Digital Commons Network^™

Horizontal Transfer Of An Adaptive Chimeric Photoreceptor From Bryophytes To Ferns, Fay Wei Li, Juan Carlos Villarreal, Steven Kelly, Carl J. Rothfels, Michael Melkonian, Eftychios Frangedakis, Markus Ruhsam, Erin M. Sigel, Joshua P. Der, Jarmila Pittermann, Dylan O. Burge, Lisa Pokorny, Anders Larsson, Tao Chen, Stina Weststrand, Philip Thomas, Eric Carpenter, Yong Zhang, Zhijian Tian, Li Chen, Zhixiang Yan, Ying Zhu, Xiao Sun, Jun Wang, Dennis W. Stevenson, Barbara J. Crandall-Stotler, A. Jonathan Shaw, Michael K. Deyholos, Douglas E. Soltis, Sean W. Graham, Michael D. Windham, Jane A. Langdale, Gane Ka Shu Wong

Faculty Publications

Ferns are well known for their shade-dwelling habits. Their ability to thrive under low-light conditions has been linked to the evolution of a novel chimeric photoreceptor-neochrome-that fuses red-sensing phytochrome and blue-sensing phototropin modules into a single gene, thereby optimizing phototropic responses. Despite being implicated in facilitating the diversification of modern ferns, the origin of neochrome has remained a mystery. We present evidence for neochrome in hornworts (a bryophyte lineage) and demonstrate that ferns acquired neochrome from hornworts via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Fern neochromes are nested within hornwort neochromes in our large-scale phylogenetic reconstructions of phototropin and phytochrome gene families. …

El Niño-Southern Oscillation Is Linked To Decreased Energetic Condition In Long-Distance Migrants, Kristina Paxton, Emily B. Cohen, Zoltán Németh, Frank R. Moore

Faculty Publications

Predicting how migratory animals respond to changing climatic conditions requires knowledge of how climatic events affect each phase of the annual cycle and how those effects carry-over to subsequent phases. We utilized a 17-year migration dataset to examine how El Niño-Southern Oscillation climatic events in geographically different regions of the Western hemisphere carry-over to impact the stopover biology of several intercontinental migratory bird species. We found that migratory birds that over-wintered in South America experienced significantly drier environments during El Niño years, as reflected by reduced Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, and arrived at stopover sites in reduced energetic …

The Past, Present, And Future Of Real-Time Control In Cellular Electrophysiology., Bauer Ja, Lambert Km, White Ja

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Apeg3: Regulation Of Peg3 Through An Evolutionarily Conserved Ncrna, Wesley D. Frey, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

Mammalian APeg3 is an antisense gene that is localized within the 3'-untranslated region of the imprinted gene, Peg3. APeg3 is expressed only in the vasopressinergic neurons of the hypothalamus, thus is predicted to play significant roles in this specific area of the brain. In the current study, we investigate the functions of APeg3 with comparative genomics and cell line-based functional approaches. The transcribed region of APeg3 displays high levels of sequence conservation among placental mammals, but without any obvious open reading frame, suggesting that APeg3 may have been selected as a ncRNA gene during eutherian evolution. This has been further …

Biogeochemical Consequences Of An Oxygenated Intrusion Into An Anoxic Fjord, Svetlana Pakhomova, Hans Fredrik V. Braaten, Evgeniy Yakushev, Jens Skei

Faculty Publications

Background: This paper is based on the studies of the biogeochemical structure of the water column in the anoxic Fjord Hunnbunn (south-eastern Norway) performed in 2009, 2011 and 2012. This Fjord is an enclosed basin of brackish water separated by a narrow and shallow outlet to the sea with a permanently anoxic layer. We show how an oxygenated intrusion could lead to both positive and negative effects on the ecosystem state in Hunnbunn due to a change in the biogeochemical structure.Results: During the stratified periods in 2009 and 2012 the anoxic layer amounted to approximately 10% of the total water …

Healthy Transitions To Family Formation, Erin Kramer Holmes, Geoffrey Brown, Kevin Shafer, Nate Stoddard

Faculty Publications

Current demographic trends in the United States suggest that emerging adults delay marriage (Vespa, 2014), nonmarital cohabitation is the norm among this age group (National Marriage Project, 2012), and premarital sex—including noncommitted hooking up (Garcia, Reiber, Massey, & Merriwether, 2012)—is widely accepted (Pew Research Center, 2014). These trends collide with consistently high divorce rates (Amato, 2010; Cherlin, 2010), where up to one-third of emerging adults grow up in stepfamilies (Copen, Daniels, Vespa, & Mosher, 2012). Aside from high divorce rates, the United States is experiencing what some demogra- phers term “the great crossover,” whereby unmarried parenthood is overtaking married parenthood …

Synthesis And Transformations Of 5-Chloro-2,2′-Dipyrrins And Their Boron Complexes, 8-Chloro-Bodipys, Haijun Wang, M. Graça H. Vicente, Frank R. Fronczek, Kevin M. Smith

Faculty Publications

Symmetric dipyrrylketones 1a,b were synthesized in two steps from the corresponding α-free pyrroles, by reaction with thiophosgene followed by oxidative hydrolysis under basic conditions. The dipyrrylketones produced the corresponding 5-chloro-dipyrrinium salts or 5-ethoxy-dipyrrins on reaction with phosgene or Meerwein's salt, respectively. Boron complexation of the dipyrrins afforded the corresponding 8-functionalized BODIPYs (borondipyrromethenes) in high yields. The 5-chloro-dipyrrinium salts reacted with methoxide or ethoxide ions to produce monopyrrole esters, presumably via a 5,5-dialkoxy-dipyrromethane intermediate. In contrast, 8-chloro-BODIPYs underwent a variety of nucleophilic substitutions of the chloro group in the presence of alkoxide ions, Grignard reagents, and thiols. In the presence of …

Hindcasts Of Potential Harmful Algal Bloom Transport Pathways On The Pacific Northwest Coast, S. Giddings, P. Maccready, B. Hickey, N. Banas, K. Davis, S. Siedlecki, V. Trainer, R. Kudela, N. Pelland, Thomas Connolly

Faculty Publications

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose a significant threat to human and marine organism health, and negatively impact coastal economies around the world. An improved understanding of HAB formation and transport is required to improve forecasting skill. A realistic numerical simulation of the US Pacific Northwest region is used to investigate transport pathways from known HAB formation hot spots, specifically for Pseudo-nitzschia (Pn), to the coast. We show that transport pathways are seasonal, with transport to the Washington (WA) coast from a northern source (the Juan de Fuca Eddy) during the summer/fall upwelling season and from a southern source (Heceta Bank) …

Kinetic Modeling Of Self-Hydrolysis Of Aqueous Nabh4 Solutions By Model-Based Isoconversional Method, Rajasree Retnamma, A. Q. Novais, C. M. Rangel, Lin Yu, Michael A. Matthews

Faculty Publications

The present work reports the kinetic modeling of self-hydrolysis of non-buffered, non-stabilized NaBH4 solutions by model-based isoconversional method. The overall kinetics is described by a „reaction-order‟ model in a practical operating window of 10-20 wt% NaBH4 solutions at 25-80 C and 0-50% conversions. The apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor are interrelated through a kinetic compensation effect (KCE). The apparent reaction order remains constant at a given temperature irrespective of extent of conversion and decreases with increase in temperature. It decreases from firstorder to 0.26 with increase in temperature from 25 to 80 C. The apparent activation energy is found …

Designing And Evaluating The Multicom Protein Local And Global Model Quality Prediction Methods In The Casp10 Experiment, Renzhi Cao, Zheng Wang, Jianlin Cheng

Faculty Publications

Background: Protein model quality assessment is an essential component of generating and using protein structural models. During the Tenth Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP10), we developed and tested four automated methods (MULTICOM-REFINE, MULTICOM-CLUSTER, MULTICOM-NOVEL, and MULTICOM-CONSTRUCT) that predicted both local and global quality of protein structural models.

Results: MULTICOM-REFINE was a clustering approach that used the average pairwise structural similarity between models to measure the global quality and the average Euclidean distance between a model and several top ranked models to measure the local quality. MULTICOM-CLUSTER and MULTICOM-NOVEL were two new support vector machine-based …

Brief Intervention For Truant Youth Sexual Risk Behavior And Alcohol Use: A Parallel Process Growth Model Analysis, Richard Dembo, Rhissa Briones-Robinson, Rocio Ungaro, Kimberly Barrett, Laura Gulledge, Ken C. Winters, Steven Belenko, Lora M. Karas, Jennifer Wareham

Faculty Publications

Truant youths frequently experience family problems, emotional/psychological issues, substance misuse, and delinquency. They are likely engaging in alcohol use and sexual risk behavior at a higher rate than the general youth population. Early intervention services would benefit them, their families, and society. We present interim findings from an ongoing, National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded, experimental, brief intervention (BI) study involving truant youths and their parent/guardians. Baseline, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up data were analyzed to determine whether alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors were longitudinally related, to examine the effects of the BI on alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, …

Replacing The Axial Ligand Tyrosine 75 Or Its Hydrogen Bond Partner Histidine 83 Minimally Affects Hemin Acquisition By The Hemophore Hasap From Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Ritesh Kumar, Hirotoshi Matsumura, Scott Lovell, Huili Yao, Juan C. Rodríguez, Kevin P. Battaile, Pierre Moënne-Loccoz, Mario Rivera

Faculty Publications

Hemophores from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (HasAp), Serratia marcescens (HasAsm), and Yersinia pestis (HasAyp) bind hemin between two loops. One of the loops harbors conserved axial ligand Tyr75 (Y75 loop) in all three structures, whereas the second loop (H32 loop) contains axial ligand His32 in HasAp and HasAsm, but a noncoordinating Gln32 in HasA yp. Binding of hemin to the Y75 loop of HasAp or HasAsm causes a large rearrangement of the H32 loop that allows His32 coordination. The Q32 loop in apo-HasAyp is already in the closed conformation, such that binding of hemin to the conserved Y75 loop occurs with minimal …

Prior Experience Affects Allocation To Current Reproduction In A Burying Beetle, Eric J. Billman, J. Curtis Creighton, Mark C. Belk

Faculty Publications

The cost of reproduction hypothesis predicts that the level of reproductive investment to current reproduction is constrained by an individual’s future reproductive potential or residual reproductive value. Therefore, age, or differences between young and old individuals in residual reproductive value, is expected to influence reproductive investment. However, recent theoretical work suggests that residual reproductive value is also influenced by an individual’s state or condition which may in part be determined by prior reproductive experience. We evaluated the reproductive investment of same-aged female burying beetles (Nicrophorus orbicollis) to determine how prior reproductive experience affects current reproduction. Consistent with previous …

Transcriptional Activation Of Antioxidants May Compensate For Selenoprotein Deficiences In Amblyomma Maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) Injected With Selk- Or Selm- Dsrna, S. Adamson, R. Browning, P. Singh, S. Nobles, A. Villareal, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

The Gulf‐Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, possesses an elaborate set of selenoproteins, which prevent the deleterious effects from oxidative stress that would otherwise occur during feeding. In the current work, we examined the role of selenoprotein K (SelK) and selenoprotein M (SelM) in feeding A. maculatum by bioinformatics, transcriptional gene expression, RNA interference and antioxidant assays. The transcriptional expression of SelK did not vary significantly in salivary glands or midguts throughout the bloodmeal. However, there was a 58‐fold increase in transcript levels of SelM in tick midguts. Ticks injected with selK‐dsRNA or selM‐dsRNA did not reveal any observable …

Recollision Scenario Without Tunneling: Role Of The Ionic Core Potential, A. Kamor, C. Chandre, T. Uzer, F. Mauger

Faculty Publications

We present a purely classical recollision scenario, i.e., without tunneling, which, in contrast to the standard three-step model, takes into account the ionic core potential fully at all stages of the recollision process and is valid at all intensities. We find that a key periodic orbit drives the recollisions by guiding electrons away and back to the core. At sufficiently high intensity, we connect our scenario to the three-step model, and explain why the three-step model leads to good agreement with the cutoff in high harmonic generation despite neglecting the core potential after tunneling. © 2014 American Physical Society.

Improvements In Blood Pressure Among Undiagnosed Hypertensive Participants In A Community-Based Lifestyle Intervention, Mississippi, 2010, Jamie M. Zoellner, Jessica L. Thomson, Alicia S. Landry, Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, Carol Connell, Elaine Fontenot Molaison, Kathleen Yadrick

Faculty Publications

Introduction

Effective strategies are needed to reach and treat people who lack awareness of or have uncontrolled hypertension. We used data from a community-based participatory research initiative, Hub City Steps, to quantify the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension and determine the relationship between hypertension status at baseline and postintervention improvements in blood pressure and health-related quality of life.

Methods

Hub City Steps was a 6-month preintervention–postintervention lifestyle intervention targeting hypertension risk factors. Outcome measures were collected at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Generalized linear mixed models were used to test for effects by time and hypertension status.

Results

Of the …

Understanding How Service-Learning Impacts The Dispositions Of Teach For America Candidates And Their Students, Dymaneke Mitchell, Sy Karlin, Todd Alan Price

Faculty Publications

This article is based on a study that assessed Teach for America (TFA) candidates’ dispositions toward service-learning before and after they developed and implemented a service-learning project with their students. This article may be used to understand the significance of raising alternative certification teacher candidates’ community awareness so that they may stay longer as teachers while also becoming more acculturated to their school and neighborhood surroundings. The authors assert that candidates will become more effective through carefully planned service-learning experiences with community partners and become better service and public education advocates.

Religion And Ethnicity In The United States, Mark A. Granquist

Faculty Publications

Religion and ethnicity are deeply intertwined in American life. This does not mean that Americans cannot be one in the gospel, but we will need new models and new ideas of how to express our unity with one another that take into account the ethnic diversity of twenty-first-century America.

High School Students’ Stereotypic Images Of Scientists In South Korea, Eunjin Bang, Sissy Wong, Tonya D. Jeffery

Faculty Publications

This study explored stereotypical images of scientists held by tenth-grade students at three different gender organized institutions. The three institutions included an all-male, an all-female, and a co-educational high school located in South Korea. A total of 393 tenth-grade students from these three respective schools participated in a Draw-A-Scientist-Test (DAST), which was designed to reveal students’ perceptions about what scientists look like. After initial assessment of the DAST results, small numbers of students from each school were selected for follow-up focus group interviews. A mixed methods technique was used in order to analyse the DAST scores and data from the …

We Are Our Stories: Narrative Dimension Of Human Identity And Its Implications For Christian Faith Formation, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

Increasingly, representatives of diverse disciplines have come to a significant consensus about human identity. Each of us constructs and lives in a narrative that is, in fact, us. If this is the case, we will need an outside source to construct a narrative that is both good and true—one to which and in which we can give our lives. Such a story is given us in Holy Scripture and in the collective memory of the church.

Politics Then And Now, In Maine And The Nation Conversations With The Sages, Richard Barringer, Kenneth Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Dual Consent, Lisa V. Martin

Faculty Publications

Before a child may travel internationally, many countries require proof that both of the child’s parents consent. These “dual consent” requirements are aimed at preventing international child abduction, and many countries have adopted them as part of the coordinated effort to implement the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. In recent years, international air carriers have been urged to impose similar requirements for all children traveling on international flights. Although well-intentioned, dual consent requirements pose significant harms, especially to children of single parents and parents subjected to domestic violence. This article explores the unintended consequences …

Genetic Variation Among Western Populations Of The Horned Lark (Eremophila Alpestris) Indicates Recent Colonization Of The Channel Islands Off Southern California, Mainland-Bound Dispersal, And Postglacial Range Shifts, Nicholas A. Mason, Pascal O. Title, Carla Cicero, Kevin J. Burns, Rauri C.K. Bowie

Faculty Publications

© 2014 American Ornithologists' Union. The Channel Islands off the coast of southern California host >50 species of terrestrial vertebrates with varying degrees of phenotypic differentiation. However, most organisms that breed on the Channel Islands remain unstudied with respect to genetic differentiation from mainland populations. By comparing patterns of genetic variation between the Channel Islands and the mainland, we aimed to further our understanding of the role that the Channel Islands have played in diversification of the North American biota. We evaluated long-standing, untested hypotheses regarding colonization patterns and evolutionary relationships among western populations of the Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), …

Genome Structures And Transcriptomes Signify Niche Adaptation For The Multiple-Ion-Tolerant Extremophyte Schrenkiella Parvula, Dong Ha Oh, Hyewon Hong, Sang Yeol Lee, Dae Jin Yun, Hans J. Bohnert, Maheshi Dassanayake

Faculty Publications

Schrenkiella parvula (formerly Thellungiella parvula), a close relative of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and Brassica crop species, thrives on the shores of Lake Tuz, Turkey, where soils accumulate high concentrations of multiple-ion salts. Despite the stark differences in adaptations to extreme salt stresses, the genomes of S. parvula and Arabidopsis show extensive synteny. S. parvula completes its life cycle in the presence of Na+, K+, Mg2+, Li+, and borate at soil concentrations lethal to Arabidopsis. Genome structural variations, including tandem duplications and translocations of genes, interrupt the colinearity observed throughout the S. parvula and Arabidopsis genomes. Structural variations distinguish homologous gene …

Hub City Steps: A 6-Month Lifestyle Intervention Improves Blood Pressure Among A Primarily African-American Community, Jamie M. Zoellner, Carol Connell, Michael B. Modson, Jessica L. Thomson, Alicia S. Landry, Elaine Fontenot Molaison, Vickie Blakely Reed, Kathleen Yadrick

Faculty Publications

The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) efforts to address the disproportionate burden of hypertension among African Americans remains largely untested. The objective of this 6-month, noncontrolled, pre-/post-experimental intervention was to examine the effectiveness of a CBPR intervention in achieving improvements in blood pressure, anthropometric measures, biological measures, and diet. Conducted in 2010, this multicomponent lifestyle intervention included motivational enhancement, social support provided by peer coaches, pedometer diary self-monitoring, and monthly nutrition and physical activity education sessions. Of 269 enrolled participants, 94% were African American and 85% were female. Statistical analysis included generalized linear mixed models using maximum likelihood estimation. …

Unequal Protection Under The Law: Why Fda Should Use Negotiated Rulemaking To Reform The Regulation Of Generic Drugs, Marie C. Boyd

Faculty Publications

The duty to ensure the safety of drug products, through adequate warnings or other means, should ultimately rest with the drug's manufacturer regardless of whether the drug is a generic drug or a brand-name drug. Recent U.S. Supreme Court holdings, however, suggest that while the manufacturer of a brand-name drug is always responsible for its label's content, this is not the case for generic drugs. In addition, by holding that failure-to-warn claims against generic drug manufacturers based on state law are preempted, the Court has removed the protections and compensation that state tort law can provide consumers of generic drugs …

The Real Impact Of Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl: The Existing Indian Family Doctrine Is Not Affirmed But The Future Of Icwa's Placement Preferences Is Jeopardized, Marcia A. Yablon-Zug

Faculty Publications

On July 3, 2013, Dusten Brown and his wife Robin, and Brown’s parents, Tommy and Alice Brown, both filed actions to adopt "Baby Veronica", the four-year-old girl at the heart of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The Browns’ adoption petitions were based on the assumption that the Baby Girl Court did not affirm "The Existing Indian Family Doctrine," a doctrine which limits application of The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) solely to children previously in the care or custody of an Indian relative. The Browns believed ICWA’s placement preferences, which give preference to …

Disability, Development, And Human Rights: A Mandate And Framework For International Financial Institutions, Michael Ashley Stein, Penelope J. S. Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Pharmacy Compounding After The Drug Quality And Security Act, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

On November 27, 2013, President Obama signed into law the Drug Quality and Security Act ("DQSA"), which amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ("FDCA") to add statutory provisions addressing drug compounding and supply chain issues. This article discusses Title I of this legislation, known as the Compounding Quality Act, and draft compounding guidances subsequently issued by the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"). Section I provides a brief history of FDA's regulation of compounding activities before the Compounding Quality Act's enactment. Section II reviews the Compounding Quality Act and FDA's new draft guidances. Section III considers some of the …

Cost-Savings Achieved In Two Semesters Through The Adoption Of Open Educational Resources, John Hilton Iii, T. Jared Robinson, David Wiley, J. Dale Ackerman

Faculty Publications

Textbooks represent a significant portion of the overall cost of higher education in the United States. The burden of these costs is typically shouldered by students, those who support them, and the taxpayers who fund the grants and student loans which pay for textbooks. Open educational resources (OER) provide students a way to receive high-quality learning materials at little or no cost to students. We report on the cost savings achieved by students at eight colleges when these colleges began utilizing OER in place of traditional commercial textbooks.