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Minutes of the Meeting of the University Senate, March 21, 2024
No full text1. Informational Items: Graduate Program Submissions; Undergraduate Program Submissions; Combined Graduate School and Undergraduate Submissions; University Portal Update; Mental Health Committee Update; University Calendar Ad Hoc Committee Update; Provost’s Updates | Roll Call | 3. Approval of the Minutes of February 15, 2024 | 4. Unfinished Business: new Master of Science in Medical Sciences (approved) | 5. New Business: Senate Standing Committees staffing; new name for the Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film (2nd reading waived, approved); Senate Community Engagement Committee resolution; creation of a new standing University Calendar Committee | 6. Good and Welfare | 7. Adjourn
Thermal Biology of Parasites and Their Hosts in the Laboratory and Classroom
No full textThe threat of climate change makes it increasingly important for biologists and the public to understand how organisms respond to temperature. The Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) predicts that temperature should affect organism performance, with implications for species interactions and ecosystems that span disciplines including mathematics, chemistry, and biology. Temperature strongly impacts parasitic diseases of ectothermic hosts, with important implications for diseases of humans and wildlife. It is thus vital to examine metabolic responses of hosts and parasites to temperature in research laboratories and classroom education. I used MTE-based models to describe thermal responses of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and its amphibian hosts (Notophthalmus viridescens, eastern red-spotted newts). I measured newt breath rate and oxygen consumption (Chapter 2), as well as Bd zoospore swimming speed and critical thermal maximum (Chapter 3), to parameterize MTE-based models of host and parasite thermal performance. I conducted a controlled-temperature Bd infection experiment with newts collected from different latitudes (Chapter 4). In all three experiments, I also used temperature shifts to test for thermal acclimation effects. I hypothesized that newts and Bd would exhibit beneficial acclimation, but that Bd would acclimate to a new temperature faster because of its smaller mass and faster metabolism. I found little evidence of thermal acclimation effects on host performance, but my results suggested that the Bd either shows no acclimation or very rapid (< 3 minutes) acclimation responses. I also combined scholarship of research with scholarship of learning by developing an online teaching lab activity that introduces students to MTE-based thermal models by contrasting thermal responses in humans versus frogs (Chapter 5). I conducted a controlled experiment to compare learning outcomes for the online versus the face-to-face version of the activity (Chapter 6). Results varied, but students generally achieved similar learning outcomes in both versions of this activity
Temperature effects on production of infectious zoospores from chytrid-infected Xenopus laevis
No full textA leading cause of global declines in amphibian populations is chytridiomycosis, the temperature-dependent pandemic disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochydrium dendrobadtidis (Bd). Temperature fluctuations caused by climate change could exacerbate this
disease. Temperature-dependent models of Bd infections can provide important insights into Bd transmission dynamics in frog populations to help inform management actions. The Raffel lab has been working on a novel type of mechanistic model to predict Bd and host responses to fluctuating temperatures, based on a combination of metabolic theory and a type of dynamic model traditionally used to describe macroparasite dynamics. In this model shedding rate (i.e., the number of zoospore equivalents released per minute) of Bd zoospores from an infected host’s skin constitutes an important parameter which we were able to measure. We infected 124 juvenile Xenopus laevis and subjected them to acclimation temperatures of 10 °C, 15 °C, or 20
°C for 35 days. All frogs were inoculated the day of performance temperature switch which happened at the end of the acclimation period; however, 38 were also inoculated 35 days before the switch. During the performance period frogs were subjected to temperatures of 10 °C, 15 °C, 20 °C, or 25 °C for 35 days. Shed zoospores were collected 7 days and 35 days post performance temperature switch. On day 7 of the performance period, shedding rate differed between each performance temperature, but not with acclimation temperature (Table 3). A higher shedding rate
was also observed with lower performance temperatures. Shedding rate on day 35 of the performance period did not differ between each performance temperature and acclimation
temperature. Shedding rate was also significantly lower on day 35 (Table 3). Frogs inoculated 35 days before the performance temperature switch did not differ between frogs inoculated the day of the switch. We also found Infection intensity and levels of shed zoospores were correlated (Table 3), with filters having detected more zoospores day 7 of the performance period compared to swabs collected at the same time point. We conclude shedding rate from X. laevis is affected by temperature, and infection load. This research will help to inform the transmission parameter for the mathematical model our lab has been generating to untangle the complex temperature dependence of Bd disease dynamics in frog populations which will potentially help conservation
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Minutes of the Meeting of the University Senate, October 17, 2024
No full text1. Information Items: Graduate Program Modifications (none); Undergraduate Program Modifications (none); Combined Graduate and Undergraduate Modifications (none); Uwill; Mental Health Committee Update; Diversity GESLO: Addition of Disability; Academic Calendar Development Committee Update; Senator Updates, 2024; Senate Committee (Co)Chairs, update 2024-2025; Provost Updates. |2: Roll Call | 3. Approval of the Minutes of September 19, 2024 | 4. Unfinished Business: None. | 5. New Business: Appointees to Senate subcommittees; changes to University Senate Community Engagement Committee charge; changes to University Senate Faculty Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee charge; potential for Senate OU Classroom Recording Policy Ad-hoc Committee to adopt a new OU Classroom Recording Policy. | 6. Good and Welfare | 7. Adjourn
Enhancing accessibility in STEM: A survey of accessibility errors in STEM academic databases
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship on September 19, 2024, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2024.2383520Academic libraries must provide accessible electronic and information technology to patrons using assistive technology to access library materials. Accessibility of scholarly material is particularly important in the STEM disciplines, where attrition rates of students with disabilities is higher than in other fields. In this study, the accessibility of STEM indexing databases was evaluated using the WAVE accessibility tool, and the frequency of errors, alerts, and features encountered during the completion of typical searching tasks for each database was noted. The use of accessibility-checking tools like WAVE can supplement other methods used to verify the accessibility of vendor-created library databases
Minutes of the Formal Session of the Oakland University Board of Trustees, April 12, 2024
No full textA. Pledge of Allegiance | B. Call to Order | C. Roll Call | D. President's Report | E. Consent Agenda for Consideration/Action: Consent Agenda; Treasurer's Report; Minutes of the Board of Trustees Formal Session of February 2, 2024; University Personnel Actions; Acceptance of Gifts and Pledges to Oakland University for the Period of January 27, 2024 through April 1, 2024; Acceptance of Grants and Contracts to Oakland University for the Period of January 1 – February 29, 2024; Final Undergraduate School Report and Final Graduate School Report, Fall 2023 - December 16, 2023; Appointment of an Independent Public Accounting Firm; Department of English Name Change: Department of English, Creative Writing, and Film; OUWB School of Medicine O'Dowd Hall Renovation/Addition - Plaza Upgrade | F. New Items for Consideration/Action: Commendation of Alfred G. and Matilda R. Wilson Awards and Human Relations Award; Commendation of the Don and Jan O'Dowd Graduate Award; Master of Science in Medical Sciences | G. Other Items for Consideration/Action that May Come Before the Board | H. Adjournmen
Optimizing performance of distributed memory workloads for high performance computing (hpc) and data center networks
No full textToday’s high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale data center systems are constructed by interconnecting thousands of computing nodes, storage devices, hardware accelerators, and I/O devices. Due to the rapid growth in the scale of these systems, along with their complex interconnect topologies and the need to support diverse applications, the interconnection network has become one of the major bottlenecks for performance, efficiency, and resource utilization. My research focuses on developing novel, efficient, and scalable routing methods to reduce latency and optimized scheduling methods to improve throughput and system utilization. I validated these proposed approaches through various experimental studies using state-of-the-art benchmarks, as well as real scientific and synthetic applications. The goal is to facilitate the future adoption of these approaches in next-generation HPC and data center network system