Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus
K-State Research ExchangeNot a member yet
43997 research outputs found
Sort by
Is Seeing Believing? A Practitioner’s Perspective on High-Dimensional Statistical Inference in Cancer Genomics Studies
No full textVariable selection methods have been extensively developed for and applied to cancer genomics data to identify important omics features associated with complex disease traits, including cancer outcomes. However, the reliability and reproducibility of the findings are in question if valid inferential procedures are not available to quantify the uncertainty of the findings. In this article, we provide a gentle but systematic review of high-dimensional frequentist and Bayesian inferential tools under sparse models which can yield uncertainty quantification measures, including confidence (or Bayesian credible) intervals, p values and false discovery rates (FDR). Connections in high-dimensional inferences between the two realms have been fully exploited under the “unpenalized loss function + penalty term” formulation for regularization methods and the “likelihood function × shrinkage prior” framework for regularized Bayesian analysis. In particular, we advocate for robust Bayesian variable selection in cancer genomics studies due to its ability to accommodate disease heterogeneity in the form of heavy-tailed errors and structured sparsity while providing valid statistical inference. The numerical results show that robust Bayesian analysis incorporating exact sparsity has yielded not only superior estimation and identification results but also valid Bayesian credible intervals under nominal coverage probabilities compared with alternative methods, especially in the presence of heavy-tailed model errors and outliers
Why dairy farms are exiting the industry
No full textMaster of AgribusinessDepartment of Agricultural EconomicsAllen M. FeatherstoneDairies in the last twenty years have increased from eighty-five cows to 337-cows in 2022 (O’Leary 2023). Cow numbers are over nine million with more cows on fewer dairy farms. Production per cow has increased in the past twenty years by 138 pounds to an average of 24,067 pounds. The nine million dairy cows used to be on over 500,000 farms and now are on 27,932 dairies. The increase of production per cow has contributed to the oversupply of milk on the market. Aggregate cow numbers have remained the same for over the past ten years.
There are multiple reasons why dairy farmers sell out. Number one is financial reasons and there are historical reports to back up this claim. There were only two profitable years in the last twenty years according to the Farm Bureau analysts report (Nepveux 2021). The variable costs of dairy farming make it very volatile, thus a high-risk business model. Transportation has become expensive in the last twenty years as dairy farmers pay for hauling, added stop fees, and a newly added fuel surcharge. The changing American diet to plant-based foods may also add to the decline in demand for dairy products.
A survey was conducted to look at reasons dairy farmers have quit milking. A survey with eighteen questions tailored for why dairy farmers have quit was conducted with the questions ranging from what state your dairy is located, to acres farmed, labor, adverse financial, family transition, divorce, disease, management practices, profitability, retirement, and milk price. One hundred seventeen responses were obtained from the survey. The farm sizes ranged from forty cows to 2,700 and owning no land to owning 5,000 acres. There are many factors that contribute to why a farmer sold the dairy but the main reason to sell the dairy cows were financial reasons
The Evolution of Animal Research in Ancient Mediterranean Society
No full textFor my honors project, I sought to combine my bachelor’s degree, biology, with my minor, in classics. I plan to go into research in the future, and I thought it would be interesting to see how research came to be what it is today. A lot of the fundamental ideas of research originated in ancient Mediterranean society, though it looked much different than the typical thesis paper seen in modern-day research. In this project, I examined the earliest developments of the studies of animals in ancient Mediterranean society and how it developed and evolved.
I read several different works by scholars in the ancient Mediterranean region spanning from 300 B.C.E to 200 C.E. The three researchers I decided to focus on included Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Galen. Aristotle in some of his lecture notes about “The History of Animals” discussed systems of organization and proposed theories of the origins of animals and other aspects of nature. Pliny the Elder wrote a collection of thoughts about animals, arranged into what is considered to be the first encyclopedia called Natural History. I also read several excerpts and summaries of Galen’s anatomical research on barbery apes and pigs. He performed vivisections on these animals to figure out many fundamental ideas of anatomy in both humans and animals from this animal research. All of these were able to provide a narrative of the evolution of written research in animals. This project was incredibly interesting and provided a lot of context for the world I am about to be a part of. I believe one of the most important aspects of life is knowing history, and I feel more prepared for my future career in research having gained a better understanding of where different aspects of research originated
Angela N. H. Creager and Jean-Paul Gaudillière: Risk on the table: food production, health, and the environment
No full textFood safety is an age-old but quotidian societal issue that has remained a concern throughout human history. The matter is gaining more significance in today’s globalized era, where minor food issues can now have extensive repercussions, impacting lives and economies worldwide in a very short time. In Risk on the Table: Food Production, Health, and the Environment, Angela Creager, Professor in History of Science at Princeton University, and Jean- Paul Gaudillière, Historian at Cermes3 and Professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, have assembled a compelling anthology that explores how scientific developments, industrial practices, and regulatory frameworks have shaped and responded to the risks associated with food production and consumption in modern society
A Love Letter to Those Who Cannot Say “I Love You:” Ada Limón and the Deconstruction of Gender Roles in Favor of Masculine Love
No full textKirmser Undergraduate Research Award - Individual Freshman category, honorable mentionWendy MatlockAn exploration of how men love using Ada Limón's poem "Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds." I aim to look at how society has forced men to only express love silently or violently. The article looks into how we as a society have gotten to this point with our men, and how our literature may reinforce or deconstruct this narrative and gender stereotype we have put in place. The purpose of this being to see how we can change this for the future, so the men in our lives are able to properly express love
Oxygen Consumption Differences in Intermittent-Fasted Animals
No full textIntermittent fasting (IF) is a promising strategy to protect against cognitive impairment, such as in the case of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Our recent studies have found that young male rats introduced to 10 weeks of alternate-day fasting had significantly reduced body weights, compared to the ad-libitum (AL) control group. However, no significant differences were observed in female body weights even though both males and females had reduced food intake. This sexual dimorphism might be due to changes in resting whole-body metabolism. The study aimed to explore whether IF impacts overall oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production and whether these effects vary between sexes. Methods- Forty 10-week-old female and male Fisher-344 rats were randomly assigned to either a four-week IF group or AL group. Two weeks into the intervention resting oxygen consumption was measured by placing the animal in an air-tight chamber with O2 and CO2 analyzers in order to calculate oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and respiratory exchange ratio (RER). Results- After two weeks of IF, females had reduced O2 consumption and CO2 production compared to the AL group (30.6 vs. 41.4 mL/min/kg, p<.01 and 25.1 vs. 36.1 mL/min/kg, p<.001, respectively), however, no significant changes were seen in the males. Conclusion- The results have confirmed that IF elicits significant sexual dimorphism in both O2 consumption and CO2 production where females exhibited declines in both while males did not change. This shift to a slower metabolism is likely the cause for maintained body mass during IF
Vector and host competence for Japanese encephalitis virus: A systematic review and meta-analysis update of Oliveira et al. 2018
No full textCreating Positive Futures
No full textSummary of the 2023 actiivities of the Kansas PRIDE program and affiliated communities
Social context modulates active avoidance: Contributions of the anterior cingulate cortex in male and female rats.
No full textActively avoiding danger is necessary for survival. Most research on active avoidance has focused on the behavioral and neurobiological processes when individuals learn to avoid alone, within a solitary context. Therefore, little is known about how social context affects active avoidance. Using a modified version of the platform-mediated avoidance task in rats, we investigated whether the presence of a social partner attenuates conditioned freezing and enhances avoidance compared to avoidance in a solitary context. Rats spent a similar amount of time avoiding during either context; however, rats trained in the social context exhibited greater freezing as well as lower rates of darting and food seeking compared to rats trained in the solitary context. In addition, we observed higher levels of avoidance in females compared to males in the solitary context, but this sex difference was not present in rats trained in the social context. To gain greater mechanistic insight, we optogenetically inactivated glutamatergic projection neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) following avoidance training in either context. After avoidance was learned in a social context, photoinactivation of ACC reduced expression of avoidance during a test when the social partner was absent, but not when the partner was present. Our findings suggest a novel contribution of the ACC in avoidance that is learned with a social partner, which has translational implications for understanding ACC dysfunction in those suffering from trauma-related disorders
Examining the State of Community Well-Being at the Intersection of Rurality and Agricultural Engagement in the Contiguous United States
No full textAs the 21st century progresses, rural residents across the United States have often found themselves in disadvantaged positions by many socio-economic measures compared to their urban counterparts. In addition, agriculture– once the emblem of rurality– shares a disputed relationship with the well-being of rural communities in social science literature. However, the literature specifically related to how community well-being (CWB) varies across both rurality and agricultural engagement is limited. This study addresses this gap in the body of knowledge. Using county-level data on socioeconomic conditions from the past decade, we examine how agricultural engagement is associated with community well-being in rural areas. We combine descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis with mapping techniques to identify and visualize patterns in the data. We show that CWB varies widely regardless of rural status and engagement in agriculture across the 3107 counties included in the study. However, the most disadvantaged communities are primarily located in rural places. Study findings also show that agricultural engagement is usually associated with somewhat improved, but not significantly different, CWB in rural areas. These findings indicate that the level of urbanicity/rurality might be the primary factor driving differences in CWB and that CWB in rural communities is generally similar regardless of local economies’ reliance on agriculture