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Association Of Trim Gene Variation And Lpdv Infection Patterns In Wild Turkeys, Bennett Fry

Honors Theses

Emerging infectious diseases pose a serious threat to various species throughout the globe, including humans. The lymphoproliferative disease virus (LPDV) in wild turkeys is an example of disease virus whose impact on its host requires additional study. Although the first description of lymphoproliferative disease came from outbreaks in domestic turkey flocks in Europe, it is now known that LPDV is widespread in wild turkey populations in North America. In an effort to understand what may affect an individual turkey’s susceptibility to this virus, variation in part of the anti-viral TRIM62 gene was investigated. DNA was extracted from hunter-collected, turkey blood …

Synthesis Of Novel Long Chain Unsaturated Fatty Acid Analogs Of Capsaicin, Eli Bettiga

Honors Theses

A number of key studies have shown that the natural product capsaicin displays in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects against a variety of cancers, however, both the analgesic and cancer-related therapeutic potential of capsaicin have been limited by its unpleasant pungent side effects and modest potency. N-acyl vanillylamides (N-AVAMs) are a unique class of compounds that are simple side chain modified capsaicin derivatives. Limited structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies of N-AVAMs demonstrated that substitution of the capsaicin side-chain with longer unsaturated fatty acid groups results in non-pungent analogs with improved anti-invasive activity relative to capsaicin. In an effort to ultimately …

Summer Programs Spark Success - Journey To Commencement, Kathryn Albritton

Journey to Commencement

Johnny Yang finds inspiration in pre-college programs to become first-generation college graduate

Leader In The Making - Journey To Commencement, Michael Newsom

Journey to Commencement

Senior education major Kamron Bracey finds footing at UM, inspires greatness across campus

April 29, 2021, The Daily Mississippian

Daily Mississippian (all digitized issues)

No abstract provided.

Helping His State Through Pharmacy - Journey To Commencement, Whitney Tarpy

Journey to Commencement

Tate Pepper has made an impact as Ole Miss pharmacy student

Research News. Publications, 2021. Volume 1, Soumyajit Majumdar

Publications (2015-)

Publications that appeared during the period of January 1 through March 31, 2021

Helping Crops Combat Climate Change, Shea Stewart

University of Mississippi News

UM researcher explores effects of climate change on plant growth

Hiv Tat Protein Activates Plasma Kallikrein-Kinin System In Hiv-1 Tat Transgenic Mice, Logan Sneed

Honors Theses

Human Immunodeficiency Viruses are a group of lentiviruses that have seen a lot of study ever since their discovery. HIV-1, the most common and virulent form of the virus, has proven to be quite deadly when untreated, so any research into the mechanisms of HIV pathogenesis and replication could have major medical applications all over the world. HIV-1 is a sexually transmitted virus that compromises the hosts immune system and eventually leads to the patient developing AIDS, a life-threatening condition that nearly half of people infected with HIV will develop within ten years. Our study sets out to determine exactly …

Density Dependent Growth Of Pseudomonas Fluorescens In The Presence And Absence Of C. Elegans Predation In Liquid Media, Jack Landmann

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand the predator-prey relationship between C. elegans worms and P. fluorescens bacteria in liquid media. We were aiming to create a predation model of the relationship between these two species.

This study was performed through three experiments. Using 96-well plates, we were able to measure the change in optical density (OD) of these wells and calculate the growth rate. This growth rate was then graphed and analyzed. The first experiment contained P. fluorescens and KB liquid media, this study demonstrated that the bacterial population has a carrying capacity. We were also able to …

Assessing Arthropod Responses To Volatile Organic Compounds From The Algal Microbiome Of A Sloth Using Drosophila Melanogaster, Lilli Gordon

Honors Theses

Sloths contain an unexplored ecosystem of microbial diversity in their fur, including algae, fungi, bacteria, and arthropods. These symbionts are able to communicate through the chemicals they release, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can lead to unique ecological interactions. The VOCs released from the algal polycultures of sloth hairs merit further investigation in their ability to cause a response from other organisms in this microbial community and within a broader ecological context. This research team aimed to assess the response of Drosophila melanogaster as test subjects when exposed to VOCs of the algal microbiome of a sloth. Exploratory research …

Parkinson's Disease, The Amygdala, And Non-Motor Symptoms, Callie Claire Gammill

Honors Theses

This study sought to explore the relationship between Parkinson’s Disease (PD), the amygdala, and the plethora of non-motor symptoms that plague individuals with PD. Previous research gave insights about the amygdala’s function as the emotional center of the brain, its role in depression, and its participation in the non-motor symptoms of PD. The research proved to still be inconclusive on its own because of a variety of limitations. The methods of this study consist of the analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans from 93 individuals with PD and 18 individuals without PD while in a resting state. The …

Three Students Selected For Prestigious Nsf Research Fellowships, Shea Stewart

University of Mississippi News

UM trio to use Graduate Research Fellowship Program to further explorations

Describing The Gut Microbiome Of Two Freshwater Mussel Species Within The Tennessee River Basin, Eloise Cotten

Honors Theses

Freshwater mussels are important bioindicators of aquatic environmental quality, yet little is known about the composition of their gut microbiome or how it varies between different locations and mussel species. In this study, two species of mussels were collected from three sites located in two rivers, the Duck River and the Paint Rock River of the Tennessee River Basin. The gut microbiome of each mussel was characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Gut microbial communities were primarily composed of members of the Planctomycetes, Cyanobacteria, and Proteobacteria, which along with six other phyla accounted for nearly 90% of the sequences. Dominant …

A Baseline Documentation Report For The Delta Wind Birds Sky Lake Nature Reserve, Preston T. Perkins, J Hays Dubberly, Michael J. Thomas, Jensine Coggin

Honors Theses

The purpose of this baseline documentation is to conduct a report on our subject property and discuss the findings. A conservation easement is established by upholding a certain standard of a property’s current condition which makes a baseline documentation necessary for an easement to be enacted. Baseline documentation reports are used as a resource to monitor and enforce the legal agreements of the conservation easement. The subject property is currently owned by the Delta Wind Birds organization. In our scenario, this documentation report will serve to aid in the conversion of our subject property into a conservation easement in which …

Artificial De Novo Tetramer Hydrogenase Mimic, Co-Metallopeptide Titration, And Photocatalysis, Thuy Hien Le

Honors Theses

Alternative energy is more imperative than ever as we continue to exhaust nonrenewable resources. There is promise in artificial hydrogenases that produce hydrogen gas which can be an alternate source of clean, sustainable renewable energy. Moreover, artificial metalloenzymes were designed for solar H2 production using de novo designed metallopeptides. A computer-guided design approach was used to conceive the peptides. These peptides are 30 amino acids long and are designed to self-assemble into tetrameric structures. There are suitably positioned cysteine residues that bind the metal Co and form metallic clusters within these artificial proteins. The Co-metallopeptides were then characterized by employing …

Computer Science Majors To Benefit From Gift To School Of Engineering, Bill Dabney

University of Mississippi News

No abstract provided.

Q&A With Zach Fields (Bfa Printmaking), Zach Fields

Q & A Interviews with Art Students

No abstract provided.

Surface-Eroding Drug Delivery Films For Sequential And/Or Intermittent Release Of Psychoactive Drugs, Jason Price

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT JASON BLAKE PRICE: Surface-Eroding Drug Delivery Films for Sequential and/or

Intermittent Release of Psychoactive Drugs For patients with psychiatric diseases, adherence to medication schedules, medication

errors, and abuse are common issues. Promising new forms of therapy for these patients, such as micro-dosed lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), where patients receive 10-20% of a full dose every third day, present further drug delivery challenges. Sequential or intermittent release of drugs from an implanted device could ensure long-term drug compliance, automate drug dosing during the life of the implant, and eliminate potential for abuse and medication errors. To this end, we generated …

Studies On Synthesis Of Pyrazole From Dibromo And Hydrazine Compounds., Riya Trivedi

Honors Theses

Depression has become the fourth leading case for mortality and morbidity in the world. It is a leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. Current treatments of depression are inadequate, and the progress in understanding the neurobiology of depression is slow. The first generation antidepressants like monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) have shown to possess a lot of side effects. Hydrazide-based monoamine oxidase inhibitors are known to result in acute hypertensive crises and hepatotoxicity, as well as to interact with many foods and biogenic amine drugs. Tricyclic …

Food Security Status And Disordered Eating Of Male High School Football Players In Rural, Appalachian Mississippi Participating In A Food Education Program, Miller Carlton

Honors Theses

Food insecurity is associated with disordered eating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) male athletes. This study evaluated the impact of a food education program on youth food security and disordered eating of high school football players in rural, Appalachian Mississippi. A Pre-Post design was utilized. Prospective participants (n=47) were recruited in July, 2019. The 12-week season-long food education program included weekly education with practical food-based sport nutrition principles along with food packages to implement principles at home. Youth food security was measured using Self-administered Youth Food Security Module (Connell, 2004). Disordered eating was measured using 5-item scale (Morgan, Reid, …

Non-Linear Dimensionality Reduction Using Auto-Encoder For Optimized Malaria Infected Blood Cell Classifier, Aayush Dhakal

Honors Theses

Neural Networks have been widely used in the problem of Medical Image Analysis. However, when dealing with large images, deep networks easily exhaust computer resources, which in turn hinders training. This paper shows the efficacy of using Auto-Encoders as a dimensionality reduction tool to increase the efficiency of a Malaria Infected Blood Cell Image classifier. We show that using an autoencoder, we can reduce the dimensionality of large blood cell images effectively such that the features in the new space retain all the essential information from the original input. Then we show that the new features obtained from the autoencoder …

Theory And Practice: Selecting And Implementing Effective Framing To Present Climate Science To A Lay Audience, Lauren Wilson

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the advantages and effectiveness of using storytelling in the form of narrative journalism to communicate the topic of climate science to a lay audience. The thesis combines personal experience with secondary research in order to support the claim that framing the issue in such a manner effectively communicates the severity and impact of climate change.

Through my research I discovered that storytelling is not only a social tool for humans, but a means to safely and efficiently pass on vital information to those unfamiliar with certain knowledge. The use of narrative has …

April 13, 2021, University Of Mississippi. Faculty Senate

Meeting Minutes

Minutes for the April 2021 meeting of the University of Mississippi Faculty Senate.

A Spectroscopic And Computational Study Of Diacetyl And Water Clusters, Margaret Baldwin

Honors Theses

Diacetyl, otherwise known as 1,2-butadione or biacetyl, is a flavor additive used in microwave popcorn, and more importantly as of late, e-cigarettes. The compound is known to cause lung disease for those who have been exposed to a large quantity of the buttery smelling molecule. As such, the characterization of diacetyl’s vibrational modes when it interacts with water are pivotal to understanding the effects it has on human lung tissue. In this research, the intermolecular interactions between water and diacetyl and the effects they have on one another’s vibrational modes are explored. While some experimental data is presented, the spectra …

The Other Keegan, Neil Connelly

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

Development Of An Immunoblot To Detect Human Antibodies Against Sars-Cov-2 Virus Proteins, Shivum Desai

Honors Theses

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a virus that infects cells in the lungs, nasal passages, and intestines via the ACE2 receptors of the host, and leads to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Since the occurrence of the pandemic in December 2019, there have been 114 million cases worldwide in which 2.5 million lives have unfortunately been taken away.

Being diagnosed with a past infection stems questions among those that have tested positive through antibody testing. The problem here is that patients were notified that they have antibodies resulting from a SARS-CoV-2 infection, but in fact they may not …

Endowment Honors Memories Of Three Friends, Bill Dabney

University of Mississippi News

No abstract provided.

Ten Seniors Named 2021 Um Hall Of Fame Inductees, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

Students honored for service, achievement and leadership

A Gendered Environmental Justice Perspective Of Tiger Reintroductions To Sariska Tiger Reserve, Elena C. Rubino, Kalli F. Doubleday

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

The reintroduction of Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) to the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India, has resulted in perceived increases of human-wildlife conflict for local villagers. Because previous evidence from other settings suggests that women may experience human-wildlife conflict differently than men, this research employed a comprehensive environmental justice framework to explore how women have been uniquely impacted by tiger reintroductions. Findings from focus group discussions with villagers suggest that women bear greater burdens from increased tiger presence, yet these costs are not typically acknowledged by men, and women do not feel that their perspectives were considered …