Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of An Anti-Neoplastic High In Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Kevin M. Schrader

Honors Theses

The study was a month-long diet change focused on increasing omega-3 fatty acids and decreasing omega-6 fatty acids. This was done by using a Mediterranean style of eating focusing on fish, fruits, and vegetables. At the end of the diet, I lost 19 lbs, had a 2% decrease in body fat, a 2% increase in muscle, and a 7 beats per minute reduction in my heart rate.

Evaluation Of Particle Size Impact On Small Farm Economic Viability, Hannah West

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Loss Of Foxm1 Results In Reduced Somatotrope Cell Number During Mouse Embryogenesis., Michael J Calderon, Adam G Ploegman, Brock Bailey, Deborah O Jung, Amy M Navratil, Buffy S Ellsworth

Articles

FOXM1, a member of the forkhead box transcription factor family, plays a key role in cell cycling progression by regulating the expression of critical G1/S and G2/M phase transition genes. In vivo studies reveal that Foxm1 null mice have a 91% lethality rate at e18.5 due to significant cardiovascular and hepatic hypoplasia. Thus, FOXM1 has emerged as a key protein regulating mitotic division and cell proliferation necessary for embryogenesis. In the current study, we assess the requirement for Foxm1 in the developing pituitary gland. We find that Foxm1 is expressed in the pituitary at embryonic days 10.5-e18.5 and localizes with …

2014-2015 Annual Report, Southern Illinois University Board Of Trustees

Annual Report Archive

No abstract provided.

Siu Alumni, Siu Alumni Association

SIU Alumni Magazine

No abstract provided.

"..." Modern Silence, Sarah Maher

Honors Theses

Silence is remarkable, both in concept and in reality. The human ear is outstanding at doing what it was made for. Not only can it withstand loud sound, but can also recognize the softest and most intricate whisperings, as well as everything in between. The ear can recognize all of these sounds and passes them on to our brains for interpretation. Our ears collect all sound but our brains determine what to focus on and what to ignore. But what if there are no “important” sounds? What if you are sitting alone in an empty room, making no unnecessary sounds? …

Women In Medicine: Past, Present, & Future, Ryleigh S. Livingston

Honors Theses

Women have been healers throughout history, even dating back to ancient Egypt and Greece, but it is only recently that they have been accepted into mainstream Western medicine. This research examines women and their role in healing and healthcare from ancient Egypt and through the Middle Ages, focusing mostly on Western medicine, but also looking at Eastern traditions in medicine in the world of Islam and China. The second part of this project details the creation and execution of an event hosted by the author and her co-chair La'Mayah Hodges for Women's History Month and the research that was presented …

Optimization Of Indirubin And Indigo Production In E.Coli, Gisela Cairo

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to determine the conditions that give the highest yield of indigo and indirubin in recombinant E.coli. This E.coli has been transformed with a P450 gene from woad, an indigo producing plant. The conditions investigated were the type of media, the amount of inducer, the presences of supplements, and the induction time. The techniques used during the experiments were liquid-liquid extraction using separatory funnels and centrifugation, rotary evaporation, UV-vis spectrophotometry, and thin layer chromatography. Thin layer chromatography showed that the products of the reaction are indigo and indirubin; UV-vis spectrophotometry was used to find …

Plague Inc: Distribution Of Health Resources In The Modern World, Allison Rump

Honors Theses

Due to the ever increasing connectedness of our world, disease can spread faster than ever before. Therefore global health care is a pressing issue in the modern world. The Ebola epidemic of 2014, which infected an unprecedented number of people, was reminder of not only of human fragility but of the state modern medicine, especially when deployed in economically developing areas. Not only is medicine about the science and treatment of disease, it also is about economics and the ability to pay for treatment. This can manifest in many forms, for the Ebola epidemic there often were not enough equipment …

The Effects Of Exercise On The Microbial Metabolites Of The Equine Cecum, Ashton (Johanna) Wilson

Honors Theses

Little is known about the effect of exercise on the microbial profile of the equine cecum. As hindgut fermenters, horses are particular sensitive to gastrointestinal disorders. Previous work (McKenzie et.al., 2010; Walshe and Duggan, 2011; Schoester et.al., 2012; and Jager et.al., 2013) has demonstrated an impact of exercise on the fecal microbial composition of equines and canines. However, no information has been reported on the effects of exercise related to ammonia and volatile fatty acid production within the cecum. The objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that increasing exercise would impact the production of ammonia and volatile …

Green Tea Facts And Evidences, Nouf Salman Alsuwailem

Research Papers

Green tea has been consumed in China and other Asian countries since ancient times. Nowadays, green tea is considered to be one of the most promising dietary agents for the prevention and treatment of many diseases and is consequently being studied extensively worldwide. The main objective of this research paper is to clarify the benefits and the impacts of green tea on human health. Numerous studies in humans and a variety of experimental animal models have demonstrated that green tea possess antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and anticarcinogenic effects. Furthermore, green tea consumption has been reported to act positively against cardiovascular …

Southern Illinois Ticks: An Ecological And Medical Overview, Madeleine A. Pfaff

Honors Theses

Ticks are of concern to southern Illinois residents because they are common in the forested landscapes of the region and have the capability to cause disease in humans and pets. There are several tick-borne illnesses of concern to southern Illinois residents. Prescribed burning is a potential method of tick control, but no significant results were found in the correlation of tick density with time since burn.

Comics As Film, Film As Comics: The Examples Of Alan Moore, Daniel Clowes, And Harvey Pekar, Rachel A. Atherton

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Efficacy Of Hormone-Toxin Fusion Protein In Cell Culture, Morgan Dillard

Honors Theses

Luteinizing hormone (LH) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) are members of the gonadotropin family and are vital for fertility in animals. Both LH and hCG bind to the luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR), found only in gonadal cells. Binding of the hormone to its receptor causes production of the steroid hormones testosterone and estrogen. By ablating cells that express LHR, the production of sex steroids would be terminated, leading to a loss in fertility. The overall goal of the project is to create a nonsurgical, single-dose sterilant for cats and dogs by ablating these cells. One way to target these cells …

Spatial And Temporal Structure Of A Mesocarnivore Guild In Midwestern North America, Damon B. Lesmeister, Clayton K. Nielsen, Eric M. Schauber, Eric Hellgren

Publications

Carnivore guilds play a vital role in ecological communities by cascading trophic effects, energy and nutrient transfer, and stabilizing or destabilizing food webs. Consequently, the structure of carnivore guilds can be critical to ecosystem patterns. Body size is a crucial influence on intraguild interactions, because it affects access to prey resources, effectiveness in scramble competition, and vulnerability to intraguild predation. Coyotes (Canis latrans), bobcats (Lynx rufus), gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), raccoons (Procyon lotor), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) occur sympatrically throughout much of North …

Capturing Critical Whiteness: Portraits Of White Antiracist Professors, Melanie Jane Stivers

Dissertations

This study contains qualitative portraits based on the stories of three white university professors who are nominated by their students as white allies. Through the thick description of setting and context, white privilege is named as the researcher's experience and that of each of the participants. The researcher examines ways in which each participant strives to disrupt racism. Using a lens of critical theory applied through critical pedagogy and critical whiteness philosophies, the researcher highlights the following themes as they emerge: education, exposure, empathy, and engagement. This study contributes to the literature by providing examples of white professors challenging racism …

Race, Socialization, And Civility: Interrogating The Communicative Construction Of The White Habitus, Charles Kyle Rudick

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation project was to understand how institutions of higher education, through both punishments and rewards, ensure that dominant cultural codes are "taught" to students of color in ways that normalize whiteness ideologies. I wanted to understand racism in higher education through the lens of socialization to show the ways in which institutional members (un)intentionally conflate dominant cultural codes with the "correct" or "normal" way to think, act, or speak. Furthermore, I was interested in the ways that students of color take up, defer, resist, adapt, mix, subvert, and/or accommodate the institutional practices that (re)produce racial power …

Transgender Identity And Media In Historical Perspective, Melanie L. Bilbrey

Honors Theses

Despite recent advances in the public sphere, the transgender community remains vulnerable and underrepresented in daily life. While the media has been fascinated with transgender stories since the 1930s, these stories have been skewed in ways that undermine what it truly means to be a transgender person living in the contemporary United States. The disconnect between dominant media narratives and the daily lives of transgendered people is harmful, because it shields the mainstream from the harsh realities of every day life for these individuals and allows violence, discrimination, and transphobia to continue. This study analyzes the growing visibility of the …

Can Distractibility Facilitate Recall In Older Adults? The Role Of Affect And Hyper-Binding, Cassandra Dinius

Theses

As people age, they attend to and recall positive stimuli at a higher frequency than stimuli that is negative in valence. This `positivity effect' of older adults has been repeatedly demonstrated in the fields of human attention and memory. Studies have yet to examine the positivity effect within the realm of attentional inhibition, which was the focus of the current study. In the current study, both young and older adults were shown emotional images. These images varied in valence (negative, neutral, positive) and were superimposed with emotional words (also varying in valence). In the Adaptive condition of the study, participants …

Where Has She Been And Where Is She Going: The Evolutionary Portrayal Of Black Women In Print Advertising From The 1960s To 2000s, Madeline Smith

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Predicting Multi-Trophic Consequences Of An Emerging Disease, Adam D. Chupp

Dissertations

There are numerous examples of how exotic insect pests and pathogens have altered the dominance of native tree species and the ecological processes and function related to those species. While targeted species may persist in a functionally altered state via vegetative sprouting, the widespread decimation of a species can have dramatic direct and indirect consequences for organisms in multiple trophic levels. Devastation due to alien insect herbivores poses the greatest threat to native insect larvae that specialize on the impacted host species. The loss of pollinators whose larvae feed on impacted species and provide services for native plants may also …

Employing Response Surface Methodology For The Optimization Of Ultrasound Assisted Extraction Of Lutein And Β-Carotene From Spinach, David A. Lightfoot, Ammar Altemimi, Mary Kinsel, Dennis G. Watson

Articles

Abstract: The extraction of lutein and β-carotene from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves is important to the dietary supplement industry. A Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology (RSM) were used to investigate the effect of process variables on the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of lutein and β-carotene from spinach. Three independent variables, extraction temperature (°C), extraction power (%) and extraction time (min) were studied. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) followed by UV visualization and densitometry was used as a simple and rapid method for both identification and quantification of lutein and β-carotene during UAE. Methanol extracts of leaves from spinach and authentic …

The Lack Of Public Policies Implemented In Illinois’ Special Education Certification Requirements That Directly Involve Educating Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Michelle Thies

Research Papers

With the growing number of children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention must be paid to the educational instruction and educational setting these children are being provided. By looking at the special education certification requirements in addition to the general education requirements, it will help to show where public policies are falling short when educating this population of students. This paper attempts to answer these questions: Are there specific certification requirements in Illinois for special education teachers to teach students who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD)? If so, are these requirements being implemented in the classroom? If there …

Markerless Facial Motion Capture, Sara J. Saito

Research Papers

With the ever-rising capabilities of motion capture systems; this project explored markerless facial motion capture programs using the Kinect Sensor for Xbox. Many systems today still use markers and end up retargeting after a motion capture recording. This project used a simpler process of setting up and being able to display the effects live. An off-the-shelf system was built using a computer, a Kinect Sensor, a plug-in from Brekel, and Autodesk software. The first goal was to create a process that was able to capture and project live facial motion for fewer than $500 USD. Anything over $500 USD was …

Context-Specific Close-Range “Hoo” Calls In Wild Gibbons (Hylobates Lar), Esther Clarke, Ulrich H. Reichard, Klaus Zuberbühler

Publications

Background

Close range calls are produced by many animals during intra-specific interactions, such as during home range defence, playing, begging for food, and directing others. In this study, we investigated the most common close range vocalisation of lar gibbons (Hylobates lar), the ‘hoo’ call. Gibbons and siamangs (family Hylobatidae) are known for their conspicuous and elaborate songs, while quieter, close range vocalisations have received almost no empirical attention, perhaps due to the difficult observation conditions in their natural forest habitats.

Results

We found that ‘hoo’ calls were emitted by both sexes in a variety of contexts, including feeding, …

2015 Abstract Book, Undergraduate Creative Activities And Research Forum

Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Forum Abstract Books

No abstract provided.

Southern Illinois University Of Carbondale Project Upward Bound, Robin Thomas

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Determining U.S. Citizens' Attitude Toward The Environment: An Econometric Analysis Of The New Environmental Paradigm (Nep), Ralph L. Beauvoir

Research Papers

This paper develops econometric models to address two objectives: (i) examining whether or not the demographic and socio-economic profiles play any role in explaining US citizens’ attitude toward environmental/ecological state of our planet, and (ii) determining whether such attitudes are significantly related to economic, environmental and social behaviors. US citizens’ attitudes toward ecological state of our planet are measured using the 15 questions from the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP). The level of agreement to the New Environmental Paradigm statements were measured by the Seven-Point-Likert scale. Incorporating various dimensions of our planet’s ecological problems/issues, the NEP measures whether respondents are optimistic …

Research In Carbon-Carbon Composites, Saifeldein A. Arabab

Research Papers

TITLE: CARBON-CARBON COMPOSITES

MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Jarlen Don

Carbon-Carbon (C-C) composites, are materials that offer designers a significant importance over conventional materials for advanced applications. The Carbon-Carbon (C-C) composites were originally developed to be used in aerospace and defense applications, because of their unique properties. Currently, they are employed in many applications. They exhibit light weight, high thermal efficiency, and excellent mechanical properties at higher temperatures, making them the right candidate materials for aircraft and racing car brakes and re-entry nose tips. Moreover, they demonstrate significant durability for friction and wear properties. Compared to advanced ceramics, Carbon-Carbon (C-C) composites have …

Gene Expression, Protein Function And Pathways Of Arabidopsis Thaliana Responding To Silver Nanoparticles In Comparison To Silver Ions, Cold, Salt, Drought, And Heat, Eisa Kohan-Baghkheirati, Jane C. Geisler-Lee

Publications

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been widely used in industry due to their unique physical and chemical properties. However, AgNPs have caused environmental concerns. To understand the risks of AgNPs, Arabidopsis microarray data for AgNP, Ag⁺, cold, salt, heat and drought stresses were analyzed. Up- and down-regulated genes of more than two-fold expression change were compared, while the encoded proteins of shared and unique genes between stresses were subjected to differential enrichment analyses. AgNPs affected the fewest genes (575) in the Arabidopsis genome, followed by Ag⁺ (1010), heat (1374), drought (1435), salt (4133) and cold (6536). More genes …