Digital Commons Network^™

Lost Generations? Indigenous Population Of The Russian North In The Post-Soviet Era, Andrey N. Petrov

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses key findings concerning population dynamic of the Indigenous minorities living in the Russian North during the post-Soviet period, highlighted by the 2002 Census. The paper places recent demographic trends into the context of past and current economic, social and institutional changes. It also provides comparisons with Indigenous population dynamics in other parts of the Arctic. Although most Indigenous peoples of the Russian North were growing numerically, they still experienced effects of Russia’s economic crisis, primarily reflected in rapidly falling fertility and rising mortality in the middle-age cohorts. In addition, both the ethnic drift and legal changes seriously …

Chromosomal Inversions Between Human And Chimpanzee Lineages Caused By Retrotransposons, Jungnam Lee, Kyudong Han, Thomas J. Meyer, Heui Soo Kim, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

The long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1 or L1) and Alu elements are the most abundant mobile elements comprising 21% and 11% of the human genome, respectively. Since the divergence of human and chimpanzee lineages, these elements have vigorously created chromosomal rearrangements causing genomic difference between humans and chimpanzees by either increasing or decreasing the size of genome. Here, we report an exotic mechanism, retrotransposon recombination-mediated inversion (RRMI), that usually does not alter the amount of genomic material present. Through the comparison of the human and chimpanzee draft genome sequences, we identified 252 inversions whose respective inversion junctions can clearly be characterized. …

Structure Of A Complete Integrin Ectodomain In A Physiologic Resting State And Activation And Deactivation By Applied Forces, Jianghai Zhu, Bing Hao Luo, Tsan Xiao, Chengzhong Zhang, Noritaka Nishida, Timothy A. Springer

Faculty Publications

The complete ectodomain of integrin αIIbβ3 reveals a bent, closed, low-affinity conformation, the β knee, and a mechanism for linking cytoskeleton attachment to high affinity for ligand. Ca and Mg ions in the recognition site, including the synergistic metal ion binding site (SyMBS), are loaded prior to ligand binding. Electrophilicity of the ligand-binding Mg ion is increased in the open conformation. The β3 knee passes between the β3-PSI and αIIb-knob to bury the lower β leg in a cleft, from which it is released for extension. Different integrin molecules in crystals and EM reveal breathing that appears on pathway to …

Parental Hesitation As A Factor In Delayed Childhood Immunization, Karlen E. (Beth) Luthy, Renea L. Beckstrand, Neil E. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Introduction: One reason for lower immunization rates is that some parents hesitate to have their children immunized. A hesitancy questionnaire was developed to identify reasons parents hesitate in having their children immunized.

Methods: The hesitancy questionnaire was distributed from local pediatric and family practice offices and from the area's county health department. To be eligible, participants needed to be present in the clinic with a child needing a minimum of one immunization that was at least 6 months overdue.

Results: When questioned why their child was overdue for immunizations, the most common response was that participants were confused about the …

Effect Of Linker Structure On Surface Density Of Aptamer Monolayers And Their Corresponding Protein Binding Efficiency, Subramanian Balamurugan, Anne Obubuafo, Robin L. Mccarley, Steven A. Soper, David A. Spivak

Faculty Publications

A systematic study is reported on the effect of linker size and its chemical composition toward ligand binding to a surface-immobilized aptamer, measured using surface plasmon resonance. The results, using thrombin as the model system, showed that as the number of thymidine (T) units in the linker increases from 0 to 20 in four separate increments (T0, T 5, T10, T20), the surface density of the aptamer decreased linearly from approximately 25 to 12 pmol·cm -2. The decrease in aptamer surface density occurred due to the increased size of the linker molecules. In addition, thrombin binding capacity was shown to …

Uva-Induced Photo Recovery During Early Zebrafish Embryogenesis, Qiaoxiang Dong, W. Todd Monroe, Terrence R. Tiersch, Kurt R. Svoboda

Faculty Publications

DNA photorepair has been widely studied in simple aquatic organisms that live in the marine environment, but is less understood in more complex species that live in freshwater. In the present study, we evaluated UVA-induced DNA photo recovery in embryonic stages of zebrafish, Danio rerio, a freshwater model species. Evaluation of UVB exposure and UVA photo recovery of zebrafish embryos revealed different UVB tolerances and capacities for UVA photo recovery at different stages of development. Effective UVA photo recovery was observed at 3 h post-fertilization (hpf), 6-7 hpf, and 12 hpf, but not in the early cleavage stage (2-32 cells). …

Two Evolutionarily Conserved Sequence Elements For Peg3/Usp29 Transcription, Jeong Do Kim, Sungryul Yu, Jung Ha Choo, Joomyeong Kim

Faculty Publications

Background: Two evolutionarily Conserved Sequence Elements, CSE1 and CSE2 (YY1 binding sites), are found within the 3.8-kb CpG island surrounding the bidirectional promoter of two imprinted genes, Peg3 (Paternally expressed gene 3) and Usp29 (Ubiquitin-specific protease 29). This CpG island is a likely ICR (Imprinting Control Region) that controls transcription of the 500-kb genomic region of the Peg3 imprinted domain. Results: The current study investigated the functional roles of CSE1 and CSE2 in the transcriptional control of the two genes, Peg3 and Usp29, using cell line-based promoter assays. The mutation of 6 YY1 binding sites (CSE2) reduced the transcriptional activity …

L1 Recombination-Associated Deletions Generate Human Genomic Variation, Kyudong Han, Jungnam Lee, Thomas J. Meyer, Paul Remedios, Lindsey Goodwin, Mark A. Batzer

Faculty Publications

Mobile elements have created structural variation in the human genome through their de novo insertions and post-insertional genomic rearrangements. L1 elements are a type of long interspersed element (LINE) that is dispersed at high copy numbers within most mammalian genomes. To determine the magnitude of L1 recombination-associated deletions (L1RADs), we computationally extracted L1RAD candidates by comparing the human and chimpanzee genomes and verified each of the L1RAD events by using wet-bench analyses. Through these analyses, we identified 73 human-specific L1RAD events that occurred subsequent to the divergence of the human and chimpanzee lineages. Despite their low frequency, the L1RAD events …

The Gendered Meanings Of Assets For Divorce, Jeffrey P. Dew

Faculty Publications

Scholars identified a negative relationship between assets and divorce decades ago, but the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unknown. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 4,721 couples), this study compared three mechanisms that might link assets and divorce. Non-proportional Cox hazard models indicated that two of the three mechanisms explained the relationship between assets and divorce. Wives’ marital satisfaction and their perceptions of their hypothetical post-divorce standard of living completely mediated the relationship between assets and divorce. The relationship between assets and divorce was not related to husbands’ characteristics.

Teaching The Teacher Program To Assist Nurse Managers To Educate Nursing Staff In Ecuadorian Hospitals, Sheri P. Palmer, Sondra Heaston

Faculty Publications

Continuing education for hospital staff nurses is a concern worldwide. Current research shows that continuing education among nurses can positively affect patient outcomes (O’Brien, T., Freemantle, N., Oxman, A, et al., 2002. Interactive continuing education workshops or conferences can improve professional practice and patient outcomes. Journal of Evidence Based Nursing. 26 (5)). Seeing a need for improved patient outcomes among hospitals in Ecuador, we conducted a teaching the teacher program to assist nurse managers to carry-out continuing education in their hospital system. This teaching the teacher program was established through the collaboration between one College of Nursing in Utah, USA …

Geographic, Seasonal, And Precipitation Chemistry Influence On The Abundance And Activity Of Biological Ice Nucleators In Rain And Snow, Brent C. Christner, Rongman Cai, Cindy E. Morris, Kevin S. Mccarter, Christine M. Foreman, Mark L. Skidmore, Scott N. Montross, David C. Sands

Faculty Publications

Biological ice nucleators (IN) function as catalysts for freezing at relatively warm temperatures (warmer than -10°C). We examined the concentration (per volume of liquid) and nature of IN in precipitation collected from Montana and Louisiana, the Alps and Pyrenees (France), Ross Island (Antarctica), and Yukon (Canada). The temperature of detectable ice-nucleating activity for more than half of the samples was ≥ -5°C based on immersion freezing testing. Digestion of the samples with lysozyme (i.e., to hydrolyze bacterial cell walls) led to reductions in the frequency of freezing (0-100%); heat treatment greatly reduced (95% average) or completely eliminated ice nucleation at …

Escherichia Coli Ftna Acts As An Iron Buffer For Re-Assembly Of Iron-Sulfur Clusters In Response To Hydrogen Peroxide Stress, Jacob P. Bitoun, Genfu Wu, Huangen Ding

Faculty Publications

Iron-sulfur clusters are one of the most ubiquitous redox centers in biology. Ironically, iron-sulfur clusters are highly sensitive to reactive oxygen species. Disruption of iron-sulfur clusters will not only change the activity of proteins that host iron-sulfur clusters, the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters will further promote the production of deleterious hydroxyl free radicals via the Fenton reaction. Here, we report that ferritin A (FtnA), a major iron-storage protein in Escherichia coli, is able to scavenge the iron released from the disrupted iron-sulfur clusters and alleviates the production of hydroxyl free radicals. Furthermore, we find that the iron …

Latent Common Genetic Components Of Obesity Traits, B. O. Tayo, R. Harders, A. Luke, X. Zhu, R. S. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Background: Obesity is rapidly becoming a global epidemic. Unlike many complex human diseases, obesity is defined not just by a single trait or phenotype, but jointly by measures of anthropometry and metabolic status. Methods: We applied maximum likelihood factor analysis to identify common latent factors underlying observed covariance in multiple obesity-related measures. Both the genetic components and the mode of inheritance of the common factors were evaluated. A total of 1775 participants from 590 families for whom measures on obesity-related traits were available were included in this study. Results: The average age of participants was 37 years, 39% of the …

Theoretical And Numerical Study Of Mlem And Osem Reconstruction Algorithms For Motion Correction In Emission Tomography, Joyoni Dey, Michael A. King

Faculty Publications

Abstract- Patient body-motion and respiratory-motion impacts the image quality of cardiac PET or SPECT perfusion images. Several algorithms exist in the literature to correct for motion within the iterative maximum-likelihood reconstructionframework. In this work, three algorithms are derived using Poisson statistics to correct for patient motion. The first one is a motion compensated MLEM algorithm (MC-MLEM). The next two algorithms called MGEM-1 and MGEM-2 (short for Motion Gated EM, 1 and 2) use the motion states as subsets, in two different ways. Experiments were performed with NCAT phantoms with exactly known motion as the source and attenuation distributions. The SIMIND …

Continuous Microwave Processing Of Peanut Beverages, Cristina M. Sabliov, Dorin Boldor, Pablo Coronel, Timothy H. Sanders

Faculty Publications

The feasibility of peanut beverage sterilization by continuous microwave heating as an alternative to conventional ultrahigh temperature (UHT) system processing was studied. Dielectric properties of two products, Peanut Punch (Nestle Trinidad and Tobago Ltd., Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) and Jamaican Irish Moss Peanut Drink (distributed by Eve Sales Co., Bronx, NY) were measured. The products had similar dielectric properties. Values for the dielectric constant (average of 60) and dielectric loss (average of 23) indicated that the two products were good candidates for rapid microwave heating. The products were processed in a 5 kW focused microwave unit, at two …

Gene Order Phylogeny Of The Genus Prochlorococcus, Haiwei Luo, Jian Shi, William Arndt, Jijun Tang, Robert Friedman

Faculty Publications

Background
Using gene order as a phylogenetic character has the potential to resolve previously unresolved species relationships. This character was used to resolve the evolutionary history within the genus Prochlorococcus, a group of marine cyanobacteria.

Methodology/Principal Findings
Orthologous gene sets and their genomic positions were identified from 12 species of Prochlorococcus and 1 outgroup species of Synechococcus. From this data, inversion and breakpoint distance-based phylogenetic trees were computed by GRAPPA and FastME. Statistical support of the resulting topology was obtained by application of a 50% jackknife resampling technique. The result was consistent and congruent with nucleotide sequence-based and gene-content based …

Chevron's Consensus, Evan J. Criddle

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Biological Invasions And Biocultural Diversity: Linking Ecological And Cultural Systems, Jeanine Pfeiffer, Robert Voeks

Faculty Publications

Study of the ecological and economic effects of invasive species has paralleled their progressively pervasive influence worldwide, yet their cultural impacts remain largely unexamined and therefore unrecognized. Unlike biological systems, where the ecological consequences of biological invasions are primarily negative, from an ethnoscientific standpoint, invasive species' impacts on cultural systems span a range of effects. Biological invasions affect cultural groups in myriad, often unpredictable and at times contradictory ways. This review groups case studies into a conceptual matrix suggesting three categorically different cultural impacts of invasive species. Culturally impoverishing invasive species precipitate the loss or replacement of culturally important native …

A Simple, Anatomically Based Correction To The Conventional Ankle Joint Center, Dustin A. Bruening, Ashlie N. Crewe, Frank L. Buczek

Faculty Publications

Background

Conventional motion analysis studies define the ankle joint center as the midpoint between the most medial and lateral aspects of the malleoli, yet research points toward a more distal joint center location. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an anatomically based correction that would move the conventional ankle joint center to a more accurate location.

Methods

Lower extremity radiographs from 30 pediatric patients were analyzed retrospectively. An offset between the conventional and more accurate ankle joint centers was measured and correlated to other common anatomical measures based on conventional skin mounted marker positions. The best …

Autism Fast Start Checklist, Tina Taylor, Leeann Whiffen

Faculty Publications

This Fast Start Checklist was created to help parents in Utah who are concerned that their child is exhibiting signs of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It serves as a general guideline for obtaining support through the evaluation and initial treatment process and is not intended to be all-inclusive. Early Intervention and school personnel can guide parents to these resources as they collaborate to determine the best route for serving children who exhibit signs of ASD. Parents should be encouraged to not try to do everything on this list, as they are provided as points to consider. This checklist is …

Development Of The High Altitude Student Platform, T. G. Guzik, S. Besse, A. Calongne, A. Dominique, S. B. Ellison, R. Gould, D. Granger, D. Olano, D. Smith, M. Stewart, J. P. Wefel

Faculty Publications

The High Altitude Student Platform (HASP) was originally conceived to provide student groups with access to the near-space environment for flight durations and experiment capabilities intermediate between what is possible with small sounding balloons and low Earth orbit rocket launches. HASP is designed to carry up to twelve student payloads to an altitude of about 36 km with flight durations of 15-20 h using a small zero-pressure polyethylene film balloon. This provides a flight capability that can be used to flight-test compact satellites, prototypes and other small payloads designed and built by students. HASP includes a standard mechanical, power and …

Centers For Oceans And Human Health: Contributions To An Emerging Discipline, Edward A. Laws, Lora E. Fleming, John J. Stegeman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Climate Variability And Future Climate Change On Harmful Algal Blooms And Human Health, Stephanie K. Moore, Vera L. Trainer, Nathan J. Mantua, Micaela S. Parker, Edward A. Laws, Lorraine C. Backer, Lora E. Fleming

Faculty Publications

Anthropogenically-derived increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations have been implicated in recent climate change, and are projected to substantially impact the climate on a global scale in the future. For marine and freshwater systems, increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases are expected to increase surface temperatures, lower pH, and cause changes to vertical mixing, upwelling, precipitation, and evaporation patterns. The potential consequences of these changes for harmful algal blooms (HABs) have received relatively little attention and are not well understood. Given the apparent increase in HABs around the world and the potential for greater problems as a result of climate change …

Timing Of Supplementation Of Selenium And Isoflavones Determines Prostate Cancer Risk Factor Reduction In Rats, Merrill J. Christensen, Jessica R. Tolman, Edwin D. Lephart, Dennis L. Eggett, Kenneth Setchell

Faculty Publications

High dietary intake of selenium or isoflavones reduces risk factors for prostate cancer. We tested whether combined supplementation of these two dietary components would reduce prostate cancer risk factors in rats more than supplementation of each component individually. Methods Male Noble rat pups were exposed from conception to diets containing an adequate (0.33-0.45 mg/kg diet) or high (3.33-3.45 mg/kg) concentration of selenium as Se-methylselenocysteine and a low (10 mg/kg) or high (600 mg/kg) level of isoflavones in a 2 x 2 factorial design. Pups consumed their respective diets until sacrifice at 35, 100, or 200 days. Male Noble rat breeders, …

Improving Reversal Median Computation Using Commuting Reversals And Cycle Information, William Arndt, Jijun Tang

Faculty Publications

In the past decade, genome rearrangements have attracted increasing attention from both biologists and computer scientists as a new type of data for phylogenetic analysis. Methods for reconstructing phylogeny from genome rearrangements include distance-based methods, MCMC methods, and direct optimization methods. The latter, pioneered by Sankoff and extended with the software suites GRAPPA and MGR, is the most accurate approach, but is very limited due to the difficulty of its scoring procedure—it must solve multiple instances of the reversal median problem to compute the score of a given tree. The reversal median problem is known to be NP-hard and all …

Redox-Triggered Contents Release From Liposomes, Winston Ong, Yuming Yang, Angela C. Cruciano, Robin L. Mccarley

Faculty Publications

An exciting new direction in responsive liposome research is endogenous triggering of liposomal payload release by overexpressed enzyme activity in affected tissues and offers the unique possibility of active and site-specific release. Bringing to fruition the fully expected capabilities of this new class of triggered liposomal delivery system requires a collection of liposome systems that respond to different upregulated enzymes; however, a relatively small number currently exist. Here we show that stable, ∼100 nm diameter liposomes can be made from previously unreported quinone-dioleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (Q-DOPE) lipids, and complete payload release (quenched fluorescent dye) from Q-DOPE liposomes occurs upon their redox …

Greenspan’S Monetary Policy In Retrospect: Discretion Or Rules?, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, David R. Henderson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Computerized Visually Presented Story Recall Tasks: Effects On Performance In Dementia, Nidhi Mahendra, Nisha Engineer, Susan Carroll

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nitric Oxide-Induced Bacteriostasis And Modification Of Iron-Sulphur Proteins In Escherichia Coli, Binbin Ren, Nianhui Zhang, Juanjuan Yang, Huangen Ding

Faculty Publications

The nitric oxide (NO) cytotoxicity has been well documented in bacteria and mammalian cells. However, the underlying mechanism is still not fully understood. Here we report that transient NO exposure effectively inhibits cell growth of Escherichia coli in minimal medium under anaerobic growth conditions and that cell growth is restored when the NO-exposed cells are either supplemented with the branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) anaerobically or returned to aerobic growth conditions. The enzyme activity measurements show that dihydroxyacid dehydratase (IlvD), an iron-sulphur enzyme essential for the BCAA biosynthesis, is completely inactivated in cells by NO with the concomitant formation of the …

Transcriptional Profiling Of Mature Arabidopsis Trichomes Reveals That Noeck Encodes The Mixta-Like Transcriptional Regulator Myb106, Marc J. Jakoby, Doris Falkenhan, Michael T. Mader, Ginger Brininstool, Elisabeth Wischnitzki, Nicole Platz, Andrew Hudson, Martin Hülskamp, John Larkin, Arp Schnittger

Faculty Publications

Leaf hairs (trichomes) of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) have been extensively used as a model to address general questions in cell and developmental biology. Here, we lay the foundation for a systems-level understanding of the biology of this model cell type by performing genome-wide gene expression analyses. We have identified 3,231 genes that are up-regulated in mature trichomes relative to leaves without trichomes, and we compared wild-type trichomes with two mutants, glabra3 and triptychon, that affect trichome morphology and physiology in contrasting ways. We found that cell wall-related transcripts were particularly overrepresented in trichomes, consistent with their highly elaborated structure. In …