Digital Commons Network^™

The Trend Towards Equality: How Sexual Orientation Discrimination Continues To Evolve Under Title Vii, Alexandra Esposito

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

Host-Parasite Associations Of The Cratogeomys Fumosus Species Group And Their Chewing Lice, Geomydoecus, Alex Popinga, James W. Demastes, Theresa A. Spradling, David J. Hafner, Mark S. Hafner

Faculty Work

Chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Trichodectidae) and the pocket gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) that they inhabit have shared an intimate historical association that has made them a textbook study for cophylogeny. Herein, we examine the chewing lice found on pocket gophers of the Cratogeomys fumosus species group using DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene to determine relationships among lice for comparison to published host phylogeny. Although matrix approaches indicate a correlation between host and parasite genetic distances, cophylogenetic reconstruction methods fail to detect a pattern of widespread cophylogeny. In conclusion, this study provides an exception to the …

The Demographic And Life-History Costs Of Fear: Trait-Mediated Effects Of Threat Of Predation On Aedes Triseriatus, Geoffrey D. Ower, Steven A. Juliano

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

1. Predators alter prey populations via direct lethality (density-mediated effects), but in many taxa, the indirect nonlethal threat of predation may be almost as strong an effect, altering phenotypically plastic traits such as prey morphology, behavior, and life history (trait-mediated effects). There are costs to antipredator defenses and the strength of prey responses to cues of predation likely depends on both the perceived level of risk and food availability.
2. The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that the costs of nonlethal trait-mediated interactions impacting larvae can have carryover effects that alter life-history traits, adult characteristics, and ultimately population …

Eddie Murphy And The Dangers Of Counterfactual Causal Thinking About Detecting Racial Discrimination, Issa Kohler-Hausmann

Northwestern University Law Review

The model of discrimination animating some of the most common approaches to detecting discrimination in both law and social science—the counterfactual causal model—is wrong. In that model, racial discrimination is detected by measuring the “treatment effect of race,” where the treatment is conceptualized as manipulating the raced status of otherwise identical units (e.g., a person, a neighborhood, a school). Most objections to talking about race as a cause in the counterfactual model have been raised in terms of manipulability. If we cannot manipulate a person’s race at the moment of a police stop, traffic encounter, or prosecutorial charging decision, then …

Program And Abstracts Of The 65th Annual Conference Of The Mississippi Entomological Association, October 22-23, 2018, Mississippi Entomological Association

Midsouth Entomologist

No abstract provided.

Considerations For Implementing Precision Therapeutics For Children., Matthew J. Mclaughlin, Jonathan B. Wagner, Valentina Shakhnovich, Bruce Carleton, J Steven Leeder

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Improving the utilization of pharmacologic agents in the pediatric population yields significant, perhaps life-long, benefits. Genetic factors related to the disposition of a medication or an alteration at the target receptor site contributes to the observed variability of exposure and response between individuals. An additional source of this variability specific to the pediatric population is ontogeny, where age-specific changes during development may require dose adjustments to obtain the same levels of drug exposure and response. With significant improvements in characterizing both the ontogeny and genetic contributions of drug metabolizing enzymes, the time is right to begin placing more emphasis on …

Neutralizing Antibody Against Enterovirus D68 In Children And Adults Before 2014 Outbreak, Kansas City, Missouri, Usa, Christopher J. Harrison, William C. Weldon, Barbara A. Pahud, Mary Anne Jackson, M. Steven Oberste, Rangaraj Selvarangan

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

© 2019, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). All rights reserved. We evaluated enterovirus D68 seroprevalence in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, from samples obtained during 2012-2013. Neutralizing antibodies against Fermon and the dominant 2014 Missouri isolate were universally detected. Titers increased with age. Widespread circulation of enterovirus D68 occurred before the 2014 outbreak. Research is needed to determine a surrogate of protection.

Use Of 3d Imaging For Providing Insights Into High-Order Structure Of Mitotic Chromosomes, Mohammad Yusuf, Kohei Kaneyoshi, Kiichi Fukui, Ian Robinson

Centre for Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research

The high-order structure of metaphase chromosomes remains still under investigation, especially the 30-nm structure that is still controversial. Advanced 3D imaging has provided useful information for our understanding of this detailed structure. It is evident that new technologies together with improved sample preparations and image analyses should be adequately combined. This mini review highlights 3D imaging used for chromosome analysis so far with future imaging directions also highlighted.

Manipulating Natural Enemy Behavior To Improve Biological Control: Attractants And Repellents Of A Weaver Ant, Anais Chailleux, Aurélien Stirnemann, Jimmy Leyes, Emilie Deletre

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Farmers may not want certain natural enemies of insect pests to be present in their fields all year round, due to the detrimental effects they might have on themselves or on their crop. We explored the potential for manipulating the behavior of the African weaver ant, Oecophylla longinoda, which may bite humans while being a major natural enemy against the invasive fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, in Africa. Our aim was to find repellents that might help to protect farmers when working in the fields, while also coming up with ways of increasing weaver ant populations, by finding carbohydrate sources from …

The Paleolimnologist's Guide To Compound-Specific Stable Isotope Analysis – An Introduction To Principles And Applications Of Csia For Quaternary Lake Sediments, J Holtvoeth, Jh Whiteside, S Engels, Fs Freitas, Et Al

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

the stable isotope composition of key chemical elements for life on Earth (e.g., carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur) tracks changes in fluxes and turnover of these elements in the biogeosphere. Over the past 15–20 years, the potential to measure these isotopic compositions for individual, source-specific organic molecules (biomarkers) and to link them to a range of environmental conditions and processes has been unlocked and amplified by increasingly sensitive, affordable and wide-spread analytical technology. Paleoenvironmental research has seen enormous step-changes in our understanding of past ecosystem dynamics. Vital to these paradigm shifts is the need for well-constrained modern and recent analogues. …

Surviving The Alamo, Violence Vengeance, And Women’S Solidarity In Emma Pérez’S Forgetting The Alamo, Or, Blood Memory, Adrianna M. Santos

English Faculty Publications (Archived)

This article analyzes Chicana feminist texts to frame a discussion of survival as a theoretical concept. Using Emma Pérez’s historical novel Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory as a window into the decolonial imaginary, I introduce the concept of survival narrative as a framework for analysis of Chicana literature, and briefly review Chicana feminist theory to support the argument. Examples from Perez’s novel illustrate the power of the survival narrative to advance a decolonial perspective. The novel reinscribes mainstream representations of gender violence that characterize the traditional Western by focusing on the empowerment that comes from solidarity amongst women and …

How Much Does Physical Attractiveness Matter For Blacks? Linking Skin Color, Physical Attractiveness, And Black Status Attainment, Igor Ryabov

Sociology Faculty Publications

The accumulated evidence suggests that lighter-complected blacks are more successful in our society than their darker-complected counterparts. Prior research also documents a correlation between physical attractiveness and socio-economic status attainment. The current study bridges the literatures on colorism and physical attraction and examines the complex relationship between skin color, physical attractiveness, gender, on the one hand, and three indicators of status attainment (educational attainment, hourly wage and job quality), on the other, for black young adults. Controls include family SES, family structure, parent–child relationships, and other covariates. Analysis was conducted in STATA and via structural equation modeling using MPlus software. …

Saying No To Vaping: What You Should Know About The Dangers Of E-Cigarettes, David Prudovsky

HCAS Student Articles

Smoking is one of the most popular methods of drug intake in the world. Unlike other means of drug abuse, smoking poses a great danger even to those who aren’t smoking, known as passive smokers. According to research, children whose parents smoke inside the home have numerous health issues, such as bronchitis and mental health challenges. The cigarette industry continues to grow in revenue and innovation. It’s that innovation that has produced e-cigarettes, which provide various advantages for the smoker, including durability, where a smoker can simply recharge and refill. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), …

Humans, Vegetation, And Drought In Late Holocene Amazonia, Christine Michelle Åkesson

Theses and Dissertations

The resilience and adaptation of past societies to climate change remain unclear, especially in the tropical cloud-forests of the Andes and the aseasonal forests of lowland western Amazonia. Long thought to have been too humid for significant human settlement, a new image of cloud-forests is emerging in which they supported human settlements for millennia. Anthropogenic disturbance, such as forest clearance, fire activity, and land-use has been suggested to have intensified during times of drier climates. Even so, the mid-elevational Andes and western Amazonia probably supported smaller pre-Columbian populations than settings with a distinct dry season. Uncertainties persist, however, regarding the …

X-Ray Ptychography On Low-Dimensional Hard-Condensed Matter Materials, Xiaowen Shi, Nicolas Burdet, Bo Chen, Gang Xiong, Robert Streubel, Ross Harder, Ian K. Robinson

Robert Streubel Papers

Tailoring structural, chemical, and electronic (dis-)order in heterogeneous media is one of the transformative opportunities to enable new functionalities and sciences in energy and quantum materials. This endeavor requires elemental, chemical, and magnetic sensitivities at the nano/atomic scale in two- and three-dimensional space. Soft X-ray radiation and hard X-ray radiation provided by synchrotron facilities have emerged as standard characterization probes owing to their inherent element-specificity and high intensity. One of the most promising methods in view of sensitivity and spatial resolution is coherent diffraction imaging, namely, X-ray ptychography, which is envisioned to take on the dominance of electron imaging techniques …

2018-2019 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Eighteen counts were held during the 2018-19 Christmas Bird Count season. This is two more than were done last season, which was the first time that as many as sixteen counts were held. This year no counts were postponed or cancelled, and the Beaver Valley Count was revived after a four year hiatus. Twelve of the counts were done during the first week of the count period. While the conditions for these early counts were mild and dry, heavy precipitation in late fall coupled with an early onset of cold weather in the first part of December resulted in little …

Annual Color Photo Section (2019)

Nebraska Bird Review

LeConte's Sparrow, Little Salt Fork Marsh, Lancaster Co., 22 Oct. 2018. Photo by Ruth Stearns.

Harris's Sparrow and Whitecrowned Sparrow, Polk Co., 29 Oct. 2018. Photo by Jan Johnson.

Vesper Sparrow, Chimney Rock Road, Morrill Co., 18 Sept. 2017. Photo by Clem Klaphake.

Fox Sparrow, Mahoney State Park, Cass Co., 25 Feb 2019. Photo by Elizabeth Winter.

Adult Bald Eagle, Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Sarpy Co., 25 Jan. 2019. Photo by Mike Schilmoeller.

White-winged Dove, photographer's yard,Wahoo, Saunders Co., 19 May 2019. Photo by Joe Freeborn.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk, midtown Omaha, Douglas Co,. 18 Aug. 2014. Photo by Craig Crews. …

Advanced Selection Methodologies For Dnazymes In Sensing And Healthcare Applications, Sandeep Kumar, Shikha Jain, Neeraj Dilbaghi, Amrik Singh Ahluwalia, Ashraf Aly Hassan, Ki-Hyun Kim

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

DNAzymes have been widely explored owing to their excellent catalytic activity in a broad range of applications, notably in sensing and biomedical devices. These newly discovered applications have built high hopes for designing novel catalytic DNAzymes. However, the selection of efficient DNAzymes is a challenging process but one that is of crucial importance. Initially, systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) was a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, but recent advances have accelerated the automated generation of DNAzyme molecules. This review summarizes recent advances in SELEX that improve the affinity and specificity of DNAzymes. The thriving generation of new DNAzymes …

Early Neonatal Vitamin A Supplementation And Infant Mortality: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis Of Randomised Controlled Trials, Rajiv Bahl, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Biannual vitamin A supplementation is a well-established survival tool for preschool children 6 months and older in vitamin A deficient populations but this schedule misses the opportunity to intervene on most young infant deaths. Randomised trials of neonatal vitamin A supplementation (NVAS) in the first few days of life to assess its impact on under 6-month mortality in low/middle-income countries have had varying results.
Methods: Investigators of 11 published randomised placebo-controlled NVAS trials (n=163 567 children) reanalysed their data according to an agreed plan and pooled the primary outcomes of mortality from supplementation through 6 and 12 months of …

Development Of A Laboratory Test For Evaluation Of Geogrid Materials, Charlie Sun, R. Clark Graves

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Two test methods have been developed in this project. The first test method is a compression test of a cylinder constructed out of geogrid material and filled with crushed stone. This test is simple and can be easily performed. Only a compression loading machine is needed for this test. The sample preparation is straightforward. However, multiple tests must be run to analyze geogrids with different ultimate tensile strength or different grid aperture size on machine direction and cross machine direction. The second test method is Geogrid Bearing Ratio (GBR) test. This test was developed to measure the effect of geogrids …

Relational Neurogenesis For Lifelong Learning Agents, Tej Pandit

Theses

Reinforcement learning systems have shown tremendous potential in being able to model meritorious behavior in virtual agents and robots. The ability to learn through continuous reinforcement and interaction with an environment negates the requirement of painstakingly curated datasets and hand crafted features. However, the ability to learn multiple tasks in a sequential manner, referred to as lifelong or continual learning, remains unresolved.

The search for lifelong learning algorithms creates the foundation for this work. While there has been much research conducted in supervised learning domains under lifelong learning, the reinforced lifelong learning domain remains open for much exploration. Furthermore, current …

Autonomous Quadrotor Control Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Amer Mahdy Hamadi

Theses

Quadrotors are considered nowadays one of the fastest growing technologies. It is entering all fields of life making them a powerful tool to serve humanity and help in developing a better life style. It is crucial to experiment all possible ways of controlling quadrotors, starting from classical methodologies to cutting edge modern technologies to serve their purpose. In most of the times quadrotors would have combination of several technologies on board. The attitude angles and altitude control used in this thesis are based mainly on PID control which is modeled and simulated on MATLAB and Simulink. To control the quadrotor …

Draft Genome Assembly And Population Genetics Of An Agricultural Pollinator, The Solitary Alkali Bee (Halictidae: Nomia Melanderi), Karen M. Kapheim, Hailin Pan, Cai Li, Charles Blatti Ill, Brock A. Harpur, Panagiotis Ioannidis, Beryl M. Jones, Clement F. Kent, Livio Ruzzante, Laura Sloofman, Eckart Stolle, Robert M. Waterhouse, Amro Zayed, Guojie Zhang, William T. Wcislo

Biology Faculty Publications

Alkali bees (Nomia melanderi) are solitary relatives of the halictine bees, which have become an important model for the evolution of social behavior, but for which few solitary comparisons exist. These ground-nesting bees defend their developing offspring against pathogens and predators, and thus exhibit some of the key traits that preceded insect sociality. Alkali bees are also efficient native pollinators of alfalfa seed, which is a crop of major economic value in the United States. We sequenced, assembled, and annotated a high-quality draft genome of 299.6 Mbp for this species. Repetitive content makes up more than one-third of …

The Experiences Of Christian Paideia Among Graduates Of Classical Christian Texas High Schools: A Phenomenological Study, Jared L. Squires

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to describe the essence of the shared lived experiences in a Christian paideia for classical Christian high school graduates at five different Texas schools. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory (EST) was the primary theory guiding this study. EST is significant for classical Christian educators because this theory suggests that the behavior and practices of individuals, embodied within a Christian paideia, will profoundly shape the development of students. The central question for this study was how do classical Christian high school graduates describe their lived experiences of Christian paideia? Participants described their lived experiences of …

Comparing The Causal Implications Of Clinical Unit Placements On Senior Bachelor Of Science In Nursing Students' Cognitive Decision-Making Processes, Shelley Layne Blackwood

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Evidence suggests that new nursing graduates entering the workforce struggle with decision making. Poor clinical decisions often lead to undesirable patient outcomes. Utilizing quantitative, causal-comparative, pretest-posttest design, this research explored the effect of four categories of clinical unit placements (specialty units, acute care, critical care, and emergency departments) on senior bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students’ cognitive decision-making processes to explore which type of unit, if any, significantly changes nursing student cognitive processes while making decisions. A convenience sample of 30 senior BSN students from a private, faith-based university completed both a demographic survey and the Nurse Decision Making …

The Experience Of Meaning And Purpose In Life Among Adult Iraqi Refugees In Jordan: A Qualitative Study, Reem Issa Abbasi

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this research was to present a study that promotes understanding and exploration about how adult Iraqi refugees living in Jordan can still experience meaning making and hope in the face of suffering. The significance of this research lies in its unique findings that contribute to the body of literature concerning trauma recovery. A qualitative phenomenological in-depth interview methodology was used to explore the phenomenon of meaning in suffering among adult Iraqi refugees. The following research questions were used in this study to explore the phenomenon of meaning in suffering: Can life still be experienced as meaningful in …

Extraordinary Acts To “Show Up”: Conceptualizing Resilience Of Lgbtq Youth, Kenta Asakura

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Sexual and gender diversity is an overlooked subject in resilience research. This study seeks to advance the conceptualization of resilience among lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Informed by social ecological theory of resilience, grounded theory analysis of interviews with service providers (n = 16) and LGBTQ youth (n = 19) yielded the following categories: (a) facing adversities across contexts, and (b) “doing well” while still in pain. LGBTQ youth face both general and LGBTQ-specific adversities. LGBTQ youth, even in a so-called “post-gay” era, remain challenged to navigate marginalization to maintain their well-being. Participants endorsed a context-dependent understanding …

Novel Association Between Heterozygous Genotype Of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism C218t In Drug Transporter Abcc1 Gene And Increased Risk Of Colon Cancer, Meaad M. Abdulkhaleq, Ayat B. Al-Ghafari, Ann Yezerski, Atlal M. Abusanad, Ulfat M. Omar

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To determine the role of G128C and C218T variants in ABCC1 gene with the risk of developing colon cancer in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 51 colon cancer patients and 65 controls from King Abdulaziz University Hospital and King Abdullah Medical City in the period from January 2015 to April 2017, and was approved by the Unit of Biomedical Ethics (no: 261-15). Experiments were performed in the experimental biochemistry unit at King Fahd Medical Research Center. The genotype distributions and allele frequencies were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragments length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) …

Levels And Patterns Of Self-Reported And Objectively-Measured Free-Living Physical Activity Among Prostate Cancer Survivors: A Prospective Cohort Study, Lee Smith, Jung Ae Lee, Junbae Mun, Ratna Pakpahan, Kellie R Imm, Sonya Izadi, Adam S Kibel, Graham A Colditz, Robert L Grubb Iii, Kathleen Y Wolin, Siobhan Sutcliffe, Lin Yang

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: No prior study has measured or compared self-reported and objectively measured physical activity trajectories in prostate cancer survivors before and after treatment.

METHODS: Clinically localized prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy were recruited between 2011 and 2014. Of the 350 participants enrolled at the main site, 310 provided self-reported physical activity at baseline before radical prostatectomy, and 5 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after radical prostatectomy. A subset of participants (n = 81) provided objectively measured physical activity at all study time points by wearing an accelerometer for 7 days each. Changes in activity over time were …

Pharmacological Aspects Of Resveratrol, Raisa Ramirez, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Resveratrol [(E)-5-(4-hydroxystyryl) benzene-1,3-diol], also known as 3,4′,5-trihydroxystilbene also known as resveratrol is classified as a phytoalexin in plants such as nuts, cocoa, berries and grapes for self-defense against injury and pathogenic attacks by bacteria and fungi. Research on this compound did not gain popularity until the 1990s when a published paper implied the relationship between resveratrol and the decrease in cardiovascular complications due to the consumption of grape fermented wine in French populations. This observation sparked research on resveratrol even though its concentration in wine is relatively low, leading to the realization that resveratrol has potential for benefits in other …