Digital Commons Network^™

Ecological Features Of The Greater Earless Lizard, Cophosaurus Texanus, (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae) On Indio Mountains Research Station, Hudspeth County, Texas, Gabriela Franco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

626 Cophosaurus texanus were captured on regular trips to Indio Mountains Research Station in Hudspeth County, Texas from August 2010 to November 2014. Mark-recapture methods using 81 pitfall traps and toe-clips for identification allowed for analyses of long-term trends. 291 adult females, 315 males, and 20 unsexed juveniles were recorded. A total of 180 independent recapture events were documented over the study period (44% females; 55% males). The greatest numbers of C. texanus were collected in 2011 (234), which was also the driest year of the four (6.77 cm), whereas 2014 was the wettest (34.95 cm), but had the second-most …

The Role Of P62/Imp2 In Breast Cancer Progression, Yang Li

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women. In most patients with breast cancer, it is not the primary tumor that leads to death, but rather metastatic tumors. Once breast cancer spreads to other organs in the body, the disease becomes almost incurable. It is estimated that about 20% to 50% of patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer will develop metastatic disease. Considering this, it is important to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind metastatic breast cancer and to identify new proteins that regulate the metastatic process. These proteins may be used as targets …

Rare Pride Campaigns: Evaluating Participatory Communication In Conservation Efforts Throughout Indonesia, Lauren Elizabeth Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Communication scholars who study international development and social change have found that if facilitators of social change hope to find positive, lasting solutions to complex social and environmental issues, they must incorporate more participatory approaches. However, even the practitioners with the most noble intentions oftentimes fall short of facilitating truly participatory practices because their strategies are the product of linear processes for evaluating the change context. In this study, I apply Lennie and Tacchi's (2014) approach to evaluating communication for development in a case study of Pride Campaigns implemented by managers throughout Indonesia who partnered with the conservation non-governmental organization …

Studying Cellular And Molecular Interaction With Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy, Arifur Rahaman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Advances in microscopy and fluorescent probes provide new insight into studying cellular and molecular interactions. Two-photon fluorescence microscopy is one of the most important recent inventions in cellular and molecular study. This technology enables noninvasive study at cellular and molecular levels in three dimensions with submicrometer resolution. Two-photon excitation of fluorophores results from the simultaneous absorption of two photons. This excitation process has a number of unique advantages, such as reduced specimen photodamage and enhanced penetration depth. In this study, we used our two-photon microscope to observe predatorial behavior of fast moving bacterivorous marine organism Cafeteria roenbergensis and quantify Mycobacterium …

Development Of A Yeast-Based Assay For The Functional Characterization Of Fkbp52/ Î?-Catenin Interactions With The Androgen Receptor, Theresa Anne Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prostate cancer development is uniquely dependent on the androgen receptorâ??s (ARâ??s) transcriptional regulation in response to hormone binding. Current therapies directly target AR acting as an antagonist at androgen binding sites. However, once androgen-dependence is lost, meaning the patient has progressed into a late-stage hormone resistant phenotype, all current treatments are essentially ineffective. Utilizing the yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae we are capable of creating a model system that allows for the exogenous expression of AR while still retaining the chaperone components needed for this steroid receptor complex. The 52kDa FK506 binding protein (FKBP52) has been shown to be an important …

Event Related Potentials In A Two Stimuli Auditory Oddball Task In Concussed College Athletes: A Linguistic Component Replication Study, Christopher Anthony Roosmalen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Concussions affect an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million individuals annually and can result in persistent symptoms and cognitive impairments in attention and memory. Concussions are a rising health concern especially in concussion management. Event Related Potentials (ERP) may more accurately assess cognitive recovery making better return to play decisions. In 2013, Sanchez found no significant difference between concussed athletes and non-concussed individuals in the in amplitude of the P300 ERP component using an auditory oddball task consisting of 2 different consonant, vowel (CV) syllables. Because participants were instructed to maintain a mental and verbal count of the target stimuli, a …

A Methodology For Physically-Based Contact And Meniscus Properties In Rigid-Body Computational Knee Modeling, Stephen Wilson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Determining natural inner knee mechanics is a longstanding goal for researchers with applications to prevention and treatment of knee trauma and osteoarthritis. Physical testing has only provided limited information of knee mechanics due to technical challenges and cost. Modeling has been used for decades to obtain some of this otherwise inaccessible information, and recently finite element analysis (FEA) has become a popular means to this end. However, FEA requires time intensive mesh-creation and has large computational requirements. Ideally, model creation should be easy and simulations should be fast to allow for sensitivity analysis. Although allowing easier model creation and offering …

Evaluation Of Small Molecules On The Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 3 (Eaat3) For The Treatment Of Ocd, Emmanuel Zubia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We seek to discover new drug candidates for the excitatory amino acid transporter 3 (EAAT3) for the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). We hypothesize that decreasing the glutamatergic transmission via EAAT3 intervention will create an amelioration of the symptoms of OCD. For this we have prepared in-silico binding calculations to identify a better compound that can stimulate EAAT3 and decrease glutamatergic transmission. This research will help us further understand and elucidate the role of glutamate in the neural mechanisms of this illness, which to date remain inconclusive. Those areas of study are significant because, until now, there is no …

Role Of Small Molecules In Rescuing Protein Folding Under Oxidative Stress, Mahmoud Fawzi Megahed Helal Khalil

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Increased levels of nitrosative stress intracellularly within the endoplasmic reticulum is a key factor involvled in the pathogenesis of both Parkinson's (PD) and Alzheimer's (AD) diseases. Previous in-vitro studies in our lab showed that increased levels of nitrosative stress lead to aggregation of misfolded proteins and formation of Lewy Bodies, the main biomarker of PD and AD diseases. Although this was mainly through nitrosylation of Protein Disulfide Isomerase (PDI), the chief endoplasmic reticulum (ER) resident oxidoreductase chaperone responsible for maturation of disulfide-bond-containing proteins, we demonstrate in this project that increased levels of nitrosative stress has an additional direct effect on …

Effects Of Obesity On Slip-Related Falls Among Young Adults During Gait, Jae Eun Kim

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Falls present serious medical, health, and societal challenges to not only the frail elderly or individuals with mobility disorders; but also the active and vigorous older adults. Slip-related falls account for about 40% of all falls among older adults. Individuals with obesity are subject to an elevated risk of falls associated with muscle weakness, abnormal body mass distribution, and postural instability. Dynamic gait stability has been identified as a key factor leading to falls after a slip during gait. Despite individuals with obesity suffer higher risk of falls compared to their lean counterparts, no study has investigated how the dynamic …

Detecting Enzootic Leishmaniasis And American Trypanosomiasis In Stray Dogs In El Paso County, Texas And The Potential For Autochthonous Transmission To Humans, Evan James Kipp

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cutaneous leishmaniasis and Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) are two vector-borne, protozoal zoonoses whose emergence into the southern United States is a public health problem of increasing significance. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is caused by several species of intracellular protozoa in the genus Leishmania and is most often characterized by the formation of large, ulcerative skin lesions that can result in considerable scarring and permanent disfigurement. Infection with Leishmania is prevalent throughout the world in tropical and sub-tropical regions and in areas where people are regularly exposed to the hematophagous sand fly vectors that transmit the disease. Chronic infection with Trypanosoma cruzi, the …

Associations Between Measures Of Obesity And Arterial Stiffness Of Young Hispanic Men, Maria Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Arterial stiffness and obesity are independent predictors of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease mortality; however, there is conflicting evidence for the association between arterial stiffness and obesity. Arterial stiffness research of young Hispanic males is limited. PURPOSE: To examine the association between measures of obesity and peripheral and aortic stiffness of young Hispanic men. METHODS: All data are expressed as mean ± SD. Participants were 23 non-obese (nOB; BMI 25.87±3.09 kg/m2) and 21 obese (OB: BMI 35.42±4.87 kg/m2) young Hispanic men (age range 18–25 years). Measures of obesity included body fat percentage, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, and waist-to-hip …

Characterization Of The Nodamura Virus Rna Dependent Rna Polymerase And Formation Of Rna Replication Complexes In Mammalian Cells, Vincent Ulysses Gant

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Positive-strand RNA viruses amplify their genomes in membrane-bound structures associated with intracellular membranes and organelles called replication complexes (RCs). Here, we begin to elucidate mechanisms of Nodamura virus (NoV; family Nodaviridae) RC assembly. The literature reports that NoV-infected muscle tissue exhibits mitochondrial aggregation and rearrangement of mitochondrial structure, leading to disorganization of the muscle fibrils. However, the molecular basis for this pathogenesis and the role of mitochondria in NoV infection remained unclear until now. We tested the hypoThesis that NoV establishes RCs in association with mitochondria in cultured mammalian cells at physiological temperature. We used immunofluorescence confocal microscopy and biochemical …

Systematics Of The African River Frog Genus Amietia (Anura: Pyxicephalidae) From Eastern Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Thornton Robert Larson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The African river frog genus Amietia is found near rivers and other lentic water sources throughout central, eastern and southern Africa. Because the genus includes multiple morphologically conservative species, taxonomic studies of river frogs have been limited. We sampled 49 individuals of Amietia from multiple localities in and near the Albertine Rift (AR) of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. We utilized single-gene (16S) and concatenated (12S, 16S, cytochrome b and RAG1) gene-tree analyses and coalescent species-tree analyses to construct phylogenetic trees. Two divergence dating approaches were used in BEAST, including secondary calibration points with 12S, 16S and …

Expression And Functional Analysis Of Lipids And Glycolipids From The Mammal-Dwelling Stages Of Trypanosoma Cruzi, Felipe Gazos Lopes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of the life-threatening Chagas disease, in which increased platelet aggregation related to myocarditis is observed. Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a potent intercellular lipid mediator and second messenger that exerts its activity through a PAF-specific receptor (PAFR). Previous data from our group suggested that T. cruzi synthesizes a phospholipid with PAF-like activity. The structure of T. cruzi PAF-like molecule, however, remains elusive. Here, we have purified and structurally characterized the putative T. cruzi PAF-like molecule by electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS). Our ESI-MS/MS data demonstrated that the T. cruzi PAF-like molecule is actually a lysophosphatidylcholine …

Exploratory Study Of Seasonal Indoor Bioaerosols And The Associated Health Outcomes In Low-Income Communities In El Paso, Texas, 2014, Eric Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Structural degradation, moisture levels, and building failures can influence poor indoor air quality and create a good environment for bioaerosols. People spend much of their time indoors and can potentially be exposed to these bioaerosols. Several studies have correlated exposures to high concentrations of bioaerosols to various health problems, severe allergies, asthma, or other respiratory illness. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to describe bioaerosol concentrations, meteorological factors, and health outcomes during the summer and fall seasons; characterize bioaerosols (bacteria and fungi) collected in low-income communities; compare bioaerosol concentrations by season; compare meteorological factors to bioaerosol concentrations by …

Phylogeny And Systematics Of Panaspis And Afroablepharus Skinks (Squamata: Scincidae) In The Savannas Of Sub-Saharan Africa, Maria Fernanda Medina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

African snake-eyed skinks are relatively small lizards of the genera Panaspis and Afroablepharus. The allocation of these genera was frequently rearranged in the 20th century based on morphology, ecology and biogeography. Members of these genera occur primarily in savanna habitats throughout sub-Saharan Africa and include species that have highly conserved morphology, which poses a challenge for taxonomic studies. We sequenced two mitochondrial (16S and cyt b) and two nuclear genes (PDC and RAG1) from 91 Panaspis and Afroablepharus samples from various localities in eastern, central and southern Africa. Concatenated gene-tree and divergence dating analyses were conducted to infer phylogenies and …

Identification Of A Novel Phosphoserine Site On Crkl Regulated By Interleukin-2 And Protein Phosphatase-1, Stephanie Moreno

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

CrkL, a 36 kD adaptor protein, is part of the Crk family of proteins which have been implicated in a variety of human malignancies. CrkL is of special interest in hematopoietic malignancies because of an increased level of expression in myeloid and lymphoid derived cells lines. CrkL remains understudied but it has been shown to interact with Bcr-Abl in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and is currently being used as a prognostic marker for patients by evaluating phosphorylation levels. Though regulation of CrkL by tyrosine phosphorylation has been studied extensively, the role of serine and threonine phosphorylation in an IL-2 dependent …

Restraint Stress Alters Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Expression And Increases Superoxide Dismutase In The Rat Hypothalamus And Hippocampus, Kristina Isabel Barron

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The impact of restraint stress on changes in cytokine expression and oxidative stress markers in hippocampal (Hipp) and hypothalamic (Hyp) regions of the brain, were assessed in a rat model. In addition, immune and inflammatory variables were assessed in peripheral blood. Male Wistar rats were acutely (30 min) or repeatedly (30 min/d for 14 consecutive days) exposed to a restraint stress, or maintained as non-stressed controls. At the time of sacrifice, whole blood and brain tissues enriched in Hyp or Hipp regions were collected; blood was collected with EDTA as an anticoagulant and centrifuged to yield plasma. All tissue samples …

Processing Of Language Switches In Bilingual Individuals With Aphasia: An Event-Related Potential Comparison, Lizette Rodarte

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Switching between languages, or code-switching, is a common phenomenon in bilingual individuals. In proficient bilinguals, these switches are done with ease and are used for many purposes. Contrary to popular belief, these switches are rule-governed and follow grammatical structure. Bilingual individuals diagnosed with aphasia present with difficulty processing languages and these language switches. With the increase in bilingual individuals, it is likely that the speech-language pathology community will see an increase of bilingual individuals with aphasia on their caseload. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of the neural processes involved in processing of …

An Assessment Of The Role Of Roads In Population Demography And Genetic Structuring In Two Species Of Lizards In The Northern Chihuahuan Desert, Kevin Floyd

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Roads can fragment habitat and increase mortality rates of wildlife, potentially reducing population sizes and gene flow, which in turn can reduce genetic diversity through genetic drift. Although negative road impacts have been found in a variety of taxa, not all species are impacted. For instance, species that move less and rarely encounter roads and those that avoid the roads are predicted to not be negatively affected. Yet tests of these predictions are uncommon, especially for reptiles and particularly lizards. Side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) are small sit-and-wait predators, while the larger marbled whiptails (Aspidoscelis marmorata) are active foragers. Their responses …

Effects Of Controlled Whole-Body Vibration Training On Reducing Risk Of Falls Among Young Adults With Obesity, Jose Jesus Munoz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Among people with obesity, several factors increase the risk of falls: an abnormal body mass distribution, muscle weakness, and postural instability. Although standard exercise-based training could change these factors, a significant portion of people with obesity may be unable or unwilling to comply with long duration and high intensity training programs. Therefore, alternative training methods are highly demanded. Growing evidence supports that controlled whole-body vibration (CWBV) training can reduce risk of falls among older adults. No study has yet investigated the potential effect of CWBV training on reducing risk of falls among obese populations. The purpose of this study …

Behavioral And Electrophysiologic Performance In Participants With No Brain Damage Responding To Spoken Sentence Length Messages With Pauses Of Different Durations Inserted Withi The Spoken Message: A Pilot Study, Alexandrea Burciaga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Aim: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the behavioral and electrophysiologic performance in two age groups of individuals with no history of brain damage responding to spoken sentence length messages with pauses of different durations inserted within the message with the use of Event-Related Potentials.

Pilot Study: A modified version of the Revised Token Test was used for the experimental task. All participants have not experienced any brain damage. The first group of adult participants consisted of three college age adults; ages 20-30 and the second consisted of three older adults, ages 50-60. Participants were randomly assigned …

Influence Of Stress On Substance Use: Age-Associated Variability In Molecular And Behavioral Outcomes, Christina Elizabeth D'Arcy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stress introduces a number of neurological and neurohormonal changes in response to a number of stimuli, and can influence our relationship to rewarding experiences. As such, it holds the potential of promoting vulnerability to addiction to substances such as methamphetamine. While methamphetamine use and abuse has been steadily declining, the fact remains that it and closely related drugs are used in the treatment of conditions such as narcolepsy, weight loss, and attention deficit disorder. In an effort to develop better patient assessment metrics to aid the physician in deciding a course of treatment, we ask the following questions: Do chronic …

Structural Organization Of The Connections Between Neurons Of The Paraventricular And Lateral Hypothalamic Regions In The Adult Male Rat, Berenise De Haro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The hypothalamus is a major integrator of homeostatic signals in the brain; within the hypothalamus, there are sub-regions with specific roles in regulating energy balance. For example, the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) has been classically associated with feeding behaviors, and contains two major orexigenic cell populations expressing the neuropeptides melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) or hypocretin 1/orexin A (H/O). Similarly, the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVH) integrates information to mediate neuroendocrine and autonomic responses related to ingestive behaviors. The PVH has also been implicated directly in the control of feeding. However, the precise structural and functional interactions between these two …

Serine Palmitoyltransferase And Giardial Encystation, Monica Delgado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Giardia lamblia is a flagellated protozoan parasite responsible for chronic diarrheal disease in humans and animals. Giardia has minimal lipid synThesis machinery and the majority of its lipids are obtained from the small intestine of humans where the trophozoites colonize. Recent results from our laboratory indicate that sphingolipids (SLs) are also important for Giardia and they regulate encystation and cyst production. Only five SL genes are present in this parasite and they are differentially regulated during encystation. In my studies, I found that giardial serine palmitoyltransferase (gSPT) activity is upregulated in encysting cells, suggesting it might play an important role …

Differences In Stress Biomarkers In Women With High And Low Stress Appraisal, Clarissa Sara Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Measures of physiological biomarkers have been widely used in the field of stress research to explain how stress negatively impacts health outcomes. Women in particular have been shown to be more at risk for developing physiological and psychological stress-induced conditions (e.g., hypertension, depression) due to hormonal differences (Kirschbaum et al., 1992), but more importantly, because of their appraisal of stressful events (Schamus et al., 2008). Few studies however have examined whether womenâ??s stress appraisal is predictive of stress reactivity, as measured by stress biomarkers, during stressful events. The goal of this study was to examine whether stress appraisal predicted stress …

Electrical Stimulation Uses Sodium Channel Dependent Depolarization To Produce Exocytotic-Like Dopamine Release And Rotational Behavior In Vivo, Alice Elaine Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this project was to establish Electrical Stimulation (ES) in combination with In Vivo Intracerebral Microdialysis (IVMCD) as a methodology to evoke exocytotic-like dopamine (DA) release. To provide evidence that ES mimics action potential-mediated DA exocytosis, we hypothesized that ES produces depolarization of the membrane potential that is dependent upon sodium (Na+) -channels to produce DA release concomitantly with rotational behavior. To test this, rats received electrode and cannulae implants along the medial forebrain bundle, which contains the DAergic nigrostriatal pathway, and a microdialysis probe at the striatum to undergo IVMCD testing. To begin, steady baseline DA levels …

The Impacts Of Water Availability On Macroinvertebrate, Ector Matias Martell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In many regions around the world climate is changing and biotic communities are changing with it. In areas like the southwestern U.S., drought is one of the major sources of disturbance. Although droughts are an integral part of the natural hydrological cycles, they can have devastating effects on freshwater ecosystems when disrupted by extended periods of drought, resulting in changes to the structure and function of biotic communities. In this study, we surveyed four streams in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico from 2010 to 2014: Agua Chiquita, Rio Peñasco, Wills Creek, and the Sacramento River; These years encompassed an …

Dopamine Regulation Of Disengagement In The Basal Ganglia Circuitry, Mabel N. Terminel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Evidence suggests that dopamine (DA) is crucial for initiation and termination as well as sustained execution of movement. For the present study, it was hypothesized that DA plays a more important role in initiation and termination of movement than in its sustained production. To test these hypotheses, rats were trained to walk on a treadmill in a continuous and discontinuous (walk 30 secs/stop 15 seconds) fashion for one hour while striatal DA samples were collected using In Vivo Microdialysis (IVMCD). We predicted larger increases during discontinuous compared to continuous walking. It was found that brain dialysate levels of DA consistently …