Digital Commons Network^™

The Wild West Of Edible Insects, Kyle Ligman

Capstones

After the UN came out with a report in 2013 recommending insects for human consumption, businesses and restaurants in the U.S. have been racing to grow a new industry. This project explores the psychological, regulatory and production challenges they face.

No Waste: Nyc, Minda Smiley

Capstones

I produced three video pieces about people who are living zero-waste lifestyles or using zero-waste practices in their businesses. I also wrote a narrative piece about my experience living zero-waste for one week.

When You Can't Watch What You Eat: Examining The Fda’S Recall Process For Food Allergies, Jacob Passy

Capstones

Over a third of all recalls for food products in the United States occur due to an undeclared allergen. In these situations, a food product is often mislabeled or contaminated in some way, resulting in the unknown presence of allergen. For food-allergic consumers, a company's mistake can become life-threatening. By investigating data from the Food and Drug Administration, I found that supermarket chains are responsible for about a fifth of all recalls, and that many recalls occur past the product's expiration date. These factors point to the need to improve the FDA's handling of food allergies in food manufacturing.

Mechanisms Of Translational Repression Of The Sperm Mitochondria Associated-Cysteine Rich Protein (Smcp) Mrna In Round Spermatids, Danielle L. Cullinane

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The sperm-mitochondria-associated cysteine-rich protein (SMCP) is a male germ cell-specific protein that localizes to the outer membranes of sperm mitochondria and increases sperm motility. The Smcp mRNA is transcribed in early spermatids, and stored in a translationally repressed state for ~7 days before translation is activated in late spermatids. Identifying the cis-elements and trans-factors that repress the Smcp mRNA in early spermatids is important because these factors and elements coordinate the translational activity of hundreds of mRNAs.

A mutation was studied in transgenic mice in which the 16 nucleotides downstream of the first poly(A) signal in the Smcp …

Epigenetic Regulation Of Nuclear Hormone Receptor Dax-1, Michael B. Heskett

Master's Theses

DAX-1 (NR0B1) is an orphan nuclear receptor that plays a key role in the development and maintenance of steroidogenic tissue in mammals. Dax-1 is also expressed in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells and is required to maintain pluripotency. Duplication of the X-chromosome in the region containing the NR0B1 gene results in sex reversal, and mutations in NR0B1 cause adrenal hypoplasia congenita. DAX-1 has been observed to act as a corepressor of other nuclear receptors including androgen receptor (AR), estrogen receptor (ER), and steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1). In addition to pluripotent ES cells, DAX-1 is primarily expressed in select tissues of …

Role Of Peptidoglycan Modifications In Predation By Bdellovibrio Bacteriovorus 109j, Diane C. Szmiett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a prey dependent bacterium that traverses the outer membrane and peptidoglycan, and enters the periplasmic space of gram negative bacteria, from where it utilizes the cytoplasmic contents for growth. Soluble lytic transglycosylases could be responsible for creating the entry pore during predation. Bacteria can modify their peptidoglycan by the addition of acetate to the C-6 hydroxyl group of the N-acetylmuramic acid residues, which renders the peptidoglycan insensitive to cleavage by lytic transglycosylases. It was hypothesized that the degree of peptidoglycan O-acetylation of the prey cell affects predation efficiency. In this study it was shown that; …

Attentional Blink: An Antecedent To Binge Eating Behavior, Gregory Denke

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how attentional sub-processes contribute to binge-eating. Dense-array EEG and a version of the canonical attentional blink task were used to ascertain the neural correlates underlying the attentional sub-processes that comprise the Posner model of attention (alerting, orienting, and executive control) and how attentional activation differs for binge-eaters vs. non-binge eaters. Furthermore, we examined a number of the event-related potentials (ERP), including P2 activation, which has been linked with orientating of attention, and N2 activation which has been linked with attentional conflict. We found decreased P2 activation for binge-eaters, in the negative condition, for incorrect target 2 (T2) …

Mechanisms Of Condition-Specific Regulation Of Mrna Stability By Puf Proteins: From Yeast To Humans, Joseph Russo

Dissertations

RNA binding proteins regulate mRNA decay and translation, two key steps in the control of gene expression in cells. Controlling mRNA metabolism allows cells to respond rapidly to altering conditions by utilizing already available mRNA, bypassing the wait for newly transcribed mRNA. The Puf family of RNA binding proteins bind specific mRNAs through interactions with sequences located in the 3’ untranslated region (UTR). Puf proteins are conserved throughout eukaryotes and have diverse roles including stem cell maintenance, neuronal development, stress response and organelle biogenesis. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Puf proteins are conditionally regulated in response to the cells metabolic. Specifically, in …

Production And Applications Of Formaldehyde-Free Phenolic Resins Using 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Derived From Glucose In-Situ, Yongsheng Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin manufacturing industry is facing a growing challenge with respect to concerns over human health, due to the use of carcinogenic formaldehyde and sustainability due to the use of petroleum-based phenol in PF resin manufacture. Glucose and its derivative, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), have proven to be potential substitutes for formaldehyde in the synthesis of phenolic novolac resins.

This thesis investigated a number of glucose and 5-HMF resin systems including the curing of phenol-glucose novolac resin (PG) with a bis-phenol-A type epoxy. The curing process was modeled according to the Sestak-Berggren equation (S, B) using Málek methods. This was …

A Description Of Tolerance To Apical Meristem Damage In Wild Populations Of Arabidopsis Thaliana And Its Genetic Basis, Justin Dalrymple

Biology Theses

Since plants cannot actively avoid herbivory, they rely on two primary strategies to maintain their fitness in the face of herbivore pressure: resistance—the deterrence of herbivory via physical and chemical means—and tolerance—recuperation of aboveground mass after herbivory. Although diverse groups have been shown to be tolerant to herbivory, mechanisms of tolerance are not yet well known. There is also very little known about the ecological relevance of tolerance strategies in wild populations. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the apical meristem suppresses growth of axillary meristems to a high degree under normal conditions, but a number of axillary meristemswill grow after apical meristem …

Biological And Physiological Condition Of Juvenile California Halibut (Paralichthys Californicus) Exposed To A Contamination Gradient In Mission Bay, Ca, Kevin Stolzenbach

Theses

Contaminated sediments in marine environments have been shown to be good indicators of ecological risk and a means to assess anthropogenic impacts on marine habitats and the animals that inhabit them (Long et al. 1995, Rattner 2009). Estuarine sediments are especially complex media with regard to physical, chemical, and biological characteristics that trap, store, modify and sometimes release contaminants to the biota (Long et al. 1995). Especially vulnerable are animals that are in constant contact with the sediments, such as flatfishes that partially bury themselves for camouflage (Costa et al. 2011). Impacts can be assessed in a number of ways, …

Response Of Soil Nitrification To The Veterinary Pharmaceuticals Monensin, Ivermectin And Zinc Bacitracin, Magda A. Konopka

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Pharmaceutical residues can reach agricultural land through amendment with animal or human waste. Since 2010, a series of replicated plots received annual applications of ivermectin, monensin and zinc bacitracin, either singly or in a mixture, at 0.1 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg concentrations. I collected soil samples before and after the fourth annual application of pharmaceuticals and assayed them for functional changes and amoA gene abundance, a gene needed for ammonia oxidation. In 2013, I exposed the soils to 100 mg/kg in a laboratory experiment which resulted in acceleration of nitrification. Under 10 mg/kg treatments in the field the abundance of …

Ferric Reductases And Transporters That Contribute To Mitochondrial Iron Homeostasis, Anshika Jain

Theses and Dissertations

Iron (Fe) is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, yet the availability of Fe to plants is often limited. This is because in most soil types, Fe precipitates as ferric-oxyhydroxy complexes, making it unavailable for uptake by plants. While the mechanisms involved in Fe uptake from the soil are relatively well understood, the mechanisms involved in its further distribution to the aerial portion of the plant and to subcellular compartments are not fully understood. During Fe deprivation, plants up-regulate root Fe acquisition machinery. How plants sense Fe deprivation and tie the Fe status of the plant to …

Origin Of Maternal Age Effect In Congenital Heart Disease Risk For Offspring, Claire Elaine Schulkey

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing maternal age is widely acknowledged to lead to greater likelihood of pregnancy complications and congenital abnormalities, but the basis of this effect has not been well studied. Often dismissed as the product of oocyte ageing, the mechanistic basis of this maternal age effect is likely more complex.

Congenital heart disease is a classic complex disease with multiple genetic and environmental modifiers, including maternal age. Maternal ageing is a known risk-factor in humans, and has been shown to exist in an Nkx2-5 haploinsufficient mouse model for the disease. This mouse model's maternal age risk is dependent upon strain background, with …

Modulation Of Nmda Receptor Activity During Physiological And Pathophysiological Events, Christine Marie Emnett

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are ionotropic glutamate receptors that serve crucial signaling and neurotrophic functions throughout the central nervous system. Both hyperfunction and hypofunction of NMDARs are associated with neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. Thus, both positive and negative pharmacological NMDAR modulators are of clinical interest as treatments. Understanding drug mechanisms could lead to more rational drug design. Memantine and ketamine are NMDAR open channel blockers that exhibit similar pharmacodynamics at NMDARs but have different clinical uses. Memantine improves cognitive decline during Alzheimer's disease. Ketamine is an anesthetic and analgesic with psychotomimetic effects, but it is also a rapid acting and long-lived …

Characterizing The Fitness Landscapes Of Gut Symbionts In Defined Community And Diet Contexts, Meng Wu

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A species' niche is the description of all the environmental conditions required to permit a population of that species to persist, including the effects of the population on those conditions. This definition includes the species' resource requirements, as well as stress tolerances and interactions with other species acting as competitors, predators, parasites, and mutualists. The human gut microbiota serves as a microbial `metabolic organ' tasked in part with the biotransformation of many components of our diet. Relatively little is known about the factors that allow members of the human gut microbiota to persist in a habitat that experiences marked changes …

Characterizing Persistent Developmental Dyscalculia: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach, Stephanie D. Bugden

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disorder of calculation abilities. In the present thesis I report a series behavioural and functional neuroimaging studies to further elucidate the core numerical deficits underlying DD. I recruited a sample of children with DD who demonstrated persistent impairments in arithmetic. In Chapter 2, to validate the selection criteria, I compared the performance of children with and without persistent DD on a test of numerical magnitude processing. The data showed that only children with persistent DD presented with deficits in numerical magnitude processing, while those with inconsistent DD perform at the level of age-matched …

The Influence Of Metacommunity Size On Species Diversity Across Spatial Scales, Lauren Woods

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the influence of metacommunity size and landscape level processes, such as dispersal, on species diversity. A metacommunity is a group of local communities, or patches, connected by dispersal, and metacommunity size can be defined as the number of discrete local patches within a metacommunity. In chapter 1, I developed a framework to predict the effects of habitat destruction, or a reduction in metacommunity size, on the species richness of local patches of different sizes by integrating metacommunity theory with the equilibrium theory of island biogeography. The effect of metacommunity size on species richness in small and large …

An Essential Role For Self-Pmhc Throughout The Life Of A Cd4 T Cell: Contributions In The Thymus And Periphery, Stephanie Rodriguez

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is well established that self-peptide Major Histocompatibility Complexes (hereafter self-pMHC) are essential for the development of a broad repertoire of mature, self-tolerant CD4 and CD8 T cells. Despite clear knowledge that the pool of self-ligands is critical for positive and negative selection, the exact kinetics and dynamic nature of thymocyte interaction with self-pMHC class II (self-pMHCII) bearing antigen-presenting cells (APCs) during development is still largely a mystery. The enigmatic nature of selecting self-pMHC is not unique to the thymic environment; increasingly evident is the dependence of peripheral T cells on extra-thymic self-pMHC expression, specifically selecting self-pMHC, for their homeostatic …

Evolution Of Ecological Dominance Of Yeast Species In High-Sugar Environments, Kathryn Marie Williams

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two challenging goals of evolutionary biology are to understand how evolutionary innovations evolve and how they contribute to the success of lineages. Evolutionary innovations may arise following whole genome duplication (WGD) events and they are suspected to contribute to the success of lineages by creating ecological opportunity. However, direct evidence for duplicated genes involved in evolutionary innovations remains rare, and the relationship between evolutionary innovations and the success of lineages may be very complex. In this study, I explore the relationship of evolutionary innovation, WGD, and the ecological dominance of yeast species in high-sugar environments. In budding yeast, a major …

Marine Population Connectivity: Range Boundaries And Climate Change, Rhiannon Leigh Rognstad

Theses and Dissertations

Population connectivity, particularly in open systems, is an important metric for understanding population-level processes on both ecological and evolutionary timescales. In coastal marine systems, adults are typically sedentary and dispersal occurs primarily during a larval stage when individuals are transported in ocean currents. Because coastal marine populations exist as networks of interconnected subpopulations, variation in the magnitude and extent of population connectivity can have profound effects on population dynamics and species distribution limits. Connectivity is a complex process, affected by a multitude of factors, including adult inputs and physical dispersal, which operate at multiple scales and may interact. This dissertation …

Global Climate Change And The Southern Ocean: How Antarctic Fishes Physiologically Respond To A Changing Environment From The Cellular To The Organismal Level, Laura A. Enzor

Theses and Dissertations

Studies have projected that future changes in sea surface temperature and pCO2 levels will impact higher latitudes to a greater extent than in temperate regions. For notothenioid fishes of the Southern Ocean, evolution in extremely stable, cold waters has resulted in several adaptations which have left these fishes poorly prepared for global climate change. I have analyzed the metabolic and cellular response of Trematomus bernacchii, Pagothenia borchgrevinki and Trematomus newnesi to a long-term, multi-stressor scenario relevant to the predicted changes in the Southern Ocean. By combining whole animal respirometry with cellular level analysis of energy allocation, osmoregulatory mechanisms and cellular …

Climatic Controls On Organic Matter Decomposition In Boreal Peatlands, Michael J. Philben

Theses and Dissertations

Boreal peatlands currently contain 550 Pg C and are located at high latitudes where mean annual temperatures are expected to increase by as much as 7°C by the end of the century. There is growing concern that warming will stimulate decomposition, transforming peatlands from a sink to a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide and accelerating climate change. A primary goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the effect of climate change on organic matter decomposition in peatlands. This was achieved by developing and employing biochemical tracers to indicate the extent of peat decomposition across a range of naturally occurring climatic …

Methods For Identifying Regions Of Brain Activation Using Fmri Meta-Data, Meredith A. Ray

Theses and Dissertations

Functional neuroimaging is a relatively young discipline within the neurosciences that has led to significant advances in our understanding of the human brain and progress in neuroscientific research related to public health. Accurately identifying activated regions in the brain showing a strong association with an outcome of interest is crucial in terms of disease prediction and prevention. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is the most widely used method for this type of study as it has the ability to measure and identify the location of changes in tissue perfusion, blood oxygenation, and blood volume. In practice, the three-dimensional brain locations …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Gap Junction Regulation By The E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Wwp1, Measho Hagos Abreha

Theses and Dissertations

Ubiquitylation is a post-translational modification that influences a wide variety of cellular processes including protein degradation, protein subcellular localization, cell cycle progression, transcription, and DNA damage repair. Covalent attachment of the small ubiquitin molecule to a target protein involves the sequential action of three enzymes (E1, E2, and E3). In this process, substrate specificity is conferred by the E3 ligase. Our work has focused on the function of one such E3 ubiquitin ligase, WWP1. Known targets of WWP1 include cell cycle proteins, tumor suppressors, and transcription factors that promote differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells to the osteoid lineage. Recently, we …

Thermal Ecology And Physiology Of An Intertidal Predator-Prey System: Pisaster Ochraceus And Mytilus Californianus, Cristian J. Monaco

Theses and Dissertations

Untangling natural systems’ complexity requires understanding the mechanisms responsible for organisms’ responses to environmental change. Recently, significant advances have been made by recognizing the relevance of direct and indirect effects, which take place when multiple biotic and abiotic factors influence each other. I examined potential direct effects of environmental variables on a predator-prey interaction, as well as potential indirect effects of these variables on the interaction itself. I placed emphasis on behavioral and physiological adaptations, which would potentially contribute/modify these effects. My study system was comprised of a rocky intertidal keystone predator, the sea star Pisaster ochraceus, and its main …

Compositional Traits In Sorghum Bicolor Characterized By Transcriptome, Ionome And Genome-Wide Association Analysis, Nadia Shakoor

Theses and Dissertations

To address the challenge of global mineral malnutrition, current biofortification research in crop plants aims to improve mineral concentration and micronutrient bioavailablity via genetic and traditional breeding methods. Many staple food crops are also used as biofuels, and the chemical and mineral composition of these energy crops directly affect biomass quality and subsequent energy output. Identification of genes and QTL that impact mineral and compositional traits in the grain and biomass of major cereals, including sorghum, is fundamental to developing breeding and selection methods aimed at increasing bioavailable minerals and improving biofuel suitability and seed nutritional quality. A combinatorial strategy …

The Role Of Lis1 In Adult Mammalian System, Xu Gao

Theses and Dissertations

Lis1 haploinsufficiency in humans results in a “smooth brain” phenotype called lissencephaly, and also causes severe cognitive and motor impairments and epilepsy. Seizure severity and frequency typically worsens with time; patients often die within the first decade due to seizure-induced aspiration and pneumonia. Various mouse models have been used to examine the role of Lis1 during brain development, and it is clear that Lis1 regulates a microtubule motor, cytoplasmic dynein. Intriguingly, Lis1 expression remains high in adult brains indicating that it plays a role in mature systems. Indeed, our group found that Lis1 and several related proteins regulate dynein-dependent axon …

Understanding The Evolutionary History Of Biochemical Innovation, Madeline Opal St. Julien

Theses and Dissertations

The serine protease (SP) gene family is an ecologically important gene family because of observed involvement in innate immunity, digestive processes, and embryological development of arthropods. In the past decade, all genes of the serine protease family have been classified in a number of arthropods, with the exception of crustacean. Possible evolutionary mechanisms have been observed based off of varying selectional pressures acting on recent SP expansions in respect to varying diets. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced, and their genomes were analyzed in this study to elucidate the expansion and divergence of the SP gene …

Diversity, Genetics, And Health Benefits Of Sorghum Grain, Davina Rhodes

Theses and Dissertations

Staple cereal crops provide the majority of nutrients to the world's population, and thus, can significantly impact human nutrition and health. Phenotypic and genetic diversity within a crop can be useful for biofortification and crop improvement, but quantitative phenotyping is needed to identify varieties with high or low concentrations of a nutrient of interest, and to identify alleles responsible for quantitative trait variation of the nutrient. Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a diverse and widely adapted cereal crop that provides food for more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and is becoming increasingly popular in specialty …