Colorado State University

The lack of connectedness experienced by college students during the COVID-19 pandemic was problematic. An innovative approach undertaken in a (virtual) graduate classroom at Clemson University was the concept of team teaching. Team teaching allows a group of instructors to work together to enhance student learning. Upon course completion, students (N =57) completed a brief survey regarding their perceptions of team teaching. The scale ranged from extremely positive (1) to extremely negative (5). The sample as a whole found team teaching to be a positive experience (M =1.87, SD =.94), felt that team teaching assisted in their learning (M =1.51, SD =.72), and found value to having two instructors (M =1.6, SD = .76). Overall, based on the results, team teaching is a strategy that should be considered in virtual classroom environments as it can provide students with increased support and varying perspectives.

This paper presents the experimental results of the (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 (BSCCO) coils impregnated with low-melting point metal, whose melting point is 60°C. The coils were layer-wound without turn-to-turn insulation, i.e., no-insulation (NI). We fabricated the coils with polycarbonate bobbin and casing and the coils with aluminum alloy bobbins and casing. The coils with polycarbonate bobbin and casings showed severe degradation after impregnation. The coils with aluminum alloy ones showed less degradation. A long decay time of the magnetic field during a sudden discharge was measured. The decay time was shortened to be 1/39 by an inter-layer insulation with polyimide sheet. Partial insulation, i.e., electrical insulation between adjacent layers, was effective in reducing this long time constant, even for a BSCCO NI coil.

Eighteen lightning flash rate parameterization schemes (FRPSs) were investigated in a Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry cloud‐resolved simulation of the 29–30 May 2012 supercell storm system observed during the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field campaign. Most of the observed storm's meteorological conditions were well represented when the model simulation included both convective damping and lightning data assimilation techniques. Newly‐developed FRPSs based on DC3 radar observations and Lightning Mapping Array data are implemented in the model, along with previously developed schemes from the literature. The schemes are based on relationships between lightning and various kinematic, structural, and microphysical thunderstorm characteristics (e.g., cloud top height, hydrometeors, reflectivity, and vertical velocity) available in the model. The results suggest the model‐simulated graupel and snow/ice hydrometeors require scaling factors to more closely represent proxy observations. The model‐simulated lightning flash trends and total flashes generated by each scheme over the simulation period are compared with observations from the central Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array. For this supercell system, 13 of the 18 schemes overpredicted flashes by >100% with the group of FRPSs based on storm kinematics and structure (particularly updraft volume) performing slightly better than the hydrometeor‐based schemes. During the storm's first 4 hr, the upward cloud ice flux FRPS, which is based on the combination of vertical velocity and hydrometeors, well represents the observed total flashes and flash rate trend; while, the updraft volume scheme well represents the observed flash rate peak and subsequent sharp decline in flash rate.

A cloud‐resolved storm and chemistry simulation of a severe convective system in Oklahoma constrained by anvil aircraft observations of NO x was used to estimate the mean production of NO x per flash in this storm. An upward ice flux scheme was used to parameterize flash rates in the model. Model lightning was also constrained by observed lightning flash types and the altitude distribution of flash channel segments. The best estimate of mean NO x production by lightning in this storm was 80–110 mol per flash, which is smaller than many other literature estimates. This result is likely due to the storm having been a high flash rate event in which flash extents were relatively small. Over the evolution of this storm a moderate negative correlation was found between the total flash rate and flash extent and energy per flash. A longer‐term simulation at 36‐km horizontal resolution with parameterized convection was used to simulate the downwind transport and chemistry of the anvil outflow from the same storm. Convective transport of low‐ozone air from the boundary layer decreased ozone in the anvil outflow by up to 20–40 ppbv compared with the initial conditions, which contained stratospheric influence. Photochemical ozone production in the lightning‐NO x enhanced convective plume proceeded at a rate of 10–11 ppbv per day in the 9–11 km outflow layer over the 24‐hr period of downwind transport to the Southern Appalachians. Photochemical production plays a large role in the restoration of upper tropospheric ozone following deep convection.

RNA-RNA interactions (RRIs) are essential in many biological processes, including gene transcription, translation, and localization. They play a critical role in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. Algorithms to model RRI typically use dynamic programming and have the complexity $\Theta (N^{3}~M^{3})$ in time and $\Theta (N^{2}~M^{2})$ in space where $N$ and $M$ are the lengths of the two RNA sequences. This makes it both essential and challenging to parallelize them. Previous efforts to do so have been hand-optimized, which is prone to human error and costly to develop and maintain. This paper presents a multi-core CPU parallelization of BPMax, one of the simpler RRI algorithms, generated by a user-guided polyhedral code generation tool, ALPHAZ.. The user starts with a mathematical specification of the dynamic programming algorithm and provides the choice of polyhedral program transformations such as schedules, memory-maps, and multi-level tiling. ALPHAZ. automatically generates highly optimized code. At the lowest level, we implemented a small hand-optimized register-tiled “matrix max-plus” kernel and integrated it with our tool-generated optimized code. Our final optimized program version is about $400\times$ faster than the base program, translating to around 312 GFLOPS, more than half of our platform's Roofline Machine Peak (RMP) performance. On a single core, we attain 80% of RMP. The main kernel in the algorithm, whose complexity is $\Theta (N^{3}~M^{3})$ , attains 58 GFLOPS on a single-core and 344 GFLOPS on multi-core (90% and 58% of RMP, respectively).

We examine the intersection of participatory science, social justice, and higher education in the United States to investigate how instructors can teach about social justice and enhance collaborations to work toward enacting social justice.

Many species of herbaceous perennials now have numerous cultivars, with growth habits and flower colors unique to each cultivar. Vegetative propagation is required so that resulting plants are genetically identical to the parent plant. Although many cultivars are selected for precocious and vigorous flowering, it is often difficult to collect adequate vegetative cuttings from such cultivars for commercial production because juvenile (vegetative) growth is preferred for high-quality cuttings. Cuttings that are reproductive (with flower buds or flowers) can have reduced or delayed rooting and increased occurrences of fungal pathogens (especially Botrytis species), resulting in lack of crop uniformity. We sought to answer the question, can growing stock plants of herbaceous perennials under defined photoperiods extend the length of the vegetative period and enhance the rooting of cuttings harvested from these stock plants? In this study, stock plants of ‘P009S’ twinspur ( Diascia integerrima ), ‘Furman's Red’ sage ( Salvia greggii ), and ‘Wild Thing’ sage ( Salvia greggii ) were grown under ambient, 12-hour light, 10-hour light, and 8-hour light to determine if a particular photoperiod could be used to suppress reproductive growth by promoting vegetative growth, thereby enhancing cutting rooting success. Effects of photoperiod treatments varied among the plant cultivars studied. Plants grown under 8-hour photoperiod had longer duration of vegetative growth, smaller growth rates, and lower dry weights when compared with plants grown under 12-hour or 10-hour photoperiod. Plants grown under 12-hour photoperiod had shorter duration of vegetative growth, larger growth rates, and higher dry weights when compared with plants grown under 10-hour and 8-hour photoperiods. The probability of rooting of cuttings harvested from stock plants of ‘P009S’ twinspur, ‘Furman’s Red’ sage, and ‘Wild Thing’ sage grown under 12-hour and 10-hour photoperiods was greater when compared with cuttings harvested from stock plants grown under 8 h photoperiod.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease that damages the myelin sheath within the central nervous system. Axonal demyelination, particularly in the corpus callosum, impacts communication between the brain’s hemispheres in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). Changes in interhemispheric communication may impair gait coordination which is modulated by communication across the corpus callosum to excite and inhibit specific muscle groups. To further evaluate the functional role of interhemispheric communication in gait and mobility, this study assessed the ipsilateral silent period (iSP), an indirect marker of interhemispheric inhibition and how it relates to gait adaptation in PwMS. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we assessed interhemispheric inhibition differences between the more affected and less affected hemisphere in the primary motor cortices in 29 PwMS. In addition, these same PwMS underwent a split-belt treadmill walking paradigm, with the faster paced belt moving under their more affected limb. Step length asymmetry (SLA) was the primary outcome measure used to assess gait adaptability during split-belt treadmill walking. We hypothesized that PwMS would exhibit differences in iSP inhibitory metrics between the more affected and less affected hemispheres and that increased interhemispheric inhibition would be associated with greater gait adaptability in PwMS. No statistically significant differences in interhemispheric inhibition or conduction time were found between the more affected and less affected hemisphere. Furthermore, SLA aftereffect was negatively correlated with both average percent depth of silent period (dSP%AVE) (r = -0.40, p = 0.07) and max percent depth of silent period (dSP%MAX) r = -0.40, p = 0.07), indicating that reduced interhemispheric inhibition was associated with greater gait adaptability in PwMS. The lack of differences between the more affected and less affected hemisphere indicates that PwMS have similar interhemispheric inhibitory capacity irrespective of the more affected hemisphere. Additionally, we identified a moderate correlation between reduced interhemispheric inhibition and greater gait adaptability. These findings may indicate that interhemispheric inhibition may in part influence responsiveness to motor adaptation paradigms and the need for further research evaluating the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between interhemispheric inhibition and motor adaptability.

Vaccines and clean water shortages continue to give rise to cholera outbreaks in Africa. Coordinated efforts to increase vaccine distribution and improve physical infrastructure are needed while considering future outbreaks and water demands due to conflicts and climate events.

Infections during pregnancy are associated with increased risk for adult neuropsychiatric disease, such as major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorder. In mouse models of maternal immune activation (MIA), different toll‐like receptors (TLRs) are stimulated to initiate inflammatory responses in mother and fetus. The goal of this study was to determine sex‐dependent aspects of MIA using a TLR7/8 agonist, Resiquimod (RQ), on neurodevelopment. RQ was administered to timed‐pregnant mice on embryonic day (E) 12.5. At E15, maternal/fetal plasma cytokines were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Maternal cytokines interleukin (IL)‐6 and IL‐10 were higher while tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α and IL‐17 were lower in pregnant dams exposed to RQ. Fetal cytokines (E15) were altered at the same timepoint with fetal plasma IL‐6 and IL‐17 greater after RQ compared to vehicle, while IL‐10 and TNF‐α were higher in male fetuses but not female. Other timed‐pregnant dams were allowed to give birth. MIA with RQ did not alter the female to male ratio of offspring born per litter. Body weights were reduced significantly in both sexes at birth, and over the next 5 weeks. Offspring from RQ‐injected mothers opened their eyes 5 days later than controls. Similarly, female offspring from RQ‐injected mothers exhibited pubertal delay based on vaginal opening 2–3 days later than control females. On the behavioral side, juvenile and adult male and female MIA offspring exhibited less social‐like behavior in a social interaction test. Anhedonia‐like behavior was greater in MIA adult female mice. This study provides support for sex‐dependent influences of fetal antecedents for altered brain development and behavioral outputs that could be indicative of increased susceptibility for adult disorders through immune mechanisms. Future studies are needed to determine neural cellular and molecular mechanisms for such programming effects.

The seamless adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States necessitates the development of extensive and effective charging infrastructure. Various charging systems have been proposed, including Direct Current Fast Charging, Battery Swapping, and Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer. While many studies have evaluated the charging costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of EVs, a comprehensive analysis comparing these systems and their implications across vehicle categories remains unexplored. This study compares the total cost of ownership (TCO) and GHG-intensity of EVs using these charging systems. Based on nationwide infrastructure deployment simulations, the change to TCO from adopting EVs varies by scenario, vehicle category, and location, with local fuel prices, electricity prices, and traffic volumes dramatically impacting results. Further, EV GHG-intensity depends on local electricity mixes and infrastructure utilizations. This research highlights the responsiveness of EV benefits resulting from technology advancements, deployment decisions, and policymaking.

Minimizing negative impacts of climate change on human and natural systems requires mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to new climate conditions. Forestry provides grounds to study the relationship between these two concepts: carbon flux and storage are ecosystem services of forests, while forests are growing increasingly vulnerable to climate-driven disturbances. We examined the practice and interplay of mitigation and adaptation in the American West, which is a testbed for the conceptual balance between carbon cycling and growing climate-related risk given its abundance of dry, fire-prone ecosystems. We sought to understand perceptions of mitigation and adaptation in this region through 38 semi-structured interviews with forest experts in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. Our research questions explored (1) perceived mitigation and adaptation action options, (2) conflicts and synergies between mitigation and adaptation in forest management, and (3) factors influencing mitigation and adaptation activities. Our findings revealed the importance of geographic and ecological differences in determining an appropriate balance of mitigation and adaptation options and a need to further integrate intentional climate action in forestry. As the American West confronts the growing threat of intense and extensive wildfires, pest infestation, and other disturbances, many experts in this study called for more support to enable active management for adaptation while balancing multiple objectives, including carbon management. Through an inductive approach, we provide insight into forestry experts’ conceptualization of the mitigation-adaptation relationship, revealing implications for integrating climate-informed actions into forest management and the surrounding institutional environment.

Food system transformation requires a better understanding of the negative and positive externalities involved in food production and consumption. Although negative externalities have received substantial attention, positive externalities have been largely overlooked. True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an economic assessment aimed at accounting for externalities in food systems. The beef industry is an important part of the US food system. In the western USA, beef cattle production is a major land use and economic activity that involves direct links among the cattle, range ecosystems, range management, climate, and ranchers’ decisions and welfare. We present a case study based on a TCA assessment to quantify and monetize the contribution of human, social, natural, and produced capitals, as well as farm structure, to the market value generated by cow-calf operations, a key component of the USA beef industry. We estimated an Ordinary Least Square regression model based on indicators of these capitals and of farm structure derived from publicly available data sources at the county level. From model coefficients, we estimated the marginal revenue product of these factors. Results show that nonmarket factors linked with human and social capitals support market performance by contributing to the market value of cow-calf production. These factors operate at scales above the ranch, usually remain hidden, and seldomly are considered in policy decision-making which can lead to policies that inadvertently hamper or eliminate these positive externalities.

Research utilizing animals depends on the generation of offspring for use in experiments or for the maintenance of animal colonies. While not considered by all, several different factors preceding and during pregnancy, as well as during lactation, can program various characteristics in the offspring. Here, we present the most common models of developmental programming of cardiovascular outcomes, important considerations for study design, and provide guidelines for producing and reporting rigorous and reproducible cardiovascular studies in offspring exposed to normal conditions or developmental insult. These guidelines provide considerations for the selection of the appropriate animal model and factors that should be reported to increase rigor and reproducibility, while ensuring transparent reporting of methods and results.

During electrochemical signal transmission through synapses, triggered by an action potential (AP), a stochastic number of synaptic vesicles (SVs), called the “quantal content,” release neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft. It is widely accepted that the quantal content probability distribution is a binomial based on the number of ready-release SVs in the presynaptic terminal. But the latter number itself fluctuates due to its stochastic replenishment, hence the actual distribution of quantal content is unknown. We show that exact distribution of quantal content can be derived for general stochastic AP inputs in the steady state. For fixed interval AP train, we prove that the distribution is a binomial, and corroborate our predictions by comparison with electrophysiological recordings from MNTB-LSO synapses of juvenile mice. For a Poisson train, we show that the distribution is nonbinomial. Moreover, we find exact moments of the quantal content in the Poisson and other general cases, which may be used to obtain the model parameters from experiments.

Hemp ( Cannabis sativa L.) is an emerging industrial crop in the United States. In recent surveys of hemp growers, disease identification and management were determined to be significant priority areas for future research. From previous studies on disease identification in Western U.S. hemp production systems, hop latent viroid (HLVd), beet curly top virus (BCTV), Cannabis sativa mitovirus 1 (CasaMV1), and citrus yellow vein associated virus (CYVaV) were detected at high incidences. In the present study, a multiplex reverse transcription PCR protocol was developed to detect this viroid and viruses from hemp leaf samples simultaneously. Using the developed protocol, the multiplex reverse transcription PCR could detect each virus and viroid specifically in 10 ⁻¹ -diluted cDNA. The protocol was validated on 6 hemp metavirome leaf samples from field-grown hemp grown in 2019 and 23 uncharacterized leaf samples in 2021 from Colorado. Of the samples tested, 95% tested positive for CasaMV1 in 2021. This was greater than infections of BCTV (4%), HLVd (0%), and CYVaV (0%). Coinfections accounted for 4% of samples in 2021. This method offers sensitive, specific, and fast simultaneous detection of three viruses and one viroid from hemp, contributing to large-scale pathogen-free hemp certification schemes. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY 4.0 International license .

The urgent requirement for cost-effective technology to detect heavy metals in the environment is undeniable. This study introduces a novel approach: a low-cost colorimetry-based optical whole-cell bacterial biosensor utilizing a newly identified reporter gene, agarase (dagA), for the specific detection of cadmium (Cd). Through the incorporation of a Cd-sensing promoter (PcadR) upstream of agarase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a highly specific Cd biosensor was engineered. Initially developed in E. coli and subsequently in P. aeruginosa, these agarase (dagA) based optical whole-cell bacterial biosensors exhibited promising capabilities. Specifically, P. aeruginosa carrying the vector PcadR-dagA demonstrated a strong linear range detection for cadmium chloride concentrations ranging from 10 ppb to 500 ppm (R² = 0.9851), with a correlation of 0.96 (Bland-Altman) to the standard inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy method. Furthermore, morphological alterations were observed through scanning electron microscopy. Notably, this colorimetry-based optical whole-cell bacterial biosensor presents itself as a straightforward, resilient, portable, and cost-effective solution, eliminating the need for complex sample preparation. Consequently, the biosensor platform proposed in this study stands as a viable, low-cost alternative for monitoring low levels of Cd in the environment.

The San Bernardino flying squirrel (SBFS) is an isolated subspecies of Humboldt's flying squirrel, occurring in montane sky islands in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California, USA. Recent small mammal surveys in the San Jacinto Mountains suggest the squirrel is extirpated. Our objectives were (1) determine habitat features, including forest metrics and topographical factors, that influence SBFS presence, in the San Bernardino Mountains; (2) use information collected in the San Bernardino Mountains to confirm squirrel occurrence and habitat preference in the San Jacinto Mountains; and (3) assess habitat and climatic differences between the two mountain ranges that could explain species persistence in one mountain range but not the other. We surveyed for SBFS using camera traps at 54 sites in the San Bernardino Mountains and 34 sites in the San Jacinto Mountains using both camera traps and acoustics. In the San Bernardino Mountains, we detected squirrels in sites that were more mesic, had higher structural heterogeneity, and had greater amounts of downed woody material compared to non‐detection sites. Habitat parameters were similar between the two ranges; however, squirrels were not detected in the San Jacinto Mountains. Conditions in the San Jacinto Mountains were hotter and drier. Increased temperatures due to climate change could potentially explain the absence of flying squirrels in the San Jacinto Mountains.