Digital Commons Network^™

Construction Of A Cdna Library And Preliminary Analysis Of The Expressed Sequence Tags Of The Earthworm Eisenia Fetida (Savigny, 1826), Chang Liu, Xuan Wang, Jiu-Bo Tian, Pei-Yuan Ma, Fan-Xiu Meng, Qi Zhang, Bao-Feng Yu, Rui Guo, Zhi-Zhen Liu, Hai-Long Wang, Jun Xie, Niu-Llang Cheng, Jian-Hua Wang, Bo Niu, Gongqin Sun

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Earthworms are useful indicator organisms of soil health and Eisenia fetida have been extensively used as test organisms in ecotoxicological studies. In order to gain insight into the gene expression profiles associated with physiological functions of earthworms, a full‑length enriched cDNA library of the Eisenia fetida genome was successfully constructed using Switching Mechanism at 5'End of RNA Template technology. Construction of a cDNA library and analysis of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) are efficient approaches for collecting genomic information and identifying genes important for a given biological process. Furthermore, analysis of the expression abundance of ESTs was performed with the aim …

Molecular Mechanisms Underpinning Transgenerational Plasticity In The Green Sea Urchin Psammechinus Miliaris, Melody S. Clark, Coleen Suckling, Alessandro Cavallo, Clara L. Mackenzie, Michael A.S. Thorne, Andrew J. Davies, Lloyd S. Peck

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

The pre-conditioning of adult marine invertebrates to altered conditions, such as low pH, can significantly impact offspring outcomes, a process which is often referred to as transgenerational plasticity (TGP). This study describes for the first time, the gene expression profiles associated with TGP in the green sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris and evaluates the transcriptional contribution to larval resilience. RNA-Seq was used to determine how the expression profiles of larvae spawned into low pH from pre-acclimated adults differed to those of larvae produced from adults cultured under ambient pH. The main findings demonstrated that adult conditioning to low pH critically pre-loads …

Longitudinal Analysis Of Memory B And T Cell Responses To Dengue Virus In A 5-Year Prospective Cohort Study In Thailand, Luis A. Sánchez-Vargas, Sonia Kounlavouth, Madison L. Smith, Kathryn B. Anderson, Anon Srikiatkhachorn, Damon W. Ellison, Jeffrey R. Currier, Timothy P. Endy, Anuja Mathew, Alan L. Rothman

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Prior exposure to dengue virus (DENV) has a profound impact on the outcome of infection, which varies according to the interval between infections. Antibodies secreted by B cells and cytokines secreted by T cells are thought to contribute both to protective immunity against DENV and the pathogenesis of dengue disease. We analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected from Thai children over a 5-year prospective cohort study to define the dynamics of DENV-specific memory B and T cell responses and the impact of symptomatic or subclinical DENV infections. To measure B cell responses, PBMC were stimulated with IL-2 plus R848 …

Bacterial Community Dynamics In An Oyster Hatchery In Response To Probiotic Treatment, Rebecca J. Stevick, Saebom Sohn, Tejashree H. Modak, David R. Nelson, David C. Rowley, Karin Tammi, Roxanna Smolowitz, Kathryn Markey Lundgren, Anton F. Post, Marta Gomez-Chiarri

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Larval oysters in hatcheries are susceptible to diseases caused by bacterial pathogens, including Vibrio spp. Previous studies have shown that daily addition of the probiotic Bacillus pumilus RI06-95 to water in rearing tanks increases larval survival when challenged with the pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus. We propose that the presence of probiotics causes shifts in bacterial community structure in rearing tanks, leading to a net decrease in the relative abundance of potential pathogens. During three trials spanning the 2012–2015 hatchery seasons, larvae, tank biofilm, and rearing water samples were collected from control and probiotic-treated tanks in an oyster hatchery over a …

Inhibition Of Dusp6 Sensitizes Ovarian Cancer Cells To Chemotherapeutic Agents Via Regulation Of Erk Signaling Response Genes, Nicole E. James, Lindsey Beffa, Matthew T. Oliver, Ashley D. Borgstadt, Jenna B. Emerson, Clinton O. Chichester, Naohiro Yano, Richard N. Freiman, Paul A. Disilvestro, Jennifer R. Ribeiro

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Dual specificity phosphatase 6 (DUSP6) is a protein phosphatase that deactivates extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Since the ovarian cancer biomarker human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) interacts with the ERK pathway, we sought to determine the relationship between DUSP6 and HE4 and elucidate DUSP6’s role in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Viability assays revealed a significant decrease in cell viability with pharmacological inhibition of DUSP6 using (E/Z)-BCI hydrochloride in ovarian cancer cells treated with carboplatin or paclitaxel, compared to treatment with either agent alone. Quantitative PCR was used to evaluate levels of ERK pathway response genes to BCI in combination with recombinant HE4 …

Septin-2 Is Overexpressed In Epithelial Ovarian Cancer And Mediates Proliferation Via Regulation Of Cellular Metabolic Proteins, Nicole E. James, Evelyn Cantillo, Naohiro Yano, Clinton O. Chichester, Paul A. Disilvestro, Virginia Hovanesian, R. Shyama Prasad Rao, Kyukwang K. Kim, Richard G. Moore, Nagib Ahsan, Jennifer R. Ribeiro

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC) is associated with dismal survival rates due to the fact that patients are frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage and eventually become resistant to traditional chemotherapeutics. Hence, there is a crucial need for new and innovative therapies. Septin-2, a member of the septin family of GTP binding proteins, has been characterized in EOC for the first time and represents a potential future target. Septin-2 was found to be overexpressed in serous and clear cell human patient tissue compared to benign disease. Stable septin-2 knockdown clones developed in an ovarian cancer cell line exhibited a significant decrease …

Probing The Effect Of Bulky Lesion-Induced Replication Fork Conformational Heterogeneity Using 4-Aminobiphenyl-Modified Dna, Ang Cai, Ke Bian, Fangyi Chen, Qi Tang, Rachel Carley, Deyu Li, Bongsup P. Cho

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Bulky organic carcinogens are activated in vivo and subsequently react with nucleobases of cellular DNA to produce adducts. Some of these DNA adducts exist in multiple conformations that are slowly interconverted to one another. Different conformations have been implicated in different mutagenic and repair outcomes. However, studies on the conformation-specific inhibition of replication, which is more relevant to cell survival, are scarce, presumably due to the structural dynamics of DNA lesions at the replication fork. It is difficult to capture the exact nature of replication inhibition by existing end-point assays, which usually detect either the ensemble of consequences of all …

Urinformed Fall 2019, Urinformed

URInformed: The URI Employees' Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Temporal Effectiveness Of Biodiversity Surrogates In Coral Reefs In The British Virgin Islands, Nicole B. Keefner

Open Access Master's Theses

Global biodiversity declines associated with anthropogenic stressors have motivated researchers to implement monitoring programs to estimate species richness for major taxonomic groups. Due to logistical challenges of species identification, there have been efforts to use biological and abiotic surrogates as indicators of species richness targets. An effective surrogate has two essential features: first, it takes less time, money, and experience to measure than the target and second, it maintains a consistently strong correlation with the target over space and time. Few studies, however, have explicitly investigated surrogate effectiveness over time, and those that have are typically quite short. Our main …

Inclusive Teaching, Bryan Dewsbury, Cynthia J. Brame

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Over the past two decades, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty have been striving to make their teaching practices more inclusive and welcoming to the variety of students who enter college. However, many STEM faculty, even those at teaching-focused institutions, have been educated in a traditional environment that emphasizes research and may not include classroom teaching. This can produce a deficit in training that leaves many STEM faculty feeling uncertain about inclusive teaching practices and their essential undergirding principles. This essay describes an online, evidence-based teaching guide (https://lse.ascb.org/evidence-based-teaching-guides/inclusive-teaching) intended to help fill this gap, serving as a resource for …

Global Spatial Risk Assessment Of Sharks Under The Footprint Of Fisheries, Nuno Queiroz, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Et Al

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Effective ocean management and the conservation of highly migratory species depend on resolving the overlap between animal movements and distributions, and fishing effort. However, this information is lacking at a global scale. Here we show, using a big-data approach that combines satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and global fishing fleets, that 24% of the mean monthly space used by sharks falls under the footprint of pelagic longline fisheries. Space-use hotspots of commercially valuable sharks and of internationally protected species had the highest overlap with longlines (up to 76% and 64%, respectively), and were also associated with significant increases in fishing …

Genome Analysis Of The Rice Coral Montipora Capitata, Alexander Shumaker, Hollie M. Putnam, Huan Qiu, Dana C. Price, Ehud Zelzion, Arye Harel, Nicole E. Wagner, Ruth D. Gates, Hwan Su Yoon, Debashish Bhattacharya

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Corals comprise a biomineralizing cnidarian, dinoflagellate algal symbionts, and associated microbiome of prokaryotes and viruses. Ongoing efforts to conserve coral reefs by identifying the major stress response pathways and thereby laying the foundation to select resistant genotypes rely on a robust genomic foundation. Here we generated and analyzed a high quality long-read based ~886 Mbp nuclear genome assembly and transcriptome data from the dominant rice coral, Montipora capitata from Hawai’i. Our work provides insights into the architecture of coral genomes and shows how they differ in size and gene inventory, putatively due to population size variation. We describe a recent …

Vulnerability Of Resource Users In Louisiana’S Oyster Fishery To Environmental Hazards, Austin T. Humphries, Lauren I. Josephs, Megan K. La Peyre, Steven Hall, Rachel Dowty Beech

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Knowledge of vulnerability provides the foundation for developing actions that minimize impacts on people while maximizing the sustainability of ecosystem goods and services. As a result, it is becoming increasingly important to determine how resource-dependent people are vulnerable to environmental hazards. This idea is particularly true in coastal Louisiana, USA, where the current era of rapid land loss has the potential to undermine oyster fisheries. However, little is known about how such environmental change might differentially affect resource users and stakeholders. We examined social components of vulnerability to environmental hazards using indicators of susceptibility and adaptive capacity within the oyster …

Complex Transboundary Movements Of Marine Megafauna In The Western Indian Ocean, Amanda N. Barkley, Matthew Gollock, Melita Samoilys, Fiona Llewellyn, Mahmood Shivji, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Nigel E. Hussey

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Transboundary marine species have an increased risk of overexploitation as management regimes and enforcement can vary among states. The complex geopolitical layout of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) introduces the potential for migratory species to cross multiple boundaries, consequently a lack of scientific data could complicate regional management. In the current study, we highlight both the relative lack of spatial data available in the WIO, and the prevalence of transboundary movements in species that have previously been studied in the region. Five tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier were tracked with near real‐time positioning (SPOT) satellite tags …

Clustered Hierarchical Entropy-Scaling Search Of Astronomical And Biological Data, Najib Ishaq, George Student, Noah M. Daniels

Computer Science and Statistics Faculty Publications

Both astronomy and biology are experiencing explosive growth of data, resulting in a “big data” problem that stands in the way of a “big data” opportunity for discovery. One common question asked of such data is that of approximate search (ρ–nearest neighbors search). We present a hierarchical search algorithm for such data sets that takes advantage of particular geometric properties apparent in both astronomical and biological data sets, namely the metric entropy and fractal dimensionality of the data. We present CHESS (Clustered Hierarchical Entropy-Scaling Search), a search tool with virtually no loss in specificity or sensitivity, demonstrating a 13.6 × …

Raytheon -- Strength Optimized Designs Using Additive Manufacturing, Donovan Blanpied, Reed Nelson, David Silverstein, Alex Snyder

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Designing a structure to demonstrate the strength of 3-D printed part is more complicated than it seems. The design goal was to construct a device that demonstrates how 3-D printing can create a strength optimized design. The design must incorporate maximum strength, while not sacrificing other major components such as weight of the product, cost of the product, print time of the product and how much material is being used. Extensive research and tests were conducted on infill patterns, football helmets, and TPU material (material used in football helmets).

There are multiple infill patterns that must be considered. The most …

Longitudinal Patterns Of Mexican And Puerto Rican Children’S Asthma Controller Medication Adherence And Acute Healthcare Utilization, Kimberly J. Arcoleo, Collen Mcgovern, Karentjot Kaur, Jill S. Halterman, Jennifer R. Mammen, Hugh Crean, Deepa Rastogi, Jonathan M. Feldman

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

Rationale: Researchers tend to study Latinos as a single group but recent asthma research confirmed differences among Latino subgroups. Variations in controller medication adherence may be a factor in the observed health disparities between Mexican and Puerto Rican children. Adherence is not a stable phenomenon, however, there is a paucity of data on patterns of adherence, sociodemographic predictors of patterns, and variations in asthma-related acute healthcare utilization by adherence pattern among Latino sub-groups.

Objectives: Identify patterns of inhaled corticosteroid medication adherence over twelve months among Mexican and Puerto Rican children with persistent asthma; examine sociodemographic predictors of adherence …

Life Without Professional Work-Perceptions About One’S Self, Interpersonal Relations And Social Life After Retirement, Ann-Charlotte Dalheim-Englund, Gunilla Carlsson, Maria Nystrom, Catharina Gillsjö, Irene Eriksson, Lina Palmer

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

The aim of this study is to understand how healthy, older adults in Sweden perceive their life situation after retirement. The study is based on a lifeworld approach, and a phenomenographic method was used. Eighteen participants were interviewed, and data were analysed according to the phenomenographic principle of qualitatively different categories. Two categories were developed. The first category, “perceptions that draw attention inward, towards one’s self”, was further described in three subcategories: Sense of decreased status in society, the desire to keep aging at a distance, and contemplation of one’s own existence. The second category, “perceptions that draw attention outward, …

Development And Preliminary Results Of An Electronic Medical Record (Emr)-Integrated Smartphone Telemedicine Program To Deliver Asthma Care Remotely, Jennifer R. Mammen, James J. Java, Jill Halterman, Marc N. Berliant, Amber Crowley, Sean M. Frey, Marina Reznik, Jonathan M. Feldman, Judith D. Schoonmaker, Kimberly Arcoleo

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

Background: Technology-based interventions that can function within real-world practice and improve outcomes without increasing provider burden are needed, yet few successfully cross the research-to-practice divide. This paper describes the process of developing a clinically-integrated smartphone-telemedicine program for adults with asthma and results from proof-of-concept testing.

Methods: To ensure integration with practice, we used a contextually-grounded intervention development approach and May's implementation theory to design the intervention, with emphasis on systems capabilities and stakeholder needs. The intervention incorporated symptom monitoring by smart phone, smartphone telemedicine visits and self-management training with a nurse, and clinical decision support software, which provided automated calculations …

The Meaning Of Growing Old: A Lifeworld Hermeneutic Study On Existential Matters During The Third Age Of Life, Lina Palmér, Maria Nyström, Gunilla Carlsson, Catharina Gillsjö, Irene Eriksson, Ann-Charlotte Dalheim-Englund

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

This study investigates existential matters in the third age of life, which encompasses the years after retirement and ends when extensive support needs emerge in the fourth age. As the theoretical starting point in a lifeworld hermeneutic approach, 18 healthy older adults were interviewed about what it means for them to grow old. The interviews were interpreted according to Gadamer’s principles of openness and Ricoeur’s proposal to provide suggestions on how meaning can be explained. The findings are presented in three interpreted themes: Feeling free, Becoming vulnerable, and Existing in closeness to death. The themes are further interpreted, and a …

Understanding The Genetics Of Asthma And Implications For Clinical Practice, Jennifer R. Mammen, Kimberly Arcoleo

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

Asthma is one of the most common heritable diseases globally, with variable clinical expression and response to treatment that is attributed to underlying genetic differences. Hundreds of loci on multiple chromosomes are associated with asthma. Although routine genetic screening is not recommended, testing for medication responsiveness might soon play a role in clinical management. Pharmacogenetic research remains early stage but has demonstrated potential for both clinical and cost effectiveness. Furthermore, recognition of clinically apparent asthma phenotypes, the result of genetic and environmental interactions, can help to inform treatment decisions. Phenotypes are divided into two broad categories of atopic and nonatopic …

Associations Between Timing And Quality Of Solid Food Introduction With Infant Weight-For-Length Z-Scores At 12 Months: Findings From The Nurture Cohort, Maya Vadiveloo, Alison Tovar, Truls Østbye, Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon

Nutrition Faculty Publications

This study assesses associations of the timing and quality of solid foods introduced during infancy with weight-for-length (WFL) z-scores at 12 months within the Nurture cohort. Women from North Carolina self-reported sociodemographics, the timing and type of solid food introduction, and reasons for introducing solids; infant anthropometrics were measured every 3 months through 1 year (n = 666). Frequency (0–5x/day) infants consumed fruits and vegetables was used to compute a mean (4–12 months) healthy food score (HFS), and sweets, french fries, snacks, and ice cream was used to compute a mean unhealthy food score (UnHFS). Multivariable-adjusted generalized linear models …

Loss Of Bcaa Catabolism During Carcinogenesis Enhances Mtorc1 Activity And Promotes Tumor Development And Progression, Russell E. Ericksen, Siew Lan Lim, Eoin Mcdonnell, Wai Ho Shuen, Maya Vadiveloo, Phillip J. White, Zhaobing Ding, Royston Kwok, Philip Lee, George K. Radda, Han Chong Toh, Matthew D. Hirschey, Weiping Han

Nutrition Faculty Publications

Tumors display profound changes in cellular metabolism, yet how these changes aid the development and growth of tumors is not fully understood. Here we use a multi-omic approach to examine liver carcinogenesis and regeneration, and find that progressive loss of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolism promotes tumor development and growth. In human hepatocellular carcinomas and animal models of liver cancer, suppression of BCAA catabolic enzyme expression led to BCAA accumulation in tumors, though this was not observed in regenerating liver tissues. The degree of enzyme suppression strongly correlated with tumor aggressiveness, and was an independent predictor of clinical outcome. Moreover, …

Mutation Update For The Satb2 Gene, Yuri A. Zarate, R. Caffrey, Et Al

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

SATB2‐associated syndrome (SAS) is an autosomal dominant neurodevelopmental disorder caused by alterations in the SATB2 gene. Here we present a review of published pathogenic variants in the SATB2 gene to date and report 38 novel alterations found in 57 additional previously unreported individuals. Overall, we present a compilation of 120 unique variants identified in 155 unrelated families ranging from single nucleotide coding variants to genomic rearrangements distributed throughout the entire coding region of SATB2. Single nucleotide variants predicted to result in the occurrence of a premature stop codon were the most commonly seen (51/120 = 42.5%) followed by …

Affective Response As A Mediator Of The Association Between The Physical And Social Environment And Physical Activity Behavior, Holly K. Boyle, Shira I. Dunsiger, Lauren Connell Bohlen, Jessica A. Emerson, Harold H. Lee, Courtney J. Stevens, David M. Williams

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Perceptions of the physical and social environment have been shown to be predictive of physical activity (PA) behavior. However, the mechanisms of this association have not been examined. Affective response to PA was examined as a putative mediator of the association between perceptions of the PA environment and subsequent PA behavior. As part of a PA promotion study, 59 low-active overweight or obese but otherwise healthy adults completed real-time assessments of the perceived physical and social PA environment, affective response to PA, and PA behavior over a 6-month period. As hypothesized, decreased latency to and greater duration of subsequent PA …

Parent Couples’ Participation In Speech-Language Therapy For School-Age Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In The United States, Michelle Flippin, Debbie L. Hahs-Vaughn

Communicative Disorders Faculty Publications

This study examined parent couples’ participation in and satisfaction with speech-language therapy for school-age children with autism spectrum disorder in the United States. Responses from 40 father–mother couples (n = 80 parents) were examined across therapy components (i.e. parent–therapist communication, assessment, planning, and intervention). Descriptive frequencies, chi-square tests, intraclass correlations, and dyadic multilevel modeling were used to examine participation across fathers and mothers and within parent couples. Compared to mothers, fathers communicated less with therapists and participated less in assessment and planning. Fathers also had lower satisfaction than mothers with parent–therapist communication and planning. Although few parents participated in …

University Manual 2018-2019, Uri Faculty Senate

University Manual Archive

No abstract provided.

Polyphenol Microbial Metabolites Exhibit Gut And Blood–Brain Barrier Permeability And Protect Murine Microglia Against Lps-Induced Inflammation, Shelby L. Johnson, Riley D. Kirk, Nicholas A. Dasilva, Hang Ma, Navindra P. Seeram, Matthew Bertin

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Increasing evidence supports the beneficial effects of polyphenol-rich diets, including the traditional Mediterranean diet, for the management of cardiovascular disease, obesity and neurodegenerative diseases. However, a common concern when discussing the protective effects of polyphenol-rich diets against diseases is whether these compounds are present in systemic circulation in their intact/parent forms in order to exert their beneficial effects in vivo. Here, we explore two common classes of dietary polyphenols, namely isoflavones and lignans, and their gut microbial-derived metabolites for gut and blood–brain barrier predicted permeability, as well as protection against neuroinflammatory stimuli in murine BV-2 microglia. Polyphenol microbial metabolites (PMMs) …

Draft Genome Sequence Of The Putative Marine Pathogen Thalassobius Sp. I31.1, Hilary J. Ranson, Jason Laporte, Edward Spinard, Andrei Y. Chistoserdov, Marta Gomez-Chiarri, David R. Nelson, David C. Rowley

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Thalassobius sp. I31.1 is a putative pathogen involved in epizootic shell disease in the American lobster (Homarus americanus). We report here the draft genome sequence for Thalassobius sp. I31.1 and provide insight into its metabolism and links to environmental pollutant degradation.

Enhancement Of Macrophage Uptake Via Phosphatidylserine-Coated Acetalated Dextran Nanoparticles, Nishan K. Shah, Sweta K. Gupta, Zimeng Wang, Samantha A. Meenach

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Although vital to the immune system, macrophages can act as reservoirs for pathogens such as tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus. Limitations in the treatment of such diseases include targeting therapeutics directly to macrophages and the large systemic dosages needed. The objective of this study is to develop a nanoparticle (NP)-based drug delivery system that can provide targeted delivery into macrophages. Acetalated dextran (Ac-Dex) NP loaded with the lipophilic model compound curcumin (CUR) were synthesized and coated in 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-l-serine (DPPS), a phospholipid that induces phagocytosis in macrophages. DPPS-CUR NP were found to release 67.8% of encapsulated CUR within 24 …