Digital Commons Network^™

Ear Pinna Growth And Differentiation Is Conserved In Murids And Requires Bmp Signaling For Chondrocyte Proliferation, Robyn S. Allen, Shishir K. Biswas, Ashley W. Seifert

Biology Faculty Publications

Despite being a major target of reconstructive surgery, development of the ear pinna remains poorly studied. Here, we provide a cellular characterization of late gestational and postnatal ear pinna development in two rodents and investigate the role of BMP5 in expansion and differentiation of auricular elastic cartilage. We find that ear pinna development is largely conserved between Mus musculus and the highly regenerative Acomys dimidiatus. The pattern of pre-cartilaginous cells is established early in development. These cells are specified into chondroblasts before ear unfolding and then undergo extensive proliferation before maturation. The elastic cartilage, connective tissue fibroblasts, dermal papilla and …

Uav-Based Phytoforensics: Hyperspectral Image Analysis To Remotely Detect Explosives Using Maize (Zea Mays), Paul V. Manley, Stephen M. Via, Joel G. Burken

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Remnant explosive devices are a deadly nuisance to both military personnel and civilians. Traditional mine detection and clearing is dangerous, time-consuming, and expensive. And routine production and testing of explosives can create groundwater contamination issues. Remote detection methods could be rapidly deployed in vegetated areas containing explosives as they are known to cause stress in vegetation that is detectable with hyperspectral sensors. Hyperspectral imagery was employed in a mesocosm study comparing stress from a natural source (drought) to that of plants exposed to two different concentrations of Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX; 250 mg kg−1, 500 mg kg−1). Classification was accomplished …

Empowering Citizens Through The Development And Deployment Of A Community-Based Environmental Health Reporting Tool, Willow Sauermilch, Jennifer Irving, Margaret Reams, Chuqi Guo, Stephania Cormier, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Community-based participatory research provides communities with an avenue to actively collaborate with environmental researchers. The research aims to gain insight into critical problems of concern to community members while maintaining community autonomy over the research and its outcomes. This article describes the development and implementation of an environmental health communication tool designed to meet the needs of residents of Colfax, Louisiana, a rural community with limited technological access, which is engaging in advocacy with federal and state regulatory agencies to prohibit open burning and open detonation of military and Superfund wastes at a nearby thermal treatment site. We discuss how …

A Data-Driven Approach To Enhance The Prediction Of Bacteria–Metabolite Interactions In The Human Gut Microbiome Using Enzyme Encodings And Metabolite Structural Embeddings, Gopal Srivastava, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

Background: The human gut microbiome is critical for host health by facilitating essential metabolic processes. Our study presents a data-driven analysis across 312 bacterial species and 154 unique metabolites to enhance the understanding of underlying metabolic processes in gut bacteria. The focus of the study was to create a strategy to generate a theoretical (negative) set for binary classification models to predict the consumption and production of metabolites in the human gut microbiome. Results: Our models achieved median balanced accuracies of 0.74 for consumption predictions and 0.95 for production predictions, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach in generating reliable negative …

Interactive Effects Of Co2, Temperature, And Nitrate Limitation On The Growth And Physiology Of Strain Ccmp 1334 Of The Marine Cyanobacterium Synechococcus (Cyanophyceae), Alyssa K. Sharbaugh, Edward A. Laws

Faculty Publications

The marine cyanobacterium Synecococcus sp. (CCMP 1334) was grown in a continuous culture system on a 12:12 h light:dark cycle at all combinations of low and high pCO2 (400 and 1000 ppmv, respectively), nutrient availability (nitrate-limited and nutrient-replete conditions), and temperatures of 21, 24, 28, 32, and 35°C. The maximum nutrient-replete growth rate was ~1.15 day⁻¹ at 32–35°C. Median nutrient-replete growth rates were higher at 1000 ppmv than at 400 ppmv pCO2 at all temperatures. Carbon:nitrogen ratios were independent of pCO2 at a fixed relative growth rate (i.e., growth rate ÷ nutrient-replete growth rate) but decreased with increasing temperature. …

Butterfly Species Vary In Sex-Specific Sodium Accumulation From Larval Diets, Luis Y. Santiago-Rosario, Alexander M. Shephard, Emilie Snell-Rood, Achim D. Herrmann, Kyle E. Harms

Faculty Publications

Sodium is essential for animals, and its heterogeneous distribution can cause a range of phenomena, from sodium-seeking behaviours to impacting their performance. Although sodium content in soils and plants is relatively well documented, data for higher trophic levels are limited. Knowledge of the variation in sodium in lower trophic levels could have implications for understanding the behaviour and physiology of species at higher levels. We investigated the variation in tissue sodium concentration between males and females of four butterfly species. Puddling behaviour of Lepidoptera suggests sodium needs of males are generally greater than females, thus, we predicted males would accumulate …

Increased Expression Of The Small Lysosomal Gene Svip In The Drosophila Gut Suppresses Pathophysiological Features Associated With A High-Fat Diet, Brennan M. Mercola, Tatiana V. Villalobos, Jocelyn E. Wood, Ankita Basu, Alyssa E. Johnson

Faculty Publications

Lysosomes are digestive organelles that are crucial for nutrient sensing and metabolism. Lysosome impairment is linked to a broad spectrum of metabolic disorders, underscoring their importance to human health. Thus, lysosomes are an attractive target for metabolic disease therapies. In previous work, we discovered a novel class of tubular lysosomes that are morphologically and functionally distinct from traditionally described vesicular lysosomes. Tubular lysosomes are present in multiple tissues, are broadly conserved from invertebrates to mammals, are more proficient at degrading autophagic cargo than vesicular lysosomes, and delay signs of tissue aging when induced ectopically. Thus, triggering tubular lysosome formation presents …

Triarchic Traits As Risk Versus Protective Factors For Adhd Symptomatology: A Prospective Longitudinal Investigation, Elizabeth S.M. Chan, Emily R. Perkins, Bridget M. Bertoldi, Kelsey L. Lowman, Elia F. Soto, Catherine Tuvblad, Sofi Oskarsson, Laura A. Baker, Christopher J. Patrick

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are associated with myriad adverse outcomes, including interpersonal difficulties, but factors that moderate the developmental course and functional impact of ADHD over time are not well understood. The present study evaluated developmental contributions of the triarchic neurobehavioral traits (boldness, meanness, and disinhibition) to ADHD symptomatology and its subdimensions from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were twins and triplets assessed at ages 14, 17, and 19 (initial N = 1,185, 51.2% female). Path analyses using negative binomial regression revealed that boldness at age 14 was associated with more ADHD symptoms cross-sectionally (especially hyperactivity/impulsivity), but fewer symptoms (especially …

Exploring Adolescents' Mental Health In Kampala, Uganda In The Context Of Covid-19: A Mixed Methods Study, Gideon Mbithi, Ahmed Sarki, Adam Mabrouk, Rachel Odhiambo, Mary Namuguzi, Joseph Atukwatse, Margaret Kabue, Stephen Mulupi, Amina Abubakar

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background: Urban areas, particularly in developing nations like Uganda, face heightened risks due to poverty, unemployment, and environmental challenges, intensifying the vulnerability of urban youth to poor mental health. This study aims to determine the psychological well-being of adolescents and to assess the risks and associated factors of mental health problems among adolescents in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in Kampala City, Uganda.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 500 adolescents aged 13–19 years residing within the five divisions of Kampala City, Uganda. We utilized standardized psychological assessment tools including the Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Scale, …

Unl Emeriti And Retirees Association Newsletter, February 2025

UNL Emeriti and Retirees Association: Newsletters and Other Materials

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Emeriti and Retirees Association Newsletter, February 2025

Welcome from ERA President Pam Edwards

New members

ERA Board members

Award-winning ERA members

Wake up your social well-being, Connie Boehm

Book review, The Brothers:John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War

Funding opportunities

Glow BIG RED

A look ahead at programming

Recapping past programming

Memory moments

Special announcements

Post-Term Births As A Risk Factor For Small For Gestational Age Births And Infant Mortality In Brazil, Mexico, And Palestinian Refugees: An Analysis Of Electronic Birth Records, Zeina Jamaluddine, Lorena Suarez Idueta, Enny S. Paixao, Julia M. Pescarini, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Miho Sato, Akihiro Seita, Luis A. Martinez-Juarez, Mauricio L. Barreto, Eric O. Ohuma, Louise T. Day, Oona M.R. Campbell, Hannah Blencowe

Faculty Publications

Background:

Post-term pregnancy, defined as reaching or exceeding 42 + 0 weeks of gestation, is known to be associated with unfavourable birth outcomes. High-income countries have responded to this risk by widely adopting labour induction protocols in late-term, but many low- and middle-income countries have not. However, understanding underlying mechanisms linking post-term births to adverse newborn and infant outcomes remains limited.

Objective:

To investigate the (a) prevalence of post-term, (b) the risk factors associated with post-term (c) the association between post-term births and the risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonates and of infant mortality in middle-income settings.

Methods:

We used existing …

Ivy Proteins As Guardians Of Bacterial Cell Wall Integrity: Regulation Of Lytic Transglycosylases Explored, Aamna Aijaz, Trinity E. Alamutu, Vy T. Dao, Nathaniel R. Davis, Michael D. Landers, Nykolas K. Mackevicius, Liliana Ortiz, Irina F. Padilla-Montoya, Kacy J. Smith, Maria L. Snyder, Anthony J. Stefanie, Blaise M. Williams, Thomas C. Leeper

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

Lytic transglycosylases (LTs) are bacterial enzymes involved in biosynthesis and maintenance of the peptidoglycan cell wall. LTs are reported to be regulated by two paralogs of Inhibitor of Vertebrate Lysozymes: Ivyp1 and Ivyp2. This study investigated the regulatory dynamics between the soluble LT (SltB1), and Ivy paralogs as putative regulators in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA). The secondary objective was to delineate the critical roles played by a glutamic acid at position 135 in SltB1 and a histidine at position 62 in Ivyp1 in governing their molecular interaction through site directed mutagenesis. Isolated SltB1 shows no lytic activity in our assay, in …

Delphi-Driven Consensus Definition For Mesenchymal Stromal Cells And Clinical Reporting Guidelines For Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Based Therapeutics, Laurent Renesme, Kelly D. Cobey, Manoj M. Lalu, Tania M. Bubela, Raghavan Chinnadurai, John De Vos, Rod Dunbar, Dean Fergusson, Daniel Freund, Jacques Galipeau

Office of the Provost

Background aims: Despite promising results in pre-clinical studies, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) face significant challenges in clinical translation. A scoping review by our group highlighted two key issues contributing to this gap: (i) lack of a clear and consensus definition for MSCs and (ii) under-reporting of critical parameters in MSC clinical studies. To address these issues, we conducted a modified Delphi study to establish and implement a consensus definition for MSCs and develop reporting guidelines for MSC clinical studies.
Methods: A steering committee of 22 international experts, including stakeholders from different MSC research fields, participated in the three Delphi rounds. …

Conflicted Help-Seeking: Vulnerable And Grandiose Narcissistic Traits In College Students, Daniel G. Lannin, Rachel Brenner, Jake R. Solka, Amanda Martin, Anthony Hermann

Faculty Publications – Psychology

This study highlights distinct patterns in help-seeking behavior among college students with narcissistic traits, focusing on grandiose and vulnerable manifestations of these traits. Two undergraduate samples (N₁ = 398, N₂ = 424) completed measures of narcissistic traits, stigma, psychological distress, and help-seeking intentions. Higher levels of vulnerable narcissistic traits were positively linked to help-seeking willingness, with indirect effects through heightened distress (positive) and stigma (negative). In contrast, grandiose narcissistic traits showed no consistent direct or indirect effects on help-seeking behavior. These findings reveal that students with elevated vulnerable narcissistic traits may experience conflicting motivations for seeking help – driven by …

Environmental Monitoring Report: For Work To Be Performed: July 1, 2023 Through June 30, 2024, Tennessee. Department Of Environment And Conservation

Environmental Monitoring Reports

This FY2024 EMR presents results for independent projects, originally defined in TDEC’s FY2024 Environmental Monitoring Plan (EMP) and subsequently completed over the course of FY2024 period of performance.

Potential Effects Of Statistical Complexity Measure In Improving The Fault Diagnosis Performance Under Speed Fluctuations, S. Sowmya, M. Saimurugan, N. Kannan, Immanuel A. Edinbarough

Informatics and Engineering Systems Faculty Publications

Many research studies are performed in extracting non-stationary signal properties such as instantaneous frequency (IF) and envelope to diagnose machinery faults under time-varying speed conditions. But accurate IF extraction is difficult from such complex fluctuating signals to identify the faults efficiently. Therefore, this paper proposes the Statistical Complexity Measure (SCM) as a feature that evaluates the randomness and complexity without any additional requirement, providing an outstanding result in multi-component fault detection under speed fluctuations. Primarily, the influence of SCM is proved by ranking the features with the help of the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. The fault classification of individual signal …

Environmental Monitoring Plan: For Work To Be Performed: July 1, 2025, Through June 30, 2026, Tennessee. Department Of Environment And Conservation.

Environmental Monitoring Plans

The Tennessee Department of Enviornment and Conservation, Division of Remediation, Oak Ridge (TDEC DoR-OR), provides the annual Fiscal Year 2026 EMP for the period of July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. This report is submitted as a comprehensive plan for TDEC DoR-OR monitoring and assessment activities across the Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, (ORR) in accordance with terms of both the Environmental Surveillance and Oversight Agreement (ESOA), as well as in support of activities being conducted under the Federal Facilities Agreement (FFA).

Inhibition Of Lysine Deacetylase Activity Impacts Formation Of The Vitamin D Receptor Activation Complex, Shannon Dwyer

Theses and Dissertations

The vitamin D endocrine system is responsible for the regulation of many biological processes including bone metabolism, calcium homeostasis, cell proliferation and cell differentiation. Alterations to the vitamin D signaling pathway are associated with several diseases including bone diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. Vitamin D precursors are chemically modified to become the biologically active hormone, calcitriol. Calcitriol binds to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), a member of the nuclear hormone receptor (NHR) superfamily. VDR forms a heterodimer with retinoid X receptor (RXR) and together they bind to promoters containing vitamin D response elements (VDREs) to activate transcription …

Pacific Rxtracts - February 2025, Pacific Rxtracts

Pacific RxTracts

Articles:

• Revolutionizing Hypertension Screening: AI-Enhanced ECG as a Proactive Healthcare Tool
• Breaking News:
  • New Indication for Zepbound
  • FDA Approves Injectable Nivolumab: A New Era for Opdivo in Cancer Care
  • Stromal Stem Cells for Steroid-Refractory Acute Graft-vs-Host Disease
• Cardiology:
  • Beta Blocker vs. Verapamil Therapy for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
• General News:
  • Prolactin-Increasing Antipsychotics Increase the Odds of Breast Cancer
  • Hope for a Cytomegalovirus Vaccine: mRNA-1647
  • Targeting IL-13: Innovations in the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis
  • Beyond Opioids: Multimodal Pain Management in Colorectal Surgery
  • A Nanomaterial Dosage Form for Mupirocin
  • Guselkumab, a potential drug for Ulcerative colitis
• Neuropsychiatry:
  • Dextromethorphan for Depression: More For Just a …

Defending Children’S Data Privacy: Strategies For The 21st Century, Zoë Macdonald

UC Law Journal

Children’s use of social media has been linked to an overwhelming number of adverse effects on their mental health, privacy, and well-being. There is a general consensus among parents, researchers, and lawmakers that children’s online protections must be expanded. However, recent legislative efforts to effect change have been met with consistent failure. Recently, California, Arkansas, and Texas passed new legislation intended to bolster existing protections and expand child privacy online. The Arkansas law and portions of the California and Texas laws do not pass constitutional muster under current case law, and all three federal district courts articulated their inability to …

Perceptual Complexity As Normalized Shannon Entropy, Norberto M. Grzywacz

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Complexity is one of the most important variables in how the brain performs decision making based on esthetic values. Multiple definitions of perceptual complexity have been proposed, with one of the most fruitful being the Normalized Shannon Entropy one. However, the Normalized Shannon Entropy definition has theoretical gaps that we address in this article. Focusing on visual perception, we first address whether normalization fully corrects for the effects of measurement resolution on entropy. The answer is negative, but the remaining effects are minor, and we propose alternate definitions of complexity, correcting this problem. Related to resolution, we discuss the ideal …

Earliest Ancient Maya Salt Production In Southern Belize: Excavations At Jay-Yi Nah, Heather Mckillop, E. Cory Sills

Faculty Publications

Salt works along the Yucatan coasts of Mexico and Belize provide a record of salt production for inland trade during the height of Late Classic Maya civilisation (AD 550-800). At the Paynes Creek Salt Works in Belize, production focused on the creation of salt cakes by boiling brine in pots supported over fires in dedicated salt kitchens. Underwater excavations at the Early Classic (AD 250-550) site of Jay-yi Nah now indicate there was a longer and evolving tradition of salt making in the area, one that initially employed large, incurved bowls to meet local or down-the-line trade needs before inland …

Evaluating Donor-Recipient Sex Mismatch In Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction With Allograft: Outcomes At 2 Years Postoperatively, Connor Crutchfield, Natalie Lowenstein, Chilan Leite, Christian Lattermann, Elizabeth Matzkin

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

BACKGROUND: Female patients tend to suffer a greater risk of reinjury and worse patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) than male patients, regardless of the graft type used.

PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: This study explored the role of donor-recipient sex mismatching to help explain these sex-based dispar- ities in outcomes after ACLR with an allograft. The hypothesis was that allograft donor-recipient sex mismatch would adversely affect surgical outcomes at a 2-year follow-up, with male-to-female graft donations yielding the lowest rates of success.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

METHODS: Patients who underwent primary ACLR with an allograft …

Childhood Religious Participation As Mediator For Posttraumatic Symptoms And A Joyful Disposition In Adulthood, Kara S. Mccoy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Individuals who have experienced trauma may have varying life experience outcomes based on trauma histories and other factors. Little to no study has been done to determine whether childhood religious involvement can be a mediating factor. The purpose of this quantitative study was to test if any potential mediating effects exist between childhood religious attendance, the presence of joyfulness in life, and adult posttraumatic symptoms. The theoretical framework utilized in this study was Kenneth Pargament’s theory of religious coping. Data were collected in a secure fashion utilizing Survey Monkey, and all participants voluntarily answered questions that utilized the short posttraumatic …

Writ 101.19: College Writing I Plus, Jennifer A. Corbin

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

The Mc4r Agonist, Setmelanotide, Is Associated With An Improvement In Hypercapnic Chemosensitivity And Weight Loss In Male Mice, Sarah N. Framnes-Deboer, Deanna M. Arble, Athena Rivera

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Obesity increases the risk of respiratory diseases that reduce respiratory chemosensitivity, such as Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome and sleep apnea. Recent evidence suggests that obesity-related changes in the brain, including alterations in melanocortin signaling via the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R), may underly altered chemosensitivity. Setmelanotide, an MC4R agonist, causes weight loss in both humans and animal models. However, it is unknown the extent to which setmelanotide affects respiratory chemosensitivity independent of body weight loss. The present study uses diet-induced obese, male C57bl/6 J mice to determine the extent to which acute setmelanotide treatment affects the hypercapnic ventilatory response (HCVR). We find that …

Frequency-Dependent Assembly Processes Determine The Coexistence And Relative Abundance Of Tropical Plant Species, David M. Defilippis, Joseph A. Lamanna, Stefan A. Schnitzer

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Testing the extent to which ecological communities are structured by deterministic (niche-based) assembly processes, resulting in predictable species abundance and composition, is a fundamental goal of ecology. Here we use a 10-year dataset of 55,156 lianas comprising 86 species in an old-growth tropical forest in Panama to test whether community assembly is consistent with niche-based assembly processes. We find that species diversity and community composition was maintained because species conformed to four general requirements of coexistence theory: (1) species have negative conspecific frequency-dependent feedback that control their local population size; (2) species have a stronger negative effect on their own …

The Enlightenment In Early America, Annette Gordon-Reed

William & Mary Law Review

The founding of the United States of America is often said to have been the product of Enlightenment ideals that emphasized reason, individual liberty, and notions of progress. During this same era, however, racially based slavery, which confounded reason, denied individual liberty to millions, and challenged ideas about progress, existed in all of the colonies of North America.

The third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, embodied this seeming contradiction at the heart of the American founding. The principal author of the American Declaration of Independence enslaved hundreds of people over the course of his long life.

This Article …

The Rise Of China And The Concept Of Civilization: Constructing A Conceptual Apparatus For Cross-Civilizational Comparisons, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The Rise of China and the Concept of Civilization: Constructing a Conceptual Apparatus for Cross-Civilizational Comparisons

The paper examines the deficiencies of the current understanding of “civilization” in the social science literature, among others exemplified by “civilizational analysis,” and proposes a new concept that adds to the conceptual apparatus of sociological theory — a new, fully independent of others, variant of the cultural process. This independence makes distinctions between civilizations as the root cause of socio-cultural diversity.

Combined with the idea of humanity as a culturally constituted reality sui generis, this concept allows the construction of the theoretical scaffolding …

Jane Goodall’S Integration Of Science And Spirituality, Estella Elpers

Father Jack McGrath, S.M., Research Award Presentations

Estella Elpers is a recipient of the Father Jack McGrath, S.M., Award for Research in Catholic Intellectual Traditions.