Digital Commons Network^™

Graphic Novels In Biology – A Novel Assessment Idea, Sowmya Anjur

Faculty Publications & Research

Galileo once said, “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” (Goodreads, 2020). I have often pondered upon how best I could use this advice. I have been an educator for 24 years and have loved every minute of it. During this time, I have seen students of all cadres come and go, but they all have one thing in common - their innate fear of written assessments. In general, students in high school tend to have a different perspective on education than their adult counterparts - they tend to procrastinate, are usually …

Dysfunctional Mitochondrial Biogenesis: A Potential Underlying Cause For Metabolic Diseases, Caroline Ann Hunter

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Mitochondria are essential organelles that play crucial roles in many aspects of cellular homeostasis. More importantly, the mitochondria are home to the majority of the metabolic pathways within the cell and are responsible for producing most of the cell’s useable energy in the form of adenine triphosphate (ATP) through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). In mammals, the majority of OXPHOS complex subunits are encoded by nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA); however, 13 core subunits essential for the function of OXPHOS complexes I, III, IV, and V are encoded in the mitochondrial (mt) DNA (mtDNA) and are synthesized within the mitochondria by its own …

Engineering And Optimization Of Phosphate-Responsive Phytase Expression In Pichia Pastoris Yeast For Phytate Hydrolysis, Paul Wai Kei Tsang

School of General Education & Languages (THEi)

Phytate is the major storage form of phosphorus in plants. It is present in cereals and raw materials of vegetable origin used in animal and human diets. However, non-ruminant animals have little phytase activity in their guts and, therefore, cannot digest phytate. As a result, almost all dietary phytate is discharged into the environment, causing phosphorus pollution. Phytate is also considered as an “antinutrient” for its ability to form insoluble and stable complexes with metal ions, thus reducing dietary absorption of essential minerals. It is a dire need to develop sustainable approaches for environmentally-friendly utilization for this valuable and abundant …

The Need For Action: Understanding The Environmental Warnings In Princess Mononoke And Oryx And Crake, Dylan Gregor

Undergraduate Review

In both Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake and Hayao Miyazaki’s film Princess Mononoke, we see the fall of humanity and civilization at the hands of humankind, and through them we are able to assess our present and future circumstances, as well as understand our desperate need for a solution. When looking at Atwood’s novel and Miyazaki’s film and assessing their respective genres and the events that take place within their worlds, each one speaks about our own relationship with nature. Princess Mononoke, from the ecocinema genre, sprinkled with dystopian aspects, portrays our current relationship with the natural world and …

Who Is In Your Classroom Library? An Exploration Of Early Childhood Educators’ Usage Of Multicultural Literature In The Classroom, Camille Holts

Undergraduate Review

In 2018 it was reported that 27% of children’s books published were about animals, trucks, and other objects and that 50% were based around white characters. This left room for only 1% of published books to be focused on American Indians/First Nations, 5% on Latinx, 7% on Asian Pacific Islanders/ Asian Pacific Americans, and 10% on African/ American characters (University of Wisconsin- Madison School of Education Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2019). These statistics are alarming considering that books are the cornerstone of our children’s early education. Young children learn through what they see and what is read to them. Through …

Thriving Nebraska: Key Drivers For Community Economic Vitality, Laura E. Young, Mary Garbacz, Michael J. Boehm, Matthew Morton, Marilyn R. Schlake, Katie Bresnahan, Paul Springer, Alex Voichoskie, Megan Kelley, Emily Frenzen, Jill O'Donnell, Haley Ehrke, Chris Chizinski, Surin Kim, Tom Field, Taylor Nuss, John Erixson, Simanti Banerjee, Lexi Kaiser, Isamail Dweikat, Taylor Ruth, Alice Akers, Travis Mulliniks, Nathan Conner, Kathleen Lodl, Terry Howell, Matt Allmand, Demi Striglos, Ed Cahoon, Mark Wilkins

Strategic Discussions for Nebraska

Thriving Nebraska: Key Drivers for Community Economic Vitality

When we think about community vitality, we consider the factors that influence the quality of life and the prosperity of life for people in those communities. We have a responsibility in our research and discovery agenda to push the bounds and discover new information. Then, we put this new information to work in our state.

Net Return Distributions When Metaphylaxis Is Used To Control Bovine Respiratory Disease In High Health-Risk Cattle, Elliott James Dennis, Ted C. Schroeder, David G. Renter

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study’s objective was to estimate net returns and return risk for antimicrobial metaphylaxis options to manage bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in high health-risk feedlot cattle. The effectiveness of antimicrobials for metaphylaxis varies by cattle population. How differing antimicrobial effectiveness translates to net return profitability for heterogeneous cattle populations is less understood. Net returns and return risk were assessed using a net return simulation model adapted to allow for heterogeneity in high health-risk cattle placement characteristics and antimicrobial choice to control BRD. The net return model incorporated how antimicrobials modify BRD health and performance outcomes. Health and performance outcomes were …

Solvothermal Synthesis Of Copper-Doped Biobr Microflowers With Enhanced Adsorption And Visible-Light Driven Photocatalytic Degradation Of Norfloxacin, Xincong Lv, Dickson Y.S. Tan, Frank Leung Yuk Lam, Yun Hau Ng, Shengming Yin, Alicia Kyoingjin An

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Photocatalysts based on copper-doped bismuth oxybromide (Cu-doped BiOBr) were synthesised using a solvothermal method and assessed for their ability to degrade norfloxacin under visible light. The Cu atoms were successfully doped into the crystal lattice of BiOBr, yielding Cu-doped BiOBr microflowers with a morphology and crystal structure identical to that of pristine BiOBr. The as-prepared Cu-doped BiOBr showed activity superior to BiOBr in the photocatalytic degradation of norfloxacin under visible-light irradiation, which was attributed to its improved light-harvesting properties, enhanced charge separation and interfacial charge transfer. Furthermore, we found for the first time that the introduction of Cu into BiOBr …

Techno-Economic Evaluation Of A Biorefinery Applying Food Waste For Sophorolipid Production – A Case Study For Hong Kong, Huaimin Wang, Chi Wing Tsang, Ming Ho To, Guneet Kaur, Sophie L.K.W. Roelants, Christian V. Stevens, Wim Soetaert, Carol Sze Ki Lin

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of sophorolipid (SL) production process that co-utilizes food waste, glucose and oleic acid as substrates. Two variables are considered in terms of (a) Plant construction: Purchasing equipment either from the US or Mainland China and (b) Production: to produce SL crystals (about 97% active) or a concentrated SL liquid/syrup (about 78% active). Hence, four scenarios are generated: Scenario I: equipment made in the USA + SL crystals; Scenario II: equipment made in the USA + SL syrup; Scenario III: equipment made in China + SL crystals; Scenario IV: equipment made …

Promoting Physical Activity In Group Home Settings: Staff Perspectives Through A Swot Analysis, Bik C. Chow, Peggy Hiu Nam Choi, Wendy Yajun Huang, Chien-Yu Pan

Faculty of Design & Environment (THEi)

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate perceptions of staff about the promotion of physical activity (PA) in selected group residences of Hong Kong (HK), some of which had experienced a multi-component PA program. Method: Focus group interviews with nineteen staff members from four group homes (two of which received the program) were conducted. Findings: A SWOT analysis provided important insights into residential staff views about key influences on the quality of PA programs for residents with intellectual disabilities (ID). Positive (strengths and opportunities) and negative (weaknesses and threats) influences were identified. They were associated with characteristics of …

Entomology/Beekeeping, 6-9 Years In Project, Dewayne Shoemaker, Scott Stewart, Karen Vail, Jennifer Tsuruda, Jennifer Richards, Kaushalya Amarasekare

Extension Publications

No abstract provided.

On Mutualism, Models, And Masting: The Effects Of Seed-Dispersing Animals On The Plants They Disperse, Christopher M. Moore, Jacob W. Dittel

Biology

Species interactions are context dependent, in that their direction and magnitude can vary across ecological conditions. For seed dispersal interactions—especially interactions between plants and seed-caching animals—the direction of the interactions is often obscured because of seed mortality inherent in seed handling and the delayed effects of fitness benefits received by plants. It is, therefore, an open question in ecology to understand the ecological contexts

Hiding In Plain Sight: The Globally Distributed Bacterial Candidate Phylum Pauc34f, Michael L. Chen, Eric D. Becraft, Maria Pachladaki, Julia M. Brown, Jessica K. Jarett, Josep M. Gasol, Nikolai V. Ravin, Duane P. Moser, Takuro Nunoura, Gerhard J. Herndl, Tanja Woyke, Ramunas Stepanauskas

Biology

Bacterial candidate phylum PAUC34f was originally discovered in marine sponges and is widely considered to be composed of sponge symbionts. Here, we report 21 single amplified genomes (SAGs) of PAUC34f from a variety of environments, including the dark ocean, lake sediments, and a terrestrial aquifer. The diverse origins of the SAGs and the results of metagenome fragment recruitment suggest that some PAUC34f lineages represent relatively abundant, free-living cells in environments other than sponge microbiomes, including the deep ocean. Both phylogenetic and biogeographic patterns, as well as genome content analyses suggest that PAUC34f associations with hosts evolved independently multiple times, while …

Artistic Philanthropy And Women’S Emancipation In Early Twentieth-Century Italy, In The Life And The Work Of Romeyne Robert And Carolina Amari, Maria Luciana Buseghin

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Romeyne Robert, married as Ranieri di Sorbello, started an embroidery school in 1904 in Umbria, at the family’s country estate of Pischiello. Her goal was to teach young peasant women to emancipate themselves by learning the craft of embroidery. She was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in America and by contemporary programs developed in settlement houses along the East Coast. Their aim was to help the emancipation of immigrant women from Italy by fostering the recovery of artisan skills. At the Sorbello Embroidery School, Romeyne rediscovered the Renaissance technique originally called the punto Umbro, later renamed punto Sorbello. …

Many Makers: Collaborative Renewal Of Chahta Nan Tvnna (Choctaw Textiles), Jennifer Byram

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Using an Indigenous research model of relationality to community and to land, this paper presents the production of a 1700’s style skirt in bison and dogbane fiber by a group of Choctaw textiles artisans. By translating existing archaeological and textual resources into newly produced garments, these practices communicate the research to the Choctaw community in an accessible and inspiring format. Textiles discussed in this paper are made with twining and oblique interlacing techniques using dogbane, bison, and nettle yarns decorated with natural dyes, pigments, or shells. Members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma revitalized a traditional art that had been …

Camelid Fleece And The Hidden Histories Of Colors In The Andes, Penelope Dransart

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This article explores the significance of natural fleece colors that are often hidden by dyeing processes. The earliest domesticated alpacas and llamas probably resembled vicuñas and guanacos, their wild counterparts. By 3000 years ago, differences were beginning to emerge in the coats of alpacas and llamas. Dyers, spinners, and weavers learned to exploit these variations to complement and extend the range of possibilities offered through the use of dyed yarns. The evidence from the Siguas and Nasca cultural traditions considered here is both direct and indirect, taking into account textile remains and the depiction of camelids on ceramics. It indicates …

Behind The Scenes: Hidden Stories Of Craftswomen Of Punjab, India, Anu H. Gupta

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Creating phulkari, an embroidered craft of Punjab, for the market involves a value-chain of people for converting a solid fabric to an ornamented piece with embroidery. A pillar of this value-chain is domestic craftswomen. Being part of an informal sector, these women are susceptible to being exploited at home as well as by designers, vendors, and several others involved in the value-chain of production and marketing of craft. Many of them are pushed to the background not only by their family members but also by the people or vendors who give them work. Their individual contribution is acknowledged only when …

Ethnoarchaeology Of The Textile Chaîne Operatoire. Searching For Evidence Of Prehispanic Textile Production In Domestic Sites, Bárbara Cases

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

It is proposed that detailed knowledge of the textile production sequence currently carried out by Aymara weavers of the Altiplano of Tarapac  (northern Chile) constitutes an important reference to link material and immaterial aspects and generate indicators with which to address pre-Hispanic textile production in domestic sites, the locations where fabrics would have been produced and used. This research is conceptually framed by the anthropology of technology, which considers material production as a social act. The recording of textile production processes (cha ne op ratoire) was carried out using an ethno-archaeological approach to build a bridge between the present—with known …

The Souls Of The Dead: Images Woven In Women’S Clothing Of The Jalq’A Cultural Area (South-Central Bolivia), Veronica Cereceda

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Both their style of dress and, particularly, the textile designs that distinguish them already at a first look have made three ethnic groups stand out in south-central Bolivia: “Llameros,” “Yamparas,” and “Jalq’as” inhabit neighboring lands in the departments of Potos and Chuquisaca. Ethno-historians and archaeologists define the pre-conquest and early colonial past of these contemporary identities as only two groups: populations belonging to the great ayllus of the high plains, Norpotosinos (Llameros) and Yamparas, with their two political centers: janan (upper) in Jatun Yampara and urin (lower) in Quila Quila.

Today the panorama is more complex: the two Yamparas centers …

Stories Of Welcome Blanket Makers: Towards A Philosophy Of Craft, Alesia Maltz

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Welcome Blanket was created as a craftivism response to Trump’s call for a border wall. “Imagine if the massive distance of this wall was re-conceptualized and re-contextualized not to divide, but to include. Instead of a wall, a concrete line, to keep people out, what if lines of yarn became 3,500,640 yards of blankets to welcome people in?” The 3,200-blanket goal was quickly achieved and shown in the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. Then, with enclosed notes from the makers welcoming newly arrived immigrants, the blankets were distributed to refugees and immigrants in several resettlement communities …

The Hidden Story Of The Quilted Cover In The Benaki Museum Collection, Sumiyo Okumura

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

There is a big, green linen quilt cover, a so-called Mamluk quilt, in the collection of the Benaki Museum (Athens). It looks like a Mamluk cover in terms of colors and designs such as endless knots and flower motifs, but the emblem showing a double-headed eagle in the center of the cover is not the same as other Mamluk blazons. It raises the question of where and when this quilt cover was made. A similar type of linen textile, the so-called trapunto fiorentino, can be seen in a private collection in Florence. It shows similar motifs on the green-colored ground. …

From Birth To Death. The Silk-Flower Industry In Mexico., Adriana Sanromán Peyron

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

For centuries silk flowers have been used by different societies as personal and spatial adornments. Flowers, both natural and man-made, have diverse meanings in daily life and rites of passage, accompanying individuals from birth to death. During the nineteenth century, the use of silk flowers gained in popularity and, thanks to the industrialization of textile weaving and the discovery of chemical dyes, silk flowers became available not only to elites but to the growing bourgeoisie, and later, even low-income classes. During this boom, Judith Deschamps and Etiesenne Pucheu met and were married, both of them florists. After the 1851 great …

Wool Sells Itself: Tracing The Movement Of Navajo-Raised Wools, Emily Winter

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Every June for the last eight years, a coalition of commercial wool buyers, the Diné College Land Grant Office, and the Black Mesa Water Coalition has hosted a multi-site wool buy in the Navajo Nation of New Mexico/Arizona. Historically, the primary outlets for Navajos to sell their wool were trading posts and border towns, which paid far below market price. Over the last several years, the wool buy has effectively doubled the price per pound paid to Navajo producers by bringing them into direct contact with buyers. In June 2019, an estimated 160,000 pounds of wool were purchased from over …

India In Situ: Textile History And Practice, A Team Approach, Annin Barrett, Carol Bier, Anna Jolly, Louise W. Mackie, Barbara Setsu Pickett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Five textile specialists from various backgrounds came together to explore shared interests in Indian fabrics, histories, and architectural patterns. Guided by Rahul Jain’s extraordinary scholarship and generosity, we visited weaving workshops producing exquisite fabric and metallic yarn in our quest to understand the naqsha system for drawloom patterning. In Cholapur and Varanasi, we studied drawlooms set up to weave velvet, lampas, and samite, and a distinguished naqshaband demonstrated the making of a naqsha that provides the design for drawloom lifts. We examined rare historic textiles in New Delhi’s National Museum, Ahmedabad’s Calico Museum of Textiles, Varanasi’s Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum, …

Evaluating Gene Drive Approaches For Public Benefit, Michael R. Santos

United States Public Health Resources

Gene drive approaches—those which bias inheritance of a genetic element in a population of sexually reproducing organisms—have the potential to provide important public benefits. The spread of selected genetic elements in wild populations of organisms may help address certain challenges, such as transmission of vector-borne human and animal diseases and biodiversity loss due to invasive animals. Adapting various naturally occurring gene drive mechanisms to these aims is a long-standing research area, and recent advances in genetics have made engineering gene drive systems significantly more technically feasible. Gene drive approaches would act through changes in natural environments, thus robust methods to …

Adaptive In Vivo Device For Theranostics Of Inflammation: Real-Time Monitoring Of Interferon-Γ And Aspirin, Chaomin Cao, Ronghua Jin, Hui Wei, Zhongning Liu, Shengnan Ni, Guo Jun Liu, Howard A. Young, Xin Chen, Guozhen Liu

United States Public Health Resources

Cytokines mediate and control immune and inflammatory responses. Complex interactions exist among cytokines, inflammation, and the innate and adaptive immune responses in maintaining homeostasis, health, and well-being. On-demand, local delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs to target tissues provides an approach for more effective drug dosing while reducing the adverse effects of systemic drug delivery. This work demonstrates a proof-of-concept theranostic approach for inflammation based on analyte-kissing induced signaling, whereby a drug (in this report, aspirin) can be released upon the detection of a target level of a proinflammatory cytokine (i.e., interferon-γ (IFN-γ)) in real time. The structure-switching aptamer-based biosensor described here …

Goat Management In Drought, An Peischel

Extension Publications

No abstract provided.

Suffolk University Alumni Magazine, Fall 2020, Suffolk University

Suffolk University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Chicken, Virginia Bell

Nelle (literary magazine)

pp. 67-79

A Historical Essay On Black Women’S Gendered Racial Terror In The Us, Martez Files

Vulcan Historical Review

pp. 101-106