Digital Commons Network^™

Connecting The Dots: Avian Eggshell Pigmentation, Female Condition And Paternal Provisioning Effort, Kara E. Hodges, Nathan T. Mortimer, Alysia D. Vrailas-Mortimer, Scott K. Sakaluk, Charles F. Thompson

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Differences in avian eggshell pigmentation could be an honest signal of female quality that males use to inform their nestling provisioning effort. We investigated whether among-individual variation in protoporphyrin-based eggshell pigmentation in house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) reflects female fitness-associated traits and whether males use that information. Females laying lighter clutches were older and larger than females laying darker clutches. Nestlings hatching from lighter clutches had greater size-corrected mass on post-hatch day 11, a measure that strongly predicts survival and recruitment to the breeding population. To test whether male provisioning effort responds to clutch pigmentation, we used a reciprocal …

Feasibility And Acceptability Of A Game-Based Symptom-Reporting App For Children With Cancer: Perspectives Of Children And Parents, Lauri Linder, Amy Rose Newman, Kristin Stegenga, Yin-Shun Chiu, Sarah E. Wawrzynski, Heidi Kramer, Charlene Weir, Scott Narus, Roger Altizer

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Children with cancer have difficulty identifying and describing the multiple symptoms they experience during hospitalization and between clinical encounters. Mobile health resources, including apps, are potential solutions to support child-centric symptom reporting. This study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a newly developed game-based symptom-reporting app for school-age children with cancer.

Procedure

Nineteen school-age children (6–12 years of age) receiving treatment for cancer at a COG institution in the Intermountain West of the United States used a game-based symptom-reporting app between clinical visits. Feasibility was evaluated through a summary of actual days of app use and interaction with each …

Benchmarking Impact Of Nitrogen Inputs On Grain Yield And Environmental Performance Of Producer Fields In The Western Us Corn Belt, Fatima A.M. Tenorio, Eileen L. Mclellan, Alison J. Eagle, Kenneth G. Cassman, Daryl Andersen, Marie Krausnick, Russell Oaklund, John Thorburn, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Benchmarking crop yields against nitrogen (N) input levels can help provide opportunities to improve N ferti-lizer efficiency and reduce N losses on maize in the US Corn Belt by identifying fields most likely to benefit from improved N management practices. Here, we evaluated a large producer database that includes field-level data on yield and applied N inputs from 9280 irrigated and rainfed fields over a 7-year period (2009–2015) in Nebraska (USA). A spatial framework, based on technology extrapolation domains, was used to cluster each field into spatial units with similar climate and soil type that represent 1.3 million ha of …

Leveraging Genome-Enabled Growth Models To Study Shoot Growth Responses To Water Deficit In Rice, Malachy T. Campbell, Alexandre Grondin, Harkamal Walia, Gota Morota

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

lucidating genotype-by-environment interactions and partitioning its contribution to phenotypic variation remains a challenge for plant scientists. We propose a framework that utilizes genome-wide markers to model genotype-specific shoot growth trajectories as a function of time and soil water availability. A rice diversity panel was phenotyped daily for 21 d using an automated, high-throughput image-based, phenotyping platform that enabled estimation of daily shoot biomass and soil water content. Using these data, we modeled shoot growth as a function of time and soil water content, and were able to determine the time point where an inflection in the growth trajectory occurred. We …

[Review Of] Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics Of Fire And Desire In Black Male Gospel Performance, By Alisha Lola Jones, Jennifer Rycenga

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

A book review is presented for Alisha Lola Jones, Flaming? The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Conceptual Cognitive Modeling For Fine-Grained Annotation Quality Assessment Of Object Detection Datasets, Lei Guo, Xinying Xu, Gang Xie, Jerry Gao

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Transparency After Carpenter, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

This brief invited response to Professor Matthew Tokson’s Foulston-Siefkin lecture on the Supreme Court's decision in Carpenter v. United States makes two contributions. First, I highlight the social, political, and economic factors at play in the Carpenter decision. The Carpenter Court recognized, in particular, that digital surveillance implicates the rights of more than just criminal suspects: it poses unique and unappreciated threats to public governance of policing. The decision, I argue, reflects longstanding preoccupations in Fourth Amendment decisions with protecting the “public” — particularly innocent third parties — from intrusive and baseless investigations. In so doing, I situate Professor Tokson’s …

A Sense Of Brutality: Philosophy After Narco-Culture, Carlos Alberto Sánchez

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Contemporary popular culture is riddled with references to Mexican drug cartels, narcos, and drug trafficking. In the United States, documentary filmmakers, journalists, academics, and politicians have taken note of the increasing threats to our security coming from a subculture that appears to feed on murder and brutality while being fed by a romanticism about power and capital. Carlos Alberto Sánchez uses Mexican narco-culture as a point of departure for thinking about the nature and limits of violence, culture, and personhood. A Sense of Brutality argues that violent cultural modalities, of which narco-culture is but one, call into question our understanding …

Price And Performance Trends For Cellular Trail Cameras Explained With A Time Trend, Google Keyword Trends, And A Use Case Of Suburban Deer Management, G. Webb

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Price and performance improvements for trail cameras, remote cameras designed for wildlife observation, havegiven wildlife researchers a widely accepted new tool. After their introduction in 2010, cellular trail cameras havebecome popular, saving travel time and reducing disturbance to wildlife. A use case of trail cameras for suburbandeer management illustrates desirable product features and risks of using citizen science for research. A time trendof camera prices identifies a common product price pattern for technology products, a decline following a logisticor inverted s-curve. Data from Google Keyword Trends captures the changing level of market interest correlatedwith high statistical significance compared to price …

Electron Beam Irradiation As A Potential Lipid Decontamination Technique For Life Detection Instruments, Denise Kathleen Buckner

Theses and Dissertations

In the search for extraterrestrial life, identification of molecular biosignatures is a key technique. Lipids are important molecular biosignatures: they are ubiquitous to terrestrial life, survive for billions of years in the geologic record, can form biotically and abiotically (bearing molecular features indicating biogenicity), and are detected throughout the Solar System. Lipid-based life detection instruments require stringent contamination control to prevent false positives, but traditional decontamination techniques are unlikely to sufficiently remove lipid contamination without compromising instrument materials. This thesis investigates Electron Beam Irradiation (EBI) as a potential decontamination technique; five representative lipid standards, including palmitic acid, oleic acid, heneicosane, …

Automated Fractional Snow Cover Monitoring From Near-Surface Remote Sensing In Grassland, Anai Caparo Bellido

Theses and Dissertations

Snow cover is an important variable in both climatological and hydrological studies because of its relationship to environmental energy and mass flux. However, variability in snow cover can confound satellite-based efforts to monitor vegetation phenology.

This research explores the utility of the PhenoCam network cameras to estimate Fractional Snow Cover (FSC) in grassland. The goal is to operationalize FSC estimates from PhenoCams to inform and improve satellite-based determination of phenological metrics.

The study site is the Oakville Prairie Biological Field Station, located near Grand Forks, North Dakota. I developed a mostly semi-automated process to estimate FSC from PhenoCam images through …

An Exploration Of Indigenous Spiritual Microaggressions, Cerynn Dawn Desjarlais

Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive exploratory research is amongst the first to investigate Spiritual Microaggressions experienced by Indigenous Peoples across North America. Microaggressions can further be conceptualized and categorized as microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations. Participants who self-identify as Indigenous individuals ages 18 and over, from North America, who work in or are educated in the mental health field engaged in 60-90-minute interviews to explore the spiritual microaggressions incurred upon them. A total of 8 participants who identify as mental health professionals and graduate students in the mental health field were interviewed as an intensity sample. Participants discussed the implications of Indigenous Spiritual Microaggressions …

On The Potential Of Lignin As A Sintering Aid And Binder For Designing Porous Foams, Grant Christian Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Lignin, as an abundant source of bio-renewable material, has been a subject of investigation for many years. Due to its chemically heterogenous and recalcitrant nature, 98% of the material is discarded as waste [3]. Laboratory groups have been exploring lignin’s potential as a value-added ingredient to promote biocompatibility, biodegradation, and substitute toxic, petroleum-based materials [4,6]. In our laboratory, lignin has been utilized as precursor for carbon foam, yielding highly porous structures after pyrolysis [5], and has also been shown to be compatible with other bio-waste materials [8]. The next stage of research focusses on controlled additions of Cu or Distiller’s …

Interferon-Γ Medaites Lung Damage Through The Hyper-Activation Of Ccr2+ Inflammatory Monocytes During Influenza Virus Infection, Mitchell Anthony Klomp

Theses and Dissertations

Influenza viruses (IV) have caused untold morbidity and mortality throughout the previous centuries. These viruses have caused several pandemics that have witnessed the loss of millions of lives. Today, IVs continue to circulate annually, and the efficacy of influenza virus vaccines are limited. As IV pandemics in 1918, 1957, and 2009 have shown the world, the push for a universal influenza vaccine has never been more relevant. While much research has been devoted to understanding the virology around IVs, the immunopathology of the host-pathogen axis has been less studied. Recently, there has been much attention on the role of the …

Evaluating Mixed-Mode Survey Designs For Collecting Deer And Fall Turkey Hunter Harvest Data In North Dakota, Ethan James Kalinowski

Theses and Dissertations

Achieving state wildlife agency biological goals for deer (Odocoileus spp.) and turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) rely on high quality data collection via hunter harvest surveys. Concomitantly, better information is needed to optimize best survey methods. From 2017 to 2019, we surveyed North Dakota, USA, deer and fall turkey hunters using a self-administered mail control survey and 3 mixed-mode internet/mail surveys to gain a better understanding of alternative survey designs that may be used to estimate harvest of game populations and inform future management efforts. Our first objective was to measure response rates across various segments of deer and fall turkey hunters …

At-Home Childcare Providers’ Perceptions Of Gardening With Children, Erin Lauckner

Theses and Dissertations

Children do not consume recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, which has been correlated with negative health consequences. Gardening with children has been shown to positively impact children’s consumption of these foods. While research investigating gardening with children exists, much of this has been conducted with teachers and children in schools, and limited research has been conducted with childcare providers and preschool-aged children. Little research has been conducted about this topic with in-home childcare providers and the children under their care. This pilot study utilized a cross-sectional mixed methods research design through an online survey instrument. A convenience sample of …

Investigation Of The Neurological Manifestations Of Lyme Disease And The Impact Of Borrelia Burgdorferi On The Epigenetic Landscape Of Astrocytes, Derick Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Lyme disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States – with 30,000 cases being reported to the CDC annually, though it is estimated that 300,000 individuals are infected each year in the U.S [1–4]. Due to the medical treatment of the disease, this equates to an estimated $712 million - $1.3 billion in medical costs each year [5]. Conclusively, due to the continued geographical spread and increasing incidence rate, Lyme disease is becoming a greater public health threat throughout the world.

The symptoms of Lyme disease can range from …

Land Management And Plant Species Pattern Effects On Grassland Pollinator Services, Leslie Blaine Yellow Hammer

Theses and Dissertations

Invertebrate pollinator populations are widely recognized as declining because of anthropogenic activities that include changes in the amount and quality of available habitat, competition with introduced species, increased agricultural chemical use, and climate change. Because habitat and resource availability affect pollinator populations, land management may affect pollinator presence. My first aim was to determine if pollinator communities and habitat characteristics (available bare ground and floral resources) differed between grazed and idle grasslands within the Grand Forks County Grasslands of northeastern North Dakota, USA. Although available bare ground and plant species richness differed between grassland types, floral resources and pollinator communities …

Mitochondrial Utilization Of Competing Fuels Is Altered In Insulin Resistant Skeletal Muscle Of Non-Obese Rats (Goto-Kakizaki), Nicola Lai, Ciarán E. Fealy, Chinna M. Kummitha, Silvia Cabras, John P. Kirwan, Charles L. Hoppel

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Aim: Insulin-resistant skeletal muscle is characterized by metabolic inflexibility with associated alterations in substrate selection, mediated by peroxisome-proliferator activated receptor 𝜹 (PPAR𝜹). Although it is established that PPAR𝜹 contributes to the alteration of energy metabolism, it is not clear whether it plays a role in mitochondrial fuel competition. While nutrient overload may impair metabolic flexibility by fuel congestion within mitochondria, in absence of obesity defects at a mitochondrial level have not yet been excluded. We sought to determine whether reduced PPAR𝜹 content in insulin-resistant rat skeletal muscle of a non-obese rat model of T2DM (Goto-Kakizaki, GK) ameliorate the inhibitory effect …

Physical Activity And Depression In Mothers Of A Child With A Special Health Care Need: Informing Future Interventions, Brianna Jean Black

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, approximately 20 percent of all children have a special health care need. Additionally, mothers of a child with a special health care need have worse overall well-being, mental and physical health compared to mothers of typically developing children. Physical activity may improve depressive symptoms and overall health in these mothers; however, little is known about the acceptability of physical activity interventions for mothers of a child with a special health care need. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to understand more about mother’s desire to use physical activity to improve depressive symptoms after having …

Examining Perceived In-Group Similarity And Out-Group Dissimilarity As Predictors Of Religious Intergroup Bias, Richard Clark Grove

Theses and Dissertations

People tend to feel more favorably toward others who share their beliefs and values. Religion can provide a quick estimate of ideological similarity. The religious values conflict model (Brandt & Van Tongeren, 2017) proposes that people high and low in religiosity are both prejudiced toward groups with dissimilar values. However, the role of dissimilarity in predicting religious intergroup bias has not been directly tested. A pilot study (N = 326) tested whether Christians and nonreligious people would demonstrate the patterns of intergroup bias predicted by the religious values conflict model. Additionally, the respective roles of perceived in-group and out-group dissimilarity …

Twice-Exceptional College Students Narratives: When Giftedness And Mental Health Intersect, Emily Dubord Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Gifted college students often arrive at universities with high GPAs and/or ACT/SAT scores. Their achievements in extracurricular activities such as in the arts, athletics, service, and leadership are well beyond the average student. To admissions representatives and faculty, these students look well-adjusted and successful on paper. However, many of these gifted college students come with unique challenges that go misunderstood, ignored, and underserved during their years in higher education—specifically involving their mental health.

There are copious amounts of literature on gifted K-12 students and their mental health behaviors but very limited research done on the gifted college student population. Although …

Home Range And Habitat Selection Of Gray Wolves (Canis Lupus) On Red Lake Indian Reservation And Surrounding Areas, June Levin

Theses and Dissertations

Every animal requires space where they can perform activities to survive and reproduce. For land animals, components of space use include area and habitat. Because most land animals are living on a human dominated landscape, understanding home range area and habitat needs is critical to their conservation. This is particularly relevant for threatened or endangered species such as the gray wolf (Canis lupus). The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates home ranges and habitat use of wolves in northwestern Minnesota; however, a subset of this population lives within the bounds of Red Lake Indian Reservation, where The Red Lake Band …

Mapping Land Use And Land Cover Change And Its Impact On Landscape Structure And Amphibian Functional Connectivity In The Prairie Pothole Region, Taylor Holm

Theses and Dissertations

Monitoring land use and land cover (LULC) change and its effect on habitat availability and connectivity is crucial for species conservation and management. This is most efficiently accomplished at a sufficiently broad scale using remote sensing technology. Current approaches benefit from freely available data sources such as National Land Cover Database (NLCD), derived from 30 m Landsat imagery. However, temporal frequency and spatial resolution of NLCD may be insufficient for some applications. Specifically, 30 m resolution data may not detect small or narrow landscape features that may be important habitat for small animals such as amphibians. Other available data sources, …

A Study Of The Feasibility Of Growth, Extraction, And Industrial Scale Up Processing Of Microalgae Lipids., Jasmine Oleksik

Theses and Dissertations

The interest in microalgae as a plausible alternative to crop oils as a raw material in the form of triglycerides and free fatty acids (FA oils) for renewable fuels and chemicals is increasing and it is a widespread research topic at the lab scale. Microalgae contain a higher lipid content on a dry weight basis compared to oilseeds such as soybeans. Additionally, the growth and cultivation cycle of microalgae is 15 days, in comparison to soybeans where the cycle occurs once or twice annually. Despite these advantages, to date it has been uneconomical to produce microalgae oils in a world-scale …

Predictive Ecology: Simulating Long-Term Changes In Forest Populations Responding To Various Reintroduction Methods Of The Bc3f3 American-Chinese Chestnut Tree., Shelby Dawn Young

Theses and Dissertations

Vida is an explicit biometric simulator tool used to predict multiple aspects of plant populations and community dynamics. Vida is a growth model combined with a reiterative algorithm. The software is written in Python and uses species-specific growth data to model virtual forest ensembles based on each species’ growth parameters. Biometric modeling tools like Vida are reliable because they are based on mathematically observed biological truths, of which scientists can use to enhance the predictive power of ecological approaches in different areas. These simulation outputs can be used to demonstrate the ways a forest grows over time. The user can …

Anatomizing White Rage: “Race Is My Religion!" And “White Genocide”, Kate E. Temoney

Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Ghost Forests: The Decline Of The Whitebark Pine, Breanna (Roy) Mccabe

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Whitebark pine habitat in the high elevation is rapidly becoming "ghost forests." As outbreaks from white pine blister rust and mountain pine beetle target the tree at increasing rates, forest managers and scientists are using genetics to try to save the tree.

Characterization Of Coal Particles In The Soil Of A Former Rail Yard And Urban Brownfield: Liberty State Park, Jersey City (Nj), Usa, Diane F. Hagmann, Michael A. Kruge, Nina M. Goodey, Jennifer Adams Krumins

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

From the 1850's until the 1960's, the Central Railroad of New Jersey was among several major railways shipping anthracite and bituminous coal to the New York City area, transferring coal from railcar to barge at its extensive rail yard and port facility in Jersey City. The 490 ha Liberty State Park was developed on the site after the rail yard closed, but a ca. 100 ha brownfield zone within the park remains off limits to visitors pending future remediation. As part of an environmental forensic and industrial archeological investigation of this zone, the present study characterizes anthracite and bituminous coal …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.