Digital Commons Network^™

The Number Of Tree Species On Earth, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Peter B. Reich, Javier G.P. Gamarra, Tom Crowther, Cang Hui, Albert Morera, Jean Francois Bastin, Sergio De-Miguel, Gert Jan Nabuurs, Jens Christian Svenning, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Cory Merow, Brian Enquist, Maria Kamenetsky, Junho Lee, Jun Zhu, Jinyun Fang, Douglass F. Jacobs, Bryan Pijanowski, Arindam Banerjee, Robert A. Giaquinto, Giorgio Alberti, Angelica Maria Almeyda Zambrano, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Valerio Avitabile, Gerardo A. Aymard, Radomir Balazy, Chris Baraloto, Jorcely G. Barroso, Meredith L. Bastian, Philippe Birnbaum, Robert Bitariho

Faculty Publications

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South …

Specificity Matters: Unpacking Impact Pathways Of Individual Interventions Within Bundled Packages Helps Interpret The Limited Impacts Of A Maternal Nutrition Intervention In India, Shivani Kachwaha, Phuong H. Nguyen, Lan Mai Tran, Rasmi Avula, Melissa F. Young, Sebanti Ghosh, Thomas Forissier, Jessica Escobar-Alegria, Praveen Kumar Sharma, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Purnima Menon

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: To address gaps in coverage and quality of nutrition services, Alive & Thrive (A&T) strengthened the delivery of maternal nutrition interventions through government antenatal care (ANC) services in Uttar Pradesh, India. The impact evaluation of the A&T interventions compared intensive ANC (I-ANC) with standard ANC (S-ANC) areas and found modest impacts on micronutrient supplementation, dietary diversity, and weight-gain monitoring. OBJECTIVES: This study examined intervention-specific program impact pathways (PIPs) and identified reasons for limited impacts of the A&T maternal nutrition intervention package. METHODS: We used mixed methods: frontline worker (FLW) surveys (n = ∼500), counseling observations (n = 407), and …

Strong Laser Polarization Control Of Coherent Phonon Excitation In Van Der Waals Material Fe3Gete2, Yu Gong, Ming Hu, Nico Harris, Zhonghua Yang, Ti Xie, Alem Teklu, Narayanan Kuthirummal, Jacob Koenemann, Xianghan Xu, Sang-Wook Cheong, Will Mcloud, Cheng Gong

Faculty Publications

Optical manipulation of coherent phonon frequency in two-dimensional (2D) materials could advance the development of ultrafast phononics in atomic-thin platforms. However, conventional approaches for such control are limited to doping, strain, structural or thermal engineering. Here, we report the experimental observation of strong laser-polarization control of coherent phonon frequency through time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopic study of van der Waals (vdW) materials Fe₃GeTe₂. When the polarization of the pumping laser with tilted incidence is swept between in-plane and out-of-plane orientations, the frequencies of excited phonons can be monotonically tuned by as large as 3% (~100 GHz). Our first-principles …

Hippocampal Ensembles Represent Sequential Relationships Among An Extended Sequence Of Nonspatial Events, Babak Shahbaba, Lingge Li, Forest Agostinelli, Mansi Saraf, Keiland W. Cooper, Derenik Haghverdian, Gabriel A. Elias, Pierre Baldi, Norbert J. Fortin

Faculty Publications

The hippocampus is critical to the temporal organization of our experiences. Although this fundamental capacity is conserved across modalities and species, its underlying neuronal mechanisms remain unclear. Here we recorded hippocampal activity as rats remembered an extended sequence of nonspatial events unfolding over several seconds, as in daily life episodes in humans. We then developed statistical machine learning methods to analyze the ensemble activity and discovered forms of sequential organization and coding important for order memory judgments. Specifically, we found that hippocampal ensembles provide significant temporal coding throughout nonspatial event sequences, differentiate distinct types of task-critical information sequentially within events, …

Early-Stage Studies To Larger-Scale Trials: Investigators’ Perspectives On Scaling-Up Childhood Obesity Interventions, L. Von Klinggraeff, Roddrick Dugger, A. D. Okely, D. Lubans, R. Jago, S. Burkart

Faculty Publications

Background

Pilot/feasibility studies play an important role in the development and refinement of behavioral interventions by providing information about feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy. Despite their importance and wide-spread use, the approaches taken by behavioral scientists to scale-up early-stage studies to larger-scale trials has received little attention. The aim of our study was to understand the role that pilot studies play in the development and execution of larger-scale trials.

Methods

We conducted interviews with childhood obesity researchers who had published pilot behavioral interventions and larger-scale trials of the same or similar interventions. Questions were asked about the role of pilot …

Transmodel: An R Package For Linear Transformation Model With Censored Data, Jie Zhou, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Linear transformation models, including the proportional hazards model and proportional odds model, under right censoring were discussed by Chen, Jin, and Ying (2002). The asymptotic variance of the estimator they proposed has a closed form and can be obtained easily by plug-in rules, which improves the computational efficiency. We develop an R package TransModel based on Chen's approach. The detailed usage of the package is discussed, and the function is applied to the Veterans' Administration lung cancer data.

Alleviating The Challenges With Remote Learning During A Pandemic, Hani Morgan

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many challenges that resulted from the suspension of face-to-face classes. Some of these challenges involved the problems associated with remote learning. One problem with this approach to learning is that it can be didactic. Remote learning can contribute to loneliness as well, and the lack of access to reliable technological resources that many students from low-income families experience can contribute to learning setbacks. Although the pandemic has created challenges related to providing remote learning opportunities and keeping students emotionally and physically healthy, some schools and colleges have used various methods to alleviate these concerns. This …

Differential Effects Of Exercise Programs On Neuregulin 4, Body Composition And Cardiometabolic Risk Factors In Men With Obesity, Terence Moriarty, Ayoub Saeidi, Sevda R. Shishvan, Mohammad Soltani, Fatemeh Tarazi, Patricia K. Doyle-Baker, Shahnaz Shahrbanian, Shirin S. Mollabashi, Nikoo Khosravi, Ismail Laher, Kelly E. Johnson, Trishia A. Vandusseldorp

Faculty Publications

Background: Neuregulin 4 (Nrg4) is an adipokine that is sensitive to energy expenditure and with a potential role in metabolic homeostasis and obesity. This study examined the effects of 12 weeks of three different exercise training protocols on Nrg4 levels, cardiometabolic risk factors, and body composition parameters in men with obesity. Methods: Sixty adult men with obesity (Mean ± SD; age: 27.60 ± 8.4 yrs.; height: 168.4 ± 2.6 cm; weight: 96.7 ± 7.2 kg) were randomly allocated into four equal (n = 15) groups: High- Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Circuit Resistance Training (CRT), Moderate Intensity Continuous Training (MICT) or …

Search Full Text Options Here 2 Of 4 Kmt-2021-Blg-0912lb: A Microlensing Super Earth Around A K-Type Star, Cheongho Han, Ian A. Bond, Jennifer C. Yee, Weicheng Zang, Michael D. Albrow

Faculty Publications

Aims. The light curve of the microlensing event KMT-2021-BLG-0912 exhibits a very short anomaly relative to a single-lens single-source form. We investigate the light curve for the purpose of identifying the origin of the anomaly.

Methods. We model the light curve under various interpretations. From this, we find four solutions, in which three solutions are found under the assumption that the lens is composed of two masses (2L1S models), and the other solution is found under the assumption that the source is comprised of binary stars (1L2S model). The 1L2S model is ruled out based on the contradiction that the …

Studying Patterns And Predictors Of Hiv Viral Suppression Using A Big Data Approach: A Research Protocol, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xueying Yang Ph.D., Zhenglong Li, Jianjun Hu, Xiaoming Li

Faculty Publications

Background: Given the importance of viral suppression in ending the HIV epidemic in the US and elsewhere, an optimal predictive model of viral status can help clinicians identify those at risk of poor viral control and inform clinical improvements in HIV treatment and care. With an increasing availability of electronic health record (EHR) data and social environmental information, there is a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the dynamic pattern of viral suppression. Using a statewide cohort of people living with HIV (PLWH) in South Carolina (SC), the overall goal of the proposed research is to examine the dynamic …

Tale Of A Non-Interacting Additive In A Lithium-Ion Electrolyte: Effect On Ionic Speciation And Electrochemical Properties, J C. Rushing, C M. Stern, N Elgrishi, D G. Kuroda, J C. Rushing

Faculty Publications

New lithium electrolytes compatible with high energy density cells are critical for lithium metal battery applications, but dendrite formation associated with the use of dilute organic electrolytes complicates their realization. High-concentration electrolytes mitigate some of the issues of the electrolytes but introduce additional problems, such as low conductivity and high cost. Hence, pseudo-concentrated electrolytes, wherein a co-solvent is added to a dilute electrolyte, have been presented as a possible alternative to both dilute and concentrated electrolytes. However, the effect that the co-solvent has on the electrolyte properties at both macroscopic and microscopic levels is unknown. Here, a study of the …

Tale Of A Non-Interacting Additive In A Lithium-Ion Electrolyte: Effect On Ionic Speciation And Electrochemical Properties, J C. Rushing, C M. Stern, N Elgrishi, D G. Kuroda, J C. Rushing

Faculty Publications

New lithium electrolytes compatible with high energy density cells are critical for lithium metal battery applications, but dendrite formation associated with the use of dilute organic electrolytes complicates their realization. High-concentration electrolytes mitigate some of the issues of the electrolytes but introduce additional problems, such as low conductivity and high cost. Hence, pseudo-concentrated electrolytes, wherein a co-solvent is added to a dilute electrolyte, have been presented as a possible alternative to both dilute and concentrated electrolytes. However, the effect that the co-solvent has on the electrolyte properties at both macroscopic and microscopic levels is unknown. Here, a study of the …

Concurrent Identification And Characterization Of Protein Structure And Continuous Internal Dynamics With Redcraft, Hanin Omar, Aaron Hein, Casey A. Cole, Homayoun Valafar

Faculty Publications

Internal dynamics of proteins can play a critical role in the biological function of some proteins. Several well documented instances have been reported such as MBP, DHFR, hTS, DGCR8, and NSP1 of the SARS-CoV family of viruses. Despite the importance of internal dynamics of proteins, there currently are very few approaches that allow for meaningful separation of internal dynamics from structural aspects using experimental data. Here we present a computational approach named REDCRAFT that allows for concurrent characterization of protein structure and dynamics. Here, we have subjected DHFR (PDB-ID 1RX2), a 159-residue protein, to a fictitious, mixed mode model of …

Comparison Of Human Urinary Exosomes Isolated Via Ultracentrifugation Alone Versus Ultracentrifugation Followed By Sec Column-Purification, Kun Huang, Sudha Garimella, Alyssa Clay-Gilmour, Lucia Vojtech, Bridget Armstrong, Madison Bessonny, Alexis Stamatikos

Faculty Publications

Chronic kidney disease is a progressive, incurable condition that involves a gradual loss of kidney function. While there are no non-invasive biomarkers available to determine whether individuals are susceptible to developing chronic kidney disease, small RNAs within urinary exosomes have recently emerged as a potential candidate to use for assessing renal function. Ultracentrifugation is the gold standard for urinary exosome isolation. However, extravesicular small RNA contamination can occur when isolating exosomes from biological fluids using ultracentrifugation, which may lead to misidentifying the presence of certain small RNA species in human urinary exosomes. Therefore, we characterized human urinary exosomal preparations isolated …

Moral Disengagement Mechanisms Predict Cyber Aggression Among Emerging Adults, Taylor R. Nocera, Eric R. Dahlen, Alison Poor, Jacqueline Strowd, Amanda Dortch, Erica C. Van Overloop

Faculty Publications

The Internet has given rise to many new communication tools (e.g., social media, text messaging), which, while beneficial in many respects, have become a means for aggressing against others. As evidence of the adverse correlates of cyber aggression mounts, improved understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate electronic aggression is needed. Moral disengagement (i.e., cognitive processes through which individuals disengage from their moral values) has been shown to predict cyber aggression when assessed as a unitary construct. The present study investigated the eight moral disengagement mechanisms measured by the Moral Disengagement Measure (Detert et al., 2008) and their relationships to four …

Association Of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration With Migraine, Tung-Mei Kuang, Sudha Xirasagar, Yi-Wei Kao, Jau-Der Ho, Herng-Ching Lin

Faculty Publications

Patients with early onset vascular pathology have been reported to manifest neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). While the blood vessels involved in pathogenesis of migraine remains controversial, it is generally accepted that a major contributor is blood vessel pathology. This study aimed to examine the association between migraine and AMD using a nationwide population-based dataset. Retrospective claims data were collected from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified 20,333 patients diagnosed with neovascular AMD (cases), and we selected 81,332 propensity score-matched controls from the remaining beneficiaries in Taiwan's National Health Insurance system. We used Chi-square tests to explore …

Extreme Water Level Simulation And Component Analysis In Delaware Estuary During Hurricane Isabel, Dongxiao Yin, David F. Muñoz, Roham Bakhtyar, Z. George Xue, Hamed Moftakhari, Celso Ferreira, Kyle Mandli

Faculty Publications

Sea level rise and intense hurricane events make the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States increasingly vulnerable to flooding, which necessitates the development of computational models for accurate water level simulation in these areas to safeguard the coastal wellbeing. With this regard, a model framework for water level simulation over coastal transition zone during hurricane events is built in this study. The model takes advantage of the National Water Model’s strength in simulating rainfall–runoff process, and D-Flow Flexible Mesh’s ability to support unstructured grid in hydrodynamic processes simulation with storm surges/tides information from the Advanced CIRCulation model. We …

Mass Removal Efficiencies In Water And Consequences After A River Diversion Into Coastal Wetlands: Second Thoughts, R. Eugene Turner, Erik M. Swenson, James M. Lee, Charles S. Milan

Faculty Publications

Salinity control, nutrient additions, and sediment supply were directly or indirectly the rationale for a $220 million coastal wetland restoration project (Davis Pond River Diversion) that began in 2002. We sampled Mississippi River water going in and out of the receiving basin from 1999 to 2018 to understand why wetland loss increased after it began. There was a reduction in inorganic sediments, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) concentrations within the ponding area of 77%, 39% and 34%, respectively, which is similar to that in other wetlands. But the average sediment accumulation of 0.6 mm year(-1) inadequately balances the present-day 5.6 …

Alluvial Connectivity In Multi‐Channel Networks In Rivers And Estuaries, Willem Sonke, Maarten G. Kleinhans, Bettina Speckmann, Wout M. Dijk, Matthew Hiatt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Phytoplankton Dynamics In Louisiana Estuaries: Building A Baseline To Understand Current And Future Change, Julia A. Sweet, Sibel Bargu, Wendy L. Morrison, Michael Parsons, Mrunmayee G. Pathare, Brian J. Roberts, Thomas M. Soniat, Beth A. Stauffer

Faculty Publications

Louisiana estuaries are important habitats in the northern Gulf of Mexico, a region undergoing significant and sustained human- and climate-driven changes. This paper synthesizes data collected over multiple years from four Louisiana estuaries – Breton Sound, Terrebonne Bay, the Atchafalaya River Delta Estuary, and Vermilion Bay – to characterize trends in phytoplankton biomass, community composition, and the environmental factors influencing them. Results highlight similarities in timing and composition of maximum chlorophyll, with salinity variability often explaining biomass trends. Distinct drivers for biomass versus community structure were observed in all four estuarine systems. Systems shared a lack of significant correlation between …

Gertrude Stein: The Author's Fondness For Her Iowa Friends, Roy R. Behrens

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Muddy Waters: Fair Use Implications Of Google V. Oracle America, Inc., Gary Myers

Faculty Publications

The United States Supreme Court ruling in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. ended a long-running dispute between two giant technology companies. The case, which first began in 2010, has received considerable attention and commentary with regard to the scope of copyright protection for software and then about the contours of the fair use defense. The Court ultimately left the software copyright questions for another day, but it did render an important decision on fair use, the first major precedent on this important topic since 1994.

The Court’s fair use ruling provides important guidance on the scope of fair use …

A Bayesian Phase I/Ii Biomarker-Based Design For Identifying Subgroup-Specific Optimal Dose For Immunotherapy, Beibei Guo, Yong Zang

Faculty Publications

Immunotherapy is an innovative treatment that enlists the patient's immune system to battle tumors. The optimal dose for treating patients with an immunotherapeutic agent may differ according to their biomarker status. In this article, we propose a biomarker-based phase I/II dose-finding design for identifying subgroup-specific optimal dose for immunotherapy (BSOI) that jointly models the immune response, toxicity, and efficacy outcomes. We propose parsimonious yet flexible models to borrow information across different types of outcomes and subgroups. We quantify the desirability of the dose using a utility function and adopt a two-stage dose-finding algorithm to find the optimal dose for each …

Singing Strategies Are Linked To Perch Use On Foraging Territories In Heart-Nosed Bats, Grace C. Smarsh, Ashley M. Long, Michael Smotherman

Faculty Publications

Acoustic communication allows animals to coordinate and optimize resource utilization in space. Cardioderma cor, the heart-nosed bat, is one of the few species of bats known to sing during nighttime foraging. Previous research found that heart-nosed bats react aggressively to song playback, supporting the territorial defense hypothesis of singing in this species. We further investigated the territorial defense hypothesis from an ecological standpoint, which predicts that singing should be associated with exclusive areas containing a resource, by tracking 14 individuals nightly during the dry seasons in Tanzania. We quantified the singing behavior of individuals at all perches used throughout the …

A Comparative Review Of Peridynamics And Phase-Field Models For Engineering Fracture Mechanics, Patrick Diehl, Robert Lipton, Thomas Wick, Mayank Tyagi

Faculty Publications

Computational modeling of the initiation and propagation of complex fracture is central to the discipline of engineering fracture mechanics. This review focuses on two promising approaches: phase-field (PF) and peridynamic (PD) models applied to this class of problems. The basic concepts consisting of constitutive models, failure criteria, discretization schemes, and numerical analysis are briefly summarized for both models. Validation against experimental data is essential for all computational methods to demonstrate predictive accuracy. To that end, the Sandia Fracture Challenge and similar experimental data sets where both models could be benchmarked against are showcased. Emphasis is made to converge on common …

Strict Lyapunov Functions And Feedback Controls For Sir Models With Quarantine And Vaccination, Hiroshi Ito, Michael Malisoff, Frederic Mazenc

Faculty Publications

We provide a new global strict Lyapunov function construction for a susceptible, infected, and recovered (or SIR) disease dynamics that includes quarantine of infected individuals and mass vaccination. We use the Lyapunov function to design feedback controls to asymptotically stabilize a desired endemic equilibrium, and to prove input-to-state stability for the dynamics with a suitable restriction on the disturbances. Our simulations illustrate the potential of our feedback controls to reduce peak levels of infected individuals.

Intact, Commercial Lithium-Polymer Batteries: Spatially Resolved Grating-Based Interferometry Imaging, Bragg Edge Imaging, And Neutron Diffraction, A J. Brooks, D S. Hussey, K Ham, D L. Jacobson, A J. Brooks, N Kardjilov, L G. Butler

Faculty Publications

We survey several neutron imaging and diffraction methods for non-destructive testing and evaluation of intact, commercial lithium-ion batteries. Specifically, far-field interferometry was explored as an option to probe a wide range of autocorrelation lengths within the batteries via neutron imaging. The dark-field interferometry images change remarkably from fresh to worn batteries, and from charged to discharged batteries. When attempting to search for visual evidence of battery degradation, neutron Talbot-Lau grating interferometry exposed battery layering and particle scattering through dark-field imaging. Bragg edge imaging also reveals battery wear and state of charge. Neutron diffraction observed chemical changes between fresh and worn, …

Predator-Pest Dynamics Of Arthropods Residing In Louisiana Soybean Agroecosystems, Scott T. Lee, Chaoyang Li, Jeffrey A. Davis

Faculty Publications

Over the past two decades, management practices within Louisiana soybean production have shifted. Successful application of an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy requires an understanding of how these changes have affected predator-pest dynamics. Surveys monitoring foliage-foraging arthropod populations in soybean took place across six locations within Louisiana over six years (2012–2014 and 2015–2018). Temporal associations of pest groups, defoliating and piercing-sucking, and predator groups relating to soybean phenology were observed. Additionally, soybean maturity groups (III, IV, and V) were also evaluated to delineate potential differences. Results indicated higher abundances of piercing-sucking pests compared to defoliating pests across both datasets (2012–2014 …

Optimizing Chemical Control For Diatraea Saccharalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) In Sugarcane, B. E. Wilson, L. D. Salgado, J. M. Villegas

Faculty Publications

The sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), is the primary pest of sugarcane, Saccharum spp., in much of North and South America. Control of D. saccharalis can be obtained through judicious application of insecticides, but more research is needed to optimize chemical control strategies. A series of field trials evaluated the duration of protection and influence of application water volume on D. saccharalis control in Louisiana sugarcane from 2018 to 2020. Results across trials demonstrated superior control was achieved with chlorantraniliprole over novaluron and tebufenozide. Analysis of insecticide concentrations present in leaf sheath tissue of the target internode suggests chlorantraniliprole …

Nudging Away From Plastic Bags With Charitable Donations, Jerrod Penn, Sapana Bastola, Wuyang Hu

Faculty Publications

To respond to the environmental problems posed by disposable plastic bags, several mechanisms exist, such as bag taxes and bans, but such policies are infeasible in several U.S. states and municipalities. This study uses a social quasi-experiment to examine the effect of a voluntary token-donation program, which reduces disposable plastic bag use by providing a small charitable donation incentive. We find that the token-donation program reduces the probability of disposable bag use by 11.4–12.9 percentage points, representing about 30%–34% decrease in bag use. Our results demonstrate effective mechanisms to reduce plastic bags exist without government-mandated policy.