Life Sciences Commons^™

Rapid Land Cover Map Updates Using Change Detection And Robust Random Forest Classifiersrapid Land Cover Map Updates Using Change Detection And Robust Random Forest Classifiers, Konrad J. Wassels, Frans Van Den Bergh, David P. Roy, Brian P. Salmon, Karen C. Steenkemp, Bryan Macalister, Derick Swanepoel, Debbie Jewitt

GSCE Faculty Publications

The paper evaluated the Landsat Automated Land Cover Update Mapping (LALCUM) system designed to rapidly update a land cover map to a desired nominal year using a pre-existing reference land cover map. The system uses the Iteratively Reweighted Multivariate Alteration Detection (IRMAD) to identify areas of change and no change. The system then automatically generates large amounts of training samples (n > 1 million) in the no-change areas as input to an optimized Random Forest classifier. Experiments were conducted in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa using a reference land cover map from 2008, a change mask between 2008 and …

Coral Disease In Chumbe Island Coral Park: A Baseline Survey Of The Prevalence Of Coral Disease And Other Afflictions Within Chumbe Marine Protected Area, Hannah Turley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coral mortality from disease and other afflictions is a rising concern for reefs around the world. The aim of this study was to provide to a baseline for the prevalence of coral disease and other afflictions, which indicate compromised coral health, in Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Chumbe's reef experienced a widespread bleaching event earlier this year and this baseline study will provide a starting point to see how the bleaching event affected the prevalence of disease and other afflictions within the reef. A baseline study will also allow the park to investigate if their current monitoring procedures are …

Trends In Nectar Concentration And Hummingbird Visitation: Investigating Different Variables In Three Flowers Of The Ecuadorian Cloud Forest: Guzmania Jaramilloi, Gasteranthus Quitensis, And Besleria Solanoides, Sophie Wolbert

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Many variables affect hummingbird visitation to flowers, including nectar concentration, time of day, corolla length and other aspects of flower morphology, and elevation. Nectar concentration was measured from flowers of three Ecuadorian subtropical montane species: Guzmania jaramilloi, Gasteranthus quitensis, and Besleria solanoides. Concentration values were compared across varying times of day, corolla lengths, and elevations to determine the effects of these variables on flower nectar concentration. Camera traps were also used to observe hummingbird visitation to the above three flower species. After running regression and ANOVA analyses, nectar concentration was found to be positively correlated with time …

Effects Of Herbicides On Industrial Hemp (Cannabis Sativa) Phytotoxicity, Biomass, And Seed Yield, Brett A. Maxwell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Field studies were established in 2015 at Bowling Green and Lexington, KY to evaluate industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa) tolerance to various herbicides. Hemp was planted into conventionally tilled soils in mid to late June at a seeding rate of 39 kg/ha in Bowling Green and 22 kg/ha in Lexington. Five herbicide active ingredients were applied preemergence (PRE) the day of planting and six postemergence (POST) treatments were applied to 30 cm hemp with a CO2-backpack sprayer delivering 140 L/ha. Plots were 3.1 m wide by 6.1 m long and were sprayed with a 2.1 m boom sprayer leaving a 0.46 …

Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are Ted Talk Annotated Resource List, Elizabeth Hurm

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

The Coastal Monitor: Vol. 1, No. 3, John Tanacredi Ph.D.

The Coastal Monitor

Each fall I teach a course in “Ecology” and in the spring, “Marine Biology”; two seminal courses absolutely necessary and required to complete a BS Degree in Earth and Environmental Studies at Molloy College. To a large extent I draw on my 48 years of life experiences; flight meteorologist, “Hurricane Hunter” in the US Navy (1968-1970), environmental impact analyst with the US Coast Guard’s Bridge Administration on Governors Island (1974-1978); Coastal Barrier Parks Coordinator and Research Ecologist with the National Park Service (1978-2001); Research Associate in the Invertebrate Zoology Department at the American Museum of Natural History(1982-2000); Chairman Department of …

Ua12/2/2 2016 Talisman - Identity, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

2016 Fall Talisman.

• Street Style
• Home Sweet Home – Nashville, McKee, Bowling Green
• Doyel, Rachael. Happy Gas – Theatre & Dance
• Robb, Hayley. Stick & Poke – Tattoos
• Martin, Lindsey. Self-Made – Dexter Banks, Tattoos
• Sullivan, Abbey. Cover-Up – Tattoos
• Pettway, Shantel. Natural Roots – African American Hair
• Voorhees, Jessica. Living Laboratory – Benjamin Benton, WKU Farm
• Perry, Natalie. Frog in a Water Well – Keunsik Junk aka Brody
• Hormell, David. I Wanted to Touch Lightning
• Good, Hannah. Coffee Talks
• Reyes, Taylor. Ice Cold – Alpha Phi Alpha
• Games, Ann. Working the Desk
• Voorhees, Jessica. Killer Queen – Lane French, …

Replication-Transciption Switch In Human Mitochondria, Karen Agaronyan

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Coordinated replication and expression of mitochondrial genome is critical for metabolically active cells during various stages of development. However, it is not known whether replication and transcription can occur simultaneously without interfering with each other and whether mtDNA copy number can be regulated by the transcription machinery. Human mitochondrial RNA polymerase (mtRNAP) is a central enzyme involved in gene expression in mitochondria. It generates genome-size polycistronic transcripts and also makes replication primers at two origins of replication. MtRNAP is distantly related to phage T7 RNAP. While T7 RNAP is optimized to produce large amounts of transcripts to overcompete the bacterial …

Forecasting Climate Change Impacts On Plant Populations Over Large Spatial Extents, Andrew T. Tredennick, Melvin Hooten, Cameron L. Aldridge, Collin G. Homer, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Peter B. Adler

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Plant population models are powerful tools for predicting climate change impacts in one location, but are difficult to apply at landscape scales. We overcome this limitation by taking advantage of two recent advances: remotely sensed, species-specific estimates of plant cover and statistical models developed for spatiotemporal dynamics of animal populations. Using computationally efficient model reparameterizations, we fit a spatiotemporal population model to a 28-year time series of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) percent cover over a 2.5 × 5 km landscape in southwestern Wyoming while formally accounting for spatial autocorrelation. We include interannual variation in precipitation and temperature as covariates in the …

Tallgrass Prairie Center News, Autumn 2016, University Of Northern Iowa. Tallgrass Prairie Center.

Tallgrass Prairie Center Newsletter

Inside This Issue:

--Prairie: the Ultimate Sandbag
--Maximizing Monarchs and Dollars: What Kind of Seed Mix is Best?
--The Native 'Plant Materials Gap'
--Prairie on Farms: Prairie strips planted on a farm in Black Hawk County
--What County Engineers and Roadside Vegetation Managers Think About Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management
--UNI Conservation Corps Community Rain Gardens Project
--New Center Staff Profile
--Save the Date!

Measurement Of Fisheries Compliance Outcomes : A Preliminary National Study : Frdc Final Report, E Price, Roy Melville-Smith, D King, Timothy J. Green, W Dixon, S Lambert, T Spencer

Fisheries Research Reports

This report presents the results of a project undertaken by a group of Australia and United States based fishery compliance experts to assess and compare methods for measuring fisheries compliance outcomes that can be used to assess and compare the effectiveness of fishery enforcement and compliance assistance activities. This eight month project was requested in 2013 by Australia’s National Fisheries Compliance Committee (NFCC) as a way to provide fisheries compliance groups with improved methods for measuring and tracking the effectiveness of their activities and for justifying and managing their budgets.

Reef Fish And Coral Assemblages On Hospital Point And Near Bastimentos Island, Panama, Elaine Shen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Because worldwide declines coral reef health are of major concern, studying coral reefs through the lens of conservation efforts at local scales is essential for determining and monitoring effective policy measures. In the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, there are conflicts of interest between exploitative rapid tourism development, overfishing practices, and national efforts to conserve the local marine biodiversity. Coral and reef fish species abundance richness, diversity, evenness, and similarity were measured to see how coral and reef fish assemblages changed between protected and unprotected areas. A total of 329 fish and 322.5 square meters of benthos were analyzed using underwater …

Orm Expression Alters Sphingolipid Homeostasis And Differentially Affects Ceramide Synthase Activity, Athen N. Kimberlin, Gongshe Han, Kyle D. Luttgeharm, Ming Chen, Rebecca E. Cahoon, Julie M. Stone, Jennifer E. Markham, Teresa M. Dunn, Edgar B. Cahoon

Center for Plant Science Innovation: Faculty Publications

Sphingolipid synthesis is tightly regulated in eukaryotes. This regulation in plants ensures sufficient sphingolipids to support growth while limiting the accumulation of sphingolipid metabolites that induce programmed cell death. Serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) catalyzes the first step in sphingolipid biosynthesis and is considered the primary sphingolipid homeostatic regulatory point. In this report, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) putative SPT regulatory proteins, orosomucoidlike proteins AtORM1 and AtORM2, were found to interact physically with Arabidopsis SPT and to suppress SPT activity when coexpressed with Arabidopsis SPT subunits long-chain base1 (LCB1) and LCB2 and the small subunit of SPT in a yeast ( …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 57 Number 4, Fall 2016, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

3 - MISSION MATTERS

4 - THE BEST RUGBY TEAM EVER. By Sam Scott '96.

6 - QUESTIONS

Chemical Activation Of A Food Deprivation Signal Extends Lifespan., Mark Lucanic, Theo Garrett, Ivan Yu, Fernando Calahorro, Azar Asadi Shahmirzadi, Aaron Miller, Matthew S Gill, Robert E. Hughes, Lindy Holden-Dye, Gordon J. Lithgow

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Student Professional Publications

Model organisms subject to dietary restriction (DR) generally live longer. Accompanying this lifespan extension are improvements in overall health, based on multiple metrics. This indicates that pharmacological treatments that mimic the effects of DR could improve health in humans. To find new chemical structures that extend lifespan, we screened 30 000 synthetic, diverse drug-like chemicals in Caenorhabditis elegans and identified several structurally related compounds that acted through DR mechanisms. The most potent of these NP1 impinges upon a food perception pathway by promoting glutamate signaling in the pharynx. This results in the overriding of a GPCR pathway involved in the …

Lifelines Fall 2016, Southern Adventist University

Lifelines - Biology Department Newsletter

The Fall 2016 issue of Lifelines features a discussion on online science classes, undergraduate research in human anatomy and physiology, student missions in Thailand, and an alumni spotlight.

How We’Ll Fight The Next Deadly Virus Ted Talk Annotated Resource List, Susie Roy

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

Manufacturing And Engineering [Career Paper], Mahdi Alawami

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

Dispersion Of Ammonia From Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Austin D. Wardall

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate the dispersion of ammonia (NH3) from three Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in western Kentucky, as well as to investigate the Weather Research and Forecasting – Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model’s sensitivity response to initial NH3 concentrations under both wet conditions (significant precipitation) and dry conditions (no precipitation). As expected, pollutant concentrations generally were significantly higher near their points of origin and generally declined away from the sources. Contrary to expectations, ammonia tended to rise through the planetary boundary layer (PBL) regardless of atmospheric conditions. Results showed modeled NH3 pollution levels at the surface …

Differences In Depression, Anxiety, And Life Satisfaction Between Intercollegiate Athletes, Intramural Participants, And Non-Athletes, Megan Wilson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It is widely supported that participation in athletics is positively correlated with increased overall health. However, some research indicates that participation in increased levels of competition is positively correlated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. This means, that if compared, athletes competing nationally or internationally would report higher levels of both depression and anxiety than athletes competing at the intercollegiate level. Research indicates that this could be caused by increased amounts of pressure, personal cost, and expectation.

This study examines potential differences between intercollegiate, intramural, and non-athletes in these areas on a college campus. The first hypothesis is that …

The Effects Of Sulfuric Acid Deposition On The Growth And Development Of Pond Breeding Salamanders In The Genus Ambystoma, Kenneth J. Anderson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In terrestrial habitats with a history of mining activity and previous or ongoing reclamation efforts, understanding the effects of acidification on the ecology of amphibians is an important part of the restoration process and the conservation of local amphibian populations. Pond-breeding amphibians spend much of their post metamorphic life history in direct contact with the soil in upland habitat adjacent to aquatic breeding sites. I reared recently metamorphosed marbled salamanders (Ambystoma opacum) to evaluate the role of soil acidity on determinants of fitness such as growth and survival. My results indicate that a substrate of pH 4 was lethal to …

Development Of Dihydrochalcone Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles For Augmented Antineoplastic Activity, Jason N. Payne

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Phloridzin, an antidiabetic and antineoplastic agent usually found in fruit trees, is a dihydrochalcone constituent that has a clinical/pharmaceutical significance as a sodiumglucose linked transport 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. Phloridzin never experienced widespread clinical usage in the pharmaceutical market due to its side effects and poor bioavailability when compared to other antidiabetic therapeutics. The poor bioavailability is primarily attributed to the degradation of the glycosidic bond of the phloridzin, resulting in the formation of phloretin, the aglycone of phloridzin and glucose. While phloretin displays a reduced capacity of SGLT2 inhibition, this nutraceutical shows enhanced antineoplastic activity in comparison to phloridzin. Gold …

Visible-Light Generation Of High-Valent Metal-Oxo Intermediates And A Biomimetic Oxidation Catalyzed By Manganese Porphyrins With Iodobenzene Diacetate, Ka Wai Kwong

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

High-valent iron-oxo intermediates play central roles as active oxidants in enzymatic and synthetic catalytic oxidations. Many transition metal catalysts are designed for biomimetic studies of the predominant oxidation catalysts in Nature, the cytochrome P450 enzymes.

In this work, a new photochemical method to generate high-valent iron-oxo porphyrin models was discovered. As controlled by the electronic nature of porphyrin ligands, iron(IV)-oxo porphyrin radical cations (Compound I model) and iron(IV)-oxo porphyrin derivatives (Compound II model) were produced. These observations indicate that the photochemical reactions involve a heterolytic cleavage of O-Br in precursors to give a putative iron(V)-oxo intermediate, which might relax to …

Farm-To-Fork Fresh Produce Food Safety: An Evaluation Of Perceptions, Knowledge, And Implementation Of Good Agriculture Practices In Kentucky, Daniel J. Sinkel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Farmers’ markets have increasingly become a popular venue for purchase of fresh, locally-grown produce, with the number of farmers’ markets in Kentucky reaching an all-time high of 159 in 2016. Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) is a program created by the USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service to function as a food safety audit for small-scale fresh produce growers, such as those who sell fresh produce at local farmers’ markets. However, under the provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, small-scale farmers who sell an average of $25,000 in annual fresh produce sales across the span of three years are exempt …

Preterm Neonatal Lateral Ventricle Volume From Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Is Not Strongly Correlated To Two-Dimensional Ultrasound Measurements, Jessica Kishimoto, Sandrine De Ribaupierre, Fateme Salehi, Walter Romano, David S. C. Lee, Aaron Fenster

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

The aim of this study is to compare longitudinal two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound (US) estimates of ventricle size in preterm neonates with posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD) using quantitative measurements of the lateral ventricles. Cranial 2-D US and 3-D US images were acquired from neonatal patients with diagnosed PHVD within 10 min of each other one to two times per week and analyzed offline. Ventricle index, anterior horn width, third ventricle width, and thalamo-occipital distance were measured on the 2-D images and ventricle volume (VV) was measured from 3-D US images. Changes in the measurements between successive image sets …

Editorial Overview: Global Change Biology: Linking Pattern And Process To Prediction And Policy., Vladimir Koštál, Brent J Sinclair

Biology Publications

No abstract provided.

Can We Predict The Effects Of Multiple Stressors On Insects In A Changing Climate?, Sirpa Kaunisto, Laura V Ferguson, Brent J Sinclair

Biology Publications

The responses of insects to climate change will depend on their responses to abiotic and biotic stressors in combination. We surveyed the literature, and although synergistic stressor interactions appear common among insects, the thin taxonomic spread of existing data means that more multi-stressor studies and new approaches are needed. We need to move beyond descriptions of the effects of multiple stressors to a mechanistic, predictive understanding. Further, we must identify which stressor interactions, and species' responses to them, are sufficiently generalizable (i.e. most or all species respond similarly to the same stressor combination), and thus predictable (for new combinations of …

1. Types Of Alignment: Presentations & Demos Assignment, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Sequence Alignments

Pairwise Alignment: DNA

Pairwise Alignment: Protein

Multiple Sequence Alignment: DNA

Multiple Sequence Alignment: Protein

Economic Impact Evaluation Of Bovine Johne’S Disease (Bjd) Management Options In Western Australia, Ananda Ghose Dr, Leo Loth Dr, Mia Carbon Dr, Bruce Twentyman Dr

Biosecurity research reports

Bovine Johne’s disease (BJD) is an infectious disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Mptb) that can also affect other ruminants such as goats, alpaca, sheep and deer. It causes chronic wasting and incurable diarrhoea leading to deaths in mature cattle. Subclinically affected animals may have reduced growth and milk production levels.

The WA cattle industry needs to determine what level of protection from BJD incursion and spread is required for WA, including at the border, and how this is best achieved. The primary decision to be made is whether BJD is best managed on a statewide basis …

Pertinacity Volume 2 Issue 2, Yuri Hosokawa

Pertinacity

No abstract provided.