Impact Analysis on the Invasive Oriental Weather Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) in the Grant Creek and Prairie Creek Watersheds at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

In 2014, the invasive Oriental weather loach was found in the Prairie Creek wetland at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. While little is known about the Oriental weather loach and its impact on freshwater ecosystems it has become a widespread invasive species. Being the first to investigate the impact of the Oriental weather loach on the Grant Creek and Prairie Creek watersheds at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, we set traps for specimens from early June till late July in both watersheds. Each loach that was caught was euthanized and dissected in order to understand what the Oriental weather loaches are eating and how they are likely impacting the ecosystem. Of the 138 total Oriental weather loaches caught, none were found in the Grant Creek watershed or the creek of the Prairie Creek watershed. The stomach contents contained a wide variety of prey items but Alonella, Nonbiting midge larvae, insect eggs, and Simocephalus were the most abundant. The Oriental weather loach’s diet was similar to that of native Bluegill, Central mudminnows, and tadpoles, which could suggest that they are competing with these native species. The results of this study suggest that Oriental weather loaches may be negatively impacting the freshwater ecosystem of the Prairie Creek wetland at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Future studies are needed to better understand the severity of the Oriental weather loaches impact at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and other freshwater ecosystems

Teaching and Learning "the language of the heart": Rhetorical Education for Romantic Engagement

This dissertation challenges the scholarly consensus that Western rhetorical education prepares citizen subjects exclusively for civic engagement. I enrich rhetorical history by offering another account of rhetorical education—rhetorical education for romantic engagement—which I define as the teaching and learning of language practices for participation in romantic relations. The touchstone for my investigation of this pedagogy is nineteenth-century romantic letter writing, or what The Fashionable American Letter Writer (1832) calls “the language of the heart.” To explore how the language of the heart was taught, learned, and used by diverse everyday people, I situate my archival research at three sites: popular nineteenth-century manuals that taught the romantic letter genre, romantic letters between African-American women Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus (1854-1868), and a diary, commonplace book, and poetry album about romantic epistolary address by Yale student Albert Dodd (1836-1838). I argue that, whereas romantic letters are often presumed to be natural and unstudied expressions of heartfelt love, they were actually rhetorically crafted and learned. While my study of romantic letter writing rethinks the dominant concept of rhetorical education for civic engagement, I nonetheless show how even rhetorical education for romantic engagement is of civic import: it shapes citizens as romantic subjects in predictably heteronormative ways and, simultaneously, opens up possibilities for queer rhetorical practices that transgress cultural norms. Ultimately, my dissertation demonstrates how rhetorical education has played an unrealized yet significant role in inventing both romantic and civic life

Nonpharmacologic Strategies to Manage Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction

Pharmacological management of exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is the mainstay of preventative therapy. However, there are some non-pharmacological interventions that may assist the management of EIB. In this review we will discuss these non-pharmacological interventions and how they may be applied to patients and athletes with EIB

Impact Analysis on the Invasive Oriental Weather Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) in the Grant Creek and Prairie Creek Watersheds at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Presentation Location: Weber Center, Room 101 Abstract In 2014, the invasive Oriental weather loach was found in the Prairie Creek wetland at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. While little is known about the Oriental weather loach and its impact on freshwater ecosystems it has become a widespread invasive species. Being the first to investigate the impact of the Oriental weather loach on the Grant Creek and Prairie Creek watersheds at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, we set traps for specimens from early June till late July in both watersheds. Each loach that was caught was euthanized and dissected in order to understand what the Oriental weather loaches are eating and how they are likely impacting the ecosystem. Of the 138 total Oriental weather loaches caught, none were found in the Grant Creek watershed or the creek of the Prairie Creek watershed. The stomach contents contained a wide variety of prey items but Alonella, Nonbiting midge larvae, insect eggs, and Simocephalus were the most abundant. The Oriental weather loach’s diet was similar to that of native Bluegill, Central mudminnows, and tadpoles, which could suggest that they are competing with these native species. The results of this study suggest that Oriental weather loaches may be negatively impacting the freshwater ecosystem of the Prairie Creek wetland at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Future studies are needed to better understand the severity of the Oriental weather loaches impact at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and other freshwater ecosystems

Ion channel gene expression as objective biomarkers of training induced fatigue

The conditions and mechanisms that produce decrements in exercise performance have been an important area of research for decades. However, the sensation of fatigue that may persist for hours or days after exercise has received less attention. This long-lasting fatigue sensation is common in clinical populations. In chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), moderate physical activity can produce increased fatigue sensations that last for several days. A recent study of CFS patients demonstrated significant increases in fatigue and pain sensations that were closely related to gene expression changes in metabolite-detecting, adrenergic, and immune markers following 25 minutes of moderate, whole body exercise. This exercise stimulus did not produce long-lasting fatigue or changes in gene expression in healthy age and gender-matched controls. The graded exercise test (GXT) is commonly applied in CFS research. Although intense, the GXT rarely produces long-lasting fatigue in healthy individuals and its effect on CFS patients' postexertional fatigue is unclear. Thus, the goals of these studies were to examine gene expression and fatigue sensations in healthy, trained individuals during and after three different exercise stressors: a GXT, a 40k time trial in ambient conditions (AT), and the same time trial in adverse, hot conditions (HT). It was hypothesized that there would be larger changes in gene expression following both AT and HT, compared to GXT. The first study explored the differences in gene expression following GXT and AT. Following AT, there were larger decreases in metabolite-detecting mRNA, larger increases in adrenergic, immunologic, and serotonin mRNA as compared to GXT. Further, these gene expression changes were different from postexercise responses of CFS patients. The goal of the second study was to add an additional stressor to the 40k time trial – heat. Because TRPV receptors are sensitive to heat, it was thought that the heat stress would cause larger increases in TRPV mRNA. However, because exercise power was reduced during HT, there were no differences in gene expression between the two trials except that IL6 mRNA decreased significantly more following AT compared to HT. Collectively, these results show that gene expression in healthy individuals is affected by the intensity and length of the exercise. The decreases in metabolite-detecting mRNA are thought to be an attempt to restore homeostasis in the fatigue and pain detecting receptors. The fact that there was no difference between AT and HT suggests that heat is an additional metabolite that activates the metabolite-detecting receptors, helping to regulate the intensity of exercise and the amount of fatigue during exercise. Adrenergic receptors increased, possibly causing a decrease in blood flow following exercise and increasing the resting levels of metabolites and subsequently increasing the resting fatigue signal. The change in the ratio of serotonin/dopamine may also contribute to the increased fatigue sensation following exercise