Life Sciences Commons^™

Cost Of Care Conversations: Perspectives From Rural Health Care Providers And Older Adult Patients, Karen L. Franck, Christopher Sneed, Lisa Washburn, Ann A. Berry, Victoria Niederhauser

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Older adults often struggle with health care costs. Cost of care (CoC) conversations are conversations between health care providers and patients to discuss direct and indirect costs associated with health care. These conversations have been found to increase patient compliance, but patients and health care providers often do not have these discussions. This article describes a project to provide Extension education to encourage CoC conversations for older adults and health care providers in rural counties in a southern state. To inform educational material development, 125 older adults and 51 health care providers completed surveys about their cost-related barriers to health …

Lessons Learned Adapting And Implementing Another Organization’S Program To Promote Healthy Aging, Erin Jewell, Theresa Serio, Karen Basinger, Jennifer Dixon Cravens, Lisa Mccoy, Mona Habibi, Shauna C. Henley

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Programming which promotes healthy aging may be lacking in states where nutrition and health interventions are directed earlier in life. Due to Maryland’s increasing aging population, a team of 10 University of Maryland Extension Family and Consumer Sciences educators received permission to adapt and implement the Iowa Department of Public Health’s, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Human Services and Department on Aging, Fresh Conversations program to fit the needs of Maryland’s older adults. The purpose of this manuscript is not to discuss research findings but rather to share our challenges, successes, and recommendations for adapting and implementing another …

Assessing Student Participation In Cardio Related Activities While Enrolled In Fitness For Living, Preston Anderson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project investigated student participation in the KINS 1800: Fitness for Living course offered in the Health and Kinesiology College at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). The Fitness for Living Lab course aims to educate the students on different types of workouts to encourage the students to try different workouts/exercises throughout the semester long course.

During the spring 2023 semester I administered a 10-item pre and post survey to determine if students would partake in cardio activities that they were exposed to in the Fitness for Living course. Following analysis of the data it was noted that …

Long-Term Spring Through Fall Capture Data Of Eptesicus Fuscus In The Eastern Usa Before And After White-Nose Syndrome, Molly Simonis, Lynn K. Hartzler, Joshua Campbell, Timothy C. Carter, Lisa Noelle Cooper, Katelin Cross, Katherine Etchison, Traci, R. Andrew King, Richard J. Reynolds, Yasmeen Samar, Michael Yasmeen, Sarah Stankavich, Gregory G. Turner, Megan A. Rúa

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Emerging infectious diseases threaten wildlife populations. Without well monitored wildlife systems, it is challenging to determine accurate population and ecosystem losses following disease emergence. North American temperate bats present a unique opportunity for studying the broad impacts of wildlife disease emergence, as their federal monitoring programs were prioritized in the USA throughout the 20 th century and they are currently threatened by the invasive fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans ( Pd ), which causes white-nose syndrome. Here we provide a long-term dataset for capture records of Eptesicus fuscus (big brown bat) across the eastern USA, spanning 16 years before and 14 …

Impacts Of Dam Removal On Cyanobacteria Blooms And Zooplankton Community In Hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake, Pruett Noelle Kasey

Biology Theses - Archive

The Chiloquin Dam was removed from the Sprague River in 2008 to restore the natural hydrology of Upper Klamath Lake (UKL), allow fish access to historical spawning grounds, and alleviate the effects of long-term eutrophication. This provided a natural opportunity to investigate the effects of restoration efforts on eutrophication. Using a 10-year dataset including 5 years before and 5 years after dam removal, we developed a consensus modeling approach to investigate factors contributing to the cyanobacteria blooms, observe changes in the ecosystem since the recovery efforts, and to assess the performances of three model types: logistic regression, random forest, and …

Molecular Mechanisms That Regulate The Stress Response In A. Baumannii, Feroz Ahmed

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Acinetobacter baumannii is particularly problematic in hospital settings, where infections can occur in a range of tissues. This bacterium can endure extreme stress from various antimicrobial agents, biocides, host immune response etc. Not much is known about how these bacteria react to such high stress. A. baumannii also possesses a unique ability to inactivate lipooligosaccharide (LOS) biosynthesis, which is an essential molecule in most Gram-negative bacteria. LOS is enriched in the outer membrane and is the targeted by the last-resort antibiotic, colistin. LOS-deficient A. baumannii is highly resistant to the list-line antimicrobial. Previously, our lab discovered that a two-component system, …

Pestfacts Wa Issue 13 - August 2023, Rebecca Severtson, Christiaan Valentine, Alan Lord, Benjamin S. Congdon, Cindy L. Webster, Ciara Beard

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 13 - August 2023 contents:

• Diamondback moth numbers are low, but growers are reminded to monitor with warming temperatures
• Native budworm caterpillars are appearing in the northern region
• Turnip yellows virus is spreading in canola in Kwinana West and Albany port zones
• Sclerotinia stem rot update

Pestfacts Wa Issue 14 - August 2023, Rebecca Severtson, Ciara Beard, Kylie Chambers

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 14 - August 2023 contents:

• Cabbage aphids have been increasing in canola
• Powdery mildew in multiple crop species
• Preventing grain staining in oats from Septoria avenae blotch

Pestfacts Wa Issue 12 - August 2023, Ciara Beard, Andrea Hills, Geoff J. Thomas, Cindy L. Webster, Kithsiri Jayasena

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 12 - August 2023 contents:

• Leaf rust in wheat
• Nodorum blotch and yellow spot in wheat
• Loose smut in barley

Physiological Consequences Of Adrenal Enlargement And Implications For Toxin Resistance In North American Snakes, Megen E. Kepas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The long observed relationship between enlarged adrenal glands and toad-eating in snakes has remained a mystery in physiological ecology and herpetology. It has been predicted that large adrenal glands may be capable of producing higher amounts of key hormones, and that higher plasma hormone levels may lend some behavioral or physiological benefits after a toxic toad has been eaten. I address questions surrounding adrenal enlargement and its potential benefits to toad eaters in four research chapters. In my second chapter, I quantify adrenal hormone output at different embryonic stages in the toad-generalist snake Thamnophis elegans and examine the ability of …

Anthropogenic Factors Affecting Common Raven Occurrence And Depredation Of Artificial Nests Within Greater Sage‐Grouse Habitat In Southern Utah, Zoë S. Moffett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Certain species of wildlife are more generalist and adaptive than others. These species often flourish when supported by human activities that provide additional food and habitat for them. The common raven (Corvus corax; hereafter raven) is one such species; their populations have risen and spread throughout the Intermountain West. As generalist scavengers and predators, ravens have been found to pose a severe threat to several threatened or sensitive species, including the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse). The purpose of my research was to determine the specific anthropogenic and habitat factors that may increase the threat …

Antimicrobial Peptides In Transgenic Silkworm Silk, David Jaden Turner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Overview: People in India and China have produced silk textiles for thousands of years. Silk is a biodegradable, biocompatible compound used in the production of clothing, bedding, furniture, industrial materials, and medical applications. Over the last 30 years, research has increasingly investigated silk’s antimicrobial effects and how to augment its natural abilities. Antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, are also an area of increasing interest as the rise of antibiotic resistance reduces the efficacy of current treatments. This project plans to systematically synthesize a fusion protein that incorporates the beneficial properties of each constituent into commercial silkworms.

Innovation: This project seeks to …

Fishing Out Nutrients: The Spatiotemporal And Ecological Dynamics Of Fishery-Based Nutrient Extraction, Adrián A. González Ortiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Marine fisheries are one of the most impactful human activities on the planet. Since the 1950s, marine fisheries have removed billions of metric tons of marine biomass leading to substantial declines in many fish populations. Among their impacts, we have begun to investigate the role of fisheries in disrupting marine nutrient cycles. Specifically, removing biomass can change nutrient cycles by reducing the amount of nutrients stored within animal biomass.

No studies have investigated the large-scale geographical and ecological contexts of nutrient removal by fisheries over a large timescale. For my thesis, we compiled data on fishery-targeted organisms' carbon, nitrogen, and …

Evaluating Beaver Translocation Methods For Desert River Restoration, Christine E. Sandbach

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wildlife translocation, or moving wild animals from their original home to a new location, is a common conservation practice; however, translocation programs have variable success rates. Beaver translocation is often used in stream restoration projects due to beavers’ role as ecosystem engineers—beavers enhance riparian habitat by building dams that hold water and create more diverse channels. Beaver translocation success is often limited by high mortality and long distance movement after release, and improvement in translocation methods is needed. My objective was to evaluate two methods of improving beaver translocation success in a degraded desert river in east-central Utah: beaver dam …

Treatment Of Yellow Fever Virus With The Ns4b Inhibitor Bdaa And Effects On Rna‐Sensing Innate Immune Pathways In Hamster And Mouse Models, Abbie E. Weight

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Yellow fever (YF) is an acute and often severe disease cause by yellow fever virus (YFV). Although there is an effective vaccine available to prevent YF, there are no antiviral drugs approved to treat the disease, which has a considerable disease burden in endemic areas of South America and Africa. BDAA is an experimental antiviral treatment which has shown efficacy against YFV both in cell culture and when administered before infection in an animal model of disease. BDAA targets the YFV protein NS4B and has two reported mechanisms of action: the primary mechanism of action is the direct inhibition of …

Characterization Of The Immunoglobulin Lambda Chain Across Diverse Human Populations., William Gibson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The adaptive immune system relies on a diverse set of over one hundred immunoglobulin (IG) genes across three genomic loci that are variably combined to form antibodies (Ab). The IG Lambda locus is one of two loci which encodes the IG light chain. The complexity of the IGL locus severely limits the effective use of standard short-read sequencing, limiting our knowledge of population diversity in these loci. We leveraged single molecule real-time (SMRT) long-read sequencing in conjunction with IGL-targeted DNA capture to develop the method IG-Cap for accurate and high-throughput sequencing of the IGL locus. We benchmarked this method using …

Novel Insights Into Oligodendrocyte Biology From Developmental Myelination Studies In Autophagy Deficient Mice And Analysis Of Oligodendrocyte Translatome Response To Contusive Spinal Cord Injury., Michael David Forston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Loss of myelin causes severe neurological disorders and functional deficits in white matter injuries (WMI) such as traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). This dissertation is focused on autophagy in OL development and the OL translatome after SCI. Chapter I describes the history of myelin, OL development, and their involvement in neurodegenerative diseases and SCI. The proteostasis network, in particular autophagy, and its contributions to white matter pathology is discussed. It concludes examining advantages and disadvantages of unbiased omics tools, like RiboTag, to study transcriptional/translational landscapes after SCI. Chapter II focuses on autophagy in OPC/OL differentiation, survival, and proper myelination in …

Histamine Excretion In Common Indoor And Hematophagous Arthropods, Simona Principato, Alvaro Romero, Chow-Yang Lee, Kathleen Campbell, Dong-Hwan Choe, Coby Schal, Zachary C. Devries

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Histamine is a biogenic amine that regulates multiple physiological functions in diverse organisms, specifically playing a central role in the mammalian immune response. The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius L. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), excretes histamine in large amounts in its feces as a component of its aggregation pheromone, which contaminates homes. The potential health risks associated with the presence of indoor histamine are unclear, but to predict future exposure risks, it is critical that we understand if other arthropods excrete histamine in any discernible phylogenetic pattern. In the present study, we evaluated histamine excretion by various arthropods; specifically those commonly found …

Microstructural Characterization Of High-Protein Dairy Powders, Prafulla Salunke, Athira Syamala, Lloyd Metzger

Dairy Science and Food Science Faculty Publications: 2022 to Present

Dairy proteins are potential and multipurpose ingredients used to prepare various food products. It exhibits many beneficial functionalities and bioactivities in the processing of food products. All the functionalities of different dairy proteins depend on their peculiar structural characteristics. So, the present study aimed to characterize high-protein powders with different matrices (milk protein concentrate (MPC), rennet casein (RCN), micellar casein concentrate (MCC), whey protein isolate (WPI), and native whey concentrate (NWC)) for their composition, handling, and reconstitution properties, and microstructure and compared them with whole milk powder (WMP) and skim milk powder (SMP). The bulk density of the high-protein powders …

Voluntary Action And Conscious Intention, Jake Gavenas

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Traditional experimental methodology in neuroscience involves comparing responses to different stimuli to make inferences about the human brain. However, human volition entails making decisions and acting in a manner that is underdetermined by the external environment. Investigations of the neuronal basis of volition have led to new controversies regarding the existence of free will, and offer potential directions for medical treatments of disorders such as addiction, akinetic mutism, and locked-in syndrome. However, because volition experiments leave aspects of responses “up to” participants, neuroscientists must utilize computational techniques such as modeling, simulation, and advanced analyses to progress our understanding of human …

A Systems Genetics Approach To Drosophila Melanogaster Models Of Rare And Common Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Rebecca Macpherson

All Dissertations

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are a group of disorders resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure, presenting with neurodevelopmental and facial abnormalities of varying severity. SSRIDDs and CdLS are rare disorders of chromatin modification, resulting in patients with a wide range of craniofacial, digit and/or neurodevelopmental abnormalities. All of these disorders have a wide range of clinical phenotypes and disease severity, yet the role of potential genetic modifiers and gene-gene or gene-environment interactions in disease pathogenesis is largely unknown and cannot be studied in humans. Insufficient numbers of patients with a single rare disorder prevent investigation of genetic factors beyond the focal …

Perspectives On The Application Of Pharmacogenomics In Patient Care, Erika Meaddough

All Dissertations

Pharmacogenomics, the study of the genetic contribution to inter-individual differences in drug response, has great potential for realizing the goals of precision medicine: the right drug, for the right patient, at the right time. However, application in the clinical setting, through the use of pharmacogenetic testing, still has not gained widespread acceptance. This work describes multiple aspects of pharmacogenomics, which drive current research in this field.

Chapter I is an introduction to pharmacogenomics. Regulatory agencies and professional organizations across the globe provide information about gene-drug interactions that could lead to adverse drug reactions, and/or therapeutic failure. Risks for poor health …

Breeding Cotton For Determinate Growth Habit: Increasing Cotton Fiber Yield By Remobilization Of End-Of-Season Perennial Reserves, Salman Naveed

All Dissertations

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is a major export commodity for the U.S. Despite advances in plant breeding and management practices, the cotton yield gains in the U.S. have stagnated. Therefore, to increase cotton fiber yield, we undertook a novel approach by altering the growth habit of cotton from perennial to annual. In this effort, eight genotypes showing strong expression alleles for five floral induction and meristem identity genes were selected from 44 Upland cotton mini-core collection genotypes and genetically crossed in various combinations to stack the strong expression alleles in a genotype. These efforts have allowed us to develop high-yielding, …

Elucidating Mechanisms Of Rad51 Regulation During The Replication Stress Response, Alexandra Hawks

All Dissertations

The genome must be accurately and efficiently replicated each cell cycle to ensure there is not accumulation of mutations or structural rearrangements. When an active replication fork stalls, there are multiple DNA damage tolerance (DTT) pathways that can act to both protect integrity of DNA at the fork and restart replication. RAD51, a vital recombinase, works with HLTF, ZRANB3, and SMARCAL1 or FBH1 to regress stalled replication forks. RAD51 is loaded and stabilized onto the replication fork to protect the newly synthesized DNA from degradation. RAD51 is also active during the template switching DDT pathway. This pathway can be utilized …

Partitioning The Role Of Myocardial Steatosis On Left Ventricular Function, Andrew Oneglia

Kinesiology Dissertations - Archive

Preclinical studies have long suggested that excess lipid accumulation within cardiomyocytes (myocardial steatosis) leads to adverse cardiac remodeling and ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Whether myocardial steatosis negatively affects the human heart is less clear. Innovations in 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), introduced nearly 20 years ago, provide a method for in vivo quantification of myocardial triglyceride content that has been used to describe myocardial steatosis in obesity, type-2 diabetes, and across multiple disease states. However, most of this literature consists of cross-sectional observations. While these studies identify associations between myocardial steatosis and adverse remodeling and/or cardiac function, the presence …

Biodiversity In The Anthropocene, Understanding The Impacts Of Land-Use Change, And Species Interactions., Alexander H. Murray

Biology Dissertations - Archive

The extent of human influences on the environment and biodiversity has led to naming our current time period the Anthropocene. A primary way in which humans impact biodiversity is through habitat modification. Despite the knowledge that habitat modification is negative for many species, we still don’t understand why some species are able to persist despite habitat modification while others do not. In my first chapter I used a trait-based approach to understand what determines species’ sensitivity to habitat modification. Trait-based approaches from different regions often disagree on the importance of the same traits, and I thought climate and land use …

Determining How Anthropogenic Change Filters Biological Communities And How Species Modify Their Traits In Response To Urbanization, Kristopher Warren Row

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Humans are significantly altering the environment at an alarming pace, leading to a reduction in species diversity. This transformation has created modified habitats where some species struggle to survive, while a few others not only manage to survive but thrive. One of the most drastic forms of habitat modification is urbanization, which is spreading worldwide and contributing to the decline of biodiversity. Urbanization has given rise to urban-tolerant species that differ ecologically from species that avoid urban areas across various niche dimensions. These urban-tolerant species must adapt to changes in food sources, microhabitat conditions, and alterations in physical habitat structures. …

Merging Clinical And Genomic Data In Patients With Acute Leukemia For Downstream Analysis, Amanda Bataycan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to integrate multiple sources of information from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to construct organized datasets that would enable downstream bioinformatics and statistical analyses of the patientsâ?? survival status and overall survival times in relation to their demographic, clinical, and genomic mutation profiles. With NIH Genomic Data Commons as the primary data resource and cBioPortal as the access portal, datasets on 149 and 603 unique patients with AML and ALL, respectively, were obtained. Python scripts were written to compile individual patientsâ?? single nucleotide variant (SNV) data files into …

The Effects Of Participation In Collegiate Football On The Time Management Behavior And Academic Performance Of College Students, Desiree' A. Johnson

McNair Scholars Research

The unique demands of balancing rigorous athletic commitments and academic responsibilities present a challenge for college football players. There were three purposes of this study. The first purpose of this study sought to determine if there is a relationship between time management behavior and academic performance among college students. The second purpose of this study was to determine whether participation in collegiate football affected the time management behavior of college students, and the third purpose of this study was to determine if participation in collegiate football affected the academic performance among college students. Participants in the study were a convenience …

Evidence Of Competitive Release Following Overstory Mortality In A Semi-Arid Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Corrie D. Gonzalez

Biology ETDs

Extreme temperatures and severe drought events have led to widespread tree mortality worldwide. In semi-arid regions of the Southwest United States, these events pose a significant threat to piñon-juniper (PJ) woodlands. We studied the effects of piñon and juniper mortality on the growth and physiology of existing saplings in PJ woodlands by analyzing water status, photosynthetic activity, and tissue chemistry to gain insights into these impacts. Juniper saplings exhibited improved water status and water use efficiency in response to overstory mortality, whereas piñon saplings did not. Additionally, both piñon and juniper saplings exhibited increased photosynthetic rates, increased photosynthetic capacity, and …