Digital Commons Network^™

Algae-Based Beneficial Re-Use Of Carbon Emissions Using A Novel Photobioreactor: A Techno-Economic And Life Cycle Analysis, Michael H. Wilson, Aubrey Shea, John Groppo, Czarena Crofcheck, David Quiroz, Jason C. Quinn, Mark Crocker

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications

Despite the many advantages of microalgae, the feasibility of large-scale cultivation requires significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to enable high growth rates. A synergistic union typically proposed for the supply of CO2 is the coupling of algal cultivation with emissions from power plants. This study investigates the sustainability of a novel microalgae platform coupled with coal-based flue gas. The proposed system consists of a novel photobioreactor (PBR) for the production of biomass followed by a two-stage dewatering process. A systems model, which quantifies the CO2 and energy consumption of the proposed system, was developed, and the minimum biomass selling …

Play Behavior By An Anhinga (Anhinga Anhinga), Tom Webber

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Abstracts Of Student Presentations And Posters At The Fall 2019 Meeting Of The Florida Ornithological Society, Florida Field Naturalist

Florida Field Naturalist

The fall 2018 meeting of the Florida Ornithological Society featured a special set of oral presentations and posters prepared primarily by students associated with Florida universities. Many of the presentations will likely lead to full-length articles, but Abstracts submitted by participants are provided here for members of the Florida Ornithological Society who could not attend the meeting and to serve as a record of the breadth of research underway by the next generation of Florida scientists.

The oral presentations and posters sessions were organized by Peter Monte (Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida). Thanks to Peter for …

Sleep Education For Elders Program (Sleep): Promising Pilot Results Of A Virtual, Health Educator-Led, Community-Delivered Sleep Behavior Change Intervention, Robin M. Tucker, Dawn A. Contreras, Breanne R. Carlson, Anita Carter, Christopher L. Drake

Sleep Medicine Articles

Purpose: Sleep problems pose serious public health concerns, and evidence suggests that the problem is worsening. Both sufficient sleep quantity and quality are needed for optimal health, particularly among older adults, but access to sleep care can be difficult. This study examined the efficacy of a six-week sleep behavior change program designed for older adults that was delivered virtually by health educators.

Participants and Methods: This quasi-experimental pilot study (intervention n = 22; control n = 31) explored the effects of the Sleep Education for Elders Program (SLEEP) on sleep outcomes, which included: 1) sleep quality, measured by the Pittsburgh …

Don Quixote Or Darth Vader? President Trump's Views On International Humanitarian Law, 20 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 45 (2021), Stuart Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores President Trump's views on international humanitarian law (IHL) - the body of rules that regulates the conduct of parties involved in an armed conflict. His beliefs are unlike those of any modern President. He has repeatedly called for actions that everyone, including his own administration, agree constitute war crimes. For example, he has called for the U.S. to torture its enemies, has threatened to kill the family members of enemy combatants, has praised the execution of prisoners by U.S. soldiers, has threatened to attack cultural heritage sites in Iran, and has said he wants to pillage Syria's …

Final Report: Vernal Pool: Review Of Mitigation Approaches, Charles R. Harman, Paul Bovitz, Elizabeth Ravit, Catherine Nellie Tsipoura, Dan Cooke, Elizabeth Burke Watson, Jonathan Kennen, Meiyin Wu, Ildiko C. Pechmann

New Jersey Center for Water Science & Technology Reports

This report of the NJ Science Advisory Board Ecological Processes Standing Committee (EPSC) addresses charge questions focused on researching how the NJ Department of Environmental Protection might address impacts to vernal habitats (defined in state regulations at N.J.A.C. 7:7A1.3) through effective mitigation. Vernal habitats are valuable to a variety of species of wildlife, particularly as breeding locations for amphibians such as frogs and salamanders in some cases have suffered population declines statewide and nationwide.

Gardening The Gilded Age: Creating The Landscape Of The Future, Jackie L. Perkins

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The Gilded Age was a time of rapid change in the United States' history. In contrast to the extensive literature regarding wilderness and the founding of environmental organizations during the period, relatively little has been written about the gardens of private residences and the impact these gardens have had on today's environment. These gardens, and the individuals who designed and provided for them, were at the forefront of the introduction of many new and exotic plants to the American landscape. This thesis explores two built environments, North Carolina's Biltmore Estate and the Barker Mansion in Indiana, and how these environments …

Altered Skeletal Muscle Excitation-Contraction Coupling In The R6/2 Transgenic Mouse Model For Huntington's Disease, Daniel R. Miranda

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Huntington’s disease (HD) has classically been categorized as a neurodegenerative disorder. However, the expression of the disease-causing mutated huntingtin gene in skeletal muscle may contribute to the symptoms of HD, namely those that involve involuntary muscle contraction. In the R6/2 transgenic mouse model of HD, we previously observed ion channel defects that could contribute to involuntary muscle contraction. Here, in R6/2 muscle we investigated the consequence of these ion channel defects on action potentials (APs), the first step in excitation-contraction (EC) coupling. We found that the ion channel defects were associated with depolarizing the baseline membrane potential during AP trains. …

Effectiveness Of Hands-On Activities To Develop Chemistry Learners’ Curiosity In Community Secondary Schools In Tanzania, Esther Kibga, John Sentongo, Emanuel Gakuba

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Learners’ curiosity is among the affective domains of learning that has a great potential to take learning to higher levels and meet the demands of the 21st-century teaching and learning process. This paper assesses how hands-on activities performed using learning materials from learners’ immediate environment can enhance learners’ curiosity in chemistry lessons. Observing students’ hands-on activities during chemistry lessons enabled researchers to monitor the development and expression of curiosity in the actual learning environment. The study involved 169 senior three chemistry students purposively selected from three intact science classes in three community secondary schools from Dar es salaam, Tanzania. We …

Incorporation Of Feeding Functional Group Information Informs Explanatory Patterns Of Long-Term Population Changes In Fish Assemblages, Jason C. Doll, Stephen J. Jacquemin

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to evaluate long term trends of fish taxa in southern Lake Michigan while incorporating their functional roles to improve our understanding of ecosystem level changes that have occurred in the system over time. The approach used here highlighted the ease of incorporating ecological mechanisms into population models so researchers can take full advantage of available long-term ecosystem information. Long term studies of fish assemblages can be used to inform changes in community structure resulting from perturbations to aquatic systems and understanding these changes in fish assemblages can be better contextualized by grouping species according …

2021 Associate's Degree Exit Survey, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Assessment Center Reports

Exit Surveys produced by the SWOSU Assessment Center.

The Extension Newsletter, Issue 105, Winter 2021, Wright State University Retirees Association

The Extension Newsletter

An eight page newsletter from the Wright State University's Retirees Association.

Investigation Of Ant Colony Optimization Implementation Strategies For Low-Memory Operating Environments, Douglas Hale

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In search guided by meta-heuristics, a fundamental tradeoff exists between exploitation of good solutions (intensification) and exploration of the solution space for better solutions (diversification). Over-exploitation can limit the search to suboptimal solutions while over-exploration can reduce the efficiency of the overall search. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a well-known meta-heuristic inspired by biological ants for solving NP-hard combinatorial search problems like the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). In nature, biological ant colonies navigate to find efficient paths around complex obstacles by depositing and following simple chemicals called pheromones. ACO algorithms model this behavior by implementing sets of artificial ants which …

A Comparison Of Media To Determine Optimal Growth In Aquaponics: Prg Virtual Showcase January 2021, Rachel L. Fogle, Andrea Nagy, Claribel Asare, Steven Berry, Jordan Brown, Aquila Durham-Lewis

Harrisburg University Presidential Research Grants

No abstract provided.

Least Bittern Nesting In Pinal County, Az, Doug Jenness, Steve West

Arizona Birds

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Avian Nocturnal Flight Calls: A Treasure Hunt For Understanding Bird Migration In Arizona, William R. Evans

Arizona Birds

I explored the avian nocturnal flight call phenomenon near Nogales, Arizona from mid-August through October 2015 and found a surprisingly heavy calling rate. My analysis of the 6-10 kHz audio frequency band revealed nearly 21,000 warbler and sparrow calls, 17,629 of which were loud enough to present well for classifying to a species category. Preliminary results suggest 82% involve 7 species of migratory sparrows, 12% are of undetermined species ID, and the rest from an assortment of warblers, other sparrow species, and Passerina buntings. Artificial light was minimal at the recording site and is not suspected to have significantly impacted …

In Memoriam David Earl Brown, Rich Glinski

Arizona Birds

No abstract provided.

Benefits Of The Snakemake Workflow Management Software In Comparison To Traditional Programming (Paper), Josh Loecker, Patrick Ewing

Honors Capstone Projects

Tools surrounding bioinformatics have increased data acquisition and accuracy significantly, especially with near-real time results using nanopore DNA sequencing. With large amounts of data, reproducibility is of high importance, and long workflows can become convoluted. Snakemake, built on the Common Workflow Language and Python, aims to alleviate this with readable formatting, reproducibility, and portability for any machine. Using 97 fastq files, the usability of these three traits were compared between a Bash and Snakemake workflow using a range of one to twelve threads. In every test, Snakemake was faster than Bash. At its fastest, Snakemake was 27% faster than Bash. …

Investigating The Structure Of Potential New Drug To Treat Sickle Cell Anemia Through Inhibition Of The Polymerization Of Hemoglobin S​, Brianna M. Lacasse, Isadora R. De Abreu, Rathika Manikandan

Protein Modeling Reports

Sickle cell anemia is a hematologic disorder impacting over 15 million people worldwide. It is caused by a single point mutation in the gene hemoglobin-Betha, where a glu group is replaced by val (GAG --- GTG) in the seventh codon (glu7val) of chromosome 1. In this study, we are comparing the anti-sickling properties of drugs in varied conditions in order to create a drug that is effective in an O2-independent manner and with a 1:1 stoichiometry for lower dosage purposes. We used Pymol and Jmol to compare the structures of the aldehydes GBT-440 and VZHE-039, which interact on the same …

The Characterization Of The Function(S) Of Crag In Basement Membrane Polarity, Hemin Pankajkumar Shah

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The abundant epithelial cells play various roles in the development and maintenance of an organism, and their apical-basolateral polarity is a unique characteristic that is imperative to their function and integrity. This polarity is maintained via various environmental cues and tightly regulated intracellular trafficking, where the presence of the basement membrane (BM) provides a basal cue. The BM is a specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) secreted by the epithelial cells, which accumulates on the basal side and serves as their mechanical anchorage. Although the BM is of paramount importance in the apical-basolateral polarity and the loss of BM’s integrity is a …

Using Phet Simulations To Improve Scientific Skills And Attitudes Of Community College Students, Rex Taibu, Lloyd Mataka, Vazgen Shekoyan

Publications and Research

In this study, conceptual and algebra-based physics students were engaged in scientific inquiry using Physics Education Technology (PhET) interactive simulations via semester-long group projects. The instructor and students used the Scientific Abilities Assessment Rubrics (SAAR) to evaluate project presentations and papers (formative assessment). The overall research project was evaluated using Lab Skills Self-Assessment (LSSA) survey (pre and post) and the post reflection survey. The Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI) was used to analyze some of the students‟ responses to the reflection survey. Quantitative analysis of the LSSA survey showed a large effect size for both conceptual and algebra-based physics students …

Nsu College Of Pharmacy_Brochure_2021, Nova Southeastern University

Health Professions Divisions Course Catalogs and Course Descriptions

No abstract provided.

Winter 2021 Academic Calendar, Registrar Office

Academic Calendars of the NSU Registrar

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Sars-Cov-2, Responsible For Covid-19: History, Biology, Infection Mechanism, Antigenic Vaccines, Their Risks And How An Alternate Rbd Vaccine Is Safer?, Zmg Sarwar Jahangir, Arleta Helena Marnik

Publications and Research

The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)-CoV (Coronavirus)-2 S(spike)-protein mRNA/cDNA currently being used as vaccines are antigenic but not antigens against SARS-CoV-2, that causes COVID (Coronavirus Disease) -19. Furthermore, the mRNA and cDNA antigenic vaccines also have potentials for homologous as well as heterologous recombination, primarily into the somatic cell DNA of the vaccine recipients. On the contrary, a SARS-CoV-2 RBD-protein antigen, a part of the S-protein, will directly stimulate antibody production against SARS-CoV-2. Hence, a vaccine composed of SARS-CoV-2 RBD-protein as a safer, fast acting, and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and thus against COVID-19. This is also useful for some …

The Future Of Zoonotic Risk Prediction, Colin J. Carlson, Maxwell J. Farrell, Zoe Grange, Barbara A. Han, Nardus Mollentze, Alexandra L. Phelan, Angela L. Rasmussen, Gregory F. Albery, Bernard Bett, David Brett-Major, Lily E. Cohen, Tad Dallas, Evan A. Eskew, Anna C. Fagre, Kristian M. Forbes, Rory Gibb, Sam Halabi, Charlotte C. Hammer, Rebecca Katz, Jason Kindrachuk, Renata L. Muylaert, Felicia B. Nutter, Joseph Ogola, Kevin J. Olival, Michelle Rourke, Sadie J. Ryan, Noam Ross, Stephanie N. Seifert, Tarja Sironen, Claire J. Standley, Kishana Taylor, Marietjie Venter, Paul W. Webala

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans. To support the extensive task of laboratory characterization, scientists may increasingly rely on data-driven rubrics or machine learning models that learn from known zoonoses to identify which animal pathogens could someday pose a threat to global health. We synthesize the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop on zoonotic risk technologies to answer the following questions. What are the prerequisites, in terms of open …

The Size And Culturability Of Patient-Generated Sars-Cov-2 Aerosol, Joshua L. Santarpia, Vicki L. Herrera, Danielle N. Rivera, Shanna Ratnesar-Shumate, St. Patrick Reid, Daniel N. Ackerman, Paul W. Denton, Jacob W. S. Martens, Ying Fang, Nicholas Conoan, Michael V. Callahan, James V. Lawler, David Brett-Major, John Lowe

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Aerosol transmission of COVID-19 is the subject of ongoing policy debate. Characterizing aerosol produced by people with COVID-19 is critical to understanding the role of aerosols in transmission.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the presence of virus in size-fractioned aerosols from six COVID-19 patients admitted into mixed acuity wards in April of 2020.

METHODS: Size-fractionated aerosol samples and aerosol size distributions were collected from COVID-19 positive patients. Aerosol samples were analyzed for viral RNA, positive samples were cultured in Vero E6 cells. Serial RT-PCR of cells indicated samples where viral replication was likely occurring. Viral presence was also investigated by western …

Lying In Wait: The Resurgence Of Dengue Virus After The Zika Epidemic In Brazil, Anderson Fernandes Brito, Lais Ceschini Machado, Rachel J. Oidtman, Márcio Junio Lima Siconelli, Quan Minh Tran, Joseph R. Fauver, Rodrigo Dias De Oliveira Carvalho, Filipe Zimmer Dezordi, Mylena Ribeiro Pereira, Luiza Antunes De Castro-Jorge, Elaine Cristina Manini Minto, Luzia Márcia Romanholi Passos, Chaney C. Kalinich, Mary E. Petrone, Emma Allen, Guido Camargo España, Angkana T. Huang, Derek A. T. Cummings, Guy Baele, Rafael Freitas Oliveira Franca, Benedito Antônio Lopes Da Fonseca, T. Alex Perkins, Gabriel Luz Wallau, Nathan D. Grubaugh

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

After the Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic in the Americas in 2016, both Zika and dengue incidence declined to record lows in many countries in 2017-2018, but in 2019 dengue resurged in Brazil, causing ~2.1 million cases. In this study we use epidemiological, climatological and genomic data to investigate dengue dynamics in recent years in Brazil. First, we estimate dengue virus force of infection (FOI) and model mosquito-borne transmission suitability since the early 2000s. Our estimates reveal that DENV transmission was low in 2017-2018, despite conditions being suitable for viral spread. Our study also shows a marked decline in dengue susceptibility …

Impact Of Extrinsic Incubation Temperature On Natural Selection During Zika Virus Infection Of Aedes Aegypti And Aedes Albopictus, Reyes A. Murrieta, Selene M. Garcia-Luna, Deedra J. Murrieta, Gareth Halladay, Michael C. Young, Joseph R. Fauver, Alex Gendernalik, James Weger-Lucarelli, Claudia Rückert, Gregory D. Ebel

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) require replication across a wide range of temperatures to perpetuate. While vertebrate hosts tend to maintain temperatures of approximately 37°C-40°C, arthropods are subject to ambient temperatures which can have a daily fluctuation of > 10°C. Temperatures impact vector competence, extrinsic incubation period, and mosquito survival unimodally, with optimal conditions occurring at some intermediate temperature. In addition, the mean and range of daily temperature fluctuations influence arbovirus perpetuation and vector competence. The impact of temperature on arbovirus genetic diversity during systemic mosquito infection, however, is poorly understood. Therefore, we determined how constant extrinsic incubation temperatures of 25°C, 28°C, 32°C, …

Viral Dynamics Of Acute Sars-Cov-2 Infection And Applications To Diagnostic And Public Health Strategies, Stephen M. Kissler, Joseph R. Fauver, Christina Mack, Scott W. Olesen, Caroline Tai, Kristin Y. Shiue, Chaney C. Kalinich, Sarah Jednak, Isabel M. Ott, Chantal B. F. Vogels, Jay Wohlgemuth, James Weisberger, John Difiori, Deverick J. Anderson, Jimmie Mancell, David D. Ho, Nathan D. Grubaugh, Yonatan H. Grad

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

SARS-CoV-2 infections are characterized by viral proliferation and clearance phases and can be followed by low-level persistent viral RNA shedding. The dynamics of viral RNA concentration, particularly in the early stages of infection, can inform clinical measures and interventions such as test-based screening. We used prospective longitudinal quantitative reverse transcription PCR testing to measure the viral RNA trajectories for 68 individuals during the resumption of the 2019-2020 National Basketball Association season. For 46 individuals with acute infections, we inferred the peak viral concentration and the duration of the viral proliferation and clearance phases. According to our mathematical model, we found …

The Pajama Game, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2021-2022 Season Production

Based on the novel 7 ½,The Pajama Game tells the story of a labor furor over a seven-and-a-half-cent pay raise at a pajama plant that complicates the course of true love for Sid Sorokin, the new factory superintendent, and Babe Williams, the feisty firebrand heading the Union Grievance Committee.