community that is composed of a rich assemblage of herbivores, fungivores, and their associated predators and parasitoids that function to regulate primary production and nutrient …

Stability And Robustness Analysis For Human Pointing Motions With Acceleration Under Feedback Delays, Paul Varnell, Michael Malisoff, Fumin Zhang

Faculty Publications

Pointer acceleration is often used in computer mice and other interfaces to increase the range and speed of pointing motions without sacrificing precision during slow movements. However, the effects of pointer acceleration are not yet well understood. We use a system perspective and feedback control to analyze the effects of pointer acceleration. We use a new pointer acceleration model connected in feedback with the vector integration to endpoint model for pointing motions. When there are no feedback delays, we prove global asymptotic stability of the closed loop system for a general class of acceleration profiles. We also prove robustness under …