Life Sciences Commons^™

Adaptation, Compatibility And Acceptability Of Grass-Legume Pastures In The Andean Region Of Colombia, E. Cárdenas, E. Castro

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In Colombia, the specialised dairy production system is located in the high altitude Andean region. Its main feed resources are pure stands of Pennisetum clandestinum or/and Lolium spp. Nevertheless, the present market conditions require highly competitive and quality forages year round. These forages should be produced with low inputs (irrigation, fertilisers and agrochemicals) and be resistant to pests and diseases. The objective of this research was to evaluate the adaptation, compatibility and acceptability of introduced forage species for sustainable pasture management.

New Cultivars For High Quality, Persistent Legume-Grass Pastures In The Southern Usa, J. H. Bouton

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In the southern USA one cannot depend on perennial legume-grass pasture systems to have persistently high nutritive quality. 'Jesup' tall fescue, a cultivar with better persistence in the region than 'Kentucky 31', was re-infected with a non-ergot alkaloid producing strain of the Neotyphodium coenophialum fungal endophtye (MaxQ^TM) and found to give persistence equal to Jesup with its endemic strain (E+), but without animal toxins (Bouton et al., 2002). 'Durana' white clover (Bouton et al., 2004) was developed from regional ecotypes of Trifolium repens f. hollandicum germplasm and found to improve animal performance in both E+ and …

Seed Productivity Of Festulolium And Lolium X Boucheanum Varieties, Iveta Gutmane, Aleksandr Adamovich

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Hybrid ryegrasses are intermediate lines between perennial ryegrass and Italian ryegrass as regards growth parameters, productivity and resistance. Good quality and digestibility of forage and higher yield are the main advantages of hybrid ryegrass over perennial ryegrass. Climatic conditions in the Baltic States and North Europe are not favourable enough for ryegrass cultivation but Festulolium is a prospective forage crop for this area (Nesheim, 2000, Adamovich, 2003). Ryegrasses, including hybrid ryegrasses, surpass Festulolium in forage quality. However, Festulolium persistance (resistance, winter-hardiness and, thus, high productivity) are noteworthy. Due to yield quality and competitive productivity, Festulolium may rank equally with timothy …

Comparing Yield And Quality Of Milk From Dairy Cows Fed Stockpiled Annual Ryegrass (Lolium Multiflorum L.) And Cereal Rye (Secale Cereale L.), L. E. Meinhardt, R. L. Kallenbach

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Stockpiling annual ryegrass and cereal rye provides a low cost substitute to hay and creates an excellent source of feed during winter (Kallenbach et al., 2003). In addition to lowering feed costs, grazing increases the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content of milk compared to feeding hay. Previous research suggested that forage species might differ in their ability to alter milk CLA content during the growing season (Wu et al., 1997). However, research is needed to determine if different forage species used for winter and early spring grazing impacts the CLA content of milk. The objective of this experiment …

A Grazing Method To Solve The Lack Of Pastures In The Dry Season Of Tropical Areas With Long Periods Of Drought, R. O. Martinez, R. Tuero, M. F. Díaz

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rotational grazing systems used in tropical areas in Latin America do not solve the great difference in pasture availability between the dry and the rainy season. The main studies on rational grazing (Voisin, 1963) were performed in temperate areas where the deficit of feeds in winter may only be solved with external feeds such as forages and silages produced out of the grazing system. The objective of this work was to demonstrate that it is possible to maintain pasture availability throughout the year with the use of a Pennisetum purpureum clone (Cuba CT-115) adapted to grazing (Martínez et al., …

Breeding And Evaluation Of Forage Soyabeans, T. E. Devine

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The principal use of soyabean in the US in the early 1900s was as livestock forage. Soyabeans are less expensive to establish than small seeded perennial legume forages and can provide legume protein after winter killing of perennial legumes. Soyabean can improve production distribution by vigorous growth during the hot summer season when traditional perennial legumes are less productive.

Effect Of Utilisation Date On The Yield And Quality Of A Semi-Natural Grass Stand In Winter, Jiří Skládanka

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Prolongation of the grazing period into the winter season reduces the costs of feedstuffs for dry cows. To enable the use of pastures in winter it is necessary to carry out the last cut or grazing cycle in June or July and to postpone the last grazing until the first week of August. (Opitz von Boberfeld, 1997). The time of the last utilisation in summer influences the yield and quality of herbage during the winter season (Bartholomew et al., 1997). This research studied changes in yield and quality of a semi-natural grass stand in autumn and in winter following …

Annual Forage Legume Response To Herbicides Labelled For Lucerne Establishment, Twain J. Butler, R. Bow, J. P. Muir

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Weed competition reduces stand establishment, thus lowering forage production and quality. However, there are no herbicides labelled for annual legume establishment, despite several labelled for the establishment of lucerne (Medicago sativa). Some of these may be useful in the establishment and production of annual forage legumes. Lucerne herbicides have greater potential for use on other legumes, since they have grazing and feeding clearance. The objective of this paper is to summarize annual legume yield response trials to herbicides labelled for lucerne establishment.

Covid-19 Pandemic, Climate Change, And Conflicts On Agriculture: A Trio Of Challenges To Global Food Security, Devendra Paudel, Ram Chandra Neupane, Sailesh Sigdel, Pradip Poudel, Aditya R. Khanal

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Global food security is a worldwide concern. Food insecurity is a significant threat to poverty and hunger eradication goals. Agriculture is one of the focal points in the global policy agenda. Increases in agricultural productivity through the incorporation of technological advances or expansion of cultivable land areas have been pushed forward. However, production growth has slowed in many parts of the world due to various endemic challenges, such as decreased investment in agricultural research, lack of infrastructure in rural areas, and increasing water scarcity. Climate change adversities in agriculture and food security are increasing. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely …

Voluntary Wheel Running Promotes Resilience To The Behavioral Effects Of Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress In Male And Female Mice., Elias Elias, Ariel Y Zhang, Abigail G White, Matthew J Pyle, Melissa T Manners

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Besides significant benefits to physical health, exercise promotes mental health, reduces symptoms of mental illness, and enhances psychological development. Exercise can offset the impact of chronic stress, which is a major precursor to the development of mental disorders. The effects of exercise on chronic stress-induced behaviors are contradictory in preclinical studies, primarily due to the lack of data and sex-specific investigations. We sought to evaluate the effects of exercise on chronic stress-induced behavioral changes in both male and female mice. Mice were subjected to an Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress (UCMS) paradigm with accessibility to running wheels for 2 h daily. …

The Effect Of Nuclear Power On Carbon Intensity, Lukas Mullaney

Biology Student Scholarship

The world is currently facing one of the biggest threats to the environment in its history: the warming of the Earth’s surface due to climate change. One major contributor is the release of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere by humans. To reduce these emissions, countries are making a concerted effort to invest in more sustainable energy sources. Nuclear power is one green energy source that can potentially support the transition to lower carbon emissions. Nuclear power plants release no carbon emissions during the generation of electricity. The only emissions are a result of maintenance, such as …

Effect Of Natural Disasters On Coastal Human Populations Of The Southeastern U.S., Caitlin Mchugh

Biology Student Scholarship

Due to climate change, extreme weather events and natural disasters are becoming more prevalent, and the severity of these events is increasing (Sheldon & Zhan, 2022). Over the last 40 years, the number of billion-dollar natural disasters has gone up. The U.S, averaged 3 billion-dollar disasters per year in the 1980s compared to the average 13 per year in the 2010s (USAFacts, 2023). With natural disasters comes loss of life, infrastructure, and resources that can leave a physical and economic toll on communities for many years if not generations. While some global studies have found that natural disasters increase households’ …

The Effect Of Water Temperature On Tiger Shark Location, Philip Gelso

Biology Student Scholarship

The tiger shark is a keystone species in its ecosystem. As an apex predator, the tiger shark keeps the entire ecosystem in balance such as maintaining seagrass and coral reef habitats. The rise of ocean surface temperatures have become an issue over the past decades due to the increase in energy from the sun trapped by greenhouse grasses. This change in ocean surface temperature can have detrimental impacts on the ocean environment and the life cycles of many species including the tiger shark. Therefore, this project evaluates the change in location of tiger sharks in relation to water temperature.BIO …

Element Levels In Soil Depend On Elevation, Sean Harris

Biology Student Scholarship

Elements, such as arsenic, copper, phosphorus, and calcium, in soil can help biological processes if content levels are not too low or excessive. Arsenic in soil is toxic at high levels and so too much is harmful to vegetation. Copper is important for plants because it helps with chlorophyll and seed production. Phosphorus helps with plant growth, especially for new seedlings. Calcium in soil is not completely needed at high levels, but it does strengthen plants’ health. However, with factors such as different environments, average precipitation levels, and elevation levels in different counties in the Northeast, element content level differ. …

Land And Energy, Devan Viani

Biology Student Scholarship

Land use has and will continue to be a complicated topic. We need land to succeed as a country and a species, but it is equally as important to keep the land as pristine as possible to not affect natural ecosystems. As population continues to increase, urbanization and economic growth has inevitably had an impact on climate change.¹ Parallel to an increase in land development is an increase in power generation. As cities grow, technology evolves, and energy use goes up. With this increase in technology, new sources of power generation are emerging. While fossil fuels have always been the …

Demystifying The Mind-Body Connection: The Neuroscience Behind How Thoughts Impact Physical Health, Sofia Pantis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The beliefs, emotions, and experiences that constitute a mindset shape numerous aspects of one’s reality, but in particular, health. Health is defined by not only the physical state of one’s body, but also the content of one’s mind. The integration of the mind and body is often associated with naturopathic medicines or pseudoscience, and thus is usually left out of Western medicinal practices. This review aims to demystify the mind-body connection in health and wellness by introducing it within an empirical, neuroscientific landscape. This research supports the hypothesis that mind over matter rings true even at the biochemical level. Activation …

Quehry: A Question Answering System To Query Electronic Health Records, Sarvesh Soni, Surabhi Datta, Kirk Roberts

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: We propose a system, quEHRy, to retrieve precise, interpretable answers to natural language questions from structured data in electronic health records (EHRs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We develop/synthesize the main components of quEHRy: concept normalization (MetaMap), time frame classification (new), semantic parsing (existing), visualization with question understanding (new), and query module for FHIR mapping/processing (new). We evaluate quEHRy on 2 clinical question answering (QA) datasets. We evaluate each component separately as well as holistically to gain deeper insights. We also conduct a thorough error analysis for a crucial subcomponent, medical concept normalization.

RESULTS: Using gold concepts, the precision of quEHRy …

Considerations For The Use Of Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculants In Coal Mine Reclamation And Reforestation In Appalachia: A Guide Of Best Practices And Management Recommendations, Cole Hansen Reistrup

Master's Projects and Capstones

Nearly all terrestrial plants form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi. These beneficial soil microbes support plant health by increasing plants’ access to nutrients and water, protecting them from pathogens, improving soil properties, and more. A challenge to restoring forests on coal mined land in Appalachia is that mine soils are often degraded in a number of ways, including lacking mycorrhizal fungi, which makes mine soils difficult for trees to grow upon. Substantial improvements to coal mine reforestation success have been made since the development of the Forestry Reclamation Approach in 2005 that provides guidelines for how to create a suitable …

Cooking With Chemistry: Marshmallows, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

This lesson plan teaches students thermodynamics, foam, and other chemistry topics by cooking marshmallows.

Complex Floral Behavior Of An Angiosperm Family, Tilo Henning, Moritz Mittelbach

Animal Sentience

Segundo-Ortin & Calvo provide a comprehensive overview of the many aspects of plant behavior examined to date. In our view, multiple lines of evidence make it difficult to deny plant sentience. We add further evidence to support the conclusion that plants are sentient organisms. As in animals, the behavior of plants can be seen and studied as an evolutionary trait, subject to and a consequence of increasing complexity in the interactions of plants with their environment. Our example is the evolution of floral behavior in Loasaceae, where complex patterns of stamen movement have co-evolved in interaction with specialized pollinators.

Raising A Bottle-Fed Calf On A Cow/Calf Operation, Reganne K. Briggs, Katelyn Barsnick, Cheyenne Reid, Ashley Longmore

All Current Publications

Having bottle-fed calves on the ranch is common for beef producers. The most likely scenarios are a cow has died, a cow isn’t giving enough milk, or a twin has been rejected. All these scenarios are likely to happen, which results in an orphan calf. Bottle-feeding a calf is straightforward; however, there are limited resources, specifically for beef producers, looking for bottle-fed calf management strategies. When bottle-feeding a beef calf, there are some things to consider, such as feeding colostrum, selecting and using milk replacers, and weaning the calf. Many of the resources on bottle-calf management come from the dairy …

Desalination: Adapting To A Changing Climate And An Increasing Demand For Freshwater, Rebecca A. Acosta

Master's Projects and Capstones

The state of California is just one place in the world that is experiencing an increasing demand for freshwater while also experiencing increasingly hotter conditions and longer periods of drought. There are a number of plants slated for development in the state of California but have been met with resistance from the public with concerns regarding their impacts to the surrounding marine environments. This paper provides background on desalination plants, provides evidence for a potential indicator species, identifies potential impacts to marine environments, and addresses stakeholder concerns and perceptions around desalination plants.

Precipitation Effects On Butterfly Species Richness, Maggie Ritchie

Biology Student Scholarship

Butterflies are important pollinators that have been impacted due to climate change(1). Studies have looked at how the increasing temperatures and precipitation due to climate change may be playing a role in decreasing populations among some species in Mediterranean climates(2). However, the effects of precipitation have not been considered when looking at changing butterfly populations around the United States. Therefore, increasing precipitation amounts due to climate change may contribute to the decreasing populations of butterflies in Massachusetts.BIO 340 final project

The Impact Of Age And Catch Location On The Mortality Rates Of Striped Bass, Owen Finnegan

Biology Student Scholarship

Striped bass are one of the most popular and sought-after gamefish in the United States for recreation and commercial fishermen. This popularity comes from their size, with many fish reaching 40+ pounds, a prominent dish in seafood restaurants, and their expansive habitat as they inhabit waters from Florida to Canada (1). During the late 1970s/80s, the population began sharply declining due to overfishing, and governments enacted regulations to stabilize the population (1). However, as of 2020, overfishing is still occurring, and regulations are continuously evolving (1). Each state has their own rules and regulations for possessing striped bass for commercial …

Does More Pollen Mean More Sneezing?, Diraliz Cruz

Biology Student Scholarship

Every year millions of people suffer from seasonal allergies, according to the CDC about 25% of adults have to deal with these allergies. Pollen comes from all different things like trees, grasses, and weeds and as climate change increases annually the amount of pollen released into the air also increases. Research has shown that climate change has specifically impacted the amount of birch and oak pollen released annually. Although there is data to show that there has been an increase in pollen release there is little to no information on if the prevalence of allergies has increased or decreased along …

The Influence Of Sampling Frequency On Bee Species Richness, Courtney Caccamo

Biology Student Scholarship

As one of Earth’s most valuable pollinators, bees provide important pollination services to wild plant species and crops alike (Winfree 2010). But, in recent years, bee populations appear to be declining due to a variety of anthropogenic drivers (Potts et al. 2010). Quantifying the extent of bee population decline is difficult because there is currently a lack of a standardized protocol for how best to survey bee populations (Tepedino & Portman 2021). One of the commonly used survey methods is pan trapping, which involves leaving out yellow, white, and blue bowls filled with soapy water to passively sample the species …

Novel Allosteric Effectors Targeting Human Transcription Factor Tead, Mayar Terek Ibrahim, Gennady M. Verkhivker, Jyoti Misra, Peng Tao

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionary conserved signaling network involved in several cellular regulatory processes. Dephosphorylation and overexpression of Yes-associated proteins (YAPs) in the Hippo-off state are common in several types of solid tumors. YAP overexpression results in its nuclear translocation and interaction with transcriptional enhanced associate domain 1-4 (TEAD1-4) transcription factors. Covalent and non-covalent inhibitors have been developed to target several interaction sites between TEAD and YAP. The most targeted and effective site for these developed inhibitors is the palmitate-binding pocket in the TEAD1-4 proteins. Screening of a DNA-encoded library against the TEAD central pocket was performed experimentally to …

Deepmicetl: A Deep Transfer Learning Based Prediction Of Mice Cardiac Conduction Diseases Using Early Electrocardiograms, Ying Liao, Yisha Xiang, Mingjie Zheng, Jun Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cardiac conduction disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is considerable clinical significance and an emerging need of early detection of these diseases for preventive treatment success before more severe arrhythmias occur. However, developing such early screening tools is challenging due to the lack of early electrocardiograms (ECGs) before symptoms occur in patients. Mouse models are widely used in cardiac arrhythmia research. The goal of this paper is to develop deep learning models to predict cardiac conduction diseases in mice using their early ECGs. We hypothesize that mutant mice present subtle abnormalities in their early ECGs …

Disentangling Sentience From Developmental Plasticity, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

Plants, like animals, display remarkable developmental plasticity, inviting the metaphorical use of terms like “decision” and “choice”. In the animal case, this is not taken to be evidence of sentience, because sentience is a complex product of development, not something that guides it. We should apply the same standards when evaluating the evidence in plants. It is hard to overstate the contrast with the case of invertebrates such as octopuses, where pain markers that were originally developed for use in mammals have been clearly demonstrated and plausible neural substrates for sentience have been identified.

Shared Decision Making In Acute Pain Management In Patients With Opioid Use Disorder: A Scoping Review, Peter D Vu, Aila Malik, A Sarah Cohen, Vishal Bansal, Morgan R Cowan, Gregory M Blazek, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The treatment of acute pain over the years has changed with increasing alternative therapies and increased scrutiny of opioid prescriptions. Shared Decision Making (SDM) has become a vital tool in increasing patient engagement and satisfaction in treatment decisions. SDM has been successfully implemented in the management of pain in a variety of settings; however, information regarding the use of SDM for treating acute pain in patients with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD) remains scarce. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), we conducted a review to understand how SDM is …