Digital Commons Network^™

Fabrication Of Taste Masked Tablets Via Fused Deposition Modeling 3d Printing Paired With Hot-Melt Extrusion Techniques, Honghe Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this work was to develop taste-masked donut-shaped tablet formulations utilizing fused deposition modeling three-dimensional (3D) printing paired with hot-melt extrusion (HME) techniques. Caffeine citrate (CC) was used as the model drug for its bitter taste, and a three-point bend test was performed to assess the printability of filaments. The stiffness constant was calculated to represent the printability by fitting the breaking distances and stress data into Hooke's law. Formulation F6 and F7 filaments exhibited the desired hardness with a “k” value of 48.30 ± 3.52 g/mm3 and 45.47 ± 3.51 g/mm3, respectively, and were successfully printed. The …

Trauma, Emotion Dysregulation, And Posttraumatic Symptoms In An Inpatient Adolescent Population: Testing Multiple Mediators, Elise Marie Elligett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies suggest that difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) or emotion dysregulation (ED) mediate the association between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in adults and adolescents. However, elucidating how the specific facets of emotion dysregulation may differentially mediate the development of PTSS following trauma in adolescents could benefit the formation of more targeted interventions for PTSS in traumatized youth. The current study examined whether facets of ED mediated the relationship between exposure to traumatic events and PTSS in an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents residing in an inpatient psychiatric facility in Mississippi. Due to prior scholarship finding gender …

Biological Evaluation Of Maasia Glauca (Hassk.) Mols, Kessler & Rogstad, Thanh-Thanh Claire Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural products-based drug discovery has gained a renewal of interest due to the decline of newly approved drugs based on the screening of synthetic compound libraries. Within natural sources, plants have provided 47% of new molecular entities, and only a small percentage of plant species (6%) have been pharmacologically studied. Plant species belonging to the diverse Annonaceae family have been used traditionally for a variety of ailments, including but not limited to dysentery, fever, and cancers. Among all the cancers, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. The lack of effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs due to …

Peer Mediation: Equipping Student Leaders With The Ability To Resolve Internal Conflicts, Leonora Gogos

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Crime and youth violence are a major problem facing the United States today. The United States has developed the reputation of being a country that nurtures young minds and promises them a holistic education. Currently, there are around 54.8 million students enrolled in grades K-12 in the United States. However, crime rates are rising among juveniles-children in the aforementioned grade range. Teenagers are currently being arrested for violent crimes more often than young adults are.

Bioinformatic Extraction Of Functional Genetic Diversity From Heterogeneous Germplasm Collections For Crop Improvement, Patrick A. Reeves, Hannah M. Tetreault, Christopher M. Richards

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Efficient utilization of genetic variation in plant germplasm collections is impeded by large collection size, uneven characterization of traits, and unpredictable apportionment of allelic diversity among heterogeneous accessions. Distributing compact subsets of the complete collection that contain maximum allelic diversity at functional loci of interest could streamline conventional and precision breeding. Using heterogeneous population samples from Arabidopsis, Populus and sorghum, we show that genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data permits the capture of 3–78 fold more haplotypic diversity in subsets than geographic or environmental data, which are commonly used surrogate predictors of genetic diversity. Using a large genomewide SNP data …

Defining Pollinator Health: A Holistic Approach Based On Ecological, Genetic, And Physiological Factors, Margarita M. López-Uribe, Vincent A. Ricigliano, Michael Simone-Finstrom

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Evidence for global bee population declines has catalyzed a rapidly evolving area of research that aims to identify the causal factors and to effectively assess the status of pollinator populations. The term pollinator health emerged through efforts to understand causes of bee decline and colony losses, but it lacks a formal definition. In this review, we propose a definition for pollinator health and synthesize the available literature on the application of standardized biomarkers to assess health at the individual, colony, and population levels. We focus on biomarkers in honey bees, a model species, but extrapolate the potential application of these …

Analysis Of Small Rna Populationsgenerated In Peanut Leaves After Exogenous Application Of Dsrna And Dsdna Targeting Aflatoxin Synthesis Genes, Imana L. Power, Paola C. Faustinelli, Valerie A. Orner, Victor S. Sobolev, Renee S. Arias

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Previously, we have shown that RNA interference (RNAi) can prevent aflatoxin accumulation in transformed peanuts. To explore aflatoxin control by exogenous delivery of double-strand RNA (dsRNA) it is necessary to understand the generation of small RNA (sRNA) populations. We sequenced 12 duplicate sRNA libraries of in-vitro-grown peanut plants, 24 and 48 h after exogenous application of five gene fragments (RNAi-5x) related to aflatoxin biosynthesis in Aspergillus flavus. RNAi-5x was applied either as double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) or RNAi plasmid DNA (dsDNA). Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) derived from RNAi-5x were significantly more abundant at 48 h than at 24 h, and the …

Effect Of Two Bacillus Thuringiensis1 Proteins On Development Of The Fall Armyworm2 After Seven-Day Exposure Efecto En El Desarrollo Del Gusano Cogollero2 Después De Ser Expuesto Por Siete Días A Dos Proteínas De Bacillus Thuringiensis1, Maribel Portilla, Carlos A. Blanco, Reneé Arias, Yu Cheng Zhu

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Field-evolved resistance of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), to the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been reported worldwide as one of the most serious threats to the sustainability of Bt maize crop. Therefore, it is important to assess the magnitude of adult survival and the possibility of cross-resistance of fall armyworm neonates exposed to Bt proteins. In this study, bioassays were used to examine susceptibility of two field-collected Cry1Fa-resistant strains of fall armyworm from Puerto Rico (456RR, 512RR) and their crosses with a susceptible strain (Monsanto SS) (456SR-RS, 512SR-RS). LC50 values varied in both Cry1Fa-resistant strains and …

Genetic Diversity Of Aflatoxin-Producing Aspergillus Flavus Isolated From Selected Groundnut Growing Agro-Ecological Zones Of Uganda, Amos Acur, Renee Arias, Steven Odongo, Samuel Tuhaise, National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kampala, Uganda, John Adriko, Dennis Muhanguzi, Stephen Buah, Andrew Kiggundu

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Background: Groundnut pre- and post-harvest contamination is commonly caused by fungi from the Genus Aspergillus. Aspergillus flavus is the most important of these fungi. It belongs to section Flavi; a group consisting of aflatoxigenic (A. flavus, A. parasiticus and A. nomius) and non-aflatoxigenic (A. oryzae, A. sojae and A. tamarii) fungi. Aflatoxins are food-borne toxic secondary metabolites of Aspergillus species associated with severe hepatic carcinoma and children stuntedness. Despite the well-known public health significance of aflatoxicosis, there is a paucity of information about the prevalence, genetic diversity and population structure of A. flavus in different …

Comparison Of Sheep, Goats, And Calves As Infection Models For Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis, Judith R. Stabel, J. P. Bannantine, Jesse M. Hostetter

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Animal infection models to study Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection are useful for evaluating the efficacy of vaccines and other therapeutics for the prevention or treatment of infection. The goal of the present study was to compare smaller ruminants, sheep and goats, with calves as infection models. Neonatal sheep, goats, and calves (n = 4) received 109 cfu of a cattle isolate of MAP in milk replacer on days 0, 3 and 6 in a 12-month study and sampled monthly thereafter. Results demonstrated a robust antigen-specific IFN-γ response at 90 days post-inoculation for sheep and goats, with lower responses …

Forage Breeding. From Forages: The Science Of Grassland Agriculture, Volume Ii, Michael D. Casler, Kenneth P. Vogel

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Plant breeding is human-directed evolution.This process has been used to develop all major crops and their respective races, strains, or cultivars. Although humans have successfully manipulated the genetic resources of plants for several thousand years, the science of genetics and breeding was not developed until the twentieth century. Breeding work on a few forage crops began in the early part of the twentieth century (Wilkins and Humphreys 2003). Initial work was focused on developing strains that had improved establishment, persistence, high forage yields, and good insect and disease resistance. These remain essential attributes of cultivated forages (Burton 1986). Since the …

Estimating Corn Emergence Date Using Uav-Based Imagery, Chin Nee Vong, Stirling A. Stewart, Jianfeng Zhou, Newell R. Kitchen, Kenneth A. Sudduth

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Assessing corn (Zea Mays L.) emergence uniformity soon after planting is important for relating to grain production and for making replanting decisions. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery has been used for determining corn densities at vegetative growth stage 2 (V2) and later, but not as a tool for detecting emergence date. The objective of this study was to estimate days after corn emergence (DAE) using UAV imagery. A field experiment was designed with four planting depths to obtain a range of corn emergence dates. UAV imagery was collected during the first, second and third weeks after emergence. Acquisition height was …

The Role Of Bca2 In Regulation Of Warburg-Like Glucose And Lactate Metabolism In Breast Cancer Cell Lines, Richard T. Arkwright Iii

Wayne State University Dissertations

Modified metabolism is a hallmark of cancer cell biology known as “The Warburg Effect,” characterized by increased glucose-consumption and lactate-production, providing the metabolites and energy necessary for rapid proliferation. Breast-cancer-associated-gene-2 (BCA2) is an E3-Ub-ligase known to modulate AMPK, the “master-regulator of energy-homeostasis.” BCA2 is an oncogene associated with poor patient-survival and breast cancer invasiveness. Phospho-proteomic analysis of siBCA2-MDA-MB-231 knockdown-(KD) revealed enrichment of Nicotinamide-Nucleotide-Adenylyl-transferase-1 (NMNAT1), an essential enzyme in nuclear NAD-synthesis and a tumor-suppressor.

Initial experiments demonstrated that glucose concentration was positively correlated with BCA2 and inversely with NMNAT1 protein expression. shBCA2-KD in MDA-MB-468/-231 reproduced the inverse correlation between BCA2 and …

Laser Surface Cleaning As A Novel Approach For Genesis Solar Wind Collectors, Martina Schmeling, I. V. Veryovkin, C. E. Tripa

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A new surface cleaning method utilizing lasers has been evaluated for its suitability to Genesis solar wind collectors

Don't Forget The End User: Writing And Tutoring In Computer Science, Krista Speicher Sarraf, Ben Rafoth

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Timing And Extent Of Crop Damage By Wild Pigs (Sus Scrofa Linnaeus) To Corn And Peanut Fields, C. M. Boyce, Kurt C. Vercauteren, James C. Beasley

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The global expansion of wild pigs over the last few decades has resulted in an increase in extent and distribution of damages to crops, placing a growing strain on agricultural producers and land managers. Despite the extent of wild pig damage to agriculture, there is little data regarding timing and spatial variability of damage to corn (Zea mays Linnaeus) and we found no data regarding the effect of these factors on peanuts (Arachis hypogaea Linnaeus). Our objective was to determine the timing and extent of wild pig damage to corn and peanut fields, as well as the extent …

Validation Of A Screening Method For The Detection Of Colistin-Resistant E. Coli Containing Mcr-1 In Feral Swine Feces, Jeffrey C. Chandler, Alan B. Franklin, S. N. Bevins, Kevin T. Bentler, Jonas Bonnedahl, Christina A. Ahlstrom, Bledar Bisha, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A method was developed and validated for the detection of colistin-resistant Escherichia coli containing mcr-1 in the feces of feral swine. Following optimization of an enrichment method using EC broth supplemented with colistin (1 μg/mL) and vancomycin (8 μg/mL), aliquots derived from 100 feral swine fecal samples were spiked with of one of five different mcr-1 positive E. coli strains (between 10⁰ and 10⁴ CFU/g), for a total of 1110 samples tested. Enrichments were then screened using a simple boil-prep and a previously developed real-time PCR assay for mcr-1 detection. The sensitivity of the method was determined in …

Cattle Egrets Regurgitate House Mouse Carcasses Onto A Mouse-Free Island: Implications For Rodent Eradications, Aaron B. Shiels, Mele Khalsa, Doreen L. Griffin, Clay K. Chow, Sheri S. Mann, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Context. Eradication of invasive rodents on islands typically results in positive conservation gains, and maintaining a rodent-free island requires elevated biosecurity, including prevention of assisted rodent arrival via watercraft, aircraft and animals such as birds. Cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) are widespread, and often fly several kilometres daily to roost and forage. They frequently swallow insects and vertebrates (including rodents) whole, and some regurgitate prey. Cattle egrets have been regularly observed flying between the Hawaiian Islands of Ni’ihau (where non-native mice and rats are established) and Lehua (where one species of non-native rat is established and was targeted during …

Competing Reproductive And Physiological Investments In An All‑Female Lizard, The Colorado Checkered Whiptail, Lise M. Aubry, Spencer B. Hudson, Bryan M. Kluever, Alison C. Webb, Susannah S. French

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Organisms in the wild have to allocate limited resources towards competing functions such as reproduction, growth, and self-maintenance. These competing investments create significant changes in physiological activity, and we still know little about the relationship between physiological activity and reproductive investment in natura. We investigated trade-offs between physiological activity and reproductive investment in the parthenogenetic Colorado checkered whiptail, Aspidoscelis neotesselata, across three different sites at the US Army Fort Carson Military Installation near Colorado Springs, CO, through-out the reproductive season in 2018 and 2019. We measured clutch size and reproductive activity and quantified plasma corticosterone (CORT), reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs), …

Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta Monarchus Boddaert, 1783), Michael L. Avery

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Common Names: Monk Parakeet, Quaker Parakeet, Quaker Parrot, Quaker Conure, Grey-headed Parakeet

The natural distribution of the Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus Boddaert, 1783) extends from southern Bolivia, through Paraguay, southern Brazil and Uruguay to southern Argentina (Fig. 10.1 ). It is documented as invasive in a range of countries, and of these, there are at least 17 countries where they are breeding in the wild, as detailed below. ...

The Monk Parakeet is among the most successful invasive bird species in the world. Unlike many other invasive birds, such as the Ring-necked Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) and the …

Movement Behavior Of Radio-Tagged European Starlings In Urban, Rural, And Exurban Landscapes, Page E. Klug, H. Jeffrey Homan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Since their intentional introduction into the United States in the 1800s, European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) have become the fourth most common bird species and a nuisance bird pest in both urban and rural areas. Managers require better information about starling movement and habit-use patterns to effectively manage starling populations and the damage they cause. Thus, we revisited 6 radio-telemetry studies conducted during fall or winter between 2005 and 2010 to compare starling movements (n = 63 birds) and habitat use in 3 landscapes. Switching of roosting and foraging sites in habitat-sparse rural landscapes caused daytime (0900–1500 hours) …

Serum Chemistry Values In Wild Black Vultures In Mississippi, Usa, Fred L. Cunningham, Sherman W. Jack, Amanda R. Deese, Eric R. Wengert, Kyle Van Why, Carla L. Huston, Scott Lemmons, Richard B. Minnis

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Vultures (Cathartidae and Accipitridae) play an important role in ecosystem balance by rapidly disposing animal carcasses and thus preventing the potential spread of pathogens. Blood chemistry values provide a means of assessing the health of wildlife and wild animal populations; however, there are significant differences in chemistries among species and when comparing captive and free-living New and Old World vultures. In 2007, we collected blood serum from 30 female and 14 male wild, healthy black vultures (Coragyps atratus) live-trapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services from a power substation in …

One Step Closer To A Better Starling Trap, James R. Thiele

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are an invasive species in the United States that damage agriculture, personal property, and threaten human health and safety. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services provides technical support to mitigate damage by controlling starling populations at concentrated animal feeding operations, landfills, utilities, and urban areas. Wildlife Services uses DRC-1339, a registered toxicant, to reduce starling populations. Trapping can also be an effective tool but requires more time at a higher cost than DRC-1339. Trapping starlings, however, may be needed to provide a viable alternative to mitigate damage in areas where toxicant use may …

Protocol For Genome-Scale Reconstruction And Melanogenesis Analysis Of Exophiala Dermatitidis, Wheaton L. Schroeder, Rajib Saha

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Exophiala dermatitidis is a polyextremotolerant fungus with a small genome, thus suitable as a model system for melanogenesis and carotenogensis. A genome-scale model, iEde2091, is reconstructed to increase metabolic understanding and used in a shadow price analysis of pigments, as detailed here. Important to this reconstruction is OptFill, a recently developed alternative gap-filling method useful in the holistic and conservative reconstruction of genome-scale models of metabolism, particularly for understudied organisms like E. dermatitidis where gaps in metabolic knowledge are abundant. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Schroeder and Saha (2020) and Schroeder …

Nonprofit Women Rising In Leadership: Strategies For Identifying Barriers, Ellen Hegge

Leadership Education Capstones

The purpose of the study is to examine the barriers that women may encounter in striving to advance to nonprofit leadership roles.

The Magic And Metaphysics Of Shit :The Production Of Space And Digital Technology, David Capener

Articles

Reading Henri Lefebvre alongside Bernard Stiegler, this paper explores the changes that have taken place to the production of space in our age of digital technology. Lefebvre sensed the radical changes taking place in society through the implementation of computational technologies. He asked a prescient question: How is this space being produced? Lefebvre was unable to foresee the significant changes to the actual mechanics of the production of space brought about by the third industrial revolution. A thinker who does do this is Bernard Stiegler who is interested in how new digital technologies change memory via tertiary mnemotechnical devices – …

Essays On Corporate Finance And Institutional Investors, Ang Li

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

The dissertation consists of three chapters spanning two areas of finance: corporate finance and institutional investors. In the first chapter, “Board Gender Diversity, Firm Culture, and Female Inventors”, I study how employee's Research and Development (R&D) activity is affected by firm culture. Using board gender diversity as a proxy for female-friendly culture, I find that a greater representation of women in the boardroom is associated with increased productivity and innovation output by female inventors relative to male inventors. Female inventors file more highly cited patents and less uncited patents. The effect is driven by female directors with R&D or high-tech …

Improving Retention And Degree Attainment For Underrepresented Students In Stem: Is Experiential Learning The Solution?, Cori Henderson

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Experiential learning opportunities, such as undergraduate research, are found to be useful in promoting retention and graduation in STEM majors, and specifically for underrepresented student populations. These opportunities are being implemented throughout the United Stated as a means to improve student learning and persistence. In Kentucky’s strategic plan, experiential learning activities are seen as an avenue to help students persist in college and are key components in helping the commonwealth reach their goal of sixty-percent of adult Kentuckians earning a college credential by 2030.

Mirroring the commonwealth’s strategic plan, Northern Kentucky University (NKU) emphasized the importance for experiential learning opportunities …

The University School: The University Of Kentucky's Role In The Laboratory School Movement Of The 20th Century, Shanna M. Patton

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study expands the scope of institution-level research on college and university-run laboratory schools to include the University of Kentucky’s on-campus laboratory school that operated from 1918 to 1965. Specifically, it preserves the institutional history of UK’s laboratory school, which has largely disappeared from local memory; provides a specific case study of a laboratory school in a largely unstudied state and region, namely Kentucky and the South; and contextualizes the role and trajectory UK’s laboratory school played in the larger Laboratory School Movement of the 20^th century. Because of UK’s status as a southern land grant university, this research …

Importance Of Taxonomic Group, Life Stage And Circumstance Of Rescue Upon Wildlife Rehabilitation In Ontario, Canada, Gillian Kelly, Javier Delbarco-Trillo

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Wildlife rehabilitation is an increasingly important and global practice, aiming towards advancements in animal welfare and species conservation. Although there are ongoing discussions on the benefits and limitations of wildlife rehabilitation, there is a general agreement on the importance of wildlife rehabilitation on improving the welfare of wild animals and identifying threats to wildlife. Determining which factors lead to a successful outcome of rehabilitation can allow wildlife rehabilitation centres to best focus their resources to benefit animals with the greatest chance of a successful release. In this study, three factors affecting the success of rehabilitation were evaluated: taxonomic group, life …