Digital Commons Network^™

Implementing Nepa In The Age Of Climate Change, Jayni Foley Hein, Natalie Jacewicz

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The national government has a crucial role to play in combating climate change, yet federal projects continue to constitute a major source of United States greenhouse gas emissions. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, agencies must consider the environmental impacts of major federal actions before they can move forward. But agencies frequently downplay or ignore the climate change impacts of their projects in NEPA analyses, citing a slew of technical difficulties and uncertainties. This Article analyzes a suite of the most common analytical failures on the part of agencies with respect to climate change: failure to account for a project’s …

Biological Aging In Childhood And Adolescence Following Experiences Of Threat And Deprivation: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Natalie L. Colich, Maya L. Rosen, Eileen S. Williams, Katie A. Mclaughlin

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

Life history theory argues that exposure to early life adversity (ELA) accelerates development, although existing evidence for this varies. We present a meta-analysis and systematic review testing the hypothesis that ELA involving threat (e.g., violence exposure) will be associated with accelerated biological aging across multiple metrics, whereas exposure to deprivation (e.g., neglect, institutional rearing) and low-socioeconomic status (SES) will not. We meta-analyze 54 studies (n = 116,010) examining associations of ELA with pubertal timing and cellular aging (telomere length and DNA methylation age), systematically review 25 studies (n = 3,253) examining ELA and neural markers of accelerated development (cortical thickness …

Complement In Reproductive White Adipose Tissue Characterizes The Obese Preeclamptic-Like Bph/5 Mouse Prior To And During Pregnancy, Kelsey N. Olson, Dorien Reijnders, Viviane C.L. Gomes, R. Caitlin Hebert, Chin Chi Liu, Jacqueline M. Stephens, Leanne M. Redman, Nataki C. Douglas, Jennifer L. Sones

Faculty Publications

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious hypertensive disorder of pregnancy characterized by abnormal placental development with an unknown etiology. To better understand which women will develop PE, a number of maternal risk factors have been identified, including obesity. Visceral white adipose tissue (WAT) contains inflammatory mediators that may contribute to PE. To explore this, we utilized the blood pressure high (BPH)/5 mouse model of superimposed PE that spontaneously recapitulates the maternal PE syndrome. We hypothesized that BPH/5 visceralWAT adjacent to the female reproductive tract (reproductiveWAT) is a source of complement factors that …

Fire As A Fundamental Ecological Process: Research Advances And Frontiers, Kendra K. Mclauchlan, Philip E. Higuera, Jessica Miesel, Brendan M. Rogers, Jennifer Schweitzer, Jacquelyn K. Shuman, Alan J. Tepley, J. Morgan Varner, Thomas T. Veblen, Solny A. Adalsteinsson, Jennifer K. Balch, Patrick Baker, Enric Batllori, Erica Bigio, Paulo Brando, Megan Cattau, Melissa L. Chipman, Janice Coen, Raelene Crandall, Lori Daniels, Neal Enright, Wendy S. Gross, Brian J. Harvey, Jeff A. Hatten, Sharon Hermann, Rebecca E. Hewitt, Leda N. Kobziar, Jennifer B. Landesmann, Michael M. Loranty, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Linda Mearns, Max Moritz, Jonathan A. Myers

Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon and nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. It also presents a rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfires and fire exclusion in fire-dependent ecosystems. As an ecological process, fire integrates complex feedbacks among biological, social and geophysical processes, requiring coordination across several fields and scales of study. Here, we describe the diversity of ways in which fire operates as …

The Influence Of Stochasticity, Landscape Structure And Species Traits On Abundant–Centre Relationships, Tad A. Dallas, Luca Santini

Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Authors. Ecography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos Species have been commonly hypothesized to have high population densities in geographic areas which correspond to either the centre of the species geographic range or climatic niche (abundant–centre hypothesis). However, there is mixed empirical support for this relationship, and little theoretical underpinning. We simulate a species spreading across a set of replicated artificial landscapes to examine the expected level of support for abundant–centre relationships in geographic and niche space. Species niche constraints were modeled as a single axis which was related directly …

Identification Of Pathways Associated With Placental Adaptation To Maternal Nutrient Restriction In Sheep, Ashley K. Edwards, Kathrin A. Dunlap, Thomas E. Spencer, M. Carey Satterfield

Faculty Publications

Maternal nutrient restriction impairs placental growth and development, but available evidence suggests that adaptive mechanisms exist, in a subset of nutrient restricted (NR) ewes, that support normal fetal growth and do not result in intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). This study utilized Affymetrix GeneChip Bovine and Ovine Genome 1.0 ST Arrays to identify novel placental genes associated with differential fetal growth rates within NR ewes. Singleton pregnancies were generated by embryo transfer and, beginning on Day 35 of pregnancy, ewes received either a 100% NRC (control-fed group; n = 7) or 50% NRC (NR group; n = 24) diet until necropsy …

Synergisms In Science: Climate Change And Integrated Pest Management Through The Lens Of Communication-2019 Student Debates, Jocelyn R. Holt, Lina Bernaola, Kadie E. Britt, Chirs Mccullough, Morgan Roth, Jennie Wagner, Max Ragozzino, Leslie Aviles, Zhilin Li, Forest Huval, Manoj Pandey, Benjamin W. Lee, Megan Asche, Abigail Hayes, Abigail Cohen, Adrian Marshall, Hannah E. Quellhorst, Rachel V. Wilkins, Valerie Nguyen, Jacqueline Maille, Rachel K. Skinner, John J. Ternest, Sarah Anderson, Scott W. Gula, Kayleigh Hauri, Julius Eason, Megan Mulcahy, Scott Lee, James Michael Villegas, Patricia Shorter

Faculty Publications

Every year, the Student Debates Subcommittee (SDS) of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) for the annual Entomological Society of America (ESA) meeting organizes the Student Debates. This year, the SAC selected topics based on their synergistic effect or ability to ignite exponential positive change when addressed as a whole. For the 2019 Student Debates, the SAC SDS identified these topic areas for teams to debate and unbiased introduction speakers to address: 1) how to better communicate science to engage the public, particularly in the area of integrated pest management (IPM), 2) the influential impacts of climate change on agriculturally and …

Multiple Decrement Life Tables Of Cephus Cinctus Norton (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) Across A Set Of Barley Cultivars: The Importance Of Plant Defense Versus Cannibalism, Buddhi B. Achhami, Robert K.D. Peterson, Jamie D. Sherman, Gadi V.P. Reddy, David K. Weaver

Faculty Publications

Accurately estimating cause-specific mortality for immature insect herbivores is usually difficult. The insects are exposed to abiotic and biotic mortality factors, causing cadavers to simply disappear before cause of mortality can be recorded. Also, insect herbivores are often highly mobile on hosts, making it difficult to follow patterns for individuals through time. In contrast, the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton, spends its entire egg, larval, and pupal period inside a host stem. Therefore, with periodic sampling stage-specific causes of mortality can be ascertained. Consequently, we examined C. cinctus mortality in eight barley, Hordeum vulgare L., cultivars in two locations …

Antixenosis, Antibiosis, And Potential Yield Compensatory Response In Barley Cultivars Exposed To Wheat Stem Sawfly (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) Under Field Conditions, Buddhi B. Achhami, Gadi V.P. Reddy, Jamie D. Sherman, Robert K.D. Peterson, David K. Weaver

Faculty Publications

Wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton, is an economically serious pest of cereals grown in North America. Barley cultivars were previously planted as resistant crops in rotations to manage C. cinctus, but due to increasing levels of injury to this crop, this is no longer a valid management tactic in Montana. Therefore, we aimed to understand antixenosis (behavioral preference), antibiosis (mortality), and potential yield compensation (increased productivity in response to stem injuries) in barley exposed to C. cinctus. We examined these traits in eight barley cultivars. Antixenosis was assessed by counting number of eggs per stem and antibiosis was assessed …

Restoring Pre-Industrial Co2 Levels While Achieving Sustainable Development Goals, Mark E. Capron, Jim R. Stewart, Antoine De Ramon N’Yeurt, Michael D. Chambers, Jang K. Kim, Charles Yarish, Anthony T. Jones, Reginald B. Blaylock, Scott C. James, Rae Fuhrman, Martin T. Sherman, Don Piper, Graham Harris, Mohammed A. Hasan

Faculty Publications

© 2020 by the authors. Unless humanity achieves United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and restores the relatively stable climate of pre-industrial CO₂ levels (as early as 2140), species extinctions, starvation, drought/floods, and violence will exacerbate mass migrations. This paper presents conceptual designs and techno-economic analyses to calculate sustainable limits for growing high-protein seafood and macroalgae-for-biofuel. We review the availability of wet solid waste and outline the mass balance of carbon and plant nutrients passing through a hydrothermal liquefaction process. The paper reviews the availability of dry solid waste and dry biomass for bioenergy with CO_{2 …}

Unpacking The Decline In Food Waste Measured In Chinese Households From 1991 To 2009, Danyi Qi, John W. Apolzan, Ran Li, Brian E. Roe

Faculty Publications

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Food waste reduction is an explicit goal for many countries, yet a paucity of high-quality primary measurements of food waste are available to inform policy. We analyze repeated physical measurements of discarded food from more than 37,000 households enrolled in the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) from 1991 to 2009 and describe relevant food waste patterns and trends within households over a period of dramatic change. Over a period in which average real household incomes tripled, food discarded per person declined by about 20% on a quantity basis and by about 40% on a Calorie …

Electronic-Cigarette Vehicles And Flavoring Affect Lung Function And Immune Responses In A Murine Model, Brittany N. Szafran, Rakeysha Pinkston, Zakia Perveen, Matthew K. Ross, Timothy Morgan, Daniel B. Paulsen, Arthur L. Penn, Barbara L. F. Kaplan, Alexandra Noel

Faculty Publications

The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), also known as electronic-cigarettes (e-cigs), has raised serious public health concerns, especially in light of the 2019 outbreak of e-cig or vaping product use-associated acute lung injury (EVALI). While these cases have mostly been linked to ENDS that contain vitamin E acetate, there is limited research that has focused on the chronic pulmonary effects of the delivery vehicles (i.e., without nicotine and flavoring). Thus, we investigated lung function and immune responses in a mouse model following exposure to the nearly ubiquitous e-cig delivery vehicles, vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG), used …

Formation Of Tubular Carbonates Within The Seabed Of The Northern South China Sea, Yuedong Sun, Jörn Peckmann, Yu Hu, Xudong Wang, Shanggui Gong, Yongbo Peng, Duofu Chen, Dong Feng

Faculty Publications

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. A remarkable exposure of tubular authigenic carbonates was found on the seafloor in the Dongsha area of the South China Sea (SCS). The tubular carbonates, around 2–3 cm in diameter and usually less than 10 cm in length, represent broken fragments of once-larger pipes that now protrude from muddy sediments. The morphology, carbon and oxygen stable isotope compositions, and trace and rare earth element contents of the carbonates were analyzed to decipher the mode of carbonate formation. The tubular carbonates exhibit a dark brown coating of iron and manganese hydrous oxides, …

Obesity, Noncommunicable Diseases, And Covid-19: A Perfect Storm, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, J. Michael Salbaum, Steven B. Heymsfield

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Energy Expenditure: Are Calories Measured Differently For Different Diets?, Guillermo Sanchez-Delgado, Eric Ravussin

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Purpose of review The prevalence and burden of obesity has reached alarming levels. The assessment of human energy expenditure enables the identification of obesity-prone and obesity-resistant individuals and helps to explain the short and long-term success of weight loss treatments. In this review, we describe the state-of-the-art methods used in the assessment of human energy expenditure and the impact of dietary intake on the interpretation of the data. Recent findings The reference techniques to assess energy expenditure in humans have not significantly changed during the last century. Today, indirect calorimetry, either using a metabolic chamber or a metabolic cart, is …

Integrative And Quantitative Bioenergetics: Design Of A Study To Assess The Impact Of The Gut Microbiome On Host Energy Balance, Karen D. Corbin, Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, Elvis A. Carnero, Christopher Bock, Rita Emerson, Bruce E. Rittmann, Andrew K. Marcus, Taylor Davis, Blake Dirks, Zehra Esra Ilhan, Catherine Champagne, Steven R. Smith

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

The literature is replete with clinical studies that characterize the structure, diversity, and function of the gut microbiome and correlate the results to different disease states, including obesity. Whether the microbiome has a direct impact on obesity has not been established. To address this gap, we asked whether the gut microbiome and its bioenergetics quantitatively change host energy balance. This paper describes the design of a randomized crossover clinical trial that combines outpatient feeding with precisely controlled metabolic phenotyping in an inpatient metabolic ward. The target population was healthy, weight-stable individuals, age 18–45 and with a body mass index ≤30 …

Sgcg Rs679482 Associates With Weight Loss Success In Response To An Intensively Supervised Outpatient Program, Majid Nikpay, Paulina Lau, Sébastien Soubeyrand, Katey L. Whytock, Kaitlyn Beehler, Chantal Pileggi, Sujoy Ghosh, Mary Ellen Harper, Robert Dent, Ruth Mcpherson

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Weight loss in response to energy restriction is highly vari-able, and identification of genetic contributors can provide insights into underlying biology. Leveraging 1000 Genomes imputed genotypes, we carried out genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis in 551 unrelated obese subjects of European ancestry who participated in an intensively supervised weight loss program with replication of promising signals in an independent sample of 1,331 obese subjects who completed the program at a later date. By single nucleotide polymorphism–based and sib-pair analy-sis, we show that that weight loss is a heritable trait, with estimated heritability (h2 = 0.49) within the range reported for …

Obesity, The Most Common Comorbidity In Sars-Cov-2: Is Leptin The Link?, Candida J. Rebello, John P. Kirwan, Frank L. Greenway

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease. These diseases are the most commonly reported health conditions that predispose individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection to require hospitalization including intensive care unit admissions. The innate immune response is the host’s first line of defense against a human coronavirus infection. However, most coronaviruses are armed with one strategy or another to overcome host antiviral defense, and the pathogenicity of the virus is related to its capacity to suppress host immunity. The multifaceted nature of obesity including its effects on immunity can fundamentally alter the pathogenesis of acute …

Effects Of Gastric Bypass Surgery On Expression Of Glucose Transporters And Fibrotic Biomarkers In Kidney Of Diabetic Fatty Rats, Roman Vangoitsenhoven, Anny Mulya, J. David Mosinski, Stacy A. Brethauer, Philip R. Schauer, John P. Kirwan, Ali Aminian

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Background: Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease. Observational studies suggest Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) reduces progression of diabetic nephropathy. Objectives: To unravel the mechanisms by which RYGB is beneficial and protective for diabetic nephropathy. Setting: Academic laboratories. Methods: Forty-eight Zucker diabetic fatty rats were randomized to RYGB, sham surgery (SHAM), or pair-fed (PF) groups. An oral glucose tolerance test was performed at 25 days post intervention and kidneys were harvested at 30 days. Primary outcome measures included expression of key genes and proteins in the glucose transport, oxidative stress, inflammation, and fibrosis pathways. Results: Thirty days …

The Case For Coordinating Efforts To Establish Program Guidelines And Strengthen Physiology Undergraduate Degree Programs, Erica A. Wehrwein, Lisa C. Anderson, Anne R. Crecelius, Claudia I. Stanescu, James M. Poteracki, John R. Halliwill, Nancy M. Aguilar-Roca, Jennifer Rogers

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

Undergraduate degree programs named “Physiology” have existed for over 50 yr. The number of programs and enrolled students have been growing since ~2005 (5, 9). There are many thousands of students currently enrolled in physiology pro- grams across the United States and indeed across the world. Despite the long history and current popularity of the physiol- ogy major, there is no coordinated plan articulated for the design, administration, or assessment of degree programs in physiology at the undergraduate level.

Although several professional societies have invested in under- graduate physiology education in various ways, none has under- taken the task of …

Occupancy And Abundance Of Stream Salamanders Along A Specific Conductance Gradient, Jacob M. Hutton, Steven J. Price, Simon J. Bonner, Stephen C. Richter, Christopher D. Barton

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

In the Central Appalachians (USA), mountaintop-removal mining accompanied by valley fills often leads to streams with elevated specific conductivity (SC). Thus, the ionic composition of freshwaters in this region is hypothesized to be a driver of the distribution and abundance of freshwater taxa, including stream salamanders. We examined the association between SC and stream salamander populations by conducting salamander counts in 30 southeastern Kentucky streams across a continuous gradient of SC that ranged from 30 to 1966 μS/cm. We counted 2319 salamanders across 5 species and, using a hierarchical Bayesian version of the N-mixture model, found a negative association between …

Co-Clinical Imaging Resource Program (Cirp): Bridging The Translational Divide To Advance Precision Medicine, Kooresh I. Shoghi, Richard Laforest, Daniel S. Marcus, Et Al

Open Access Publications

The National Institutes of Health's (National Cancer Institute) precision medicine initiative emphasizes the biological and molecular bases for cancer prevention and treatment. Importantly, it addresses the need for consistency in preclinical and clinical research. To overcome the translational gap in cancer treatment and prevention, the cancer research community has been transitioning toward using animal models that more fatefully recapitulate human tumor biology. There is a growing need to develop best practices in translational research, including imaging research, to better inform therapeutic choices and decision-making. Therefore, the National Cancer Institute has recently launched the Co-Clinical Imaging Research Resource Program (CIRP). Its …

Reflections On The Unexpected, Beverly Matiko, Jeff Boyd, Brandon Shin

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Building Implementation Science In Nutrition, Andrea M. Warren, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Rahul Rawat

Faculty Publications

The field of nutrition has been investing in the development of many nutrition-specific and -sensitive policies and programs aimed at improving population-level malnutrition in all its forms. When there is a need to learn about a new system, programmatic context, or target population to understand how to effectively deploy an intervention to help improve nutrition, it is important to be able to ask a broad range of questions, both in topic and in scope. Our aim is to provide a simple and conceptually clear definition and principles to elaborate the science of implementation for nutrition to distinguish it from other …

Exploring Student Motivation In Quantitative Biology, Alexander Richard Kulacki

Master's Theses and Capstones

The field of biology is becoming increasingly reliant on quantitative tools, methods, and techniques, driving a need for incoming biologists to have robust quantitative skills. However, efforts to incorporate more quantitative skills at the undergraduate level are hampered by low student engagement with math in biology. Students’ motivation towards quantitative biology can provide insight into how best to increase their engagement and thus performance with these topics. This thesis examines students’ motivation towards math in biology through two key constructs: 1) students’ self-efficacy, through the theoretical lens of Social Cognitive Theory; and 2) students’ task-values, through the theoretical lens of …

A Biogeochemical-Economic Model For The Valuation Of Cover Crops Ecosystem Services Under Climate Change, Karen M. Moran-Rivera

Master's Theses and Capstones

Cover crop (CC) adoption is a promising conservation practice that provides multiple ecosystem services, such as reduced nitrate pollution and increased soil health. These CC ecosystem services have been demonstrated in the biogeochemistry literature. However, widespread adoption of CC in the Midwestern U.S. is still low, in part because there continues to be a debate about whether adopting CC is privately optimal for farmers and how climate change might affect the private incentives to adopt. Economic analyses of CC adoption are complicated by the difficulty to account for the economic benefits of CC ecosystem services, in a changing climate.

In …

The House That Built Lee: Reinterpreting Robert E. Lee Through His Life At Arlington House, Cecilia Paquette

Master's Theses and Capstones

Since 1955, Arlington House has been a memorial to Confederate General Robert E. Lee, despite his beliefs in slavery and white supremacy. For almost a century, scholarship on Lee has been comprised of more positive interpretations, yet historians have recently begun to challenge these versions of Lee by examining his life more fully. This study aims to view Lee through the history of Arlington House, in order to more closely understand his character and to underscore that he is not as noble as was once thought. Building on the history of Arlington’s enslaved community this thesis asks: how did the …

Fuel From Within: Can Resuspended Organic Phosphorus Stimulate Harmful Cyanobacteria Blooms In Western Lake Erie?, John Martin Taylor

Master's Theses and Capstones

Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Laurentian Great Lakes, has been historically plagued with summertime blooms of potentially toxic cyanobacteria (Microcystis spp.) that originate in the shallow western part of the lake (average depth 10 m). The onset of Microcystis blooms often follow wind-driven resuspension events, indicating that internal loading of growth limiting nutrients (mainly phosphorus, P) may stimulate cyanobacterial growth. We hypothesize that wind-driven sediment resuspension releases particulate P (PP) in the form of organic (POP) or inorganic phosphorus (PIP), fueling cyanobacterial growth in the water. To test this hypothesis, we exposed replicate sediment cores from two sites in …

Hiding Behind Lincoln, Jonathan Fenster

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Abraham Lincoln’s ascent to power was surprising, but after a deep analysis it is clear that it was not at all unique. Just like Queen Esther, Lincoln was able to overcome extreme odds through patience and faith.

Author information: Jonathan Fenster is a Straus Center Scholar at Yeshiva University located in Washington Heights, New York. Jonathan plans on attending law school after he completes his biology major, and hopes to cultivate and develop a deeper understanding of the synthesis between modern law and ancient philosophy.

Connecting: On “Showing Up” In Teaching, Tutoring, And Writing: A Search For Humanity, Christy Wenger, Nicole J. Wilson, Angela Montez, Sara Y. Chung, Christina M. Lavecchia, Cristina D. Ramirez, Patricia D. Pytleski

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The pieces collected in this section of Connecting all exhibit ways of “showing up” in writing. They do so by modeling how we might claim very specific, very material conditions of learning and thinking and speak from the authority of personal experience. They are full of voice. They show up by revealing the presence of their writers and by making intentional space for readers to show up in response, as a writer’s presence begets the readers’. The writing contained within this section also offers practices that might help us think through the dynamics of a pedagogical praxis of “showing up.”