Digital Commons Network^™

A Hypermedia Design For Both High And Low Knowledge Readers, Jonathan Vickers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this case study is to examine possibilities for improving upon hypermedia design in regards to readers and their varied levels of prior knowledge. By creating a hypermedia website that looks at the development of rock climbing at Coopers Rock State Forest, I will explore the possibility of using prompts intended to help prepare readers with low levels of subject (rock climbing) knowledge to understand and make sense of the content. However, at the same time, it is important to allow readers with high levels of subject knowledge to bypass these prompts because of their ability to limit …

Role Of The Dietitian In Multidisciplinary Treatment Of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Wendy Thompson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the most common reproductive endocrine disorder in females. Genetic and lifestyle factors influence the etiology and insulin resistance plays a key role in the pathogenesis of PCOS.;Objective: To investigate the current trends and future implications of multidisciplinary PCOS clinics while emphasizing the role and challenges for dietitians.;Methods: The study design was a two-phase formative investigation of PCOS focused practitioners through an anonymous, internet-based survey (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) followed by focus groups done via teleconference. Focus group data was analyzed using Braun and Clarke's method of thematic analysis.;Participants: Survey respondents included 261 health care providers, …

Effects Of Maturation, Polyploidy, And Nutrition On Growth, Composition, And Gene Expression Within Fatty Acid Metabolism In Rainbow Trout, Meghan Lynn Manor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In many cultured fish species, such as salmonids, gonadal development occurs at the expense of stored energy and nutrients, including lipids. Mobilization of intramuscular lipid during gonadal development decreases fillet quality. The aquaculture industry induces triploidy to generate sterile individuals; however, differences in lipid metabolism of female diploid (2N) and triploid (3N) trout may alter fillet quality. In addition, there is concern that genetic selection for increased growth negatively impacts fillet quality and muscle lipid content. Research in these areas would aid in the development of better management practices for efficient food-fish production that optimizes product quality.;The goal of this …

Cbct Evaluation Of Condylar Changes In Children With Unilateral Posterior Crossbites With A Functional Shift, Lance Pittman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Introduction: The unilateral posterior crossbite with a functional shift is one of the most common early adolescent malocclusions. It is caused by a transversely deficient maxilla, relative to the mandible, and results when the mandible shifts to one side to so the teeth can maximally interdigitate. This shift is thought to cause the contralateral condyle to move anteriorly, inferiorly, and medially within the TMJ. Much attention has been given recently to the affects of this functional shift on the condyles. An attempt is being made to determine if pathological position of the condyles can cause condylar signs or symptoms similar …

The Use Of Technology To Display Student Artwork Online, Elissa Dray

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis was constructed to investigate the topic of displaying student artwork and projects in the online realm of art galleries. A research study was conducted questioning participants about their previous encounters with online art galleries and displaying student work. These participants were educators from various fields of study that created art related projects with their students. Participants were then introduced to the online art gallery, Artsonia and photographing student art. Benefits from joining Artsonia included parental contact, promotion of school art programs, possible fundraising opportunities, free lesson plan ideas, and increased student participation. Participants were also given the opportunity …

Local And Regional Controls Of Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) Metapopulation Dynamics Within A Complex Appalachian Riverscape, Brock Miles Huntsman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Brook trout have recently become a species of conservation focus due to their unique spatial structure and restricted thermal requirements. These life history characteristics make brook trout particularly vulnerable to major biodiversity threats, such as climate change and habitat loss. For appropriate conservation actions to be taken, it is imperative to identify the scale that limits brook trout productivity. The popular view of brook trout ecology indicates that populations exist as isolated fragments within watersheds, where productivity is concentrated in small, cold tributaries. This has led to management resources being allocated towards small tributaries with a goal to enhance local …

Modeling Migration And Citizen-Science Data To Estimate Golden Eagle Abundance In Eastern North America, Andrew J. Dennhardt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Understanding animal movements is fundamental to ecology and conservation, yet direct measurement of movements of birds is both challenging and costly. Raptor populations are especially difficult to monitor, but movement models can provide information toward this goal. The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos canadensis) in eastern North America is a species of regional conservation concern, and little is known about its population ecology, movements, or behavior. Because of their rarity and role as apex predators, improving monitoring of this small population is of great importance. Similar to using movement models to help improve monitoring, developing new methods to estimate the size …

Blood Pressure And Quality Of Life In Youth Enrolled In A Culinary Skills, Family Mealtime And Physical Activity Program: Pilot Study Icook 4-H, Erin Smith

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Objective: The pilot study objective is to determine if blood pressure (BP) and perception of quality of life (QoL) in 9-10 y/o youth changes after a 12 week 6-session program focusing on culinary skills, family mealtime and physical activity. Methods: Pre-post treatment only assessments were collected at 0 and 4 months for child/adult dyads (n=49 dyads). Five states (ME, NE, SD, TN, WV) recruited and delivered 6 sessions every two weeks that focused on increasing cooking skills, family mealtime, and physical activity. During BP assessments, each child had an initial rest of 5 min with 2 min rest between measurements …

Sampling Hay And Haylage, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Walk-In Seedings, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Forage Species For Northeast, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Frost Seedings, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Sampling Pastures For Nutritive Analysis, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Use Forage Testing To Diagnose Mgmt. Problems, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Assuming Identities: Gender, Sexuality, And Performativity In The Silence Of The Lambs, Lynne Stahl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In the introduction to Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick discusses the instability of the ignorance/knowledge binary, which generally equates the latter with power and the former with impotence. She argues that ignorance (or the appearance thereof) can be a tool of power as well, citing as an example the 1986 ruling by the United States Justice Department that employers “may freely fire persons with AIDS” provided that those employers “can claim to be ignorant of the medical fact, quoted in the ruling, that there is no known health danger in the workplace from the disease” (5). That this …

Drilling And Deductions: Making The Section 170(H) Conservation Easement Work In The Shale Boom Era, Michael T. Fulks

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Quality Of Fermentation In Plastic Wrapped Baleage, Edward Barrow Rayburn

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

Wvu Extension Fertility Recommend Tool For Small Farms, Tom Basden, Edward Barrow Rayburn, Lewis Jett

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

WVU-Extension fact sheet

2014 Symposium Brochure

Programs

No abstract provided.

Altering Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress In A Model Of Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury Controls Cellular Fate And Ameliorates Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, Aric F. Logdson, Ryan C. Turner, Brandon P. Lucke-Wold, Matthew J. Robson, Zachary J. Naser, Kelly E. Smith, Rae R. Matsumoto, Jason Delwyn, Charles L. Rosen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Neuronal injury following blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) increases the risk for neuropsychiatric disorders, yet the pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Blood-brain-barrier (BBB) disruption, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and apoptosis have all been implicated in bTBI. Microvessel compromise is a primary effect of bTBI and is postulated to cause subcellular secondary effects such as ER stress. What remains unclear is how these secondary effects progress to personality disorders in humans exposed to head trauma. To investigate this we exposed male rats to a clinically relevant bTBI model we have recently developed. The study examined initial BBB disruption using Evan’s blue (EB), …

Meeting Report: 2nd Workshop Of The United States Culture Collection Network (May 19–21, 2014, State College, Pa, Usa), Kevin Mccluskey, Scott Bates, Kyria Boundy-Mills, Arianna Broggiato, Anthony Cova, Philippe Desmeth, Chobi Debroy, Deborah Fravel, George Garrity, Maria Del Mar Jimenez, Lucy Joseph, Daniel Lindner, Michael W. Lomas, Joe Morton, David Nobles, John Turner, Todd Ward, John Wertz, Aric Wiest, David Geiser

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This report summarizes the activities and outcomes of the second workshop of the US Culture Collection Network, formally an activity of the US National Science Foundation sponsored Research Coordination Network for a Community of ex situ Microbial Germplasm Repositories. The workshop included presentations on topics as diverse as permitting for genetically engineered plant pest organisms to facilitating strain exchange via formal material transfer agreement systems and codes of conduct. Short talks introduced diverse collections held by government, university, and private entities. Participants visited living microbe collections as well as active research and production facilities.

Nobiletin Suppresses Cell Viability Through Akt Pathways In Pc-3 And Du-145 Prostate Cancer Cells, Jianchu Chen, Ashley Creed, Allen Y. Chen, Haizhi Huang, Zhaoliang Li, Gary O. Rankin, Xingqian Ye, Guihua Xu, Yi C. Chen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Nobiletin is a non-toxic dietary flavonoid that possesses anti-cancer properties. Nobiletin has been reported to reduce the risk of prostate cancer, but the mechanism is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of nobiletin in prostate cancer cell lines PC-3 and DU-145.

Methods

Nobiletin was isolated from a polymethoxy flavonoid mixture using HPLC, cell viability was analyzed with MTS-based assays. Protein expression was examined by ELISA and western blotting. Gene expression was examined by luciferase assay. And the pathways were examined by manipulating genetic components with plasmid transfection.

Results

Data showed that nobiletin decreased cell viability …

Tlr Signaling That Induces Weak Inflammatory Response And Ship1 Enhances Osteogenic Functions, Manoj Muthukuru, Richard P. Darveau

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated inflammatory response could negatively affect bone metabolism. In this study, we determined how osteogenesis is regulated during inflammatory responses that are downstream of TLR signaling. Human primary osteoblasts were cultured in collagen gels. Pam3CSK4 (P3C) and Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (EcLPS) were used as TLR2 and TLR4 ligand respectively. Porphyromonas gingivalis LPS having TLR2 activity with either TLR4 agonism (Pg1690) or TLR4 antagonism (Pg1449) and mutant E. coli LPS (LPxE/LPxF/WSK) were used. IL-1β, SH2-containing inositol phosphatase-1 (SHIP1) that has regulatory roles in osteogenesis, alkaline phosphatase and mineralization were analyzed. 3α-Aminocholestane (3AC) was used to inhibit SHIP1. Our results …

5-Mehtyltetrahydrofolate Rescues Alcohol-Induced Neural Crest Cell Migration Abnormalities, Yu Shi, Jiejing Li, Chunjiang Chen, Manzi Gong, Yuan Chen, Youxue Liu, Jie Chen, Tingyu Li, Weihong Song

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Alcohol is detrimental to early development. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) due to maternal alcohol abuse results in a series of developmental abnormalities including cranial facial dysmorphology, ocular anomalies, congenital heart defects, microcephaly and intellectual disabilities. Previous studies have been shown that ethanol exposure causes neural crest (NC) apoptosis and perturbation of neural crest migration. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. In this report we investigated the fetal effect of alcohol on the process of neural crest development in the Xenopus leavis.

Results

Pre-gastrulation exposure of 2-4% alcohol induces apoptosis in Xenopus embryo whereas 1% alcohol specifically impairs neural …

Characterization Of The Rainbow Trout Spleen Transcriptome And Identification Of Immune-Related Genes, Ali Ali, Caird E. Rexroad, Gary H. Thorgaard, Jianbo Yao, Mohamed Salem

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Resistance against diseases affects profitability of rainbow trout. Limited information is available about functions and mechanisms of teleost immune pathways. Immunogenomics provides powerful tools to determine disease resistance genes/gene pathways and develop genetic markers for genomic selection. RNA-Seq sequencing of the rainbow trout spleen yielded 93,532,200 reads (100 bp). High quality reads were assembled into 43,047 contigs. 26,333 (61.17%) of the contigs had hits to the NR protein database and 7024 (16.32%) had hits to the KEGG database. Gene ontology showed significant percentages of transcripts assigned to binding (51%), signaling (7%), response to stimuli (9%) and receptor activity (4%) suggesting …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Bioactivity Of Carboxylic Acid-Functionalized Titanium Dioxide Nanobelts, Raymond F. Hamilton, Nianqiang Wu, Chengcheng Xiang, Ming Li, Feng Yang, Michael Wolfarth, Dale W. Porter, Andrij Holian

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Surface modification strategies to reduce engineered nanomaterial (ENM) bioactivity have been used successfully in carbon nanotubes. This study examined the toxicity and inflammatory potential for two surface modifications (humic acid and carboxylation) on titanium nanobelts (TNB).

Methods

The in vitro exposure models include C57BL/6 alveolar macrophages (AM) and transformed human THP-1 cells exposed to TNB for 24 hrs in culture. Cell death and NLRP3 inflammasome activation (IL-1β release) were monitored. Short term (4 and 24 hr) in vivo studies in C57BL/6, BALB/c and IL-1R null mice evaluated inflammation and cytokine release, and cytokine release from ex vivo cultured AM. …

Psp94, An Upstream Signaling Mediator Of Prostasin Found Highly Elevated In Ovarian Cancer, J-X Ma, B-X Yan, J Zhang, B-H Yang, Y Guo, H Riedel, M D. Mueller, S C. Remick, J J. Yu

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of cancer death as diagnosis is frequently delayed to an advanced stage. Effective biomarkers and screening strategies for early detection are urgently needed. In the current study, we identify PSP94 as a key upstream factor in mediating prostasin (a protein previously reported to be overexpressed in ovarian cancer) signaling that regulates prostasin expression and action in ovarian cancer cells. PSP94 is overexpressed in ovarian cancer cell lines and patients, and is significantly correlated with prostasin levels. Signaling pathway analysis demonstrated that both PSP94 and prostasin, as potential upstream regulators of the Lin28b/Let-7 pathway, regulate …

Hitchhiking Of Host Biology By Beneficial Symbionts Enhances Transmission, Brittany M. Ott, Michael Cruciger, Andrew M. Dacks, Rita V M Rio

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Transmission plays a key role in the evolution of symbiosis. Mixed mode transmission combines horizontal and vertical mechanisms for symbiont acquisition. However, features that enable mixed transmission are poorly understood. Here, we determine the mechanistic basis for the recruitment of the beneficial bacterium, Aeromonas veronii by the leech, Hirudo verbana. We demonstrate that host mucosal secretions complement imperfect symbiont vertical transmission. First, we show that the A. veronii population within secretions originates from the host digestive tract and proliferates synchronously with shedding frequency, demonstrating the coupling of partner biology. Furthermore, leeches are attracted to these castings with oral contact …

Differential Responses Of Osteoblasts And Macrophages Upon Staphylococcus Aureus Infection, Therwa Hamza, Bingyun Li

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the primary causes of bone infections which are often chronic and difficult to eradicate. Bacteria like S. aureus may survive upon internalization in cells and may be responsible for chronic and recurrent infections. In this study, we compared the responses of a phagocytic cell (i.e. macrophage) to a non-phagocytic cell (i.e. osteoblast) upon S. aureus internalization.

Results

We found that upon internalization, S. aureus could survive for up to 5 and 7 days within macrophages and osteoblasts, respectively. Significantly more S. aureus was internalized in macrophages compared to osteoblasts and …

Early Activation Of Stat3 Regulates Reactive Astrogliosis Induced By Diverse Forms Of Neurotoxicity, James P. O'Callaghan, Kimberly A. Kelly, Reyna L. Vangilder, Michael V. Sofroniew, Diane B. Miller

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Astrogliosis, a cellular response characterized by astrocytic hypertrophy and accumulation of GFAP, is a hallmark of all types of central nervous system (CNS) injuries. Potential signaling mechanisms driving the conversion of astrocytes into “reactive” phenotypes differ with respect to the injury models employed and can be complicated by factors such as disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). As denervation tools, neurotoxicants have the advantage of selective targeting of brain regions and cell types, often with sparing of the BBB. Previously, we found that neuroinflammation and activation of the JAK2-STAT3 pathway in astrocytes precedes up regulation of GFAP in the MPTP …