Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Tradeoffs Between Food And Predation Risks In A Specialist Mammalian Herbivore, Jamie L. Utz, Lisa A. Shipley, Janet L. Rachlow, Tamara Johnstone-Yellin, Meghan Camp, Jennifer Sorenson Forbey

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding habitat use by animals requires understanding the simultaneous tradeoffs between food and predation risk within a landscape. Quantifying the synergy between patches that provide quality food and those that are safe from predators at a scale relevant to a foraging animal could better reveal the parameters that influence habitat selection. To understand more thoroughly how animals select habitat components, we investigated tradeoffs between diet quality and predation risk in a species endemic to sagebrush Artemisia spp. communities in North America, the pygmy rabbitBrachylagus idahoensis. This species is a rare example of a specialist herbivore that relies almost entirely …

American Society Of Parasitologists Newsletter, V. 38, No. 3, Late Summer 2016, Scott Lyell Gardner

American Society of Parasitologists: Newsletter

Newsletter issue of the American Society of Parasitologists.

Citizens Of Sinking Islands: Early Victims Of Climate Change, Erin Halstead

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This Note discusses the effects of climate change that threaten Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Specifically, with increasing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting in rising sea levels and higher frequency of extreme weather events, many citizens of SIDS are forced abandon their homelands, which are no longer livable. Although SIDS are some of the smallest contributors to GHG emissions, and therefore contribute the least to climate change, SIDS are some of the countries most heavily affected by the negative effects of climate change. The global community has an obligation to accommodate these displaced people, partially due to the significant …

Library Subject Guides And Stem: Innovations In Academic Pathways, Kent Seaver, Brittany Schick

Texas STEM Librarians’ Conference 2015-Archive

This presentation demonstrates how North Lake College’s Library uses Library Subject guides (Lib Guides) to prepare students for not only STEM majors, but also STEM careers, leading to student success. The proposal illustrates how academic and college libraries can use their trained staffs, as well as print and online resources, to assist faculty in the instructional delivery of classroom materials. This presentation will be PowerPoint driven (Q & A encouraged) illustrating how the North Lake College Library (NLCL) and STEM faculty work together to create Library Subject Guides (Lib Guides) for core subject areas, as well as specific classes. Due …

Combining Outreach & Liaison Activities To Build Relationships With Reluctant Stem Faculty, Isabel Altamirano

Texas STEM Librarians’ Conference 2015-Archive

The previous three STEM librarians lasted only two years in the position, so when I joined the library in August 2013 and attempted to get to know the faculty, I was politely ignored. I tried various methods to address the situation but had to reassess during Summer 2014. I was also assigned to be on the Outreach Team. I decided to combine both my job functions to build relationships with the faculty. I will also discuss what I need to try next and how these methods can be adapted at other libraries.

Water Current, Volume 48, No. 3, Summer 2016

Water Current Newsletter

October symposium panels will discuss “Managing an Essential Resource: Basin by Basin”

Summer Travel, Collaboration, Grants and International Students

Counting On It : Early Numeracy Development And The Preschool Child, Kate Reid

Student learning processes

Children think mathematically long before they start school. Before children start learning mathematics at school, they show informal understanding of many numeracy concepts. This is informal numeracy knowledge, that is, skills that children develop before starting school that do not depend on written mathematical notation (Purpura & Napoli, 2015). For example, children’s numeracy knowledge is evident in their developing counting skills. It is also evident in their capacity to compare, share, order, estimate and calculate different quantities. Fundamental skills in recognising and responding to numerical cues are apparent in infancy, and, at a very basic level, may be innate. Early …

Positive Affectivity Is Dampened In Youths With Histories Of Major Depression And Their Never-Depressed Adolescent Siblings, Maria Kovacs, Lauren M. Bylsma, Ilya Yaroslavsky, Jonathan Rottenberg, Charles J George, Enikő Kiss, Kitti Halas, István Benák, Ildiko Baji, Ágnes Vetro, Krisztina Kapornai

Psychology Faculty Publications

While hedonic capacity is diminished during clinical depression, it is unclear whether that deficit constitutes a risk factor and/or persists after depression episodes remit. To examine these issues, adolescents with current/past major depression (probands; n=218), never depressed biological siblings of probands (n=207), and emotionally-well controls (n=183) were exposed to several positively valenced probes. Across baseline and hedonic probe conditions, controls consistently reported higher levels of positive affect than high-risk siblings, and siblings reported higher levels of positive affect than probands (remitted and depressed probands' reports were similar). Extent of positive affect across the protocol predicted adolescents' self-reports of social support …

Life-Changing Assistance, Meaghan Mormann '16

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2002-2017

To improve the lives of people in rural Honduras, Meaghan Mormann '16 served four IWU Global Brigades. She writes how her experiences changed how she sees the world.

An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated Through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles From Neighbouring Plants, Daniel M. Mutyambai, Toby J.A. Bruce, Johnnie Van Den Berg, Charles A.O. Midega, John A. Pickett, Zeyaur R. Khan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Attack of plants by herbivorous arthropods may result in considerable changes to the plant's chemical phenotype with respect to emission of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). These HIPVs have been shown to act as repellents to the attacking insects as well as attractants for the insects antagonistic to these herbivores. Plants can also respond to HIPV signals from other plants that warn them of impending attack. Recent investigations have shown that certain maize varieties are able to emit volatiles following stemborer egg deposition. These volatiles attract the herbivore's parasitoids and directly deter further oviposition. However, it was not known whether these …

Technology-Based Oral Ministry Strategies: The Bridge Between Western Literate And Majority World Oral Contexts, Christina Toy

Great Commission Research Journal

Modern technology has ushered in a third era of communication—secondary orality. The literate West and oral Majority World represent two polarized societies. As awareness of orality grows, technology must be part of the developing approaches to ensure continued effective ministry. Technology-based oral ministry strategies are the best way to bridge the gap between the Western literate and Majority World oral contexts. This paper will discuss characteristics of the third communication era, including inadequacies of current ministry approaches, the biblical basis for technology-based oral strategies, and implications of secondary orality in alternative ministry strategies’ development and implementation.

Complex-Valued Time-Series Correlation Increases Sensitivity In Fmri Analysis, Mary C. Kociuba, Daniel B. Rowe

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

To develop a linear matrix representation of correlation between complex-valued (CV) time-series in the temporal Fourier frequency domain, and demonstrate its increased sensitivity over correlation between magnitude-only (MO) time-series in functional MRI (fMRI) analysis.

Materials and Methods

The standard in fMRI is to discard the phase before the statistical analysis of the data, despite evidence of task related change in the phase time-series. With a real-valued isomorphism representation of Fourier reconstruction, correlation is computed in the temporal frequency domain with CV time-series data, rather than with the standard of MO data. A MATLAB simulation compares the Fisher-z transform …

Decolonizing The Body: Breast Cancer And The Environment In Toxic Times, Cynthia L. Martin

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation explores cultural narratives regarding the relationship between environmental toxins and breast cancer causation. It is not an analysis of current scientific research; grounded in Foucault’s theory of genealogy and archaeology, it evaluates cultural narratives on breast cancer causation that may be subsumed by the mainstream focus upon a cure for breast cancer, overlooking how people with breast cancer perceive illness causation, particularly as it relates to toxic exposure. Theories of place, space, and the neoliberal politics behind biotechnology support understanding the toxification of the human body as neocolonialism, and invite decolonizing methodologies as a means of understanding and …

"A Dread Mystery, Compelling Adoration": Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, And Totality, Gerry Canavan

English Faculty Research and Publications

Using research undertaken at the Olaf Stapledon archive at the University of Liverpool, this article explores the tension between cosmopolitan optimism and cosmic pessimism that structures Stapledon's 1937 novel Star Maker, and asks whether the novel succeeds in solving the philosophical problems that first spurred Stapledon to write it. I conclude, unhappily, that it does not: while an impressive achievement, and despite a surface optimism, the book's confrontation with infinity, totality, and the sublime is ultimately depressive rather than generative of a felicitous cosmological order, requiring Stapledon to try again and again to somehow solve this philosophical conundrum in …

Supercomplex-Associated Cox26 Protein Binds To Cytochrome C Oxidase, Valentina Strecker, Zibirnisa Kadeer, Juliana Heidler, Cristina-Maria Cruciat, Heike Angerer, Heiko Giese, Kathy Pfeiffer, Rosemary A. Stuart, Ilka Wittig

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Here we identified a hydrophobic 6.4 kDa protein, Cox26, as a novel component of yeast mitochondrial supercomplex comprising respiratory complexes III and IV. Multi-dimensional native and denaturing electrophoretic techniques were used to identify proteins interacting with Cox26. The majority of the Cox26 protein was found non-covalently bound to the complex IV moiety of the III–IV supercomplexes. A population of Cox26 was observed to exist in a disulfide bond partnership with the Cox2 subunit of complex IV. No pronounced growth phenotype for Cox26 deficiency was observed, indicating that Cox26 may not play a critical role in the COX enzymology, and we …

Carbon Nanotube Based Groundwater Remediation: The Case Of Trichloroethylene, Kshitij C. Jha, Zhuonan Liu, Hema Vijwani, Mallikarjuna Nadagouda, Sharmila M. Mukhopadhyay, Mesfin Tsige

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Adsorption of chlorinated organic contaminants (COCs) on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been gaining ground as a remedial platform for groundwater treatment. Applications depend on our mechanistic understanding of COC adsorption on CNTs. This paper lays out the nature of competing interactions at play in hybrid, membrane, and pure CNT based systems and presents results with the perspective of existing gaps in design strategies. First, current remediation approaches to trichloroethylene (TCE), the most ubiquitous of the COCs, is presented along with examination of forces contributing to adsorption of analogous contaminants at the molecular level. Second, we present results on TCE adsorption …

The Influence Of Charismatic Authority On Operational Strategies And Attack Outcomes Of Terrorist Groups, David C. Hofmann

Journal of Strategic Security

Despite the historical and contemporary prevalence of charismatic terrorist leaders, there has been very little empirical examination of the relationship between charismatic forms of authority and the strategic operation of terrorist groups. In response to this gap in knowledge, this study seeks to investigate if charismatic authority has a real-world impact on strategic choices and attack outcomes of terrorist groups. Using a theoretical framework meant to help measure charisma in terrorist organizations, this study quantitatively examines how differing levels of the presence of charismatic authority contributes to the choice in operational tactics (e.g., weapon and target choices) and the results …

Walking Behavior Of Zoo Elephants: Associations Between Gps-Measured Daily Walking Distances And Environmental Factors, Social Factors, And Welfare Indicators, Matthew Robert Holdgate, Cheryl L. Meehan, Jennifer N. Hogan, Lance J. Miller, Josesph Soltis, Jeff Andrews, David J. Shepherdson

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research with humans and other animals suggests that walking benefits physical health. Perhaps because these links have been demonstrated in other species, it has been suggested that walking is important to elephant welfare, and that zoo elephant exhibits should be designed to allow for more walking. Our study is the first to address this suggestion empirically by measuring the mean daily walking distance of elephants in North American zoos, determining the factors that are associated with variations in walking distance, and testing for associations between walking and welfare indicators. We used anklets equipped with GPS data loggers to measure outdoor …

Recumbence Behavior In Zoo Elephants: Determination Of Patterns And Frequency Of Recumbent Rest And Associated Environmental And Social Factors, Matthew Robert Holdgate, Cheryl L. Meehan, Jennifer N. Hogan, Lance J. Miller, Jeff Rushen, Anne-Marie De Passillé, Josesph Soltis, Jeff Andrews, David J. Shepherdson

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Resting behaviors are an essential component of animal welfare but have received little attention in zoological research. African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) rest includes recumbent postures, but no large-scale investigation of African and Asian zoo elephant recumbence has been previously conducted. We used anklets equipped with accelerometers to measure recumbence in 72 adult female African (n = 44) and Asian (n = 28)elephants housed in 40 North American zoos. We collected 344 days of data and determined associations between recumbence and social, housing, management, and demographic factors. African elephants were recumbent less (2.1 hours/day, S.D. …

Characterizing Active And Inactive Brown Adipose Tissue In Adult Humans Using Pet-Ct And Mr Imaging, Aliya Gifford, Theodore F. Towse, Ronald C. Walker, Malcolm J. Avison, E Brian Welch

Peer Reviewed Articles

Activated brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays an important role in thermogenesis and whole body metabolism in mammals. Positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) imaging has identified depots of BAT in adult humans, igniting scientific interest. The purpose of this study is to characterize both active and inactive supraclavicular BAT in adults and compare the values to those of subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT). We obtained [¹⁸F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([¹⁸F]FDG) PET-CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 25 healthy adults. Unlike [¹⁸F]FDG PET, which can detect only active BAT, MRI is capable of detecting both active …

From Milpas To The Market: A Study On The Use Of Metal Silos For Safer And Better Storage Of Guatemalan Maize, José Rodrigo Mendoza

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project aimed to implement the use of metal silos to improve quality and safety of maize consumed by inhabitants of the highlands of Guatemala. This manuscript includes a literature review of the maize production chain in Guatemala, a survey about agricultural practices used in the region of study, as well as a characterization of the analyzed maize regarding its mycoflora, nutritional composition, and insect infestation. To better understand the current situation regarding agricultural practices and maize consumption, a survey was carried out. Sample consisted of 280 families representing 14 rural communities distributed in the townships of Todos Santos and …

The Contribution Of The Pineal Gland On Daily Rhythms And Masking In Diurnal Grass Rats, Arvicanthis Niloticus, Dorela D. Shuboni, Amna A. Agha, Thomas K. H. Groves, Andrew J. Gall

Faculty Publications

Melatonin is a hormone rhythmically secreted at night by the pineal gland in vertebrates. In diurnal mammals, melatonin is present during the inactive phase of the rest/activity cycle, and in primates it directly facilitates sleep and decreases body temperature. However, the role of the pineal gland for the promotion of sleep at night has not yet been studied in non-primate diurnal mammalian species. Here, the authors directly examined the hypothesis that the pineal gland contributes to diurnality in Nile grass rats by decreasing activity and increasing sleep at night, and that this could occur via effects on circadian mechanisms or …

16 Years Old: Educational Outcomes Of A Subsample Of The Irish Iea Preprimary Project Within The Contexts Of Home, Preschool And School., Siobhán Keegan

Doctoral

This thesis considered the bio-ecological model as a research frame with which to develop policies and practice that are important for the academic development of children and young people, in Ireland. The research aimed to build on the IEA Preprimary Project by investigating the relative impact of children’s experiences at age four on their development (cognitive, social, academic, physical and language) at ages seven and sixteen, by using the data collected for the two Irish publications of the Preprimary Project and supplementing it with data collected on the academic outcomes of the original sample at age sixteen. The research questions …

Determination Of Evolutionary History Of Big Bluestem Populations Through Chloroplast Dna Analysis, Tej Man Tamang

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Andropogon gerardii Vitman (big bluestem) is one of the most dominant and widely distributed grasses of the North American prairie. It is widely used in restoration projects for the recovery of grassland ecosystems. A. gerardii demonstrates genetic and adaptive variation among populations across the prairie. With the objective to understand the evolutionary relationship between the A. gerardii populations, two noncoding chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) spacers (rpl32-trnL(UAG) and trnQ(UUG)-rps16) were studied. Similarly, genetic differentiation among the populations was also calculated based on the spacers. The trnQ(UUG)-rps16 spacer had more polymorphic sites than the rpl32-trnL(UAG) spacer. A phylogenetic tree based on combined cpDNA …

Dental Microwear Variation In Teleoceras Fossiger (Rhinocerotidae) From The Miocene (Hemphillian) Of Kansas, With Consideration Of Masticatory Processes And Enamel Microstructure, Kelsie Abrams

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Dental microwear analysis is the study of microscopic features on the surfaces of teeth, and is used to reconstruct and analyze diet in extinct and extant animals. Microwear analysis on ungulates is typically conducted on the paracone or protoconid of the second molar, as these cusps are usually the first point of contact between upper and lower teeth during the chewing stroke. However, the exact method of mastication varies in different groups of ungulates, and the influence of mastication on the location and production of microwear features has been studied very little. Additionally, the role of highly specialized enamel microstructure …

Impacts Of Open Educational Resources On Enrollment Rates, Withdrawal Rates, And Academic Performance In The Virginia Community College System, Marcella Milhous Gale

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The problem of this study was to evaluate the enrollment rates and academic performance of students in courses at Central Virginia Community College (CVCC) that utilize Open Educational Resources (OER) to help determine if the use of such materials should be encouraged and expanded in the Virginia Community College System. The population for this study consisted of students enrolled in at least one course at CVCC during the Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 semester, where there were courses that used OER as the course textbook. At the end of each semester, CVCC records enrollment, drop, and academic performance information for …

Reconstructing The Paleoecology And Biogeography Of Rhinoceroses (Mammalia: Rhinocerotidae) In The Great Plains Of North America, Leading Up To Their Extinction In The Early Pliocene, Bian Wang

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Members of the family Rhinocerotidae first appeared in the middle Eocene and were one of most successful mammal groups of the Oligocene and Miocene in North America. Their extinction in the early Pliocene has been attributed to several causes, including cooling climate, an expansion of C₄ grasslands, and faunal turnover favoring high-crowned, open habitat-adapted mammalian taxa. This study tests whether the extinction of North American rhinoceroses in the Great Plains was abrupt or gradual by examining changes in their paleogeographic distribution in a series of time-slices through the Barstovian, Clarendonian, and Hemphillian North American land-mammal ages. It further examines …

Encoding Of Saltatory Tactile Velocity In The Adult Orofacial Somatosensory System, Rebecca Custead

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Processing dynamic tactile inputs is a key function of somatosensory systems. Spatial velocity encoding mechanisms by the nervous system are important for skilled movement production and may play a role in recovery of motor function following neurological insult. Little is known about tactile velocity encoding in trigeminal networks associated with mechanosensory inputs to the face, or the consequences of movement.

High resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the neural substrates of velocity encoding in the human orofacial somatosensory system during unilateral saltatory pneumotactile inputs to perioral hairy skin in 20 healthy adults. A custom multichannel, scalable …

Soybean Tolerance To Soybean Aphid (Aphis Glycines Matsumura) Herbivory, Lia Marchi Werle

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research examined the soybean aphid tolerant soybean KS4202 and its possible role in soybean aphid management. Studies documented the stage at which the tolerance response was initially expressed, quantified the relationship between cumulative aphid-days (CADs) and yield loss, and determined economic injury levels (EILs) for the soybean aphid tolerant KS4202 soybean. At high aphid infestation levels, aphids negatively impacted yield for KS4202 and K03-4686 (susceptible) plants that were infested at V1 stage; however, KS4202 expressed tolerance to the soybean aphid at low aphid infestation levels. No significant differences in the yield parameters were detected for KS4202 when infested at …

Instructional Framing And Student Learning Of Community Interactions, Nathaniel Niosco

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ecology is a broad field of science that encompasses many disciplines with large impacts in our society (AAAS, 2011; NRC, 2009). To understand the complex systems and concepts of this discipline requires a foundation of knowledge that students often gain in the classroom (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Helping students develop this foundation of knowledge requires an understanding of how they use surface and deep reasoning skills to understand and learn new material. In addition, using methods to teach students to transfer these skills between multiple contexts is key to expanding their ability to broadly apply knowledge. The purpose of …