Life Sciences Commons^™

Measuring Population Transmission Potential For Hiv: An Alternative Metric Of Transmission Risk In Men Who Have Sex With Men (Msm) In The Us, Colleen F. Kelley, Eli S. Rosenberg, Brandon M. O'Hara, Paula M. Frew, Travis Sanchez, John L. Peterson, Carlos Del Rio, Patrick S. Sullivan

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Background Various metrics for HIV burden and treatment success [e.g. HIV prevalence, community viral load (CVL), population viral load (PVL), percent of HIV-positive persons with undetectable viral load] have important public health limitations for understanding disparities. Methods and Findings Using data from an ongoing HIV incidence cohort of black and white men who have sex with men (MSM), we propose a new metric to measure the prevalence of those at risk of transmitting HIV and illustrate its value. …See full text for complete abstract.

Effects Of Flight On Gene Expression And Aging In The Honey Bee Brain And Flight Muscle, Joseph Margotta, Georgina E. Mancinelli, Azucena A. Benito, Andrew Ammons, Stephen P. Roberts, Michelle M. Elekonich

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Honey bees move through a series of in-hive tasks (e.g., “nursing”) to outside tasks (e.g., “foraging”) that are coincident with physiological changes and higher levels of metabolic activity. Social context can cause worker bees to speed up or slow down this process, and foragers may revert back to their earlier in-hive tasks accompanied by reversion to earlier physiological states. To investigate the effects of flight, behavioral state and age on gene expression, we used whole-genome microarrays and real-time PCR. Brain tissue and flight muscle exhibited different patterns of expression during behavioral transitions, with expression patterns in the brain reflecting both …

Secondary Structure, A Missing Component Of Sequence- Based Minimotif Definitions, David P. Sargeant, Michael R. Gryk, Mark W. Maciejewsk, Vishal Thapar, Vamsi Kundeti, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran, Pedro Romero, Keith Dunker, Shun-Cheng Li, Tomonori Kaneko, Martin Schiller

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Minimotifs are short contiguous segments of proteins that have a known biological function. The hundreds of thousands of minimotifs discovered thus far are an important part of the theoretical understanding of the specificity of protein-protein interactions, posttranslational modifications, and signal transduction that occur in cells. However, a longstanding problem is that the different abstractions of the sequence definitions do not accurately capture the specificity, despite decades of effort by many labs. We present evidence that structure is an essential component of minimotif specificity, yet is not used in minimotif definitions. Our analysis of several known minimotifs as case studies, analysis …

Limnological Assistance For Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Quarterly Report, Period Ending September 30, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Limnological Studies

Continuation of Project 1

• The research effort titled Growth of adult quagga mussels within Las Vegas Wash/Las Vegas Bay is ongoing.

Continuation of Project 2

• Additional content was contributed to the future NPS-funded U.S. Geological Survey Circular ‘state-of-the-science’ report for Lakes Mead and Mohave. UNLV performed a new co-editing and coordinating task related to this product as the major focus of this quarter’s effort; the master version of this report is on schedule for delivery to the editorial team during the first week of October 2012.

Modification Activities:

Extended Short-term Continued Limnological Assistance

Quagga Mussel Objectives:

• Most juvenile/adult quagga mussel …

Health Disparities Experienced By People With Disabilities In The Us: A Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Study, Jennifer Renee Pharr, Timothy J. Bungum

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990; since then research has shown that people with disabilities continue to experience barriers to health care. The purpose of this study was to compare utilization of preventive services, chronic disease rates, and engagement in health risk behaviors of participants with differing severities of disabilities to those without disabilities. This study was a secondary analysis of 2010 data collected in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System national survey in the United States. Rao Chi square test and logistic regression were employed. Participants with disabilities had significantly higher adjusted odds ratios for all …

Achieving High Accuracy Prediction Of Minimotifs, Tian Mi, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran, Jerlin Camilus Merlin, Michael R. Gryk, Martin Schiller

Life Sciences Faculty Research

The low complexity of minimotif patterns results in a high false-positive prediction rate, hampering protein function prediction. A multi-filter algorithm, trained and tested on a linear regression model, support vector machine model, and neural network model, using a large dataset of verified minimotifs, vastly improves minimotif prediction accuracy while generating few false positives. An optimal threshold for the best accuracy reaches an overall accuracy above 90%, while a stringent threshold for the best specificity generates less than 1% false positives or even no false positives and still produces more than 90% true positives for the linear regression and neural network …

Take Pride In America Phase Iii: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering April 25, 2012-July 24, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

• The GIS database continued to be populated with data.
• Hector’s Helpers added an additional youth group.
• The new website launched and social media efforts began.
• The pilot testing of the litter monitoring program continued.

The University of Nevada Las Vegas Public Lands Institute (PLI) designed the Take Pride in America (TPIA) Phase III work plan based on the strategic plan developed by the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership (SNAP) anti-litter and desert dumping team during Phase II of the program.

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• BLM informed UNLV that after investigating a concession contract as the appropriate BLM document for the future operating partner, they have concluded that an operating agreement is the preferred document and they are proceeding to complete such an agreement as soon as possible.
• Following a visit to the ranch with BLM, UNLV has completed temporary repairs to ranch house windows, which should mitigate deterioration of the ranch house from water
• UNLV participated in a one-half day meeting with BLM to review Condit’s Extended Content Package #1. As a result of the lack of progress by Condit, UNLV was requested to …

Assessment Of A Microbicide Candidate Among A Diverse Cohort Of Urban Southern Us Women And Their Male Sexual Partners, Paula M. Frew, Kimberly Parker, Takeia Horton, Brooke Hixson, Lisa Flowers, Frances Priddy, Lisa Grohskopf, Christine Mauck, Kimberly Workowski

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Background: This mixed methods study reports on product acceptance from a Phase I clinical trial of a candidate non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) vaginal microbicide product (UC781). The product was evaluated in the context of a Phase I clinical trial in an area characterized by high HIV prevalence among minority women. The findings will inform the development of an acceptable microbicide that will address the needs of diverse women and their partners. Methods: This is a mixed methods study of 34 racially and ethnically diverse female participants and 10 male partners in Atlanta, Georgia. Chi-square tests for marginal homogeneity and …

The Human Phosphotyrosine Signaling Network: Evolution And Hotspots Of Hijacking In Cancer., Lei Li, Chabane Tibiche, Cong Fu, Tomonori Kaneko, Michael F. Moran, Martin Schiller, Shawn Shun-Cheng Li, Edwin Wang

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Phosphotyrosine (pTyr) signaling, which plays a central role in cell-cell and cell-environment interactions, has been considered to be an evolutionary innovation in multicellular metazoans. However, neither the emergence nor the evolution of the human pTyr signaling system is currently understood. Tyrosine kinase (TK) circuits, each of which consists of a TK writer, a kinase substrate, and a related reader, such as Src homology (SH) 2 domains and pTyr-binding (PTB) domains, comprise the core machinery of the pTyr signaling network. In this study, we analyzed the evolutionary trajectories of 583 literature-derived and 50,000 computationally predicted human TK circuits in 19 representative …

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands – Phase Ii: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering January 1, 2012 To March 31, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• The number of records in the volunteer database increased by 4.96% over the last quarter. The database now contains 7,423 records.
• Results show an average of 1,259 visits per month, and with an average of 3,015 pages viewed per month.
• Get Outdoors Nevada supported 14 volunteer events in a variety of ways. These events utilized 364 volunteers whom contributed approximately 2,414 hours of service.
• Three community outreach events were attended, resulting in 293 direct contacts with 50 names added to the database.
• The automated volunteer orientation training project has been completed and disks have been delivered to the 4 agencies. …

Reducing False-Positive Prediction Of Minimotifs With A Genetic Interaction Filter, Jerlin Camilus Merlin, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran, Tian Mi, Martin Schiller

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Background

Minimotifs are short contiguous peptide sequences in proteins that have known functions. At its simplest level, the minimotif sequence is present in a source protein and has an activity relationship with a target, most of which are proteins. While many scientists routinely investigate new minimotif functions in proteins, the major web-based discovery tools have a high rate of false-positive prediction. Any new approach that reduces false-positives will be of great help to biologists.

Methods and Findings

We have built three filters that use genetic interactions to reduce false-positive minimotif predictions. The basic filter identifies those minimotifs where the source/target …

School Program Planning To Increase Active Transport To School, Brenda Aguilar

McNair Poster Presentations

Studies have shown that active transport is known to increase physical activity of children, decrease traffic congestion and the production of greenhouse gasses. This study examines active transport to school (ATS) [walking, biking, or other self-powered wheels to school] among elementary students. Through the Nevada Moves Day program an increase proportion of elementary students who use ATS was expected.

This study was done at two elementary schools, one being the intervention school that participated in the Nevada Moves Day, and a control school, which did not participate. Data was collected over a three week period. Students using active transport and …

Survey Of Glycerol Dialkyl Glycerol Tetraethers (Gdgts) In Nevada And California Hot Springs And Selected T Thermophiles, Julienne J. Paraiso, Amanda Jean Williams, Brian P. Hedlund, Chuanlun L. Zhang

McNair Poster Presentations

Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are core membrane lipids of many Archaea and some Bacteria found ubiquitously in soils and in many aqueous environments. Here, we examined the GDGT concentration in forty sediment samples from geothermal hot springs in the Great Basin (USA). Sediment samples were collected in tandem with extensive geochemical and site characterization. Hot spring temperatures ranged from 31 to 95°C and pH values from 6.8 to 10.7. Parametric Pearson's correlation coefficients and nonparametric Spearman's rho values were calculated to identify significant correlations between GDGT profiles and geochemical analytes. Isoprenoidal GDGTs (iGDGTs) negatively correlated with pH and positively …

Transcriptome Analysis Of Glue Secretion In Drosophila, William Mccurdy, Pawel Parafianowicz, Andrew Andres

McNair Poster Presentations

Steroid hormones control important developmental and physiological responses in animals, including humans. It is known that when a cell is exposed to a steroid hormone, there is an immediate change in the genes that are expressed into proteins. Of notable importance is steroid regulation in the salivary glands of larval Drosophila melanogaster and the corresponding physiological responses that are governed by treatment with the conserved insect steroid, 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E). Exposure to the steroid hormone 20E causes a change in gene expression that facilitates the secretion of glue glycoproteins from inside the cells into the lumen of the tissue. Altered gene …

Minimotif Miner 3.0: Database Expansion And Significantly Improved Reduction Of False-Positive Predictions From Consensus Sequences., Tian Mi, Jerlin Camilus Merlin, Sandeep Deverasetty, Michael R. Gryk, Travis J. Bill, Andrew W. Brooks, Logan Lee, Viraj Rathnayake, Christian A. Ross, David P. Sargeant, Christy L. Strong, Paula Watts, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran, Martin Schiller

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Minimotif Miner (MnM available at http://minimotifminer.org or http://mnm.engr.uconn.edu) is an online database for identifying new minimotifs in protein queries. Minimotifs are short contiguous peptide sequences that have a known function in at least one protein. Here we report the third release of the MnM database which has now grown 60-fold to approximately 300,000 minimotifs. Since short minimotifs are by their nature not very complex we also summarize a new set of false-positive filters and linear regression scoring that vastly enhance minimotif prediction accuracy on a test data set. This online database can be used to predict new functions in proteins …

Dna Secondary Structures And Their Contribution To Mutagenesis In B. Subtilis Stationary Phase Cells, Carmen Vallin, Holly Anne Martin, Christian Ross, Ronald Yasbin, Eduardo Robleto

McNair Poster Presentations

It is widely known and accepted that the cause of many mutations in cells are generated during the replication process of actively dividing cells, however more recent research has shown that mutations also arise in non growing conditions, a phenomenon known as stationary phase mutagenesis. Much of what is known come from studies in eukaryotic and bacterial models. It has been proposed that in non-growing cells, the process of transcription plays an important role in mutagenesis. We test the hypothesis that DNA secondary structures, formed during transcription, promote mutagenesis. The transcription-generated structures are speculated to be prone to by blocking …