Bioinformatics Commons^™

Early Child Development Amid The Pandemic, Zain Saeed Siddiqui

MSJ Capstone Projects

I would like to bring to notice the importance of early child development because the early years are crucial for the development especially the skills that are going to help children succeed in life. Basically, I would like to focus on the natural development of the human being from birth to maturity, enabling children to become the transforming elements of society, leading to a harmonious and peaceful world.

Emotional well-being and social competence provide a strong foundation for emerging cognitive abilities, and together they are the bricks and mortar that comprise the foundation of human development.

Generally, development happens in …

From Traps To Snapshots: Examining The Ecology Of Feral Predators And Native Small Mammals In Southeastern Australia Through Case Studies Of Two Faunal Sampling Methods, Katherine Karson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus) are introduced mesopredators that significantly threaten native small mammal species in Australia. For decades, environmental managers have attempted to mitigate the effects of these introduced species. However, ecosystems are highly complex, making it difficult to assess the impacts of feral predators on communities of native fauna independent of other disturbances such as fire regime and habitat fragmentation. Cost-effective ecological monitoring programs are imperative for evaluating threats to native species and informing environmental decisions. New technology has become increasingly present in wildlife monitoring, and camera trapping has provided an alternative to …

Leopards Are Good To Think With: Spotting The Zanzibar Leopard In Jozani Forest, Andrew Weier

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this project, the modern narrative of the Zanzibar leopard was studied in Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park. Game cameras were installed and various locations around the national park to try and gather primary evidence that supported the existence of a leopard population in the forest. In addition, local community members were interviewed about recent leopard related activities. No biological evidence was gathered that supported the existence of the Zanzibar leopard and information collected from interviews indicated a potential shift in which other organisms are considered leopards. Recommendations were made for future research to be able to better understand the complex …

Activity, Distribution, And Density Of Brown Rats (Rattus Norvegicus) On Misali Island, Pemba Island, Tanzania, Raegan Hasselbring

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project investigated the activity, distribution, and density of brown rats (R. norvegicus) on Misali Island, Pemba. These factors were studied through field observations conducted over a 21-day observation period. Brown rats were highest in density around areas of human activity, attracted to the detritus, an ample food source. Although highest in density in these areas, a greater total population of brown rats was distributed in the coastal forest due to its proportion of area on the overall island. In the forest, the rats were most active along the coastal sections for unknown and unexplored reasons – possibly due to …

An Analysis Of The Rajasthan Public Health System’S Response To The 2019 Dengue Insurgence, Luke Bryan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Dengue virus is in a pandemic status and is a major public health issue in the modern world. The mosquito-borne disease is largely prevalent in Asia and specifically India, where more than half of the states are considered to have complete presence of the dengue virus. The intricate infrastructure of the Indian public health system looks for dengue cases at all levels and reports to the integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP).

Analyses of the IDSP and trends of dengue cases was done in response to dengue outbreaks throughout the state. Geographic information system (GIS) maps were created to evaluate a …

Cambios En El Cronograma De Temporadas Reproductivas De Pingüinos De Magallanes (Spheniscus Magellanicus): Relaciones Entre Eventos Fenológicos Y Variables Climáticas, Grace Neumiller

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Estudios a largo plazo han demostrado que hay fluctuaciones a lo largo de la fenología de la vida silvestre a causa de los cambios climáticos (Black, 2016). Los pingüinos de Magallanes (Spheniscus magellanicus) exhiben cambios en el cronograma de los eventos fenológicos de sus temporadas reproductivas a causa de variables oceanográficas y climáticas de su ambiente. A partir de fotos de cámaras trampas, este trabajo describe y analice algunos eventos en la fenología de los pingüinos de Magallanes en Isla Martillo, Canal Beagle, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina: el inicio de la temporada reproductiva, el periodo de muda de pichones, y …

Multi-Polygenic Risk Score Prediction Model For Bipolar Disorder, Travis Mize

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder (BP), a severe mental disorder characterized by recurring manic and depressive episodes, has been shown to have a strong genetic underpinning. Current theory suggests that it is the summation of risk alleles, spread across the entirety of the genome, which contributes to the development of BP, as well as other polygenic traits. The comorbid nature of these polygenic traits are often problematic for diagnosticians as the symptomology of the disorders may vary substantially between individuals and can create diagnostic confusion. To alleviate issues such as these, a more objective measure, to be used alongside current diagnostic procedures, is …

Iamhappy: Towards An Iot Knowledge-Based Cross-Domain Well-Being Recommendation System For Everyday Happiness, Amelia Gyrard, Amit Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Nowadays, healthy lifestyle, fitness, and diet habits have become central applications in our daily life. Positive psychology such as well-being and happiness is the ultimate dream of everyday people’s feelings (even without being aware of it). Wearable devices are being increasingly employed to support well-being and fitness. Those devices produce physiological signals that are analyzed by machines to understand emotions and physical state. The Internetof Things (IoT) technology connects (wearable) devices to the Internet to easily access and process data, even using Web technologies (aka Web of Things).

We design IAMHAPPY, an innovative IoT-based well-being recommendation system to encourage every …

Crowdsourcing Image Analysis For Plant Phenomics To Generate Ground Truth Data For Machine Learning, Naihui Zhou, Zachary D. Siegel, Scott Zarecor, Nigel Lee, Darwin A. Campbell, Carson M. Andorf, Dan Nettleton, Carolyn J. Lawrence-Dill, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Jonathan W. Kelly, Iddo Friedberg

Dan Nettleton

The accuracy of machine learning tasks critically depends on high quality ground truth data. Therefore, in many cases, producing good ground truth data typically involves trained professionals; however, this can be costly in time, effort, and money. Here we explore the use of crowdsourcing to generate a large number of training data of good quality. We explore an image analysis task involving the segmentation of corn tassels from images taken in a field setting. We investigate the accuracy, speed and other quality metrics when this task is performed by students for academic credit, Amazon MTurk workers, and Master Amazon MTurk …

Rising Rural Body-Mass Index Is The Main Driver Of The Global Obesity Epidemic In Adults, Con Burns, Tara Coppinger, Janette Walton, Et Al

Publications

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities1,2. This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity3,4,5,6. Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to …

Evolution Of Endurance Running Genes Across Primates, Natalia T. Grube

Theses and Dissertations

The endurance running hypothesis has emerged as a key idea to explain several unique anatomical, physiological, and genetic features of modern humans—among these features is the evolution of ACTN3 (Bramble & Lieberman 2004, Nature), a gene linked to human athletic performance. An additional gene linked to human endurance performance is ACE. Because endurance running is a uniquely human trait, I predicted that ACE and ACTN3 genes would be evolving adaptively in the human lineage when examined in a wider primatological framework. To test this I compiled ACE and ACTN3 genes from 14 primate species and phylogenetically tested if these genes …

A Preliminary Study For The Future Translocation Of A Saimiri Sciureus Troop From Sumak Allpa To Yasuní National Park: Assessing The Habitat Use, Population, And Behavior Of A Common Squirrel Monkey Troop In Indillama, Kenia French

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sumak Allpa, an organization specializing in primate rehabilitation, plans to introduce a Common Squirrel Monkey Troop ( Saimiri sciureus ), the Yasuní Troop, to the Indillama region of Yasuní National Park. This study analyzes the habitat use, population, and behavior of the Saimiri sciureus troop, referred to as the Indillama Troop, already existing in the region, from April 14th to May 4th, 2019. Focal and scan observation techniques were used to observe the troop’s behavior, and EasyTrails on an iPhone 7 was used to record GPS data. EasyTrails was also used to map the trail system in the Indillama region. …

The Giant Rodents Of Sumak Allpa: A Preliminary Study Of The Ecological Niche Of Amazonian Capybaras In Ecuador, Brynn Furey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sumak Allpa is an island on the Napo River in the eastern rainforest of the Orellana Province of Ecuador that functions as a rehabilitation center for primates. The objective of this investigation is to conduct a preliminary study on the ecological niche of the Amazonian capybaras ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris ) that inhabit Sumak Allpa and a small adjacent island known in this study as Island A. Very little information is known about jungle capybaras, especially in Ecuador, and this study aims to establish baseline information about their distribution, diet, and population dynamics. Research was conducted throughout the day, with mornings …

Quiscalus Mexicanus Vocalization Pitch And Traffic Noise In Breeding Populations Along The Cinta Costera Highway And In Downtown Gamboa, Panamá, Benjamin P. Gregory

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Urbanization is one of the fastest-growing threats to the biodiversity of the planet, but not all animals are extirpated by the drastic environmental changes of urbanization, and many are even able to thrive in urban landscapes. Behavioral flexibility is often cited as one reason that successful urban animals can so rapidly adapt to a foreign environment with novel stressors. A well-studied example of urban behavioral flexibility is urban-living birds singing with higher-frequency songs in areas with high levels of traffic noise. The present study investigated this trend in Quiscalus mexicanus, an icterid bird with a huge vocal range, highly sexually …

Trends In Nectar Production And Concentration Of Hummingbird-Pollinated Flowers: An Investigation Of Three Flowers Of The Ecuadorian Cloud Forest: Palicourea Demissa, Mezobromelia Capituligera, And Kohleria Affinis, Grace Palmer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Nectar concentration and sugar production both impact and are impacted by pollinator activity through a complex system of coevolution. Additionally, a variety of morphological and environmental factors influence the nectar properties of animal-pollinated flowering plants. Nectar concentration and nectar production rate (NPR) of three hummingbird-pollinated plants, Palicourea demissa, Mezobromelia capituligera, and Kohleria affinis, were measured. These flowers occur and were studied in the southern section of the Chocó-Andean subtropical montane rainforest, in the Pichincha province of Ecuador. Flowers were bagged for 24 hours and sampled at approximate two-hour time intervals for 12 or 24 hours. Nectar concentration and sugar production …

Question Answering For Suicide Risk Assessment Using Reddit, Amanuel Alambo, Usha Lokala, Ugur Kursuncu, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amelia Gyrard, Randon S. Welton, Jyotishman Pathak, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Mental Health America designed ten questionnaires that are used to determine the risk of mental disorders. They are also commonly used by Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) to assess suicidality. Specifically, the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), a widely used suicide assessment questionnaire, helps MHPs determine the severity of suicide risk and offer an appropriate treatment. A major challenge in suicide treatment is the social stigma wherein the patient feels reluctance in discussing his/her conditions with an MHP, which leads to inaccurate assessment and treatment of patients. On the other hand, the same patient is comfortable freely discussing his/her mental …

Data Collection Curated With An Application Ontology Describes The Methods And Results Upon Performing An Ex-Vivo Voltage-Clamp Assay On Outer Hair Cells Of The Mammalian Cochlea, Brenda Farrell, Jason Bengtson

Research Data

This data collection describes the electrical properties of outer hair cells isolated from the mammalian cochlea of the domestic guinea pig. This data was obtained by performing whole-cell patch clamp voltage clamp assay on cells and monitoring the electrical admittance during a DC voltage ramp. The membrane capacitance was then calculated at each membrane potential from this admittance, and the voltage-independent and voltage-dependent membrane capacitance was determined upon further analysis. In some case the DC conductance was also measured by interrogation of the cell with voltage-step function which was calculated from the change in the mean steady-state current with respect …

Citationally Enhanced Semantic Literature Based Discovery, John David Fleig

CCE Theses and Dissertations

We are living within the age of information. The ever increasing flow of data and publications poses a monumental bottleneck to scientific progress as despite the amazing abilities of the human mind, it is woefully inadequate in processing such a vast quantity of multidimensional information. The small bits of flotsam and jetsam that we leverage belies the amount of useful information beneath the surface. It is imperative that automated tools exist to better search, retrieve, and summarize this content. Combinations of document indexing and search engines can quickly find you a document whose content best matches your query - if …

Empathi: An Ontology For Emergency Managing And Planning About Hazard Crisis, Manas Gaur, Kaeedeh Shekarpour, Amelia Gyrard, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

In the domain of emergency management during hazard crises, having sufficient situational awareness information is critical. It requires capturing and integrating information from sources such as satellite images, local sensors and social media content generated by local people.
A bold obstacle to capturing, representing and integrating such heterogeneous and diverse information is lack of a proper ontology which properly conceptualizes this domain, aggregates and unifies datasets. Thus, in this paper, we introduce empathi ontology which conceptualizes the core concepts describing the domain of emergency managing and planning of hazard crises.
Although empathi has a coarse-grained view, it considers the necessary …

Adaptive Knowledge Networks: A Time Capsule, Swati Padhee, Anurag Illendula, Amit Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Valerie L. Shalin

Kno.e.sis Publications

❖ Real world events are dynamic in nature Periodic events e.g. US Presidential Election Non-periodic events e.g. Cyclone Idai

❖ Need for real-time predictive analysis, trend analysis, spatio-temporal decision making, public opinion analysis for events.

❖ Current state-of-the-art curates dynamic knowledge graph from structured text.

❖ We propose creating an Adaptive Knowledge Network from incoming real-time multimodal spatio-temporally evolving data.

Automatic Identification Of Individual Drugs In Death Certificates, Soon Jye Kho, Amit Sheth, Olivier Bodenreider

Kno.e.sis Publications

Background:

Establishing trends of drug overdoses requires the identification of individual drugs in death certificates, not supported by coding with the International Classification of Diseases. However, identifying drug mentions from the literal portion of death certificates remains challenging due to the variability of drug names.

Objectives:

To automatically identify individual drugs in death certificates.

Methods:

We use RxNorm to collect variants for drug names (generic names, synonyms, brand names) and we algorithmically generate common misspellings. We use this automatically compiled list to identify drug mentions from 703,106 death certificates and compare the performance of our automated approach to that of …