Life Sciences Commons^™

Home Range Overlap Between Small Indian Mongooses And Free Roaming Domestic Dogs In Puerto Rico: Implications For Rabies Management, Caroline C. Sauvé, Are R. Berentsen, Steven F. Llanos, Amy T. Gilbert, Patrick A. Leighton

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata) is the primary terrestrial wildlife rabies reservoir on at least four Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, mongooses represent a risk to public health, based on direct human exposure and indirectly through the transmission of rabies virus to domestic animals. To date, the fundamental ecological relationships of space use among mongooses and between mongooses and domestic animals remain poorly understood. This study is the first to report mongoose home range estimates based on GPS telemetry, as well as concurrent space use among mongooses and free roaming domestic dogs (FRDD; Canis …

Contralateral Acl Rupture Is More Common Than Acl Graft Rupture In Australian Netballers After Acl Reconstruction, Conor Honeywill

Theses

Background: Netball is a popular sport worldwide, particularly in females. The nature of the sport makes it high-risk for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

Purpose: The primary outcome was to determine the prevalence of ACL graft rupture and contralateral ACL (CACL) rupture in Australian female netballers following ACL Reconstruction (ACLR). Additionally, this study aimed to determine the rate of return to sport and psychological readiness.

Study Design: Cross-Sectional Study

Methods: From a prospective database, 332 consecutive ACLR with hamstring autograft conducted between the years 2007-2015 performed by 2 surgeons in female netball players were identified. Patients were retrospectively surveyed at …

Sustaining Development Through Biodiversity Offsets, Linda Abdo

Theses

Biodiversity offsets, also called “environmental offsets”, are actions used to compensate for the loss of biodiversity and social values associated with development projects. They are commonly used by governments to contribute to ecologically sustainable development (ESD); however, offsets have been criticised for inappropriate use, poor implementation, and inadequate monitoring, reporting and enforcement. Regardless, use of offsets is likely to increase due to regulatory convenience in easing community discomfort with development impacts. This thesis investigated how biodiversity offsets in Australia can be enhanced to align with ESD principles. Analyses of peer-reviewed journal articles, published reports, media articles and legislative instruments for …

Phasic And Repetitive Self-Touch Differ In Hemodynamic Response In The Prefrontal Cortex–An Fnirs Study, Sabrina Von Au, Ingo Helmich, Simon Kieffer, Hedda Lausberg

Exercise and Sport Studies: Faculty Publications

Introduction: Each individual touches the own body several 100 times a day. While some researchers propose a self-regulatory function of self-touch, others report that self-touching increases nervousness. This controversy appears to be caused by the fact that researchers did not define the kind of self-touch they examined and actually, referred to different types of self-touch. Thus, kinematically defining different types of self-touch, such as phasic (discrete), repetitive, and irregular, and exploring the neural correlates of the different types will provide insight into the neuropsychological function of self-touching behavior. Methods: To this aim, we assessed hemodynamic responses in prefrontal brain areas …

Csi Botany: Dna Barcode “Fingerprints” Identify Cryptic Urban Flora, Luis R. Vega

Theses and Dissertations

As short genomic markers, DNA barcodes can play a role in conservation by identifying cryptic species and hybrids when morphological approaches fall short. Here we present our application of barcodes to the identities of two wetland taxa as part of an ongoing floristic inventory of Van Cortlandt Park (VCP), Bronx, NY. Previous barcode data by Marriott et al. (2018) identified the VCP lake water lily as the exotic Nymphaea alba, rather than the native N. odorata as historically described. In addition, cattails in the park were historically identified as the native Typha latifolia and the exotic T. angustifolia …

Effects Of Duckweed On Mosquito Oviposition And Larval Survivorship, Alyssa Gushka

Capstone Showcase

Invasive species are those non-natives to habitat and that negatively impact the environment or human health problems. Invasive mosquitoes threaten the environment and humans, as they transmit 17% of infectious diseases including malaria, West Nile virus and yellow fever. Aedes japonicas and Aedes albopictus are invasive mosquitoes that often deposit eggs in artificial containers. Chemical pesticides, such as Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI), utilizes endospores to release toxins into the larvae. However, BTI creates negative consequences for the environment and other species. Many plants are being examined to see if they can act as natural pesticides. Duckweeds are native to North …

Vitamin D Enhanced Vitamin D Receptor (Vdr) Inhibition Of Nlrp3 Inflammasome Activation Can Attenuate The Development Of Autoimmune Thyroiditis, Alexzon Mandac

Capstone Showcase

Autoimmune Thyroiditis (AIT) is a prevalent autoimmune disease affecting approximately 2% of the population. Characterized by the gradual loss of thyroid function through an autoimmune attack on the thyroid gland, the disease manifests symptoms that negatively affect one’s quality of life. The mechanisms behind the disease’s pathophysiology are not fully understood; however, researchers are examining the involvement of the NLRP3 inflammasome in the disease. This thesis will address the question of whether Vitamin D can act as an inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome and attenuate the progression of AIT in mouse model. Current investigations explore the effects of NLRP3 inhibition …

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (Tdcs) To Improve Lower Limb Motor Recovery Following Stroke: A Review And Study Proposal, Jessica Fantz-Sands

Scripps Senior Theses

Strokes are the result of restricted blood flow to particular areas of the brain classified by their cause. The neural damage they cause are of growing concern as the number of young adults experiencing strokes has increased by 11% in the last decade. Following stroke, there is an imbalance of inhibitory and excitatory neuronal activity, and disruption of neural networks. These changes lead to neuronal death and loss of synaptic connections that, depending on which part of the brain is affected, result in behavioral deficits such as weakness, limb hemiparesis, and loss of coordination, as well as speech and cognitive …

Quantifying The Carbon Stored And Sequestered By The Trees On Pomona College’S Campus, Paola A. Giron-Carson

Scripps Senior Theses

We are experiencing a climate crisis that must be confronted with strategic mitigation. Pomona College contributes to the climate crisis through its emissions for which there is a baseline record. However there is no baseline record of the climate mitigation currently performed by the trees on Pomona’s campus through carbon storage. This study seeks to determine a current baseline quantity of carbon stored and sequestrated by Pomona’s trees as well as possible courses of climate mitigation for Pomona College to take. Initial information gathering was conducted through interviews with several stakeholders. This study was conducted using data collected prior to …

Nitrogen Isotopes In Deep Sea Corals; A Potential Tracer Of Paleoceanographic Conditions, Sylvia Bergerud

Scripps Senior Theses

Abstract

In the face of anthropogenic climate change, increasing pressure is being mounted on contextualizing current climate altercations compared to those of the past. One key tracer of climate variation is the isotopic ratio of 15N compared to 14N, which tracks biological and chemical reactions throughout the N cycle. However, it is difficult to find accurate palaeoceanographic records of N isotope fractionation, as most sedimentary and organic samples are subject to extensive diagenesis, degradation, and erosive processes. Scleractinian corals present a potential solution to this lack of accurate data. Multiple studies indicate that, due to their protective aragonite skeletons and …

Assessment Of The Spatiotemporal Changes In The Extreme Precipitation Climate Indices Over The Chungcheong Region Of South Korea During 1973–2020, Hyungon Cho, Bashir Adelodun, Hyo-Jeong Kim, Gwangseob Kim

Arusha Climate and Environmental Research Centre

This study analyzed the changes and trends in twelve extreme precipitation-based climate indices obtained using daily data from 10 synoptic stations in the Chungcheong region of South Korea during the 1973–2020 period. The climate indices were used to assess the trends in the extreme precipitation characteristics of duration, frequency, and intensity using the innovative trend analysis (ITA) method. The results of the ITA were further compared with two other non-parametric test methods such as Mann–Kendall (MK) and Spearman’s rho (SR). The results showed that most stations exhibited significant increasing trends in all the investigated climate indices at a 95% confidence …

Effects Of Social Context On Salivary Cortisol And Attention In Tufted Capuchins (Cebus [Sapajus] Apella), Andrew Desana

Master’s Theses

Social context alters cognitive performance, but the mechanisms for this remain unclear. One possibility is that stressors associated with social contexts mediate changes in cognitive performance by influencing attention. We conducted two experiments to investigate how social context affects performance on an attention task in capuchin monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] apella). We additionally validated and measured physiological stress through salivary cortisol. In experiment one, capuchins were exposed to three conditions where they were either isolated or paired with an affiliative or agonistic social partner separated by a barrier. In experiment two, subjects received affiliative and agonistic conditions without barriers to allow …

Unusual Chromosome Configurations: Evaluation Of Sex Univalent And Trivalent Chromosome Models, Ashley B. Borseth

Master’s Theses

Aneuploidy, or abnormal number of chromosomes in a haploid set, in XY/XX organisms has consequences that can impede physical and cognitive development. To prevent aneuploidy, cellular division relies on the correct position of paired chromosomes and subsequent segregation in the meiotic program. If connections between paired chromosomes sever or errors in chromosome contraction towards spindle poles arise, aneuploidy occurs. Many arthropod species have chromosomes that naturally do not pair, or that pair differently than typical autosomes. Through the evaluation of such systems, novel insights into chromosomal coordination and positioning may be revealed. The objective of this study is twofold: (1) …

Relationships Between Behavior, Energy Metabolites, And Corticosterone In Black-Legged Kittiwake (Rissa Tridactyla) Nestlings, Sierra Pete

Master’s Theses

Birds can cope with energy-shifting challenges by redirecting energy and behavior to maintain energetic homeostasis. Nestlings allocate energy to support their rapid growth and developmental period; thus, their challenges and the subsequent energetic demands can be much different than an adult. At a baseline level, energy is constantly shifting in response to regularly occurring challenges; however, more substantial challenges can initiate the production of glucocorticoid hormones. In birds, the main glucocorticoid is corticosterone. Corticosterone is believed to aid in energy homeostasis by redirecting energy metabolite mobilization. Energy metabolites are intermediaries or end products of cellular metabolism, thus, metabolites like glucose …

Bibliography, Maire M. Blankenship

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Maire Blankenship.

The Effect Of Lps On Phosphorylation Of Akt Signaling In Schwann Cells, Nicholas Wilde, Angela Asirvatham

SURF Posters 2023

Schwann cells (SCs) are cells in the peripheral nervous system that may play a significant role in neuronal repair after an injury, however, little is known about their mechanisms on how they do so. In the lab, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial endotoxin, is used to stimulate an injury while forskolin, a growth hormone, is used to activate the cAMP pathway. In this experiment, the cAMP pathway, which is involved in many cellular processes, and protein kinase b (AKT), a cell survival signal, where analyzed in different LPS doses (0.1, 1, and 10 µg/mL) and over different time periods (3-,6-,12-, and …

Nicotine And E-Cigarette Effect On Maximal Metabolic Rate (Mmr) In Procambarus Clarkii, Nathan Cuttica

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The use of electronic cigarettes, commonly referred to as e-cigarettes or vapes, has increased exponentially in recent years despite the lack of research into potentially negative physiological effects. The rise in e-cigarette use is likely due to the overwhelming evidence regarding the addictive properties of nicotine and the damage caused by traditional tobacco cigarettes. Most e-cigarettes, however, still contain nicotine and are associated with a rise in nicotine-related intoxications (Belkoniene et al., 2019). There are nicotine-free e-cigarette options, which are gaining popularity, but it is unknown if they carry similar or other negative physiological effects. Studies involving e-cigarettes containing nicotine …

How Akron Affects The Water Quality Of The Cuyahoga River, Allyson Darst

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the city of Akron had negative effects on the Cuyahoga river, and determine if the Cuyahoga River was naturally able to remediate these effects downstream. The pollutants measured in this study include hardness, bromine, residual chlorine, iron, copper, lead, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium chloride, total chlorine, fluoride, carbonate, pH, total alkalinity and cyanuric acid. This study was done using water testing strips (JNW Direct) to test the water at four different locations along the Cuyahoga River downstream (North) of Akron. This study found that the city of Akron does have a negative …

Comparison Of Bone Robustness Between Fore- And Hindlimb In Neonatal And Infant Galago, Jeremy Busken

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

According to Wolff’s law, bone is constantly subject to change based on loading patterns (Ruff et al., 2006). Those subjected to greater stress become more robust by increasing bone mineral density and often changing geometric properties. Previous studies of primate anatomy have found significant differences in bone robustness between the fore- and hindlimbs in adult leaping primates. Because leaping primates, such as Galago senegalensis and Galago moholi, subject their hindlimbs to much greater stress, this difference in robustness may come as a result of bone functional adaptation/Wolff’s law. This study sought to investigate this possibility by testing neonatal and infant …

Mammalian Dihydropyrimidine Dehydrogenase: Employing Transient State Kinetic Methods To Determine Catalytic And Inhibitory Mechanisms, Dariush Forouzesh

Dissertations

Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) catalyzes the two-electron reduction of pyrimidine bases uracil and thymine as the first step in pyrimidine catabolism. The enzyme achieves this simple chemistry using a complex cofactor set including two flavins and four Fe4S4 centers. The flavins, FAD and FMN, interact with respective NADPH and pyrimidine substrates and the iron-sulfur centers form an electron transfer wire that links the two active sites that are separated by 56 Å. DPD accepts the common antineoplastic agent 5-fluorouracil (5FU) as a substrate and so undermines the establishment of efficacious toxicity. Though studied for multiple decades, a precise description of the …

Polyrhythmic Pathways: Using Bimanual Coordination Research To Develop A New Framework For Practice, Performance, And Pedagogy, Christian Swafford

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This study reviews and compares percussion literature pertaining to polyrhythms and scientific literature pertaining to bimanual coordination. There exists a gap in the pedagogical approach to polyrhythms, and there is much disagreement between common instructional methods, especially when considered against the findings of several bimanual coordination studies. The purpose of this study is to reveal insight to the percussion community that the learning of polyrhythms is facilitated by the brain in novel ways, and the uniqueness of this learning process requires a rethinking of the current pedagogical approach. Percussion articles, method books, popular literature, and music scores are surveyed alongside …

Effects Of Fungicide Programs And Lower Leaf Removal On Wrapper Leaf Production In Connecticut Broadleaf Cigar Wrapper Tobacco, Caleb Haygan Perkins

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

In recent years, there has been increased demand for natural leaf cigar wrappers. Kentucky and Tennessee have been of recent interest as a new area for Connecticut Broadleaf production. Initial production experiences have shown that late-season frogeye leaf spot caused by the pathogen Cercospora nicotianae Ellis & Everh. may result in ‘green spot’ in cured leaf and cause a significant problem for producers of Connecticut Broadleaf cigar wrapper tobacco. Field trials were established in 2021 at Princeton, KY and 2022 in Mayfield, KY and Springfield, TN to evaluate effects of fungicide programs and lower leaf removal on wrapper production and …

Multi-Omic Analysis Of Vegetative Propagation Induced Plant Rejuvenation In Grapevines: Implications For The Generation Of Locally Adapted Cultivars Using Epigenetics, Tajbir Raihan

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Epigenetic memory of the growing environment is a process capable of increasing plants’ resilience to abiotic stimuli. The cultivated grapevine is a long-living perennial species with a large corpus of research suggesting that plant adaptation to the environment has implications for the selection of genetic material in a changing climate. Moreover, vine age has been traditionally correlated with enhanced fruit quality. Recent studies have shown that environment/age-acquired traits in grapevine (e.g., adaptation to the growing environment and fruit/wine quality, respectively) are associated with epigenetic mechanisms. These studies also indicate that of propagation type affects the maintenance/erasure of the acquired traits …

Winter Rye (Secale Cereale L.) Management And Production Profitability In Kentucky, And Heritability Of Sensory Attributes, Elzbieta Szuleta

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Winter rye (Secale cereale L.) is a small grain crop characterized by outstanding tolerance to drought, low temperatures, soil salinity and relatively low nutritional requirements. Rye is widely used as a cover crop, well known for its deep root system and outstanding nitrogen scavenging ability. This crop is widely used as a feed for livestock but also it is beneficial in human nutrition. Because of its versatile use, nutritional benefits and unique aroma and flavor, especially for bread and whiskey, there is an increasing interest in this crop in the United States. Unfortunately, rye grain production in the United …

Species-Specific Microsymbiont Discrimination Mediated By A Medicago Receptor Kinase, Xiaocheng Yu

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Legumes form a mutualistic partnership with nitrogen-fixing bacteria to meet their nitrogen requirements. This collaboration leads to the development of root nodules, offering an ideal environment for the bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia. A salient aspect of this symbiotic relationship is host range specificity, such that nodulation capacity and nitrogen fixation efficiency differ significantly between different host-bacterial combinations. Understanding the genetic basis of this specificity could pave the way for strategies to overcome the host range barrier. Sinorhizobium meliloti and Sinorhizobium medicae are two closely related species that display differential symbiotic behaviors with legume plants of the Medicago …

Seed Morphology Of Some Plantago (Plantaginaceae) Species In Iran And Its Systematic And Phylogenetic Implications, Saeed Mohsenzadeh, Masoud Sheidai, Fahimeh Koohdar

Turkish Journal of Botany

Plantago is a cosmopolitan genus with approximately 200 species and various infrageneric classifications have been reported. In this study, the seed morphologies of 19 species of Plantago from Iran were studied and documented in detail using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. The studied species were grouped by using statistical analyses such as a minimum spherical cluster method based on Euclidean distance, principal coordinate analysis, and multidimentional scaling. We have described four types based on the seed shape and states of the inner side of the studied seeds: convex- angular type, convex-elliptic type, flat-elliptic type, and concave-elliptic type. In this …

Dynamics Of Co2 Consumption, And Biomass And Lipid Carbon Production During Photobioreactor Cultivation Of The Diatom Cyclotella, Altan Özkan

Turkish Journal of Botany

Understanding of CO₂ delivery and consumption dynamics in algal photobioreactors are critical to unravel microalgae?s full potential for bioproduct generation and carbon capture from flue gas streams. This study aims to expand our current understanding by cultivating the diatom Cyclotella under controlled process conditions of a bubble column photobioreactor and analyzing CO₂ consumption dynamics in real time using results from an online CO₂ sensor connected to the reactor exhaust. Two sets of experiments were conducted: they served to contrast the influence of silicon and nitrate (Si&N colimitation) and Si limitation, and the light availability, respectively. CO2 consumption …

Hplc-Uv Analysis Of Phenolic Compounds And Biological Activities Of Padina Pavonica And Zanardinia Typus Marine Macroalgae Species, Hati̇ce Banu Keski̇nkaya, Ebru Deveci̇, Bahar Yilmaz Altinok, Numan Emre Gümüş, Emi̇ne Şükran Okudan Aslan, Cengi̇z Akköz, Serdar Karakurt

Turkish Journal of Botany

The marine macroalgae species are recognized as the food of the future with excellent bioactive properties. This study aimed to investigate phenolic compounds; cytotoxic, antibacterial, and antioxidant activities; total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) contents of the methanol, ethanol, and water extracts of Padina pavonica (PP) and Zanardinia typus (ZT). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in which ZT was evaluated in terms of phenolic content, antioxidant, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activities. The HPLC analysis allowed the identification of five phenolic compounds containing rutin (0.31 ± 0.04 ? 3.00 ± 0.21 ppm) in all extracts and …

Prediction Of Kinase-Substrate Associations Using The Functional Landscape Of Kinases And Phosphorylation Sites, Serhan Yilmaz, Filipa Blasco Tavares Pereira Lopes, Mark R. Chance, Mehmet Koyutürk

Faculty Scholarship

Protein phosphorylation is a key post-translational modification that plays a central role in many cellular processes. With recent advances in biotechnology, thousands of phosphorylated sites can be identified and quantified in a given sample, enabling proteome-wide screening of cellular signaling. However, for most (> 90%) of the phosphorylation sites that are identified in these experiments, the kinase(s) that target these sites are unknown. To broadly utilize available structural, functional, evolutionary, and contextual information in predicting kinase-substrate associations (KSAs), we develop a network-based machine learning framework. Our framework integrates a multitude of data sources to characterize the landscape of functional relationships …

Phytase Supplemented Diets Do Not Reduce The Abundance Of Cyanobacteria And Common Offflavor Compounds In Hybrid Striped Bass (Morone Chrysops X M. Saxatilis) Aquaculture Ponds, Kevin K. Schrader, Bartholmew W. Green, Steven D. Rawles, Matthew E. Mcentire

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Freshwater fish grown in earthen ponds in the southeastern United States can acquire “earthy” and “musty” taints due to the bioaccumulation of the cyanobacteria metabolites geosmin and 2-methyisoborneol (MIB) in the fish flesh and result in unmarketable fish. Dense cyanobacteria communities occur because nutrient inputs (phosphorus) are high in fish production ponds due to high feed application rates. In this study, hybrid striped bass (Morone chrysops x M. saxatilis) grown in earthen ponds was offered one of the six diets including diets supplemented with phytase to reduce phosphorus input to the pond and the subsequent intention of …