Life Sciences Commons^™

Effective Treatment Of Low-Risk Acute Gvhd With Itacitinib Monotherapy, Aaron Etra, Alexandra Capellini, Amin Alousi, Monzr M Al Malki, Hannah Choe, Zachariah Defilipp, William J Hogan, Carrie L Kitko, Francis Ayuk, Janna Baez, Isha Gandhi, Stelios Kasikis, Sigrun Gleich, Elizabeth Hexner, Matthias Hoepting, Urvi Kapoor, Steven Kowalyk, Deukwoo Kwon, Amelia Langston, Marco Mielcarek, George Morales, Umut Özbek, Muna Qayed, Ran Reshef, Wolf Rösler, Nikolaos Spyrou, Rachel Young, Yi-Bin Chen, James L M Ferrara, John E Levine

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The standard primary treatment for acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) requires prolonged, high-dose systemic corticosteroids (SCSs) that delay reconstitution of the immune system. We used validated clinical and biomarker staging criteria to identify a group of patients with low-risk (LR) GVHD that is very likely to respond to SCS. We hypothesized that itacitinib, a selective JAK1 inhibitor, would effectively treat LR GVHD without SCS. We treated 70 patients with LR GVHD in a multicenter, phase 2 trial (NCT03846479) with 28 days of itacitinib 200 mg/d (responders could receive a second 28-day cycle), and we compared their outcomes to those …

Intraguild Predation Is Increased In Areas Of Low Prey Diversity In A Generalist Predator Community, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Amber J. Squires, Bennett A. Grappone, Brian Dillard, Ariadne Castaneda, Sora L. Kim, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. Niche differentiation and intraguild predation (IGP) can allow ecologically similar species to coexist, although it is unclear which coexistence mechanism predominates in consumer communities. Until now, a limited ability to quantify diets from metabarcoding data has precluded the use of sequencing data to determine the relative importance of these mechanisms.

2. Here, we pair a recent metabarcoding quantification approach with stable isotope analysis to examine diet composition in a wolf spider community.

3. We compare the prevalence of resource partitioning and IGP in these spiders and test whether factors that influence foraging performance, including individual identity, morphology, prey community and environmental conditions, …

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The Waxy Mutation In Sorghum And Other Cereal Grains Reshapes The Gut Microbiome By Reducing Levels Of Multiple Beneficial Species, Qinnan Yang, Mallory J. Suhr Van Haute, Scott E. Sattler, Devin J. Rose, Anthony Juritsch, Jing Shao, Kristin A. Beede, Robert J. Schmaltz, Jeff Price, John Toy, Amanda E. Ramer-Tait, Andrew K. Benson

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Waxy starches from cereal grains contain >90% amylopectin due to naturally occurring mutations that block amylose biosynthesis. Waxy starches have unique organoleptic characteristics (e.g. sticky rice) as well as desirable physicochemical properties for food processing. Using isogenic pairs of wild type sorghum lines and their waxy derivatives, we studied the effects of waxy starches in the whole grain context on the human gut microbiome. In vitro fermentations with human stool microbiomes show that beneficial taxonomic and metabolic signatures driven by grain from wild type parental lines are lost in fermentations of grain from the waxy derivatives and the beneficial signatures …

The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Volume 2, Edition 2, February 2023, Bailey Feit, Tammy Mittelstet

CASNR L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter

The purpose of this L.I.N.K.S. newsletter is to provide a monthly update of opportunities and resources for K-12 schools to connect with the University of Nebraska's CASNR Food, Energy, Water, and Societal Systems (FEWS²) programs and partners.

Included in this edition:

K-12 curriculum and resources

Career exploration: Pathways for students who like animals and insects

Teacher and student opportunities

Send your students to campus

Kudos to our partners

Success story: University's TAPS program coming soon to high school class rooms

Tree Architecture And Powdery Mildew Resistance Of Yellow-Flowering Magnolias In Tennessee, Usa, Madhav Parajuli, Prabha Liyanapathiranage, Krishna Neupane, Jacob Shreckhise, Donna Fare, Benjamin Moore, Fulya Baysal-Gurel

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Magnolias (Magnolia sp.) are economically important woody ornamental plants; however, plant damage associated with frost and powdery mildew (Microsphaera alni and Phyllactinia corylea) disease is a major production challenge. To understand the tree architecture and powdery mildew resistance, 26 yellow-flowering magnolias (Magnolia sp.) were evaluated in McMinnville, TN, USA (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6b). One-year-old containerized trees were planted in a field plot during Mar 2006, with 4.6-m plant-to-plant and 3.7-m row-to-row spacing. The experiment was a completely randomized block design with three single-plant replications. Plant height and canopy diameter were measured on Dec 2016 and …

Effect Of Core Shape And Its Side Slopes On Seepage Quantity Of Zoned Earth Dam, Yaseen W. Aziz, Arkan H. Ibrahim, Khalil K. Hamadamin

Polytechnic Journal

Seepage is the main problem of earth dams; most failures are occurred due to excessive amount of seepage. In zoned earth dams clay core is provided to minimize seepage quantity and its dimensions and shape has great influence on seepage quantity. In this study seepage through earth dam with vertical and slanting core case were analyzed for different side slopes and top width. For vertical core cases different side slopes ranges from 0H:1V to 2H:1V and different top width from (3-10) m were analyzed. Due to lower permeability coefficient of core material seepage discharge reduced as side slopes and top …

See Transform Technique For Solving System Of Linear Volterra Integro-Differential Equations Of The Second Kind, Zainab R. Rustam, Nejmaddin A. Sulaiman

Polytechnic Journal

There are many integral transforms that are widely used to solve numerous real-life, science, and engineering problems. In this article, we present SEE transform for determining the solution of the system of linear Volterra integro-differential equations of the second kind. Some applications have been given and solved by using the SEE transform for illustrating the applicability of the SEE transform. Results of the applications assert that the SEE transform is very effective for obtaining the exact solutionof this equation.

Birth Preparedness And Complicationreadiness Among Pregnant Women Attending Primary Health Care Centers In Erbil City, Salih A. Abdulla

Polytechnic Journal

Birth preparedness and complication readiness (BP/CR) is a plan that helps women to consider all obtainable maternal health care services. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge on key danger signs and components of BP/CR among pregnant women within 3rdtrimester who attending primary health care centers in Erbil city.

Prevalence Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Peshmargas, Whom Fought Against Isis Warin Kurdistan Region Borders, Shireen J. Mohammed, Hoshyar A. Ahmed

Polytechnic Journal

Psychological disturbanceis one of the most significant feature amongst individuals who are served military tasks. This study presentedthe Post Traumatic Disorder (PTSD) among the peshmargas(Kurdish military personnel) who joined in ISIS war. The aim of this study is todetermine the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among peshmargas returning from war and to identify the associated factors of PTSD among the study sample.

Gender-Based Differences Of Inflammatory, Coagulation, And Cardiac Markers In Covid-19 Patients In Erbil City, Shukur Wasman Smail, Zhikal Omar Khudhur, Sonia Elia Ishaq, Rebaz Hamza Salih, Karzan Abdullah

Polytechnic Journal

In December 2019, a new coronavirus disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan city and quickly became a global health issue. COVID-19 causes various symptoms ranging from no symptoms to potentially deadly pneumonia. The study aimed to understand the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on immune response and the differences in inflammatory, coagulation, and cardiac biomarkers between male and female patients. Between June 1st and November 1st, 2020, 95 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals were studied at Zanko Hospital. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed using the real-time RT-PCR technique. All cases were analyzed for clinical, epidemiological, …

Performance Of The Gomaspan Dam's Stepped Spillway Against Cavitation Using Cfdcity, Abdulla Abdulwahid Abo

Polytechnic Journal

This study aims to determine how well the stepped spillway at Gomaspan dam performs in terms of cavity index. For this purpose, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code called FLUENT is used. To begin, the code was validated by applying it to the experiments work of (Li et al.2021), and the findings demonstrate great agreement between CFD and the aforementioned experimental data. Second, the algorithm is applied to the designed stepped spillway of the Gomaspan dam, and the cavity index is obtained at eachstep. The results show that the design is unsatisfactory, and the steps are particularly vulnerable to cavitation …

The The Impact Of Dapagliflozin On Aldosterone Hormone In Rats With Heart Failure, Skala Mamand Jawhar, Zana Ahmed Mustafa

Polytechnic Journal

The latest anti-diabetic medication sodium-glucose co-transporter inhibitor along with the lowering of blood glucose has a cardioprotective and reno-protective effect, it has the ability to reduce the development of heart failure and decrease hospitalization in heart failure subjects with and without diabetes. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sodium-glucose co-transporter inhibitor dapagliflozin alone and in combination with eplerenone on the aldosterone hormone in the treatment of rats with experimentally induced heart failure

Response Of Some Sugar Beet Varieties To Different Sowing Dates Under Two Seasonal Conditions In Khabat, Bilal I. Mohammed, Xaraman N. Hamed

Polytechnic Journal

The research was conducted in the field of Khabat Technical Institute / Erbil Polytechnic University during winter season of 2019-2020 and summer season of 2020. It shows the effect of plantingdate, varieties on growth and yield component of sugar beet under two different seasonal conditions. A factorial experimental design was applied in randomized complete block design with three replication; the first factor represents three planting dates (1stOctober, 16thOctober and 31thOctober, 2019) in winter and (1stMarch, 16thMarch and 31thMarch, 2020) in summer season, the second factor was three varieties of sugar beet (Germany, Turkish and Iranian), had been applied in both …

Effects Of Subminimal Inhibitory Concentrations Of Chlorhexidine On The Chlorhexidine Resistance And Biofilm Formation In Clinical Drug-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii Isolates, Hawkar S. Omer, Safaa T. Aka

Polytechnic Journal

Multi-drug resistant microorganisms have caused a remarkable increase in hospital-acquired infections (HAI)during the previous few decades. Moreover, microbiological contamination of antiseptics and disinfectants has been recorded in medical settings.

Molecular Comparative Study Of Virulence Factors Produced By Gram-Negative Bacteria Isolated From Several Cancer Cases And Noncancer Patients In Erbil Governorate, Iraq, Saman I. Othman, Fattma A. Ali

Polytechnic Journal

Gram-negative bacteria are one of the most prevalent complications among immunocompromised cancer sufferers and pose the greatest threat to these patients.Our study aimed to conduct research on Gram-negative bacteria isolated from various clinical samplesamong cancerous patients and non-cancerous patients in Erbil city to analyze and compare some virulence genes among them such as tuf, atpD1, atpD2, ms-1, ms-2 and ms-3.

Anomaly-Based Network Intrusion Detection System Using Deep Intelligent Technique, Sardar Kh. Hassan, Muhammadamin A. Daneshwar

Polytechnic Journal

Computer systems and network infrastructures are still exposed to many security risks and cyber-attack vulnerabilities despite advancements of information security. Traditional signature-based intrusion detection systems and security solutions by matching rule-based mechanism and prior knowledge are insufficient of fully protecting computer networks against novel attacks. For this purpose, Anomaly-based Network Intrusion Detection System (A-NIDS) as cyber security tool is considered for identifying and detecting anomalous behavior in the flow-based network traffic alongside with firewalls and other security measures.The main objective of the research is to improve the detection rate and reduce false-positive rates of the classifier using anomaly-based technique.

Biocontrol Activities Of Olive Endophytic Bacteria Isolates Against Pseudomonas Savastanoi, Avin O. Ali, Tavga S. Rashid

Polytechnic Journal

Olive knot disease caused by the phytopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas savastanoiaffects olive cultivation in both quality and quantity. Endophytic bacteria are candidates for biocontrol agents according to previous research.

Knowledge Protocol Of Direct And Indirect Veneers Among Dental Practitioners -A Case Study, Sazan M. Azeez, Bassam Kareem Amin, Noor Kaylan Hamid, Ali A. Saber

Polytechnic Journal

Dental veneers are constructed from different materials such as porcelain, pressed ceramic, processed composite, or directly applied composite.The purpose of this study was to ascertain the preferred dental materials for veneers and the knowledge about its procedures by dentists in the Kurdistan region/Erbil city

Preparation Of Curve Number Grid Map Of Rawanduz River Basin In Kri Using Gis Techniques, Israa D. Ahmed, Jehan M. Fattah Sheikh Suleimany

Polytechnic Journal

The study is being conducted with the goal of applying various models and techniques for catchment delineation and providing the opportunity to determine the Curve Numbers (CN) for the Rawanduz river basin (2956 Km2), which is located in the northeastern section of Iraq, Kurdistan region, by utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS). Satellite data (Landsat 8 OLI) for 2020 was utilized to build land cover classes, with a classification accuracy of 90% and a Kappa index of 86.18%. The hydrologic soil map for the region is digitized from the Iraqi soil map. In specifically, Soil Conservation Service-Curve Number (SCS-CN) is technique …

Drought Vulnerability Modeling Over Mandawa Watershed, Northern Iraq, Using Gis-Ahp Techniques, Zhyan A. Ahmed, Jehan M. Fattah Sheikh Suleimany

Polytechnic Journal

Drought is among the most severe natural calamities induced by lack of water, having a negative implication on water resources and agriculture in the affected area. Drought types and severity vary by location, so understanding the spatial distribution can aid in developing measures to overcome this natural hazard. In this study, the areas vulnerable to droughts in the Mandawa watershed in the Kurdistan region of Iraq were determined by employing seven associated factors: rainfall, temperature, LULC, surfaceslope, soil texture, elevation, and distance to rivers. Satellite imagery of Landsat 8 OLI for 2021was employed to create the Land Use and Land …

Y-Chromosomal Short Tandem Repeat Variation In Kurd, Assyrian, And Armenian Populations In Iraq Kurdistan, Sabriya K. Khalid, Yousif M. Fattah

Polytechnic Journal

North central Middle Eastern countries Iran,Iraq,Turkey,andSyriaall have persistent Kurdish regions. Over thousands of years, several ethnicities have immigrated, settled, or resided in the region, including Turks, Persians, Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Chechens, and Azeris. The aim of the present study is to use a set of Y-STR to characterize the genetic structure of the Kurd, Assyrian, and Armenian population and build a phylogenetic tree among them

Moving Vehicle Method To Calculate Traffic Flow Characteristics For Erbil 60m Ring Road, Kamal Y. Abdullah, Bafreen Ch. Zero

Polytechnic Journal

Traffic flow characteristics are important factors in the planning and management of highway facilities. Such information is not available in systematic form of the city of Erbil, so this study aims to obtain required data on flow, speed and density accordingly to find the relationship between these three parameters. Travel time, travel speed and flow due to traffic interaction data are also needed to evaluate the existing levels of service which is necessary for transportation planning and economic analysis, to be done in this field. This study uses the directional distribution of several selected road sections in the city of …

Investigation Of Homocysteine, Vitamin B6 And Vitamin D Among Patients With Colorectal Cancer, Fenik A. Nadir, Zeyan A. Ali

Polytechnic Journal

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a disease that begins exclusively in the colon or rectum and is caused by the abnormal growth of glandular epithelial cells within the colon. Homocysteine, vitamin B6, and vitamin D are recognized to play a significant role in colorectal tumor pathogenesis. The aim of this study to investigate serum levels of Hcy, vitamin D and vitamin B6in colorectal cancer.

Hepatoprotective And Anti-Inflammatory Effects Of Entecavir Or Probiotics On Oxaliplatin-Induced Liver Injury In The Rats, Asem A. Askandar, Ansam N. Alhassani

Polytechnic Journal

Oxaliplatin (OXA), a current cancer chemotherapeutic, has low efficacy and is linked to serious adverse effects, including liver damage. We anticipated that probiotics and entecavir would help reduce OXA-induced liver damage because the pathophysiology of drug-induced liver damage is thought to be related to the disordered gut microbiota. Twenty-four rats were used in this study and divided into 4 groups: control group (n=6), OXA group (n=6),entecavir (ENT)group (n=6), and probiotics (PRO) group (n=6). After 3weeks, all rats were sacrificed, and blood samples were analyzed for alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and IL-1. …

Flexural Behavior Of Two-Layers Reinforced Concrete Beams, Halmat B. Najm, Mereen H. Fahmi Rasheed

Polytechnic Journal

High-strength concrete is used to reduce the size of the beams in addition to enhancing the strength, this leads to overestimated cost in comparison with normal-strength concrete while using normal-strength concrete leads to the overestimated amount of concrete (layer size) of the beam section. For balancing the condition between the cost and size of beams, the benefit of both materials is used, by using beams in two layers, high-strength concrete in the compression zone (top layer), which is more beneficial for beam strength, and normal strength concrete in tension zone (bottom layer), which is no need using high strength concrete …

Utilization Of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer For Strengthening Of Structural Light-Weight Reinforced Concrete One-Way Slabs, Shvan M. Ahmed, Kamaran S. Ismail, Bahman O. Taha

Polytechnic Journal

Among many manufacturing industries, civil engineering sectors have been more involved in incorporating fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. These composite materials have been selected as an appropriate solution for strengthening reinforced concrete structural elements because of their excellent tensile strength, high strength to weight ratio, and simplicity of implementation. This experimental study aims to evaluate the flexural behaviors of structural light-weight reinforced concrete (SLWC) one-way slabs strengthened with different patterns of CFRP. The proposed material in the current study is using pumice aggregate as a full replacement of natural coarse aggregate. Four structural light-weight concrete (SLWC) slabs with the dimensions …

Screening For Antibacterial Activity In Selected Medicinal Plant Extracts Against Xanthomonas Euvesicatoria, Medya Ahmad Salih, Tavga Sulaiman Rashid

Polytechnic Journal

The environment and human health have fared badly from the use of synthetic pesticides as a form of pest control. Plants are considered as an alternate pesticide for pest control without sacrificing the environment and their potency on pests

Social Bot Detection Using Machine Learning Algorithms: A Survey And Research Challenges, Kayhan Zrar Ghafoor

Polytechnic Journal

In the past decade social media platforms growing rapidly and they are part of our routine life. Each platform has its own specification which uses for specific purposes. After this widely spread, those SMPs were targeted by the cybercriminals to cast their malicious activities. There are many different malicious activities in SMPs such as spamming, phishing, fake account. In these papers, Bots activities in SMPs one of those threats which include fake accounts, fake friends/followers, spreading misinformation by purpose, and many more. At the beginning of our work, we explain all terminology related to this topic to have a clear …

Review Of Feature Selection Methods Using Optimization Algorithm (Review Paper For Optimization Algorithm), Zana O. Hamad

Polytechnic Journal

Many works have been done to reduce complexity in terms of time and memory space. The feature selection process is one of the strategies to reduce system complexity and can be defined as a process of selecting the most important feature among feature space.Therefore,themostuseful features will be kept,and the less useful features will be eliminated.In the fault classification and diagnosis field, feature selection plays an important role in reducing dimensionality and sometimes might lead to having a high classification rate. In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented about feature selection processing and how it can be done.The primary goal …

Analysis Of 3.5 Million Sars-Cov-2 Sequences Reveals Unique Mutational Trends With Consistent Nucleotide And Codon Frequencies, Sarah E. Fumagalli, Nigam H. Padhiar, Douglas Meyer, Upendra Katneni, Haim Bar, Michael Dicuccio, Anton A. Komar, Chava Kimchi‑Sarfaty

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Background: Since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, bioinformatic analyses have been performed to understand the nucleotide and synonymous codon usage features and mutational patterns of the virus. However, comparatively few have attempted to perform such analyses on a considerably large cohort of viral genomes while organizing the plethora of available sequence data for a month-by-month analysis to observe changes over time. Here, we aimed to perform sequence composition and mutation analysis of SARS-CoV-2, separating sequences by gene, clade, and timepoints, and contrast the mutational profile of SARS-CoV-2 to other comparable RNA viruses.Methods: Using a cleaned, filtered, and pre-aligned dataset …