Digital Commons Network^™

Cocaine Enhances Hiv-1 Infectivity In Monocyte Derived Dendritic Cells By Suppressing Microrna-155, Jessica Napuri, Sudheesh Pilakka-Kanthikeel, Andrea Raymond, Marisela Agudelo, Adriana Yndart-Arias, Madhavan Nair, Shailendra K. Saxena

HWCOM Faculty Publications

Cocaine and other drugs of abuse increase HIV-induced immunopathogenesis; and neurobiological mechanisms of cocaine addiction implicate a key role for microRNAs (miRNAs), single-stranded non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression and defend against viruses. In fact, HIV defends against miRNAs by actively suppressing the expression of polycistronic miRNA cluster miRNA-17/92, which encodes miRNAs including miR-20a. IFN-g production by natural killer cells is regulated by miR-155 and this miRNA is also critical to dendritic cell (DC) maturation. However, the impact of cocaine on miR-155 expression and subsequent HIV replication is unknown. We examined the impact of cocaine on two miRNAs, miR-20a and …

Trypanosomatid Aquaporins: Roles In Physiology And Drug Response, Goutam Mandal, Jose F. Orta, Mansi Sharma, Rita Mukhopadhyay

HWCOM Faculty Publications

In the class Kinetoplastida, we find an order of parasitic protozoans classified as Trypanosomatids. Three major pathogens form part of this order, Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei, and Leishmania, which are responsible for disease and fatalities in millions of humans worldwide, especially in non-industrialized countries in tropical and sub-tropical regions. In order to develop new drugs and treatments, the physiology of these pathogenic protozoans has been studied in detail, specifically the significance of membrane transporters in host parasites interactions. Aquaporins and Aquaglyceroporins (AQPs) are a part of the major intrinsic proteins (MIPs) super-family. AQPs are characterized for their ability to facilitate …

Do Storybooks Really Break Children's Gender Stereotypes?, Carla Abad, Shannon M. Pruden

Department of Psychology

A book review on An open book: What and how young children learn from picture and storybooks. Special Issue of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

Edited by J.S. Horst and C. Houston-Price

Stuck In The Moment: Cognitive Inflexibility In Preschoolers Following An Extended Time Period, Carolina Garcia, Anthony Steven Dick

Department of Psychology

Preschoolers display surprising inflexibility in problem solving, but seem to approach new challenges with a fresh slate. We provide evidence that while the former is true the latter is not. Here, we examined whether brief exposure to stimuli can influence children’s problem solving following several weeks after first exposure to the stimuli. We administered a common executive function task, the Dimensional Change Card Sort, which requires children to sort picture cards by one dimension (e.g., color) and then switch to sort the same cards by a conflicting dimension (e.g., shape). After a week or after a month delay, we administered …

Better Primer Design For Metagenomics Applications By Increasing Taxonomic Distinguishability, Melita Jaric, Jonathan Segal, Eugenia Silva-Herzog, Lisa Schneper, Kalai Mathee, Giri Narasimhan

HWCOM Faculty Publications

Current methods of understanding microbiome composition and structure rely on accurately estimating the number of distinct species and their relative abundance. Most of these methods require an efficient PCR whose forward and reverse primers bind well to the same, large number of identifiable species, and produce amplicons that are unique. It is therefore not surprising that currently used universal primers designed many years ago are not as efficient and fail to bind to recently cataloged species. We propose an automated general method of designing PCR primer pairs that abide by primer design rules and uses current sequence database as input. …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Intimate Partner Violence Among Hispanic College Students, Racquel Vera

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is recognized as a serious, growing problem on college campuses. IPV rates among college students exceed estimates reported for the general population. Few studies have examined the impact of IPV among the Hispanic college student (HCS) population or explored how HCSs perceive and experience IPV.

Focusing on young adults (ages 18 to 25 years), this mixed methods study was designed to explore the perceptions and experiences of IPV focusing on levels of victimization and perpetration in relation to gender role attitudes and beliefs, exposure to parental IPV, acculturation, and religiosity. A sample of 120 HCSs was …

Automated Annotation Of Functional Imaging Experiments Via Multi-Label Classification, Matthew D. Turner, Chayan Chakrabarti, Thomas B. Jones, Jiawei F. Xu, Peter T. Fox, George F. Luger, Angela Laird, Jessica A. Turner

Department of Physics

Identifying the experimental methods in human neuroimaging papers is important for grouping meaningfully similar experiments for meta-analyses. Currently, this can only be done by human readers. We present the performance of common machine learning (text mining) methods applied to the problem of automatically classifying or labeling this literature. Labeling terms are from the Cognitive Paradigm Ontology (CogPO), the text corpora are abstracts of published functional neuroimaging papers, and the methods use the performance of a human expert as training data. We aim to replicate the expert's annotation of multiple labels per abstract identifying the experimental stimuli, cognitive paradigms, response types, …

2013 Fall Florida International University Commencement, Florida International University

FIU Commencement Programs

Program for the 2013 Fall Florida International University Commencement.

Base Excision Repair Of Oxidative Dna Damage Coupled With Removal Of A Cag Repeat Hairpin Attenuates Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion, Meng Xu, Yanhao Lai, Justin Torner, Yanbin Zhang, Zunzhen Zhang, Yuan Liu

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansion is responsible for numerous human neurodegenerative diseases. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recent studies have shown that DNA base excision repair (BER) can mediate TNR expansion and deletion by removing base lesions in different locations of a TNR tract, indicating that BER can promote or prevent TNR expansion in a damage location–dependent manner. In this study, we provide the first evidence that the repair of a DNA base lesion located in the loop region of a CAG repeat hairpin can remove the hairpin, attenuating repeat expansion. We found that an 8-oxoguanine located in the loop …

Classically Cuban Concert "Recordando A Lecuona/Remembering Lecuona", Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

Cuban Research Institute Events

This flyer promotes the event "Classically Cuban Concert "Recordando a Lecuona/Remembering Lecuona" ", cosponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FlU, Islas canarias Café and Pro Translating.

Classically Cuban Concert Save The Date: December 8, 2013@ 5:00pm, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

Cuban Research Institute Events

This flyer promotes an annual concert held since 1994, featuring musical pieces with Cuban themes by composers from Cuba and elsewhere.

Application Of Receiver Operating Characteristic (Roc) Curves For Explosives Detection Using Different Sampling And Detection Techniques, Mimy Young, Wen Fan, Anna Raeva, Jose Almirall

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Reported for the first time are receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves constructed to describe the performance of a sorbent-coated disk, planar solid phase microextraction (PSPME) unit for non-contact sampling of a variety of volatiles. The PSPME is coupled to ion mobility spectrometers (IMSs) for the detection of volatile chemical markers associated with the presence of smokeless powders, model systems of explosives containing diphenylamine (DPA), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) and nitroglycerin (NG) as the target analytes. The performance of the PSPME-IMS was compared with the widely accepted solid-phase microextraction (SPME), coupled to a GC-MS. A set of optimized sampling conditions for different volume …

Determination Of The Top-Quark Pole Mass And Strong Coupling Constant From The T T-Bar Production Cross Section In Pp Collisions At Sqrt(S) = 7 Tev, Cms Collaboration, Vanessa Gaultney, Samantha Hewamanage, Stephan Linn, Pete E. Markowitz, German Martinez, Jorge Luis Rodriguez

Department of Physics

The inclusive cross section for top-quark pair production measured by the CMS experiment in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is compared to the QCD prediction at next-to-next-to-leading order with various parton distribution functions to determine the top-quark pole mass, m[pole over t], or the strong coupling constant, α[subscript S]. With the parton distribution function set NNPDF2.3, a pole mass of 176.7[+3.8 over −3.4] GeV is obtained when constraining α[subscript S] at the scale of the Z boson mass, m[subscript Z], to the current world average. Alternatively, by constraining m[pole over t] to the latest average from …

The American Politics Of A Jewish Judea And Samaria, Rebekah Israel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation poses a set of six questions about one of the Israel Lobby’s particular components, a Potential Christian Jewish coalition (PCJc) within American politics that advocates for Israeli sovereignty over “Judea and Samaria” (“the West Bank”). The study addresses: the profiles of the individuals of the PCJc; its policy positions, the issues that have divided it, and what has prevented, and continues to prevent, the coalition from being absorbed into one or more of the more formally organized components of the Israel Lobby; the resources and methods this coalition has used to attempt to influence U.S. policy on (a) …

Appropriation 2013.0019 Enacted, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

Appropriation 2013.0021 Enacted, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

Appropriation 2013.0020 Enacted, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

The Beacon, December 4, 2013, Florida International University

PantherNOW - Student Newspaper

Vol. 25, Issue 45, 8 pages

Guantánamo And Cuban Nationalism, Lecture By Michael E. Parmly, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

Cuban Research Institute Events

This flyer promotes the event "Guantánamo and Cuban Nationalism, Lecture by Michael E. Parmly", cosponsored by the FlU Latin American and Caribbean Center.

Senate Bill 2013.0005 Vetoed, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

Senate Minutes 12.02.13, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

Resolution 2013.0005, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

The Beacon, December 2, 2013, Florida International University

PantherNOW - Student Newspaper

Vol. 25, Issue 44, 8 pages

Confluence: A Seminar Series As A Teaching Tool ?, Bryan M. Dewsbury, Amy Reid, Ophelia Weeks

All Faculty

No abstract provided.

Expressions Of Gender And Sexual Non- Normativity In Haiti: Preliminary Research, Martina Carla Louis

African & African Diaspora Studies Program Graduate Student Scholarly Presentations

No abstract provided.

Dor Communicator - December 2013, Division Of Research, Florida International University

Office of Research and Economic Development Newsletters

The December 2013 issue of the Division of Research newsletter.

Segmented Occupational Mobility: The Case Of Non-Eu Immigrants In Spain, Maria Aysa-Lastra, Lorenzo Cachon

Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies

Literature regarding immigrant economic integration tends to highlight a U-shaped economic mobility pattern. Our article challenges this argument based on labor market segmentation theories and an occupational mobility analysis made from a “class structure” perspective. Data from the 2007 National Immigrant Survey in Spain was used to create mobility tables indicating immigrants’ occupational mobility fluidity from their last employment in their country of origin to their first employment in Spain (n = 7,280), and from their first employment in Spain to their current employment (n = 4,031), estimating odds ratios in order to examine the relative mobility. Two labor market …

The Relevance Of Marxist Academics, Raju Das

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This commentary examines the relationship between a Marxist scholar and the institutional and societal environment of the university. The focus is on how a Marxist academic navigates the social, economic and political aspects of the university while attempting to maintain a commitment to class analysis and Marxism as political practice.

General Meeting Minutes 11.27.13, Student Government Association Bbc, Florida International University

SGA BBC Document Archive

No abstract provided.

The Beacon, November 27, 2013, Florida International University

PantherNOW - Student Newspaper

Vol. 25, Issue 43, 8 pages