Genomic Analysis of the JCCC Campus Compost System

Composting is the aerobic method of using microbes to convert organic waste into a usable soil amendment. Many compost analyses have focused on nutrient testing rather than genomic analysis. However, bacterial microbes play a vital role in the degradation of organic plant matter in the formation of compost soil amendments [1]. Of the studies that have examined microbial life within compost systems, common findings have been that Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes are the most prevalent phyla [2, 3, 4]. Further examination of the presence and impact of microbes in the composting process is still needed. Evaluating the microbial life through a multi-step food waste composting system can contribute to the determination of a baseline for similar systems and assist in the understanding of how microbial life contributes to soil amendments

The application of successional theory-based management to Minnesota prairie sites degraded by invasive plant species

A thesis project at Camp Ripley Army National Guard Training Site will address the effectiveness of directing succession as a means of restoring areas dominated by perennial terrestrial invasive species: Common Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and Spotted Knapweed, (Centaurea stoebe ssp. micranthos). The purpose of this project is to design and implement an experiment that will test different combinations of treatments that alter the three factors of site availability, species availability, and species performance, as defined by Pickett et al. (1987) and Sheley et al. (2003). Altering these three factors is done with the goal of restoring perennial invasive-species-dominated areas into a native plant community. My experimental objective is to determine if succession-based management strategies are an appropriate methodology for the restoration of Minnesota prairie ecosystems that are impacted by invasive species, as it has been shown that invasive species can severely degrade ecosystems. The research question further involves determining which practices within this framework of succession are most effective in restoring Minnesota prairie ecosystems that are degraded by the presence of these invasive plant species. This experiment took place in spring 2010 through fall 2011 and incorporated site manipulation of four seedbed preparations, two cover crop types, and two seed dispersal methods. The addition of a fourth factor involved the application of a selective herbicide, Milestone, to half of each plot. Statistical analysis determined that by the end of data collection in August 2011, all levels from the first three factors in the experimental design did not significantly reduce either invasive species. The application of the fourth factor did significantly reduce both invasive species’ mean percent cover. However, a negative consequence of this selective herbicide is reduction in species richness in plots and increase in non-native grass cover. It is recommended due to the nature of succession, continued monitoring, data collection, and analysis occur on experimental sites

Persistent Homology in Sparse Regression and its Application to Brain Morphometry

Sparse systems are usually parameterized by a tuning parameter that determines the sparsity of the system. How to choose the right tuning parameter is a fundamental and difficult problem in learning the sparse system. In this paper, by treating the the tuning parameter as an additional dimension, persistent homological structures over the parameter space is introduced and explored. The structures are then further exploited in speeding up the computation using the proposed soft-thresholding technique. The topological structures are further used as multivariate features in the tensor-based morphometry (TBM) in characterizing white matter alterations in children who have experienced severe early life stress and maltreatment. These analyses reveal that stress-exposed children exhibit more diffuse anatomical organization across the whole white matter region.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Medical Imagin

Hair epilation versus surgical excision as primary management of pilonidal disease in the pediatric population

Pilonidal disease is a chronic, acquired inflammatory process of the skin due to entrapped hair at the natal cleft. Reported recurrence rates are as high as 30%, and recurrence has been attributed to persistent hair near the surgical site. Although conservative measures, such as meticulous hair control and improved perineal hygiene, have been shown to be effective, these techniques typically require much effort on behalf of the patient. Laser hair epilation (LE) might solve this issue of poor patient compliance while helping patients to avoid surgical excision. In this article, we discuss recurrence rates of pilonidal disease in children treated with LE versus surgical excision in relation to findings from our institution between 2005 and 2013 as well as patient satisfaction with the treatment method

Imaging a Single-Electron Quantum Dot

Images of a single-electron quantum dot were obtained in the Coulomb blockade regime at liquid He temperatures using a cooled scanning probe microscope (SPM). The charged SPM tip shifts the lowest energy level in the dot and creates a ring in the image corresponding to a peak in the Coulomb-blockade conductance. Fits to the lineshape of the ring determine the tip-induced shift of the electron energy state in the dot. SPM manipulation of electrons in quantum dots promises to be useful in understanding, building and manipulating circuits for quantum information processing.Comment: 14 pages including 3 figure

Association between Income and the Hippocampus

Facets of the post-natal environment including the type and complexity of environmental stimuli, the quality of parenting behaviors, and the amount and type of stress experienced by a child affects brain and behavioral functioning. Poverty is a type of pervasive experience that is likely to influence biobehavioral processes because children developing in such environments often encounter high levels of stress and reduced environmental stimulation. This study explores the association between socioeconomic status and the hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory that is known to be affected by stress. We employ a voxel-based morphometry analytic framework with region of interest drawing for structural brain images acquired from participants across the socioeconomic spectrum (n = 317). Children from lower income backgrounds had lower hippocampal gray matter density, a measure of volume. This finding is discussed in terms of disparities in education and health that are observed across the socioeconomic spectrum

Understanding the Role of the Brain in Race/Ethnicity Based Stressors and Behavioral Challenges Among Youth of Color

Racial and ethnic discrimination can impact mental health, with these types of negative experiences linked to later depression, anxiety, and aggression. While these relations have now been well established in large-scale epidemiological studies, how racial and ethnic discrimination get “under the skin” to create mental health challenges is poorly understood. Suggestive data underscores that racial and ethnic discrimination may be best conceptualized as forms of chronic psychosocial stressors, especially as these experiences are linked with multiple forms of physiological dysregulation. With these changes likely impacting the brain and brain development, it will be critical to understand if racial and ethnic discrimination influence brain development during adolescence, a developmental period when the brain is rapidly changing and when mental health problems are increasing. To increase knowledge in this space, this project will leverage, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (Total N=11,875) and use cutting-edge neuroimaging methods to test the hypothesis that higher levels of self-reported racial and ethnic discrimination will influence connectivity in brain circuits involved with reward and emotion-processing. Changes in these neural circuits, we hypothesize, could then create an increased risk for mental health challenges. Pinpointing critical pathways between youth of Color’s context and brain development, pathways that are typically overlooked when youth are aggregated, may be crucial for identifying targets for interventions to prevent mental health issues. Understanding these mechanisms may also give insight into brain development that may be applied to the prevention of other problem behaviors

Reporting quality of music intervention research in healthcare: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Concomitant with the growth of music intervention research, are concerns about inadequate intervention reporting and inconsistent terminology, which limits validity, replicability, and clinical application of findings. OBJECTIVE: Examine reporting quality of music intervention research, in chronic and acute medical settings, using the Checklist for Reporting Music-based Interventions. In addition, describe patient populations and primary outcomes, intervention content and corresponding interventionist qualifications, and terminology. METHODS: Searching MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, HealthSTAR, and PsycINFO we identified articles meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria for a five-year period (2010-2015) and extracted relevant data. Coded material included reporting quality across seven areas (theory, content, delivery schedule, interventionist qualifications, treatment fidelity, setting, unit of delivery), author/journal information, patient population/outcomes, and terminology. RESULTS: Of 860 articles, 187 met review criteria (128 experimental; 59 quasi-experimental), with 121 publishing journals, and authors from 31 countries. Overall reporting quality was poor with <50% providing information for four of the seven checklist components (theory, interventionist qualifications, treatment fidelity, setting). Intervention content reporting was also poor with <50% providing information about the music used, decibel levels/volume controls, or materials. Credentialed music therapists and registered nurses delivered most interventions, with clear differences in content and delivery. Terminology was varied and inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS: Problems with reporting quality impedes meaningful interpretation and cross-study comparisons. Inconsistent and misapplied terminology also create barriers to interprofessional communication and translation of findings to patient care. Improved reporting quality and creation of shared language will advance scientific rigor and clinical relevance of music intervention research

Altered Topological Structure of the Brain White Matter in Maltreated Children through Topological Data Analysis

Childhood maltreatment may adversely affect brain development and consequently influence behavioral, emotional, and psychological patterns during adulthood. In this study, we propose an analytical pipeline for modeling the altered topological structure of brain white matter in maltreated and typically developing children. We perform topological data analysis (TDA) to assess the alteration in the global topology of the brain white-matter structural covariance network among children. We use persistent homology, an algebraic technique in TDA, to analyze topological features in the brain covariance networks constructed from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We develop a novel framework for statistical inference based on the Wasserstein distance to assess the significance of the observed topological differences. Using these methods in comparing maltreated children to a typically developing control group, we find that maltreatment may increase homogeneity in white matter structures and thus induce higher correlations in the structural covariance; this is reflected in the topological profile. Our findings strongly suggest that TDA can be a valuable framework to model altered topological structures of the brain. The MATLAB codes and processed data used in this study can be found at https://github.com/laplcebeltrami/maltreated

Cumulative stress in childhood is associated with blunted reward-related brain activity in adulthood

Early life stress (ELS) is strongly associated with negative outcomes in adulthood, including reduced motivation and increased negative mood. The mechanisms mediating these relations, however, are poorly understood. We examined the relation between exposure to ELS and reward-related brain activity, which is known to predict motivation and mood, at age 26, in a sample followed since kindergarten with annual assessments. Using functional neuroimaging, we assayed individual differences in the activity of the ventral striatum (VS) during the processing of monetary rewards associated with a simple card-guessing task, in a sample of 72 male participants. We examined associations between a cumulative measure of ELS exposure and VS activity in adulthood. We found that greater levels of cumulative stress during childhood and adolescence predicted lower reward-related VS activity in adulthood. Extending this general developmental pattern, we found that exposure to stress early in development (between kindergarten and grade 3) was significantly associated with variability in adult VS activity. Our results provide an important demonstration that cumulative life stress, especially during this childhood period, is associated with blunted reward-related VS activity in adulthood. These differences suggest neurobiological pathways through which a history of ELS may contribute to reduced motivation and increased negative mood