Digital Commons Network^™

Post-Covid-19 Cognitive Symptoms In Patients Assisted By A Teleassistance Service: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Lívia Paula Freire Bonfim, Thais Rotsen Correa, Bruno Cabaleiro Cortizo Freire, Thais Marques Pedroso, Daniella Nunes Pereira, Thalita Baptisteli Fernandes, Luciane Kopittke, Clara Rodrigues Alves De Oliveira, Antonio Lucio Teixeira, Milena Soriano Marcolino

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the frequency of long-term post-COVID-19 cognitive symptoms is a matter of concern given the impact it may have on the work and quality of life of affected people.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence of post-acute COVID-19 cognitive symptoms, as well as the associated risk factors.

METHODS: Retrospective cohort, including outpatients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and who were assisted by a public telehealth service provided by the Telehealth Network of Minas Gerais (TNMG), during the acute phase of the disease, between December/2020 and March/2022. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire, applied …

Healthcare Resource Utilization, Costs And Treatment Associated With Myasthenia Gravis Exacerbations Among Patients With Myasthenia Gravis In The Usa: A Retrospective Analysis Of Claims Data, Julia Pisc, Angela Ting, Michelle Skornicki, Omar Sinno, Edward Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Aim: There are limited data on the clinical and economic burden of exacerbations in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG). We assessed patient clinical characteristics, treatments and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) associated with MG exacerbation. Patients & methods: This was a retrospective analysis of adult patients with MG identified by commercial, Medicare or Medicaid insurance claims from the IBM® MarketScan® database. Eligible patients had two or more MG diagnosis codes, without evidence of exacerbation or crisis in the baseline period (12 months prior to index [first eligible MG diagnosis]). Clinical characteristics were evaluated at baseline and 12 weeks before each exacerbation. …

The Contribution Of Amyloid Deposition In The Aortic Valve To Calcification And Aortic Stenosis, Romeesa Khan, Claudia M Di Gesù, Juneyoung Lee, Louise D Mccullough

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Trillions of microbes live symbiotically in the host, specifically in mucosal tissues such as the gut. Recent advances in metagenomics and metabolomics have revealed that the gut microbiota plays a critical role in the regulation of host immunity and metabolism, communicating through bidirectional interactions in the microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGBA). The gut microbiota regulates both gut and systemic immunity and contributes to the neurodevelopment and behaviors of the host. With aging, the composition of the microbiota changes, and emerging studies have linked these shifts in microbial populations to age-related neurological diseases (NDs). Preclinical studies have demonstrated that gut microbiota-targeted therapies can …

The Emerging Role Of Notch3 Receptor Signalling In Human Lung Diseases, Grant W Goodman, Patrick Devlin, Bryce E West, Rodney M Ritzel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The recent identification of skull bone marrow as a reactive hematopoietic niche that can contribute to and direct leukocyte trafficking into the meninges and brain has transformed our view of this bone structure from a solid, protective casing to a living, dynamic tissue poised to modulate brain homeostasis and neuroinflammation. This emerging concept may be highly relevant to injuries that directly impact the skull such as in traumatic brain injury (TBI). From mild concussion to severe contusion with skull fracturing, the bone marrow response of this local myeloid cell reservoir has the potential to impact not just the acute inflammatory …

Voluntary Wheel Running Prevents Formation Of Membrane Attack Complexes And Myelin Degradation After Peripheral Nerve Injury, Suzanne M Green-Fulgham, Michael J Lacagnina, Kendal F Willcox, Jiahe Li, Michael E Harland, Adriano Polican Ciena, Igor R Correia Rocha, Jayson B Ball, Renee A Dreher, Younus A Zuberi, Joseph M Dragavon, Marucia Chacur, Steven F Maier, Linda R Watkins, Peter M Grace

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Regular aerobic activity is associated with a reduced risk of chronic pain in humans and rodents. Our previous studies in rodents have shown that prior voluntary wheel running can normalize redox signaling at the site of peripheral nerve injury, attenuating subsequent neuropathic pain. However, the full extent of neuroprotection offered by voluntary wheel running after peripheral nerve injury is unknown. Here, we show that six weeks of voluntary wheel running prior to chronic constriction injury (CCI) reduced the terminal complement membrane attack complex (MAC) at the sciatic nerve injury site. This was associated with increased expression of the MAC inhibitor …

Impact Of Maternal Depressive Symptoms On Offspring Executive Functions: A Systematic Review, Júlia De Souza Rodrigues, María Pastor-Valero, Lucas R Trambaiolli, Ana Beatriz Bozzini, Alicia Matijasevich

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a thorough examination of the current understanding of the effect of maternal depression exposure on the executive functions (EFs) of offspring.

METHODS: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement, a comprehensive search for peer-reviewed cohort studies was performed on the MEDLINE (via PubMed), ScienceDirect, LILACS, PsycINFO, and SciELO databases. Study quality was assessed using the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. The evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation framework.

RESULTS: Thirty-three cohort studies from different countries, …

Endoscopic Innovations In Diagnosis And Management Of Pancreatic Cancer: A Narrative Review And Future Directions, Prateek Suresh Harne, Vaishali Harne, Curtis Wray, Nirav Thosani

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pancreatic cancer serves as the third leading cause of cancer-associated morbidity and mortality in the United States, with a 5-year survival rate of only 12% with an expected increase in incidence and mortality in the coming years. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas constitute most pancreatic malignancies. Certain genetic syndromes, including Lynch syndrome, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome, hereditary pancreatitis, familial adenomatous polyposis, Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, familial pancreatic cancer mutation, and ataxia telangiectasia, confer a significantly higher risk. Screening for pancreatic malignancies currently targets patients with germline mutations or those with significant family history. Screening the general population is not currently viable owing …

Quantifying The Effect Of 4-Dimensional Computed Tomography-Based Deformable Dose Accumulation On Representing Radiation Damage For Patients With Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated With Standard-Fractionated Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy, Yulun He, Guillaume Cazoulat, Carol Wu, Stina Svensson, Lusmeralis Almodovar-Abreu, Bastien Rigaud, Emma Mccollum, Christine Peterson, Zachary Wooten, Dong Joo Rhee, Peter Balter, Julianne Pollard-Larkin, Carlos Cardenas, Laurence Court, Zhongxing Liao, Radhe Mohan, Kristy Brock

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the dosimetric and clinical effects of 4-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT)-based longitudinal dose accumulation in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with standard-fractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

Methods and materials: Sixty-seven patients were retrospectively selected from a randomized clinical trial. Their original IMRT plan, planning and verification 4DCTs, and ∼4-month posttreatment follow-up CTs were imported into a commercial treatment planning system. Two deformable image registration algorithms were implemented for dose accumulation, and their accuracies were assessed. The planned and accumulated doses computed using average-intensity images or phase images were …

Sustained Pain And Macrophage Infiltration In A Mouse Muscle Contusion Model, Ibdanelo Cortez, Caitlyn M Gaffney, Caitlin V Crelli, Eric Lee, James M Nichols, Hoang Vu Pham, Syed Mehdi, Jelena M Janjic, Andrew J Shepherd

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction/aims: Prior studies have emphasized the role of inflammation in the response to injury and muscle regeneration, but little emphasis has been placed on characterizing the relationship between innate inflammation, pain, and functional impairment. The aim of our study was to determine the contribution of innate immunity to prolonged pain following muscle contusion.

Methods: We developed a closed-impact mouse model of muscle contusion and a macrophage-targeted near-infrared fluorescent nanoemulsion. Closed-impact contusions were delivered to the lower left limb. Pain sensitivity, gait dysfunction, and inflammation were assessed in the days and weeks post-contusion. Macrophage accumulation was imaged in vivo by injecting …

Multi-Task Learning With High-Dimensional Noisy Images, Xin Ma, Suprateek Kundu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Recent medical imaging studies have given rise to distinct but inter-related datasets corresponding to multiple experimental tasks or longitudinal visits. Standard scalar-on-image regression models that fit each dataset separately are not equipped to leverage information across inter-related images, and existing multi-task learning approaches are compromised by the inability to account for the noise that is often observed in images. We propose a novel joint scalar-on-image regression framework involving wavelet-based image representations with grouped penalties that are designed to pool information across inter-related images for joint learning, and which explicitly accounts for noise in high-dimensional images via a projection-based approach. In …

Single-Cell Rna Sequencing Analysis Identifies Acute Changes In The Tumor Microenvironment Induced By Interferon Α Gene Therapy In A Murine Bladder Cancer Model, Alexis R Steinmetz, Morgan Pierce, Alberto Martini, Come Tholomier, Ganiraju Manyam, Yan Chen, Akshay Sood, Jonathan J Duplisea, Burles A Johnson, Bogdan A Czerniak, Byron H Lee, Chinnaswamy Jagannath, Seppo Yla-Herttuala, Nigel R Parker, David J Mcconkey, Colin P Dinney, Sharada Mokkapati

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Nadofaragene firadenovec (Ad-IFNα/Syn3) is now approved for BCG-unresponsive bladder cancer (BLCA). IFNα is a pleiotropic cytokine that causes direct tumor cell killing via TRAIL-mediated apoptosis, angiogenesis inhibition, and activation of the innate and adaptive immune system. We established an immunocompetent murine BLCA model to study the effects of murine adenoviral IFNα (muAd-Ifnα) gene therapy on cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment using a novel murine equivalent of Nadofaragene firadenovec (muAd-Ifnα).

Methods: Tumors were induced by instilling MB49 cells into the bladders of mice; luciferase imaging confirmed tumor development. Mice were treated with adenovirus control (Ad-Ctrl; empty vector), or muAd-Ifnα …

Multiplex Spatial Analysis Reveals Increased Cd137 Expression And M-Mdsc Neighboring Tumor Cells In Refractory Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma, José L Solórzano, Victoria Menéndez, Edwin Parra, Luisa Solis, Ruth Salazar, Mónica García-Cosío, Fina Climent, Sara Fernández, Eva Díaz, Alejandro Francisco-Cruz, Joseph Khoury, Mei Jiang, Auriole Tamegnon, Carlos Montalbán, Ignacio Melero, Ignacio Wistuba, Carlos De Andrea, Juan F García

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Hodgkin and Reed - Sternberg (HRS) cells in classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL) actively modify the immune tumor microenvironment (TME) attracting immunosuppressive cells and expressing inhibitory molecules. A high frequency of myeloid cells in the TME is correlated with an unfavorable prognosis, but more specific and rare cell populations lack precise markers. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been identified in the peripheral blood of cHL patients, where they appear to be correlated with disease aggressiveness. TNFRSF9 (CD137) is a T cell co-stimulator expressed by monocytic and dendritic cells. Its expression has also been described in HRS cells, where it is …

Treatment Comparisons In Adaptive Platform Trials Adjusting For Temporal Drift, Beibei Guo, Li Wang, Ying Yuan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

An adaptive platform trial (APT) is a multi-arm trial in the context of a single disease where treatment arms are allowed to enter or leave the trial based on some decision rule. If a treatment enters the trial later than the control arm, there exist non-concurrent controls who were not randomized between the two arms under comparison. As APTs typically take long periods of time to conduct, temporal drift may occur, which requires the treatment comparisons to be adjusted for this temporal change. Under the causal inference framework, we propose two approaches for treatment comparisons in APTs that account for …

Fa4sans-Gan: A Novel Machine Learning Generative Adversarial Network To Further Understand Ophthalmic Changes In Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (Sans), Sharif Amit Kamran, Khondker Fariha Hossain, Joshua Ong, Ethan Waisberg, Nasif Zaman, Salah A Baker, Andrew G Lee, Alireza Tavakkoli

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: To provide an automated system for synthesizing fluorescein angiography (FA) images from color fundus photographs for averting risks associated with fluorescein dye and extend its future application to spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) detection in spaceflight where resources are limited.

DESIGN: Development and validation of a novel conditional generative adversarial network (GAN) trained on limited amount of FA and color fundus images with diabetic retinopathy and control cases.

PARTICIPANTS: Color fundus and FA paired images for unique patients were collected from a publicly available study.

METHODS: FA4SANS-GAN was trained to generate FA images from color fundus photographs using 2 …

From Mitochondria To Tumor Suppression: Acat1’S Crucial Role In Gastric Cancer, Wei He, Yanfang Li, Song-Bai Liu, Ying Chang, Shiyuan Han, Xingyu Han, Zixin Ma, Hesham M Amin, Yao-Hua Song, Jin Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Acetyl CoA acetyltransferase 1 (ACAT1), a mitochondrial enzyme, is mainly involved in the formation and decomposition of ketones, isoleucine, and fatty acids. Previous clinical studies showed that mutations in the ACAT1 gene lead to ketoacidosis, Notably the role of ACAT1 in human cancer' pathogenesis varies depending on cancer type, and its specific role in gastric cancer remains largely unknown. In the current study, we found that the expression of ACAT1 in primary late-stage gastric cancer tumor tissues was significantly lower than in early-stage tumors. This observation was further confirmed in high-grade gastric cancer cell line MKN45. The expression of CD44 …

Benzoquinone Ligand-Enabled Ruthenium-Catalyzed Deaminative Coupling Of 2-Aminoaryl Aldehydes And Ketones With Branched Amines For Regioselective Synthesis Of Quinoline Derivatives, Krishna Prasad Gnyawali, Aldiyar Shakenov, Pandula T. Kirinde Arachchige, Chae S. Yi

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

The catalytic system generated in situ from the cationic Ru–H complex [(C₆H₆)(PCy₃)(CO)RuH]⁺BF₄– (1) with 2,3,4,5-tetrachloro-1,2-benzoquinone (L1) was found to be highly effective for promoting the deaminative coupling reaction of 2-aminoaryl aldehydes with branched amines to form 2-substituted quinoline products. The analogous deaminative coupling reaction of 2-aminoaryl ketones with branched amines led to the regioselective formation of 2,4-disubstituted quinoline products. A number of biologically active quinoline derivatives including graveolinine and a triplex DNA intercalator have been synthesized by using the catalytic method.

Anticancer Drugs Of Lysine Specific Histone Demethylase-1 (Lsd1) Display Variable Inhibition On Nucleosome Substrates, Dulmi Senanayaka, Danyun Zeng, Emre Deniz, Indunil K. Priyankara, Joceline Helmbreck, Owen Schneider, Aashay Mardikar, Aykut Uren, Nicholas J. Reiter

Chemistry Faculty Research and Publications

Lysine specific demethylase-1 (LSD1) serves as a regulator of transcription and represents a promising epigenetic target for anticancer treatment. LSD1 inhibitors are in clinical trials for the treatment of Ewing’s sarcoma (EWS), acute myeloid leukemia, and small cell lung cancer, and the development of robust inhibitors requires accurate methods for probing demethylation, potency, and selectivity. Here, the inhibition kinetics on the H3K4me2 peptide and nucleosome substrates was examined, comparing the rates of demethylation in the presence of reversible [CC-90011 (PD) and SP-2577 (SD)] and irreversible [ORY-1001 (ID) and tranylcypromine (TCP)] inhibitors. Inhibitors were also subject to viability studies in three …

Systemic Treatment Of Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer: Asco Resource-Stratified Guideline, Sana Al Sukhun, Sarah Temin, Carlos H Barrios, Nicoleta Zenovia Antone, Yanin Chavarri Guerra, Mariana Chavez-Macgregor, Rakesh Chopra, Michael A Danso, Henry Leonidas Gomez, N'Da Marcelin Homian, Alaa Kandil, Benda Kithaka, Bogda Koczwara, Beverly Moy, Gertrude Nakigudde, Fernando Enrique Petracci, Hope S Rugo, Nagi S El Saghir, Banu K Arun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: To guide clinicians and policymakers in three global resource-constrained settings on treating patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) when Maximal setting-guideline recommended treatment is unavailable.

Methods: A multidisciplinary, multinational panel reviewed existing ASCO guidelines and conducted modified ADAPTE and formal consensus processes.

Results: Four published resource-agnostic guidelines were adapted for resource-constrained settings; informing two rounds of formal consensus; recommendations received ≥75% agreement.

Recommendations: Clinicians should recommend treatment according to menopausal status, pathological and biomarker features when quality results are available. In first-line, for hormone receptor (HR)-positive MBC, when a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor and CDK 4/6 inhibitor combination is unavailable, …

Mental Health Prevention And Treatment Programs For Infants Experiencing Homelessness: A Systematic Review, Megan M Hare, Taylor D Landis, Melissa Hernandez, Paulo A Graziano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Experiencing homelessness in infancy has been linked to negative physical and mental health outcomes. Parental well-being and the parent-infant relationship can also be negatively impacted by experiencing homelessness. While numerous parent-based infant mental health programs have been identified by a recent review, the goal of this study was to further determine the extent to which these existing programs were developed and/or examined with at-risk populations such as families experiencing homelessness. Out of 60 programs identified by Hare et al., in press, only three had been implemented specifically in shelter settings with infants 0-12 months (Parent-Infant Psychotherapy, New Beginnings, and My …

Exploring The Association Between Structural Racism And Mental Health: Geospatial And Machine Learning Analysis, Fahimeh Mohebbi, Amir Masoud Forati, Lucas Torres, Terri A. Deroon-Cassini, Jennifer Harris, Carissa W. Tomas, John R. Mantsch, Rina Ghose

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Background:

Structural racism produces mental health disparities. While studies have examined the impact of individual factors such as poverty and education, the collective contribution of these elements, as manifestations of structural racism, has been less explored. Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, with its racial and socioeconomic diversity, provides a unique context for this multifactorial investigation.

Objective:

This research aimed to delineate the association between structural racism and mental health disparities in Milwaukee County, using a combination of geospatial and deep learning techniques. We used secondary data sets where all data were aggregated and anonymized before being released by federal agencies.

Methods:

We …

Intercropping Maize–Faba Bean Reduced Yield And Economiclosses Caused By Busseola Fusca (Fuller) In Semiarid Area, Tesfay Gidey, Daniel Hagos Berhe, Emiru Birhane, Haftu Abrha, Yirga Guf

All Grantees Publications

Climate change is impacting the sustainability of indigenous tree species. However, the impacts of climate change on African olivetree (Olea europaea subspecies Cuspidata) are less-explored. Tis study, conducted in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, aims to de-termine the impacts of climate change on the current and future distributions of the species. A total of 225 presence points andabundance of O. europaea within 20 m × 20 m plots at each location were collected. Additional input variables, such as the 19bioclimatic variables, 3 topographic variables, and Pedologic data, were used. Maxent software was employed to predict thedistribution of the species under current and …

First Report Of Penicillium Sclerotigenum Causing Post-Harvest Rotof Yam In Côte D’Ivoire, A Kamara, B Camara, A D. Armitage, O Ogunsanya, V Gouannou, D Koné

All Grantees Publications

Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is the third most produced non-cereal crop withglobal production of 72 million tonnes per year and is cultivated acrossWest Africa. With a production of over 7 million tonnes, Côte d’Ivoireis the world’s third largest producer and yam is the country’s main non-cereal food crop (Scott et al., 2020). However, the storage life of yamsis greatly reduced by post-harvest rots and previous studies revealedthat a range of fungi were responsible, including Aspergillus Botryodiplo-dia, Colletotrichum, Mucor and Penicillium species (Assiri Kouamé et al.,2017).

Insights On The Microbiology Of Ethiopian Fermented Milkproducts: A Review, Tiruha H. Karssa, Jamal B. Kussaga, Teresa Semedo-Lemsaddek, Jovin K. Mugula

All Grantees Publications

Fermented milk products play a vital role in the diets of Ethiopians. They are producedfrom either spontaneous fermentation or back- slopping methods at the householdlevel, in which lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts predominate. As a result, the pro-cessing steps are not standardized and overall safety is still of public health relevance.Therefore, quality and safety improvement, standardization of traditional manufac-turing practices, and commercialization of products to a wider market are important.Hence, this systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of themicrobiology of traditional Ethiopian fermented milk products, including ergo (spon-taneously fermented whole milk), dhanaan (fermented camel milk), ititu (concentratedsour …

Performance Assessment Of Biomass-Derived Urea-Furfuraldehyde Resins As Oilfield Scale Inhibitors, Cynthia Onyekachi Victor-Oji, Una Dominica, Onyewuchi Akaranta

All Grantees Publications

Oilfield-scale formation is a persistent challenge in the oil industry. While numerous scale inhibitors have been in use for decades, there is a significant research gap in discovering renewable, cost-effective, ecologically friendly, and efficient inhibitors. This study sets out to fill this gap by investigating the potential of scale inhibitors (SIs) made from bio-resin derivatives of red onion skin; ROF and ROFU, in reducing CaCO3 and CaSO4 scales. The scale inhibition performance of ROF and ROFU was rigorously evaluated using the NACE standard static bottle test method. The data revealed that increasing scale-inhibitor contact time, concentration, and temperature enhances inhibitor …

Rwandan Farmers’ Perceptions Of The Acoustic Environment And The Potential For Acoustic Monitoring, Destiny Kwabla Amenyedzi, Micheline Kazeneza, Frederic Nzanywayingoma, Philibert Nsengiyumva

All Grantees Publications

Monitoring the farm acoustic environment can provide important information about processes affecting crop production. This paper assesses farmers’ knowledge and attitudes toward acoustic technology for farm monitoring in Rwanda. Stratified random sampling was used to select 430 farmers from 3 sectors. Demographic, farm, and technical knowledge data were collected from farmers with a survey. Cross-tabulation results show farmers with secondary and university education are more interested in acoustic technology than those with a primary education and farmers engaged in commercial farming are more interested in technology for monitoring acoustic sources than subsistence farmers. However, nearly all farmers are willing to …

System Design For A Prototype Acoustic Network To Deter Avian Pests In Agriculture Fields, Destiny Kwabla Amenyedzi, Micheline Kazeneza, Ipyana Issah Mwaisekwa, Frederic Nzanywayingoma, Philibert Nsengiyumva, Peace Bamurigire, Emmanuel Ndashimye, Anthony Vodacek

All Grantees Publications

Crop damage attributed to pest birds is an important problem, particularly in low-income countries. This paper describes a prototype system for pest bird detection using a Conv1D neural network model followed by scaring actions to reduce the presence of pest birds on farms. Acoustic recorders were deployed on farms for data collection, supplemented by acoustic libraries. The sounds of pest bird species were identified and labeled. The labeled data were used in Edge Impulse to train a tinyML Conv1D model to detect birds of interest. The model was deployed on Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense (nodes) and XIAO (Base station) …

Flying Through The Air With The Greatest Of Ease? Evaluation Of Glide Capability In Basal Maniraptoran Theropods, Norah Zoller, Kierra Miller, Michael B. Habib, Hans C. Larsson, T. Alexander Deccechi

Annual Research Symposium

Pterosaurs, a lineage of Mesozoic flying archosaurs, include the largest flying animals ever known. Quetzalcoatlus nortropi a Late Cretaceous representative, had a wingspan of over 10 m and likely weighed more than 200 kg. It presents a combination of features (large head, massive wingspan, shoulder height equivalent to an extant giraYe) that has led to ecological interpretations of it as a major predator in the North American Maastrichtian Biome, perhaps second to only Tyrannosaurus rex. Here we examine the probability of that from an energetics perspective. Despite the great wingspan of Quetzalcoatlus, the body length (gleno- acetabular distance) is relatively …

Terror From The Skies?: Investigating The Energetics And Feeding Ecology Of One Of The Largest Pterosaurs: Quetzalcoatlus Northropi, Kierra Miller, T. Alexander Deccechi

Annual Research Symposium

Our goal is to assess the gut capacity and energetics requirements for Q. northropi in order to understand the role that it played when living.

Evaluating The Risk Posed By Gadolinium In The Grand River Watershed, Johann Memmel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Gadolinium (Gd) is a rare earth element (REE), primarily used in contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with additional applications in metallurgy, phosphors, neutron shielding, and other niche applications. Both Gd and Gd-based contrast agents (GBCAs, the form used for MRIs) have been detected downstream of wastewater effluent discharges and there is currently little research into the risk this poses to aquatic ecosystems. This study investigated the potential environmental risks of Gd and GBCAs using the Grand River watershed (GRW) in southwestern Ontario as a model ecosystem due to it containing a variety of land uses (urban, industrial, agricultural) …

Dual Suppression Of Glossina Pallidipes Using Entomopathogenic Fungal-Based Biopesticides And Sterile Insect Technique, Fidelis L.O. Ombura, Adly M.M. Abd-Alla, Komivi S. Akutse, Steven Runo, Paul O. Mireji, Rosemary Bateta, Joseck E. Otiwi, Inusa J. Ajene, Fathiya M. Khamis

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Tsetse flies and trypanosomosis significantly impact bovine production and human health in sub-Saharan Africa, exacerbating underdevelopment, malnutrition, and poverty. Despite various control strategies, long-term success has been limited. This study evaluates the combined use of entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) and the sterile insect technique (SIT) to combat tsetse flies. Eleven EPF isolates were tested against teneral males of Glossina pallidipes, focusing on mortality rates, radial growth, and impacts on fly fitness. Temperature effects on conidial growth, sporulation, and spore yield of SIT-compatible/tolerant strains were also assessed. The fungal isolates significantly influenced mortality rates in both unirradiated and irradiated (SIT-treated) males (p <  0.0001). Metarhizium anisopliae strains ICIPE 20, ICIPE 32, ICIPE 41, ICIPE 62, ICIPE 78, and Beauveria bassiana ICIPE 603 showed higher SIT compatibility/tolerance with LT50 values of 11–30 days, compared to other more virulent isolates with LT50 values of 4–9 days. Temperature significantly affected the radial growth of SIT-compatible EPF strains (p <  0.0001), with M. anisopliae ICIPE 78 exhibiting the fastest conidia growth at 25°C. Spore yield varied significantly across temperatures (15–40°C), and the thermal range for conidia germination of SIT-compatible strains was 8.1–45.4°C, with an optimal range of 26.7–31.1°C. Moreover, infected unirradiated females and irradiated males (donors) successfully transmitted conidia to untreated flies (receivers) without significant differences in survival rates (p = 0.6438) and no observed sex dimorphism. Our findings highlight the potential of combining EPF and SIT as a novel dual approach that could effectively and synergistically suppress tsetse fly populations.