Elemental concentration changes in soil and stockpiled tall fescue leaves after liming

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on May 7, 2009)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.S.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2006.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Soil and atmospheric sciences.Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is the dominant forage in Missouri and grows primarily on acidic soils that possess little plant available phosphorus (P). Little is known about the effects of lime on the elemental concentrations of stockpiled tall fescue. Others have predicted that liming will increase P and decrease aluminum (Al) availability to plants in the types of soils used in this study. Study sites were located at the University of Missouri's Southwest Center (SWC) and Bradford Research and Extension Center (BREC). Calcitic and dolomitic limestone were applied at 0x, 1/2x, 1x and 2x the recommended soil test rate. Forage was harvested for yield. Tall fescue leaves were harvested monthly throughout the stockpiling season, and soil samples were taken at the end of the study. Both leaves and soil were analyzed form element concentrations. The two year total forage harvest yield was increased by limestone application at SWC; however, no consistent trends were observed at BREC. Following liming, leaf potassium (K), nitrogen (N), boron (B), and manganese (Mn) concentrations decreased while leaf Ca, molybdenum (Mo), and sodium (Na) concentrations increased with liming. Leaf P, Al, iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) concentrations were relatively unaltered. Additionally, leaf Mg concentrations decreased in calcitic treatments but increased with the application of dolomitic lime. As a result of the changes in leaf K, Mg, and Ca concentrations, the grass tetany ratio of leaves from limed plots decreased. For the most part, changes in leaf concentrations of the elements mirrored changes in soil test concentrations following liming. Soil pHCaCl₂ values were increased while neutralizable acidity, exchanangeable K, and extractable Mn decreased with increasing rates of limestone. Calcitic limestone increased soil test Ca and had little effect on Mg whereas dolomitic limestone increased soil test Mg and only slightly increased soil test Ca. Soil cation exchange capacity decreased with limestone at SWC. Soil organic matter, Bray I P, Bray II P, Zn, Cu, and Fe showed little effect of limestone application. Liming two acidic Missouri soils changed many soil chemical properties and consequently the elemental concentrations of stockpiled tall fescue leaves changed, which should improve the nutritional value of tall fescue as a forage for beef cattle

Family-Expressed Emotion, Childhood-Onset Depression, and Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: Is Expressed Emotion a Nonspecific Correlate of Child Psychopathology or a Specific Risk Factor for Depression?

Expressed emotion (EE) was examined, using the brief Five Minute Speech Sample measure, in families of (1) children with depressive disorders, (2) children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and (3) normal controls screened for the absence of psychiatric disorder. Consistent with the hypothesis of some specificity in the association between EE and the form of child disorder, rates of EE were significantly higher among families of depressed children compared to families of normal controls and families of children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Within the depressed group, the presence of a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder was associated with high levels of critical EE, underscoring the need to attend to comorbid patterns and subtypes of EE in future research

Cognitive Enhancement

Cognitive enhancement refers to the improvement of cognitive ability in normal healthy individuals. In this article, we focus on the use of pharmaceutical agents and brain stimulation for cognitive enhancement, reviewing the most common methods of pharmacologic and electronic cognitive enhancement, and the mechanisms by which they are believed to work, the effectiveness of these methods and their prevalence. We note the many gaps in our knowledge of these matters, including open questions about the size, reliability and nature of the enhancing effects, and we conclude with recommendations for further research

Morphologies of low-redshift AGN host galaxies: what role does AGN luminosity play?

Mergers of galaxies have been suspected to be a major trigger of AGN activity for many years. However, when compared to carefully matched control samples, AGN host galaxies often show no enhanced signs of interaction. A common explanation for this lack of observed association between AGN and mergers has often been that while mergers are of importance for triggering AGN, they only dominate at the very high luminosity end of the AGN population. In this study, we compare the morphologies of AGN hosts to a carefully matched control sample and particularly study the role of AGN luminosity. We find no enhanced merger rates in AGN hosts and also find no trend for stronger signs of disturbance at higher AGN luminosities. While this study does not cover very high luminosity AGN, we can exclude a strong connection between AGN and mergers over a wide range of AGN luminosities and therefore for a large part of the AGN population.Comment: Proceedings of the conference "Nuclei of Seyfert galaxies and QSOs - Central engine & conditions of star formation" held in Bonn, Germany, 201

PROGRAM & PROCEEDINGS of the 2022 COLLOQUIUM OF THE STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PARTNERS Female Perspectives on Entrepreneurship and Research How diverse perspectives inspire creativity, drive innovation, and encourage inclusive economic growth

Diverse and varied perspectives are not only central to our institutional mission, but are essential to our society, as we hope to create a more inclusive, more sustainable and ultimately brighter world. Diverse perspectives and collaboration between different institutions, fields and industries must become the norm. This is the program and proceeding of Stony Brook University\u27s colloquium on female perspectives on entrepreneurship and research and how diverse perspectives inspire creativity, drive innovation, and encourage inclusive economic growth. This was a much-needed discussion in January 2022 that\u27s important for the development of entrepreneurship and research worldwide. At Stony Brook University, the entire research community believes that creating an equitable and integrated work environment is an essential part of the success of its innovation and culture. So, this proceeding provides a transcript of the meaningful moderated discussion between 6 expert panelists about female entrepreneurship and research

Female Perspectives on Entrepreneurship and Research How diverse perspectives inspire creativity, drive innovation, and encourage inclusive economic growth

Diverse and varied perspectives are not only central to our institutional mission, but are essential to our society, as we hope to create a more inclusive, more sustainable and ultimately brighter world. Diverse perspectives and collaboration between different institutions, fields and industries must become the norm. This is the program and proceeding of Stony Brook University\u27s colloquium on female perspectives on entrepreneurship and research and how diverse perspectives inspire creativity, drive innovation, and encourage inclusive economic growth. This was a much-needed discussion in January 2022 that\u27s important for the development of entrepreneurship and research worldwide. At Stony Brook University, the entire research community believes that creating an equitable and integrated work environment is an essential part of the success of its innovation and culture. So, this proceeding provides a transcript of the meaningful moderated discussion between 6 expert panelists about female entrepreneurship and research

Female Perspectives on Entrepreneurship and Research How diverse perspectives inspire creativity, drive innovation, and encourage inclusive economic growth

Diverse and varied perspectives are not only central to our institutional mission, but are essential to our society, as we hope to create a more inclusive, more sustainable and ultimately brighter world. Diverse perspectives and collaboration between different institutions, fields and industries must become the norm. This is the program and proceeding of Stony Brook University\u27s colloquium on female perspectives on entrepreneurship and research and how diverse perspectives inspire creativity, drive innovation, and encourage inclusive economic growth. This was a much-needed discussion in January 2022 that\u27s important for the development of entrepreneurship and research worldwide. At Stony Brook University, the entire research community believes that creating an equitable and integrated work environment is an essential part of the success of its innovation and culture. So, this proceeding provides a transcript of the meaningful moderated discussion between 6 expert panelists about female entrepreneurship and research

Targeted Epigenetic Remodeling of the \u3cem\u3eCdk5\u3c/em\u3e Gene in Nucleus Accumbens Regulates Cocain- and Stress-Evoked Behavior

Recent studies have implicated epigenetic remodeling in brain reward regions following psychostimulant or stress exposure. It has only recently become possible to target a given type of epigenetic remodeling to a single gene of interest, and to probe the functional relevance of such regulation to neuropsychiatric disease. We sought to examine the role of histone modifications at the murine Cdk5 (cyclin-dependent kinase 5) locus, given growing evidence of Cdk5 expression in nucleus accumbens (NAc) influencing reward-related behaviors. Viral-mediated delivery of engineered zinc finger proteins (ZFP) targeted histone H3 lysine 9/14 acetylation (H3K9/14ac), a transcriptionally active mark, or histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2), which is associated with transcriptional repression, specifically to the Cdk5 locus in NAc in vivo. We gound that Cdk5-ZFP transcription factors are sufficient to bidirectionally regulate Cdk5 gene expression via enrichment of their respective histone modifications. We examined the behavioral consequences of this epigenetic remodeling and found that Cdk5-targeted H3K9/14ac increased cocaine-induced locomotor behavior, as well as resilience to social stress. Conversely, Cdk5-targeted H3K9me2 attenuated both cocaine-induced locomotor behavior and conditioned place preference, but had no effect on stress-induced social avoidance behavior. The current study provides evidence for the causal role of Cdk5 epigenetic remodeling in NAc in Cdk5 gene expression and in the control of reward and stress responses. Moreover, these data are especially compelling given that previous work demonstrated opposite behavioral phenotypes compared with those reported here upon Cdk5 overexpression or knockdown, demonstrating the importance of targeted epigenetic remodeling tools for studying more subtle molecular changes that contribute to neuropsychiatric disease

The influence of social structure, habitat, and host traits on the transmission of Escherichia coli in wild elephants

Social structure is proposed to influence the transmission of both directly and environmentally transmitted infectious agents. However in natural populations, many other factors also influence transmission, including variation in individual susceptibility and aspects of the environment that promote or inhibit exposure to infection. We used a population genetic approach to investigate the effects of social structure, environment, and host traits on the transmission of Escherichia coli infecting two populations of wild elephants: one in Amboseli National Park and another in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. If E. coli transmission is strongly influenced by elephant social structure, E. coli infecting elephants from the same social group should be genetically more similar than E. coli sampled from members of different social groups. However, we found no support for this prediction. Instead, E. coli was panmictic across social groups, and transmission patterns were largely dominated by habitat and host traits. For instance, habitat overlap between elephant social groups predicted E. coli genetic similarity, but only in the relatively drier habitat of Samburu, and not in Amboseli, where the habitat contains large, permanent swamps. In terms of host traits, adult males were infected with more diverse haplotypes, and males were slightly more likely to harbor strains with higher pathogenic potential, as compared to adult females. In addition, elephants from similar birth cohorts were infected with genetically more similar E. coli than elephants more disparate in age. This age-structured transmission may be driven by temporal shifts in genetic structure of E. coli in the environment and the effects of age on bacterial colonization. Together, our results support the idea that, in elephants, social structure often will not exhibit strong effects on the transmission of generalist, fecal-oral transmitted bacteria. We discuss our results in the context of social, environmental, and host-related factors that influence transmission patterns