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Peaks Island Star : April 2023, Vol. 43, Issue 4, Service Agencies Of The Island

Peaks Island Star, 2023

The Peaks Island Star is the newsletter of the island's service agencies and other community news.

Year Of The Golden Jubilee: Culture Change In The Past, Present And Future, Emma E. Buchtel, Wolfgang Friedlmeier

IACCP Proceedings of the Biennial International Conferences

Part 1 of the IACCP Proceedings contains the abstracts and links to the recordings of the XXVI Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2022.

(c) 2023, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology

Exhibitions And Events, Spring 2023, University Galleries

Exhibition and Event Schedules - University Galleries

Listing of exhibitions, events, and lectures held at the University Galleries at Illinois State University.

Helms School Of Government Newsletter- Spring 2023, Liberty University

The Helms School of Government Newsletter

Helms School of Government Newsletter- Spring 2023

Coliphages Of The Human Urinary Microbiota, Elias Crum, Zubia Merchant, Adriana Ene, Taylor Miller-Ensminger, Genevieve Johnson, Alan J. Wolfe, Catherine Putonti

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Due to its frequent association with urinary tract infections (UTIs), Escherichia coli is the best characterized constituent of the urinary microbiota (urobiome). However, uropathogenic E. coli is just one member of the urobiome. In addition to bacterial constituents, the urobiome of both healthy and symptomatic individuals is home to a diverse population of bacterial viruses (bacteriophages). A prior investigation found that most bacterial species in the urobiome are lysogens, harboring one or more phages integrated into their genome (prophages). Many of these prophages are temperate phages, capable of entering the lytic cycle and thus lysing their bacterial host. This transition …

Strong Versus Weak Consumer-Brand Relationships: Matching Psychological Sense Of Brand Community And Type Of Advertising Appeal, Brittney C. Bauer

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Consumer‐brand relationships vary with regard to their degree of psychological connection to the brand. Some individuals may have a weak connection to the brand (e.g., general consumers), while others may possess a strong connection to the brand (e.g., brand community members). Marketers have yet to distinguish between the types of advertising appeals that are most effective for these different individuals. Hence, this research utilizes construal level theory to posit that consumers with a stronger [weaker] psychological sense of brand community will think about the brand more concretely [abstractly] and be more persuaded by utilitarian [symbolic] advertising appeals. Three original experiments …

Personalizing Prevention: Advances In Pharmacotherapy For Hiv Prevention., Marisa Brizzi, Elizabeth Sherman, Sarah B. Green, Diana N. Nowicki, Emily N. Drwiega, Melanie R. Nicol, Daniel B. Chastain, Eric G. Sahloff, William R. Truong, David Cluck, Melissa E. Badowski, Sarah M. Michienzi, Spencer H. Durham

HPD Articles

The HIV epidemic continues to pose a significant burden on the healthcare system. Although the incidence of annual new infections is decreasing, health disparities persist and most new infections remain concentrated into different racial, ethnic, and minority groups. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which involves those at high risk of acquiring HIV to take chronic medications to prevent acquisition of the virus, is key to preventing new HIV infections. The purpose of this article is to review medication therapies for PrEP and examine their role in personalizing PrEP in different patient populations. Additionally, new medications currently under development for PrEP are reviewed, …

Neurological-Type Wilson Disease: Epidemiology, Clinical Manifestations, Diagnosis, And Management, Nathaniel Kipker, Kaitlyn Alessi, Marko Bojkovic, Inderbir Padda, Mayur S. Parmar

HPD Articles

Wilson disease (WD) is a complex metabolic disorder caused by disruptions to copper regulation within the body, leading to an unregulated accumulation of copper within various tissues. A less understood organ affected by the collection of copper is the brain, which further leads to the generation of oxygen-free radicals and resultant demyelination. Healthcare providers must keep the neurological form of WD in their list of differentials when patients present with diverse neurological manifestations. The initial step to diagnosis will be to distinguish the characteristic disease presentation with a thorough history and physical and neurological examination. A high clinical disease suspicion …

Analyzing Syntactic Constructs Of Java Programs With Machine Learning, Francisco Ortin, Guillermo Facundo, Miguel Garcia

Department of Computer Science Publications

The massive number of open-source projects in public repositories has notably increased in the last years. Such repositories represent valuable information to be mined for different purposes, such as documenting recurrent syntactic constructs, analyzing the particular constructs used by experts and beginners, using them to teach programming and to detect bad programming practices, and building programming tools such as decompilers, Integrated Development Environments or Intelligent Tutoring Systems. An inherent problem of source code is that its syntactic information is represented with tree structures, while traditional machine learning algorithms use -dimensional datasets. Therefore, we present a feature engineering process to translate …

Chemotaxis In Tardigrades, Lindsay Rowland, Jensyn Goss, Sara Dipnarine, Alex Keta, Joy Bowling, Felicity Kelsch, Sophia Willis, Emma Welsh, Ella Newton, Kathyrn Morris

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Chemotaxis describes the movement of an organism towards or away from a particular substance. Tardigrades are often thought to be lumbering organisms, not capable of seeking out nutrients and therefore unable to demonstrate chemotaxis. The ability to recognize foods and poisons in the environment and move up or down their concentration gradients appropriately is so beneficial for life that we suspected that tardigrades also possessed this ability. We constructed testing arenas where an agar block with concentrated test substance was placed on a water agar plate and incubated for two hours to establish a concentration gradient. Enough water was then …

Development Of Host-Selective, Pcr-Inhibiting Oligos As A Tool To Investigate The Eukaryotic Symbionts Of Insect Hosts, Christian L. Weinrich

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Insects are hosts to diverse communities of other organisms. These communities can include microbes such as bacteria, yeast, and protists, as well as multicellular organisms such as nematodes and mites. The prokaryotic associates of many insects have been well-studied and are often investigated by amplifying and sequencing the gene for the 16S ribosomal subunit using universal primers.

However, the eukaryotic associates of many insects remain poorly characterized, and this is in part due to the difficulty in utilizing 18S (the eukaryotic analog for 16S) for eukaryote detection. Because the insect host is also a eukaryote and makes up the bulk …

Ketamine Slows Microinvertebrate Movement: Ecotoxicological Implications, Joy Bowling, Felicity Kelsch, Emma Welsh, Sophia Willis, Kathyrn Morris

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

With the new release of medications incorporating ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, there is an ecotoxicology concern due to the presence of ketamine in local environments. Tardigrades, microscopic organisms commonly known as water bears, possess the same NDMA receptor that ketamine targets in humans, allowing for potential adverse reactions in exposure to ketamine. Our goal was to determine if tardigrade movement slowed under ketamine exposure over time. Tardigrade (Hypsibius exemplaris) velocity was measured using imaging software to record their response to increasing concentrations of the dissociative anesthetic. With higher concentrations, the tardigrades displayed a slower velocity. This indication of …

Survey Of Tardigrade Diversity In Cincinnati, Oh, Justin Groskopf, Alex Keta, Kathyrn Morris

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

This study was performed to assess tardigrade (Tardigrada) diversity in the localized Cincinnati area of Xavier University in response to a shortage of similar studies in recent years. We expected to find a wide variety of genera and species in moss and lichen samples. We collected moss and lichen from many locations on the campus of Xavier University and recorded height above ground level, tree genus, latitude and longitude, and cardinal directionality. Samples were air dried until processing, when we then individually rehydrated each sample and removed all intact tardigrades for identification. Tardigrades were identified as precisely as keys allowed, …

Anomalies In The Mitochondrial Genomes Of Members Of Aliciidae, Boloceroididae, And Gonactiniidae (Actiniaria:Metridioidea), Isabel Pen

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Analysis of gene sequences from three mitochondrial and two nuclear genes for a broad sampling of actiniarian taxa proposed a novel grouping of the families Aliciidae, Boloceroididae, and Gonactiniidae. (Rodríguez et al., 2014). Although previously unlinked, the association of these taxa was credible given the consistency of the genetic data and the shared occurrence of anatomical traits, including complex column structures (Aliciidae and Boloceroididae), tentacular sphincters (Boloceroididae and Gonactiniidae), and retention of juvenile musculature in adults (Boloceroididae and Gonactiniidae). Although the mitochondrial genome structure of actiniarians is generally conserved, complete mitochondrial genomes identify unusual gene orders (Alicia sansibarensis: …

How Does Sediment Organic Matter Content Mediate The Effects Of Chironomid Larvae On Benthic Greenhouse Gas Fluxes, Mark Tierney

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Some aquatic macroinvertebrates, including larval midges (Chironomidae), can increase wetland sediment nitrous oxide (N₂O) fluxes. Chironomids ingest denitrifying bacteria and bioirrigate their U-shaped burrows which can subject these bacteria to rapidly alternating oxic and anoxic conditions that can produce N₂O. Through this same process, chironomids may also modulate methane (CH₄) fluxes. Although previous studies have demonstrated the potential for chironomids to enhance N₂O flux, most have only incorporated low levels of organic matter (OM). In this study, three densities of Chironomus riparius larvae (0m², 9,000m², 18,000m²) …

Senesced Leaves Of An Invasive Species (Lonicera Maackii) Alter Community Composition And Ecosystem Function In Experimental Wetlands, Cy Mott

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Secondary compounds produced by terrestrial invasive plants can cross terrestrial-aquatic boundaries via senesced leaves, leading to altered patterns of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Prior attempts to examine the impacts of invasive leaves on wetland communities have primarily employed the use of leaf leachates and focal taxa inhabiting relatively low trophic positions, and additional studies are needed to examine impacts on higher-order consumers and potential additive/synergistic effects of leachates and leaf decomposition. Using cattle-tank mesocosms across multiple experiments, we observed that the addition of senescent leaves of Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) to native leaves resulted in mass mortality …

Comparison Of Channel Catfish Populations In Two Northeast Kansas Impoundments, Ethan Thompson

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

In the summer of 2022, we sampled Channel Catfish populations at Brown State Fishing Lake and Sabetha City Lake, both located in Northeast Kansas. These impoundments are similar only in latitude and size with several differences in their fish populations, specifically with Channel Catfish. One is stocked annually with 200 mm intermediate Channel Catfish and the other is not. Surprisingly, the impoundment that is not stocked has a higher density of fish than the impoundment that is. This poster will present age, growth, length, and weight information and make inferences on the impacts of population density on those metrics.

Everything But The Lab Sink: Using 1,000 Phylogenomically Informative Markers To Resolve Historically Messy Species Groups In Anastrepha Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae), Kristie J. Schmidt

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The genus Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae) is long overdue for a major taxonomic revision. Of the 22 recognized species groups within Anastrepha, only ~5 are well supported clades. Molecular methods, such as traditionally used mitochondrial DNA markers, have been unsuccessful at elucidating relationships amongst Anastrepha species; therefore, a more robust phylogenomic tool is likely necessary. To accomplish this, we used Highly Multiplexed Amplicon-based Phylogenomics (HiMAP) to identify 1,000 phylogenomically informative nuclear markers. Post sequencing, we obtained data for 500+ amplicons for 90 Anastrepha spp. belonging to 18 Anastrepha species groups. Our findings agree with some aspects of the most recently …

Effect Of Trap Type And Lure Presence On Diversity Of Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) Captured, Maddie Bidinger

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Woodboring beetles in the family Buprestidae pose a major threat to forest ecosystems. The larvae directly damage host trees by feeding, and may also weaken hosts, making them susceptible to pathogens or physical damage. Moreover, individuals of this taxa are readily transported through international commerce, creating a high risk of establishment outside of their native geographical ranges. For this reason, survey programs use traps to monitor for these and other woodboring beetles. Several different trap designs are typically deployed during surveys because a single trap design hasn’t been demonstrated as equally effective for all taxa. Thus, there is strong interest …

Biting The Hand That Feeds: Food Density, Wing-Length And Fecundity In Aedes Atropalpus, Ellie Armstrong

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Wing length has been shown to correlate to fecundity in mosquitoes. By measuring wing length and counting eggs, one can create a linear equation that can be used to calculate fecundity using wing length. A 2008 equation by Armistead that looked at wing length fecundity relationship in Ae. atropalpus only had samples over 2.4 mm. Because of this, any wing length under 2.4 that is put in the equation will have a fecundity less than zero. This study was created to replicate the Armistead study with smaller mosquitoes to create an equation that calculates the fecundity of smaller mosquitoes. To …

Nonvocal Drumming Sonations In Two Lek-Mating Grouse: Implications For Female Choice And Species Recognition, Chelsea J. Wright

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Birds rely on vocal acoustic communication for information about conspecific and heterospecific individuals, but non-vocal sounds (sonations) can also play a key role in acoustic communication. In birds, sonations are commonly produced using modified feathers, but there are some cases where they are produced by the striking of feet on a surface. Foot stomping has been highly studied in mammals and spiders, with little to no data for birds. The Greater and Lesser Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido and T. pallidicinctus) live in sympatry in western Kansas where they perform courtship displays that involve rapid foot stomping on mixed species …

Impacts Of Herbicide Drift On The Plant-Rhizobia Mutualism Is Dependent On Genetic Variation In Both Mutualists, Veronica Iriart

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The symbiotic mutualism between plants and rhizobial bacteria that occurs within root nodules, wherein plants supply rhizobia with carbon in exchange for biologically fixed nitrogen, provides critical ecosystem services via plant growth promotion and nutrient cycling. However, it is unknown how contemporary anthropogenic stressors such as pesticide pollution affects this important ecological relationship. We grew red clover (Trifolium pratense) from 17 genetic families in the greenhouse either alone or in symbiosis with one of two rhizobial strains. We exposed half to a sublethal rate of the herbicide dicamba, equivalent to what wild plants experience when herbicides ‘drift’ off-target …

The Effects Of Imposed Drought And Nutrient Availability On Soil Microbial Biomass And Enzyme Activity In A Long-Term Restored Grassland, Ashley A. Wojciechowski

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Restoring agricultural lands back to grassland aims to reverse many negative impacts of agriculture on the ecosystem including nutrient export from soil and depletion of soil carbon. Planting prairie on agricultural soil promotes recovery of soil microbial biomass and their enzymes, which create demand for nitrogen by microbes to reduce the rate of nutrient cycling and loss. A complicating factor in the development of a restored grassland the influence of several anthropogenic global changes including increasing frequency of drought and nutrient enrichment. Drought has been found to negatively affect microbial biomass, soil enzyme activity and nutrient cycling. Nutrient (often N) …

Investigating Pollinator Mismatch In Cardamine Concatenata And Claytonia Virginica, Nada Elgousi

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Global warming is gradually affecting the local climate causing pollinators and plants to change their emergence and flowering times. This can potentially cause a phenology mismatch between pollinator activity and open flowers leading to limitation in seed production in plants. However, other factors such as intense predation or competition can also shift phenology. As part of a preliminary study exploring the mechanisms of phenology mismatch, Cardamine concatenata and Claytonia virginica, were observed to determine if there is a phenology shift due to competition with an invasive plant that flowers early and overlaps these two native species. In early spring, …

Functional Evaluation Of Two Wetland Sites Within Eastern Michigan University’S Fish Lake Environmental Education Center (Fleec), Brianna M. Rice

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Wetland ecosystems function as reservoirs of biodiversity for both terrestrial and aquatic organisms, while being among the most vulnerable ecosystems to degradation. The quality of two wetlands at Eastern Michigan University’s Fish Lake Environmental Education Center (FLEEC) was measured based on plant diversity, a northern peat moss bog and one of several vernal pools. The EMU Herbarium documents 122 wetland plant species from 44 families at FLEEC, with 55 species expected within the bog and 67 species expected within vernal pools; 32 species are expected to be shared between sites. The metrics used to assess plant community composition were coefficient …

Does The Genome Of A Putatively Specialist Moth (Schinia Gracilenta) Contain A Signal Of The Indigenous Cultivation Of Its Host Plant (Iva Annua), Wren Renquist

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

When one species depends on one another for survival, they may have shared demographic histories. Further, when symbionts have shorter life spans, their rate of evolution may be quicker than that of their hosts. For this reason, detecting a recent demographic signal in a symbiont’s genome may often be easier than directly studying the host.

Here I study the slender flower moth (Schinia gracilenta) and its host plant, sumpweed (Iva annua). Sumpweed is thought to have been cultivated in North American ca. 5000 BC - AD 1700 and its range may have been expanded during this time. I collected S. …

Decadal Patterns Of Adaptation And Trait Variation Of The Dominant Prairie Grass Across The Midwest Rainfall Gradient And Response To Drought, Jack Sytsma

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Frequent droughts are predicted to impact grasslands but intraspecific variation in response to drought is not well-known. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) is a grass distributed across the Midwest rainfall gradient (MAP500-1200mm/yr) giving rise to climate-adapted ecotypes. This dominant grass is important for cattle forage and conservation. Reciprocal gardens were established in 2009 in ecological communities (driest to wettest: Colby, Hays, Manhattan, KS to Carbondale IL) and measured for over a decade. Rainfall was reduced using rainout shelters in three sites. Cover and biomass were monitored in plots over time, and height, width, photosynthetic rate, SPAD, and reproductive phenology …

Effects Of Extra-Pair Paternity On Provisioning Effort And Nest Defense In Male House Wrens (Troglodytes Aedon), Avery Dart

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Some animals form socially monogamous pair bonds in which a male and female mate and raise young together. However, individuals within a socially monogamous pair bond may still mate with other individuals; this mating is defined as extra-pair mating (EPM). Extra-pair paternity (EPP) occurs when offspring arise from EPM. In wild birds, EPM is approximated by EPP. Males benefit from EPP by siring additional offspring without any investment aside from sperm, but the benefits of EPM for females are less clear. Females may gain fertility assurance, access to better foraging grounds, and nest protection from males, as males are incentivized …

Identifying The Effect Of Individual Quality On The Production Of A Second Brood In House Wrens (Troglodytes Aedon), Lauren Leischner

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Climate change affects the reproductive success of migratory species as they are limited by time and appropriate weather conditions during the breeding season. This research asked whether variation in individual quality, in addition to timing, explains some of the variation in production of a second brood. Female house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) that nest early often have high quality territory, may be in better condition, and have an increased probability of having a second brood. Because of this, it is unclear whether the production of a second brood is solely due to the constraints of time or also due …

The Contribution Of Sexual Selection To Trait Divergence In Rhagoletis Flies, Sophia Anner

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Sexual selection, or the process that favors traits for acquiring mates, is a powerful mechanism driving sexual trait variation like vivid fish colors, melodic cricket songs, and elaborate jumping spider dances. Sexual selection can also drive divergence between populations and speciation, generating an immense diversity of species. Flies in the Rhagoletis genus exhibit different coloration, size, behavior, and most conspicuously, wing patterns between species. These traits are employed when flies communicate with each other, including during mating interactions, and yet the role of sexual selection in trait variation has been sorely understudied. I conducted mating trials and morphological analysis to …