Digital Commons Network^™

Plant Defense Elicitors: Plant Fitness Versus Wheat Stem Sawfly, Govinda Shrestha, Shabeg S. Briar, Gadi V.P. Reddy

Faculty Publications

The wheat stem sawfly (WSS), Cephus cinctus Norton, is an important wheat pest in the Northern Great Plains of the USA. No single control measure effectively suppresses WSS damage. This study provides information on the effects on the WSS adult settling preference behavior on wheat plants under laboratory conditions from treatment with both synthetic plant defense elicitors (Actigard and cis-jasmone) and a botanical insecticide (Azadirachtin). In addition, field experiments were performed to determine whether these chemicals impact the WSS fitness (larval mortality and larval body weight), winter wheat plant fitness (infestation, stem lodging, yield, and quality), adult population of WSS …

Antebellum Posthuman: Race And Materiality In The Mid-Nineteenth Century, Christopher Willoughby

Civil War Book Review

In Antebellum Posthuman: Race and Materiality in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, University of Mississippi Professor of nineteenth-century literature Cristin Ellis troubles historical depictions of the relationship between materialism and racism in the mid nineteenth-century United States. Through an analysis of the anti-slavery writings of Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, Ellis argues that these writers used materialist conceptions of the human body to argue against slavery and white supremacy. In making this argument, Ellis seeks to undercut simplistic depictions of antebellum racial discourse as pitting liberal humanists against biological racists.

Kindly Welcome: A Novel Of The Shakers In The Civil War, Randal Allred

Civil War Book Review

Linda Stevens has written a finely crafted novel which makes the reader feel kindly welcome, indeed. She renders the story with compassion and empathy in a way that gives us a clear view into the interior of a people and the impact of a world-changing event. Her focus on a specific historical Shaker community (in which many of the characters are also historical) is the product of a good deal of research, and this rigor enriches the text of the novel. She even supplies a map of the town of South Union, Kentucky, one of a number of Shaker communities …

Improved Student Outcomes In Biological Psychology Courses Through Scaffolded Reading And Writing Assignments., Jillian Grose-Fifer, Christopher Davis-Ferreira

Publications and Research

The American Psychological Association expects graduating psychology majors to be able to read and summarize complex ideas accurately, and to communicate effectively as writers. However, undergraduates often have little explicit instruction and practice in reading and summarizing academic articles, or in psychology-specific writing practices. Consequently, students’ skills as academic readers and writers often fail to meet expectations. In our large public university, writing problems were prevalent in our biological psychology classes. When asked to read and summarize primary sources, students reported that the articles were very difficult to understand, papers commonly included plagiarism, and many students withdrew from the classes. …

Modular Perverse Sheaves On Flag Varieties Iii: Positivity Conditions, Pramod N. Achar, Simon Riche

Faculty Publications

We further develop the general theory of the “mixed modular derived category” introduced by the authors in a previous paper in this series. We then use it to study positivity and Q-Koszulity phenomena on flag varieties.

Large Deviations For Small Noise Diffusions In A Fast Markovian Environment, Amarjit Budhiraja, Paul Dupuis, Arnab Ganguly

Faculty Publications

A large deviation principle is established for a two-scale stochastic system in which the slow component is a continuous process given by a small noise finite dimensional Itô stochastic differential equation, and the fast component is a finite state pure jump process. Previous works have considered settings where the coupling between the components is weak in a certain sense. In the current work we study a fully coupled system in which the drift and diffusion coefficient of the slow component and the jump intensity function and jump distribution of the fast process depend on the states of both components. In …

Mesoscale Effects On Carbon Export: A Global Perspective, C.S. Harrison, M.C. Long, N.S. Lovenduski, J.K. Moore

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Female Caribbean Immigrants' Perceptions Of The Influence Of Immigration On Obesity, Kerryann Nelson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity is a significant global issue, and its incidence has increased over time. A substantial percentage of the U.S. population suffers from this disease with a relatively high prevalence seen in individuals from the Caribbean. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore Caribbean women's perception of how migration to South Florida may have impacted the onset of obesity in this population. The social ecological model provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from 1-on-1 interviews held with 12 female participants between the ages of 18 and 35, who previously resided in the Caribbean at a healthy …

Recognizing The Danger Zone: Response Of Female White-Tailed To Discrete Hunting Events, Jeffery D. Sullivan, Stephen S. Ditchkoff, Bret A. Collier, Charles R. Ruth, Joshua B. Raglin

Faculty Publications

The landscape of fear theory proposes that prey should utilize habitat over space and time such that demographic risk is minimized. White-Tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus respond to temporally and spatially predictable threats posed by humans consistent with the landscape of fear theory. However, few studies examining the response of deer to hunting have accounted for the localized nature of risk. To determine if white-Tailed deer are able to recognize and respond to risks posed by hunters relative to specific hunting locations, we equipped 38 female white-Tailed deer with GPS collars August-December 2013-2015. Deer were generally found to increase use of …

Variation In ‘Bayou Belle’ And ‘Beauregard’ Sweetpotato Root Length In Response To Experimental Phosphorus Deficiency And Compacted Layer Treatments, Arthur Villordon, Jeffrey Cole Gregorie, Don Labonte, Awais Khan, Michael Selvaraj

Faculty Publications

Phosphorus deprivation (—P) reduced sweetpotato storage root length (SRL) regardless of the presence or absence of a compacted layer (CL). The combination of — P and the presence of a simulated compacted layer (+CL) reduced SRL relative to the P-sufficient (+P) control plants grown without a compacted layer (—CL) by 44% and 40%, respectively, in ‘Bayou Belle’ and ‘Beauregard’ cultivars. In both cultivars, the combination of — P and — CL also reduced SRL by 36% (‘Bayou Belle’) and 28% (‘Beauregard’) relative to the control plants. There was a significant planting date X cultivar effect in the temporal — P …

Looking At The Big Picture: Understanding How The Oviduct's Dialogue With Gametes And The Embryo Shapes Reproductive Success, Beatriz Fernandez-Fuertes, Beatriz Rodríguez-Alonso, José María Sánchez, Constantine A. Simintiras, Patrick Lonergan, Dimitrios Rizos

Faculty Publications

The oviduct is a tubular organ comprising three distinct anatomical regions (the infundibulum, the ampulla and the isthmus) connecting the ovary and the uterus. Oviductal function is regulated by ovarian hormones, gametes, and embryo-derived factors, for optimally facilitating key reproductive events. A cross-talk is established between the oviduct and the gametes and embryo and this dialogue shapes the microenvironment in which gamete transport, fertilization, and early embryonic development occur. This review aims to address each participant in this conversation in a holistic manner by delineating several advances in the field within the greater context of understanding how oviduct-gamete and oviduct-embryo …

Gluten-Free Bakery And Pasta Products: Prevalence And Quality Improvement, Yupeng Gao, Marlene E. Janes, Busarawan Chaiya, Margaret A. Brennan, Charles S. Brennan, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul

Faculty Publications

An increasing demand of gluten-free (GF) products is caused by a growing number of diagnosed coeliacs and a consumption trend to eliminate allergenic proteins from diet. Driven by the rapidly growing market, comprehensive understanding of GF products is necessary. The purpose of this review was to concisely present an overview of various approaches to improve physicochemical and sensory qualities of GF bread, cake/muffin and pasta/noodle products. Some novel techniques used in GF products were discussed in this review. These techniques included the use of different alternative flours (including GF cereals, pseudo-cereals, legume flours, fruit and vegetable powders and seafood powders), …

Investigating The Role Of Mitochondrial Respiratory Dysfunction During Hexavalent Chromium-Induced Lung Carcinogenesis, James T.F. Wise, Lei Wang, Michael C. Alstott, Ntube N.O. Ngalame, Yuting Wang, Zhuo Zhang, Xianglin Shi

Faculty Publications

Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is a lung carcinogen and its complete mechanism of action remains to be investigated. Metabolic reprogramming of key energy metabolism pathways (e.g., increased anaerobic glycolysis in the presence of oxygen or “Warburg effect,” dysregulated mitochondrial function, and lipogenesis) are important to cancer cell and tumor survival and growth. In our current understanding of Cr(VI)-induced carcinogenesis, the role for metabolic reprogramming remains unclear. In this study, we treated human lung epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) with Cr(VI) for 6 months and obtained malignantly transformed cells from an isolated colony grown in soft agar. We also used Cr(VI)-transformed cells from two …

Genetic Mapping Of Quantitative Trait Loci For Grain Yield Under Drought In Rice Under Controlled Greenhouse Conditions, Julio Solis, Andres Gutierrez, Venkata Mangu, Eduardo Sánchez Timm, Renesh Bedre, Steve Linscombe, Niranjan Baisakh

Faculty Publications

Drought stress is a constant threat to rice production worldwide. Most modern rice cultivars are sensitive to drought, and the effect is severe at the reproductive stage. Conventional breeding for drought resistant (DR) rice varieties is slow and limited due to the quantitative nature of the DR traits. Identification of genes (QTLs)/markers associated with DR traits is a prerequisite for marker-assisted breeding. Grain yield is the most important trait and to this end drought yield QTLs have been identified under field conditions. The present study reports identification of drought yield QTLs under controlled conditions without confounding effects of other factors …

An Annotated List Of Auchenorrhyncha And Heteroptera Collected In The Coastal Salt Marshes Of The Mississippi Delta In Louisiana, I. M. Sokolov, X. Chen, R. M. Strecker, L. M. Hooper-Bùi

Faculty Publications

Insects that live in the saltwater and brackish marshes, which fringe the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, are largely unstudied. During 2011-2013, a survey of insect fauna of the coastal salt marshes of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana was conducted. We present the species of terrestrial representatives of Heteroptera and Auchenorrhyncha collected during that study. The Auchenorrhyncha are represented by 33 species in 6 families, with Cicadellidae (16 species) and Delphacidae (13 spp.), and are the most diverse. The terrestrial heteropterans are represented by 11 species in 5 families with the majority of species in Miridae (6 spp.). …

Saltmarsh Plants, But Not Fertilizer, Facilitate Invertebrate Recolonization After An Oil Spill, David Samuel Johnson, John W. Fleeger, Maria Rita Riggio, Irving A. Mendelssohn, Qianxin Lin, Sean A. Graham, Donald R. Deis, Aixin Hou

Faculty Publications

Foundation species contribute to the recovery of animal communities from disturbance by engineering, by improving habitat quality, and by regulating food availability. In a salt marsh impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we tested the hypothesis that nutrient subsidies would enhance the positive effects of the foundation species Spartina alterniflora on the initial recolonization of benthic invertebrate communities (e.g., copepods, annelids, nematodes) by augmenting food (i.e., microalgae) availability. After two months, plantings of S. alterniflora significantly elevated the densities of the polychaete Capitella capitata, meiofauna-sized annelids, and total macroinfauna over unplanted plots. After 7 months, the significant effect of …

Convergence Analysis Of A Finite Element Approximation Of Minimum Action Methods, Xiaoliang Wan, Haijun Yu, Jiayu Zhai

Faculty Publications

In this work, we address the convergence of a finite element approximation of the minimizer of the Freidlin–Wentzell (F-W) action functional for nongradient dynamical systems perturbed by small noise. The F-W theory of large deviations is a rigorous mathematical tool to study small-noise-induced transitions in a dynamical system. The central task in the application of F-W theory of large deviations is to seek the minimizer and minimum of the F-W action functional. We discretize the F-W action functional using linear finite elements and establish the convergence of the approximation through G-convergence.

Development Of Texture Weighted Fuzzy C-Means Algorithm For 3d Brain Mri Segmentation, Ji Young Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The segmentation of human brain Magnetic Resonance Image is an essential component in the computer-aided medical image processing research. Brain is one of the fields that are attracted to Magnetic Resonance Image segmentation because of its importance to human. Many algorithms have been developed over decades for brain Magnetic Resonance Image segmentation for diagnosing diseases, such as tumors, Alzheimer, and Schizophrenia. Fuzzy C-Means algorithm is one of the practical algorithms for brain Magnetic Resonance Image segmentation. However, Intensity Non- Uniformity problem in brain Magnetic Resonance Image is still challenging to existing Fuzzy C-Means algorithm. In this paper, we propose the …

Effect Of Exogenous Amylase And Protease On Ruminal Metabolism, Nutrient Digestibility, Rumen Microbiome, And Lactation Performance Of Dairy Cows Fed Freshly Ensiled Corn Silage Based Diets, Lauren Kaye Shearer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of feeding exogenous amylolytic and proteolytic enzymes on lactation performance of dairy cows fed freshly ensiled corn silage-based diets. We hypothesized that the addition of these enzymes would improve nutrient utilization and consequently lactation performance. Thirty-six Holstein cows [15 multiparous and 15 primiparous; DIM = 132 ± 48 and 6 cannulated (3 multiparous and 3 primiparous; DIM = 164 ± 50] were blocked by milk yield, DIM, parity, and body weights and used in a 9 wk randomized complete block design study.. Treatments were a 40% (DM basis) corn silage …

Engineering Of Two-Color Atp-Binding Cassette Biosensor Proteins For Discovery Of Novel Substrates And Modulators, Bremansu Osa-Andrews

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter proteins are a vast, ubiquitous superfamily of proteins most of which unlock the energy from ATP-binding and hydrolysis to influx or efflux a wide spectrum of structurally dissimilar substrates across cell membranes. All eukaryotic ABC transporters including P-gp and MRP1 only exist as efflux pumps whose prominent expression in cells is associated with multidrug resistance of antiretrovirals, antiepileptics, antimalarials and anticancer agents. P-gp and MRP1 reduce the bioavailability and efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs by actively pumping out these drugs, thereby, leading to poor clinical outcomes during chemotherapy. Due to their clinical importance, profiling of the interaction …

Development Of Vegetation Mapping With Deep Convolutional Neural Network, Sae-Han Suh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Precision Agriculture plays a crucial part in the agricultural industry about improving the decision-making process. It aims to optimally allocate the resources to maintain the sustainable productivity of farmland and reduce the use of chemical compounds. [17] However, the on-site inspection of vegetations often falls to researchers’ trained eye and experience, when it deals with the identification of the non-crop vegetations. Deep Convolution Neural Network (CNN) can be deployed to mitigate the cost of manual classification. Although CNN outperforms the other traditional classifiers, such as Support Vector Machine, it is still in question whether CNN can be deployable in …

Efficacy Of Seed Treatments, Microbial And Biochemical Pesticides For Managing Early Tan Spot And Stripe Rust Diseases Of Wheat, Collins Bugingo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wheat is a major cereal crop in the U.S.A and in the world. However, its production is hampered by a number of factors both biotic and abiotic. Foliar diseases like tan spot caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, are economically important diseases causing over 5-55 % yield loss. To assess the efficacy of fungicide seed treatments in the management of early tan spot, two hard red spring wheat cultivars “Select” and “Brick” were treated with seedapplied commercially available combo fungicides metalaxyl + pyraclostrobin + triticonazole and difenoconazole + mefenoxam + sedaxane …

Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys Ludovicianus) State-And-Transition Model For Loamy Ecological Sites In Mlra 62 In Custer State Park, South Dakota, Mark R. Hendrix

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) are native burrowing rodents that occupy large areas in the shortgrass and mixed-grass prairies of the Northern Great Plains. They are an important component of these prairie systems due to their impacts on plant communities. Currently State-and-Transition models (STMs) for grassland Ecological Site Descriptions (ESDs) address grazing by livestock as a major factor affecting states and phases within states. Impacts from other grazers, such as prairie dogs, are either not addressed directly, or are included only in a transition to a generalized early seral state. There are, however, dramatic differences in plant communities …

Quantification Of Hiv-1 Rna Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Using An At-Home Self-Collected Dried Blood Spot Specimen: Feasibility Study, Sabina Hirshfield, Richard A. Teran, Martin J. Downing Jr., Mary Ann Chiasson, Hong-Van Tieu, Laura Dize, Charlotte A. Gaydos

Publications and Research

Background: Suboptimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence and disengagement in care present significant public health challenges because of the increased probability of HIV transmission. In the United States, men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, highlighting a critical need to engage high-risk MSM living with HIV who are not engaged or retained in care.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of at-home blood self-collection and laboratory quantification of HIV-1 RNA viral load (VL) to report laboratory-based VL outcomes and compare self-reported and laboratory-reported VL

Methods: Between 2016 and 2017, …

2017 Region Iv Warmwater Streams And Rivers Fisheries Report, Tennessee. Wildlife Resources Agency.

Region IV Stream Reports

No abstract provided.

A Measurement Tool For Circular Economy Practices: A Case Study In Pallet Supply Chains, Maria Grazia Gnoni, Fabiana Tornese, Brian K. Thorn, Andres L. Carrano, Jennifer A. Pazour

15th IMHRC Proceedings (Savannah, Georgia. USA – 2018)

A circular economy (CE) is an economic system where products and services are traded in closed loops or ‘cycles’. This work develops a framework for assessing the extent to which product supply chains incorporate circular economy principles, and applies this framework to a specific material handling application, the wooden pallet supply chain. The main decisions affecting circularity and the most common decision alternatives for the wooden pallet supply chain are identified for the Pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, product delivery, customer use, and end-of-life phases. A streamlined life cycle assessment tool is developed for supporting a quick analysis about how the level of …

The Small World Of Material Handling Research, Parag J. Siddique, Kevin Gue, Md Salahuddin Ayuby

15th IMHRC Proceedings (Savannah, Georgia. USA – 2018)

Using data from 88 journals over an 8 year period, we investigate the relationships among researchers in material handling. We apply social network analysis to measure many attributes of the network, including papers published each year, papers published per author, number of collaborators per author, strength of collaboration between authors, and how influential an author is in the network. We observe that collaboration patterns in material handling follow a scale-free structure in the presence of some hub-like researchers. According to social network theory, these hub researchers facilitate rapid dissemination of knowledge in the network. We conclude that the scientific community …

Cime Newsletter : January 2018, Cime

Centre for Innovation in Medical Education (CIME) Archives

- His Highness the Aga Khan Inaugurates CIME

- Reflecting on 2017

- MagnifiScience Exhibition 2017

- The Team at Cime Successfully Launch First Clinical Simulation Workshop

- Global Encounters

- Heart Attack on a Plate

- Clinical Simulation Workshop for Yusra University Islamabad

- SPIE Again in Action

- Future Leaders @ CIME

- Innovation Day

- In Case You Missed!

- Publications

Depressive Symptoms Are Associated With Cognitive Function In The Elderly With Type 2 Diabetes, Elizabeth Guerrero-Berroa, Ramit Ravona-Springer, James Schmeidler, Anthony Heymann, Laili Soleimani, Mary Sano, Derek Leroith, Rachel Preiss, Ruth Zukran, Jeremy M. Silverman, Michal Schnaider Beeri

Publications and Research

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic condition associated with poor clinical and cognitive outcomes including vascular disease, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and dementia. In the general elderly population, depression has been consistently identified as a risk factor for cognitive impairment/decline. However, the association between depression and cognitive function in T2D has been understudied.

Objective: We investigated the association between depression and cognitive function in a large sample of cognitively normal elderly with T2D.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we examined 738 participants, aged 65–88 years old, enrolled in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline study. For each …

University Of New Hampshire Graduate Academic Catalog, 2018-2019, University Of New Hampshire

Graduate Catalog

No abstract provided.