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2018 (30th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

2018 Additions/Deletions to the "Official List of the Birds of Nebraska”: There was one new species added in 2018. Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) Accidental - Class 1-P. With this addition, the “Official List of the Birds of Nebraska” stands at 463 species.

2018 Changes in Frequency of Occurrence

Changes Involving Nebraska Species Due to Taxonomic Revisions

NOURC Accepted Records (Received in 2018)

NOURC Unaccepted Records (Received in 2018)

Population Genetics Of Rice Rats (Oryzomys Palustris) At The Northern Edge Of The Species Range, Phillip Conrad Williams

Theses

The marsh rice rat (Oryzomys sp.) is a semiaquatic rodent native to wetlands in the southeastern United States. The northwestern-most part of the rice rat’s range extends to Illinois where rice rats are found in wetlands across the southern part of the state. Recent studies have shown that rice rats in the United States can be divided into two species: O. palustris and O. texensis, but the taxonomic status of rice rats in Southern Illinois is unclear. To resolve this, I sequenced cytochrome-b and the control region, two regions of mitochondrial DNA, for 16 rice rats and constructed a phylogeny …

Salem Belles, Succubi, And The Scarlet Letter: Transatlantic Witchcraft And Gothic Erotic Affect, Sylvia Cutler

Theses and Dissertations

In order to reconcile the absence of sexually deviant witch figures (succubae, demonic women, etc.) within the formation of American national literature in the nineteenth century with the fantastic elements found in European variations on the gothic, my thesis aims to demonstrate transatlantic variants of erotic signifiers attached to witch figures in nineteenth-century gothic fiction and mediums across national traditions. I will begin by tracing the transatlantic and historical impact of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum—an early modern handbook of sorts used widely in witchcraft inquisitions—on Early American witch trials, specifically where its influence deviates from a sexualized …

"They Smile But It's Not Real": Karen Refugees' Perceptions Of Depression, Carina Zuniga

Social Work Theses - Archive

Refugees often carry with them traumas and mental health issues, why may continue or worsen in their new resettlement country. Understanding refugee populations and their mental health needs is a critical endeavor to support them effectively during and after the resettlement process. Currently, there is a lack of research over this population's mental health and what kinds of interventions are most effective. Recently, the U.S. has resettled a proportionately high number of refugees from Burma or Myanmar, mostly from the ethnic minority group called Karen. The present study interviewed 16 Karen refugees who were receiving medical care or case management …

Exploring Reactions Of Stakeholders To Military-Connected Spouse Abuse Disclosure: An Online Observational Approach, Mary Christine Highfill

Social Work Theses - Archive

Although considerable research explores family violence within the United States Military, few peer-reviewed studies investigate the experience of civilian spouse survivors. This project seeks to close the research gap by answering the question, “How do military stakeholders respond to disclosure of Military-Connected Spouse Abuse (MCSA) made on YouTube?” Videos featuring MSCA narratives were selected from a series of YouTube searches. Comments made to those videos by Service Members and military spouses were organized according to three predominate response types: disclosures, perceptions, and actions. Disclosures included personal experience with or second-hand knowledge of spousal abuse, interactions with the military response system, …

Leveraging Propargylic Frameworks In The Total Synthesis Of Natural Products Containing A 2-Aminoimidazole, Ravi P. Singh

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

Our group is mainly interested in the total synthesis of marine sponge-derived 2-aminoimidazole-containing alkaloids. A new family of 2-aminoimidazole alkaloids, the Leucetta alkaloids, is a group of >60, 2-aminoimidazole natural products found in marine sponges. Our lab is also interested in the total synthesis of oroidin-based pyrrole-imidazole containing marine sponge-derived alkaloids. These natural products are a growing class of alkaloids with exotic connectivity, unique topologies, and high nitrogen content. The presence of 2-aminoimidazole and pyrrolecarboxamide fragments in their framework represent the signature structural features. Recently, these secondary metabolites have received substantial attention because of their challenging structures and strong biological …

Mars Knot Positioning And Global Optimization, Xinglong Ju

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) is a statistical modeling approach with wide real-world applications. In the MARS model building process, knot positioning is a critical step that potentially affects the accuracy of the final MARS model. Identifying well-positioned knots entails assessing the quality of many knots in each model building iteration, which requires much computation efforts. By exploring the change in the residual sum of squares (RSS) within MARS, we find that local optima from previous iterations can be very close to those of the current iteration. In our approach, the prior change in RSS information is used to “warm …

Optimal Control Strategies And Reinforcement Learning For Dynamical Multiagent Systems In Graphical Games, Victor Gabriel Lopez Mejia

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

As the number of autonomous agents increases in industrial and urban areas, the development of formal protocols to analyze their behavior as they interact with each other becomes of central interest in control systems research. Each agent in this setting is interested in completing a specific task with considerations of an optimal performance. Game theory has become one of the most useful tools in multiagent systems analysis due to its rigorous mathematical representation of optimal decision making. The analysis of dynamical systems has been developed in the branch of game theory regarded as differential games. The ser of graphical games …

Computational Approaches For Finding Disease Related Genes And Rnas, Negin Fraidouni

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Finding candidate genes that could cause specific diseases has been the subject of many studies. This is an important research task, however in the biological experimentation domain it can be very expensive and time consuming. So an alternative way is to find gene expression values from partial measurements and try to predict the rest. By using computational methods, we can statistically estimate these relationships faster and in a more efficient way, providing domain experts suggestions on what exploration of likely relationships they should be focusing. One common computational approach is to model the gene expression data as a matrix (where …

Whole Body Vibration As An Innovative Intervention To Improve Physical Function And Vascular Health Within A Lifespan, Stephen Leroy Newhart Jr.

Kinesiology Dissertations - Archive

Over the past several decades, technological advances in computers, transportation devices, and other automated devices have decreased the need for human locomotion and physical activity in the workplace and at home. The need to be physically active in order to sustain and prosper in life has been almost fully eliminated by these technological advances. As a result, sedentary patterns of living have become more prevalent throughout all socioeconomic levels. Age related injuries and conditions including falls and osteoporosis can be debilitating or life ending and have been associated with sedentary behaviors as these can lead to decreased range of motion, …

Synthesis Of Modified Polydiacetylene (Pda) Polymers For The Detection Of Infective Species, Shan Hazoor

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses - Archive

Polydiacetylene (PDAs) polymers are receiving more attention as biosensors due to their ability to change absorption and fluorescence properties upon sensing various chemical and physical changes in the environment. In chapter 1, the introduction to PDA polymers have been described along with their optical properties. Diacetylene (DA) monomers can be synthesized to tune photochemical and sensing properties of PDAs. DAs self-polymerize upon UV-irradiation and show fluorescence upon stimulation. They have been reported as biological and chemical sensors, capable of visible color changes (e.g. blue to red) upon certain environmental factors such as temperature, pH changes, and upon binding with biological …

Predictors Of Perceived Faculty Support In Pre-Licensure Registered Nursing Students, Megan Marshall Mariveles

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

There is an increased demand for nurses in the United States contributing to a nursing shortage that is compounded by decreased student retention in pre-licensure registered nursing (PLRN) programs. Faculty support is a form of social support for nursing students resulting from interactions between teacher and student that involve the development of trust and a therapeutic, working relationship. Increased faculty support helps to mediate stressors. Students who perceive higher levels of faculty support are more likely to be successful academically and choose to remain enrolled in nursing programs. There were no studies found in which researchers examined factors that contribute …

Natural And Anthropogenic Oil Impacts On Benthic Foraminifera In The Southern Gulf Of Mexico, M. L. Machain-Castillo, A. C. Ruiz-Fernández, Adolfo Gracia, J. A. Sanchez-Cabeza, A. Rodríguez-Ramírez, H. M. Alexander-Valdés, L. H. Pérez-Bernal, X. A. Nava-Fernández, L. E. Gómez-Lizárraga, L. Almaraz-Ruiz, Patrick Schwing, David Hollander

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The Campeche Sound is the major offshore oil producing area in the Southern Gulf of Mexico (SGoM). To evaluate the impact of oil related activities in the ocean floor sediments, we analyzed the geochemical (major and trace element, organic carbon and hydrocarbon concentrations) and biological (benthic foraminifera) composition of 62 superficial sediment samples, from 13 to 1336 m water depth. Cluster and Factor analysis of all the variables indicate that their distribution patterns are mainly controlled by differences between the terrigenous and carbonate platforms in the SGoM. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages were abundant and diverse, and their distribution patterns are mainly …

Factors Influencing Indonesian Male Partners’ Support In The Postpartum Period, Hilda M. Agil, Kumi Watanabe, Emiko Tanaka, Yati Afiyanti, Tokie Anme

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Lack of male partners’ postpartum support can cause postpartum depression (PPD), a serious mood disorder, in women. Thus, to prevent PPD, it is important to clarify the factors influencing male partners’ postpartum support. Methods: In total, 62 male partners of postpartum women at 1 week–6 months after delivery, living in South Jakarta, were invited by assistance from community volunteers. Focus group interviews were employed; participants were grouped depending on their residences and asked about their behaviors in supporting postpartum women. Interviews were documented using two voice recorders and two video recorders. The content analysis method and Bertalanffy’s system theory …

Understanding The Axonal Response To Injury By In Vivo Imaging In The Mouse Spinal Cord: A Tale Of Two Branches., Binhai Zheng, Ariana O Lorenzana, Le Ma

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Understanding the basic properties of how axons respond to injury in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) is of fundamental value for developing strategies to promote neural repair. Axons possess complex morphologies with stereotypical branching patterns. However, current knowledge of the axonal response to injury gives little consideration to axonal branches, nor do strategies to promote axon regeneration. This article reviews evidence from in vivo spinal cord imaging that axonal branches markedly impact the degenerative and regenerative responses to injury. At a major bifurcation point, depending on whether one or both axonal branches are injured, neurons may choose either a …

Longitudinal Quantification Of Adenovirus Neutralizing Responses In Zambian Mother-Infant Pairs: Impact Of Hiv-1 Infection And Its Treatment, Sara R. Privatt, Brianna L. Bullard, Eric A. Weaver, Charles Wood, John T. West

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Vaccination offers the most cost-effective approach to limiting the adverse impact of infectious and neoplastic diseases that reduce the quality of life in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, it is unclear what vaccine vectors would be most readily implementable in the setting and at what age they should be applied for maximal efficacy. Adenoviruses (Ad) and Ad-based vectors have been demonstrated to induce effective humoral and cellular immune responses in animal models and in humans. However, because immunity associated with Ad infection is lifelong, there exists a debate as to whether pre-existing immunity might decrease the efficacy of Ad vectored vaccines. …

Emergent Properties Of The Transport Of Sand, Eric Lenhart

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the interest of drawing conclusions about Aeolian environments based on remote imaging, we investigated how air flow forms self-organizing patterns, such as ripples, across loose particulate surfaces. Specifically, we analyzed various models of sand transport, particularly Nishimori’s model, to note the effects of altering various parameters, including wind direction, saltation length, diffusion, and a saltation proportionality constant. As a measure of the frustration of the emergent patterns, Y-junctions were counted at various values of the parameters. A strong correlation with the saltation proportionality constant and no correlation with the saltation height were found. As an additional use of the …

Aplikimi I Sistemeve Te Informacionit E-Health Care Në Kosovë, Ardit Imeri

Theses and Dissertations

Gjithkush flet për eHealth këto ditë, por pak njerëz kanë dalë me një përkufizim të qartë të këtij termi relativisht të ri. Pak në përdorim para vitit 1999, ky term tani duket se shërben si një fjalë e përgjithshme, që përdoret për të karakterizuar jo vetëm "mjekësinë e digjitalizuar", por gjithashtu pothuajse çdo gjë që lidhet me kompjuterët dhe mjekësinë. Termi eHealth është krijuar dhe pëdorur duke u bazuar në fjalët tjera “e-fjal” si përshembull “e-commerce, e-business, e-mail”, me të cilën fjalë do të mund ti referoheshim mundësive të reja që interneti po i hap në fushën e kujdesit mjeksor. …

Bringing Candor To Charitable Solicitations, David Adam Friedman

Maryland Law Review

The American public donates a staggering amount of money to nonprofit charities. These charities routinely solicit and receive money from donors for specific, earmarked purposes. Often, however, charities ignore their obligations to use money for these designated uses. In many circumstances, even a seemingly benign redirection of earmarked gifts for other charitable purposes could constitute fraud and misrepresentation.

Breaking the implicit or explicit promise to use money in a designated manner harms donors, charities, and the public. Prospective donors assess the value of charitable donations in a manner similar to the way they value consumer goods and services and can …

The Distal Cytoplasmic Tail Of The Influenza A M2 Protein Dynamically Extends From The Membrane, Grace Kim , '17, Hayley E. Raymond , '18, Alice L. Herneisen , '17, Abigail Wong-Rolle , '19, Kathleen P. Howard

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

The influenza A M2 protein is a multifunctional membrane-associated homotetramer that orchestrates several essential events in the viral infection cycle. The monomeric subunits of the M2 homotetramer consist of an N-terminal ectodomain, a transmembrane domain, and a C-terminal cytoplasmic domain. The transmembrane domain forms a four-helix proton channel that promotes uncoating of virions upon host cell entry. The membrane-proximal region of the C-terminal domain forms a surface-associated amphipathic helix necessary for viral budding. The structure of the remaining ~34 residues of the distal cytoplasmic tail has yet to be fully characterized despite the functional significance of this region for influenza …

Development Of A Low Profile, Endoscopic Implant For Long Term Brain Imaging, Benjamin Scott Kemp

Doctoral Dissertations

The increased public awareness of concussion and traumatic brain injury has motivated continued research into the brain, its functions, and especially its response to injury, with a focus on improving the brain’s repair capabilities. However, due to the critical nature of the tissue, it is currently difficult for researchers to acquire high resolution images below the cortex without sacrificing a lab animal. Sacrificing an animal greatly reduces the amount of data that can be obtained from it, making longitudinal studies unappealing or unfeasible because a large number of animals is needed to obtain useful data over multiple time points. Additionally, …

Radiolysis Of Solid-State Nitrogen Heterocycles Provides Clues To Their Abundance In The Early Solar System, Phillip G. Hammer, Ruiqin Yi, Isao Yoda, H. James Cleaves, Michael P. Callahan

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

We studied the radiolysis of a wide variety of N-heterocycles, including many of biological importance, and find that the majority are remarkably stable in the solid-state when subjected to large doses of ionizing gamma radiation from a ⁶⁰Co source. Degradation of N-heterocycles as a function of dose rate and total dose was measured using high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. Many N-heterocycles show little degradation when γ-irradiated up to a total dose of ~1 MGy, which approximates hundreds of millions of years’ worth of radiation emitted in meteorite parent bodies due to slow radionuclide decay. Extrapolation of …

Bringing Forecasting Into The Future: Using Google To Predict Visitation In U.S. National Parks, Matt Clark, Emily J. Wilkins, Dani T. Dagan, Robert Powell, Ryan L. Sharp, Vicken Hillis

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, visitation to U.S. National Parks has been increasing, with the majority of this increase occurring in a subset of parks. As a result, managers in these parks must respond quickly to increasing visitor-related challenges. Improved visitation forecasting would allow managers to more proactively plan for such increases. In this study, we leverage internet search data that is freely available through Google Trends to create a forecasting model. We compare this Google Trends model to a traditional autoregressive forecasting model. Overall, our Google Trends model accurately predicted 97% of the total visitation variation to all parks one year …

Agenda, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Board Meeting, August 1, 2019, University Of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Board

Campus Board Agendas, Minutes, and Supporting Documents

The agenda for the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Campus Board meeting held on August 1, 2019.

Preferential Activation For Emotional Western Classical Music Versus Emotional Environmental Sounds In Motor, Interoceptive, And Language Brain Areas, Rebecca J. Lepping, Jared M. Bruce, Kathleen M. Gustafson, Jinxiang Hu, Laura E. Martina, Cary R. Savage, Ruth Ann Atchley

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Recent meta analyses suggest there is a common brain network involved in processing emotion in music and sounds. However, no studies have directly compared the neural substrates of equivalent emotional Western classical music and emotional environmental sounds. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated whether brain activation in motor cortex, interoceptive cortex, and Broca’s language area during an auditory emotional appraisal task differed as a function of stimulus type. Activation was relatively greater to music in motor and interoceptive cortex – areas associated with movement and internal physical feelings – and relatively greater to emotional environmental sounds in Broca’s area. …

Pathophysiology Of Osteoporosis, Sarah Orr

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Out of all the potential disease that may impact bones, osteoporosis is the most common. Over time it compromises the strength and integrity of the bone. As the bone becomes more compromised fragility fractures will result. A significant portion of the growing elderly population will be impacted by the disease current research indicates this is a growing drain on healthcare resources with a significant impact on morbidity and mortality for those who suffer fractures related to compromised bone integrity from osteoporosis. The disease is a world wide problem that will affect all countries and populations. While medications exist to help …

Inhibition Of Fpr2 Impaired Leukocytes Recruitment And Elicited Non-Resolving Inflammation In Acute Heart Failure, Vasundhara Kain, Jeevan Kumar Jadapalli, Bochra Tourki, Ganesh V. Halade

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Lifestyle or age-related risk factors over-activate the inflammation that triggers acute heart failure (HF)-related mortality following myocardial infarction (MI). Post-MI activated leukocytes express formyl peptide receptor 2 (FPR2) that is essential for inflammation-resolution and in cardiac healing. However, the role of FPR2 in acute HF is incomplete and remain of interest. Here, we aimed to determine whether pharmacological inhibition of FPR2 perturb leukocyte trafficking in acute HF. Male C57BL/6 (8–12 weeks) mice were subjected to acute HF (MI-d1) using permanent coronary artery ligation that develops irreversible acute and chronic heart failure. FPR2 antagonist WRW4 (1 μg/kg/day) was subcutaneously injected 3 …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

Evaluation Of Aerial Surveys To Monitor Fall-Winter Waterbird Populations In South Carolina, Nicholas Mark Masto

All Theses

Aerial surveys are effective and cost-efficient for quantifying population size and habitat use of waterfowl and other waterbirds across vast and especially inaccessible landscapes. Surveys and associated data are critically important to understand population dynamics and to guide habitat management, land acquisition, and conservation decision-making. Due to cessation of the Midwinter Waterfowl Survey in 2016 and need for reliable surveys to monitor wintering waterbird populations in South Carolina, I evaluated fixed-wing, 250-m wide aerial strip-transect surveys during fall–winter 2016–2019. My objectives were to design efficient and affordable aerial survey methodologies to estimate waterbird abundance, distribution, and habitat use in South …

Understanding The Role Direct Contact, Toxicity, And Mixotrophy Play In The Population Dynamics Of Prymnesium Parvum, Coridon Laws

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Harmful algae disrupt other organisms and ecosystems by multiple mechanisms. Many taxa of harmful algae produce toxic compounds that likely contribute to such problems. Though there is little evidence that the harmful golden algal species such as Prymnesium parvum are harmful to human health, this species has been linked to many toxic blooms leading to fish kills. A clear relationship between the concentrations of P. parvum cells or P. parvum toxins and fish kills is not well established in natural settings. Filtration techniques to generate cell-free filtrates of P. parvum may create toxigenic artifacts that are a result of high-pressure …