Digital Commons Network^™

Gain In Cellular Organization Of Inflammatory Breast Cancer: A 3d In Vitro Model That Mimics The In Vivo Metastasis, Jorge Morales, Mary L. Alpaugh

Publications and Research

Background The initial step of metastasis in carcinomas, often referred to as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), occurs via the loss of adherens junctions (e.g. cadherins) by the tumor embolus. This leads to a subsequent loss of cell polarity and cellular differentiation and organization, enabling cells of the embolus to become motile and invasive. However highly malignant inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) over-expresses E-cadherin. The human xenograft model of IBC (MARY-X), like IBC, displays the signature phenotype of an exaggerated degree of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in situ by tumor emboli. An intact E-cadherin/α, β-catenin axis mediates the tight, compact clump of cells …

Real Time Imaging Of Biomarkers In The Parkinson's Brain Using Mini-Implantable Biosensors. Ii. Pharmaceutical Therapy With Bromocriptine, Patricia A. Broderick, Edwin H. Kolodny

Publications and Research

We used Neuromolecular Imaging (NMI) and trademarked BRODERICK PROBE® mini-implantable biosensors, to selectively and separately detect neuro-transmitters in vivo, on line, within seconds in the dorsal striatal brain of the Parkinson’s Disease (PD) animal model. We directly compared our results derived from PD to the normal striatal brain of the non-Parkinson’s Disease (non-PD) animal. This advanced biotechnology enabled the imaging of dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-HT), homovanillic acid (HVA) a metabolite of DA, L-tryptophan (L-TP) a precursor to 5-HT and peptides, dynorphin A 1-17 (Dyn A) and somatostatin (somatostatin releasing inhibitory factor) (SRIF). Each neurotransmitter and neurochemical was imaged at a …

The Ticker, December 7, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

John Jay Sentinel Volume 2, No 2, John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Sustained Release Of Multiple Growth Factors From Injectable Polymeric System As A Novel Therapeutic Approach Towards Angiogenesis, Qinghua Sun, Eduardo A. Silva, Aixia Wang, James C. Fritton, David J. Mooney, Mitchell B. Schaffler, Paul M. Grossman, Sanjay Rajagopalan

Publications and Research

Purpose The aim was to investigate that a bio-degradable alginate and poly lactide-co-glycolide (PLG) system capable of delivering growth factors sequentially would be superior to single growth factor delivery in promoting neovascularization and improving perfusion. Methods Three groups of apoE null mice underwent unilateral hindlimb ischemia surgery and received ischemic limb intramuscular injections of alginate (Blank), alginate containing VEGF165 (VEGF), or alginate containing VEGF165 combined with PLG microspheres containing PDGF-BB (VEGF/PDGF). Vascularity in the ischemic hindlimb was assessed by morphologic and immunohistochemical end-points, while changes in blood flow were assessed by Laser Doppler Perfusion Index. Muscle VEGF and PDGF content …

Nonknowledge: The Bibliographical Organization Of Ignorance, Stupidity, Error, And Unreason: Part Two, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

Starting with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom paradigm in information science it is possible to derive a model of the opposite of knowledge having hierarchical qualities. A range of counterpoints to concepts in the knowledge hierarchy can be identified and ascribed the overall term “nonknowledge.” This model creates a conceptual framework for understanding the connections between topics such as error, ignorance, stupidity, folly, popular misconceptions, and unreason by locating them as levels or phases of nonknowledge. The concept of nonknowledge links heretofore disconnected discourses on these individual topics by philosophers, psychologists, historians, sociologists, satirists, and others. Subject headings provide access to the categories …

The Ticker, November 16, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

Egg Eviction Imposes A Recoverable Cost Of Virulence In Chicks Of A Brood Parasite, Michael G. Anderson, Csaba Moskát, Miklós Bán, Tomáš Grim, Phillip Cassey, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Background Chicks of virulent brood parasitic birds eliminate their nestmates and avoid costly competition for foster parental care. Yet, efforts to evict nest contents by the blind and naked common cuckoo Cuculus canorus hatchling are counterintuitive as both adult parasites and large older cuckoo chicks appear to be better suited to tossing the eggs and young of the foster parents. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we show experimentally that egg tossing imposed a recoverable growth cost of mass gain in common cuckoo chicks during the nestling period in nests of great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus hosts. Growth rates of skeletal traits and …

Manipulating Neuronal Circuits With Endogenous And Recombinant Cell-Surface Tethered Modulators, Mande Holford, Sebastian Auer, Martin Laqua, Ines Ibanez-Tallon

Publications and Research

Neuronal circuits depend on the precise regulation of cell-surface receptors and ion channels. An ongoing challenge in neuroscience research is deciphering the functional contribution of specifi c receptors and ion channels using engineered modulators. A novel strategy, termed “tethered toxins”, was recently developed to characterize neuronal circuits using the evolutionary derived selectivity of venom peptide toxins and endogenous peptide ligands, such as lynx1 prototoxins. Herein, the discovery and engineering of cell-surface tethered peptides is reviewed, with particular attention given to their cell-autonomy, modular composition, and genetic targeting in different model organisms. The relative ease with which tethered peptides can be …

Mercury Exposure, Nutritional Deficiencies And Metabolic Disruptions May Affect Learning In Children, Renee Dufault, Roseanne Schnoll, Walter J. Lukiw, Blaise Leblanc, Charles Cornett, Lyn Patrick, David Wallinga, Steven G. Gilbert, Raquel Crider

Publications and Research

Among dietary factors, learning and behavior are influenced not only by nutrients, but also by exposure to toxic food contaminants such as mercury that can disrupt metabolic processes and alter neuronal plasticity. Neurons lacking in plasticity are a factor in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and mental retardation. Essential nutrients help maintain normal neuronal plasticity. Nutritional deficiencies, including deficiencies in the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, the amino acid methionine, and the trace minerals zinc and selenium, have been shown to influence neuronal function and produce defects in neuronal plasticity, as well as impact behavior …

State Of The College 2009: Toward John Jay @ 50, Jeremy Travis

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

No abstract provided.

Oldest Evidence Of Toolmaking Hominins In A Grassland-Dominated Ecosystem, Thomas W. Plummer, Peter W. Ditchfield, Laura C. Bishop, John D. Kingston, Joseph V. Ferraro, David R. Braun, Fritz Hertel, Richard Potts

Publications and Research

Background Major biological and cultural innovations in late Pliocene hominin evolution are frequently linked to the spread or fluctuating presence of C4 grass in African ecosystems. Whereas the deep sea record of global climatic change provides indirect evidence for an increase in C4 vegetation with a shift towards a cooler, drier and more variable global climatic regime beginning approximately 3 million years ago (Ma), evidence for grassland-dominated ecosystems in continental Africa and hominin activities within such ecosystems have been lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings We report stable isotopic analyses of pedogenic carbonates and ungulate enamel, as well as faunal data from ∼2.0 …

The Ticker, October 19, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

Development Of A Mechanical System For Osteon Isolation, S. Ranglin, D. Das, A. Mingo, O. Ukinamemen, Gaffar Gailani, S. Cowin, L. Cardoso

Publications and Research

Osteons are small semi cylindrical hard tissues that exist in long bones of humans and some animals. Their diameter is in the range of 250 – 300 micrometers approximately. They contain the osteocytes which plays a role in bone mechanotransduction. The boundary that surrounds the osteon from outside is called the cement line. In a summer research project supported by CUNY-LSAMP a group of four students and three professors worked full summer to develop a system that can isolate the osteons thus a mechanical testing could be performed (stress relaxation test) to determine their poroelastic properties. Two sets of osteons …

Cooperative Social Clusters Are Not Destroyed By Dispersal In A Ciliate, Nicolas Schtickzelle, Else J. Fjerdingstad, Alexis Chaine, Jean Clobert

Publications and Research

Background The evolution of social cooperation is favored by aggregative behavior to facilitate stable social structure and proximity among kin. High dispersal rates reduce group stability and kin cohesion, so it is generally assumed that there is a fundamental trade-off between cooperation and dispersal. However, empirical tests of this relationship are rare. We tested this assumption experimentally using ten genetically isolated strains of a ciliate, Tetrahymena thermophila. Results The propensity for social aggregation was greater in strains with reduced cell quality and lower growth performance. While we found a trade-off between costly aggregation and local dispersal in phenotypic analyses, aggregative …

Poly-Paraphyly Of Hirudinidae: Many Lineages Of Medicinal Leeches, Anna J. Phillips, Mark E. Siddall

Publications and Research

Background: Medicinal leeches became infamous for their utility in bloodletting popularized in the 19th century, and have seen a recent resurgence in post-operative treatments for flap and replantation surgeries, and in terms of characterization of salivary anticoagulants. Notorious throughout the world, the quintessential leech family Hirudinidae has been taken for granted to be monophyletic, as has the non-bloodfeeding family Haemopidae.

Results: This study is the first to evaluate molecular evidence from hirudinid and haemopid leeches in a manner that encompasses the global scope of their taxonomic distributions. We evaluated the presumed monophyly of the Hirudinidae and assessed previous well-accepted classification …

Comparison Of Spatial Summation Properties Of Neurons In Macaque V1 And V2, S. Shushruth, Jennifer M. Ichida, Jonathan B. Levitt, Alessandra Angelucci

Publications and Research

In visual cortex, responses to stimulation of the receptive field (RF) are modulated by simultaneous stimulation of the RF surround. The mechanisms for surround modulation remain unidentified. We previously proposed that in the primary visual cortex (V1), near surround modulation is mediated by geniculocortical and horizontal connections and far surround modulation by interareal feedback connections. To understand spatial integration in the secondary visual cortex (V2) and its underlying circuitry, we have characterized spatial summation in different V2 layers and stripe compartments and compared it to that in V1. We used grating stimuli in circular and annular apertures of different sizes …

The Ticker, September 29, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

The Ticker, September 21, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

The Ticker, September 8, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

Xmc Mediates Xctr1-Independent Morphogenesis In Xenopus Laevis†, Tomomi Haremaki, Daniel C. Weinstein

Publications and Research

In the frog, Xenopus laevis, fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling is required for both mesoderm formation and the morphogenetic movements that drive the elongation of the notochord, a dorsal mesodermal derivative; the coordination of these distinct roles is mediated by the Xenopus Ctr1 (Xctr1) protein: maternal Xctr1 is required for mesodermal differentiation, while the subsequent loss of Xctr1 promotes morphogenesis. The signaling cascade activated by FGF in the presence of Ctr1 has been well characterized; however, the Xctr1-independent, FGF-responsive network remains poorly defined. We have identified Xenopus Marginal Coil (Xmc) as a gene whose expression is highly enriched following Xctr1 …

The Ticker, August 31, 2009

The Ticker

The Ticker is the student newspaper of Baruch College. It has been published continuously since 1932, when the Baruch College campus was the School of Business and Civic Administration of the City College of New York.

The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status On The Neural Substrates Associated With Pleasure, Michael E. Silverman, Peter Muennig, Xun Liu, Zohn Rosen, Martin A. Goldstein

Publications and Research

Low socio-economic status (SES) is associated with increased morbidity and premature mortality. Because tonic adversity relates to a diminished ability to experience pleasure, we hypothesized that subjects living in poverty would show diminished neural responsivity to positive stimuli in regions associated with positive experience and reward. Visual images were presented to twenty-two subjects in the context of a EPI-BOLD fMRI paradigm. Significant differences in neural responses between SES groups to poverty vs. neutral images were assessed, examining group, condition, and interaction effects. The data suggest that persons living in low-SES have neural experiences consistent with diminished interest in things generally …

Molecular Plasticity Of E-Cadherin And Sialyl Lewis X Expression, In Two Comparative Models Of Mammary Tumorigenesis, Salomé S. Pinho, Celso A. Reis, Fátima Gärtner, Mary L. Alpaugh

Publications and Research

Background The process of metastasis involves a series of steps and interactions between the tumor embolus and the microenvironment. Key alterations in adhesion molecules are known to dictate progression from the invasive to malignant phenotype followed by colonization at a distant site. The invasive phenotype results from the loss of expression of the E-cadherin adhesion molecule, whereas the malignant phenotype is associated with an increased expression of the carbohydrate ligand-binding epitopes, (e.g. Sialyl Lewis x/a) that bind endothelial E-selectin of the lymphatics and vasculature. Methodology Our study analyzed the expression of two adhesion molecules, E-cadherin and Sialyl Lewis x (sLex), …

Subchronic Infusion Of The Product Of Inflammation Prostaglandin J2 Models Sporadic Parkinson's Disease In Mice, Sha-Ron Pierre, Marijke Am Lemmens, Maria E. Figueiredo-Pereira

Publications and Research

Background Chronic neuroinflammation is implicated in Parkinson's disease (PD). Inflammation involves the activation of microglia and astrocytes that release high levels of prostaglandins. There is a profound gap in our understanding of how cyclooxygenases and their prostaglandin products redirect cellular events to promote PD neurodegeneration. The major prostaglandin in the mammalian brain is prostaglandin D2, which readily undergoes spontaneous dehydration to generate the bioactive cyclopentenone prostaglandins of the J2 series. These J2 prostaglandins are highly reactive and neurotoxic products of inflammation shown in cellular models to impair the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway and cause the accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins. PD is a …

Securing An Effective Voice For Citizens In Intergovernmental Administrative Decision Making, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

Intergovernmental administrative arrangements, often obscured from public view, are responsible for public decisions and their consequences. After European Union citizens expressed dissatisfaction with the disconnected administrative decision-making process by rejecting the European Constitution, the European Commission called for a period of reflection to develop tools and processes in order to involve citizens in the decision-making process.

This article examines collaborative efforts by the European Union to involve citizens in the shaping of national priorities. In-depth interviews were conducted with the heads of nonprofit organizations and staffers at nonprofits involved with organizing the European Citizens’ Consultations (ECC). All the organizations are …

Genomic And Systems Evolution In Vibrionaceae Species, Jianying Gu, Jennifer Neary, Hong Cai, Audrey Moshfeghian, Stephen A. Rodriguez, Timothy G. Lilburn, Yufeng Wang

Publications and Research

Background The steadily increasing number of prokaryotic genomes has accelerated the study of genome evolution; in particular, the availability of sets of genomes from closely related bacteria has facilitated the exploration of the mechanisms underlying genome plasticity. The family Vibrionaceae is found in the Gammaproteobacteria and is abundant in aquatic environments. Taxa from the family Vibrionaceae are diversified in their life styles; some species are free living, others are symbiotic, and others are human pathogens. This diversity makes this family a useful set of model organisms for studying bacterial evolution. This evolution is driven by several forces, among them gene …

Journals Not Included In Biosis Have A Notable Impact In Biology, Philip Barnett, Claudia Lascar

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

"Purgatory Cannot Be Worse Than Hell": The First Amendment Rights Of Civilly Committed Sex Offenders, Tanya Kessler

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Continuum Of Violence Against Latinas And Latinos, Jenny Rivera

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.