Digital Commons Network^™

Amyloid-Β-Induced Pathological Behaviors Are Suppressed By Ginkgo Biloba Extract Egb 761 And Ginkgolides In Transgenic Caenorhabditis Elegans, Yanjue Wu, Zhixin Wu, Peter Butko, Yves Christen, Mary P. Lambert, William L. Klein, Christopher D. Link, Yuan Luo

Faculty Publications

Amyloid-β (Aβ) toxicity has been postulated to initiate synaptic loss and subsequent neuronal degeneration seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We previously demonstrated that the standardized Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761, commonly used to enhance memory and by AD patients for dementia, inhibits Aβ-induced apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we use EGb 761 and its single constituents to associate Aβ species with Aβ-induced pathological behaviors in a model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. We report that EGb 761 and one of its components, ginkgolide A, alleviates Aβ-induced pathological behaviors, including paralysis, and reduces chemotaxis behavior and 5-HT hypersensitivity in a transgenic …

Development Of Computations In Bioscience And Bioinformatics And Its Application: Review Of The Symposium Of Computations In Bioinformatics And Bioscience (Scbb06), Youping Deng, Jun Ni, Chaoyang Zhang

Faculty Publications

The first symposium of computations in bioinformatics and bioscience (SCBB06) was held in Hangzhou, China on June 21-22, 2006. Twenty-six peer-reviewed papers were selected for publication in this special issue of BMC Bioinformatics. These papers cover a broad range of topics including bioinformatics theories, algorithms, applications and tool development. The main technical topics contain gene expression analysis, sequence analysis, genome analysis, phylogenetic analysis, gene function prediction, molecular interaction and system biology, genetics and population study, immune strategy, protein structure prediction and proteomics.

Svm Classifier: A Comprehensive Java Interface For Support Vector Machine Classification Of Microarray Data, Mehdi Pirooznia, Youping Deng

Faculty Publications

Motivation

Graphical user interface (GUI) software promotes novelty by allowing users to extend the functionality. SVM Classifier is a cross-platform graphical application that handles very large datasets well. The purpose of this study is to create a GUI application that allows SVM users to perform SVM training, classification and prediction.

Results

The GUI provides user-friendly access to state-of-the-art SVM methods embodied in the LIBSVM implementation of Support Vector Machine. We implemented the java interface using standard swing libraries.

We used a sample data from a breast cancer study for testing classification accuracy. We achieved 100% accuracy in classification among the …

A Review Of Polylekithum Arnold, 1934 And Its Familial Affinities Using Morphological And Molecular Data, With Description Of Polylekithum Catahoulensis Sp Nov., Stephen S. Curran, Vasyl V. Tkach, Robin M. Overstreet

Faculty Publications

The type material of Polylekithum ictaluri, P. halli, and Maculifer chandleri was examined from the United States National Parasite Museum, and we determined that the material was conspecific, making P. halli and M. chandleri junior subjective synonyms of P. ictaluri. Polylekithum catahoulensis sp. nov. was described from material collected from catfishes at the Catahoula Wildlife Refuge, LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, USA, and compared with P. ictaluri collected from catfishes in Reelfoot Lake, Obion County, Tennessee, USA, and the Pearl River, Hancock County, Mississippi, USA. Polylekithum catahoulensis had smaller eggs (77–88 μm long by 51–63 μm wide vs. 94–108 μm by …

Red Tides In The Gulf Of Mexico: Where, When, And Why?, J. J. Walsh, J. K. Jolliff, B. P. Darrow, J. M. Lenes, S.P. Milroy, A. Remsen, D.A. Dieterle, K.L. Carder, F.R. Chen, F.R. Chen, G.A. Vargo, R.H. Weisberg, K.A. Fanning, F.E. Muller-Karger, E. Shinn, K.A. Steidinger, C.A. Heil, C.R. Tomas, J.S. Prospero, T.N. Lee, G.J. Kirkpatrick, T.E. Whitledge, D.A. Stockwell, T.A. Villareal, A.E. Jochens, P.S. Bontempi

Faculty Publications

Independent data from the Gulf of Mexico are used to develop and test the hypothesis that the same sequence of physical and ecological events each year allows the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis to become dominant. A phosphorus-rich nutrient supply initiates phytoplankton succession, once deposition events of Saharan iron-rich dust allow Trichodesmium blooms to utilize ubiquitous dissolved nitrogen gas within otherwise nitrogen-poor sea water. They and the co-occurring K. brevis are positioned within the bottom Ekman layers, as a consequence of their similar diel vertical migration patterns on the middle shelf. Upon onshore upwelling of these near-bottom seed populations to CDOM-rich …

Analysis And Functional Annotation Of Expressed Sequence Tags From The Fall Armyworm Spodoptera Frugiperda, Youping Deng, Yinghua Dong, Venkata Thodima, Rollie J. Clem, A. Lorena Passareli

Faculty Publications

Background

Little is known about the genome sequences of lepidopteran insects, although this group of insects has been studied extensively in the fields of endocrinology, development, immunity, and pathogen-host interactions. In addition, cell lines derived from Spodoptera frugiperda and other lepidopteran insects are routinely used for baculovirus foreign gene expression. This study reports the results of an expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing project in cells from the lepidopteran insect S. frugiperda, the fall armyworm.

Results

We have constructed an EST database using two cDNA libraries from the S. frugiperda-derived cell line, SF-21. The database consists of 2,367 ESTs …

Effects Of Long-Term Hypoxia On Enzymes Of Carbohydrate Metabolism In The Gulf Killifish, Fundulus Grandis, Mery L. Mártinez, Christie Landry, Ryan Boehm, Steve Manning, Bernard B. Rees

Faculty Publications

The goal of the current study was to generate a comprehensive, multi-tissue perspective of the effects of chronic hypoxic exposure on carbohydrate metabolism in the Gulf killifish Fundulus grandis. Fish were held at approximately 1.3 mg l(-1) dissolved oxygen (similar to 3.6 kPa) for 4 weeks, after which maximal activities were measured for all glycolytic enzymes in four tissues (white skeletal muscle, liver, heart and brain), as well as for enzymes of glycogen metabolism (in muscle and liver) and gluconeogenesis (in liver). The specific activities of enzymes of glycolysis and glycogen metabolism were strongly suppressed by hypoxia in white skeletal …

A Fourier Transformation Based Method To Mine Peptide Space For Antimicrobial Activity, Vijayaraj Nagarajan, Navodit Kaushik, Beddhu Murali, Chaoyang Zhang, Sanyogita Lakhera, Mohamed O. Elasri, Youping Deng

Faculty Publications

Background

Naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides are currently being explored as potential candidate peptide drugs. Since antimicrobial peptides are part of the innate immune system of every living organism, it is possible to discover new candidate peptides using the available genomic and proteomic data. High throughput computational techniques could also be used to virtually scan the entire peptide space for discovering out new candidate antimicrobial peptides.

Result

We have identified a unique indexing method based on biologically distinct characteristic features of known antimicrobial peptides. Analysis of the entries in the antimicrobial peptide databases, based on our indexing method, using Fourier transformation …

Two Glucose-Sensing Pathways Converge On Rgt1 To Regulate Expression Of Glucose Transporter Genes In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Jeong-Ho Kim, Mark Johnston

Faculty Publications

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae deploys two different types of glucose sensors on its cell surface that operate in distinct glucose signaling pathways: the glucose transporter-like Snf3 and Rgt2 proteins and the Gpr1 receptor that is coupled to Gpa2, a G-protein α subunit. The ultimate target of the Snf3/Rgt2 pathway is Rgt1, a transcription factor that regulates expression of HXT genes encoding glucose transporters. We have found that the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA), which is activated by the Gpr1/Gpa2 glucose-sensing pathway and by a glucose-sensing pathway that works through Ras1 and Ras2, catalyzes phosphorylation of Rgt1 and regulates its function. …

Introduction: Self-Organization In Nonequilibrium Chemical Systems, Irving R. Epstein, John A. Pojman, Oliver Steinbock

Faculty Publications

The field of self-organization in nonequilibrium chemical systems comprises the study of dynamical phenomena in chemically reacting systems far from equilibrium. Systematic exploration of this area began with investigations of the temporal behavior of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillating reaction, discovered accidentally in the former Soviet Union in the 1950s. The field soon advanced into chemical waves in excitable media and propagating fronts. With the systematic design of oscillating reactions in the 1980s and the discovery of Turing patterns in the 1990s, the scope of these studies expanded dramatically. The articles in this Focus Issue provide an overview of the development and …

Intestinal Enzymes During Malnutrition & Infection In Rabbits, Sufia Islam, Amal K. Mitra, Ashish K. Chowdhury, Nur Haque Alam

Faculty Publications

Background & objectives: Malnutrition plays an important role in the intestinal absorption of nutrients. However, reports are not consistent whether intestinal enzymes are decreased in the presence of malnutrition. It is also not clear whether simultaneous presence of malnutrition and infection adds to the problem of malabsorption of nutrients. The aim of the present study was to determine intestinal functions in terms of concentrations of disaccharidase enzymes during diarrhoea and protein energy malnutrition. Methods: Concentrations of three disaccharidase enzymes, namely maltase, sucrase and lactase were measured in nine energy-restricted and five control rabbits during diarrhoea induced by rabbit diarrhoeagenic Escherichia …

Pair Production From Nuclear Collisions And Cosmic Ray Transport, John W. Norbury

Faculty Publications

Modern cosmic ray transport codes, that are capable of use for a variety of applications, need to include all significant atomic, nuclear and particle reactions at a variety of energies. Lepton pair production from nucleus-nucleus collisions has not been included in transport codes to date. Using the methods of Baur, Bertulani and Baron, the present report provides estimates of electron positron pair production cross sections for nuclei and energies relevant to cosmic ray transport. It is shown that the cross sections are large compared to other typical processes such as single neutron removal due to strong or electromagnetic interactions. Therefore, …

Examining The Cdcynergy Event Assessment Tool: An Investigation Of The Anthrax Crisis In Boca Raton, Florida, J. J. Mcintyre, Steven J. Venette

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the dependability of the Event Assessment Tool over time. The latter is part of a CD-ROM-Emergency Risk Communication CDCynergy-distributed primarily to public information officers in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Event Assessment Tool is designed to aid emergency professionals in identifying the magnitude of a crisis event and to suggest appropriate actions to confront such a situation. Applied twice during the 2001 anthrax bioterrorism crisis in Boca Raton, Florida, the tool functioned in a binary manner by first indicating a moderate crisis level (on 4 October) and then four days …

Induction Of Characters And Finite P-Groups, Edith Adan-Bante

Faculty Publications

Let G be a finite p-group, where p is an odd prime number, H be a subgroup of G and θ ∈ Irr(H) be an irreducible character of H. Assume also that | G : H | = p². Then the character θ^G of G induce by θ is either a multiple of an irreducible character of G, or has at least ^p+1/₂ distinct irreducible constituents.

Dissolved Gallium In The Northwest Pacific And The South And Central Atlantic Oceans: Implications For Aeolian Fe Input And A Reconsideration Of Profiles, Alan M. Shiller, Gautam Raj Bairamadgi

Faculty Publications

[1] The distribution of dissolved gallium, a less-reactive analogue of aluminum, has the potential to reveal information about the averaged dust input to the surface ocean and to complement studies using aluminum as a tracer. New data are presented here on the distribution of dissolved Ga, including six profiles in the south and central Atlantic as well as seven shallow and two deep profiles from the northwest Pacific. The Atlantic data allow for an estimate of Ga in Antarctic Bottom Water ( similar to 25 - 30 pmol kg(-1)) and show reasonably conservative behavior in deep waters. In the northwest …

Interaction Of Ice Storms And Management Practices On Current Carbon Sequestration In Forests With Potential Mitigation Under Future Co2 Atmosphere, Heather R. Mccarthy, Ram Oren, Hyun-Seok Kim, Kurt H. Johnsen, Chris Maier, Seth G. Pritchard, Micheal Davis

Faculty Publications

[1] Ice storms are disturbance events with potential impacts on carbon sequestration. Common forest management practices, such as fertilization and thinning, can change wood and stand properties and thus may change vulnerability to ice storm damage. At the same time, increasing atmospheric CO₂ levels may also influence ice storm vulnerability. Here we show that a nonintensively managed pine plantation experienced a ∼250 g C m⁻² reduction in living biomass during a single storm, equivalent to ∼30% of the annual net ecosystem carbon exchange of this ecosystem. Drawing on weather and damage survey data from the entire storm cell, …

Measuring The Effects Of Salinity Stress In The Red Mangrove, Rhizophora Mangle L., Patrick D. Biber

Faculty Publications

The mangrove habitat exhibits many unique physical features, one of the most important of which is a salinity gradient. Photosynthetic rates, as measured by leaf stomatal conductance and leaf chlorophyll fluorescence induction, were tested as indicators of salinity stress in seedlings of the red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle, grown under five different salinity levels: 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 parts per thousand. Photosynthetic gas exchange (measured by stomatal conductance), as well as the light reaction of photosynthesis (measured by chlorophyll fluorescence) were found to decrease as salinity increased. The use of leaf stomatal conductance and chlorophyll fluorescence as a …

The Buddhist Experience In America, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Energy Storage In Cold Non-Elastic Deformation Of Glassy Polymers, E.F. Oleinik, S.N. Rudnev, O.B. Salamatina, S.V. Shenogin, M.I. Kotelyanskii, T.V. Paramzina, S.I. Nazarenko

Faculty Publications

Experimental results on work W(epsilon), heat Q(epsilon) and stored energy U(epsilon) of deformation for glassy polymers such as linear PS, PC, PMMA, Polyimid, amorphous PET, thermotropic aromatic polyesters, Vectra T for example, crosslinked epoxy are presented. All the data was obtained by a deformation calorimetry technique. Loading and unloading of samples were performed at room temperature with strain rate epsilon = 10(-2) - 10(-4) sec(-1) under uniaxial compression up to engineering strains of epsilon(def) = 40-50%. During straining all polymers accumulate an excess of the latent energy U( e). Elastic fraction of the energy is released completely at sample unloading …

The Evolution Of Thought, Jennifer Vonk

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Heartbeat Of The People': Music And Dance Of The Northern Pow-Wow, Chris J. Goertzen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Choctaw Women In A Chaotic World: The Clash Of Cultures In The Colonial Southeast, Greg O'Brien

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Timelike Surfaces Of Constant Mean Curvature ±1 In Anti-De Sitter 3-Space H31), Sungwook Lee

Faculty Publications

It is shown that timelike surfaces of constant mean curvature ± in anti-de Sitter 3-space H³ ₁(−1) can be constructed from a pair of Lorentz holomorphic and Lorentz antiholomorphic null curves in PSL₂R via Bryant type representation formulae. These Bryant type representation formulae are used to investigate an explicit one-to-one correspondence, the so-called Lawson–Guichard correspondence, between timelike surfaces of constant mean curvature ± 1 and timelike minimal surfaces in Minkowski 3-space E ³ ₁. The hyperbolic Gauß map of timelike surfaces in H³ ₁(−1), which is a close analogue of the classical …

Writing American Indian Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations, And Arrangements, Chris J. Goertzen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Growth, Feeding And Reproduction Of The Catfish Eremophilus Mutisii (Pisces : Trichomycteridae), From Artificial Reservoirs In Colombia, Gabriel Pinilla, Maritza Abril, Esperanza González

Faculty Publications

The catfish, Eremophilus mutisii, was cultured under different densities in artificial rainfall reservoirs at Caldas, Boyaca, Colombia. At capture, the average total length of the animals was 10 cm and the weight ranged between 9 and 10 g. These fish were in initial stages of sexual development. After a year in the reservoirs, they had increased in length and weight as follows (densities in parentheses): 5.22 cm and 27.23 g (0.5 individuals/m(2))); 1.98 cm and 8.79 g (1 individual/m(2)), and 2.45 cm and 0.82 g (2 individuals/m(2)). They were at the early stages of sexual maturity, and their condition …

Source And Transport Of Terrigenous Organic Matter In The Upper Yukon River: Evidence From Isotope (𝛿c-13, Δc-14, And 𝛿n-15) Composition Of Dissolved, Colloidal, And Particulate Phases, Laodong Guo, Robie W. Macdonald

Faculty Publications

Natural organic matter was collected from the upper Yukon River and size fractionated into the (LMW-DOC), colloidal (COC, 1 kDa to 0.45 mu m) and particulate organic carbon (POC, > 0.45 mu m) phases for characterization of elemental (C and N) and isotopic (C-13, C-14 and N-15) composition to examine their sources and transport. Concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC) decreased from 3010 mu M in mid-May to 608 mu M in September, accompanying an increase in river water delta O-18 from the snowmelt to summer and early fall. COC was the predominant OC species, comprising, on average, 63 +/- 8% …

Summer Transport Estimates Of The Kamchatka Current Derived As A Variational Inverse Of Hydrophysical And Surface Drifter Data, G.G. Panteleev, P. Stabeno, V.A. Luchin, Dmitri A. Nechaev, M. Ikeda

Faculty Publications

The quasistationary summer Bering Sea circulation is reconstructed as a variational inverse of the hydrographic and atmospheric climatologies, transport estimates through the Bering Strait, and surface drifter data. Our results indicate the splitting of the Kamchatka Current in the vicinity of the Shirshov Ridge. This branching is in agreement with independent ARGO drifter observations. It was also found, that transport of the Kamchatka Current gradually increases downstream from 14 Sv in the Olyutorsky Gulf to 24 Sv in the Kamchatka Strait, which is twice higher than previous estimates.

Phylogeny And Androecial Evolution In Schisandraceae, Inferred From Sequences Of Nuclear Ribosomal Dna Its And Chloroplast Dna TrnL-F Regions, Zhong Liu, Gang Hao, Yi-Bo Luo, Leonard B. Thien, Samuel W. Rosso, An-Ming Lu, Zhi-Duan Chen

Faculty Publications

Sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS and chloroplast trnL‐F regions were used to construct a phylogeny of Schisandraceae. The results show that there are two major clades in Schisandraceae. One is composed entirely of Schisandra species; the other contains a mixture of Schisandra and Kadsura species. Molecular data place Smith’s sect. Sphaerostema of Schisandra prominently within Kadsura, and thus neither Schisandra nor Kadsura is monophyletic, refuting the traditional division of the family into two genera based on morphological characters of mature fruits. The sister relationship between S. glabra (North America) and S. bicolor (China) and the monophyly of …

Vittatispora, A New Melanosporaceous Genus From Indian Soil, Preeti Chaudhary, Jinx Campbell, David L. Hawksworth, Kedarnath N. Sastry

Faculty Publications

Vittatispora coorgii gen. sp. nov., isolated from soil in India, is described and illustrated. The fungus has morphological characteristics of the genera Melanospora, Sphaerodes and Syspastospora. The most striking feature is the presence of a thick hyaline ridge along the vertical axis of the lemonshaped ascospores wall. Perithecia also have a long neck composed of adhering hyphae, similar to that of Syspatospora. Phylogenetic studies on the 28S rDNA indicate it is closely related to Melanospora and Sphaerodes and belongs in the Ceratostomataceae. The new genus is based on the distinctive morphology and phylogenetic analyses. The fungus grew in culture only …

Homogeneous Products Of Conjugacy Classes, Edith Adan-Bante

Faculty Publications

Let G be a finite group and a ∈G. Let a ^G ={g ⁻¹ a g | g ∈ G} be the conjugacy class of a in G. Assume that a ^G and b ^G are conjugacy classes of G with the property that C _G (a)=C _G (b). Then a ^G b ^G is a conjugacy class if and only if [a,G]=[b,G]=[ab,G] and [ab,G] is a normal subgroup of G.