Varying responses of field pennycress seedlings under waterlogging

Field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) is an emerging intermediate oilseed crop with significant potential for integration into existing crop rotations during the offseason, offering both economic and environmental benefits. However, fall waterlogging stress poses a potential challenge to successful pennycress establishment during the seedling stage. This study evaluated the waterlogging tolerance of 22 genetically diverse pennycress natural accessions by measuring mortality rates, plant height, and width under control and waterlogging conditions. Seedlings were grown under standard conditions for 7 days before being subjected to either waterlogging treatments or control conditions for two weeks. Measurements were taken on Day 0, Day 7, and Day 14 to track growth and mortality outcomes. Statistical analyses, including ANOVA, unpooled t-tests, and Wilcoxon tests, were conducted to identify significant differences between treatment and control groups. This study found that there is a clear distinction between the most tolerant and most susceptible accessions. 13/22 accessions displayed significantly higher survival in control conditions while 4/22 showed significantly higher survival in waterlogged conditions. The accessions that had high survival in waterlogging showed extremely limited growth, suggesting an energy trade-off between plant growth and plant survival. These accessions also grew very little in control conditions, pointing to a genetic mechanism for survival that includes slow growth regardless of conditions. The findings provide valuable insights into the variability of waterlogging tolerance in pennycress, identifying promising candidates for breeding programs aimed at improving resilience to environmental stress. By identifying tolerant accessions, this research contributes to advancing pennycress as a viable winter annual cash crop capable of thriving in unpredictable climate conditions.U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Genomic Science Program grant no. DE-SC0021286OSU CFAES Undergraduate Honors Program Scholarships & Small Grants Will C. Hauk Endowment fundNo embargoAcademic Major: Sustainable Plant System

Indigenous Deaf Women in Popular Media

Deafness and Indigeneity historically are seen as magical in film and television. In the past 5 years (2020-2025), Magical Indigenous Deaf Women appeared as characters in major films and television series, specifically in fantasy genres. A few examples of these productions are Godzilla vs. Kong, the subsequent sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Marvel’s Eternals, and Marvel’s Echo. The characters in these productions exhibit similarities to other longstanding film tropes like the “magical negro”. The characters portray Indigenous Deaf women as wise, magical, and helpful with little focus on the work and experiences that comes with the intersectional identity of being Deaf AND Indigenous. The use of subversive casting in speculative fiction creates an exciting space for representation of Indigenous Deaf women. However, it runs the risk of portraying them in ways that rely on harmful stereotypes. This paper looks at three characters, Maya Lopez in Echo, Jia in Godzilla x. Kong, and Makarri in Eternals, using the frameworks of Deaf and Indigenous scholars to assess the addition of Indigenous Deaf women in these fictional magical worlds and what these characters represent outside of aesthetic diversity.No embargoAcademic Major: Comparative Studie

Senolytic treatment with Navitoclax alters microglial phenotype and attenuates CNS immune-mediated demyelinating disease in a model of progressive Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a multifocal, immune-mediated, demyelinating disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS). MS impacts almost 3.5 million people worldwide, with nearly 1 million of those impacted residing in the United States. MS is additionally the primary cause of nontraumatic disability in young adults in the western hemisphere. Demyelination of CNS axons during MS pathology can occur via a variety of mechanisms, and the exact etiology of MS still remains unknown. However, it is generally held that pathogenic lymphocytes—T cells and B cells—drive immune-mediated demyelination of axons. One mechanism heavily indicated by a vast body of literature is the auto-reactivity of CD4+ T-helper 1 (Th1) and Th17 towards myelin sheath proteins. Overall, demyelination reduces the efficiency and disrupts the continuity of nervous system signal transduction, resulting in a wide variety of neurological deficits. Individuals with MS are further classified into clinical subtypes based on their course of disease. Patients with RRMS experience a disease course outlined by discrete, self-limited episodes— lasting for weeks to months—of worsening neurological disability, followed by relatively quiescent periods of partial to full recovery. In contrast, patients with progressive forms of MS— both PPMS and SPMS—demonstrate an insidious, gradual decline in neurological function. The physiological mechanisms of MS disease also vary by subtype. RRMS tends to onset in the 20s to 30s and is characterized by focal blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown followed by infiltration of hematopoietic leukocytes into the CNS parenchyma, inducing lymphocyte-driven, immune-mediated demyelination. However, these features are often absent in both progressive disease forms, which tend to instead onset around the 40s to 50s and in which the pathology is instead distinguished by widespread microglial activation and slowly expanding lesions characterized by astrogliotic cores and rims of activated microglia. The vast majority of current, FDA-approved disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for MS are immunomodulators and target peripheral lymphocytes. As follows, while these therapies are highly efficacious in the management of RRMS, they have only a modest impact on progressive forms of MS. The dearth of treatments available for managing progressive forms of MS demands a concerted effort in procuring targeted, applicable treatments tailored for progressive MS pathophysiology. that age may govern the induction of progressive disease. Our group has developed an age-dependent preclinical model of progressive MS by altering the established Th17-mediated adoptive transfer experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mouse model of MS. Initial experiments revealed that middle-aged mice compared to young mice experience an exacerbated course of EAE reminiscent of progressive MS. Further investigation demonstrated that the progressive disease phenotype is most likely driven by an aged, CNS-resident cell, prompting a search for pharmacological therapies that could target biologically aged—senescent—CNS-resident cells. Certain hallmarks of biological aging—such as telomere attrition, senescence marker upregulation, and epigenetic inhibition of transcription via DNA methylation—have been shown to be elevated in MS patients. In active inflammatory human MS lesions, BCL2L1-expressing microglia, indicative of a senescent phenotype, were found to be enriched. These microglia also had increased pro-inflammatory gene expression, suggestive of a role in exacerbating disease mechanisms in active lesions. Additional evidence shows the presence of senescent glia in human progressive MS lesions. For these reasons, we hypothesized that senescent microglia contribute to progressive disease and that depletion or modification of senescent microglia using senescence-targeting drugs would ameliorate EAE disease severity in aged mice. Navitoclax is a small molecule BCL2 inhibitor shown in multiple studies to be a powerful senolytic. Overall, we observed that Navitoclax reduces disease severity & increases survival rates in aged mice with EAE, coincident with a shift in the microglial phenotype. Moreover, the immune cell infiltrate was not altered by Navitoclax, supporting the notion that a progressive disease course is driven by CNS-resident cells. Metformin, a senomorphic agent targeting the NF-κB pathway, had no effect on clinical disease during EAE. These findings suggest that senolytics might provide a new line of therapeutics for treating patients with progressive MS, a patient population that has very limited effective options.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Crises of Metronormativity in Queer German Culture, 1970-1990

Queer life prefers the city. Or, at least, a wealth of queer cultural artifacts have convinced us of such. The urban, with its promised subcultures, anonymity, and acceptance, has become the straight-and-narrow setting for the queer book and film, reserving queer narratives for the confines of the city. One must, then, wonder what imaginaries exist outside of these spatial constraints—or, perhaps better yet, how queer media might resist such boundaries. This project intervenes in "metronormative" discourse of the German city as the sole locus of progress—of hope, of utopia—by uncovering tensions and fissures within the metronormative vision of the urban. While German literary and filmic representations from the 1970s and 1980s affirm the notion of the urban as a crucial site for same-sex love and desire, such renderings of the city also elaborate the vanity, entrapment, and alienation that were central threats to queer life in those same urban spaces. The resultant contradiction within queer urban experience invites a renegotiation of the “appropriate” spatial boundaries for queer life during Germany’s second gay liberation movement. Considering both gay and lesbian perspectives, the following analysis of queer spatiality works its way through two well-known films from the 1970s—Rosa von Praunheim’s Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (1971), along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Faustrecht der Freiheit (1975)—in addition to Marlene Stenten's lesser-known Puppe Else: Eine Lesben-Novelle (1977). This thesis then examines the AdA-Teeblätter-Commics (1980) and Mikrogeschichten (1991) of German artist and writer Eberhard Bechtle. Across New German Cinema, lesbian literature, and gay poetry and zines, various crises of metronormativity become manifest, for the metronormative myth fails in the German context to account for the lived realities of queer people as they have been documented in the archive.The Ohio State University Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, The Wolfgang Fleischhauer ScholarshipThe Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, Undergraduate Research ScholarshipThe Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, International Research GrantNo embargoAcademic Major: GermanAcademic Major: Biochemistr

Addressing Moral Distress in Nurse Managers

Everyday workplace stressors are catalysts for moral distress (MD) in nurse managers, which can lead to burnout and leaving their position or profession. At a Midwest Community Hospital, the turnover rate for nursing leaders, including nurse managers, ranged from 22-43% over the last two years. While contributing factors and interventions to address MD have been explored, few resources are available to support nursing leaders in reducing their MD. An extensive literature review identified guiding nursing leaders through facilitated discussions related to their workplace stressors demonstrated reduced MD. The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement initiative was to implement a series of facilitated discussions for nurse managers to reduce moral distress and impact their intention to leave the organization. After implementation of four monthly facilitated discussions addressing the top workplace stressors, the average moral distress appraisal score decreased, the nurse managers' intention to leave their position remained the same, however, all ten nurse managers have remained in their roles. Based on the cost of the program and median salary of nurse managers, the return on investment equaled a savings of over $236,000. Addressing MD can retain nurse managers, minimizing the downstream effect on their team and organizational outcomes.A three-year embargo was granted for this item

Impacting Well-being and Resiliency of Pediatric Critical-Care Nurses through Implementation of MINDBODYSTRONG©

Background: Growing numbers of clinicians are dealing with mental and behavioral health issues such as burnout, depression, and suicidal ideation. Prevalence in pediatric critical-care nurses is reported to be as high as 42% to 77%. Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement project was to implement a cognitive behavioral skills-building (CBSB) program to improve well-being and resiliency in pediatric critical-care nurses. Implementation Plan: The 7-week MINDBODYSTRONG© (MBS) program was implemented with two cohorts of neonatal/pediatric critical nurses in a 222-bed academic, tertiary care pediatric hospital, using a virtual platform and offering 1 sequential session per week. Participants were asked to complete anonymous baseline and post-program surveys that included the following measures: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-2), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS4), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), and the Single Item Measure of Burnout. Post program surveys also included a MBS program evaluation. Results: 15 RNs registered for and completed the MBS program. 93.3% completed both the baseline and post-program surveys. Results demonstrated clinical effects across all four mental health measures with large effects noted in the GAD-2 and PSS-4 and small effects noted in the PHQ-2 and the Single Item Measure of Burnout. 100% of participants found MBS helpful and recommended that it be offered to a wider audience. Conclusion: Implementation of a CBSB program demonstrated clinical effectiveness on measures of anxiety, perceived stress, depression, and burnout in pediatric critical-care nurses. It was well-received by participants. Strategies for broader implementation should be explored.A three-year embargo was granted for this item

Using Data-Assimilation to Predict Drug Perturbations

Cardiac arrhythmias, characterized by irregular heart rhythms, pose significant risks including stroke and cardiac arrest. Current methods to model cardiac electrophysiology often fail to capture individual variability and the full impact of drug perturbations. This study uses data-assimilation with the Tomek-Rudy ventricular myocyte model to improve the accuracy of reconstructing cardiac cell dynamics. Using the Ensemble Kalman Filter, simulations tested varying ensemble sizes, observation intervals, and inflation factors. Results showed increased ensemble size and reduced observation interval decreased reconstruction error, while high inflation factors improved accuracy but increased sensitivity to noise. This approach advances personalized medicine by offering a tailored method to predict cardiac responses to drugs, potentially enhancing treatment strategies and clinical outcomes.No embargoAcademic Major: Computer Science and Engineerin

Exploiting Müller Glia Progenitor Cell Signaling Pathways for Retinal Regeneration in Chick Retinas Using Small Molecule Drug Cocktails

Health Under the Microscope (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)Humans lack the capacity for retinal regeneration, making degenerative retinal diseases irreversible. However, animals like chickens and zebrafish exhibit partial or complete retinal regeneration, respectively, with Müller glia (MG) cells playing a pivotal role. MG can de-differentiate into Müller glia-derived progenitor cells (MGPCs), but only a small proportion of chick MGPCs develop into neurons. This study investigates methods for increasing regenerative neurogenesis rates in chickens, with the goal of identifying mechanisms that could be leveraged for therapeutic interventions. Post-hatch day 3 to 8 (P3–8) White Leghorn chicks received intraocular injections of damage-inducing N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). EdU (5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine), a lineage tracer for proliferating MGPCs, was co-injected. Three days after damage, chicks were injected with mixtures of small-molecule drug cocktails reported to promote neural fate in cell culture or a vehicle control. Small molecules tested were: Wnt pathway activators (CHIR-99201, ISX9), a BET (bromodomain and extra-terminal domain protein) inhibitor (I-BET151), an adenylate cyclase activator (Forskolin), a ROCK (rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase) inhibitor and a PKA (protein kinase A) activator (Bucladesine). After weeklong incubation, retinas were processed for HuC/D immunostaining and EdU incorporation visualization. MGPCs that differentiated into neurons (EdU+/HuC/D+ cells) were visualized via confocal microscopy and counted. Statistical analysis was performed using a two-tailed t-test. Cocktails containing Forskolin, I-BET151, and Wnt activators significantly enhanced neurogenesis. Retinas treated with Cocktail 1 (C1: Forskolin, I-BET151, CHIR-99201) showed significantly more new neurons than controls (Δx̄ = +1.39; p = 0.01). Adding ISX9 to C1 increased neurogenesis but had a smaller effect size (Δx̄ = +1.00; p = 0.04). Cocktails including a ROCK inhibitor and Bucladesine showed a non-significant increase (Δx̄ = +1.10; p = 0.06). These findings suggest the Wnt pathway and BET proteins play a role in the differentiation of MGPCs into new neurons.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Diagnostic Performance of Pregnancy Associated Glycoproteins and Transrectal Ultrasonography During Early Pregnancy Detection

2025 Denman Research Forum, 2nd Place in "Insects and Other Animals" category2024 College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences Research Forum, 3rd place in "Animal Sciences" categoryEarly detection of pregnancy in ewes is instrumental for providing adequate nutritional requirements as well as efficiency of production and provides producers the opportunity to adjust management practices. Pregnancy associated proteins (PAGs) are produced by binucleated trophoblast cells of the placenta and enter the maternal circulation, effectively serving as a biomarker for pregnancy establishment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of PAGs and transrectal ultrasonography (TRU) for pregnancy diagnosis at 20, 25, and 30 days after breeding. Dorset and Dorset cross ewes (n = 126) were synchronized using a short term CIDR protocol. On day -6 a CIDR was inserted and on day 0, each ewe received a dose of prostaglandin (PG) F2α and placed with fertile rams fitted with marking harnesses. Ewes were monitored twice daily for signs of breeding from day 0 to 4.5. Ewes were evaluated by TRU using an 8.3 MHz linear-array probe (Mylab Delta, Esoate) on days 20, 25, and 30 after breeding to determine the presence of a conceptus (embryo and associated membranes). In addition, blood samples were collected by jugular venipuncture on day 20, 25, and 30 after breeding. Each sample was collected into an evacuated tube, centrifuged and stored at -20 ºC. Plasma samples were assayed for the presence of PAGs using two commercially available enzyme linked immunoassays (IDEXX Rapid Visual Pregnancy Detection and IDEXX Ruminant Pregnancy Test). True pregnancy status was determined by transabdominal ultrasonography at day 125 and lambing date. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using specificity, sensitivity, accuracy and Cohen’s Kappa. Data were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models. Sensitivity (97.8%), specificity (94.4% to 97.2%) and accuracy (98.4% to 98.8%) of TRU was high and did not differ (P > 0.05) between days 20, 25, and 30. Although sensitivity of the Rapid Visual Test (RVT) was high (92.2% to 94.4%) and not affected (P > 0.05) by examination day, both specificity (27.8% to 83.3%) and accuracy (73.8% to 91.3%) increased (P 0.05) among methods at day 30, TRU had greater (P < 0.05) specificity than both RVT and RPT at days 20 and 25. Lastly, accuracy of TRU was greater (P < 0.05) than that of RVT and RPT at all examination days. In conclusion, improved diagnostic performance of TRU makes it the preferred method when performing pregnancy diagnosis before 30 days in ewes. However, the use of PAGs for pregnancy diagnosis appears as a suitable method when diagnosis is performed at 30 days.USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Multi-State Hatch project 1023183 (OHO01496-MRF)IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Westbrook, MaineA three-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Animal Science

Faculty Advisory Council Meeting Minutes, March 20, 2025

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