Life Sciences Commons^™

Enzyme-Treated Yeast Fed To Coccidia-Challenged Broiler Chickens, Emmanuel O. Alagbe, Hagen Schulze, Olayiwola Adeola

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

There is a growing search for natural feed additives to alleviate the deleterious effects of coccidia infection in poultry. Research has shown that may serve as healthier alternatives to coccidiostats.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of enzyme-treated yeast (EY) on the performance, nutrient digestibility, intestinal morphology, and health of coccidia-challenged broiler chickens. 480 broiler chickens were allocated to 3 corn-soybean meal-based experimental diets with increasing concentrations of EY (0, 1, or 2 g/kg). Dietary EY enhanced nutrient utilization and augmented intestinal development in broiler chickens. However, dietary EY did not completely attenuate the adverse effects of a coccidia …

The Next-Gen Crop Nutrient Stress Identification With High-Precision Sensing Technology In Digital Agriculture, Zhihang Song, Ziling Chen, Xing Wei, Jian Jin

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Crop yields are facing significant losses from nutrient deficiencies. Over-fertilizing also has negative economic and environmental impacts. It is challenging to optimize fertilizing without an accurate diagnosis. Recently, plant phenotyping has demonstrated outstanding capabilities in estimating crop traits. As one of the leading technologies, LeafSpec, provides high-quality crop image data for improving phenotyping quality. In this study, novel algorithms are developed for LeafSpec to identify crop nutrient deficiencies more accurately. Combined with UAV system, this technology will bring growers a robust solution for fertilizing diagnosis and scientific crop management.

The Pursuit Of Peak Athletic Performance, Trevor Short

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology Volume 4: Issue 1, Article 3, 2023. Achieving peak performance in sports is a multifactorial phenomenon that spans several scientific disciplines. The optimization of human performance requires a comprehensive and systematic assessment that identifies potential performance-inhibiting factors. The result of such analysis allows for more individualized and accurate evaluation, athlete monitoring, and training interventions. Thus, there is a need for a multidisciplinary model of peak performance to guide practitioners when conducting a comprehensive analysis. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a brief but practical vade mecum for practitioners to consider in the …

Is God A Magician Or Scientist?, Sarah Palmer, Josh Oliver, Jessica Abele, Jamie Jensen Ph.D

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

There is a body of evidence in biology education indicating that most American undergraduate students believe evolution acceptance to be an aesthetic position (1). Introductory biology professors at Brigham Young University have gathered essays written by students entering the class on their experiences with evolution since about 1980. Because BYU is a religious college, most of these students wrote about how their understanding of God impacts their acceptance of evolution. To learn whether student perceptions of God have changed in the past 30 years, we qualitatively analyzed these essays from a cohort of students in 1992 and another cohort of …

Heart Breaking: Rapid Discovery Of Novel Heart Development Genes In Zebrafish, Bryce Johnson, Andrew Jenkins, Ryan Halls, Cayden Bro, Jonathon T. Hill

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Congenital heart defects (CHD) impact approximately 1% with BioRender.com of the U.S. population. Identifying the genes and pathways involved in embryonic heart development is essential to better diagnose and treat CHD. Previous genetic screens were nonspecific and inefficient at finding novel genes To find genes associated with CHD, we ran a novel rapid genetic screening method on zebrafish, an established model for studying human heart development.

Dyslexia Is Caused By Visual Problems That Extend Beyond Language, Adriana A. Gutierrez Rubio, Celeste Trolley, Cole Smith, Olivia Ford, Toni Brown, Steven Luke

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder.

There are several competing theories about the root cause of dyslexia →

Each theory makes different predictions about dyslexic performance in visual search, a non-language task.

The Effect Of Menstruation Duration On The Achilles Tendon Cross-Sectional Area In Female Ballet Dancers, Li Kaitong, Aaron W. Johnson, Steven Allen, Shayla Bott, Chris Dillon, Joshua K. Sponbeck, Camille Nguyen Jones, Annie Allen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Females are more likely to suffer Achilles tendon injury that consequently leads to more complications including pain or tendon rupture, and experiencing fewer benefits from therapeutic interventions. There is a lack of knowledge on how estrogen, which may limit collagen synthesis, can affect tendon health and growth. The duration and cross-sectional area (CSA) of the Acobjective of this study is to examine the relationship between menstruation hilles tendon over a 5-month period of intensive dance training.

Anterior And Posterior Tongue Regions And Taste Papillae: Distinct Roles And Regulatory Mechanisms With An Emphasis On Hedgehog Signaling And Antagonism., Archana Kumari, Charlotte M. Mistretta

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Sensory receptors across the entire tongue are engaged during eating. However, the tongue has distinctive regions with taste (fungiform and circumvallate) and non-taste (filiform) organs that are composed of specialized epithelia, connective tissues, and innervation. The tissue regions and papillae are adapted in form and function for taste and somatosensation associated with eating. It follows that homeostasis and regeneration of distinctive papillae and taste buds with particular functional roles require tailored molecular pathways. Nonetheless, in the chemosensory field, generalizations are often made between mechanisms that regulate anterior tongue fungiform and posterior circumvallate taste papillae, without a clear distinction that highlights …

Unveiling The Nexus: The Interdependence Of Animal Welfare, Environment & Sustainable Development, World Federation For Animals (Wfa)

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

On 2 March 2022, the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted the Animal Welfare - Environment - Sustainable Development Nexus Resolution. In this resolution, UNEA acknowledged that "animal welfare can contribute to addressing environmental challenges". UNEA further acknowledged animal welfare's contribution to "promoting the One Health approach and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals." To understand these links, UNEA requested the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to analyse and produce a report for the next convening of UNEA on the nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development. "Unveiling the Nexus: The interdependence of animal welfare, environment & sustainable development" illuminates the …

Mystifying Mimics: The Influence Of Distribution On Mimicry, Taylor Probst, Dallin Kohler, Alison Whiting, Jacob Searcy

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Many animals display bright colors or patterns to advertise or warn predators that they are dangerous. Coral snakes effectively use bright red and yellow bands to warn of their venom. There are also many harmless snakes which try to copy or mimic the color patterns of the coral snakes to gain that same protection from predators without the venom. This is known as Batesian mimicry. It has long been thought that for mimicry to be effective, both the dangerous animals and their mimics need to be found in the same geographic area. This study focuses on two species of kingsnake, …

Covid-19 Multicultural Family Resilience, Annabeth Mathews, Oluwadamilola Obalana,, Tyler Leffler, Ella Gaskin, Cole Hansen, Gavin Speakman

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant hardship for many people living in the United States, with economic and public health effects that continue to adversely impact many To gain a better understanding of the disruptions that resulted from the pandemic, our team sought out to discover the impact of COVID- 19 on Parenting, Family Routines, Cohesion, and Resilience in Multicultural, Interracial, Ethnic, Diverse, Immigrant, or Multigenerational Families/Households.

Thc On The Brain: Adult Vs. Adolescent Changes, Addison Smartt, Jeffrey Edwards Phd

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been demonstrated to cause elimination of cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1) mediated long term depression (LTD) of GABA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain. Through electrophysiology and quantitative PCR experiments, this study reveals that LTD elimination is more pronounced in adolescents than adults, giving an explanation for the increased risk of THC dependency in adolescence. However, after a seven day withdrawal period, these effects were reversed. The data also supports the hypothesis that removal or desensitization of CB1 receptors from the synapse is an important mechanism of THC-induced neural and cognitive changes.

Custom Compression Algorithm Shows Potential To Reduce Tabular Data By A Magnitude Of 17 Using Huffman Coding And N-Grams, Maren Callaway, Stephen R. Piccolo

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Read file and rearrange its contents to a json file that sorts data by column.

Implement Huffman coding using the bitarray package’s canonical Huffman function.

Use the Huffman dictionaries for each column to encode all values.

Compress each line individually using zstandard

A Transcriptomic Analysis Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Revealing Alternative Drug Therapeutics, Mauri Dobbs Spendlove, Jenna Birchall Poulsen, Naomi Rapier-Sharman, Brett Pickett

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Breast cancer is the most common tumor type in men and women combined this year the National Cancer Institute estimates there will be 290 560 new cases in the United States and 43 780 deaths 1 Triple Negative Breast Cancer ( lacks three typical surface markers of breast cancer estrogen receptor ( progesterone receptor ( and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER 2 which are common targets for endocrine or drug therapy, severely limiting TNBC treatment options 40 of TNBC patients will die within five years of diagnosis 2 Additionally, it has heightened risk for metastasis after neoadjuvant chemotherapy …

Has Coral Abundance In Hawaii Changed Since 2007?, Natalie Wride, Richard Gill Ph.D

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

2nd place poster design

Hypothesis: Molokai, Hawaii’s southern fringing reef has experienced a decrease in coral abundance from 2007 to 2022.

Functional Annotation Of The Animal Genomes: An Integrated Annotation Resource For The Horse, Sichong Peng, Anna R. Dahlgren, Callum G. Donnelly, Erin N. Hales, Jessica Lynn Petersen, Rebecca R. Bellone, Ted Kalbfleisch, Carrie J. Finno

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

The genomic sequence of the horse has been available since 2009, providing critical resources for discovering important genomic variants regarding both animal health and population structures. However, to fully understand the functional implications of these variants, detailed annotation of the horse genome is required. Due to the limited availability of functional data for the equine genome, as well as the technical limitations of short-read RNAseq, existing annotation of the equine genome contains limited information about important aspects of gene regulation, such as alternate isoforms and regulatory elements, which are either not transcribed or transcribed at a very low level. To …

Myo19 Tethers Mitochondria To Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Actin To Promote Mitochondrial Fission, Stephen M. Coscia, Cameron P. Thompson, Qing Tang, Elana E. Baltrusaitis, Joseph A. Rhodenhiser, Omar A. Quintero, E. Michael Ostap, Melike Lakadamyali, Erika L. Holzbaur

Biology Faculty Publications

Mitochondrial homeostasis requires a dynamic balance of fission and fusion. The actin cytoskeleton promotes fission, and we found that the mitochondrially localized myosin, myosin 19 (Myo19), is integral to this process. Myo19 knockdown induced mitochondrial elongation, whereas Myo19 overexpression induced fragmentation. This mitochondrial fragmentation was blocked by a Myo19 mutation predicted to inhibit ATPase activity and strong actin binding but not by mutations predicted to affect the working stroke of the motor that preserve ATPase activity. Super-resolution imaging indicated a dispersed localization of Myo19 on mitochondria, which we found to be dependent on metaxins. These observations suggest that Myo19 acts …

Social Transmission Of Predator Information Through Referential Alarm Calls Within And Across Species, Carly Trebac

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Animals can encode information about a predator’s size, identity, or threat through alarm calls. This can provide referential information that can be used by individuals within and across species receiving the information. Referential alarm calls can encode information through changes in structure or rate of the call, and these variances in their call can elicit different responses, such as fleeing or mobbing, in conspecifics and heterospecifics. We aimed to investigate whether white-breasted nuthatch alarm calls can encode referential information and elicit different responses from conspecifics. Previous studies showed that a related species of nuthatch varies their call rate in the …

Initial Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Australian Fisheries Production, Research Organisations And Assessment: Shocks, Responses And Implications For Decision Support And Resilience, Emily M. Ogier, David C. Smith, Sian Breen, Caleb Gardner, Daniel J. Gaughan, Harry K. Gorfine, Alistair J. Hobday, Natalie Moltschaniwskyj, Ryan Murphy, Thor Saunders, Michael Steer, James Woodhams

Fisheries Research Articles

Australia’s fisheries have experience in responding individually to specific shocks to stock levels (for example, marine heatwaves, floods) and markets (for example, global financial crisis, food safety access barriers). The COVID-19 pandemic was, however, novel in triggering a series of systemic shocks and disruptions to the activities and operating conditions for all Australia’s commercial fisheries sectors including those of the research agencies that provide the information needed for their sustainable management. While these disruptions have a single root cause—the public health impacts and containment responses to the COVID-19 pandemic—their transmission and effects have been varied. We examine both the impacts …

Deep Learning Methods For Prediction Of And Escape From Protein Recognition, Bowen Dai

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Protein interactions drive diverse processes essential to living organisms, and thus numerous biomedical applications center on understanding, predicting, and designing how proteins recognize their partners. While unfortunately the number of interactions of interest still vastly exceeds the capabilities of experimental determination methods, computational methods promise to fill the gap. My thesis pursues the development and application of computational methods for several protein interaction prediction and design tasks. First, to improve protein-glycan interaction specificity prediction, I developed GlyBERT, which learns biologically relevant glycan representations encapsulating the components most important for glycan recognition within their structures. GlyBERT encodes glycans with a branched …

Ecological Boundaries And Constraints On Viable Eco-Evolutionary Pathways, Kyle E. Coblentz, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Evolutionary dynamics are subject to constraints ranging from limitations on what is physically possible to limitations on the pathways that evolution can take. One set of evolutionary constraints, known as ‘demographic constraints’, constrain what can occur evolutionarily due to the demographic or dynamical consequences of evolution leading to conditions that make populations susceptible to extinction. These demographic constraints can limit the strength of selection or the rates of environmental change populations can experience while remaining extant and the trait values a population can express. Here we further hypothesize that the population demographic and dynamic consequences of evolution also can constrain …

Neoadjuvant-Adjuvant Or Adjuvant-Only Pembrolizumab In Advanced Melanoma, Sapna P Patel, Megan Othus, Yuanbin Chen, G Paul Wright, Kathleen J Yost, John R Hyngstrom, Siwen Hu-Lieskovan, Christopher D Lao, Leslie A Fecher, Thach-Giao Truong, Jennifer L Eisenstein, Sunandana Chandra, Jeffrey A Sosman, Kari L Kendra, Richard C Wu, Craig E Devoe, Gary B Deutsch, Aparna Hegde, Maya Khalil, Ankit Mangla, Amy M Reese, Merrick I Ross, Andrew S Poklepovic, Giao Q Phan, Adedayo A Onitilo, Demet G Yasar, Benjamin C Powers, Gary C Doolittle, Gino K In, Niels Kokot, Geoffrey T Gibney, Michael B Atkins, Montaser Shaheen, James A Warneke, Alexandra Ikeguchi, Jose E Najera, Bartosz Chmielowski, Joseph G Crompton, Justin D Floyd, Eddy Hsueh, Kim A Margolin, Warren A Chow, Kenneth F Grossmann, Eliana Dietrich, Victor G Prieto, Michael C Lowe, Elizabeth I Buchbinder, John M Kirkwood, Larissa Korde, James Moon, Elad Sharon, Vernon K Sondak, Antoni Ribas

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Whether pembrolizumab given both before surgery (neoadjuvant therapy) and after surgery (adjuvant therapy), as compared with pembrolizumab given as adjuvant therapy alone, would increase event-free survival among patients with resectable stage III or IV melanoma is unknown.

METHODS: In a phase 2 trial, we randomly assigned patients with clinically detectable, measurable stage IIIB to IVC melanoma that was amenable to surgical resection to three doses of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, surgery, and 15 doses of adjuvant pembrolizumab (neoadjuvant-adjuvant group) or to surgery followed by pembrolizumab (200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks for a total of 18 doses) for approximately 1 year …

Non-Invasive Neuromodulation Methods To Alleviate Symptoms Of Huntington's Disease: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Lijin Jose, Lais Bhering Martins, Thiago M Cordeiro, Keya Lee, Alexandre Paim Diaz, Hyochol Ahn, Antonio L Teixeira

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disease. There is growing evidence for non-invasive neuromodulation tools as therapeutic strategies in neurodegenerative diseases. This systematic review aims to investigate the effectiveness of noninvasive neuromodulation in HD-associated motor, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials, Embase, and PsycINFO from inception to 13 July 2021. Case reports, case series, and clinical trials were included while screening/diagnostic tests involving non-invasive neuromodulation, review papers, experimental studies on animal models, other systematic reviews, and meta-analyses were excluded. We have identified 19 studies …

Epigenetic-Metabolic Interplay In The Dna Damage Response And Therapeutic Resistance Of Breast Cancer, Chandrima Das, Swagata Adhikari, Apoorva Bhattacharya, Sanjukta Chakraborty, Payel Mondal, Shalini S Yadav, Santanu Adhikary, Clayton R Hunt, Kamlesh K Yadav, Shruti Pandita, Siddhartha Roy, John A Tainer, Zamal Ahmed, Tej K Pandita

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Therapy resistance is imposing a daunting challenge on effective clinical management of breast cancer. Although the development of resistance to drugs is multifaceted, reprogramming of energy metabolism pathways is emerging as a central but heterogenous regulator of this therapeutic challenge. Metabolic heterogeneity in cancer cells is intricately associated with alterations of different signaling networks and activation of DNA damage response pathways. Here we consider how the dynamic metabolic milieu of cancer cells regulates their DNA damage repair ability to ultimately contribute to development of therapy resistance. Diverse epigenetic regulators are crucial in remodeling the metabolic landscape of cancer. This epigenetic-metabolic …

Combining Targeted Dna Repair Inhibition And Immune-Oncology Approaches For Enhanced Tumor Control, Kyle Concannon, Benjamin B Morris, Carl M Gay, Lauren A Byers

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Targeted therapy and immunotherapy have revolutionized cancer treatment. However, the ability of cancer to evade the immune system remains a major barrier for effective treatment. Related to this, several targeted DNA-damage response inhibitors (DDRis) are being tested in the clinic and have been shown to potentiate anti-tumor immune responses. Seminal studies have shown that these agents are highly effective in a pan-cancer class of tumors with genetic defects in key DNA repair genes such as BRCA1/2, BRCA-related genes, ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), and others. Here, we review the molecular consequences of targeted DDR inhibition, from tumor cell death to increased …

Bi-Allelic Tti1 Variants Cause An Autosomal-Recessive Neurodevelopmental Disorder With Microcephaly, Margaux Serey-Gaut, Marisol Cortes, Periklis Makrythanasis, Mohnish Suri, Alexander M R Taylor, Jennifer A Sullivan, Ayat N Asleh, Jaba Mitra, Mohamad A Dar, Amy Mcnamara, Vandana Shashi, Sarah Dugan, Xiaofei Song, Jill A Rosenfeld, Christelle Cabrol, Justyna Iwaszkiewicz, Vincent Zoete, Davut Pehlivan, Zeynep Coban Akdemir, Elizabeth R Roeder, Rebecca Okashah Littlejohn, Harpreet K Dibra, Philip J Byrd, Grant S Stewart, Bilgen B Geckinli, Jennifer Posey, Rachel Westman, Chelsy Jungbluth, Jacqueline Eason, Rani Sachdev, Carey-Anne Evans, Gabrielle Lemire, Grace E Vannoy, Anne O'Donnell-Luria, Frédéric Tran Mau-Them, Aurélien Juven, Juliette Piard, Cheng Yee Nixon, Ying Zhu, Taekjip Ha, Michael F Buckley, Christel Thauvin, George K Essien Umanah, Lionel Van Maldergem, James R Lupski, Tony Roscioli, Valina L Dawson, Ted M Dawson, Stylianos E Antonarakis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Telomere maintenance 2 (TELO2), Tel2 interacting protein 2 (TTI2), and Tel2 interacting protein 1 (TTI1) are the three components of the conserved Triple T (TTT) complex that modulates activity of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related protein kinases (PIKKs), including mTOR, ATM, and ATR, by regulating the assembly of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1). The TTT complex is essential for the expression, maturation, and stability of ATM and ATR in response to DNA damage. TELO2- and TTI2-related bi-allelic autosomal-recessive (AR) encephalopathies have been described in individuals with moderate to severe intellectual disability (ID), short stature, postnatal microcephaly, and a movement disorder (in the case of …

Changes In Physical Activity During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Assessment, Andrew Corbett, Kathryn E. Wilson, Andrew Van Horn, Jessica D. Ayers, Hector Hurmuz, Athena Aktipis

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 16(5): 327-341, 2023. COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in March 2020. Resulting containment protocols altered the day-to-day lives of people around the globe, impacting typical physical activity patterns. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to understand how physical activity changes occurred during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n = 271) completed a survey including a qualitative item asking for descriptions of how their physical activity had changed, as well as a categorical item asking whether they had become more active, stayed equally as active, or become less active …

The Effect Of A Division 1 Women’S Basketball Strength And Conditioning Protocol On Mental Toughness, Zach Olivan, Jeff Cherubini, Andreas Stamatis Dr.

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 16(5): 315-326, 2023. Mental toughness (MT) is a popularized term in sports since it has been found to be positively related to performance. Self-assessment is the most common method of MT data collection. In the strength and conditioning (S&C) context, MT research has focused on males with a notable lack of female participants. Division 1 NCAA strength and conditioning coaches (SCC) spend more hours with their athletes during offseason training than any other coach. The purpose of this study was to measure the perceived effectiveness of an off-season S&C training regimen on MT levels of …

Heart Rate Variability As A Neuroautonomic Marker To Assess The Impact Of Karate Training – An Observational Pediatric Study, Puneet Bhattacharya Ms, Sridip Chatterjee, Samiran Mondal, Dilip Roy

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 16(2): 342-352, 2023. Habitual physical activity improves heart functions and parasympathetic tone; Karate training is considered as a moderate physical activity with rhythmical breathing patternology. Heart rate variability (HRV) is an electrophysiological tool which measures cardio autonomic homeostasis; is used in the present study as an indirect marker to measure neurocognitive development with karate training. The aim of the present study was to find out the impact of regular karate training on cardiac autonomic responses through Heart Rate Variability (HRV) between karate players and age-sex matched active controls. A total of 30 male school-going children …

Comparable Acute Metabolic Responses When Walking With Blood Flow Restriction And Walking With Load Carriage: Implication For Tactical Professionals, Nathan D. Dicks, Sean J. Mahoney, Allison M. Barry, Katie J. Lyman, Kyle J. Hackney

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 16(2): 304-314, 2023. The current study aimed to investigate exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR) as a low-intensity conditioning strategy in tactical professionals with load carriage. During the low-intensity exercise, researchers examined the acute metabolic responses from low-intensity BFR walking, walking with load carriage, and walking with BFR and load carriage. Twelve healthy adult males (age = 21.8 ± 1.5 yrs, height = 181.3 ± 7.2 cm, body mass = 84.4 ± 11.1 kg and BMI = 25.6 ± 2.6 kg^.m²) completed five bouts of 3-min treadmill walking at 4.8 kmh …