Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis Of 3.5 Million Sars-Cov-2 Sequences Reveals Unique Mutational Trends With Consistent Nucleotide And Codon Frequencies, Sarah E. Fumagalli, Nigam H. Padhiar, Douglas Meyer, Upendra Katneni, Haim Bar, Michael Dicuccio, Anton A. Komar, Chava Kimchi‑Sarfaty

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Background: Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, bioinformatic analyses have been performed to understand the nucleotide and synonymous codon usage features and mutational patterns of the virus. However, comparatively few have attempted to perform such analyses on a considerably large cohort of viral genomes while organizing the plethora of available sequence data for a month-by-month analysis to observe changes over time. Here, we aimed to perform sequence composition and mutation analysis of SARS-CoV-2, separating sequences by gene, clade, and timepoints, and contrast the mutational profile of SARS-CoV-2 to other comparable RNA viruses.Methods: Using a cleaned, filtered, and pre-aligned dataset …

Honors Oracle, February 2023, Marshall University Honors College

Honors Oracle

Marshall University’s Honors College newsletter.

February 2023 Quicknotes, Southern Adventist University

QuickNotes – Advancement e-Newsletter

QuickNotes is an e-newsletter that comes from Advancement at Southern Adventist University. The February 2023 edition features information on Ukrainian delegates speaking with students, endowed scholarship, and the orchestra performance at a national conference.

Smart Precision Agriculture But Resource Constrained Farmers: Is Service Provision A Potential Solution? Farmer's Willingness To Pay For Laser-Land Leveling Services In Nepal, Gokul P. Paudel, Aditya Raj Khanal, Dil Bahadur Rahut, Timothy J. Krupnik, Andrew J. Mcdonald

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Farmers commonly split large, undulating crop fields, even those at similar elevation range or contour, into a patchwork of small sub-plots in plane areas of Nepal. Specifically, to ensure irrigation or rainwater throughout their cultivated rice or wheat growing areas, structures like bunds, dikes, and ditches are commonly built. These structures not only require significant labor hours to build but also incur loss of some portion of productive crop areas. Laser-land leveling (LLL) is one of the precision technologies that can prevent these area losses, save labor costs, and enhance water utilization. However, purchase of LLL system requires …

Convergence: Eos News And Updates, February 2023, Unh Institute For The Study Of Earth, Oceans And Space

Convergence: EOS News and Updates

No abstract provided.

Shake It Off: Negotiations Suspended, But Hope Simmering, After A Lack Of Consensus At The Fifth Intergovernmental Conference On Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, Rachel Tiller, Elizabeth Mendenhall, Elizabeth De Santo, Elizabeth Nyman

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

The process for formulating a new treaty for ‘Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ (BBNJ) has been long. Since informal discussions began in 2004, the international community has devoted nearly 20 years to setting the agenda, circumscribing the issue areas, and negotiating the terms of a legally binding BBNJ instrument. The fourth and fifth inter-governmental conferences (IGCs), which both occurred in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, were supposed to be the last. But despite major movement, altered modalities, and three versions of the draft treaty texts circulated during IGC-5, another round of negotiations ended without consensus on a new …

Success (Studying Underlying Characteristics Of Computing And Engineering Student Success) Survey: Non-Cognitive And Affective Profiles In Engineering And Computing Students At Utep (2018-2022), Sanga Kim, Christian Teran Lopez, Andres Segura, Gabriel Miki

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

No abstract provided.

Riverine Commons And Institute Framework Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The nonprofit Watershed Conservation Resource Center is restoring a 98-acre riparian wetland landscape near downtown Fayetteville as a River Commons and Institute. The Framework Plan combines watershed restoration with architecture and urban design to house a river education center, a visitor interpretive center, walking trails, passive recreation facilities including bird watching and canoeing, and outdoor heritage exhibitions. The Plan operates at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, and design in developing a lasting and robust riverine knowledge fund across space and time.

Texas Institute For The Preservation Of History And Culture Newsletter - February 2023, Texas Institute For The Preservation Of History And Culture

Newsletter Collections

No abstract provided.

Hepatoprotective And Anti-Inflammatory Effects Of Entecavir Or Probiotics On Oxaliplatin-Induced Liver Injury In The Rats, Asem Anwar Askandar, Ansam Naji Alhassani

Polytechnic Journal

Oxaliplatin (OXA), a current cancer chemotherapeutic, has low efficacy and is linked to serious adverse effects, including liver damage. We anticipated that probiotics and entecavir would help reduce OXA-induced liver damage because the pathophysiology of drug-induced liver damage is thought to be related to the disordered gut microbiota. Twenty-four rats were used in this study and divided into 4 groups: control group (n=6), OXA group (n=6), entecavir (ENT) group (n=6), and probiotics (PRO) group (n=6). After 3 weeks, all rats were sacrificed, and blood samples were analyzed for alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), interleukin 6 …

Cc Magazine, Winter 2023, Connecticut College

Alumni News/Connecticut College Magazine

No abstract provided.

Period Poverty In The United States, Katie Krumperman

Ballard Brief

Period poverty is the lack of access to menstrual products and inadequate education surrounding menstruation. Period poverty affects menstruators worldwide, including those in the United States. In a 2019 study, 64% of menstruators noted that they struggled to afford menstrual products within the last year. Stemming from the cost of products, stigmas, education, and the world pandemic, those who menstruate struggle to afford menstruation products and have adequate education on the subject. The effects of period poverty include effects on menstruators' physical and mental health as well as their productivity at work. Lawmakers are fighting to end period poverty with …

Support For Open Access At Sdsu : Recommendations, Enerel Dambiinyam, Michael Biondo, Kristi Tornquist

Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications

According to the Open Access Advocacy organization, SPARC, Open Access (OA) is defined as "the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access ensures that anyone can access and use these results—to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives." (https://sparcopen.org/open-access/)

Becoming an Open Access-friendly institution typically requires support from a university’s administrators, librarians, researchers, and students.
The following recommendations for an SDSU OA initiative include benefits, steps, and vision for long-range support of Open Access at South Dakota State University.

Baseball Media Guide 2023, Wofford College. Department Of Athletics

Media Guides

No abstract provided.

Gw Ophthalmology On-Call: 02/2023, Yusuf Bade, Meredith Wells, Sasha Narain, Jacob Diaz

GW Ophthalmology On-Call

No abstract provided.

Canine As A Comparative And Translational Model For Human Mammary Tumor., Jee Young Kwon, Nicholas Moskwa, Wonyoung Kang, Timothy M Fan, Charles Lee

Faculty Research 2023

Despite the advances in research and treatment of human breast cancer, its incidence rate continues to increase by 0.5% per year, and the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies for specific subtypes of human breast cancer remains challenging. Traditional laboratory mouse models have contributed tremendously to human breast cancer research. However, mice do not develop tumors spontaneously; consequently, genetically engineered mouse models or patient-derived xenograft models are often relied upon for more sophisticated human breast cancer studies. Since human breast cancer develops spontaneously, there is a need for alternative, yet complementary, models that can better recapitulate the features of human breast …

An Integrative Approach For Exploring The Nature Of Fibroepithelial Neoplasms., Jihui Yun, Woohang Heo, Eun-Shin Lee, Deukchae Na, Wonyoung Kang, Jinjoo Kang, Jeesoo Chae, Dakyung Lee, Woochan Lee, Jinha Hwang, Tae-Kyung Yoo, Bok Sil Hong, Hye-Youn Son, Dong-Young Noh, Charles Lee, Hyeong-Gon Moon, Jong-Il Kim

Faculty Research 2023

BACKGROUND: Malignant phyllodes tumour (MPT) is a rare breast malignancy with epithelial and mesenchymal features. Currently, there are no appropriate research models or effective targeted therapeutic approaches for MPT.

METHODS: We collected fresh frozen tissues from nine patients with MPT and performed whole-exome and RNA sequencing. Additionally, we established patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models from patients with MPT and tested the efficacy of targeting dysregulated pathways in MPT using the PDX model from one MPT.

RESULTS: MPT has unique molecular characteristics when compared to breast cancers of epithelial origin and can be classified into two groups. The PDX model derived from …

Comment: The United Nations And Robot Rights, Heather Alexander

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This comment predicts that robot rights under the law are likely to become a reality in the next fifty years, possibly in multiple countries, as governments pass laws granting rights to robots, including civil rights like voting. This comment calls on the United Nations (‘‘UN”) to be pro-active in guiding the emergence of robot rights by convening a working group on robot rights to better guide member states through what will be a time of momentous change.

Why are robots likely to soon gain rights in some UN member states? There have been huge advances in AI that can pass …

Novel Signposts On The Road From Natural Sources To Pharmaceutical Applications: A Combinative Approach Between Lc-Dad-Ms And Offline Lc-Nmr For The Biochemical Characterization Of Two Hypericum Species (H. Montbretii And H. Origanifolium), Stefania Sut, Stefano Dall'acqua, Gokhan Zengin, Ismail Senkardes, Abdullahi Ibrahim Uba, Abdelhakim Bouyahya, Abdurrahman Aktumsek

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

The members of the genus Hypericum have great potential to develop functional uses in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications. With this in mind, we aimed to determine the chemical profiling and biological properties of different extracts (ethyl acetate, methanol and water) from two Hypericum species (H. montbretii and H. origanifolium). We combined two approaches (LC-DAD-MS and LC-NMR) to identify and quantify chemical compounds of the extracts. Antioxidant properties (free radical quenching, reducing power and metal chelating) and enzyme inhibitory effects (cholinesterase, tyrosinase, amylase and glucosidase) were determined as biological properties. The tested extracts were rich in caffeic acid derivatives and flavonoids, …

Machine Learning Applications In Malware Classification: A Metaanalysis Literature Review, Tjada Nelson, Austin O'Brien, Cherie Noteboom

Research & Publications

With a text mining and bibliometrics approach, this study reviews the literature on the evolution of malware classification using machine learning. This work takes literature from 2008 to 2022 on the subject of using machine learning for malware classification to understand the impact of this technology on malware classification. Throughout this study, we seek to answer three main research questions: RQ1: Is the application of machine learning for malware classification growing? RQ2: What is the most common machine-learning application for malware classification? RQ3: What are the outcomes of the most common machine learning applications? The analysis of 2186 articles resulting …

Animal Welfare - Environment - Sustainable Development Nexus: Scoping Study, Janice H. Cox

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

A detailed report on the links between animal welfare, environmental health and global sustainability. Issues discussed include climate change, biodiversity, pollution and waste management, one health, sustainable development and just transitions.

Biocontrol Activities Of Olive Endophytic Bacteria Isolates Against Pseudomonas Savastanoi, Avin Omer Ali, Tavga Sulaiman Rashid

Polytechnic Journal

Background and objectives: Olive knot disease caused by the phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas savastanoi affects olive cultivation in both quality and quantity. Endophytic bacteria are candidates for biocontrol agents according to previous research. Methods: In this study we collected samples (leaves and galls) randomly for pathogen and endophytic bacteria isolation from the different olive growing areas around Erbil including (Qucha Blbas, Grdasor, Sami Abdulrahman Park, and College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences) on June - October 2021. Results: Forty-six isolates of endophytic bacteria were obtained and tested against P. savastanoi. The result indicated that five isolates showed growth inhibition of the pathogen …

Ileap: An Intercultural Leadership Pilgrimage For Young Adults (Age 18-24), Elmarie Parker

Doctor of Leadership

The opportunity addressed in this research is to create an effective leadership capacity-building experience equipping young adults (18-24 years old) to practice justice, equity, reconciliation, and perseverance while positively impacting society in Lebanon and Oregon. iLEAP: An Intercultural Leadership Pilgrimage for Young Adults, is the result. My research has revealed that young adults want a learning environment that supports the cultivation of positive self-identity, meaningful connection with others, and agency. They want to develop cross-cultural friendships and collaborations and want to be equipped for effectively working with difference. Additionally, they want to cultivate visioning skills that lead to discerning and …

Dissociating Statistically Determined Normal Cognitive Abilities And Mild Cognitive Impairment Subtypes With Dctclock., Emily F. Matusz, Catherine C. Price, Melissa Lamar, Rod Swenson, Rhoda Au, Sheina Emrani, Victor Wasserman, David J Libon, Louisa I. Thompson

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the DCTclock can detect differences across groups of patients seen in the memory clinic for suspected dementia.

METHOD: Patients (n = 123) were classified into the following groups: cognitively normal (CN), subtle cognitive impairment (SbCI), amnestic cognitive impairment (aMCI), and mixed/dysexecutive cognitive impairment (mx/dysMCI). Nine outcome variables included a combined command/copy total score and four command and four copy indices measuring drawing efficiency, simple/complex motor operations, information processing speed, and spatial reasoning.

RESULTS: Total combined command/copy score distinguished between groups in all comparisons with medium to large effects. The mx/dysMCI group had the lowest total …

Reimagining The Church's New Member Experience Through Mutual Storytelling, Laura Holland

Doctor of Ministry

Most churches are great at welcoming visitors and have worked hard to develop their discipleship pipeline, but between these two stages where most churches focus and excel there is an experiential gap for new members. Looking into this gap more deeply, I discovered that despite guided assimilation processes, new church members feel abandoned when moved immediately to self-directed engagement. Providing for their unique needs increases their sense of belonging and commitment. Through conversations with church leaders, members, and those seeking to find church community, I noticed that this liminal period was the turning point in most of their stories, too …

Comparative Evaluation Of Biased Agonists Sarcosine , D-Alanine -Angiotensin (Ang) Ii (Sd Ang Ii) And Sarcosine , Isoleucine -Ang Ii (Si Ang Ii) And Their Radioiodinated Congeners Binding To Rat Liver Membrane At Receptors, Natalia M. Noto, Yazmin M. Restrepo, Hong W. Pang, Filipe Stoyell-Conti, Crystal A. West, Robert C. Speth, Nova Southeastern University

HPD Articles

Angiotensin II analogue and β-arrestin biased agonist TRV027 (Sarcosine , d-Alanine -Angiotensin (Ang) II; SD Ang II), developed by Trevena, Inc. in the early 2010s, brought hopes of a novel treatment for cardiovascular diseases, due to its ability to simultaneously cause signaling through the β-arrestin signaling pathway, while antagonizing the pathophysiological effects of Ang II mediated by the AT receptor G protein signaling cascades. However, a phase II clinical trial of this agent revealed no significant benefit compared to placebo treatment. Using I-Sarcosine , Isoleucine -Ang II ( I-SI Ang II) radioligand receptor competition binding assays, we assessed the relative …

Our Pearls Matter: Pcos Through The Lens Of Women Of Color And White Women, Kimberley Sheri Miles

Master's Theses

The prevalence of PCOS is increasing and due to the associated health complications, it is important to understand how higher-risk populations (women of color) cope with said condition. Analyzing current symptom management and treatment could help develop more practical resources and treatment strategies to help improve healthcare expectations and quality of life.

Ten women aged 22-38 with PCOS participated in comprehensive individual interviews with goal-oriented, semi-structured questions. A 27-question survey was also completed. Sampling was continued until data saturation was reached. The data was analyzed using the grounded theory technique which codes emergent themes with keywords and phrases which ultimately …

Dominant Ecological Processes And Plant Functional Strategies Change During The Succession Of A Subtropical Forest, Taotao Han, Hai Ren, Dafeng Hui, Yanpeng Zhu, Hongfang Lu, Qingfeng Guo, Jun Wang

Biology Faculty Research

Understanding community assembly process could enhance forest conservation and restoration, while which dominant ecological process drives the community assembly during forest succession is still controversial. In this study, the phylogeny-based and functional trait-based indicators were used to investigate the community assembly processes during forest succession in southern China. 30 dominant species and 33 functional trait indicators related to plant competition, reproduction, and defense strategies, 7 environmental factors related to light availability and soil nutrients, and species richness were selected to explore the dominant ecological processes during succession via Monte Carlo method, structural equation model, multiple linear regression, and one-way …

From The Organismal To Biosphere Levels: Environmental Impacts On The Amphibian Microbiota, Obed Hernandez-Gomez, Jessica Hua

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

This review summarizes the role of environmental factors on amphibian microbiotas at the organismal, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. At the organismal-level, tissue source, disease status, and experimental manipulations were the strongest predictors of variation in amphibian microbiotas. At the population-level, habitat quality, disease status, and ancestry were commonly documented as drivers of microbiota turnover. At the community-level, studies focused on how species’ niche influence microbiota structure and function. At the ecosystem-level, abiotic and biotic reservoirs were important contributors to microbiota structure. At the biosphere-level, databases, sample banks, and semi-natural experiments were commonly used to describe microbiota assembly mechanisms …

Capture Als: The Comprehensive Analysis Platform To Understand, Remedy And Eliminate Als, Vincent Picher-Martel, Claire Magnussen, Mathieu Blais, Tania M. Bubela, Samir Das, Annie Dionne, Alan C. Evans, Angela Genge, Russell Greiner, Yasser Iturria-Medina

Office of the Provost

The absence of disease modifying treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is in large part a consequence of its complexity and heterogeneity. Deep clinical and biological phenotyping of people living with ALS would assist in the development of effective treatments and target specific biomarkers to monitor disease progression and inform on treatment efficacy. The objective of this paper is to present the Comprehensive Analysis Platform To Understand Remedy and Eliminate ALS (CAPTURE ALS), an open and translational platform for the scientific community currently in development. CAPTURE ALS is a Canadian-based platform designed to include participants' voices in its development and …