Life Sciences Commons^™

Characterizing The Ecology Of Plains (Spilogale Interrupta) And Eastern (Spilogale Putorius) Spotted Skunks: A Systematic Literature Review And Population Assessment In Kansas, Jenell De La Peña

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The plains spotted skunk (Spilogale interrupta) has recently been recognized as a distinct species from the eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius). While once abundant across the central and eastern United States, both species have experienced population declines, resulting in their review for listing under the Endangered Species Act (1973). In Kansas, the plains spotted skunk has suffered a particularly dramatic decline, the last detection in the state having occurred in 2020. Additionally, due to the recent taxonomic split, many past studies reporting on S. putorius ecology actually describe findings of two species, potentially complicating our understanding …

Habitat And Demography Of The Ozark Chinquapin (Castanea Ozarkensis) At Roaring River State Park In Barry County, Missouri, Danielle Evilsizor

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The Ozark chinquapin, Castanea ozarkensis Ashe, is a chestnut tree with a range concentrated in the Interior Highlands of North America. Like other North American members of Castanea, it was reduced from an overstory tree to an understory shrub by the invasive chestnut blight fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica [Murrill] M.E. Barr) during the early 20^th century. However, relatively little is known about the habitat of this species or its health and reproductive capability post chestnut blight. Chapter one of this study analyzed the habitat of this species through a random forest species distribution model (SDM) to predict where …

Using A Culturable Approach And Metagenomic Analysis To Uncover Gut Bacterial Diversity Of Gray Bats In Kansas, Bobbi Monroe

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

USING A CULTURABLE APPROACH AND METAGENOMIC ANALYSIS TO UNCOVER GUT BACTERIAL DIVERSITY OF GRAY BATS IN KANSAS

An Abstract of the Thesis by

Bobbi Monroe

Humans have historically had an ambivalent relationship with bats. In one hand, bats perform an important service to humans by reducing populations of many insect pests. On the other hand, they act as reservoirs of disease as highlighted by the recent Coronavirus pandemic. In the United States, many bat populations have been threatened by white nose syndrome caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans. This study was designed to characterize the bacterial diversity associated with the …

Vascular Plants Of The Caribou-Targhee National Forest And Curlew National Grassland In Southeastern Idaho, Western Wyoming, And Northern Utah, Michael Daines

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Due to a historical paucity of collections from and the absence of a comprehensive floristic treatment for parts of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and Curlew National Grassland, an updated inventory for the area was needed. I present an annotated checklist of the vascular plants documented from the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and Curlew National Grassland. A total of new 3189 voucher specimens were collected for this project in 2021 and 2022. To compile the annotated checklist, I consulted both newly collected specimens and specimen data from online botanical databases. A total of 1557 taxa (species, subspecies, varieties, and hybrids), 1423 species …

Secondary Channel Backwaters May Be Superior Nurseries For Native Fishes In The San Juan River Of The American Southwest, But Monsoon-Driven Deteriorations May Lessen Their Quality, Blake Hansen

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The Razorback Sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) and Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) are federally-endangered species occurring in the San Juan River of NM, CO, and UT, USA. These species have shown little natural recruitment in this system, with a lack of high-quality nursery habitats being one potential explanation for this phenomenon. The young-of-year of both species prefer backwaters, including those that form in secondary channels or in association with islands. However, it is unknown how factors that could limit imperiled fish recruitment, such as hydrologic stability, physicochemical features, resource availability, and nonnative fish densities, differ between secondary channel …

Density And Nest Success Of Shrub-Dependent Birds On Formerly Strip-Mined Lands, Luke Headings

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

As bird populations continue to decline across North America, it is important to understand the benefits that disturbed habitats can have for breeding birds. One of the major land disturbances and causes of habitat loss in the United States is surface mining, which often results in altered vegetative communities. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the relationships between bird populations, habitat, previous and current land use, and densities of invasive plant species on formerly strip-mined land. Due to the proliferation of invasive shrub species in post-mined landscapes, we sought to determine the effects of post-mined habitat features …

Population Dynamics And Habitat Use By Gray Bats In An Anthropogenically Altered Landscape, Haley Price

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Habitat loss resulting from land use change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity. Yet, in some cases, imperiled wildlife species may benefit from anthropogenic disturbance. The expansion of urbanization, agriculture, renewable energy, and mining practices impact conservation efforts for threatened and endangered bat species, and particularly species that are affected by white nose syndrome (WNS). The federally endangered gray bat (Myotis grisescens) is a cavernicolous species that is susceptible to WNS. Due to their unique roosting and foraging requirements, gray bats inhabit a small portion of the accessible caves within their geographic range. As habitat loss persists, …

Amphibian Occupancy And Diversity On A Post-Mined Landscape, Emma M. Buckardt

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Amphibian populations are declining globally, with habitat loss and fragmentation being a leading cause for their decline. Anthropogenic changes to a landscape, such as urbanization, agriculture, and surface mining, leave few native habitats intact, which can influence amphibian populations and communities to varying degrees. Amphibians can provide insight into the health of ecosystems because they are sensitive to changes in their environment. Thus, they can be considered indicator species in anthropogenically altered wetlands. The goal of this study was to characterize amphibian communities that are using surface mined lands that have undergone vegetative succession. For Chapter I, we used call …

Chemical And Biological Stressors Threaten Native Fish Diversity In The Spring River Subbasin Of Kansas, Alexandra King

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Chemical pollution and nonnative species are two of the major threats facing freshwater fishes. As such, understanding how freshwater fish communities respond to pollution remediation efforts and nonnative fish introductions are primary goals of native fish conservation. Within the Spring River subbasin (SRS) of southeastern Kansas, this study examined the long-term response of riffle fish communities to decreases in heavy metal concentrations, as well as the effects of introduced Blackspotted Topminnow (Fundulus olivaceus) on native Blackstripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus). The objectives of our research in Chapter 01 of this thesis were to quantify changes in riffle …

Hyperbranched Polyester-Based Drug Delivery System For The Optical Imaging And Treatment Of Cancer, Truptiben Patel

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Hyperbranched polymers are well known to be a promising new class of drug delivery system for biomedical application. In this research, a novel hyperbranched polyester polymer was synthesized by following melt polymerization technique utilizing our proprietary A₂B monomer, triethylene glycol and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). This polymerization process was catalyzed by p-toluene sulfonic acid and was monitored by analyzing the polymer sample in regular time intervals. The final polymer was purified using the solvent precipitation method and characterized using MALDI-TOF, NMR, and GPC, DSC, TGA, FT-IR. The solvent diffusion method was used to formulate polymeric nanoparticle and doxorubicin drug …

Plant Based Polyphenols Decrease Cell Migration And Inhibit Proliferation Of Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells, Mary Gathoni

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most highly malignant tumors of the digestive tract. Both the incidence and death rate of pancreatic cancer have increased since 2000. The disease has a poor prognosis with a relative 5-year survival rate of 10%. Pancreatic cancer-related mortality can be mainly attributed to lack of early diagnosis, tumor metastasis, lack of effective treatment strategies and drug resistance. There has been a mounting interest on the use of plant-based compounds such as polyphenols in cancer treatment therapies. This is mainly due to their low toxicity and fewer side effects compared to the conventional chemotherapeutic options …

Documenting The Rapidly Expanding Distribution Of Invasive Ravenna Grass (Tripidium Ravennae) Eastern In Kansas, Rachel A. Styers

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Invasive species cause significant ecological losses in the United States where they cost approximately $21 billion dollars a year to manage (Fantle-Lepczyk et al., 2022). Early detection of new invasive species, coupled with a rapid response of management efforts, can help to slow the ecological and economic impacts caused by these habitat invaders. Tripidium ravennae (L.) H. Scholz (or Ravenna grass) is a tall, robust, cespitose grass known to occur in Kansas, although its distribution remained poorly documented prior to this study. Given its known invasive tendencies, it has been declared noxious in at least six US states. Coupled with …

Plant Based Compounds Inhibit Proliferation, Alter Cytomorphology And Decrease Migration Of Human Adenocarcinoma Cells, Devapriya Segaran

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Adenocarcinoma is an aggressive form of lung cancer that has a high risk of recurrence with a survival rate of 33%. In recent years, there has been much interest in the ability of naturally occurring plant derived phenols to inhibit specific type of cancers. Compounds like curcumin derived from turmeric, rutin derived from citrus fruits and resveratrol derived from blueberries have been of particular interest. In this thesis I studied the anti-cancer effects of the above-mentioned compounds on a human a549 adenocarcinoma cell line. Inverted phase contrast microscopy was used to observe alterations to the cytomorphology of cells. An MTT …

Comparison Of Threatened Neosho Madtom Densities Between Riverscapes Differing In Anthropogenic Stressors, With A Particular Focus On Recovery From Mining-Derived Metal Pollution, Kali Boroughs

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Water pollution imperils the Neosho Madtom (Noturus placidus), which is threatened in Kansas and federally. Within Kansas madtom densities were historically lower in the Spring River compared to the Cottonwood and Neosho Rivers, especially within the Spring River below tributary inputs that delivered cadmium, lead, and zinc pollution from the Tri-State Mining District. Studies suggest that madtoms are less numerous in waters containing elevated metal concentrations because of direct toxicity and lower benthic macroinvertebrate availability, which is also depressed by elevated metal concentrations. However, long-term reductions in metal concentrations in the Spring River have occurred, but to date …

A Survey Of Leaf Venation In New Caledonian Syzygium (Myrtaceae), Jiawei Xu Montojo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

New Caledonia is a globally recognized biodiversity ‘hotspot’ characterized by a rich flora and a large number of endemic species. Syzygium Gaertn., the largest genus of woody plants in the world, is common in New Caledonia with approximately 70 species. A comparative survey of leaf morphology and architectural traits among 27 species of New Caledonian Syzygium was conducted, focusing on leaf venation patterns. Separate and detailed descriptions of leaf morphology and leaf venation characters are provided for the species. In addition to morphological differences, this study found differences at the species level among characters such as the number of intramarginal …

A Study On Ecological Distribution Of And Selected Gene Expression In Amblyomma Americanum: An Insight Into The Alpha-Galactose Allergy Caused By Tick Bites, Leah Cuthill

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ticks transmit a wide variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and helminthes to vertebrates. Their life cycle depends on blood meals from various hosts as well as on environmental conditions such as the temperature and habitat type. A newly recognized allergic disease has been identified and is characterized by a delayed reaction following the consumption of some mammalian meats. The allergy often results in life threatening reactions such as anaphylaxis, hives, and breathing problems 3-6 hours after the consumption of mammalian meat. Not everyone develops the allergy when they are bitten by a lone star tick, and the cause …

Maternal Immunity: Preimplantation Preparation And Spatial Distribution Of Ccl19, Ashleigh Elbert

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Maternal Immunity: Preimplantation preparation and the role of CCL19

An Abstract of the thesis by

Ashleigh R. Elbert

The maternal uterus in mammals undergoes extensive remodeling in preparation for implantation of the semi-allogenic embryo. Activation of the T cell homing receptor, CCR7, regulates multiple aspects of adaptive immunity. Genetic deletion of CCR7 reduces T regulatory (T Reg) cell migration into mouse uteri and decreases embryo implantation. CCL19 and CCL21 are the sole ligands for CCR7. It is hypothesized that CCL19 expression could attract T reg cells into the pre-implantation uterus and provide local immune suppression prior to implantation. Sprague Dawley …

The Effects Of Clipping On The Biomass Production Of Native Warm Season Grasses On Reclaimed Abandoned Coal Mine Soils, James A K Daniel

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

THE EFFECTS OF CLIPPING ON THE BIOMASS PRODUCTION OF NATIVE

WARM SEASON GRASSES ON RECLAIMED

ABANDONED COAL MINE SOILS

James A K Daniel

Strip mining leaves behind highly disrupted plant and soil communities. Mined land reclamation returns the land back to a natural or economically usable state, however, reclamation cannot completely restore the soils to their original state. Subsequently, normal frequencies of management practices may not be as effective as in undisturbed soils. Understanding how the severity of soil disturbance affects plant production is important for habitat rehabilitation and determining effective management techniques to be implemented following reclamation. This project …

Synthesis Of New Aliphatic Pseudo-Branched Polyester Co-Polymers For Biomedical Applications, Zachary Shaw

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In this study, a hyperbranched polyester co-polymer was designed using a proprietary monomer and diethylene glycol or triethylene glycol as monomers. The synthesis was carried out using standard melt polymerization technique and catalyzed by p-Tolulenesulfonic acid. The progress of the reaction was monitored with respect to time and negative pressure, with samples being subjected to standard characterization protocols. The resulting polymers were purified using the solvent precipitation method and characterized using various chromatographic and spectroscopic methods including GPC, MALDI-TOF, and NMR. We have observed polymers with a molecular weight of 29,643 kDa and 33,996 kDa, which is ideal to be …

Impacts Of Residential Garden Practice On Bird And Butterfly Communities In Southeast Kansas, Katie Mcmurry

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ecological research indicates that global species richness is declining due to a combination of urbanization and human population growth that fragments and simplifies the landscape. As these rates continue to grow, the value of urban greenspaces increases. If managed properly, residential greenspaces can help to maintain species richness and mitigate landscape simplifications. However, residential greenspaces are often the result of a number of individual management decisions that are vastly different from historically native vegetation. Additionally, management decisions are closely related to a number of sociodemographic factors such as age, education, home ownership, and income that influences management behaviors. I surveyed …

Effects Of Forest Management On Densities And Nest Survival Of Breeding Birds In Upland Hardwood Ecosystems, Michael Barnes

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Over the past 50 years, significant declines in 47% of Neotropical migrant bird species have been documented in North America. Declines are most likely due to the loss and fragmentation of breeding, wintering, and stopover habitat mainly caused by agriculture and urban development. This loss of critical habitat results in population sinks that need to be maintained by immigration from a population source found in continuously forested landscapes. However, in landscapes harvested for timber, forest management practices alter the landscape and as a result, affect breeding bird abundances and nest success. The objective of our study was to determine the …

Characterization Of Bacterial Isolates Obtained From Commercial Poultry Feed And Retail Food Using Whole Genome Sequence Analysis And Selected Biochemical Tests, Elena George Olson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The goals of this study is two-fold. The first part investigates bacterial isolates from commercial poultry feed and the second part deals with bacterial isolates recovered from retail food. In order to reduce pathogen contamination in poultry products identification of overall microbial populations in poultry production processing steps have always been considered an important monitoring tool for assessing sanitizer effectiveness and the corresponding responses of bacteria load levels on poultry carcasses. Bacterial isolates recovered from corn-based chicken feed were purified on aerobic plate count agar and eleven morphologically different colonies were selected for whole genome sequencing. In this part, the …

Effects Of Experimental Forest Management On Avian Communities In The Missouri Ozarks, David R. Hollie

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In recent decades, concern for migratory birds has stimulated research assessing the relationships between forest management and bird populations. The Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) is a long-term, landscape-scale experiment designed to examine the effects of even-aged (i.e. clearcutting), uneven-aged (i.e. selection cutting), and no harvest forest management on ecosystem level processes. The management systems were randomly assigned to three sites each (mean area = 400 ha) under a 100-year rotation with a 15-year re-entry period.

In the first chapter, we used non-metric multidimensional scaling and generalized linear mixed models to investigate the effects of silvicultural treatment and year-since-harvest …

The Drug Discovery Of Potential Anti-Cancer Agents To Inhibit The Demethylation Catalytic Activity Of The Jmjc Domain Of Kdm3a, Balgees Alshanqeti

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Lysine demethylase 3A (KDM3A) is an enzyme that specifically catalyzes the removal of 2 or three methyl groups from lysine 9 of histone 3 (KH3). It belongs to the family of histone demethylases that contain the Jumonji C (JmjC) domain, which means cruciform in Japanese. KDM3A also belongs to a family of hydroxylases that are alpha-ketoglutarate dependent. The role of KDM3A in the cell is not yet understood, however, and based on its demethylation of studies have showed that its expression is elevated in embryonic stem cells in humans and in mice. In general, patterns of elevated expression of KDM3A …

In Silico Development Of An Rna Aptamer Library To Be Use For The Selection Of Rna Aptamer That Target Biomolecules, Nehad Nawfawi

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is a powerful method for the development of high affinity RNA ligands toward and infinite array of target molecules. SELEX is based upon the generation of a randomized population of RNA or DNA molecules followed by a target molecule that selects high affinity ligands from the randomized population followed by the subsequent amplification of the selected molecules. The procedure of selection and amplification is typically carried out through multiple cycles to insure that the identified ligands exhibits the highest affinity toward the target. The procedure is very time- consuming often taking …

Ecology And Prevalence Of Ticks And Tick-Borne Bacterial Pathogens In Southeast Kansas, Abrar Alzahrani

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ticks are small arachnids which have the ability to acquire, maintain, and transfer pathogenic bacteria to human and animals by feeding on their blood. Diseases such as Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Colorado tick fever, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), are becoming more prevalent in populations, creating global health and economic problems.

This research aimed to determine the frequency of three species of ticks, the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum), the Dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), and Black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) in southeast Kansas and adjacent areas. Another objective of the study was to determine …

Floristic Survey Of Crawford And Cherokee Counties In Southeast Kansas: An Evaluation Of Change Over Five Decades, Samantha Pryer

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This project had two main objectives. The first objective was to document comprehensively the vascular flora of Crawford and Cherokee counties in extreme southeast Kansas. Each county had seen limited collecting in recent decades, though a comprehensive survey had never been done for Cherokee County. PSU student E.S. Gibson summarized the flora for Crawford County in 1963. Fieldwork for the present study occurred mostly in 2014 and 2015. Based on 6500+ newly collected specimens, vouchers from Gibson’s study, and taxa documented by Biota of North America (BONAP) (Kartesz 2017), 1440 taxa are reported, which includes 33 state and 263 county …

Utilizing Molecular And Statistical Modeling Methods To Enhance White Nose Syndrome Detection In Bat Hibernacula, Samuel Miller

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal infection in bats caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Successfully identifying hibernacula infected with WNS is essential to help control and regulate the spread of WNS. Assessing the presence of WNS in bat hibernacula is usually done by visually confirming Pd on hibernating bats within infected hibernacula. This can be problematic because most visual confirmation occurs during the winter when bat populations are at their peak within hibernacula. When surveys are conducted in the winter, there is an increased chance of disturbing bats. One alternative method to visually confirming WNS on bats …

Comparison Of Soil Development Rate In Reclaimed And Un-Reclaimed Grassland Soil, Abdullah Allahyani

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Soil formation is a process that entails the breakdown of rock particles otherwise known as weathering. It is a process that is determined by various factors such as time, climate, parent materials, topography, and biota. The exposure of the rock particles to these factors affects the process of soil formation in that more exposure accelerates soil development. To establish the rate of soil development, we based our research on reclaimed and un-reclaimed regions. According to the results, soil developed at a rate of 10-24 cm per annual while on the un-reclaimed land it was 0.05-0.06 cm per annual. The difference …

Effect Of Metal Ion Substitution On Electrochemical Properties Of Cobalt Oxide For Energy Applications, Dalal Alqahtani

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Metal oxides are being used for various applications, such as batteries, supercapacitors, and catalysts. This research is mainly to produce high-performance energy storage devices capable of working at high temperatures and causing no pollution in the environment. To this end, the effect of metal ion substitution on the electrochemical properties of Co₃O₄ for energy applications was studied. Different metal oxides, such as FeCo₂O₄, MnCo₂O₄, Co₃O₄, NiCo₂O₄, CuCo₂O_4, and ZnCo₂O₄, were synthesized using a hydrothermal …