Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Comparative Optic Nerve Head Physiology: Glaucoma Induced Retinal Ganglion Cell Apoptosis By Disruption Of The Translaminar Pressure Gradient And Reduced Neurotrophic Signaling, Cassidy Christopherson Jan 2019

Comparative Optic Nerve Head Physiology: Glaucoma Induced Retinal Ganglion Cell Apoptosis By Disruption Of The Translaminar Pressure Gradient And Reduced Neurotrophic Signaling, Cassidy Christopherson

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness, and the second leading vision loss neurodegenerative disease affecting millions worldwide. Glaucoma is characterized as a group of eye disorders which are initially asymptomatic but may progress to significant optic nerve head damage and vision loss with time. Early stages of glaucoma often go undetected, leading to irreversible damage to the optic nerve head prior to patients seeking medical care. Glaucoma leads to vision loss via death of retinal ganglion cells. Retinal ganglion cell apoptosis is thought to begin due to interference with the normal transmission of neurotrophic signals that arrive by …


Pathogenesis Of Cte: A Review Of Ptau, Lewy Bodies, And Cytokine Involvement In Cte, Karter Keefer Jan 2019

Pathogenesis Of Cte: A Review Of Ptau, Lewy Bodies, And Cytokine Involvement In Cte, Karter Keefer

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neuropathological disease that develops years after experiencing repetitive traumatic brain injuries. In recent years, this disease has been gaining recognition from professional, college, and high school teams that participate in contact sports. The purpose of this paper is to review available information about this neurodegenerative disease. Only limited published experiments are available on this disease. Research on CTE has been limited by the fact that patients can only be diagnosed with the disease by a post mortem autopsy. Many experiments were analyzed regarding different CTE pathologies, symptoms, and treatments. Articles used in this paper …


A Review: The Association Of Asthma And The Microbiome, Kathleen Olson Jan 2019

A Review: The Association Of Asthma And The Microbiome, Kathleen Olson

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

The microbiome gut-lung axis has been associated with asthma. Asthma is a respiratory disease that presents itself in many different ways. The microbiome is the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses found in a particular environment. The association of the microbiome gutlung axis in an asthmatic individual compared to a healthy individual has shown that different types and/or concentrations of bacterial genera are present in an asthmatic individual compared to a healthy individual. A causal relationship between the microbiome and asthma has not yet been identified. The aim of this review is to present the association of asthma and the microbiome …


A Review Of Asthma Treatments: Monoclonal Antibody, Corticosteroid, Leukotriene Modifier, And Bronchodilator, Alec Williams Jan 2019

A Review Of Asthma Treatments: Monoclonal Antibody, Corticosteroid, Leukotriene Modifier, And Bronchodilator, Alec Williams

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Medical research has created multitudes of medications to help control the symptoms of asthma. Asthmas effects the respiratory system in different ways, creating unique challenges to researchers and doctors alike to create or a manage the symptoms of asthma. Identifying the common treatment methods and understanding their effect on the human physiology can aid in treating patients. The goal of this review is to identify the common medications used to treat asthma, how these medications work on the human’s physiology, as well as bring to light a new upcoming medication with greater asthma control. As asthma research continues, the need …


Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Constipation (Ibs-C) Treatment Efficacy And The Emerging Importance Of Serotonin, Meghan Schenk Jan 2019

Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Constipation (Ibs-C) Treatment Efficacy And The Emerging Importance Of Serotonin, Meghan Schenk

Biology and Microbiology Graduate Students Plan B Research Projects

Irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) affects a large proportion of the population. It decreases quality of life for the patient both physically and mentally. Patients report higher levels of mental health issues and other gastrointestinal maladies compared to the normal population, in addition to an IBS diagnosis. Patients have increased healthcare visits and costs, raising insurance rates for all, and also results in more missed time from work. There are limited treatments available for IBS-C, and medicinal and non-medicinal modalities are differentially prescribed to patients throughout the country. Recently, serotonin has emerged as a key mediator of normal gut …


Increasing Accumulation Of Glyceollins In Soybeans Via Optimization Of The Fungal Incubation Process, Stephanie Wootton Jan 2019

Increasing Accumulation Of Glyceollins In Soybeans Via Optimization Of The Fungal Incubation Process, Stephanie Wootton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Continual use of antibiotics in the feed of food animals was viewed a solution to the problem of disease outbreaks in livestock produced in confinement operations. This practice also improved animal performance, likely due to the reduction in sub-clinical infections. Unfortunately, this practice led to a new problem, the development of antibiotic resistant microbes. This increase in antibiotic resistance reduced the direct benefits of antibiotics in animal production. Moreover, as antibiotic resistance spread from animal to human pathogens, this practice created a major public health concern. This led the FDA to enact the Veterinary Feed Directive in 2017 that greatly …


Identification And Characterization Of Stress Responsive Genes In Soybean And Sunflower, Surendra Neupane Jan 2019

Identification And Characterization Of Stress Responsive Genes In Soybean And Sunflower, Surendra Neupane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stress responsive genes encode proteins involved in plants’ response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Among such stress responsive proteins, proteins encoded by resistance genes (R genes) or nucleotide binding site-leucine-rich repeats (NBS-LRRs) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are the major groups of proteins regulating biotic and abiotic stresses, respectively. Previous studies in Nepal’s lab at SDSU identified and characterized coiled coil (CC)-NBS-LRRs (CNLs), resistance to powdery mildew8 (RPW8)-NBS-LRRs (RNLs), NBS-LRR (NLs), and MAPK proteins in soybean. This study focuses on R and MAPK genes in the recently sequenced genome of sunflower as well as the toll-interleukin-1 receptor-like nucleotide-binding site leucine-rich …


Development And Characterization Of Wheat-Thinopyrum Junceiforme Chromosome Addition Lines, Dilkaran Singh Jan 2019

Development And Characterization Of Wheat-Thinopyrum Junceiforme Chromosome Addition Lines, Dilkaran Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Production of wheat is challenged by dynamic biotic and abiotic stresses. Genetic improvement via alien gene transfer is an effective approach to tackle such challenges. Alien gene transfer played an important role in the history of wheat crop improvement. Sea wheatgrass (SWG; Thinopyrum junceiforme, 2n = 28, genomes J1J1J2J2) is a wild relative of wheat. In our previous work, we have developed a complete amphiploid between cultivated emmer and SWG and shown that SWG is resistant to wheat streak mosaic virus, Fusarium head blight and wheat stem sawflies (due to the solid stem) and tolerant to waterlogging, salinity, heat, and …


Assessing Freshwater Mussel (Bivalvia: Unionidae) Assemblages And Effects Of Eutrophication On Pyganodon Grandis In Lakes Of Eastern South Dakota, Katherine M. Wollman Jan 2019

Assessing Freshwater Mussel (Bivalvia: Unionidae) Assemblages And Effects Of Eutrophication On Pyganodon Grandis In Lakes Of Eastern South Dakota, Katherine M. Wollman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Globally, the family Unionidae is the most threatened group of freshwater fauna. South Dakota is well known for its agricultural production, leading to cultural eutrophication from enhanced fertilizers and sediments. This impact can alter species presence, age, growth and mortality. Objectives of this study were to 1) implement the first comprehensive lake survey of freshwater mussels in eastern South Dakota lakes and document distribution, occurrence and relative abundance, 2) evaluate relationships between age, growth and mortality of Pyganodon grandis and lake trophic state. Freshwater mussels were sampled in 2017 from 116 proportionally and randomly selected natural lakes and reservoir basins …


Influence Of Sporulation And Germination Behavior Of Bacillus Licheniformis On Microbial Quality Of Skim Milk Powder, Nancy Awasti Jan 2019

Influence Of Sporulation And Germination Behavior Of Bacillus Licheniformis On Microbial Quality Of Skim Milk Powder, Nancy Awasti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes modeling of sporulation and germination behavior of Bacillus licheniformis strains during raw milk holding, tracking the survival of sporeformers and spores of high sporulating Bacillus strain during skim milk powder manufacturing. In addition, preliminary studies were done to standardize a rapid spore detection technique by using ratiometric fluorescence. To understand the role of strain variability during raw milk holding conditions, population dynamics of two strains of Bacillus licheniformis, ATCC 6634 and 14580, were modeled as a function of temperature (4.0 -12.0˚ C) and duration (0 - 72 h), using regression analysis. Based on initial spiking of vegetative …


Effects Of Resistant Starch Type 4 On Gut Microbiota Derived Medium And Long Chain Fatty Acids And Bile Acids, Elizabeth Nagel Jan 2019

Effects Of Resistant Starch Type 4 On Gut Microbiota Derived Medium And Long Chain Fatty Acids And Bile Acids, Elizabeth Nagel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The human gastrointestinal tract is populated by a diverse and mutualistic microbial flora that has profound effect on human health. Identification and characterization of microbial-metabolites produced in response to human dietary intakes may provide insights into host-microbiota interactions to better understand the role of the microbiota in human health and diseases. However, much of this interaction is poorly understood as many metabolites remain unidentified or understudied at the present time. Starch is ubiquitously present in human diet and is a major energy source to all living cells. Resistant starch (RS) is the starch portion that is not absorbed in the …


Stoichiometric Homeostasis In Two Native And Two Invasive South Dakotan Grasses, Joshua Thonas Harvey Jan 2019

Stoichiometric Homeostasis In Two Native And Two Invasive South Dakotan Grasses, Joshua Thonas Harvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increased nutrient availability has been widely linked to the success of invasive plants, however a general mechanism explaining these observations is lacking. Stoichiometric homeostasis (H), which is the regulation of internal nutrient concentrations, has been used to explain changes in plant community diversity under alterations in nutrient availability. One hypothesis holds that plants with high regulation (larger H) decrease in abundance in nutrient enriched conditions but are stable in nutrient deficient and drought conditions, likely due to extensive root systems. Additionally, plants with low regulation (lower H) increase in abundance under nutrient enriched conditions but are sensitive to drought …


Validation Of Candidate Loci For Maize Regrowability And Selection Of Near Isogenic Lines For The Loci, Tajbir Raihan Jan 2019

Validation Of Candidate Loci For Maize Regrowability And Selection Of Near Isogenic Lines For The Loci, Tajbir Raihan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Developing perennial grain crops is an effective way for sustainable agriculture and it can be a tool for the betterment of the overall ecosystem. To understand how perenniality works in perennial species, we made a cross between Zea diploperennis and maize (Z. mays) inbred line B73. F1 hybrids produced from this cross were selfed to get the F2 population and later the F2 population underwent Genotyping-By- Sequencing (GBS) analysis. Based on the candidate loci identified on chromosome 2 and chromosome 7 from GBS, SNP-specific markers were developed from the candidate locus interval and used to genotype the F2 …


Novel Approaches To Evaluate And Enhance Neonatal Calf Gastrointestinal Health And Development, Fernanda Trindade Da Rosa Jan 2019

Novel Approaches To Evaluate And Enhance Neonatal Calf Gastrointestinal Health And Development, Fernanda Trindade Da Rosa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physiological adaptations of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) epithelial cells as well as methods to manipulate early life GIT microbiota colonization during the neonatal stage, is of great importance to the dairy industry. The first objective of this research was to optimize a method based on evaluation of bovine transcripts in fecal RNA via RTqPCR using L-selectin (SELL) as a marker for polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL), keratin 8 (KRT8) and fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2) for GIT enterocytes, and tight junctions in fecal RNA and GIT sections in dairy calves. To test the reliability of the fecal RNA method, fecal and …


Using Isoconversional Methods To Study The Effect Of Antioxidants On The Oxidation Kinetics Of Milk Fat, Khalid Ahmed Alsaleem Jan 2019

Using Isoconversional Methods To Study The Effect Of Antioxidants On The Oxidation Kinetics Of Milk Fat, Khalid Ahmed Alsaleem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Milk fat is a versatile ingredient because of its nutritional value, functionality, and flavor. During processing and storage, milk fat may undergo oxidation resulting in many undesirable changes such as unpleasant flavor and aroma, and formation of toxic compounds. A common practice to prevent the oxidation of milk fat is by the addition of antioxidants. It is worth to mention that little is known on the effect of antioxidants on the oxidation kinetics. In this work, the effect of selected antioxidants on the oxidation kinetics of anhydrous milk fat (AMF) under non-isothermal conditions was investigated. AMF with an addition of …