Digital Commons Network^™

A Holistic Approach To Culturally Relevant Education In Biology To Examine Student Engagement, Robyn Brooke Biery

Theses and Dissertations

Recognizing that many students were disengaged in my grade-level biology class, this study sought to improve student engagement as a result of the implementation of CRE-enriched instruction and to describe themes associated with CRE and engagement. This qualitative action research study used a survey, exit tickets, and observations to discover emergent themes as a result of implementing CRE-enriched lessons. This action research study used member checking and disconfirming evidence to increase rigor and transferability. The results were that the use of CRE-enriched lessons increased the engagement of grade-level students in biology, and that engagement requires a two-pronged approach – cultural …

Telomere Biology Disorders: Time For Moving Towards The Clinic?, Luis F Z Batista, Inderjeet Dokal, Roy Parker

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Telomere biology disorders (TBDs) are a group of rare diseases caused by mutations that impair telomere maintenance. Mutations that cause reduced levels of TERC/hTR, the telomerase RNA component, are found in most TBD patients and include loss-of-function mutations in hTR itself, in hTR-binding proteins [NOP10, NHP2, NAF1, ZCCHC8, and dyskerin (DKC1)], and in proteins required for hTR processing (PARN). These patients show diverse clinical presentations that most commonly include bone marrow failure (BMF)/aplastic anemia (AA), pulmonary fibrosis, and liver cirrhosis. There are no curative therapies for TBD patients. An understanding of hTR biogenesis, maturation, and degradation has identified pathways and …

A Novel Piggyback Strategy For Mrna Delivery Exploiting Adenovirus Entry Biology, Myungeun Lee, Paul J Rice-Boucher, Logan Thrasher Collins, Ernst Wagner, Lorenzo Aulisa, Jeffrey Hughes, David T Curiel

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Molecular therapies exploiting mRNA vectors embody enormous potential, as evidenced by the utility of this technology for the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, broad implementation of these promising strategies has been restricted by the limited repertoires of delivery vehicles capable of mRNA transport. On this basis, we explored a strategy based on exploiting the well characterized entry biology of adenovirus. To this end, we studied an adenovirus-polylysine (AdpL) that embodied "piggyback" transport of the mRNA on the capsid exterior of adenovirus. We hypothesized that the efficient steps of Ad binding, receptor-mediated entry, and capsid-mediated endosome escape could provide an …

Undergraduate Student Publishes Sleep Research Paper, Erin Garrett

University of Mississippi News

UM senior studies correlation between brain anatomy and sleep duration

Not The Same Cure: Student Experiences In Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Vary By Graduate Teaching Assistant, Emma C. Goodwin, Jessica R. Cary, Erin E. Shortlidge

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

To expose all undergraduate science students to the benefits of participating in research, many universities are integrating course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) into their introductory biology laboratory curriculum. At large institutions, the bulk of introductory labs are instructed by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). Graduate students, who are often teachers and researchers in training, may vary in their capacity to effectively teach undergraduates via the CURE model. To explore variation in GTA teaching and the subsequent outcomes for students, we used a case study research design at one institution where introductory biology students participate in GTA-taught CURE lab sections. We used …

A Study Of Multiple Sclerosis, Christine Chen

The Cardinal Edge

No abstract provided.

Parasitisation Of Weaver Ants By A Species Of Smicromorpha Girault (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae: Smicromorphinae) And Unequivocal Evidence Of Its Presence In The Afrotropical Region, Robert S. Copeland, Bethelihem Mekonnen, Gerard Delvare

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Smicromorpha Girault (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) is distributed in the old world tropics and subtropics from Australia through New Guinea, Southeast and South Asia. Since its original description in 1913 conclusive evidence of its host has been lacking although it has been collected in association with weaver ants (Oecophylla spp.; Formicidae: Formicinae) either in proximity to ant nests or, on one occasion, reared from one. In this paper we report the presence of Smicromorpha pupae within the gaster of Oecophylla longinoda workers from a nest collected in coastal Kenya. This discovery extends the distribution of Smicromorpha to the Afrotropical Region and demonstrates …

Addition Of Retinoic Acid-Inducible Gene 1 To Ebola Virus-Like Particles To Enhance Virus-Like Particle Vaccines, Elizabeth Pautz

Student Research and Creative Projects 2021-2022

The long-term goal of this study is to investigate if human monocytes treated with Ebola virus (EBOV) virus-like particles (VLPs) supplemented with a constitutively active form of retinoic acid-inducible gene 1 (caRIG-I) induce an inflammatory response in vitro.

Treehopper Species Differential: Entylia Carinata And Pubilia Concava, Matthew Savage

Student Research and Creative Projects 2021-2022

Purpose of the research was to determine if Entylia carinata and Publilia concava are two different species. Planned outcomes going into the project was that the two weren't going to be different species. DNA was extracted from a certain amount of treehopper nymphs and adults and PCR were run which ended up being inconclusive Due to the PCR being inconclusive further research will continue. The main reason being different Primers need to be used to get one band instead of multi-banded PCRs when it comes to being run on gels.

Stem Cell Modelling Of Human Disease, Kristian Kennedy

Student Research and Creative Projects 2021-2022

The purpose of the project was the establish an iPSC line at WSU to provide current and future students with stem cell culture training and experience. Another purpose of this project was to optimize freezing, thawing, propagation, and neural differentiation protocols for future students to use at WSU.

Investigation Of The Mitogenic Activity Of Bacuovirus Fibroblast Growth Factors In Insect And Mammalian Cell Cultures, Korey Brist

Student Research and Creative Projects 2021-2022

No abstract provided.

Tiny Earth: Reverse Antibiosis Approach, Lucas Joseph

Student Research and Creative Projects 2021-2022

The Tiny Earth project is a global effort to address the growing antibiotic resistance crisis, and aims to find new antibiotic producing bacteria within soil. The crisis has been attributed to the misuse and overuse of this type of drug. This has produced strains of bacteria that can resist most drugs known today, and a few of the more notable of these bacteria are known as the ESKAPE strains (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species). These pathogens are in the top three threats to global health, and finding new types of antibiotics are …

Screening For Evolutionary Conserved Genes Specific To Myelin Sheath Targeting, Kelsey J. Sobeck

Student Research and Creative Projects 2021-2022

No abstract provided.

Short-Eared Owl Land-Use Associations During The Breeding Season In The Western United States, Robert A. Miller, Joseph B. Buchanan, Theresa L. Pope, Jay D. Carlisle, Colleen E. Moulton, Travis L. Booms

Intermountain Bird Observatory Publications and Presentations

The Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) is a species of conservation concern in the western USA, with evidence for declining population sizes. Monitoring of Short-eared Owls is complicated because of their low site fidelity and nomadic movements. We recruited community-science participants to implement a multi-year survey of Short-eared Owls across eight states in the western USA, resulting in a program of sufficient temporal and spatial dimensions to overcome many of the challenges in monitoring this species. We implemented both multi-scale occupancy and colonization/extinction modeling to provide insights into land-cover use, and to identify which cover types supported higher occurrence. …

Importance Of Flood Irrigation For Foraging Colonial Waterbirds, Colleen E. Moulton, Jay D. Carlisle, Sonya J. Knetter, Kathryn Brenner, Robert A. Cavallaro

Intermountain Bird Observatory Publications and Presentations

For a colonial‐nesting bird, like the white‐faced ibis (Plegadis chihi), the landscape surrounding the breeding colony can be important. White‐faced ibis must rely on areas outside their breeding colony for foraging, but this part of their life history has received little attention, and the management of this landscape even less so. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted road‐based driving surveys and a randomly selected, spatially balanced sample survey of agricultural fields within a 22‐km radius of the 2 largest white‐ faced ibis breeding colonies in Idaho, USA: Market Lake Wildlife Management Area and Mud Lake Wildlife Management …

Understanding "Death": Creating Student Opportunities For Meaningful Emotional Expression In The Science Classroom, Zachary Schafer, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Understanding death as natural and integral to life cycles has been considered crucial and relevant in science teaching. The concept of death not only defines the physical end of life but also the end of a cycle and the beginnings of transformation. Adopting a broader definition of death thus empowers educators to directly address the affect and emotion that occurs for all students.

Decoupled Land And Ocean Temperature Trends In The Early-Middle Pleistocene, Hongxuan Lu, Weiguo Liu, Hong Yang, Qin Leng, Zhonghui Liu, Yunning Cao, Jing Hu, Weijuan Sheng, Huanye Wang, Zheng Wang, Zeke Zhang, Youbin Sun, Weijian Zhou, Zhisheng An

Science and Technology Department Faculty Journal Articles

Record of long-term land temperature changes remains ephemeral, discontinuous, and isolated, thus leaving the common view that Pleistocene land temperature evolution should have followed ocean temperatures unconfirmed. Here, we present a continuous land surface temperature reconstruction in the Asian monsoon region over the past 3.0 Myr based on the distribution of soil bacterial lipids from the Chinese Loess Plateau. The land temperature record indicates an unexpected warming trend over the Pleistocene, which is opposite to the cooling trend in Pleistocene ocean temperatures, resulting in increased land-sea thermal contrast. We propose that the previously unrecognized increase of land-sea thermal contrast during …

Assessing Changes In Freshwater And Marine Food Web Connections Following Restoration On The Penobscot River, Maine, Using Stable Isotope Analysis, Matthew Brewer Ms

Student Scholarship

Oiadromous fish provide ecological subsidies to freshwater and marine food

webs, connecting both ecosystems. A main goal of the Penobscot River Restoration

Project was to increase connectivity between food webs by removing two mainstem

dams, improving fish passage, and reintroducing river herring through stocking.

Oiadromous fish now reach historic spawning habitat that was not accessible for

centuries. As a result, river herring runs in the Penobscot River increased from

2,336 fish in 2009 to over 3 million fish by 2018. To assess food web connectivity in

the Penobscot watershed, I analyzed stable isotopes from samples collected before

(2009-2010) and after …

Diversity Of Bees In Trees On An Urban College Campus, Aidan Castricone

Biology Student Scholarship

It is well known that insect pollinator populations are declining and a lack of nutrients (i.e flowering plants) may be a contributor to this decline. Insect pollinators forage for pollen and nectar, which provides proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, from flowering plants. Current research on pollinator foraging behavior focuses on pollinators that forage on the ground thus overlooking those that forage in trees. Trees such as Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) and crabapple (Malus sp.) bloom in early Spring, even before herbaceous perennials and forbs. Thus trees are likely the only places for early flying pollinators to find food. …

Assessment Of Population Size, Survival, And Movement Behavior Of The Rare Frosted Elfin Butterfly, Breelyn Gilbert

Biology Student Scholarship

The frosted elfin butterfly (Callophrys irus) is a locally rare Lycaenaid with spotty distribution throughout the eastern United States. As host plant specialists, frosted elfins only lay eggs on two plant species. Yellow wild indigo (Baptisia tinctoria), one of the host plants for this species, is found in abundance at Gavins Pond (Foxboro MA). Since 2000, Massachusetts Butterfly Club members have been informally monitoring the frosted elfin population at this site; however, no systematic population surveys have been done. Using their data, I estimated annual population size from 2000 to 2022. In 2022, I also performed …

Floral Nutritional Value And Plant-Pollinator Interactions In Providence, Rhode Island, Gracey Sorensen

Biology Student Scholarship

Bees obtain nutrients from flowers. Pollen provides proteins and fats; nectar provides carbohydrates and some amino acids. With recent decline in pollinator populations, conservationists are interested in providing nutritious plants for pollinators. Counterintuitively, urban areas have the green space for pollinator friendly plantings. On Providence College’s urban campus, I examined how floral abundance and pollinator interactions correlate to the nutritional value of plant species. Quadrat surveys were performed within 53 quadrats through the Spring and Summer for plant-pollinator interactions. Pollen was collected from all flowering species and analyzed for nitrogen and carbon content using an elemental analyzer. Nectar samples were …

Leaders For Tomorrow' Recipients Aim High At Ole Miss, Erin Garrett

University of Mississippi News

Incoming freshmen awarded Annexstad Family Foundation scholarships

Early Miocene Redwood Fossils From Inner Mongolia: Co2 Reconstructions And Paleoclimate Effects Of A Low Mongolian Plateau, Jia-Qi Liang, Qin Leng, Liang Xiao, Daianne F. Hofig, Dana L. Royer, Yi Ge Zhang, Hong Yang

Science and Technology Department Faculty Journal Articles

The early Miocene (~16–23 Ma) marks a critical transition in the Earth climate history from an Oligocene (~23–34 Ma) cooling trend towards the well-documented warm middle Miocene Climate Optimum at ~ 15 Ma. In eastern Asia, this transition links changes of key topographic features, such as the Tibetan plateau and the Mongolian plateau, and their impact on the reorganization of climate systems, such as the Eastern Asian summer monsoon. Yet the dynamics of the interplay among these factors remain poorly understood, precluding our understanding of future climate changes. Global temperatures during the early Miocene were warmer than the present day …

Left Sided Breast Cancer Is Associated With Aggressive Biology And Worse Outcomes Than Right Sided Breast Cancer, Yara Abdou, Medhavi Gupta, Mariko Asaoka, Kristopher Attwood, Opyrchal Mateusz, Shipra Gandhi, Kazuaki Takabe

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Breast cancer is more common on the left side than the right side. We aim to evaluate differences in clinicopathological and genomic characteristics based on laterality. We analyzed survival outcomes and clinical characteristics of 881,320 patients recorded by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was used to explore genomic and clinical features from 1,062 patients. Gene expression data was used to quantitate cytolytic activity and hallmark gene-sets were used for gene set enrichment analysis. An institutional retrospective review was conducted on 155 patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). Patient characteristics were summarized by …

Exploring Biology Beyond The Classroom, Staff Report

University of Mississippi News

Off-campus courses give students hands-on opportunities in biodiversity locations

Evaluating Bat Roost Abundance: A Comparison Of Drone-Acquired Thermal Imagery And Acoustic Estimates With Visual Observations, Karah Jaffe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Roosts provide an opportunity to census philopatric populations of bats. Comparing the efficacy of traditional methods with novel methods can provide guidance on the use of new technologies in the field. This project aims to compare the count efficacy of external emergence methodologies, i.e., drone-acquired thermal imagery, acoustic estimates, and visual counts. Surveys were conducted ten nights at two emergence sites and synchronized to compare counts. Acoustic estimates could not be established as there was a weak prediction of the linear relationship between root-mean-square pressure and emergence count; therefore, this method was removed from the comparative analysis. A linear mixed-effects …

Synopsis Of The Tribe Amarotypini In New Zealand (Coleoptera: Carabidae), André Larochelle, Marie-Claude Larivière

Insecta Mundi

The tribe Amarotypini (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Migadopinae) is revised for New Zealand. Three genera and fourteen species are recognized.

Two genera and thirteen species are described as new: Amarophilus Larochelle and Larivière new genus, Amarophilus lomondensis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarophilus otagoensis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarophilus rotundicollis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarophilus wanakensis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarotypus fiordlandensis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarotypus glasgowensis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarotypus murchisonorum Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarotypus simoninensis Larochelle and Larivière new species, Amarotypus takaheensis …

Tissue Decay Tested In Modern Metasequoia Leaves: Implications For Early Diagenesis Of Leaves In Fossil Lagerstätten, Caitlyn R. Witkowski, Qin Leng, Christopher W. Reid, Liang Feng, Hong Yang

Science and Technology Department Faculty Journal Articles

Sedimentary deposits yielding extraordinarily-preserved fossils (known as Lagerstätten) may provide significant insights into the physiology and environments of ancient plants, particularly when the fossils represent their original characteristics with limited diagenetic modifications. To better understand molecular, isotopic, and morphological changes during the early stages of diagenesis, degradation experiments were conducted in two time series: 1) a laboratory decay series using fungi on leaves over the course of a month and 2) a natural decay series with leaves collected from different stages of leaf senescence and early diagenesis. Both experiments used modern leaves of the dawn redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides …

Bio 120: General Biology Oer Curation, Erica L. Schiller

Curated OER Collections

This OER curation is an annotated bibliography of prospective OER for the GVSU course BIO 120: General Biology.

Investigating Roles Of 2 Novel Eklf Targets Involved In Erythropoiesis, Rose M. Gott

ETD Archive

Erythrocytes are primarily comprised of the oxygen carrying protein hemoglobin. Genetic mutations causing defects in the proper synthesis of hemoglobin result in various anemias. It is during the last phases of terminal erythroid differentiation that hemoglobin levels rise, making it a focus for therapeutic research. Fetal hemoglobin is comprised of ⍺-globin and gamma globin, then after a change in gene expression called hemoglobin switching which takes place after birth, adult hemoglobin is comprised of ⍺-globin and beta globin. We investigated hemoglobin switching and erythroid terminal differentiation by focusing on the master erythroid transcription factor Erythroid Krüppel-like Factor (EKLF). Data led …