Digital Commons Network^™

Global Change Effects On Plant Communities Are Magnified By Time And The Number Of Global Change Factors Imposed, Kimberly J. Komatsu, Meghan L. Avolio, Nathan P. Lemoine, Forest Isbell, Emily Grman, Gregory R. Houseman, Sally E. Koerner, David S. Johnson, Kevin R. Wilcox, Juha M. Alatalo, John P. Anderson, Rien Aerts, Sara G. Baer, Andrew H. Baldwin, Jonathan Bates, Carl Beierkuhnlein, R. Travis Belote, John Blair, Juliette M.G. Bloor, Patrick J. Bohlen, Edward W. Bork, Elizabeth H. Boughton, William D. Bowman, Andrea J. Britton, James F. Cahill Jr., Enrique Chaneton, Nona R. Chiariello, Jimin Cheng, Scott L. Collins, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Guozhen Du, Anu Eskelinen, Jennifer Firn, Bryan Foster, Laura Gough, Katherine Gross, Lauren M. Hallett, Xingguo Han, Harry Harmens, Mark J. Hovenden, Annika Jagerbrand, Anke Jentsch, Christel Kern, Kari Klanderud, Alan K. Knapp, Juergen Kreyling, Wei Li, Yiqi Luo, Rebecca L. Mcculley, Jennie R. Mclaren, J. Patrick Megonigal, John W. Morgan, Vladimir Onipchenko, Steven C. Pennings, Janet S. Prevéy, Jodi N. Price, Peter B. Reich, Clare H. Robinson, F. Leland Russell, Osvaldo E. Sala, Eric W. Seabloom, Melinda D. Smith, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Lara Souza, Katherine Suding, K. Blake Suttle, Tony Svejcar, David Tilman, Pedro Tognetti, Roy Turkington, Shannon White, Zhuwen Xu, Laura Yahdjian, Qiang Yu, Pengfei Zhang, Yunhai Zhang

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Global change drivers (GCDs) are expected to alter community structure and consequently, the services that ecosystems provide. Yet, few experimental investigations have examined effects of GCDs on plant community structure across multiple ecosystem types, and those that do exist present conflicting patterns. In an unprecedented global synthesis of over 100 experiments that manipulated factors linked to GCDs, we show that herbaceous plant community responses depend on experimental manipulation length and number of factors manipulated. We found that plant communities are fairly resistant to experimentally manipulated GCDs in the short term (y). In contrast, long-term (≥10 y) experiments show increasing community …

Getting Back To Nature: Feralization In Animals And Plants, Eben Gering, Darren Incorvaia, R. Henriksen, Jeffrey Conner, Thomas Getty, Dominic Wright

Biology Faculty Articles

Formerly domesticated organisms and artificially selected genes often escape controlled cultivation, but their subsequent evolution is not well studied. In this review, we examine plant and animal feralization through an evolutionary lens, including how natural selection, artificial selection, and gene flow shape feral genomes, traits, and fitness. Available evidence shows that feralization is not a mere reversal of domestication. Instead, it is shaped by the varied and complex histories of feral populations, and by novel selection pressures. To stimulate further insight we outline several future directions. These include testing how ‘domestication genes’ act in wild settings, studying the brains and …

Therapy Dogs Improve Student Affect But Not Memory, Janet P. Trammell

All Faculty Open Access Publications

While students are increasingly struggling with anxiety and depression, the effects of therapy dogs on student stress has only recently been explored. This study was conducted to investigate whether therapy dogs can improve student affect and to determine if these benefits extend to cognition in the form of enhanced ability to remember information. Forty-four college students were randomly assigned to interact with a therapy dog or not during both learning (session 1) and testing (session 2) in a paired-associates procedure. Arousal, stress, and mood were measured at the beginning and end of each session. As predicted, therapy dogs increased happiness …

September 3, 2019

The Gavel Gazette

No abstract provided.

Mining Biosynthetic Gene Clusters In Virgibacillus Genomes, Ghofran Othoum, Salim Bougouffa, Ameerah Bokhari, Feras F. Lafi, Takashi Gojobori, Heribert Hirt, Ivan Mijakovic, Vladimir B. Bajic, Magbubah Essack

All Works

© 2019 The Author(s). Background: Biosynthetic gene clusters produce a wide range of metabolites with activities that are of interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Specific interest is shown towards those metabolites that exhibit antimicrobial activities against multidrug-resistant bacteria that have become a global health threat. Genera of the phylum Firmicutes are frequently identified as sources of such metabolites, but the biosynthetic potential of its Virgibacillus genus is not known. Here, we used comparative genomic analysis to determine whether Virgibacillus strains isolated from the Red Sea mangrove mud in Rabigh Harbor Lagoon, Saudi Arabia, may be an attractive source of such …

Multilevel Analysis In Rural Cancer Control: A Conceptual Framework And Methodological Implications, Tine Verreet, Cory J. Weaver, Hiromu Hino, Masahiko Hibi, Fabienne E. Poulain

Faculty Publications

Mitochondria are abundantly detected at the growth cone, the dynamic distal tip of developing axons that directs growth and guidance. It is, however, poorly understood how mitochondrial dynamics relate to growth cone behavior in vivo, and which mechanisms are responsible for anchoring mitochondria at the growth cone during axon pathfinding. Here, we show that in retinal axons elongating along the optic tract in zebrafish, mitochondria accumulate in the central area of the growth cone and are occasionally observed in filopodia extending from the growth cone periphery. Mitochondrial behavior at the growth cone in vivo is dynamic, with mitochondrial positioning …

The Nuclear 18s Ribosomal Dnas Of Avian Haemosporidian Parasites, Josef Harl, Tanja Himmel, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Herbert Weissenböck

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Background: Plasmodium species feature only four to eight nuclear ribosomal units on different chromosomes, which are assumed to evolve independently according to a birth-and-death model, in which new variants originate by duplication and others are deleted throughout time. Moreover, distinct ribosomal units were shown to be expressed during different developmental stages in the vertebrate and mosquito hosts. Here, the 18S rDNA sequences of 32 species of avian haemosporidian parasites are reported and compared to those of simian and rodent Plasmodium species.

Methods: Almost the entire 18S rDNAs of avian haemosporidians belonging to the genera Plasmodium (7), Haemoproteus (9), …

Odx: A Fitness Tracker-Based Device For Continuous Bacterial Growth Monitoring, Venkata V.B. Yallapragada, Uday Gowda, David Wong, Liam O'Faolain, Mark Tangney, Ganga C.R. Devarapu

Cappa Publications

Continuous monitoring of bacterial growth in aqueous media is a crucial process in academic research as well as in the biotechnology industry. Bacterial growth is usually monitored by measuring the optical density of bacteria in liquid media, using benchtop spectrophotometers. Due to the large form factor of the existing spectrophotometers, they cannot be used for live monitoring of the bacteria inside bacterial incubation chambers. Additionally, the use of benchtop spectrometers for continuous monitoring requires multiple samplings and is labour intensive. To overcome these challenges, we have developed an optical density measuring device (ODX) by modifying a generic fitness tracker. The …

The Lived Experience Of Women Who Quit Assisted Reproductive Technology Without The Birth Of A Live Child And Remained Childless, Linda L. Millenbach

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of women who quit assisted reproductive technology (ART) without the birth of alive child and remained childless.

When Black And White Medicine Turns Gray: Exploring The Interplay And Meaning Of Discoursing About Parenting A Child With A Complex Chronic Condition, Katherine A. Rafferty, Kara Hutton

The Qualitative Report

Parents of children diagnosed with complex chronic conditions (CCCs) face many challenges with managing their child's health. As parents are tasked with competing demands and the constant changes required to provide the best care possible for their child, talk about contradictions regarding their dual, and oftentimes competing, roles and responsibilities as both parent and caregiver is likely to occur. Using relational dialectics theory (Baxter, 2011) as a framework, we conducted a contrapuntal analysis to analyze 35 White, mostly Christian parents’ narratives about their experiences managing their child’s healthcare. Two primary discourses emerged: the centripetal discourse of normal health and the …

Lanthorn, Vol. 54, No. 04, September 3, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 54, July 15, 2019 - April 27, 2020

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Nlstimedist: An R Package For The Biologically Meaningful Quantification Of Unimodal Phenology Distributions, Nicola C. Steer, Paul M. Ramsay, Miguel Franco

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Phenological investigation can provide valuable insights into the ecological effects of climate change. Appropriate modelling of the time distribution of phenological events is key to determining the nature of any changes, as well as the driving mechanisms behind those changes. Here, we present the nlstimedist r package, a distribution function and modelling framework that describes the temporal dynamics of unimodal phenological events. The distribution function is derived from first principles and generates three biologically interpretable parameters. Using seed germination at different temperatures as an example, we show how the influence of environmental factors on a phenological process can be determined …

Network Effects In Blau Space: Imputing Social Context From Survey Data, Miller Mcpherson, Jeffrey A. Smith

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We develop a method of imputing ego network characteristics for respondents in probability samples of individuals. This imputed network uses the homophily principle to estimate certain properties of a respondent’s core discussion network in the absence of actual network data. These properties measure the potential exposure of respondents to the attitudes, values, beliefs, etc. of their (likely) network alters. We use American National Election Survey data (2016 ANES) to demonstrate that the imputed network features show substantial effects on individual level measures, such as political attitudes and beliefs. In some cases, the imputed network variable substantially reduces the effects of …

Ormeloxifene Nanotherapy For Cervical Cancer Treatment, Neeraj Chauhan, Diane M. Maher, Bilal B. Hafeez, Hassan Mandil, Man M. Singh, Murali M. Yallapu, Meena Jaggi, Subhash C. Chauhan

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Cervical cancer (CxCa) ranks as the fourth most prevalent women-related cancer worldwide. Therefore, there is a crucial need to develop newer treatment modalities. Ormeloxifene (ORM) is a non-steroidal, selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) that is used as an oral contraceptive in humans. Recent investigations suggest that ORM exhibits potent anti-cancer activity against various types of cancers. Nanoparticulates offer targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs with minimal toxicity and promise newer approaches for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, the nanotherapy approach is superior compared to traditional chemotherapy, which is not site-specific and is often associated with various side effects.

Methods: Pursuing …

Use Of Hf Radar For Replciating Wave-Current Combined Wave Conditions For Testing Of Wave Energy Converters, D Wang, D Conley, M Hann, Km Collins, D Greaves

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Wave tank testing is a useful tool to assess the performance of Wave Energy Converters (WEC) at different technology readiness levels (TRL). At early TRL the use of systematically varying wave conditions is acceptable, however at later stages there is a need to use testing conditions representative of potential prototype deployment sites. Environmental data at these deployment sties can be collected by various instruments, such as buoys, ADCP, radars etc. The most commonly used method to recreate the measured environmental testing conditions in a wave tank is to represent a sea state using the measured significant wave height and peak …

The Importance Of Spatial Data To Open - Access National Archaeological Databases And The Development Of Paleodemography Research, Erick Robinson, Christopher Nicholson, Robert L. Kelly

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

With generous support from the National Science Foundation, we have spent the past four years developing an archaeological radiocarbon database for the United States. Here, we highlight the importance of spatial data for open-access, national-scale archaeological databases and the development of paleodemography research. We propose a new method for analyzing radiocarbon time series in the context of paleoclimate models. This method forces us to confront one of the central challenges to realizing the full potential of national-scale databases: the quality of the spatial data accompanying radiocarbon dates. We seek to open a national discussion on the use of spatial data …

Identification Of Monocyte-Like Precursors Of Granulocytes In Cancer As A Mechanism For Accumulation Of Pmn-Mdscs., Jérôme Mastio, Thomas Condamine, George Dominguez, Andrew V Kossenkov, Laxminarasimha Donthireddy, Filippo Veglia, Cindy Lin, Fang Wang, Shuyu Fu, Jie Zhou, Patrick Viatour, Sergio Lavilla-Alonso, Alexander T. Polo, Evgenii N. Tcyganov, Charles Mulligan, Brian Nam, Joseph Bennett, Gregory Masters, Michael Guarino, Amit Kumar, Yulia Nefedova, Robert H. Vonderheide, Lucia R. Languino, Scott I. Abrams, Dmitry I. Gabrilovich

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

We have identified a precursor that differentiates into granulocytes in vitro and in vivo yet belongs to the monocytic lineage. We have termed these cells monocyte-like precursors of granulocytes (MLPGs). Under steady state conditions, MLPGs were absent in the spleen and barely detectable in the bone marrow (BM). In contrast, these cells significantly expanded in tumor-bearing mice and differentiated to polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells (PMN-MDSCs). Selective depletion of monocytic cells had no effect on the number of granulocytes in naive mice but decreased the population of PMN-MDSCs in tumor-bearing mice by 50%. The expansion of MLPGs was found to be …

St. Norbert College To Host 11th Annual Snc Day On Sept. 21, St. Norbert College

Press Releases 2019

No abstract provided.

Intelligent Identification For Rock-Mineral Microscopic Images Using Ensemble Machine Learning Algorithms, Jonathan Shi

Faculty Publications

It is significant to identify rock-mineral microscopic images in geological engineering. The task of microscopic mineral image identification, which is often conducted in the lab, is tedious and time-consuming. Deep learning and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) provide a method to analyze mineral microscopic images efficiently and smartly. In this research, the transfer learning model of mineral microscopic images is established based on Inception-v3 architecture. The four mineral image features, including K-feldspar (Kf), perthite (Pe), plagioclase (Pl), and quartz (Qz or Q), are extracted using Inception-v3. Based on the features, the machine learning methods, logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), …

Catalyzing Change: Social Science For Water Resources Management, Mark E. Burbach, Kristin Floress, Linda Stalker Prokopy

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

No abstract provided.

Comparative Genomic Analysis Of Six Glossina Genomes, Vectors Of African Trypanosomes, Geoffrey M. Attardo, Adly M.M. Abd-Alla, Alvaro Acosta-Serrano, James E. Allen, Rosemary Bateta, Joshua B. Benoit, Kostas Bourtzis, Jelle Caers, Guy Caljon, Mikkel B. Christensen, David W. Farrow, Markus Friedrich, Aurélie Hua-Van, Emily C. Jennings, Denis M. Larkin, Daniel Lawson, Michael J. Lehane, Vasileios P. Lenis, Ernesto Lowy-Gallego, Rosaline W. Macharia, Anna R. Malacrida, Heather G. Marco, Daniel Masiga, Gareth L. Maslen, Irina Matetovici, Richard P. Meisel, Irene Meki, Veronika Michalkova

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background: Tsetse flies (Glossina sp.) are the vectors of human and animal trypanosomiasis throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Tsetse flies are distinguished from other Diptera by unique adaptations, including lactation and the birthing of live young (obligate viviparity), a vertebrate blood-specific diet by both sexes, and obligate bacterial symbiosis. This work describes the comparative analysis of six Glossina genomes representing three sub-genera: Morsitans (G. morsitans morsitans, G. pallidipes, G. austeni), Palpalis (G. palpalis, G. fuscipes), and Fusca (G. brevipalpis) which represent different habitats, host preferences, and vectorial capacity. Results: Genomic analyses validate established evolutionary relationships and sub-genera. Syntenic analysis of Glossina relative …

Ada News - 09/02/2019, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

Surgical Stress And Cancer Progression: The Twisted Tango., Zhiwei Chen, Peidong Zhang, Ya Xu, Jiahui Yan, Zixuan Liu, Wayne Bond Lau, Bonnie Lau, Ying Li, Xia Zhao, Yuquan Wei, Shengtao Zhou

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

Surgical resection is an important avenue for cancer treatment, which, in most cases, can effectively alleviate the patient symptoms. However, accumulating evidence has documented that surgical resection potentially enhances metastatic seeding of tumor cells. In this review, we revisit the literature on surgical stress, and outline the mechanisms by which surgical stress, including ischemia/reperfusion injury, activation of sympathetic nervous system, inflammation, systemically hypercoagulable state, immune suppression and effects of anesthetic agents, promotes tumor metastasis. We also propose preventive strategies or resolution of tumor metastasis caused by surgical stress.

The Guardian, Week Of September 2, 2019, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the week of September 2, 2019. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Mechanisms Underlying The Enhanced Biomass And Abiotic Stress Tolerance Phenotypes Of An Arabidopsis Miox Over-Expresser, Nirman Nepal, Jessica P. Yactayo-Chang, Karina Medina-Jiménez, Lucia M. Acosta-Gamboa, María Elena González-Romero, Mario A. Arteaga-Vázquez, Argelia Lorence

Arkansas Biosciences Institute

Myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX) is the first enzyme in the inositol route to ascorbate (L-ascorbic acid, AsA, vitamin C). We have previously shown that Arabidopsis plants constitutively expressing MIOX have elevated foliar AsA content and displayed enhanced growth rate, biomass accumulation, and increased tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses. In this work, we used a combination of transcriptomics, chromatography, microscopy, and physiological measurements to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms mediating the phenotype of the AtMIOX4 line. Transcriptomic analysis revealed increased expression of genes involved in auxin synthesis, hydrolysis, transport, and metabolism, which are supported by elevated auxin levels both …

Modeling The Interplay Between Photosynthesis, Co2 Fixation, And The Quinone Pool In A Purple Non-Sulfur Bacterium, Adil Alsiyabi, Cheryl M. Immethum, Rajib Saha

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Rhodopseudomonas palustris CGA009 is a purple non-sulfur bacterium that can fix carbon dioxide (CO 2) and nitrogen or break down organic compounds for its carbon and nitrogen requirements. Light, inorganic, and organic compounds can all be used for its source of energy. Excess electrons produced during its metabolic processes can be exploited to produce hydrogen gas or biodegradable polyesters. A genome-scale metabolic model of the bacterium was reconstructed to study the interactions between photosynthesis, CO2 fixation, and the redox state of the quinone pool. A comparison of model-predicted flux values with available Metabolic Flux Analysis (MFA) fluxes yielded predicted errors …

Using Social Science To Improve Outreach To Protect Endangered Aquatic Animals: The Case Of Freshwater Mussels In Indiana, Belyna M. Bentlage, Laura A. Esman, Brant Fisher, Linda S. Prokopy

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

Freshwater mussel populations in North America have been declining over the past two centuries due to a variety of land-use changes and anthropogenic water quality degradation. The Tippecanoe River, located in northcentral Indiana, was once home to the world's largest population of clubshell mussels. Currently, the river supports six federally listed species. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) partnered with Purdue University to design and implement an outreach and education campaign to raise awareness about and promote protection of these imperiled species. This article details how researchers used the principles of community-based social marketing to create and evaluate the …

New Altitudinal Records For, And Ecomorphic Variation In, Two Freshwater Sponges (Porifera: Spongillidae: Spongilla Lacustris And Ephydatia Muelleri) From A Colorado, Usa, Alpine Lake, Scott J. Herrmann, Del Wayne R. Nimmo, Lynn M. Herrmann-Hoesing

Western North American Naturalist

The primary objective of this article is to report the co-occurrence of Spongilla lacustris (Linnaeus 1759) and Ephydatia muelleri (Lieberkühn 1855) in an alpine Colorado lake whose altitude of 3580 m represents new elevation maximums for these sponges for Colorado and for the whole of North America. A secondary objective was to characterize the physicochemical conditions of the lake water. For many limnological parameters, heavy metals, and metalloids, new minimums are recorded, particularly for E. muelleri. Ecomorphic variation of atypical gemmuloscleres for E. muelleri and S. lacustris is documented with SEM micrographs. Even though all the encrusted “white colonies” of …

Ageing, Temporality And Performance: Joan Rivers’ Body Of Work, Roberta Mock

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Joan Rivers’ performance in the public sphere revolved around the visibility and cultural inscription of an ageing and older woman. Linking aesthetic, professional and physiological processes, her body, work and performance merged as and in an extended and finite professional practice. A pioneer of stand-up comedy as a genre, and one of its most significant and visible female practitioners, Rivers is known for her aggressive and often outrageous wit, which was directed at both herself and other celebrities, as well as her extensive plastic surgeries. When she died in 2014, at the age of 81, she was still fully engaged …

Ageing, Temporality And Performance: Joan Rivers’ Body Of Work, Ra Mock

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Joan Rivers’ performance in the public sphere revolved around the visibility and cultural inscription of an ageing and older woman. Linking aesthetic, professional and physiological processes, her body, work and performance merged as and in an extended and finite professional practice. A pioneer of stand-up comedy as a genre, and one of its most significant and visible female practitioners, Rivers is known for her aggressive and often outrageous wit, which was directed at both herself and other celebrities, as well as her extensive plastic surgeries. When she died in 2014, at the age of 81, she was still fully engaged …