Mapping Techniques For Soil Erosion: Modeling Stream Power Index In Eastern North Dakota

ABSTRACT Soil erosion is a worldwide problem that can negatively affect surface water through the introduction of sediment, nutrients (eg. nitrogen, phosphorus), pesticides, and other chemicals. Soil erosion is often exacerbated by agricultural and other types of land use. The objective of this study was to identify gully locations in agricultural fields adjacent to the Turtle and Forest rivers in eastern North Dakota that accumulate surface flow resulting in areas of critical surface erosion in a GIS using the Stream Power Index (SPI). A field survey was conducted to verify the accuracy of the terrain analysis at identifying 391 gully and inlet locations. Sediment samples were collected from 44 inlets/gully locations and analyzed for soil texture, pH and conductivity to characterize the material being eroded and transported. The pH levels for the soil samples ranged from neutral to moderately alkaline and the EC values represented soils that were either non-saline or slightly saline. Sand was the dominant separate for both study areas. This study found that SPI signatures at or above critical erosion levels can be used to target precision conservation in individual fields adjacent to the Turtle and Forest rivers

Regulation of protein expression by transforming growth factor beta and other growth modulators

The main goal of this project was to understand the signal transduction pathways through which growth modulators such as TGF-[beta], PMA and retinoic acid mediate protein expression and DNA synthesis. Transforming growth factor [beta] (TGF-[beta]) induces synthesis and secretion of a 48,000 M r protein that we have found to be type I plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1). TGF-[beta] induces PAI-1 in every cell line that we have studied including near term mink lung epithelial CCL64 cells, mouse embryo fibroblast AKR-2B 84A cells, African green monkey kidney epithelial BSC-1 cells, and normal rat kidney fibroblast NRK 49F cells. PAI-1 is induced synergistically by TGF-[beta] and EGF in CCL64 cells. Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate induces PAI-1 in CCL64, BSC-1 and NRK cells but not in AKR-2B cells. TGF-[beta] and retinoic acid both induce synthesis and secretion of a 73,000 M r protein by CCL64 cells that we call inhibitor-induced protein, 73 kDa (IIP73). Retinoic acid does not significantly regulate PAI-1 expression. PMA does not induce IIP73. To test whether cAMP was a regulator of the growth modulator effects, we treated cells with agents which increase intracellular cAMP (forskolin, cholera toxin, and dibutyryl cAMP) and measured the effects on expression of PAI-1 and IIP73 and on DNA synthesis. We found that agents that increase intracellular cAMP lowered the basal and induced levels of PAI-1 coordinately and lowered DNA synthesis rates in AKR-2B, BSC-1, CCL64 and NRK cells. However, these same factors had little or no effect on the ability of TGF-[beta] or retinoic acid to induce IIP73. To test for the necessity of activated protein kinase C (PKC) in the induction of PAI-1 and IIP73 expression and to test the role of PKC in stimulation of DNA synthesis, we down-regulated PKC in CCL64 cells by a 48 h incubation with a high concentration of PMA. While PMA could no longer induce PAI-1, there was no effect on the ability of TGF-[beta] to induce PAI-1 and no effect on the ability of TGF-[beta] and retinoic acid to induce IIP73. However, down-regulation of PKC prevented retinoic acid stimulation of DNA synthesis in CCL64 cells. This shows that induction of PAI-1 by TGF-[beta] does not depend on activation of PKC and that retinoic acid may induce proliferation in CCL64 cells through a PKC-dependent mechanism

Development Of An Award Winning Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program: A Case Study

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, sponsored by the IRS, offers free tax services for individuals with low-to-moderate incomes, the elderly, disabled and/or those who lack English language proficiency.  Although established by the IRS in 1969, it is administered by partnering community based volunteer organizations throughout U.S., like universities, schools, religious groups, credit unions or other non-profit organizations.  Many VITA sites are sponsored and run by universities through their Accounting departments.  The 2012 Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council Public Report indicated that in 2010 only 3% of qualifying tax returns were prepared at VITA sites, with 62% of qualifying returns being prepared by paid preparers (IRS, 2012, p.51).  In addition, there are still a large number of individuals who fail to file returns at all often leaving potential tax refunds and credits unclaimed (Lim, DeJohn and Murray, 2012).  The purpose of this paper is to share the best practices used at our university to create an award winning VITA program.  The specific topics to be addressed are location, layout, operating hours, staffing & training, process, promotion, electronic filing, other services and things to avoid.  These topics are not only what we believe to be the most important in running a successful VITA site but the American Taxation Association 2007 Best Practices Report lists these same topics as well (ATA, 2007).  We will conclude the paper with a discussion of our plans for the future growth of the program

Identification of trends in scientific communication by minority students in an integrated and advanced ninth grade science curriculum

In the United States, the population of minorities is rapidly increasing. Our nation is facing a shortage in students pursuing STEM careers and it is vital to improve all students’ scientific communication abilities. As our population of minority students is also growing, it is especially important to tap into our potential STEM resources. While the Midwest is less diverse than the rest of the nation, the Waterloo Community School District in Waterloo, Iowa has a large population of minority students. When the district implemented the Next Generation Science Standards it created a problem for students wanting to take advanced science courses. The solution was to create a class that covered three years of science standards but took place over two years. This class was designed for advanced ninth-grade students. The purpose of this project was to analyze curriculum looking for similarities and differences between white and minority students within their argumentative writing. By understanding the similarities and differences within their writing the teacher will be able to help them grow in their scientific communication abilities and to help them feel more comfortable in the science classroom. This analysis looked at four different papers from four different topics: gene editing, solutions to human impacts on the environment, nitrates and eutrophication, and enzyme activity. This analysis found a few key differences between white and minority students. First, minority students tended to provide more than what is asked for in the rubric, whether it is sources or pieces of evidence. Second, minority students tended to be less likely to desire a gene edited child in the future, compared to their white peers. For the aspects of argumentative writing such as stating a claim, providing evidence and reasoning their argument all students, white and minority, seemed to be at about the same level

Genetic Regulation of Myofiber Hypertrophy?

Introduction. Progressive, resistance exercise training (RT) induces skeletal muscle hypertrophy, increases strength, power, and quality of muscle, and is potentially the most promising method to regenerate and re-grow muscle in populations suffering from involuntary atrophy. However, we have previously shown that there is a large degree of intersubject variability for myofiber hypertrophy in response to RT with adults having no response [-16μm2 (mean myofiber growth), Non], a modest response (1111μm2, Mod), or an extreme hypertrophic response (2475μm2, Xtr). Underlying mechanisms for this differential growth response are largely unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether differences in the skeletal muscle transcriptome exist among the three response clusters, prior to 16 weeks of RT. Methods. mRNA was isolated from muscle biopsies taken from the vastus lateralis of 44 previously clustered men and women (aged 19-75y). Agilent 4X44K single color genechips were used to determine differences in skeletal muscle gene expression among the three response clusters. Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA) and available Gene Ontology were used for functional annotation of differentially expressed genes and identification of informative genes that may instigate the observed myofiber growth phenotypes. Results. After removing genes with low signal intensities and normalizing the data, we identified substantial differences in the transcript profile among the response clusters with the most notable differences between the Xtr- and Non-responders. 8026 differentially expressed genes were identified between Xtr vs. Non, 2463 between Xtr vs. Mod, and 1294 between Mod vs. Non. There were 1632 genes with expression specific to the Xtr (i.e. differences existed between Xtr vs. Non and Mod, but not between the Non vs. Mod) and 617 genes with expression specific to the Non. Functional classification, with IPA, identified Skeletal Muscle System Development and Function (SMSDF) as a top functional category containing a significant number of differentially expressed genes (p\u3c0.05) in all three comparisons. SMSDF was also a top five functional category for the genes specific to both Xtr and Non (p\u3c0.05). Within the broad SMSDF category, IPA defined sub-categories of functional annotation, which allowed us to further interpret the differentially expressed genes. We have highlighted several genes that primarily had expression specific to the Xtr or had increased expression from Non to Mod to Xtr. Highlighted genes are involved with satellite cell activation and function (SOX8, HGF, PAX7), differentiation (MYOD1, MYOG, APOE, TRIO, MSTN), skeletal muscle growth (DGKZ, ESR1, OXT, OXTR, UCN2, GREB1), modulation of inflammation and fuel utilization (PYY), and improved function (TFAM, UCN2, CRHR1, CRHR2). Additionally, there was a decrease in expression (Xtr vs. Non) for several genes involved with modulation of inflammation and fuel utilization (AEBP1, NFKB1, CD36, AIF1). Discussion. These results indicate that differences in gene expression do exist among the response clusters prior to mechanically induced hypertrophy and that the Xtr-responders were “primed” to respond. We identified several genes and signaling pathways that may promote or inhibit muscle growth and thus, initiate the three observed hypertrophic response phenotypes. Results from this study enabled us to identify distinctive molecular pathways, particularly between the Xtr- and Non-responders, for development of targeted interventions. Further research is necessary to determine which of these genes or networks of genes truly distinguish load mediated hypertrophy potential

Anonymous and secret communication in quantum networks

Secure communication is one of the key applications of quantum networks. In recent years, following the demands for identity protection in classical communication protocols, the need for anonymity has also emerged for quantum networks. Here, we demonstrate that quantum physics allows parties—besides communicating securely over a network—to also keep their identities secret. We implement such an anonymous quantum conference key agreement by sharing multipartite entangled states in a quantum network. We demonstrate the protocol with four parties and establish keys in subsets of the network—different combinations of two and three parties—whilst keeping the participating parties anonymous. We additionally show that the protocol is verifiable and run multiple key generation and verification routines. Our work thus addresses one of the key challenges of networked communication: keeping the identities of the communicating parties private.DFG, 418294583, Informationsverarbeitung und Sicherheit für kommende Quantenkommunikationsnetzwerk

Peptide YY (PYY) Is Expressed in Human Skeletal Muscle Tissue and Expanding Human Muscle Progenitor Cells

Peptide YY (PYY) is considered a gut peptide with roles in post-prandial appetite and glucose regulation. Circulating PYY protein levels increase during aerobic exercise. Furthermore, people who have greater increases in muscle progenitor cells (hMPCs), the adult stem cell population responsible for skeletal muscle (SkM) repair, after resistance training have higher PYY transcript levels in SkM prior to training. Currently, examination of PYY expression patterns in SkM and/or hMPCs is lacking. Our objective was to identify the expression patterns of PYY in SkM and hMPCs. PYY and the associated Y receptors were analyzed in SkM biopsy tissue and cultured hMPCs from young and old human participants. Additional experiments to assess the role and regulation of PYY in hMPCs were performed. In SkM, PYY and one of the three Y receptors (Y1r) were detectable, but expression patterns were not affected by age. In expanding hMPCs, PYY and all three Y receptor (Y1r, Y2r, and Y5r) proteins were expressed in a temporal fashion with young hMPCs having greater levels of Y receptors at various time points. Exogenous PYY did not affect hMPC population expansion. hMPC PYY levels increased following the metabolic stimulus, 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide (AICAR), but were not affected by the inflammatory stimulus, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). In conclusion, PYY and Y receptor expression are not impacted by age in SkM tissue but are reduced in old vs. young expanding hMPCs. Furthermore, endogenous PYY production is stimulated by low energy states and thus may be integral for skeletal muscle and hMPC responses to metabolic stimuli