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Reducing Physical Tension in the Beginning String Orchestra
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at the Kansas Music Educators' Association In-Service Workshop held in Wichita, Kansas on 02/28/2025.Reducing physical tension in the beginning string orchestra is essential to creating a healthy young musician. This session will focus on the two aspects of a musician's tension: the mental and physical
Metabolites derived from bacterial isolates of the human skin microbiome inhibit Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation
No full textA grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.The human skin microbiome is a diverse ecosystem that can help prevent infections by producing biomolecules and peptides that inhibit growth and virulence of bacterial pathogens. Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen responsible for diseases that range from acute skin and soft tissue infections to life-threatening septicemia. Its ability to form biofilms is a key virulence factor contributing to its success as a pathogen as well as to its increased antimicrobial resistance. Here, we investigated the ability of bacterial skin commensals to produce molecules that inhibit S. aureus biofilm formation. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identified 77 human skin microbiome bacterial isolates from Staphylococcus and Bacillus genera. Metabolites from cell-free concentrated media (CFCM) from 26 representative isolates were evaluated for their ability to inhibit biofilm formation by both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive (MSSA) S. aureus strains. CFCM, derived from most of the isolates, inhibited biofilm formation to varying extents but did not inhibit planktonic growth of S. aureus. Size fractionation of the CFCM of three S. epidermidis isolates indicated that they produce different bioactive molecules. Cluster analysis, based on either MALDI-TOF mass spectra or whole-genome sequencing draft genomes, did not show clear clusters associated with levels of biofilm inhibition among S. epidermidis strains. Finally, similar biosynthetic gene clusters were detected in all S. epidermidis strains analyzed. These findings indicate that several bacterial constituents of the human skin microbiome display antibiofilm in vitro activity, warranting further investigation on their potential as novel therapeutic agents.Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellenc
Work in Progress: Integrating Industry-Derived, Problem-Based Learning and Generative AI into a Mechatronics Course
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at the ASEE held in Fayetteville, AR on 09/16/2025.This paper presents a curriculum development effort for a mechatronics course redesign using a problem-based learning (PBL) methodology. Historically in this course, students focused on programming using microcontrollers and worked to gain an understanding of integrating different sensors and motors. In past years, students worked on weekly assignments which helped them to become competent for both individual and group projects. In a new implementation of the course, the course structure modification revolves around an industrial project to help the students gain real-world industrial experience. In addition, the course will incorporate brief in-class learning checks using generative AI. The proposed methodology is going to be implemented in the classroom in Spring 2026, and the full comprehensive study is forthcoming
THE RIGHT TO MARRY: CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYERING’S INFLUENCE IN LOVING V. VIRGINIA (1967) AND THE QUESTION OF JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
No full textSubmitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honorsLoving v. Virginia (1967) is a civil rights era Supreme Court case that made anti-miscegenation (anti-interracial marriage) laws unconstitutional across the United States. Laws that sound inconceivable to many modern Americans were once common state statutes for over 150 years. As laws and opinions surrounding civil rights changed over the 19th and 20th centuries, some states abandoned their anti-miscegenation statutes. However, at the time of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loving, almost one-third of US states still had some form of anti-miscegenation laws on their books. Despite many states repealing their anti-miscegenation statutes without judicial intervention, there was certainly no consensus on whether interracial marriage was socially acceptable across the country. However, the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Loving was an important step toward establishing a broader right to marriage – setting up the 2015 landmark case that legalized same-sex marriage.
The Supreme Court is, by nature, the most passive of the United States’ three branches of government. The nation’s founders created the Court in such a way that it would avoid the prejudices of ever-changing politics; the Justices serve lifetime appointments, they undergo a strenuous bipartisan confirmation process by the Senate, and they are loyal to the Constitution itself, not to a political party. Throughout its history, however, the Court has been accused of judicial activism – using court cases to bypass the other, democratically elected, branches to create new policy. The question of whether the Court engages in judicial policymaking, and, if so, in what ways it does so, is an ongoing debate. In “The Right to Marry,” I assess how the Loving decision was decided among a changing legal environment and how and why, taken together with similar cases that expanded the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment, the case brought charges of judicial activism
Sex Differences in Executive Functioning in the LEAP! Rx Exercise Study
No full textThis is the poster from a presentation given at the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting held in Boston, MA held on 11/13/2025.Executive functioning is critical in maintaining independence in older adulthood. Women’s cognition tends to decline more rapidly. Previous research suggests aerobic exercise benefits executive functioning. It remains unclear whether sex moderates the cognitive benefit of exercise. We hypothesized that men and women would differ in executive function in response to the LEAP! Rx exercise intervention.
We analyzed data from 219 older adults (M age=72.36) in the LEAP! Rx exercise intervention. We randomized participants to the intervention (n=110) or control group (n=109). We measured executive functioning using the Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Test (Flanker) and Dimensional Change Card Sort Test (DCCS). We conducted two 2-way repeated measures ANOVAs analyzing the effect of sex and group (intervention vs. control) on change in Flanker and DCCS scores across Baseline, 12 weeks, and 52 weeks, controlling for age and education. Results indicated no main effects of the intervention (p>.30), nor of sex (p>.40), at any time point. There was no significant interaction between sex and intervention group (p=.89). Previous results in this sample showed that although the intervention group significantly improved in cardiorespiratory fitness compared to the control group, the intervention did not appear to influence overall cognitive performance. Executive functioning scores had a ceiling effect, limiting our ability to detect improvements. Future research should include more challenging tests of executive function to investigate mechanisms by which exercise may improve executive function, such as cardiorespiratory fitness or intervention adherence. Our project contributes to examinations of individual characteristics most likely to benefit from exercise
Children's Piano Works By Taiwanese Composers (1895-1950): Tracing Musical Identity Through Political Shifts
No full textTaiwan’s twentieth-century piano repertoire for children reflects a dynamic interplay of cultural, political, and educational influences. This study focuses on works composed by Taiwanese composers born between 1895 and 1950, spanning the Japanese colonial period through the postwar era. It begins by tracing the roots of children’s piano education in the West, particularly the Enlightenment’s impact on pedagogical thought and the contributions of figures such as Friedrich Wieck. These Western models of piano pedagogy served as a framework that later influenced developments in Eastern contexts. Taiwan is presented as a case study to examine how local elements and historical circumstances shaped the development of Western pedagogical trends in the region. By focusing on selected children’s piano works by composers such as Jiang Wen-Ye, Kuo Chih-Yuan, Hsu Tsang-Houei, Chen Mao-Shuen, Hsiao Tyzen, Ma Shui-Long, Lai Deh-Ho, Hsieh Long-Kwang, Pan Hwang-Long, and Lin Chin-Yow, this research reveals how children’s music in Taiwan embodies both evolving educational approaches and broader cultural transformations
The water demand of ammonia production to fertilize crops
No full textRenewable ammonia production enabled by water electrolysis to supply hydrogen, combined with the Haber-Bosch process to form ammonia might be advantageous at the local (several metric ton per day) scale to de-risk fertilizer supplies for agriculture through local or regional control over fertilizer production and price. Concerns regarding the water demand of this vs. the water demand to raise the crops to be fertilized are unfounded since the water demand to produce ammonia for fertilizing a given crop is fractions of a percent of the water demand for the crop itself. About 3.2 kg of water is needed to produce 1 kg of renewable ammonia, amounting to 0.015% of the water demand of, for example, irrigated corn
A geometrical approach to neutrino oscillation parameters
No full textWe propose a geometric hypothesis for neutrino mixing: twice the sum of the three mixing angles equals 180 degrees, forming a Euclidean triangle. This condition leads to a predictive relation among the mixing angles and, through trigonometric constraints, enables reconstruction of the mass-squared splittings. The hypothesis offers a phenomenological resolution to the θ23 octant ambiguity, reproduces the known mass hierarchy patterns, and suggests a normalized geometric structure underlying the PMNS mixing. We show that while an order-of-magnitude scale mismatch remains (the absolute splittings are underestimated by ∼10×), the triangle reproduces mixing ratios with notable accuracy, hinting at deeper structural or symmetry-based origins. We emphasize that the triangle relation is advanced as an empirical, phenomenological organizing principle rather than a result derived from a specific underlying symmetry or dynamics. It is testable and falsifiable: current global-fit values already lie close to satisfying the condition, and improved precision will confirm or refute it. We also outline and implement a simple χ2 consistency check against global-fit inputs to quantify agreement within present uncertainties
Nested likelihood-ratio testing of the nonsynonymous:synonymous ratio suggests greater adaptation in the piRNA machinery of Drosophila melanogaster compared with Drosophila ananassae and Drosophila willistoni, two species with higher repeat content
No full textA grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Numerous studies have revealed a signature of strong adaptive evolution in the piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) machinery of Drosophila melanogaster, but the cause of this pattern is not understood. Several hypotheses have been proposed. One hypothesis is that transposable element (TE) families and the piRNA machinery are co-evolving under an evolutionary arms race, perhaps due to antagonism by TEs against the piRNA machinery. A related, though not co-evolutionary, hypothesis is that recurrent TE invasion drives the piRNA machinery to adapt to novel TE strategies. A third hypothesis is that ongoing fluctuation in TE abundance leads to adaptation in the piRNA machinery that must constantly adjust between sensitivity for detecting new elements and specificity to avoid the cost of off-target gene silencing. Rapid evolution of the piRNA machinery may also be driven independently of TEs, and instead from other functions such as the role of piRNAs in suppressing sex-chromosome meiotic drive. We sought to evaluate the impact of TE abundance on adaptive evolution of the piRNA machinery in D. melanogaster and 2 species with higher repeat content—Drosophila ananassae and Drosophila willistoni. This comparison was achieved by employing a likelihood-based hypothesis testing framework based on the McDonald–Kreitman test. We show that we can reject a faster rate of adaptive evolution in the piRNA machinery of these 2 species. We propose that the high rate of adaptation in D. melanogaster is either driven by a recent influx of TEs that have occurred during range expansion or selection on other functions of the piRNA machinery.NSF MC
A Reexamination of Tone in Tujia
No full textThese are the slides from a presentation given at the 58th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics (ICSTLL58) held at the University of Bern on 09/04/2025.This project concerns the representation of tone in Northern Tujia (henceforth Tujia), a Tibeto-Burman isolate. Drawing on fieldwork data collected in 2018-2024 in Dianfang Township, Hunan Province, China, I argue that tone in Tujia should be considered at the word level, not the syllables. That is, I propose a revision of tonal representation in Tujia such that monomorphemic polysyllabic words may be notated with one tone, as in (1); I use superscripts rather than IPA to avoid confusion with pinyin. Secondarily, I infer that grammatical particles—bolded in (2)—are underlyingly toneless, as their tone is predictable from the preceding morpheme and general prosody.
(1) khatChiemaHL
frog
‘frog’
(2) k7ts1HL ãmMH-poH wuMH-nouH s1L-tiuH%
3PL 1PL.OBL-GOAL cow-CLF send-DIR:PRF
‘They sent us a cow.’
Data & discussion. Tone inventory in Tujia has long been a matter of debate, beginning with Tian’s (1986) observation that high-level and high-falling tones appear to freely vary. More recently, Xiong (2016) has made the case that up to 6 tones may be distinguished. I believe that these authors’ focus on the monosyllabic word narrowed their analytic vision. For instance, consider the collection of monomorphemic disyllabic words in Chen (2006). Of these 82, five preliminary contours can be identified that account for the majority of the data: H-H (30.5%), H-L (17.1%), M-H (15.9%), L-H (12.2%), and L-L (9.8%). Following analysis by Tian et al. (2019) that low tones alternate with rising tones at the end of utterance, L-H may be considered an allophone of L when followed by boundary tone H%. This distribution is unexpected in a system where each syllable has a theoretically equal chance of being high (or high-falling), low, and rising. In (3), I show a sample of words with their entries in Chen (2006) and Zhang (2006) followed by their representation under my proposed system; my final inventory consists of H, HL, MH, and L.
(3) a. pu55tshi55 (Chen 2006) / pu53tshi53 (Zhang 2006) > putsh1H ‘spider’
b. xa53lie21 (Chen 2006) / xa53lie21 (Zhang 2006) > xalieHL ‘dog’
Under this analysis, processes previously labeled as tone sandhi can be understood as rightward tone spreading. H and HL in monosyllabic words freely vary, but they are distinguishable in polysyllabic words, as in (3), and in sequences of monosyllabic words followed by grammatical particles, as in (4). Thus, true rightward replacive tone sandhi must be teased apart from rightward tone spreading; in fact, my fieldwork shows that many compound words do not productively undergo tone sandhi.
(4) a. tChuH-poH
home-GOAL
‘toward home’
b. zũmH-poL
little.sister-GOAL
‘to/for (my) little sister’
Conclusion. This analysis aligns with the data and is theoretically motivated, as tone is expected to be assigned to a morphological unit rather than a syllable. Moreover, it is typologically unsurprising, given that nearby Qiangic languages have been analyzed as having word-level tone characterized by culminativity (Chirkova and Michaud 2009; Evans 2008). Such reexamination of tone is much-needed for accurate transcription of the Northern Tujia language