Digital Commons Network^™

Ecological Impacts Of The Non-Native Macrophyte Crassula Helmsii On Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Assemblages In Dartmoor National Park, Uk, Salvatore Giordano

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity globally. In freshwater ecosystems, invasive macrophytes are one of the most significant hazards. This study evaluated the impacts of the non-native macrophyte Crassula helmsii on macroinvertebrate assemblages in ponds in Dartmoor National Park, UK. Sampled ponds differed in the extent of invasion, being uninvaded, partially invaded and dominated by Crassula. Samples were taken from macrophyte stands using a hand net and taxa identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible in the laboratory. Assemblages were compared using univariate and multivariate approaches. Taxonomic richness and Shannon-Wiener Index did not differ significantly between invasion categories. …

Mediation Analysis Of The Effect Of Visuospatial Memory On Motor Skill Learning In Older Adults, Andrew Hooyman, Jennapher Lingo Vangilder, Sydney Y. Schaefer

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

There is high inter-individual variability in motor skill learning among older adults. Identifying the nature of these individual differences remains challenging due to interactions between participant characteristics (e.g., age, cognition) and task-related factors (e.g., nature of task, level of skill pre-training), making it difficult to determine plausibly causal relationships. This study addresses these competing explanations by using mediation analysis to examine plausible causal inference between visuospatial memory and one-month retention of both gross and fine motor components of a functional upper-extremity task following training. Results suggest that better visuospatial memory results in more retention of fine but not gross motor …

Get Smart: Implementation Of Updated Asthma Guidelines For Pediatric Hospitalists, Alexander Hogan, Kathryn Kyler, Claire Seguin

Presentations

Prescription of Single Maintenance And Reliever Therapy (SMART) for moderate and severe persistent asthma is the most important and actionable improvement in the National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI) asthma guidelines for pediatric hospitalists. SMART is the use of a single inhaled corticosteroid/long acting beta agonist inhaler both as a daily preventive inhaler and as-needed for asthma symptoms. As hospitalists, we treat patients with poorly controlled asthma who will benefit from SMART asthma action plans. Despite ample evidence supporting use of SMART, implementation of such large changes in practice is challenging. Implementation science and quality improvement principles can be used …

Stabilization By Adaptive Feedback Control For Positive Difference Equations With Applications In Pest Management, J. Edholm, C. Guiver, Richard Rebarber, Brigitte Tenhumberg, S. Townley

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

An adaptive feedback control scheme is proposed for stabilizing a class of forced nonlinear positive difference equations. The adaptive scheme is based on so-called high-gain adaptive controllers and contains substantial robustness with respect to model uncertainty as well as with respect to persistent forcing signals, including measurement errors. Our results take advantage of the underlying positive systems structure and ideas from input-to-state stability from nonlinear control theory. Our motivating application is to pest or weed control, and in this context the present work substantially strengthens previous work by the authors. The theory is illustrated with examples.

Srad Director's Corner: Understanding North Korea And The Key To Security In East Asia, George Shatzer

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

In the third installment of the SRAD Director’s Corner, Colonel George Shatzer focuses on North Korea and the Kim family regime. He reviews Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer’s Insights into North Korea’s Enigmatic Young Dictator by Jung H. Pak and Rationality in the North Korean Regime: Understanding the Kims’ Strategy of Provocation by David W. Shin and shows how these books might help readers better understand North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un and the implications of his actions for US foreign and military policy in the region. The books also provide insights for strategists attempting to plan for …

Whole Genome Sequence Association Analysis Of Fasting Glucose And Fasting Insulin Levels In Diverse Cohorts From The Nhlbi Topmed Program, Daniel Dicorpo, Sheila M Gaynor, Emily M Russell, Kenneth E Westerman, Laura M Raffield, Timothy D Majarian, Peitao Wu, Chloé Sarnowski, Heather M Highland, Anne Jackson, Natalie R Hasbani, Paul S De Vries, Jennifer A Brody, Bertha Hidalgo, Xiuqing Guo, James A Perry, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Samantha Lent, May E Montasser, Brian E Cade, Deepti Jain, Heming Wang, Ricardo D'Oliveira Albanus, Arushi Varshney, Lisa R Yanek, Leslie Lange, Nicholette D Palmer, Marcio Almeida, Juan M Peralta, Stella Aslibekyan, Abigail S Baldridge, Alain G Bertoni, Lawrence F Bielak, Chung-Shiuan Chen, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Won Jung Choi, Mark O Goodarzi, James S Floyd, Marguerite R Irvin, Rita R Kalyani, Tanika N Kelly, Seonwook Lee, Ching-Ti Liu, Douglas Loesch, Joann E Manson, Ryan L Minster, Take Naseri, James S Pankow, Laura J Rasmussen-Torvik, Alexander P Reiner, Muagututi'a Sefuiva Reupena, Elizabeth Selvin, Jennifer A Smith, Daniel E Weeks, Huichun Xu, Jie Yao, Wei Zhao, Stephen Parker, Alvaro Alonso, Donna K Arnett, John Blangero, Eric Boerwinkle, Adolfo Correa, L Adrienne Cupples, Joanne E Curran, Ravindranath Duggirala, Jiang He, Susan R Heckbert, Sharon L R Kardia, Ryan W Kim, Charles Kooperberg, Simin Liu, Rasika A Mathias, Stephen T Mcgarvey, Braxton D Mitchell, Alanna C Morrison, Patricia A Peyser, Bruce M Psaty, Susan Redline, Alan R Shuldiner, Kent D Taylor, Ramachandran S Vasan, Karine A Viaud-Martinez, Jose C Florez, James G Wilson, Robert Sladek, Stephen S Rich, Jerome I Rotter, Xihong Lin, Josée Dupuis, James B Meigs, Jennifer Wessel, Alisa K Manning

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The genetic determinants of fasting glucose (FG) and fasting insulin (FI) have been studied mostly through genome arrays, resulting in over 100 associated variants. We extended this work with high-coverage whole genome sequencing analyses from fifteen cohorts in NHLBI's Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Over 23,000 non-diabetic individuals from five race-ethnicities/populations (African, Asian, European, Hispanic and Samoan) were included. Eight variants were significantly associated with FG or FI across previously identified regions MTNR1B, G6PC2, GCK, GCKR and FOXA2. We additionally characterize suggestive associations with FG or FI near previously identified SLC30A8, TCF7L2, and ADCY5 regions as well as APOB, …

A Dosimetric Evaluation Of Skin Dose In Post Mastectomy Radiation Therapy: A Comparison Of Static Field Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy And Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy, Dusti M. Henion

Masters Projects

Introduction

Post mastectomy radiation therapy can cause significant skin reaction for patients treated with bolus. The elimination of bolus as a standard practice for this treatment has been suggested in recent literature. Additionally, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) may deliver a comparable plan with the benefit of reducing treatment times for this population compared to static field intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

Methods

This study is a retrospective dosimetric analysis of ten right-sided postmastectomy radiation therapy patients. The subjects had previously completed a course of radiation therapy consisting of static field IMRT with the use of bolus every other day …

A Quantitative Investigation At Dose To Tissue When Using Physical Constraints Versus Biological Based Constraints In Pancreatic Carcinoma Patients, Kelly R. Alley

Masters Projects

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to compare dose to organs at risk as well as PTV coverage. Physical objectives, biological objectives, and a combination of the two were utilized to compare which technique provided the best coverage of the PTV while also preserving the greatest amount of healthy tissue.

Methods

Each randomly selected patient had three separate plans created for them. The first plan used only physical based constraints in the form of upper objectives. The second plan used only biological based constraints in the form of gEUD objectives. The third plan used a combination of both upper …

The Lupus Susceptibility Allele Drb1*03:01 Encodes A Disease-Driving Epitope, Bruna Miglioranza Scavuzzi, Vincent Van Drongelen, Bhavneet Kaur, Jennifer Callahan Fox, Jianhua Liu, Raquel A Mesquita-Ferrari, J Michelle Kahlenberg, Evan A Farkash, Fernando Benavides, Frederick W Miller, Amr H Sawalha, Joseph Holoshitz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The HLA-DRB1*03:01 allele is a major genetic risk factor in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but the mechanistic basis of the association is unclear. Here we show that in the presence of interferon gamma (IFN-γ), a short DRB1*03:01-encoded allelic epitope activates a characteristic lupus transcriptome in mouse and human macrophages. It also triggers a cascade of SLE-associated cellular aberrations, including endoplasmic reticulum stress, unfolded protein response, mitochondrial dysfunction, necroptotic cell death, and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Parenteral administration of IFN-γ to naïve DRB1*03:01 transgenic mice causes increased serum levels of anti-double stranded DNA antibodies, glomerular immune complex deposition and histopathological renal …

Aduhelm, A Novel Anti-Amyloid Monoclonal Antibody, For The Treatment Of Alzheimer's Disease: A Comprehensive Review, Hannah Haddad, Garett W. Malone, Nicholas J. Comardelle, Arielle E. Degueure, Salomon Poliwoda, Rachel J. Kaye, Kevin S. Murnane, Adam M. Kaye, Alan D. Kaye

Student Publications

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia affecting millions of individuals, including family members who often take on the role of caregivers. This debilitating disease reportedly consumes 8% of the total United States healthcare expenditure, with medical and nursing outlays accounting for an estimated $290 billion. Cholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists have historically been the most widely used pharmacologic therapies for patients with AD; however, these drugs are not curative. The present investigation describes the epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, presentation, and current treatment of AD followed by the role of the novel monoclonal antibody, Adulhelm, in …

Whole Genome Sequence Association Analysis Of Fasting Glucose And Fasting Insulin Levels In Diverse Cohorts From The Nhlbi Topmed Program, Daniel Dicorpo, Sheila M. Gaynor, Emily M. Russell, Kenneth E. Westerman, Laura M. Raffield, Marcio Almeida, Juan M. Peralta, John Blangero, Joanne E. Curran, Ravindranath Duggirala

School of Medicine Publications

The genetic determinants of fasting glucose (FG) and fasting insulin (FI) have been studied mostly through genome arrays, resulting in over 100 associated variants. We extended this work with high-coverage whole genome sequencing analyses from fifteen cohorts in NHLBI’s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Over 23,000 non-diabetic individuals from five race-ethnicities/populations (African, Asian, European, Hispanic and Samoan) were included. Eight variants were significantly associated with FG or FI across previously identified regions MTNR1B, G6PC2, GCK, GCKR and FOXA2. We additionally characterize suggestive associations with FG or FI near previously identified SLC30A8, TCF7L2, and ADCY5 regions as well …

Role Of Angiotensin Ii Subtype 1 Receptor In Smooth Muscle Cells Apoptosis After Balloon Injury To Vessel, Geng Wang, Guo-Xiang He, Xiao-Hui Xu, Guo-Chao Wang

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

In order to investigate the mechanism of smooth muscle cells apoptosis after balloon injury to vessel, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) and immunohistochemistry were adopted to measure the percentage of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) apoptosis and the expression of angiotensin II subtype 1 receptor (AT1 R).

Film Review: “Cats Are Excellent Conductors Of Electricity”: A Review Of The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, Brittany Mondragon

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Uprooted: Doorway Gardens And African Plant Cultivation In The Colonial Atlantic World, Brittany Mondragon

History in the Making

Approximately twelve million enslaved African people were uprooted from their homes and sent to the New World to work as free forced labor on plantation fields. Meanwhile, African plants also made their own triangular voyage across the Atlantic as slave ship captains gathered provisions for the seafaring journey or Africans stowed away food as they embarked on an unknown and horrifying journey. While attention on the transatlantic trade nexus often focuses on food and cash crops traveling between Europe and the Americas, several different produce of African origins were transplanted in America and often found in enslaved people’s provision gardens. …

X-Ray Diffraction And Structural Analysis Of Shark Vertebrae, Kathryn Griggs

DePaul Discoveries

Just like how rings correspond to the growth record of trees, some mineralized tissues of mammals contain temporal sequences of tissue development [Klevezal, 1996]. Shark vertebrae consist of cartilage mineralized with hydroxyapatite (HA). A recent study of vertebrae of seven shark species found that this tissue material stiffness and strength are similar to those of mammalian trabecular bone [Porter, 2006]. The periodic array of atoms in the HA nanocrystals in shark vertebrae produce peaks of diffracted intensity. The present project studied thousands of x-ray diffraction patterns of shark vertebrae collected at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. …

Stratospheric Effects On Uv, Speed Of Sound, Pressure, And Temperature, Joshua V. Chis, Joana Diaz, Brianna E. Ortiz, Imani G. Robertson, Jelani A. Shadd

DePaul Discoveries

The atmosphere is composed of several layers, each with its own distinct environment varying in temperature, pressure, and levels of UV radiation. Quantifying these varying parameters proves to be useful in understanding atmospheric composition in greater detail. Variance in the composition of the atmosphere allows for the study of the evolution of physical phenomena at different altitudes. Our group quantified this variance using a high-altitude weather balloon and designed an experimental method to observe the nature of sound propagation through varying altitudes. The goal was to develop an altitude-dependent model of the speed of sound by using an open-air, microcontroller-based …

Effects Of Elevated Co2 Concentrations And Elevated Temperatures On Isoprene Emissions Of Rhamnus Cathartica (European Buckthorn), Quercus Rubra (Red Oak) And Quercus Michauxii (Swamp Chestnut Oak), Janet G. Núñez

DePaul Discoveries

Tropospheric ozone is a ground-level pollutant and is produced from primary air pollutants like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). While many VOCs are anthropogenic, isoprene is emitted from certain species of plants and reacts with nitrogen oxides to form ozone. Previous studies have found that isoprene can be suppressed by CO₂, but such suppression can be reduced under conditions of increased temperature. However, this pattern is not seen in all plants capable of emitting isoprene. The focus of this is study is to determine if similar patterns are present in the invasive tree species of buckthorn …

Atmospheric Phosphorus Deposition Into A Fresh Water Wetland: Prairie Wolf Slough Restored Wetland, Isaac B. Daitzchman

DePaul Discoveries

Phosphorus is a major element needed for plant growth. Excess phosphorus from agricultural runoff and urban stormwater can enter waterways, resulting in growth of toxic algal blooms that are deleterious to local fauna. One way to remove phosphorus is by diverting agricultural and urban runoff into wetlands. One such wetland is Prairie Wolf Slough (PWS), located in north suburban Chicago, IL. Stormwater enters PWS through an inlet channel and exits through an outlet pipe into the Chicago River. A 16-year study documented that a significantly greater mass of phosphorus leaves PWS than enters through the inlet. This study accounted for …

Synthesis Of Triaminopyrimidine Derivatives For Inhibition Of Inflammatory Caspases, Marianna C. Haddad, Caitlin Karver

DePaul Discoveries

Caspases are cysteine-dependent aspartic proteases whose functions are connected to different mechanisms of cell death and inflammation. As caspase-1 plays a significant role in the immune response, its activity has been of interest as a target for inhibitor development as its inhibition will reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in inflammatory diseases, thus minimizing the symptoms that arise and serving as a possible therapeutic approach. Prior work discovered a family of potent inhibitors of caspase-1 with a common triaminopyrimidine scaffold. To further explore structure-activity relationship profiles of potential inhibitors of caspase-1, two different syntheses were attempted to create two new …

Optimization Of Dye Molecules For Use In Studying Inflammatory Caspase Enzymes, Josiah D. Stewart, Phasu Sirinit

DePaul Discoveries

Inflammatory caspases are important enzymes in the initial immune response to pathogens. A common method of studying caspase activity is through the use of fluorogenic assays, in which the cleavage of a substrate by an enzyme results in the emission of fluorescence. Fluorogenic assays require the use of fluorophores: molecules that will fluoresce upon the cleavage of a substrate. Different fluorophores have different characteristics, and these characteristics can be analyzed in order to determine which fluorophores will be most suitable for activity assays. Two commercially available fluorophores were compared for use in fluorogenic assays of inflammatory caspases: MCA and EDANS. …

Ohio Bioinformatics Lab Discovers Genetic ‘Word Pairs,’ Next Step In Mapping Neurological Disease, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Structural Network Alterations In Focal And Generalized Epilepsy Assessed In A Worldwide Enigma Study Follow Axes Of Epilepsy Risk Gene Expression, Sara Larivière, Jessica Royer, Raúl Rodríguez-Cruces, Casey Paquola, Maria Eugenia Caligiuri, Antonio Gambardella, Luis Concha, Simon S. Keller, Fernando Cendes, Clarissa L. Yasuda, Leonardo Bonilha, Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht, Niels K. Focke, Martin Domin, Felix Von Podewills, Soenke Langner, Christian Rummel, Roland Wiest, Pascal Martin, Raviteja Kotikalapudi, Terence J. O'Brien, Benjamin Sinclair, Lucy Vivash, Patricia M. Desmond, Elaine Lui, Anna Elisabetta Vaudano, Stefano Meletti, Manuela Tondelli, Saud Alhusaini, Colin P. Doherty, Gianpiero L. Cavalleri, Norman Delanty, Reetta Kälviäinen, Graeme D. Jackson, Magdalena Kowalczyk, Mario Mascalchi, Mira Semmelroch, Rhys H. Thomas, Hamid Soltanian-Zadeh, Esmaeil Davoodi-Bojd, Junsong Zhang, Gavin P. Winston, Aoife Griffin, Aditi Singh, Vijay K. Tiwari, Barbara A. K Kreilkamp, Matteo Lenge, Renzo Guerrini, Khalid Hamandi, Sonya Foley, Theodor Rüber, Bernd Weber, Chantal Depondt, Julie Absil, Sarah J. A Carr, Eugenio Abela, Mark P. Richardson, Orrin Devinsky, Mariasavina Severino, Pasquale Striano, Domenico Tortora, Erik Kaestner, Sean N. Hatton, Sjoerd B. Vos, Lorenzo Caciagli, John S. Duncan, Christopher D. Whelan, Paul M. Thompson, Sanjay M. Sisodiya, Andrea Bernasconi, Angelo Labate, Carrie R. Mcdonald, Neda Bernasconi, Boris C. Bernhardt

Neurology Articles

Epilepsy is associated with genetic risk factors and cortico-subcortical network alterations, but associations between neurobiological mechanisms and macroscale connectomics remain unclear. This multisite ENIGMA-Epilepsy study examined whole-brain structural covariance networks in patients with epilepsy and related findings to postmortem epilepsy risk gene expression patterns. Brain network analysis included 578 adults with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), 288 adults with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), and 1328 healthy controls from 18 centres worldwide. Graph theoretical analysis of structural covariance networks revealed increased clustering and path length in orbitofrontal and temporal regions in TLE, suggesting a shift towards network regularization. Conversely, people with IGE …

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Sjögren's Risk Loci With Functional Implications In Immune And Glandular Cells, Bhuwan Khatri, Kandice L. Tessneer, Astrid Rasmussen, Farhang Aghakhanian, Tove R. Reksten, Adam Adler, Ilias Alevizos, Juan-Manuel Anaya, Lara A. Aqrawi, Eva Baecklund, Johan G. Brun, Sara M. Bucher, Maija-Leena Eloranta, Fiona Engelke, Helena Forsblad-D'Elia, Stuart B. Glenn, Daniel Hammenfors, Juliana Imgenberg-Kreuz, Janicke Liaaen Jensen, Svein J. A. Johnsen, Malin V. Jonsson, Marika Kvarnström, Jennifer A. Kelly, He Li, Thomas Mandl, Javier Martín, Gaétane Nocturne, Katrine B. Norheim, Øyvind Palm, Kathrine Skarstein, Anna M. Stolarczyk, Kimberly E. Taylor, Maria Teruel, Elke Theander, Swamy Venuturupalli, Daniel J. Wallace, Kiely M. Grundahl, Kimberly S. Hefner, Lida Radfar, David M. Lewis, Donald U. Stone, C. Erick Kaufman, Michael T. Brennan, Joel M. Guthridge, Judith A. James, R. Hal Scofield, Patrick M. Gaffney, Lindsey A. Criswell, Roland Jonsson, Per Eriksson, Simon J. Bowman, Roald Omdal, Lars Rönnblom, Blake Warner, Maureen Rischmueller, Torsten Witte, A. Darise Farris, Xavier Mariette, Marta E. Alarcon-Riquelme, Caroline H. Shiboski, Marie Wahren-Herlenius, Wan-Fai Ng, Kathy L. Sivils, Indra Adrianto, Gunnel Nordmark, Christopher J. Lessard

Public Health Sciences Articles

Sjögren's disease is a complex autoimmune disease with twelve established susceptibility loci. This genome-wide association study (GWAS) identifies ten novel genome-wide significant (GWS) regions in Sjögren's cases of European ancestry: CD247, NAB1, PTTG1-MIR146A, PRDM1-ATG5, TNFAIP3, XKR6, MAPT-CRHR1, RPTOR-CHMP6-BAIAP6, TYK2, SYNGR1. Polygenic risk scores yield predictability (AUROC = 0.71) and relative risk of 12.08. Interrogation of bioinformatics databases refine the associations, define local regulatory networks of GWS SNPs from the 95% credible set, and expand the implicated gene list to >40. Many GWS SNPs are eQTLs for genes within topologically associated domains in immune cells and/or eQTLs in the main target …

Advanced Age And Neurotrauma Diminish Glutathione And Impair Antioxidant Defense After Spinal Cord Injury, Andrew N. Stewart, Ethan P. Glaser, Caitlin A. Mott, William M. Bailey, Patrick G. Sullivan, Samir P. Patel, John C. Gensel

Physiology Faculty Publications

Advanced age at the time of spinal cord injury (SCI) exacerbates damage from reactive oxygen species (ROS). Mechanisms underlying this age-dependent response are not well understood and may arise from decreased antioxidant defense. We investigated how spinal cord levels of the antioxidant glutathione (GSH), and its regulation, change with age and SCI. GSH is used by GSH peroxidase to sequester ROS and is recycled by GSH reductase. Male and female, 4- and 14-month-old (MO) mice received a 60 kDyn contusion SCI, and the levels of GSH and its regulatory enzymes were evaluated at one and three days post-injury (dpi). The …

Association Analyses Of Host Genetics, Root-Colonizing Microbes, And Plant Phenotypes Under Different Nitrogen Conditions In Maize, Michael A. Meier, Gen Xu, Martha G. Lopez-Guerrero, Guangyong Li, Christine Smith, Brandi Sigmon, Joshua R. Herr, James R. Alfano, Yufeng Ge, James C. Schnable, Jinliang Yang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The root-associated microbiome (rhizobiome) affects plant health, stress tolerance, and nutrient use efficiency. However, it remains unclear to what extent the composition of the rhizobiome is governed by intraspecific variation in host plant genetics in the field and the degree to which host plant selection can reshape the composition of the rhizobiome. Here, we quantify the rhizosphere microbial communities associated with a replicated diversity panel of 230 maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes grown in agronomically relevant conditions under high N (+N) and low N (-N) treatments. We analyze the maize rhizobiome in terms of 150 abundant and consistently reproducible …

Body Size, Shape And Ecology In Tetrapods, Alice E. Maher, Gustavo Burin, Philip G. Cox, Thomas W. Maddox, Susannah C.R. Maidment, Natalie Cooper, Emma R. Schachner, Karl T. Bates

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Body size and shape play fundamental roles in organismal function and it is expected that animals may possess body proportions that are well-suited to their ecological niche. Tetrapods exhibit a diverse array of body shapes, but to date this diversity in body proportions and its relationship to ecology have not been systematically quantified. Using whole-body skeletal models of 410 extinct and extant tetrapods, we show that allometric relationships vary across individual body segments thereby yielding changes in overall body shape as size increases. However, we also find statistical support for quadratic relationships indicative of differential scaling in small-medium versus large …

Plants As A Source Of Anticancer Agents: From Bench To Bedside, Wamidh H. Talib, Safa Daoud, Asma Ismail Mahmod, Reem Ali Hamed, Dima Awajan, Sara Feras Abuarab, Lena Hisham Odeh, Samar Khater, Lina T. Al Kury

All Works

Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular diseases. Conventional anticancer therapies are associated with lack of selectivity and serious side effects. Cancer hallmarks are biological capabilities acquired by cancer cells during neoplastic transformation. Targeting multiple cancer hallmarks is a promising strategy to treat cancer. The diversity in chemical structure and the relatively low toxicity make plant-derived natural products a promising source for the development of new and more effective anticancer therapies that have the capacity to target multiple hallmarks in cancer. In this review, we discussed the anticancer activities of ten natural products extracted from plants. The …

Long-Distance Vocalizations Of Spotted Hyenas Contain Individual, But Not Group, Signatures, Kenna D.S. Lehmann, Frants H. Jensen, Andrew Gersick, Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin, Kay E. Holekamp

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

In animal societies, identity signals are common, mediate interactions within groups, and allow individuals to discriminate group-mates from out-group competitors. However, individual recognition becomes increasingly challenging as group size increases and as signals must be transmitted over greater distances. Group vocal signatures may evolve when successful in-group/out-group distinctions are at the crux of fitness-relevant decisions, but group signatures alone are insufficient when differentiated within-group relationships are important for decision-making. Spotted hyenas are social carnivores that live in stable clans of less than 125 individuals composed of multiple unrelated matrilines. Clan members cooperate to defend resources and communal territories from neighbouring …

Spatial Stream Modeling Of Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia Motacilla) Foraging Substrate And Aquatic Prey In A Watershed Undergoing Shale Gas Development, Mack W. Frantz, Petra B. Wood, Steven C. Latta

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We demonstrate the use of spatial stream network models (SSNMs) to explore relationships between a semiaquatic bioindicator songbird, Louisiana Waterthrush (Parkesia motacilla), and stream monitoring and benthic macroinvertebrate data in an area undergoing shale gas development. SSNMs allowed us to account for spatial autocorrelation inherent to these environmental data types and stream properties that traditional modeling approaches cannot capture to elucidate factors that affect waterthrush foraging locations. We monitored waterthrush along 58.1 km of 1st- and 2nd-order headwater stream tributaries (n = 14) in northwestern West Virginia over a two year period (2013–2014), sampled benthic macroinvertebrates in waterthrush …

Understory Plant Communities Show Resistance To Drought, Hurricanes, And Experimental Warming In A Wet Tropical Forest, Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez, Tana E. Wood, Jamarys Torres-Díaz, Molly A. Cavaleri, Sasha C. Reed, Benedicte Bachelot

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Global climate change has led to rising temperatures and to more frequent and intense climatic events, such as storms and droughts. Changes in climate and disturbance regimes can have non-additive effects on plant communities and result in complicated legacies we have yet to understand. This is especially true for tropical forests, which play a significant role in regulating global climate. We used understory vegetation data from the Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE) in Puerto Rico to evaluate how plant communities responded to climate warming and disturbance. The TRACE understory vegetation was exposed to a severe drought (2015), 2 …