Digital Commons Network^™

Novel Cell Cycle Proteins In Apicomplexan Parasites, Carrie Butler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Apicomplexans are responsible for major human diseases such as toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) and the deadliest form of malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). The genomes of these pathogens are now sequenced ushering in a new era of drug development. A major hurdle to exploiting this genome resource is that a large number of the encoded genes are "hypotheticals" and have yet to be characterized. Hypothetical proteins comprise roughly half of the predicted gene complement of T. gondii and P. falciparum and represent the largest class of uniquely functioning proteins in these parasites.

Following the idea …

New Species Of Ctenomys Blainville 1826 (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae) From The Lowlands And Central Valleys Of Bolivia, Scott Lyell Gardner, Jorge Salazar-Bravo, Joseph A. Cook

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

The genus Ctenomys Blainville 1826 is one of the most diverse of South American hystricognath rodents. Currently, nine species of tuco-tucos are reported from Bolivia, four at elevations above 2,000 m and five inhabiting the lowlands (< 1,000 m). In the present paper, morphology, karyology, and phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences for a mitochondrial locus were used to assess the taxonomic status of specimens of Ctenomys from localities beyond the previously known ranges of these rodents in the departments of Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and Tarija. Based on these analyses, we describe four new species in the genus Ctenomys, all apparently endemic to the country. In addition, we place Ctenomys goodfellowi Thomas 1921 in synonymy under C. boliviensis Waterhouse 1848 and confirm the presence of C. nattereri …

The Eastern Echo, June 17, 2014, Eastern Michigan University

EMU Student Newspaper: The Normal News & The Eastern Echo

No abstract provided.

Cercyonis Pegala Agawamensis (Satyridae): A New Butterfly Subspecies From The Coastal Salt Marshes Of The Northeastern United States Of America, Matthew D. Arey, Alex Grkovich

The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey

A new subspecies of the Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala) from the New England coastline in the northeastern region of the United States is described on the basis of phenotype, behavior, habitat, seasonality, flight period, and phenology. Agawamensis is univoltine as in all pegala. The newly described subspecies occurs almost entirely in coastal salt marshes and estuarine meadows, quite atypical as understood for Cercyonis pegala. The newly described subspecies agawamensis predominately prefers and occurs within large open salt marshes but can also be found in similar habitat along smaller tidal rivers, coastal inlets and streams

Downs Named To Leadership Post In Arvo, Alicia Rohan

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Modelling Spatial Relationships Between Ecosystem Services And Agricultural Production In An Agent- Based Model, Changxing Dong, Mark Brady, Yann Clough, Ullrika Sahlin, Christoph Sahrbacher, Martin Stjernman

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The collective impacts of farmers’ land management decisions on above ground ecosystem services (ES) and their implications for agriculture are poorly understood. Managing habitat to provide ES is costly but at the same time it can support higher yields through, e.g., pollination or natural pest control. Due to the mobility of ES-providers (bees, natural enemies) farmers providing habitat might also benefit their neighbours, creating interdependencies among their decisions. Interdependencies among farmers’ land-use decisions and the flow of ES in space can be considered by integrating agent-based modelling and evidence-based ES models. Such integration requires a trade-off between the land-use details …

Swat-Sir Model For Predicting Fate And Transport Of Manure-Borne Pathogens In Fragmented Agriculture-Forest Ecosystems, Andrey K. Guber, David M. Williams, Amy C. Dechen Quinn, Sushil B. Tamrakar, Joan B. Rose, William F. Porter

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The objective of this study was to develop and qualitatively evaluate a model predicting transmission of manure-borne pathogens between co-grazing cattle and wildlife. The developed add- on module SIR that we coupled with SWAT model included the following new components: wildlife population changes, resource selection, dose-response, compartmental susceptible-infectious- recovered (SIR) module and pathogen shedding. Probabilities of the wild and domestic animal infection by pathogens and numbers of infected animals were computed based on a dose-response approach, which included beta-Poisson and exponential models. Land use and plant biomass predicted with watershed-scale model SWAT were used as the input for the deer …

A Sequential Participatory Approach To Adapt Livestock Systems To Climate Change, Marion Sautier, Mathilde Piquet, Michel Duru, Roger Martin-Clouaire

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Livestock systems are and will increasingly be impacted by climate change primarily because the feed supply produced on the farm (pastures, forage crops) depends greatly on the climatic conditions experienced. To adapt grassland-based livestock systems to climate change, some transformational redesign of the fanning system may be required. Redesign is basically a matter of reconfiguring land-use for feed production and management practices set up to cope with weather variability. We present a participatory method to design systems adapted to new conditions. It is based on a pre-existing game-like platform (Forage Rummy) in which various year-round forage production and animal feeding …

Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Of Freshwater Impacted By Animal Fecal Material, Jeffrey Soller, Timothy Bartrand, Marirosa Molina, Gene Whelan, Mary Schoen, Nicholas Ashbolt

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We evaluated the potential for human illness from a hypothetical recreational exposure to freshwater that was impacted by land-applied, agricultural animal fecal material. The scenario included 1) fresh cattle manure, pig slurry, or chicken litter (fecal material) land-applied, adjacent to a freshwater waterbody at standard agronomic rates (based on nutrient management); 2) fecal materials containing fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and pathogens of public health concern (reference pathogens) at levels reported in peer-reviewed literature; 3) FIB and reference pathogens mobilized via runoff at rates estimated from our rainfall simulation experiments; 4) primary recreational contact (e.g., swimming) occurring in undiluted runoff at …

Accounting For Groups Of Animals In Qmra Of Recreational Waters, Richard W. Muirhead, Vanessa M. Cave

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The development of QMRA for recreational waters often involves assessing the inputs from multiple sources, including human sewage, agricultural sources and wild animals. The concentrations of microorganisms in faeces from individual animals are highly variable leading to a broad spectrum of risk. When modelling the load of faecal microbes from a group of animals, based on data from individuals, the group distribution must be correctly accounted for. A further complication to QMRA is that pathogen concentrations in faeces have a high proportion of non-detects making them difficult to model using standard mathematical distributions. Moreover, when only limited concentration data are …

Using Integrated Environmental Modeling To Automate A Process-Based Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, Gene Whelan, Keewook Kim, Rajbir Parmar, Kurt Wolfe, Mike Galvin, Paul Duda, Mark Gray, Marirosa Molina, Richard Zepp, Yakov Pachepsky, John Ravenscroft, Lourdes Prieto, Brenda Kitchens

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated Environmental Modeling (IEM) organizes multidisciplinary knowledge that explains and predicts environmental-system response to stressors. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) is an approach integrating a range of disparate data (fate/transport, exposure, and human health effects relationships) to characterize potential health impacts/risks from exposure to pathogenic microorganisms. We demonstrate loosely connected IEM legacy technologies (SDMProjectBuilder, Microbial Source Module, HSPF, and BASINS) to support watershed-scale microbial source-to-receptor modeling, focusing on animal-impacted catchments. The coupled models automate manual steps in standard watershed assessments to expedite the process, minimize resources, increase ease of use, and introduce more science-based processes to the analysis. SDMProjectBuilder …

Gis-Based Environmental Modeling With Tangible Interaction And Dynamic Visualization, Anna Petrasova, Brendan Harmon, Vaclav Petras, Helena Mitasova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

We present a new, affordable version of TanGeoMS, a tangible geospatial modeling and visualization system designed for collaboratively exploring how terrain change impacts landscape pro­ cesses. It couples a physical, three-dimensional model of a landscape with geospatial modeling and analysis through a cycle of scanning and projection. Multiple users can modify the physical model by hand while it is being scanned; by sculpting the model they generate input for modeling of geophysical processes. The modeling results are then visualized by projecting images or animations back on the physical model. This feedback loop is an intuitive way to evaluate the impacts …

Creating A Phrase Similarity Graph From Wikipedia, Lubomir Stanchev

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The paper addresses the problem of modeling the relationship between phrases in English using a similarity graph. The mathematical model stores data about the strength of the relationship between phrases expressed as a decimal number. Both structured data from Wikipedia, such as that the Wikipedia page with title “Dog” belongs to theWikipedia category “Domesticated animals”, and textual descriptions, such as that the Wikipedia page with title “Dog” contains the word “wolf” thirty one times are used in creating the graph. The quality of the graph data is validated by comparing the similarity of pairs of phrases using our software that …

Can Dogs Warn Their Owners Of Impending Migraines?, Harold Herzog

'Animals and Us' Blog Posts

New study finds dogs can alert owners about onset of migraine headaches.

Convergent Evolution Of Aquatic Foraging In A New Genus And Species (Rodentia: Muridae) From Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Kevin C. Rowe, Anang S. Achmadi, Jacob A. Esselstyn

Faculty Publications

The island of Sulawesi, in Indonesia, lies at the crossroads of the Indo-Australian Archipelago and has remained isolated from the Asian (Sunda) and Australian (Sahul) continental shelves for at least the last 10 million years. Of the 50 native species of rodents on Sulawesi, all are endemic and represent the evolution of a variety of ecological and morphological forms within the Muridae and Sciuridae. Carnivorous rodents have evolved, perhaps independently, in Muridae from the Philippines, Sulawesi, and Sahul, but semi-aquatic murids are only known from Sahul. Here we describe a new genus and species of insectivorous water rat from Sulawesi. …

Fairchild Dairy Center Receives 2013 Quality Milk Award From Dairy One, Lori Tyler Gula

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Adaptable Interface Model For Intuitively Learnable Interfaces: An Approach To Address Diversity In Older Users' Capabilities, Gudur Raghavendra Reddy, Thea Blackler, Vesna Popovic, Doug Mahar

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study started with the aim to develop an approach that will help designers create interfaces that are more intuitive for older adults to use. Two objectives were set for this study: 1) to investigate one of the possible strategies for developing intuitive interfaces for older people; and 2) to investigate factors that could interfere with intuitive use. This paper briefly presents the outcome of the two experiments and how it has lead to the development of an adaptable interface design model that will help designers develop interfaces that are intuitive to learn and, over time, intuitive to use for …

Hacking Delivery Systems: Exploring Design Tools For User-Led Innovation In Urban Infrastructures, Lorenzo Davoli, Johan Redström, Ruben Van Der Vleuten

DRS Biennial Conference Series

There is an emerging set of needs in our post-industrial society that require a contextual sensitivity and local flexibility that traditional industrial infrastructures seem to lack. As a response, distributed small-scale forms of production and collaborative services are being developed, providing the foundations for more resilient and responsive infrastructures. Using urban freight delivery services as a case, this paper presents a possible approach to accessing and expressing the back end functioning of a large formal industrial urban infrastructure in order to make it accessible to bottom-up innovation. The postal service has been used as a test bed for two small …

The Rhetoric Of Design For Debate: Triggering Conversation With An “Uncanny Enough” Artefact, Max Mollon, Annie Gentes

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design exploration research refers to various interaction design research practices that explore tensions issued from the interplay of science, technology, culture and society. Most of them explicitly trigger discussions and debates in the audience, for instance “critical design”, which raised the interest of members of design research communities. However its generalization suffers from a lack of shareable methodology. This paper aims at clarifying it practically and theoretically. We claim that these practices trigger people’s reactions using a specific narrative strategy which provoke an “uncanny feeling”. By producing “uncanny enough” artefacts that embed a subtle entanglement of familiarity and unfamiliarity, designers …

A Framework Of Ethical Nudges In The Design Of Consumer Goods, Anders Haug, Jacob Busch

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper focuses on the use of nudging in the design of consumer goods. This perspective is different from most existing nudging literature, which tends to focus on nudging as a tool for policy makers. The change of focus to consumer goods has some implications in relation to existing classifications of nudging, namely that the nontransparent aspect of some types of nudges becomes less relevant. Instead this paper introduces a distinction of the nudging ability of a product as decisive or non-decisive for a purchase decision. This dimension is combined with a dimension from an existing framework to produce four …

Exploring Open Design For The Application Of Citizen Science; A Toolkit Methodology, Robert Phillips, Sharon Baurley

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The manufacture of mass produced quality assured products has previously remained within professional practice. Digital manufacture presents opportunities for producing products in low volumes, catering to bespoke requirements. This phenomenon can benefit parties where the manufacture of goods has previously been financially unobtainable, i.e. non-government and charitable organisations. Open hardware (accessible electronic components) can complement digital manufacture, enabling bespoke products to become intelligent, with the ability to sense, monitor, record and produce data. This paper tests an Open Design / Citizen Science toolkit drawing from practice based research and supporting ethnographic activities. The study documents design workshops with The Sussex …

Communication Of Food Sustainability: From Dissemination To Participatory Knowledge Building, Young-Ae Hahn

DRS Biennial Conference Series

For the communication of food sustainability, the traditional approach of disseminating scientific knowledge from experts to citizens is limited in linking the experts’ knowledge with citizens’ actions: sustainability messages may cause negative effects, because citizens with different background knowledge, circumstances, and interests may ignore, misunderstand, or exaggerate the messages. To have citizens as proactive-creative partners and empower them with actionable knowledge, this study discussed different communication situations where sustainability knowledge is constructed in a participatory manner, between citizens and experts; the situations differ in the participants’ interdependency (no dependency–unilateral–bilateral) and communication goals (information–interests). In this paper, four types of sustainability …

Plantcazyme: A Database For Plant Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes, Yanbin Yin, Nathan Mcginn, Rahil Taujale, Alexander Ekstrom

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

PlantCAZyme is a database built upon dbCAN (database for automated carbohydrate active enzyme annotation), aiming to provide pre-computed sequence and annotation data of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) to plant carbohydrate and bioenergy research communities. The current version contains data of 43 790 CAZymes of 159 protein families from 35 plants (including angiosperms, gymnosperms, lycophyte and bryophyte mosses) and chlorophyte algae with fully sequenced genomes. Useful features of the database include: (i) a BLAST server and a HMMER server that allow users to search against our pre-computed sequence data for annotation purpose, (ii) a download page to allow batch downloading data …

Age-Associated Increases In Fkbp51 Facilitate Tau Neurotoxicity, Laura J. Blair

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tau is a protein which regulates microtubule stability and is heavily involved in axonal transport. This stability is dynamically controlled in part by over 40 phosphorylation sites across the tau protein which allows for binding and release from the microtubules. However, if abnormal hyperphosphorylation occurs, tau dissociates from the microtubules. Once released, the microtubules become unstable and the aberrant tau mislocalizes from the axon to the somatodendric compartment, where it aggregates. These aggregates are made of many pathological forms of tau including oligomeric species, paired helical filaments, and neurofibrillary tangles, all of which have associated toxicities. Tau pathology is a …

Diffuse Nutrient Pollution From Residential Catchments, Melissa Rachelle Butcher

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nonpoint source nutrient pollution is diffuse pollution lacking discrete origin and conveyance. This thesis synthesizes and critically reviews research on residential nitrogen and phosphorus loss to stormwater runoff and leaching. The evaluation pulls from research covering influential socio-demographic indicators, such as use of lawn maintenance services and homeowner fertilizer practices. The extent to which such social and economic factors may influence the prevalence and fate of diffuse nutrients in stormwater runoff from residential areas has not been adequately established. Understanding the source and influencing factors of diffuse nutrient pollution is important in order to effectively protect surface and groundwater resources. …

Great Bay Nitrogen Non-Point Source Study, Philip Trowbridge, Matthew A. Wood, Thomas S. Burack, Vicki V. Quiram, Eugene J. Forbes

PREP Reports & Publications

The Great Bay Estuary is 21 square miles of tidal waters located in southeastern New Hampshire. It is one of 28 “estuaries of national significance” established under the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program. The estuary is experiencing the signs of eutrophication, specifically, low dissolved oxygen, macroalgae blooms, and declining eelgrass habitat (DES, 2012).

Sixty-eight percent of the nitrogen that ends up in the Great Bay Estuary originates from sources spread across the watershed; the remainder derives from direct discharges of municipal wastewater treatment facilities (DES, 2010; PREP, 2013). In this report, these sources of nitrogen are called non-point sources …

Story In Technology Classrooms: Teaching "Why" To Learn "How", Jeffrey S. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative action research project examined the experiences of high school students in a technology education course as they were taught accepted technology education standards in conjunction with storytelling principles through writing and producing their own short films. The data from the project demonstrate that incorporating the principles of storytelling into technology education can be effective in helping students not only become skilled with the tools of technology, but also become media literate and articulate in creative expression.

Design Prospects: Investigating Design Fiction Via A Rogue Urban Drone, Andrew Morrison

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design fiction is garnering attention as a mode of inquiry on the prospective in design practice and inquiry. This paper addresses design fiction as a potential area for design research to explore communicatively. The paper does so through a performative essayistic research text. Presented are extracts from an online visual-verbal hypernarrative and expository research writing. The performative exploration includes views from the persona of a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone policing a near future city. Her perspectives are prospective. However, the urban ‘drone-gone-rogue’ is crafted as a design fictional rhetorical device to comment on topical issues in the hereand- …

Co-Created Facilitation And Perspective Plurality To Foster Mutual Understandings Of Risk, Robb Mitchell

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper identifies a key mechanism and its constituent qualities, for facilitating mutual understandings of risk. The focus of participatory workshops has expanded towards addressing broader questions of strategy, business models and other organizational and inter-organisational issues. To develop effective partnerships across the boundaries separating companies, it is necessary for those involved to gain mutual understandings despite the challenging paradoxical, abstract and sensitive aspects of discussing risks. A richer understanding of design facilitation practice is offered through drawing together the following experimentation with industrialists in innovation workshops and interactive interventions in artistic cultural venues: 1) a large revolving door sculpture …

Making And Perceiving - Exploring The Degrees Of Engagement With The Aesthetic Process, Priska Falin, Petra Falin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Artistic practice and education build on a long tradition of aesthetic critique and problem solving. This tradition has later on influenced also practice-led and practice-based research approaches centering on the artistic process. Although these research approaches depend on the processes and objects that essentially have not only cognitive but aesthetic qualities, the role of the aesthetics in these research processes still lacks an analytical discussion in this context. In this article we explore the process aesthetics in the context of artistic, practice-led research. Namely, we examine the potential of the concept of aesthetic engagement as a framework for understanding and …