Digital Commons Network^™

First Record Of The Genus Leptodactylus (Anura: Leptodactylidae) In Cuba: Leptodactylus Fragilis, A Biological Invasion?, Tomás M. Rodríguez-Cabrera, L. Yusnaviel García-Padrón, Andrés R. Acosta Galvis, Rafael O. De Sá, Roberto Alonso Bosch

Biology Faculty Publications

The Neotropical genus Leptodactylus is currently represented by three species in the West Indies (Leptodactylus albilabris, Leptodactylus fallax and Leptodactylus validus). Based on morphological, acoustic and molecular evidence, we document the presence of a fourth species in the Caribbean region, Leptodactylus fragilis (Brocchi, 1877). The species was found at two localities in western Cuba, and molecular data suggest a northern South American origin, possibly Venezuela, for these populations. We discuss the potential invasive status of L. fragilis, based on its known distribution, relative abundance, behaviour and possible impacts on native species of Cuban amphibians.

State Farm Grant Empowers Student Research, University Programs, Rachel Mccarthy

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Upregulation Of Humanized Hprt Housekeeping Gene In Malignant Tumors Hinders Use As An Endogenous Control, Abigail Felsted, Kim O'Neill

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Our lab focuses on developing immunological techniques for diagnosing and treating cancer in a less invasive manner than current methods employ. New unique biomarkers are constantly needed to identify cancer in early stages in order to decrease mortality rates. When researching and publishing such biomarkers, many scientists use housekeeping genes such as glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) as positive controls. It is expected that housekeeping genes are expressed in all cells and have relatively consistent expression in all tissues both normal and malignant. As a member of the purine salvage pathway, HPRT recycles 90% of the free …

A User Friendly Tool To Allow Easy Access To Big Biological Data, Pj Tatlow, Stephen Piccolo

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the course of the past year I have been able to put a lot of work into creating a tool for scientists, those with computational background and without, that provides a simple web interface for downloading data from large, publically available datasets. It allows users to select a dataset that we have pre-processed, enter filters based on the samples they want to research, and download only that portion of the data. This will save researchers a lot of time, as well as reduce their reliance on bioinformaticians.

Global Citizenship And Cross-Cultural Competency: Student And Expert Understandings Of Internationalisation Terminology, Dre Cotton, D Morrison, Pj Magne, S Payne, Tw Heffernan

More Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Research

No abstract provided.

Pubh 4231- Health Aspects Of Aging, James Thomas

College of Public Health: Faculty Syllabi (2014-2021)

This course examines the aging process from a health education perspective. Students will become acquainted with the process of and problems associated with aging in order to effectively manage this important public health issue. Knowledge and understanding of biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of aging as related to health and wellness will also be addressed. (2018-2019, Georgia Southern University Undergraduate and Graduate Course Catalog) Access to course materials are available for up to one year after graduation.

A Simple Decision To Move In Response To Touch Reveals Basic Sensory Memory And Mechanisms For Variable Response Times., S Koutsikou, R Merrison-Hort, E Buhl, A Ferrario, Et Al

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Many motor responses to sensory input, like locomotion or eye movements, are much slower than reflexes. Can simpler animals provide fundamental answers about the cellular mechanisms for motor decisions? Can we observe the 'accumulation' of excitation to threshold proposed to underlie decision making elsewhere? We explore how somatosensory touch stimulation leads to the decision to swim in hatchling Xenopus tadpoles. Delays measured to swimming in behaving and immobilized tadpoles are long and variable. Activity in their extensively studied sensory and sensory pathway neurons is too short-lived to explain these response delays. Instead, whole-cell recordings from the hindbrain reticulospinal neurons that …

Gpu-Accelerated Large-Scale Genome Assembly, Sayan Goswami, Kisung Lee, Shayan Shams, Seung Jong Park

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Spurred by a widening gap between hardware accelerators and traditional processors, numerous bioinformatics applications have harnessed the computing power of GPUS and reported substantial performance improvements compared to their CPU-based counterparts. However, most of these GPU-based applications only focus on the read alignment problem, while the field of de novo assembly still relies mostly on CPU-based solutions. This is primarily due to the nature of the assembly workload which is not only compute-intensive but also extremely data-intensive. Such workloads require large memories, making it difficult to adapt them to use GPUS with their limited memory capacities. To the best of …

Developing A Mixed-Methods Method To Model Elderly Health Technology Adoption With Fuzzy Cognitive Map, And Its Application In Adoption Of Remote Health Monitoring Technologies By Elderly Women, Noshad Rahimi

Dissertations and Theses

Providing healthcare to the ever-rising elderly population has become a severe challenge and a top priority. Emerging innovations in healthcare, such as remote health monitoring technologies, promise to provide a better quality of care and reduce the cost of healthcare. However, many elderly people reject healthcare innovations. This lack of adoption constitutes a big practical problem because it keeps the elderly from benefiting from technology advances. The phenomenon is even more pronounced among elderly women, who represent the majority of the elderly population.

A plethora of studies in the field of technology adoption resulted in sound, but highly generalized theories …

Endorepellin Remodels The Endothelial Transcriptome Toward A Pro-Autophagic And Pro-Mitophagic Gene Signature., Thomas Neill, Eva Andreuzzi, Zi-Xuan Wang, Stephen C. Peiper, Maurizo Mongiat, Renato V. Iozzo

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Regulation of autophagy by proteolytically cleaved fragments of heparan sulfate proteoglycans is a novel and current research focus in tumor biology. Endorepellin is the C-terminal angiostatic fragment of the heparan sulfate proteoglycan perlecan and induces autophagy in endothelial cells. To further investigate this property, we used NanoString, a digital PCR platform for measuring pre-defined transcripts in biological samples to analyze a custom subset of 95 autophagy-related genes in human umbilical vein endothelial cells treated with ultrapure human recombinant endorepellin. We discovered an endorepellin-evoked pro-autophagic and pro-mitophagic gene expression signatures, which included two coordinately up-regulated mitochondrial-associated genes encoding the E3 ubiquitin …

Spatial Heterogeneity In The Abundance And Fecundity Of Arctic Mosquitoes, Lauren E. Culler, Matthew P. Ayres, Ross A. Virginia

Dartmouth Scholarship

The abundance of mosquitoes is strongly influenced by biotic and abiotic factors that act on the immature (aquatic) and adult (terrestrial) life stages. Rapid changes in land use and climate, which impact aquatic and terrestrial mosquito habitat, necessitate studying the ecological mechanisms, and their interplay with the changing environment, that affect mosquito abundance. These data are crucial for anticipating how environmental change will impact their roles as pests, disease vectors, and in food webs. We studied a population of Arctic mosquitoes (Aedes nigripes, Diptera: Culicidae) in western Greenland, a region experiencing rapid environmental change, to quantify spatial variation …

Herbarium Records Reveal Earlier Bloom Times In Three Southern Appalachian Plant Species, Melanie Flood, Mark Davis, Ashlee Mccaskill

Georgia Journal of Science

Plant phenology, especially the onset of flowering in angiosperms, is a useful tool for studying the effects of climate change on native flora because it is influenced by temperatures. Numerous studies in different biomes have provided evidence of earlier bloom times in response to increasing temperatures. We examined herbarium specimen data to determine whether three spring-blooming species (Sanguinaria canadensis, Iris cristata, and Trillium rugelii) at the southern terminus of the Appalachians exhibit a similar change in onset of flowering over several decades. All three species exhibited significantly earlier flower onset during the past 120 years, a …

Crop Pests And Predators Exhibit Inconsistent Responses To Surrounding Landscape Composition, Daniel S. Karp, Julie A. Peterson, 155 Other Co-Authors

Faculty Publications: Department of Entomology

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop …

Post Drought Recovery In Malosma Laurina After Severe Dieback During California’S Historic Drought Of 2012-2016, Karagan L. Smith, Guinevere X. Mesh, Natalie M. Aguirre, Gabriella N. Palmeri, Helen I. Holmlund, Stephen D. Davis

Biology

Malosma laurina is a species of chaparral shrub that dominates coastal exposures of the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California. Between 2012 and 2016, protracted drought with half normal rainfall over a five-year period (175 mm), led to severe dieback, exceeding 50% whole plant mortality at some sites. The drought dissipated in 2017 with an annual rainfall that exceeded the 140-yr normal by 108 mm. As a result of this elevated annual rainfall in 2017, we were interested in documenting the potential for full recovery of Malosma laurina as a keystone species of coastal chaparral shrub communities. We tested the …

Health In Surroundings: Application Of The Theory Of Environment In Nursing Practice, Nasreen Rafiq

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Nursing practices are guided by theoretical frameworks which provide functional basis to nursing care. This paper discusses the application of Nightingale’s theory of environment in nursing practices. The theory highlights and explains 13 environmental cannons which include ventilation, cleanliness of walls/rooms, light, noise, personal cleanliness, bed and bedding, and taking food. Florence exquisitely explains the influence of environmental health on patients wellbeing. The application of the theory in nursing practices will help to understand and reflect the direct relation of environment on patients health.

Narratology Beyond The Human: Storytelling And Animal Life By David Herman, Brian Mccormack

The Goose

Review of David Herman's Narratology beyond the Human: Storytelling and Animal Life.

Perma/Culture: Imagining Alternatives In An Age Of Crisis By Molly Wallace And David Carruthers, Bryant Scott

The Goose

Review of Molly Wallace and David Carruthers' Perma/Culture: Imagining Alternatives in an Age of Crisis.

Mapping Of Bruise Of Oil Palm Fresh Fruit Bunch During Loading And Transportation From Field To Mill, Andreas Wahyu Krisdiarto

Makara Journal of Technology

Fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) are used as raw materials for palm oil, and their transport from a field is a critical step to maintain their quality. Fruit integrity should be maintained so the mill can efficiently obtain palm oil with less than 5% free fatty acid content. Physical treatments for FFBs during loading to truck bins and transport may cause physical injuries. This research aimed to map fruit bruises. The map can be used as a basis in managing transport of FFBs. Physical injuries were assessed by bruise index (BI), which was calculated by measuring the bruise area and weight …

Diel Patterns Of Variable Fluorescence And Carbon Fixation Of Picocyanobacteria Prochlorococcus-Dominated Phytoplankton In The South China Sea Basin, Yuyuan Xie, Edward A. Laws, Lei Yang, Bangqin Huang

Faculty Publications

The various photosynthetic apparatus and light utilization strategies of phytoplankton are among the critical factors that regulate the distribution of phytoplankton and primary productivity in the ocean. Active chlorophyll fluorescence has been a powerful technique for assessing the nutritional status of phytoplankton by studying the dynamics of photosynthesis. Further studies of the energetic stoichiometry between light absorption and carbon fixation have enhanced understanding of the ways phytoplankton adapt to their niches. To explore the ecophysiology of a Prochlorococcus-dominated phytoplankton assemblage, we conducted studies of the diel patterns of variable fluorescence and carbon fixation by phytoplankton in the oligotrophic South China …

Alaskan Marine Transgressions Record Out-Of-Phase Arctic Ocean Glaciation During The Last Interglacial, Louise Farquharson, Daniel Mann, Tammy M. Rittenour, Pamela Groves, Guido Grosse, Benjamin Jones

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Ongoing climate change focuses attention on the Arctic cryosphere’s responses to past and future climate states. Although it is now recognized the Arctic Ocean Basin was covered by ice sheets and their associated floating ice shelves several times during the Late Pleistocene, the timing and extent of these polar ice sheets remain uncertain. Here we relate a relict barrier-island system on the Beaufort Sea coast of northern Alaska to the isostatic effects of a previously unrecognized ice shelf grounded on the adjacent continental shelf. A new suite of optically stimulated luminescence dates show that this barrier system formed during one …

Establishing Hematology And Serum Chemistry Reference Intervals For Wild Hawaiian Monk Seals (Neomonachus Schauinslandi), Angela C. Kaufman, Stacie J. Robinson, Dori L. Borjesson, Michelle Barbieri, Charles L. Littnan

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Hematology and serum chemistry reference intervals have been previously established for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Neomonachus schauinslandi) as an imperative measure for health assessments. Monitoring the health of the wild population depends upon reference intervals that are context specific; hence we developed reference intervals from fresh samples, as opposed to frozen, from wild monk seals. This study builds on the number of parameters from previous efforts by using samples collected between 2004 and 2015 from wild monk seals. Blood samples were analyzed by a single veterinary diagnostic laboratory within 24 hr of collection from apparently healthy, wild …

Genetic Testing: Should I Get Tested For Alzheimer’S Risk?, Troy Rohn

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Genetic testing is available to people who want to know if they carry a variant of a gene that confers susceptibility for Alzheimer’s. But knowing whether to get tested is hard.

Autotaxin-Lpa Signaling Contributes To Obesity-Induced Insulin Resistance In Muscle And Impairs Mitochondrial Metabolism, Kenneth D'Souza, Carine Nzirorera, Andrew M. Cowie, Geena P. Varghese, Purvi Trivedi, Thomas O. Eichmann, Dipsikha Biswas, Mohamed Touaibia, Andrew J. Morris, Vassilis Aidinis, Daniel A. Kane, Thomas Pulinilkunnil, Petra C. Kienesberger

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Autotaxin (ATX) is an adipokine that generates the bioactive lipid, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). ATX-LPA signaling has been implicated in diet-induced obesity and systemic insulin resistance. However, it remains unclear whether the ATX-LPA pathway influences insulin function and energy metabolism in target tissues, particularly skeletal muscle, the major site of insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. The objective of this study was to test whether the ATX-LPA pathway impacts tissue insulin signaling and mitochondrial metabolism in skeletal muscle during obesity. Male mice with heterozygous ATX deficiency (ATX^+/−) were protected from obesity, systemic insulin resistance, and cardiomyocyte dysfunction following high-fat high-sucrose (HFHS) feeding. …

Development Of A Subsurface Landfill Fire Risk-Index, Samain Sabrin

Theses and Dissertations

Landfill subsurface fires create environmental hazards by emitting potentially dangerous particulates into the atmosphere and damaging liners, potentially contaminating surrounding soil and groundwater aquifers with leachate. Currently, the only means of detecting underground fires are physical tests. This paper is used to describe an index that can be employed to track fire risk across a landfill. The landfill parameters analyzed for fire risk susceptibility in Chapter 1 include residual nitrogen concentration, oxygen exceedance, methane concentration, carbon monoxide level, methane and carbon dioxide ratio and monitoring well temperature. Incorporating these factors, a landfill fire index ranging from 1 to 10 was …

An Improved Probabilistic Simulation Framework For Gene Family Evolution, Soumya Kundu

Master's Theses

Gene and sub-gene family evolution is usually represented in a framework where domain trees evolve inside one or more gene trees, each of which evolves inside a species tree. The Duplication-Transfer-Loss (DTL) reconciliation and the Domain-Gene-Species (DGS) reconciliation algorithms allow us to infer the evolutionary histories of a given set of species, genes, and protein domains. However, in the absence of biological data regarding the true evolutionary histories of these species, genes, and domains, we must rely on simulated data to validate the accuracy of these methods. Although numerous probabilistic simulation frameworks exist for gene family evolution, none of them …

Ultrafast Laser Filament-Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy Of Uranyl Fluoride, P. J. Skrodzki, M. Burger, L. A. Finney, F. Poineau, S. M. Balasekaran, J. Nees, K. R. Czerwinski, I. Jovanovic

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

Uranyl fluoride (UO2F2) is a compound which forms in the reaction between water and uranium hexafluoride, a uranium containing gas widely used for uranium enrichment. Uranyl fluoride exhibits negligible natural background in atmosphere; as a result, its observation implies the presence and active operation of nearby enrichment facilities and could be used as a tracer for treaty verification technologies. Additionally, detection of UO2F2 has a potential application in guiding remediation efforts around enrichment facilities. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) has been proposed in the past as a viable technique for the detection and tracking of UO2F2. We demonstrate that ultrafast laser filamentation …

Insights Into The Dehydrogenation Selectivity Of Alloys Through Hydrogenation Kinetics, Keoni E. Baty, Stephen Purdy, Jeffrey Miller

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Platinum alloy catalysts have a multitude of industrial applications due to their superior selectivity compared to pure platinum catalysts. The two properties believed to be responsible for high alloy selectivity in dehydrogenation are the electronic effect and the geometric effect. Currently, both effects are cited as the predominant effect leading to alloy selectivity. Our research seeks to quantify how the electronic effect of alloying changes the kinetics of hydrogenation, and to relate these changes to the observed olefin selectivity in dehydrogenation by alloys. We measured and compared apparent kinetics of ethylene hydrogenation on platinum and a Pt3V alloy catalyst of …

Structural And Functional Characterization Of Hyper-Phosphorylated Grk5 Protein Expressed From E. Coli, Joseph M. Krampen, John Tesmer, Qiuyan Chen

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) kinases (GRKs) are proteins in the cell responsible for regulating GPCRs located on the cell membrane. GRKs regulate active GPCRs by phosphorylating them at certain sites which causes them to stop normal signaling on the membrane. This ultimately affects how the cell responds to its environment. GRK5 is a kinase of particular interest due to its involvement in the pathology of diseases such as cardiac failure, cancers, and diabetes. Understanding the structure and function of GRK5 is essential for discovering ways to manipulate its behavior with these diseases, but not much is known about how GRK5 …

Bacteria Movement Near Surfaces, Shulin Wang, Adib Ahmadzadegan, Arezoo Ardekani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Understanding the behaviors of bacteria near surfaces is crucial in many biological and ecological applications. This knowledge can be used to hinder undesired biofilm formation on medical instruments and wounds. On top of that, it could also provide further insights in biodegradation of dispersed oil. In this work, the behavior of Escherichia Coli near a surface was experimentally studied. We utilized an inverted microscope in the phase filed illumination mode and processed acquired images to track the motions of bacteria near surfaces with high accuracy and repeatability. Distribution of the cells when they reached a steady state shows that the …

Characterization And Quantification Of Fibrin Gel Mechanics With Fibroblast Invasion, Nicklaus Iavagnilio, Sarah Calve, Adrian Buganza-Tepole

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cutaneous wounds undergo an intricate healing process stimulated by a variety of local mechanical and biological stimuli that lead to patterns of growth and remodeling. Despite significant research in dermal wound healing, pathological scarring is still common particularly in wounds closed under mechanical stress, or large wounds left to heal by secondary intention. The purpose of this study is to utilize previously established wound healing models using fibrin gels and fibroblasts to better understand the functional relationships of the biological processes of normal compared to abnormal wound healing. Increases in uni-axial strain and transforming growth factor beta-1 concentration have been …