The recovery of a partial skull comprised mostly of the braincase of the extinct sloth, Megalonyx jeffersonii from Hays, Ellis County, Kansas provides a better understanding of the distribution of this species in Kansas and on the Great Plains in general. While the age of the skull could not be determined by radiocarbon dating, its presence in the Peoria loess narrows the age of the specimen to the late Wisconsian, most likely the Last Glacial Maximum between 21,000- and 12,000-years BP. The sloth specimen is among the few vertebrate remains directly recovered from the Peoria loess.

Inventories of round barns have been published for many of the Midwestern states, where such barns are most prevalent. This study adopts a broader perspective and considers distribution of round barns in the entire continental United States to address questions such as why the vast majority of these barns are located in the Midwest; are there centers of influence detectable in the spatial and temporal distribution; and why did the period of greatest building activity last only two decades at the start of the twentieth century? Round barn locations are concentrated in regions were glacial sediments provide fertile soil for farming activities, not only in the Midwest but also in the north-eastern states of Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. Surprisingly, perhaps, is the lack of any influence of local topography on the locations of round barns. There is no direct correlation between the number of farms in a particular county and the number of round barns in that county. Nor is there any clear sign of spatio-temporal clustering associated with external influences such as agricultural research stations. As far as can be determined from the available data, the period of building frenzy was common to all states above the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Continental Divide, lagging the expansion of farms during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. This suggests that the round barn experiment that occured was not entirely successful because of inherent limitations in the design and building of circular structures, and not so much because of external factors that changed, such as loss of support from agricultural research stations or farming periodicals. This study uses diffusion-based marketing models to show how the bell-shaped curve of number of barns built over time agrees with the forecasted rate of adaptation of an innovation or new durable goods product.

Introduction of tilapias is increasingly being used a fisheries management tool in midwestern United States for supplemental forage, recreational angling, and vegetation control. However, little is known about how these stockings impact water quality in receiving waters. We stocked Mozambique Tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus into a 0.27-ha pond in east-central Kansas at a rate of 52.2 kg/ha on 11 May 2023. We then measured a suite of 14 water quality parameters weekly over a period of eight months in the treatment pond and in an adjacent 0.20-ha control pond without tilapia. We used a PERMANOVA to deduce that variability in water quality from tilapia presence did not differ from temporal variability within the study ponds (F = 1.705; P = 0.124). Accordingly, examination of all water quality parameters suggested similar trends in each study pond. Findings from this study suggest one-time stockings of Mozambique Tilapia at rates under 52.2 kg/ha are unlikely to elicit immediate water quality changes in small ponds.

Cost-effective, non-destructive remediation and prevention techniques for Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs) are needed to help mitigate their negative impacts on human, animal, and ecosystem health. Many aquatic macrophytes produce allelochemicals that inhibit the growth of cyanobacteria. Floating islands stocked with allelopathic macrophytes could offer a natural, environmentally friendly way of improving water quality and reducing CyanoHAB severity. We tested the ability of three native Kansas macrophytes (Sagittaria latifolia, Ludwigia peploides, and Heteranthera multiflora) deployed in single-species, floating islands to reduce cyanobacteria blooms in large-scale (3,000 gallon) experimental mesocosms. We created cyanobacterial blooms before deploying the islands, then compared phytoplankton community structures and water properties (physical and chemical) before and after the floating islands were added. The addition of the macrophytes did not significantly change the phytoplankton communities or reduce phytoplankton densities in the mesocosms. The addition of macrophytes did not result in meaningful improvement in water quality, except for a decrease in water column total phosphorus in the H. multiflora treatment. In our study, we deployed a relatively small number of plants compared to other studies, which may have contributed to the lack of allelopathic effectiveness of our floating island treatments. We provide suggestions to future researchers and resource managers that could improve the effectiveness of floating island treatments. This study is a first step to assessing the potential of using native allelopathic macrophytes as an ecological solution to add to the CyanoHAB mitigation toolkit.

Flathead Catfish Pylodictus olivaris management has been difficult across much of their range because of limited population-level data. This is also true in Kansas where population-level Flathead Catfish information is lacking compared to other managed species. We evaluated Flathead Catfish population characteristics from eight populations in small Kansas impoundments (37-114 surface ha). We used boat electrofishing within a capture-recapture framework with spatial replication to estimate population abundance and obtain individuals for age determination. Total estimated population density varied from 0.77 to 9.50 individuals/ha (mean = 4.58/ha). Maximum estimated age was 21 years with growth being variable between populations. Estimated mean annual mortality across populations was 18% and varied from 4% to 34%. These results demonstrate a diversity of Flathead Catfish population parameters exist among small impoundments and provide points of comparison for future studies.

The internal structure and stratigraphy of Pleistocene glaciotectonic features are best exposed in coastal cliffs and stream bluffs, as well as artificial human-made excavations. Such exposures of glaciotectonic structures and strata tend to be ephemeral. Features revealed at one point in time may be removed by continued erosion or excavation and, thus, new features become exposed. On the other hand, previous exposures often are obscured by slumping and vegetation growth. Major landforms, structures, sediments, and rock masses may remain more-or-less intact over decades, but the finer and more-detailed features may disappear within a few years. The consequences of this situation are reviewed in case studies from Canada, Denmark, and the United States. In order to fit together the glaciotectonic puzzle, field investigations must take place throughout a region and be repeated periodically over decadal time spans. Application of imagery and mapping techniques, especially UAS (drones), would be of great value for continuing research. In this way, previous results may be supplemented, verified, refined in greater detail, and preserved.

Paleobiogeographic range maps have been used in a variety of paleontological studies, particularly for attempting to better understand the paleoecology, paleoclimate, or paleoenvironment of a given area, such as the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America. These ranges, however, are not often created for the sake of plotting out an organism's distribution within the Seaway. The research herein creates maps showing range distributions for five species of Baculites, a genus of extinct ammonites. Publicly available online data was used to generate maps of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Campanian with available baculite locality data in ArcGIS Pro. These maps were rotated to their reconstructed paleogeography using PaleoGIS Pro extension software, and the ranges were measured for area, latitudinal extent, and longitudinal extent to compare and contrast distribution in addition to visualizing each species' range. It is the hope that these maps can aid in other research on Baculites, by either augmenting or acting as a starting place, as well as potentially being used in conjunction with exhibit materials to help improve public education.

The Graneros Shale is a sedimentary rock formation broadly distributed in northwestern Kansas and its adjacent states, that was deposited in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. In this study, we present the first formal documentation of fossil vertebrate assemblage collected from a ‘mid-middle Cenomanian’ horizon within the formation at a locality in Russell County, Kansas. Minimally 35 taxa, comprising at least 18 chondrichthyans (sharks and rays), 15 osteichthyans (bony fishes), a plesiosaur (marine reptile), and a hesperornithiform (aquatic bird), and are ecologically and trophically diverse, including scavengers, large predators, many small to medium-sized piscivores and durophages, and even a possible planktivore. This study provides new insights into the paleoecology in the Western Interior Seaway approximately 97 million years ago.

Prion diseases are described as inevitably fatal neurodegenerative disorders as the result of the normal cellular protein PrP^C misfolding into the abnormal PrP^Sc form. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS), and Kuru are among the most well-known human prion diseases. Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI) is rare among the prion diseases and has a devastating disease course and followed by a fatal outcome. FFI has been identified to be genetically passed down through generations; however, there have also been reported cases of Sporadic Familial Insomnia (SFI). SFI patients have no identifiable family history of any neurodegenerative disorders or prion diseases. The disease course of FFI heavily depends on whether it is a homozygous (Methionine-Methionine) or a heterozygous (Methionine-Valine) genotype. FFI and SFI share similar clinical features of disrupted sleep, autonomic hyperactivation, and motor abnormalities. Neuropathological assessments have revealed severe neuronal loss of the mediodorsal and anteroventral nuclei of the thalamus with excessive accumulation of protease-resistant PrP^Sc. While FFI does share the same D178N mutation with CJD, there are varying distinct effects due to the polymorphism at codon 129 of the Prnp gene, resulting in different pathological features. Knockout mice have been genetically created to identify the role of the Prnp gene and the PrP^C protein. While questions remain on the definitive role of the two, findings have identified potential roles in development and sleep regulation. The involvement of the thalamus and sleep regulation suggest a potential relationship of the thalamo-limbic system in FFI. FFI affects various systems in the body including cardiovascular, circadian hormonal rhythm, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary. Limited case studies have been published in detail, but those of which that are published share common clinical and pathological features. Doxycycline is the only ongoing clinical trial to date for treatment, but there are no approved preventative or treatment options for prion diseases.

The following abstracts of papers and posters were accepted for presentation at the 157th Annual Meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science