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The Weekly Challenger, January 6, 2022, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The January 6, 2022, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Navigating Grad School: A Professional Development Workbook For Incoming Marine Science Graduate Students, Mya Breitbart, Kristen N. Buck

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Graduate school is a formative time in the life of a budding scientist – getting a chance to deeply explore and master a scientific field while creating new knowledge – it doesn’t get much better than that! Yet, the transition to graduate school can be difficult to navigate for even the most successful undergraduate students. During undergraduate studies, students learn by following a highly structured curriculum with clear expectations and goals, often measured through exams and grades. Thus, learners are dependent on a teacher for guidance, acquisition of content, and evaluation. In contrast, graduate students must embrace self-motivated learning as …

Phip Variants Associated With Chung–Jansen Syndrome Disrupt Replication Fork Stability And Genome Integrity, Neysha Tirado-Class, Caitlin Hathaway, Wendy K. Chung, Huzefa Dungrawala

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

Chung–Jansen syndrome (CJS) is a rare, autosomal dominant disorder characterized by developmental delay, intellectual disability/cognitive impairment, behavioral challenges, obesity, and dysmorphic features. CJS is associated with heterozygous variants in PHIP (Pleckstrin-Homology Interacting Protein), a gene that encodes one of several substrate receptors for Cullin4-RING (CRL4) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. Full-length PHIP, also called DCAF14, was recently identified to function as a replication stress response protein. Herein, we report the identification of two PHIP missense variants identified by exome sequencing in unrelated individuals with CJS. The variants p.D488V and p.E963G occur in different functional elements of DCAF14-WD40 repeat domain and pleckstrin …

Sequence Properties Of An Intramolecular Interaction That Inhibits P53 Dna Binding, Emily Gregory, Gary W. Daughdrill

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

An intramolecular interaction between the p53 transactivation and DNA binding domains inhibits DNA binding. To study this autoinhibition, we used a fragment of p53, referred to as ND WT, containing the N-terminal transactivation domains (TAD1 and TAD2), a proline rich region (PRR), and the DNA binding domain (DBD). We mutated acidic, nonpolar, and aromatic amino acids in TAD2 to disrupt the interaction with DBD and measured the effects on DNA binding affinity at different ionic strengths using fluorescence anisotropy. We observed a large increase in DNA binding affinity for the mutants consistent with reduced autoinhibition. The ΔΔG between DBD and …

Genealib Archive 2022-01, Genealib

GENEALIB Archive

No abstract provided.

Innovating During Times Of Disruption: A Project Management Framework For Transforming A Student Research Symposium To Serve Virtual Communities During Covid-19, Theresa G. Burress, Allison N. Symulevich

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Protein–Protein Interactions On Translational Diffusion Of Spheroidal Proteins, Aleksandra M. Kusova, Aleksandr E. Sitnitsky, Vladimir N. Uversky, Yuriy F. Zuev

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

One of the commonly accepted approaches to estimate protein–protein interactions (PPI) in aqueous solutions is the analysis of their translational diffusion. The present review article observes a phenomenological approach to analyze PPI effects via concentration dependencies of self- and collective translational diffusion coefficient for several spheroidal proteins derived from the pulsed field gradient NMR (PFG NMR) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), respectively. These proteins are rigid globular α-chymotrypsin (ChTr) and human serum albumin (HSA), and partly disordered α-casein (α-CN) and β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg). The PPI analysis enabled us to reveal the dominance of intermolecular repulsion at low ionic strength of solution …

Bmi1 Silencing Induces Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Lung Epithelial Cells Exposed To Hyperoxia, Helena Hernández-Cuervo, Ramani Soundararajan, Sahebgowda Sidramagowda Patil, Mason T. Breitzig, Matthew Alleyn, Lakshmi Galam, Richard Lockey, Vladimir N. Uversky, Narasaiah Kolliputi

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Acute Lung Injury (ALI), characterized by bilateral pulmonary infiltrates that restrict gas exchange, leads to respiratory failure. It is caused by an innate immune response with white blood cell infiltration of the lungs, release of cytokines, an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS), oxidative stress, and changes in mitochondrial function. Mitochondrial alterations, changes in respiration, ATP production and the unbalancing fusion and fission processes are key events in ALI pathogenesis and increase mitophagy. Research indicates that BMI1 (B cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus integration site 1), a protein of the Polycomb repressive complex 1, is a cell cycle and survival …

Peptidoglycan-Free Bacterial Ghosts Confer Enhanced Protection Against Yersinia Pestis Infection, Svetlana V. Dentovskaya, Anastasia S. Vagaiskaya, Mikhail E. Platonov, Alexandra S. Trunyakova, Sergey A. Kotov, Ekaterina A. Krasil’Nikova, Galina M. Titareva, Elizaveta M. Mazurina, Tat’Yana V. Gapel’Chenkova, Rima Z. Shaikhutdinova, Sergey A. Ivanov, Tat’Yana I. Kombarova, Vladimir N. Gerasimov, Vladimir N. Uversky, Andrey P. Anisimov

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

To develop a modern plague vaccine, we used hypo-endotoxic Yersinia pestis bacterial ghosts (BGs) with combinations of genes encoding the bacteriophage ɸX174 lysis-mediating protein E and/or holin-endolysin systems from λ or L-413C phages. Expression of the protein E gene resulted in the BGs that retained the shape of the original bacterium. Co-expression of this gene with genes coding for holin-endolysin system of the phage L-413C caused formation of structures resembling collapsed sacs. Such structures, which have lost their rigidity, were also formed as a result of the expression of only the L-413C holin-endolysin genes. A similar holin-endolysin system from phage …

Mechanism Of Phase Separation In Aqueous Two-Phase Systems, Amber R. Titus, Pedro P. Madeira, Luisa A. Ferreira, Vladimir Y. Chernyak, Vladimir N. Uversky, Boris Y. Zaslavsky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Liquid-liquid phase separation underlies the formation of membrane-less organelles inside living cells. The mechanism of this process can be examined using simple aqueous mixtures of two or more solutes, which are able to phase separate at specific concentration thresholds. This work presents the first experimental evidence that mesoscopic changes precede visually detected macroscopic phase separation in aqueous mixtures of two polymers and a single polymer and salt. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis indicates the formation of mesoscopic polymer agglomerates in these systems. These agglomerates increase in size with increasing polymer concentrations prior to visual phase separation. Such mesoscopic changes are …

Clinical Cell Therapy Guidelines For Neurorestoration (Ianr/Canr 2017), Hongyun Huang, Wise Young, Lin Chen, Shiqing Feng, Ziad M. Zoubi, Hari Shanker Sharma, Hooshang Saberi, Gustavo A. Moviglia, Xijing He, Dafin F. Muresanu, Alok Sharma, Ali Otom, Russell J. Andrews, Adeeb Al-Zoubi, Andrey S. Bryukhovetskiy, Elena R. Chernykh, Krystyna Domańska-Janik, Emad Jafar, W. Eustace Johnson, Ying Li, Daqing Li, Zuo Luan, Gengsheng Mao, Ashok K. Shetty, Dario Siniscalco, Stephen Skaper, Tiansheng Sun, Yunliang Wang, Lars Wiklund, Qun Xue, Si-Wei You, Zuncheng Zheng, Milan R. Dimitrijevic, W. S. Masri, Paul R. Sanberg

Neurosurgery and Brain Repair Faculty Publications

Cell therapy has been shown to be a key clinical therapeutic option for central nervous system diseases or damage. Standardization of clinical cell therapy procedures is an important task for professional associations devoted to cell therapy. The Chinese Branch of the International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR) completed the first set of guidelines governing the clinical application of neurorestoration in 2011. The IANR and the Chinese Association of Neurorestoratology (CANR) collaborated to propose the current version “Clinical Cell Therapy Guidelines for Neurorestoration (IANR/CANR 2017)”. The IANR council board members and CANR committee members approved this proposal on September 1, 2016, and …

Ticks And Novel Chigger Mite Species On Passerine Birds In Southeastern Arizona, Kathleen Groschupf, James W. Mertins

Arizona Birds

We document the combined occurrences of one immature tick species (Amblyomma cf. triste), 2 known chigger mite species, Euschoengastia numerosa and Neoschoengastia americana, and 4 undescribed species of Neoschoengastia chiggers attached to individuals of 11 bird species in southeastern Arizona. Groschupf incidentally discovered clusters of the orangecolored chiggers while examining migrant and local birds for Amblyomma cf. triste, a hard tick documented as uncommon and discontinuously widespread in southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, West Texas, and northwestern Mexico. All of these ectoparasite collection records are new for these particular bird host species in Arizona, and Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) is …

The Role Of Influential Actors In Fostering The Polarized Covid-19 Vaccine Discourse On Twitter: Mixed Methods Of Machine Learning And Inductive Coding, Loni Hagen, Ashley Fox, Heather O'Leary, Deandre Dyson, Kimberly Walker, Cecile A. Lengacher, Raquel Hernandez

School of Information Faculty Publications

Background: Since COVID-19 vaccines became broadly available to the adult population, sharp divergences in uptake have emerged along partisan lines. Researchers have indicated a polarized social media presence contributing to the spread of mis- or disinformation as being responsible for these growing partisan gaps in uptake.

Objective: The major aim of this study was to investigate the role of influential actors in the context of the community structures and discourse related to COVID-19 vaccine conversations on Twitter that emerged prior to the vaccine rollout to the general population and discuss implications for vaccine promotion and policy.

Methods: We collected tweets …

Big Data Visualization Through The Lens Of Peirce’S Visual Sign Theory, Alon Friedman, Martin Thellefsen

School of Information Faculty Publications

Data from social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, are generated by people who produce, spread, share, or exchange multimedia content. Such content may include text, images, sounds, or videos. To derive insight into the behavior of social media users, researchers often use open-source technologies to visualize data and generate models for data analytics. One of the most popular open-source applications for managing and analyzing social media data is the open-source R programming language. Friedman and Feichtinger (2017) created an R package termed ‘Peirce’s sign theory R package’ to analyze data using Peirce’s principles of discovery. Though Peirce semiotics …

Towards A “Digital” Sports Journalism: Field Theory, Changing Boundaries And Evolving Technologies, Gregory P. Perreault, Travis R. Bell

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Long trivialized as the “toy department,” sports journalism nevertheless represents an enduring, and vital subfield within journalism. As with many niches of journalism, sports journalism has needed to adjust to changes resulting from the technology of the field. In particular, digital sports journalism faces pressure from adjacent fields, represented in team and player media, which perform many of the same tasks historically attributed to sports journalism. Through the lens of field theory, the present study reports on long-form interviews with 47 sports journalists who self-defined their work as digital journalism. This study argues that the perception of insurgents—team media that …

Metajournalistic Discourse And Reporting Policies On White Nationalism, Gregory P. Perreault, Kimberly Meltzer

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

In 2016 and 2017, several newsrooms presented guidelines for using the term “alt-right” in the wake of events such as the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA) and the US presidential campaign of Donald Trump. This study analyzed metajournalistic discourse regarding the use of the term “alt-right” including internal newsroom policies and updates to newsroom manuals and externally published public discourse. The analysis tracks how news organizations and academic and trade journalism associations participated in discourse about the use of “alt-right,” and their peers’ policies around use of the term. The study finds that discourse shifted from requiring …

Media And Mass Shootings: Field Theory In Cnn News Coverage Of The Columbine High School And Parkland High School Mass Shootings, Hannah Hume, Gregory P. Perreault

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Through discourse analysis, this article seeks to compare the cable news coverage of the Columbine High School shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (n = 81) in the first two days of coverage using field theory, with CNN broadcast transcripts as the unit of analysis. The research showed that the shooter was the dominant shaping force in the CNN discourse in both school shooting events.

Discourse Of Gaming: A Conceptual Framework Of Gaming As An Interpretive Community, Gregory P. Perreault, Teresa Lynch

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Situating gaming as a cultural practice aimed at con-structing issues of power through cultural discussions necessitates a framework of discourse of gaming to explain how meanings around gaming practice develop. Built on the premise that gaming offers mul-timodal opportunities for interaction, we introduce the discourse of gaming framework to connect pro-cesses of boundary work, definition making, and legit-imization to the activities of gaming, the gamer’s identity, and the consequences of gaming. Through a survey of Reddit gaming fan communities, discourse of gaming here reflects the power perceived outsiders (e.g., journalists, academics, and politicians) have on shaping the discourse.

The Lifestyle Of Lifestyle Journalism: How Reporters Discursively Manage Their Aspirations In Their Daily Work, Gregory P. Perreault, Valerie Harlow Belair-Gagnon

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

This study seeks to explore the motivations and labor of lifestyle, or “soft news,” journalists. Rooted in the lens of discursive institutionalism and through 30 interviews with lifestyle journalists in the United States, this study reflects on the aspirational labor—the opportunity to “do what you love”—that motivates entry into journalism but also can encourage disengagement. This study finds that while lifestyle journalists are motivated to enter the profession because of their own personal connection to the topic, their desire to be embedded in the topic and their love for the people in the genre, they also have to negotiate institutional …

Field Insurgency In Lifestyle Journalism: How Lifestyle Journalists Marginalize Instagram Influencers And Protect Their Autonomy, Gregory P. Perreault, Folker Hanusch

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

While Facebook and Twitter have received significant scholarly attention for their role in shaping the journalistic field, Instagram has received sparse attention in comparison. The present study examines how lifestyle journalists (n = 63) from Austria and the United States perceive Instagram influencers operating in relation to the journalistic field. Instagram influencers, empowered by the digital medium, would seem to be in direct competition with lifestyle journalists in terms of content. Through the theoretical lenses of boundary work and field, this study argues that lifestyle journalists—long relegated to the periphery of the journalistic field—discursively leverage the presence of influencers …

When Journalists Are Voiceless: How Lifestyle Journalists Cover Hate And Mitigate Harassment, Gregory P. Perreault, Kaitlin Miller

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Often trivialized within the broader journalistic field, lifestyle journalists would seem to have the dream job: the opportunity to get paid to do what they love. The present study explores an under-discussed but material aspect of the job; namely, how lifestyle journalists undertake issues of hostility. Through the lens of the theory of hostility towards the press and in-depth interviews with lifestyle journalists (n = 24), this study argues that journalists tend to cover issues of hate against their audience members but seek to ignore harassment when directed at them.

Covering Hate: Field Theory And Journalistic Role Conception In Reporting On White Nationalist Rallies, Gregory P. Perreault, Brett Johnson, Leslie Klein

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

In the United States, journalists covering white nationalist groups find themselves in an impossible situation: how do you cover the newsworthy rallies—and the concerns raised by the local community—without providing a platform for hate speech? The present study conducts in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 18 journalists who have covered white nationalist rallies. Through the lens of field theory, this study seeks to understand how journalists conceive of their role in such coverage, how they situate themselves within the field, and how they articulate the best practices for this challenging form of reporting. This study finds that white nationalist rallies presented a …

“It’S Not Hate But … ”: Marginal Categories In Rural Journalism, Gregory P. Perreault, Ruth Moon, Jessica Fargen Walsh, Mildred F. Perreault

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Journalists who cover rural areas in the United States say they are afraid to report on hate groups, and this fear is exacerbated by close community ties and limited resources among rural journalists. We examine the concept of “hate speech” as a boundary object, analyzing in-depth interviews with U.S. journalists reporting in rural communities (n = 33) to better understand how rural journalists report on hate. We find that rural journalists articulate a clear definition for hate speech but struggle to apply that definition to events within their communities, even as they articulate numerous forms of hate. Journalists often dismissed …

What Does It Mean To Be A Female Character In “Indie” Game Storytelling? Narrative Framing And Humanization In Independently Developed Video Games, Mildred F. Perreault, Gregory P. Perreault, Andrea Suarez

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

Video games have long held a spotty history in their narratives regarding women. Most research has examined large budget games and identified issues of simplification, oversexualization, and a general lack of agency among female characters. The present study explores the gaming niche of “indie”—or independent game developer—video games in their representations of women in particular with Never Alone, Gone Home, and Her Story. These games were released around the time frame of the GamerGate controversy—a controversy which drew attention to the treatment of women in gaming culture—and hence, the games are used to reflect on a potential shift in games …

Metajournalistic Discourse As A Stabilizer Within The Journalistic Field: Journalistic Practice In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gregory P. Perreault, Mildred F. Perreault, Phoebe Maares

School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 Pandemic created a two-fold challenge for journalists: first, the task of gathering and distributing information vital to the responses of the public, and second, the challenge of mitigating the complexities of the journalism field. The purpose of this study is to connect the theoretical frameworks of metajournalistic discourse and field theory, using the touch point of journalistic practice. Prior research has postulated that metajournalistic discourse operates as a stabilizing force in the journalistic field. Using the timely test of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study seeks to explore the discursive construction of journalistic practice during a pandemic through the …

Arrangement Of Hydrogen Bonds In Aqueous Solutions Of Different Globular Proteins, Amber R. Titus, Pedro P. Madeira, Luisa A. Ferreira, Alexander I. Belgovskiy, Elizabeth K. Mann, Jay Adin Mann Jr., William V. Meyer, Anthony E. Smart, Vladimir N. Uversky, Boris Zaslavsky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

This work presents the first evidence that dissolved globular proteins change the arrangement of hydrogen bonds in water, with different proteins showing quantitatively different effects. Using ATR-FTIR (attenuated total reflection—Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopic analysis of OH-stretch bands, we obtain quantitative estimates of the relative amounts of the previously reported four subpopulations of water structures coexisting in a variety of aqueous solutions. Where solvatochromic dyes can measure the properties of solutions of non-ionic polymers, the results correlate well with ATR-FTIR measurements. In protein solutions to which solvatochromic dye probes cannot be applied, NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy was used for the …

Intrinsic Disorder As A Natural Preservative: High Levels Of Intrinsic Disorder In Proteins Found In The 2600-Year-Old Human Brain, Aaron S. Mohammed, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Proteomic analysis revealed the preservation of many proteins in the Heslington brain (which is at least 2600-year-old brain tissue uncovered within the skull excavated in 2008 from a pit in Heslington, Yorkshire, England). Five of these proteins—“main proteins”: heavy, medium, and light neurofilament proteins (NFH, NFM, and NFL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and myelin basic (MBP) protein—are engaged in the formation of non-amyloid protein aggregates, such as intermediate filaments and myelin sheath. We used a wide spectrum of bioinformatics tools to evaluate the prevalence of functional disorder in several related sets of proteins, such as the main proteins and …

Fifth Generation Warfare, Hybrid Warfare, And Gray Zone Conflict: A Comparison, Armin Krishnan

Journal of Strategic Security

Strategists have noted substantial changes in warfare since the end of the Cold War. They have proposed several concepts and theories to account for the fact that the practice of war has largely departed from a Clausewitzian understanding of war and the centrality of physical violence in it. Emerging modes of conflict are less focused on the instrumental use of force to achieve political objectives and are more centered on notions of perception management, narratives, asymmetry or irregular conflict, the adversarial uses of norms, and covert and ambiguous uses of force. This article aims to systematically compare three more recent …

Go Big Or Go Home? Right-Sizing Security Cooperation To Fragile States, Randell Yi

Journal of Strategic Security

This article tests two competing candidate theories of security cooperation provision contained in the literature against a subset of stated strategic objectives by assessing whether the amount of aid spent over time correlates with intended outcomes. One is based on the principal-agent problem, while the other derives from the organizational behavior model. The focus is solely on fragile states since they represent the most policy-relevant and challenging cases. Quantitative analysis utilizes existing datasets to provide proxy measures for neopatrimonialism, praetorianism, and combat effectiveness, corresponding to political, political/military, and military dimensions of security cooperation efficacy, respectively. The results challenge the conventional …

A Social Network Analysis Of Mexico’S Dark Network Alliance Structure, Nathan P. Jones, Irina A. Chindea, Daniel Weisz Argomedo, John P. Sullivan

Journal of Strategic Security

This article assesses Mexico’s organized crime alliance and subgroup network structures. Through social network analysis (SNA) of data from Lantia Consultores, a consulting firm in Mexico that specializes in the analysis of public policies, it demonstrates differential alliance structures within Mexico’s bipolar illicit network system. The Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación’s (CJNG) alliance structure is top-down and hierarchical, while the Sinaloa Cartel is denser, particularly in the broader Tierra Caliente region. Additionally, our analysis found a sparse overall network with many isolates (groups with no relations to other groups) and disconnected components. Further, we identified organized crime networks that …