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Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress And Ethanol Neurotoxicity, Fanmuyi Yang, Jia Luo

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Ethanol abuse affects virtually all organ systems and the central nervous system (CNS) is particularly vulnerable to excessive ethanol exposure. Ethanol exposure causes profound damages to both the adult and developing brain. Prenatal ethanol exposure induces fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) which is associated with mental retardation and other behavioral deficits. A number of potential mechanisms have been proposed for ethanol-induced brain damage; these include the promotion of neuroinflammation, interference with signaling by neurotrophic factors, induction of oxidative stress, modulation of retinoid acid signaling, and thiamine deficiency. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) regulates posttranslational protein processing and transport. The accumulation of …

“Whatdunit?” Developmental Changes In Children's Syntactically Based Sentence Interpretation Abilities And Sensitivity To Word Order, James W. Montgomery, Julia L. Evans, Ronald B. Gillam, Alexander V. Sergeev, Mianisha C. Finney

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Faculty Publications

Aim 1 of this study was to examine the developmental changes in typically developing English-speaking children’s syntactically-based sentence interpretation abilities and sensitivity to word order. Aim 2 was to determine the psychometric standing of the novel sentence interpretation task developed for this study, as we wish to use it later with children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Children listened to semantically implausible sentences in which noun animacy and the natural affordance between the nouns were removed, thus controlling for event probability. Using this novel “whatdunit?” agent selection task, 256 children 7-11 years listened to two structures with canonical word order …

Reproductive Rights In Latin America: A Case Study Of Guatemala And Nicaragua, Katherine W. Bogen

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

A lack of access to contraceptives and legal abortion for women throughout the nations of Nicaragua and Guatemala creates critical health care problems. Moreover, rural and underprivileged women in Guatemala and Nicaragua are facing greater limitations to birth control access, demonstrating a classist aspect in the global struggle for female reproductive rights. Although some efforts have been made over the past half-century to initiate a dialogue on the failure of medical care in these nations to adequately address issues of maternal mortality and reproductive rights, the women's reproductive health movements of Nicaragua and Guatemala have struggled to reach an effective …

The Role Of Rosemary Against Acrylamide Developmental Toxicity On The White Matter Of The Rat Spinal Cord, Abdel-Moneim A. Elbarbary, Abeer E. El-Mehi, Ahmad S. Zolfakar, Hanaa Z. Nooh, Marwa A. Elgholam

Menoufia Medical Journal

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the genotoxicity and developmental toxicity of acrylamide (ACR) on the spinal cord white matter of male albino rats and the possible protective role of rosemary. Background With increasing number of sources of ACR exposure to the general public, the need for understanding the toxicological risk associated with such exposure is in high demand. Materials and methods Eighty male albino rats were used in this study. 20 rats for each group their mothers were given either distilled water, rosemary aqueous extract (RAE) (2.2 ml/kg/twice/week - i.e 0.44 ml/rat) orally, ACR (10 mg/kg/day …

In Vivo Significance Of The Mdm4 And P73 Interaction During Development And Tumorigenesis, Mehrnoosh Tashakori

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is negatively regulated by Mdm4 protein. The significance of such regulation was determined from mouse models. Mdm4-deficient mice are embryonic lethal at E7.5 in a p53-dependent manner. p73, a member of the p53-family, is a transcription factor with tumor suppressor activity. In vitro studies show that Mdm4 binds to p73 and, further, comprehensive biochemical studies revealed that Mdm4 has higher affinity for p73 than p53. However, little is known about the significance of the Mdm4 and p73 interaction in vivo. This study aimed to elucidate the biological consequences of this interaction during embryogenesis …

Effects Of Early-Adolescent, Mid-Adolescent, Or Adult Stress On Morphine Conditioned Place Preference, Chloe Shields

Senior Theses

In light of previous work demonstrating that stress can increase subjective drug reward in adult rats, the present study investigated the influence of stress on morphine conditioned place preference (CPP) in early-adolescent, mid-adolescent, and adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Subjects in each age group were assigned to either a no stress condition or a stress condition in which they were exposed to an unpredictable eight-day schedule of elevated platform and synthetic fox odor stressors. Place conditioning then evaluated subjective morphine reward in all animals. Using a biased procedure, subjects were assigned to receive morphine on the initially non-preferred side of the …

Retinoic Acid And The Development Of The Endoderm, Gregory M. Kelly, Thomas A. Drysdale

Paediatrics Publications

Retinoic acid (RA) is an important signaling molecule in the development of the endoderm and an important molecule in protocols used to generate endodermal cell types from stem cells. In this review, we describe the RA signaling pathway and its role in the patterning and specification of the extra embryonic endoderm and different endodermal organs. The formation of endoderm is an ancient evolutionary feature and RA signaling appears to have coevolved with the vertebrate lineage. Towards that end, we describe how RA participates in many regulatory networks required for the formation of extraembryonic structures as well as the organs of …

Twinning In Nepal: The Royal College Of Midwives Uk And The Midwifery Society Of Nepal Working In Partnership, Jillian Ireland, Edwin Van Teijlingen, Joy Kemp

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

The midwifery association of the United Kingdom, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), has twinned with the Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON) to help strengthen the latter association, through its Global Midwifery Twinning Project (GMTP). The GMTP aims to strengthen midwifery and develop leadership, advocacy, and campaigning skills both at the level of the association and at the individual midwife level. Reciprocity is an important aspect of twinning as the RCM also hopes to strengthen midwifery in the UK through greater engagement of its members and a raised profile of global maternal and new-born health. This paper describes the importance …

The Neurophysiology Of Intersensory Selective Attention And Task Switching, Jeremy W. Murphy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our ability to selectively attend to certain aspects of the world and ignore others is fundamental to our day-to-day lives. The need for selective attention stems from capacity limitations inherent in our perceptual and cognitive processing architecture. Because not every elemental piece of our environment can be fully processed in parallel, the nervous system must prioritize processing. This prioritization is generally referred to as selective attention. Meanwhile, we are faced with a world that is constantly in flux, such that we have to frequently shift our attention from one piece of the environment to another and from one task to …

Developmental Changes In Genetic And Shared Environmental Contributions To Smoking Initiation And Subsequent Smoking Quantity In Adolescence And Young Adulthood, Cristina B. Bares, Kenneth S. Kendler, Hermine H. Maes

Psychiatry Publications

Background

Few studies examining the genetic architecture of cigarette smoking have focused on adolescents or examined developmental changes in additive genetic, shared environment and unique environmental influences on liability to initiate cigarette smoking and quantity of cigarettes smoked. The aim of this study is to add to the literature on liability to initiate and use cigarettes during adolescence using a nationally representative sample.

Method

Data for this study came from adolescent and young adult twin pairs (ages 14-33) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We ran a series of developmental causal-contingent-common pathway models to examine whether …

Neural Correlates Of Episodic Memory Formation In Children And Adults, Lingfei Tang

Wayne State University Theses

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are two key brain regions that support episodic memory formation in both children and adults, but the functional developmental of these regions remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the development of neural correlates of episodic memory formation using functional MRI with a subsequent memory paradigm, administered to a cross-sectional sample of 83 children and adults. We found that MTL subregions showed an age-related increase in activation supporting memory formation of complex scenes. In addition, a functionally defined scene-sensitive region in the posterior MTL also showed similar increase and predicted better …

The Impact Of Baby Sign Training On Stress Levels Of Daycare Providers, Grisel Julieta Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Proponents of baby sign claim improvements in child-caregiver interactions and reductions in parental stress as benefits of implementing baby sign. Due to research contradicting the claims, and to the rise in daycare attendance, the current study investigated the effects of a baby sign workshop on the stress perception of daycare providers. A pre-test post-test between groups design with 20 participants was conducted using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10) and a workshop-specific descriptive survey as measures. The difference between the post-test stress levels of experimental and control groups approached significance, as did the differences between pre-test and post-test results for the …

Effects Of Epimedium Polysaccharide On Female Mouse (Mus Musculus)Ovarian And Uterine Development, Seth Yaw Afedo, Yaping Xu, Caroline Wanjiku Muneri, Guochao Ni, Weichao Xu, Rong Rui

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Epimedium polysaccharide (EPS) on ovarian and uterine development in female mice and assess the in vitro maturation (IVM) rate. Healthy Kunming female mice were divided into 4 groups and administered 2, 4, 6, and 8 mg/0.1 mL of EPS, respectively; the control group was given 0.1 mL of 0.9% physiological saline solution. After 7 and 14 days, the mice were sacrificed and their reproductive tracts (uterus, oviduct, and ovaries) were removed. The reproductive tract was weighed; some ovaries were punctured to harvest oocytes for IVM culture and the others were used …

Strategies Healthcare Leaders Use For Leadership Development, Julie Hunt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Education and training of potential leaders are essential, and chief executive officers (CEOs) need to identify effective leadership development (LD) programs that foster successful leaders within the healthcare industry. The purpose of this multiple, exploratory case study was to explore LD strategies used by CEOs in hospitals in Central Florida, United States. The overarching research question investigated what executable LD strategies healthcare leaders needed to ensure sustainable growth and successful leaders. The human capital theory and the concepts of emotional intelligence and spiritual leadership guided this study. A purposive sample of 8 CEOs participated in semistructured face-to-face interviews to elicit …

Hypothyroidism And The Development Of Hypertension, Kaleb Short

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Low thyroid hormone (TH) in adulthood is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including risk of hypertension. The Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR), exhibits alterations in thyroid function when compared to normotensive controls. Interestingly, inhibiting thyroid gland function before 4 weeks of age prevented hypertension in the SHR, indicating that TH is involved in the etiology of SHR hypertension. However, these studies utilized tail-cuff photoplethysmography (PPG), which is known to have stress-induced artifacts, and did not compare effects in the normotensive parent strain Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rat. Therefore, it is uncertain whether TH is responsible for an elevation in baseline …

Kangaroo Care And Preterm Infants, Natalie Schindler, Kathryn Lynn

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Infants that are born near-term or before they reach their full gestational age of 40 weeks are at risk for facing future health problems and disparities in terms of proper development (Ladewig, London, & Davidson, 2012). This has been a major concern in the medical realm because of the high cost of managing preterm newborns and the complications that can develop. However, kangaroo care may aid in physical growth and cognitive development of these infants. The purpose of this integrative review was to determine if current research shows that kangaroo care has a positive effect on preterm infants in the …

Connections Between The Effects Of Various Chemicals On The Development Of Drosophila Melanogaster And Homo Sapiens, Amy J. Brenner

Honors Program Projects

This study, funded by the Elbert Pence and Fanny Boyce grant, attempts to draw conclusions between the effects of selected chemicals on Drosophila melanogaster and their potential effects on humans. It explores the effects of theobromine, caffeine, ethylene glycol, and ammonia on adult D. melanogaster and its developmental stages. Effects of these four chemicals on D. melanogaster are expected to provide insight into possible effects on humans.

The study was run in triplicate with vials containing different concentrations of each chemical being tested, with a control group vial containing no added chemicals. Observation of each vial was documented daily, noting …

Cross-Continental Care: Us And Cuban Medical Internationalism In Bolivia, Madeleine Blain

Latin American Studies Honors Projects

How can something as commonplace as going to the doctor influence international politics? In Bolivia, medicine is bound in politics. The political structure of a country both influences the approach to health care, and determines how that approach is most effectively implemented internationally. Building upon a framework of conceptual difference between capitalist and socialist health systems, this paper examines “effective” models of US and Cuban international health care on both a political and individual level. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in a Bolivian hospital, interviews with doctors working internationally, and current literature, I seek to discern what defines “effective” international health …

Consequences Of Trps1 Deficiency On Dentinogenesis, Morgan Goss

All ETDs from UAB

Dentinogenesis is a complex process of dentin formation. It involves differentiation of odontoblasts, the cells that make dentin, and the formation of a unique extracellular matrix, known as dentin. Dentin is ultimately produced through the interaction of collagen fibers, non-collagenous proteins and hydroxyapatite (HA) crystals. Odontoblasts are cranial neural crest (CNC) ectomesenchymal derived cells. Trps1 is a novel transcription factor believed to play an important role in both tooth formation and the mineralization process. TRPS1 gene mutations are known to result in dental and skeletal abnormalities manifested in humans as tricho-rhino-phalangeal syndrome (TRPS) and Ambras syndrome. Trps1 expression varies throughout …