Digital Commons Network^™

Click Conjugation Of Boron Dipyrromethene (Bodipy) Fluorophores To Egfr-Targeting Linear And Cyclic Peptides, Tyrslai M. Williams, Nichole E.M. Kaufman, Zehua Zhou, Sitanshu S. Singh, Seetharama D. Jois, Maria Da Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

Through a simple 1,3-cycloaddition reaction, three BODIPY-peptide conjugates that target the extracellular domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) were prepared and their ability for binding to EGFR was investigated. The peptide ligands K(N3)LARLLT and its cyclic analog cyclo(K(N3)larllt, previously shown to have high affinity for binding to the extracellular domain of EGFR, were conjugated to alkynyl-functionalized BODIPY dyes 1 and 2 via a copper-catalyzed click reaction. This reaction produced conjugates 3, 4, and 5 in high yields (70-82%). In vitro studies using human carcinoma HEp2 cells that overexpress EGFR demonstrated high cellular uptake, particularly for the cyclic peptide …

Topsentinol L Trisulfate, A Marine Natural Product That Targets Basal-Like And Claudin-Low Breast Cancers, Nader N. El-Chaar, Thomas E. Smith, Gajendra Shrestha, Stephen R. Piccolo, Mary Kay Harper, Ryan M. Van Wagoner, Zhenyu Lu, Ashlee R. Venancio, Chris M. Ireland, Andrea H. Bild, Philip J. Moos

Faculty Publications

Patients diagnosed with basal-like breast cancer suffer from poor prognosis and limited treatment options. There is an urgent need to identify new targets that can benefit patients with basal-like and claudin-low (BL-CL) breast cancers. We screened fractions from our Marine Invertebrate Compound Library (MICL) to identify compounds that specifically target BL-CL breast cancers. We identified a previously unreported trisulfated sterol, i.e., topsentinol L trisulfate (TLT), which exhibited increased efficacy against BL-CL breast cancers relative to luminal/HER2+ breast cancer. Biochemical investigation of the effects of TLT on BL-CL cell lines revealed its ability to inhibit activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) …

The Barley Hvwrky6 Transcription Factor Is Required For Resistance Against Pyrenophora Teres F. Teres, Prabin Tamang, Jonathan K. Richards, Shyam Solanki, Gazala Ameen, Roshan Sharma Poudel, Priyanka Deka, Karl Effertz, Shaun J. Clare, Justin Hegstad, Achintya Bezbaruah, Xuehui Li, Richard D. Horsley, Timothy L. Friesen, Robert S. Brueggeman

Faculty Publications

Barley is an important cereal crop worldwide because of its use in the brewing and distilling industry. However, adequate supplies of quality malting barley are threatened by global climate change due to drought in some regions and excess precipitation in others, which facilitates epidemics caused by fungal pathogens. The disease net form net blotch caused by the necrotrophic fungal pathogen Pyrenophora teres f. teres (Ptt) has emerged as a global threat to barley production and diverse populations of Ptt have shown a capacity to overcome deployed genetic resistances. The barley line CI5791 exhibits remarkably effective resistance to diverse Ptt isolates …

A Burkholderia Thailandensis Deda Family Membrane Protein Is Required For Proton Motive Force Dependent Lipid A Modification, Pradip R. Panta, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

The DedA family is a conserved membrane protein family found in most organisms. A Burkholderia thailandensis DedA family protein, named DbcA, is required for high-level colistin (polymyxin E) resistance, but the mechanism awaits elucidation. Modification of lipopolysaccharide lipid A with the cationic sugar aminoarabinose (Ara4N) is required for colistin resistance and is dependent upon protonmotive force (PMF) dependent transporters. B. thailandensis ΔdbcA lipid A contains only small amounts of Ara4N, likely leading to colistin sensitivity. Two B. thailandensis operons are required for lipid A modification with Ara4N, one needed for biosynthesis of undecaprenyl-P-Ara4N and one for transport of the lipid …

Journal Of Water Sanitation And Hygiene For Development Use Of Single Particle Icp-Ms To Estimate Silver Nanoparticle Penetration Through Baby Porcine Mucosa, Ilaria Zanoni, Matteo Crosera, Elena Pavoni, Gianpiero Adami, Marcella Mauro, Anna Luisa Costa, Jamie Lead, Francesca Larese

Faculty Publications

Children are potentially exposed to products that contain nanoparticles (NPs). In particular, silver NPs are commonly present both in products used by and around children, primarily due to their antibacterial properties. However, very few data are available regarding the ability of silver NPs to penetrate through the oral mucosa in children. In the present work, we used baby porcine buccal mucosa mounted on vertical Franz diffusion cells, as an in vitro model to investigate penetration of silver NPs (19 ± 5 nm). Permeability experiments were performed using pristine physiologically-relevant saline solution in the receiver chamber and known concentrations of NPs …

Use Of Single Particle Icp-Ms To Estimate Silver Nanoparticle Penetration Through Baby Porcine Mucosa, Ilaria Zanoni, Matteo Crosera, Elena Pavoni, Gianpiero Adami, Marcella Mauro, Anna Luisa Costa, Jamie Lead, Francesca Larese Filon

Faculty Publications

Children are potentially exposed to products that contain nanoparticles (NPs). In particular, silver NPs are commonly present both in products used by and around children, primarily due to their antibacterial properties. However, very few data are available regarding the ability of silver NPs to penetrate through the oral mucosa in children. In the present work, we used baby porcine buccal mucosa mounted on vertical Franz diffusion cells, as an in vitro model to investigate penetration of silver NPs (19 ± 5 nm). Permeability experiments were performed using pristine physiologically-relevant saline solution in the receiver chamber and known concentrations of NPs …

Small Molecule Inhibitors Of The Bacterioferritin (Bfrb)-Ferredoxin (Bfd) Complex Kill Biofilm-Embedded Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Cells, Anabel Soldano, Huili Yao, Achala N.D. Punchi Hewage, Kevin Meraz, Joel K. Annor-Gyamfi, Richard A. Bunce, Kevin P. Battaile, Scott Lovell, Mario Rivera

Faculty Publications

© 2020 American Chemical Society. Bacteria depend on a well-regulated iron homeostasis to survive adverse environments. A key component of the iron homeostasis machinery is the compartmentalization of Fe3+ in bacterioferritin and its subsequent mobilization as Fe2+ to satisfy metabolic requirements. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa Fe3+ is compartmentalized in bacterioferritin (BfrB), and its mobilization to the cytosol requires binding of a ferredoxin (Bfd) to reduce the stored Fe3+ and release the soluble Fe2+. Blocking the BfrB-Bfd complex in P. aeruginosa by deletion of the bfd gene triggers an irreversible accumulation of Fe3+ in BfrB, concomitant cytosolic iron deficiency and significant impairment …

Self-Assembled Thermoresponsive Nanogel From Grafted Hyaluronic Acid As A Biocompatible Delivery Platform For Curcumin With Enhanced Drug Loading And Biological Activities, Jittima Amie Luckanagul, Pahweenvaj Ratnatilaka Na Bhuket, Chawanphat Muangnoi, Pranee Rojsitthisak, Qian Wang, Pornchai Rojsitthisak

Faculty Publications

A hyaluronic acid-grafted poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (HA-pNIPAM) was synthesized as a polymeric nanogel platform for encapsulation and delivery of hydrophobic bioactive compounds using curcumin as a model drug. As demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering techniques, the HA-pNIPAM was simply assembled into spherical nano-sized particles with the thermoresponsive behavior. The success of curcumin aqueous solubilization was confirmed by fluorescent spectroscopy. The resulting nanogel formulation enhanced the aqueous solubility and uptake into NIH-3T3 cells of curcumin. This nanogel formulation also demonstrates cytocompatibility against NIH-3T3 cells, which deems it safe as a delivery vehicle. Moreover, the formulation has a slight skin-protection …

Particulate And Dissolved Organic Matter In Stormwater Runoff Influences Oxygen Demand In Urbanized Headwater Catchments, Kelly M. Mccabe, Erik M. Smith, Susan Q. Lang, Claudia Benitez-Nelson

Faculty Publications

Increasing inputs of organic matter (OM) are driving declining dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in coastal ecosystems worldwide. The quantity, source, and composition of OM transported to coastal ecosystems via stormwater runoff have been altered by land use changes associated with urbanization and subsequent hydrologic flows that accompany urban stormwater management. To elucidate the role of stormwater in the decline of coastal DO, rain event sampling of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in samples collected from the outfall of stormwater ponds and wetlands, as well as samples of largely untreated runoff carried by stormwater ditches, was conducted across a range of urban …

Extraterrestrials In The Stacks: An Archivist’S Journey With Alien Abduction, A Stained Blue Dress, And The Betty And Barney Hill Collection, William Ross

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How To Sell A Friend: Disinterest As Relational Work In Direct Sales, Curtis Child

Faculty Publications

Economic sociologists agree that monetary transactions are not necessarily antithetical to meaningful social relationships. However, they also accept that creating “good matches” between the two requires hard work. In this article, I contribute to the relational program in economic sociology by examining a common but understudied type of work in which one party to a relationship stands to benefit from it financially. I identify in these highly commercialized contexts a particular style of relational work anticipated, but not fully developed, in Pierre Bourdieu’s writings: disinterest. I argue that the disinterested style is manifest by economically implicated individuals who downplay their …

Switching Between Singular Points In Non-Pt -Symmetric Multilayer Structures Using Phase-Change Materials, Yin Huang, Lanyan Wang, Yuecheng Shen, Georgios Veronis

Faculty Publications

We investigate the switching between singular points in non-parity-time-symmetric multilayer structures using phase-change materials at the optical communication wavelength. We first show that absorbing singularities can be switched to exceptional points (EPs) in a two-layer structure consisting of a phase-change material layer and a lossy layer by switching the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) from its crystalline to its amorphous phase. We also show that spectral singularities (SSs) can be switched to EPs in a three-layer structure consisting of a lossless dielectric layer sandwiched between a GST layer and a gain layer by switching the GST from its crystalline to its …

Examining Criteria For Adulthood Among Young People In Sabah (East Malaysia), Walton Wider, Norazah Mohd Suki, Melanie L. Lott, Larry J. Nelson, Sew Kim Low, Gertrude Cosmas

Faculty Publications

This study aims to identify perceived adult status and to explore the criteria for adulthood of young people in Sabah (East Malaysia). The differences in such criteria based on gender and student status are also examined. Data collected from 208 respondents were analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The empirical results of CFA revealed six criteria for adulthood: family capacities, norm compliance, interdependence, biological transitions, role transitions, and chronological transitions. However, the independence factor was discarded for further analysis because of having weak item loadings. In addition, the ANOVA test showed that women have …

Pittsburgh, The Realest City: Shit Talk’N, Storytell’N, Social Liv’N, Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho

Faculty Publications

This article documents my lived experience as a participant observer in a writing/performance course that brought together returning citizens, police officers, community activists, university students and faculty. I am utilizing Hoffman’s (2004) “Living Stories” framework and Cutts’ (2016) expansion of Poetic Inquiry to present “Ars Spirituality” as the lens to frame the discussion of my storytelling and storiography experience. Curated by Duquesne University sociologist Norman Conti, with theoretical justification from C. Wright Mills and Erving Goffman, the course was co-facilitated by award-winning actor/writer Roger Guenveur Smith and world-renowned writing coach and performer Susan Stein over Zoom video conferencing …

Models For Brand Relationships, Marc Fetscherin, Cleopatra Veloutsou, Francisco Guzman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of S. Morris (Ed.), The Critical Thinking About Sources Cookbook, Carol A. Leibiger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Free Speech & Abortion: The First Amendment Case Against Compelled Motherhood, Raymond Shih Ray Ku

Faculty Publications

The most important lessons are taught by example. Children learn the fundamental values that guide them throughout their lives from the examples set by their parents, especially their mothers. Even before they understand a language, they learn by observing and imitating the actions of their parents. For almost fifty years Roe v Wade guaranteed pregnant women the freedom to determine whether to carry their pregnancy to term. The right to obtain a safe abortion prior to viability is the most significant and controversial aspect of this freedom. The Supreme Court is now poised to overturn what it previously described as …

When Can Taxpayers Invoke The Substance-Over-Form Doctrine?, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This article considers the circumstances under which taxpayers can disavow the form of a transaction they enter in order to claim better tax consequences based on the substance of the transaction. In some situations, the disavowal is noncontroversial because the Internal Revenue Service has blessed the transactions. In a few situations where the Service resists, however, taxpayers are sometimes successful anyway. The focus of the article is on the Tax Court’s 2021 decision in Complex Media, Inc. v. Commissioner, and substantial discussion is devoted to the Third Circuit’s well-known, and sometimes controversial, 1967 decision in Commissioner v. Danielson.

Buddhas And Body Language: The Literary Trope Of The Buddha's Smile, David Fiordalis

Faculty Publications

This essay explores how classical Buddhist literature, across a variety of traditional genres, portrays the wondrous smile of the Buddha. Despite its literary register, the Buddha’s smile is first and foremost a nonverbal gesture, and if we are to understand its significance, then we must employ a theoretical approach that treats it as such. Multimodality provides such an approach. While an emergent body of psychological research has argued that the smile is a universal human gesture connected to a rather limited set of emotional states like happiness, the recognition that smiles can be voluntary acts highlights the importance of situational …

Los Budas Y El Lenguaje Corporal: El Tropo Literario De La Sonrisa Del Buda, David Fiordalis

Faculty Publications

Este ensayo explora cómo retrata la literatura budista clásica la sonrisa del Buda. La sonrisa del Buda es un gesto no verbal, y para entender su significado debemos emplear un enfoque teórico que la trate como tal. La multimodalidad puede proporcionar tal enfoque. Un conjunto emergente de investigación psicológica ha argumentado que la sonrisa es un gesto humano universal conectado a un grupo limitado de estados emocionales, pero reconocer que las sonrisas pueden ser actos voluntarios destaca la importancia del contexto situacional. Dado que la sonrisa del Buda nos llega desde un contexto histórico y cultural ajeno a la evidencia …

Climate Change Implications For Tidal Marshes And Food Web Linkages To Estuarine And Coastal Nekton, D D. Colombano, S. Y. Litvin, S. L. Ziegler, S. B. Alford, D. D. Colombano, M. A. Barbeau, J. Cebrian, R. M. Connolly, C. A. Currin, L. A. Deegan, J. S. Lesser, C. W. Martin, A. E. Mcdonald, C. Mcluckie, B. H. Morrison, J. W. Pahl, L. W. Risse, J. A. Smith, L. W. Staver, R. Eugene Turner, N. J. Waltham

Faculty Publications

Climate change is altering naturally fluctuating environmental conditions in coastal and estuarine ecosystems across the globe. Departures from long-term averages and ranges of environmental variables are increasingly being observed as directional changes [e.g., rising sea levels, sea surface temperatures (SST)] and less predictable periodic cycles (e.g., Atlantic or Pacific decadal oscillations) and extremes (e.g., coastal flooding, marine heatwaves). Quantifying the short- and long-term impacts of climate change on tidal marsh seascape structure and function for nekton is a critical step toward fisheries conservation and management. The multiple stressor framework provides a promising approach for advancing integrative, cross-disciplinary research on tidal …

Elevating Dissolved Oxygen - Reflections On Developing And Using Long - Term Data, Nancy N. Rabalais

Faculty Publications

This prospectus took me about as long to generate as my 36 - year record of working on the issue of northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) oxygen deficiency, or so I felt. There was so much to cover, but I focused on the issue of hypoxia on the Louisiana continental shelf from the early 1980s to present and my participation in the research and outreach. Not that I was ignoring other aspects of my academic research career (e.g., stone crab populations and their differences in physiology and larval development along the nGOM coast; settlement of crab megalopae, especially blue crabs, …

Astronomical Tide And Storm Surge Signals Observed In An Isolated Inland Maar Lake Near The Coast, Mingming Li, Chunyan Li, Lingling Xie, Wei Huang, Quanan Zheng, Keyi Tan, Yingbin Hong

Faculty Publications

Aimed at the explanation of clear tidal signal and storm surge signals in a closed inland lake near the coast (the Huguangyan Lake), this work uses a combined approach with observations and model experiments. Huguangyan Lake is a closed inland freshwater coneless volcanic crater lake near the coast in tropical southern China, less than 5 km from an estuary. It has a diameter of about 1.5 km and relatively deep water of up to 20 m. Bottom pressure was measured from an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) for 10 days in September 2018 and 10 days in January 2019. The …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On The Use Of Academic Library Resources, Ruth Connell, Lisa Wallis, David Comeaux

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted higher education, including academic libraries. This paper compares the use of library resources (including interlibrary loan, website and discovery tool pageviews, database use, patron interactions, etc.) at three university libraries before and after the pandemic. The latter part of the 2019 and 2020 spring semesters are the timeframes of focus, although two control timeframes from earlier in those semesters are used to determine how the semesters differed when the coronavirus was not a factor. The institutions experienced similar patterns of use across many metrics.

Information, Identification, Or Both? A Rhetorical Analysis Of How Blm Uses Their Official Website, Candice L. Edrington

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Barring Immoral Speech In Patent And Copyright, Ned Snow

Faculty Publications

In the past three years, the Supreme Court has twice ruled that Congress’s moral bars to trademark protection violate the First Amendment. Those rulings raise a simple question in other areas of intellectual property. Does the First Amendment preclude Congress from denying patent or copyright protection based on a moral reason? Congress, for instance, might deny patent protection for inventions directed toward the consumption of marijuana. Inventors would accordingly choose not to disclose knowledge about those inventions to the public, and the denial would chill their speech. Similarly, Congress would chill speech if it denied copyright protection for moral reasons. …

Implementation Of Brain Breaks(R) In The Classroom And Its Effects On Attitudes Towards Physical Activity In A Chinese School Setting, Ke Zhou, Sensen He, Yanli Zhou, Biljana Popeska, Garry Kuan, Li Chen, Ming-Kai Chin, Magdalena Mo Ching Mok, Christopher R. Edginton, Ian Culpan, J. Larry Durstine

Faculty Publications

This study aimed to examine the effects of three-months of classroom-based Brain Breaks Physical Activity Solution (Brain Breaks®) on attitudes toward physical activity levels of primary school children in Henan Province, China. The participants were 704 children enrolled in grades 3–5 who were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. The experimental group participated in Brain Breaks® video intervention for 3–5 min daily, at low-to-moderate intensity for three consecutive months. The control group resumed their normal routine. The children’s attitudes in both groups towards physical activity (PA) were evaluated using the self-reported Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale …

Political Climate And Catastrophes: The Effects Of Notorious Events On Public Library Collections, Both Then And Now, Joseph A. Custer

Faculty Publications

This paper explores four different cases in the early 1950s of “Red Scare” tactics that influenced the freedoms that patrons using public libraries have enjoyed. The paper will also examine, at various points, the censorship parallels in the early 1950s to the contemporary political climate and the fallout of the Great Depression to the current catastrophe, COVID-19. The paper reviews the fallout from the Great Depression and how the world’s depression helped catapult Adolph Hitler of Germany to power. Hitler severely restricted or eliminated freedoms of expression, and the Trump administration’s actions reflect some of those same restrictions.

Playing By The Rule: How Aba Model Rule 8.4(G) Can Regulate Jury Exclusion, Anna Offit

Faculty Publications

Discrimination during voir dire remains a critical impediment to empaneling juries that reflect the diversity of the United States. While various solutions have been proposed, scholars have largely overlooked ethics rules as an instrument for preventing discriminatory behavior during jury selection. Focusing on American Bar Association Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g), which regulates professional misconduct, this Article argues that ethics rules may, under certain conditions, deter the exclusionary practices of legal actors. Part I examines the specific history, evolution, and application of revised Model Rule 8.4(g). Part II delves into the ways that ethics rules in general, despite their …

Race-Conscious Jury Selection, Anna Offit

Faculty Publications

Among the central issues in scholarship on the American jury is the effect of Batson v. Kentucky (1986) on discriminatory empanelment. Empirical legal research has confirmed that despite the promise of the Batson doctrine, both peremptory strikes and challenges for cause remain tools of racial exclusion. But these studies, based on post facto interviews, transcript analysis, and quantitative methods offer little insight into Batson’s critical impact on real-time decision-making and strategy in voir dire. If we increasingly know what kinds of juries are produced in the post-Batson world, we know very little about how they are produced.

This …