Digital Commons Network^™

Conversion Of Human 5-Lipoxygenase To A 15-Lipoxygenase By A Point Mutation To Mimic Phosphorylation At Serine-663, Nathaniel C. Gilbert, Zhe Rui, David B. Neau, Maria T. Waight, Sue G. Bartlett, William E. Boeglin, Alan R. Brash, Marcia E. Newcomer

Faculty Publications

The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) initiates biosynthesis of the proinflammatory leukotriene lipid mediators and, together with 15-LOX, is also required for synthesis of the anti-inflammatory lipoxins. The catalytic activity of 5-LOX is regulated through multiple mechanisms, including Ca 2+-targeted membrane binding and phosphorylation at specific serine residues. To investigate the consequences of phosphorylation at S663, we mutated the residue to the phosphorylation mimic Asp, providing a homogenous preparation suitable for catalytic and structural studies. The S663D enzyme exhibits robust 15-LOX activity, as determined by spectrophotometric and HPLC analyses, with only traces of 5-LOX activity remaining; synthesis of the anti-inflammatory lipoxin A4 …

Multiple Independent Origins Of Mitochondrial Control Region Duplications In The Order Psittaciformes, Erin E. Schirtzinger, Erika S. Tavares, Lauren A. Gonzales, Jessica R. Eberhard, Cristina Y. Miyaki, Juan J. Sanchez, Alexis Hernandez, Heinrich Müeller, Gary R. Graves, Robert C. Fleischer, Timothy F. Wright

Faculty Publications

Mitochondrial genomes are generally thought to be under selection for compactness, due to their small size, consistent gene content, and a lack of introns or intergenic spacers. As more animal mitochondrial genomes are fully sequenced, rearrangements and partial duplications are being identified with increasing frequency, particularly in birds (Class Aves). In this study, we investigate the evolutionary history of mitochondrial control region states within the avian order Psittaciformes (parrots and cockatoos). To this aim, we reconstructed a comprehensive multi-locus phylogeny of parrots, used PCR of three diagnostic fragments to classify the mitochondrial control region state as single or duplicated, and …

Nature's Perfect Food, Geoffrey D. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Nature's Perfect Food is an article that describes the history of local beekeeper Jack Hartman and the benefit of local honey bees to agriculture and honey consumers.

Improving The Scalability Of Parallel N-Body Applications With An Event-Driven Constraint-Based Execution Model, Chirag Dekate, Matthew Anderson, Maciej Brodowicz, Hartmut Kaiser, Bryce Adelstein-Lelbach, Thomas Sterling

Faculty Publications

The scalability and efficiency of graph applications are significantly constrained by conventional systems and their supporting programming models. Technology trends such as multicore, manycore, and heterogeneous system architectures are introducing further challenges and possibilities for emerging application domains such as graph applications. This paper explores the parallel execution of graphs that are generated using the Barnes-Hut algorithm to exemplify dynamic workloads. The workloads are expressed using the semantics of an exascale computing execution model called ParalleX. For comparison, results using conventional execution model semantics are also presented. We find improved load balancing during runtime and automatic parallelism discovery by using …

Il-22 Signaling Contributes To West Nile Encephalitis Pathogenesis, Fengwei Bai, Penghua Wang, Lauren A. Zenewicz, Jianfeng Dai, David Gate, Gong Cheng, Long Yang, Feng Qian, Xiaoling Yuan, Ruth R. Montgomery, Richard A. Flavell, Terrence Town, Erol Fikrig

Faculty Publications

The Th17 cytokine, IL-22, regulates host immune responses to extracellular pathogens. Whether IL-22 plays a role in viral infection, however, is poorly understood. We report here that Il22^-/- mice were more resistant to lethal West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis, but had similar viral loads in the periphery compared to wild type (WT) mice. Viral loads, leukocyte infiltrates, proinflammatory cytokines and apoptotic cells in the central nervous system (CNS) of Il22^-/- mice were also strikingly reduced. Further examination showed that Cxcr2, a chemokine receptor that plays a non-redundant role in mediating neutrophil migration, was significantly reduced in Il22^{-/- …}

Tracking The Emergence Of A New Breed Using 49,034 Snp In Sheep, James W. Kijas, James E. Miller, Tracy Hadfield, Russell Mcculloch, Elsa Garcia-Gamez, Laercio R. Neto, Noelle Cockett

Faculty Publications

Domestic animals are unique in that they have been organised into managed populations called breeds. The strength of genetic divergence between breeds may vary dependent on the age of the breed, the scenario under which it emerged and the strength of reproductive isolation it has from other breeds. In this study, we investigated the Gulf Coast Native breed of sheep to determine if it contains lines of animals that are sufficiently divergent to be considered separate breeds. Allele sharing and principal component analysis (PCA) using nearly 50,000 SNP loci revealed a clear genetic division that corresponded with membership of either …

Fission Yeast Dma1 Requires Ring Domain Dimerization For Its Ubiquitin Ligase Activity And Mitotic Checkpoint Function, Alyssa E. Johnson, Scott E. Collier, Melanie D. Ohi, Kathleen L. Gould

Faculty Publications

In fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe), the E3 ubiquitin ligase Dma1 delays cytokinesis if chromosomes are not properly attached to the mitotic spindle.Dma1contains a C-terminal RING domain, and we have found that the Dma1 RING domain forms a stable homodimer. Although the RING domain is required for dimerization, residues in the C-terminal tail are also required to help form or stabilize the dimeric structure because mutation of specific residues in this region disrupts Dma1 dimerization. Further analyses showed that Dma1 dimerization is required for proper localization at spindle pole bodies and the cell division site, E3 ligase activity, and mitotic checkpoint …

Comparison Of Therapeutic Dosimetric Data From Passively Scattered Proton And Photon Craniospinal Irradiations For Medulloblastoma, Rebecca M. Howell, Annelise Giebeler, Wendi Koontz-Raisig, Anita Mahajan, Carol J. Etzel, Anthony M. D'Amelio, Kenneth L. Homann, Wayne D. Newhauser

Faculty Publications

Background: For many decades, the standard of care radiotherapy regimen for medulloblastoma has been photon (megavoltage x-rays) craniospinal irradiation (CSI). The late effects associated with CSI are well-documented in the literature and are in-part attributed to unwanted dose to healthy tissue. Recently, there is growing interest in using proton therapy for CSI in pediatric and adolescent patients to reduce this undesirable dose. Previous comparisons of dose to target and non-target organs from conventional photon CSI and passively scattered proton CSI have been limited to small populations (n ≤ 3) and have not considered the use of age-dependent target volumes in …

Insights Into Salt Tolerance From The Genome Of Thellungiella Salsuginea, Hua Jun Wu, Zhonghui Zhang, Jun Yi Wang, Dong Ha Oh, Maheshi Dassanayake, Binghang Liu, Quanfei Huang, Hai Xi Sun, Ran Xia, Yaorong Wu, Yi Nan Wang, Zhao Yang, Yang Liu, Wanke Zhang, Huawei Zhang, Jinfang Chu, Cunyu Yan, Shuang Fang, Jinsong Zhang, Yiqin Wang, Fengxia Zhang, Guodong Wang, Sang Yeol Lee, John M. Cheeseman, Bicheng Yang, Bo Li, Jiumeng Min, Linfeng Yang, Jun Wang, Chengcai Chu, Shou Yi Chen, Hans J. Bohnert, Jian Kang Zhu

Faculty Publications

Thellungiella salsuginea, a close relative of Arabidopsis, represents an extremophile model for abiotic stress tolerance studies. We present the draft sequence of the T. salsuginea genome, assembled based on ∼134-fold coverage to seven chromosomes with a coding capacity of at least 28,457 genes. This genome provides resources and evidence about the nature of defense mechanisms constituting the genetic basis underlying plant abiotic stress tolerance. Comparative genomics and experimental analyses identified genes related to cation transport, abscisic acid signaling, and wax production prominent in T. salsuginea as possible contributors to its success in stressful environments.

Discrimination Of Colon Cancer Stem Cells Using Noncanonical Amino Acid, Xinrui Duan, Honglin Li, Hexin Chen, Qian Wang

Faculty Publications

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) may be responsible for tumor recurrence. Metabolic labelling of newly synthesized proteins with non-canonical amino acids allows us to discriminate CSCs in mixed populations due to the quiescent nature of these cells.

Tfiiic Localizes Budding Yeast Etc Sites To The Nuclear Periphery, Shin Ichiro Hiraga, Sotirios Botsios, David Donze, Anne D. Donaldson

Faculty Publications

Chromatin function requires specific three-dimensional architectures of chromosomes. We investigated whether Saccharomyces cerevisiae extra TFIIIC (ETC) sites, which bind the TFIIIC transcription factor but do not recruit RNA polymerase III, show specific intranuclear positioning. We show that six of the eight known S. cerevisiae ETC sites localize predominantly at the nuclear periphery, and that ETC sites retain their tethering function when moved to a new chromosomal location. Several lines of evidence indicate that TFIIIC is central to the ETC peripheral localization mechanism. Mutating or deleting the TFIIIC-binding consensus ablated ETC -site peripheral positioning, and inducing degradation of the TFIIIC subunit …

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Employment Discrimination As A Means For Social Cleansing, E. Gary Spitko

Faculty Publications

In December 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010,” which provided for repeal of the policy prohibiting gay people from serving openly in the military, after consideration of a Department of Defense review on the implementation of such a repeal. This article examines the history of the exclusion of openly gay people from military service in the United States from the early twentieth century up until the time of the repeal. The author concludes from this review that the dominant purpose of the military’s exclusion of openly gay people was to …

Mapping The Biosphere: Exploring Species To Understand The Origin, Organization And Sustainability Of Biodiversity, Q. D. Wheeler, S. Knapp, D. W. Stevenson, J. Stevenson, S. D. Blum, B. M. Boom, G. G. Borisy, J. L. Buizer, M. R. De Carvalho, A. Cibrian, M. J. Donoghue, V. Doyle, E. M. Gerson, C. H. Graham, P. Graves, S. J. Graves, R. P. Guralnick, A. L. Hamilton, J. Hanken, W. Law, D. L. Lipscomb, T. E. Lovejoy, H. Miller, J. S. Miller, S. Naeem, M. J. Novacek, L. M. Page, N. I. Platnick, H. Porter-Morgan, P. H. Raven, M. A. Solis, A. G. Valdecasas, S. Van Der Leeuw

Faculty Publications

The time is ripe for a comprehensive mission to explore and document Earth's species. This calls for a campaign to educate and inspire the next generation of professional and citizen species explorers, investments in cyber-infrastructure and collections to meet the unique needs of the producers and consumers of taxonomic information, and the formation and coordination of a multi-institutional, international, transdisciplinary community of researchers, scholars and engineers with the shared objective of creating a comprehensive inventory of species and detailed map of the biosphere. We conclude that an ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is …

Il-6 Regulation On Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Remodeling During Cancer Cachexia In The ApcMin/+ Mouse, James P. White, Melissa J. Puppa, Shuichi Sato, Song Gao, Robert L. Price, John W. Baynes, Matthew C. Kostek, Lydia E. Matesic, James A. Carson

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

Muscle protein turnover regulation during cancer cachexia is being rapidly defined, and skeletal muscle mitochondria function appears coupled to processes regulating muscle wasting. Skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and the expression of proteins regulating mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics are disrupted in severely cachectic Apc^Min/+ mice. It has not been determined if these changes occur at the onset of cachexia and are necessary for the progression of muscle wasting. Exercise and anti-cytokine therapies have proven effective in preventing cachexia development in tumor bearing mice, while their effect on mitochondrial content, biogenesis and dynamics is not well understood. The purposes of …

Bullying Victimization As A Disability In Public Elementary And Secondary Education, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article discusses two reasons why likening bullying victimization to an educational disability makes sense. First, face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying impose on student victims the sort of educational deprivation that the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) addresses in the disabilities arena. Second, today’s belated public sensitivity to school bullying victims resembles the belated public sensitivity to students with disabilities that led to passage of the IDEA in 1975.

Radiation Reaction: General Approach And Applications, Especially To Electrodynamics, R. F. O'Connell

Faculty Publications

Radiation reaction (but, more generally, fluctuations and dissipation) occurs when a system interacts with a heat bath, a particular case being the interaction of an electron with the radiation field. We have developed a general theory for the case of a quantum particle in a general potential (but, in more detail, an oscillator potential) coupled to an arbitrary heat bath at arbitrary temperature, and in an external time-dependent c-number field. The results may be applied to a large variety of problems in physics but we concentrate by showing in detail the application to the blackbody radiation heat bath, giving an …

Controlling A Master Switch Of Adipocyte Development And Insulin Sensitivity: Covalent Modifications Of Pparγ, Z. Elizabeth Floyd, Jacqueline M. Stephens

Faculty Publications

Adipocytes are highly specialized cells that play a central role in lipid homeostasis and the maintenance of energy balance. Obesity, an excessive accumulation of adipose tissue, is a major risk factor for the development of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. A variety of studies suggest that obesity and T2DM can be linked to a breakdown in the regulatory mechanisms that control the expression and transcriptional activity of PPARγ. PPARγ is a nuclear hormone receptor that functions as a master switch in controlling adipocyte differentiation and development. Also important in controlling glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, PPARγ …

Genome-Wide Studies Of The Multi-Zinc Finger Drosophila Suppressor Of Hairy-Wing Protein In The Ovary, Alexey A. Soshnev, Bing He, Ryan M. Baxley, Nan Jiang, Craig M. Hart, Kai Tan, Pamela K. Geyer

Faculty Publications

The Drosophila Suppressor of Hairy-wing [Su(Hw)] protein is a globally expressed, multi-zinc finger (ZnF) DNA-binding protein. Su(Hw) forms a classic insulator when bound to the gypsy retrotransposon and is essential for female germline development. These functions are genetically separable, as exemplified by Su(Hw)f that carries a defective ZnF10, causing a loss of insulator but not germline function. Here, we completed the first genome-wide analysis of Su(Hw)-binding sites (SBSs) in the ovary, showing that tissue-specific binding is not responsible for the restricted developmental requirements for Su(Hw). Mapping of ovary Su(Hw)f SBSs revealed that female fertility requires binding to only one third …

Can A Semiochemical-Based Trapping Method Diminish Damage Levels Caused By Rhabdoscelus Obscurus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)?, G. V.P. Reddy, P. Shi, C. R. Mann, D. M.H. Mantanona, Z. Dong

Faculty Publications

The New Guinea sugarcane weevil, Rhabdoscelus obscurus (Boisduval) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is an important pest of palms, ornamental nurseries, and sugarcane in the Pacific Islands. Without effective control methods, R. obscurus populations can cause major or complete loss of palm production in Guam and other Micronesian Islands. Moreover, R. obscurus has inflicted severe attacks on coconut trees on Guam. The role of monitoring is important in judging the dynamics of R. obscurus and recording area wide population trends. There is no precise research information available on the trap catch threshold levels relative to the damage caused by R. obscurus. Here we …

Larval Mosquito Habitat Utilization And Community Dynamics Of Aedes Albopictus And Aedes Japonicus (Diptera: Culicidae), Kristen Bartlett-Healy, Isik Unlu, Peter Obenauer, Tony Hughes, Sean Healy, Taryn Crepeau, Ary Farajollahi, Banu Kesavaraju, Dina Fonseca, George Schoeler, Randy Gaugler, Daniel Strickman

Faculty Publications

Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Ae. japonicus (Theobald) are important container-inhabiting mosquitoes that transmit disease agents, outcompete native species, and continue to expand their range in the United States. Both species deposit eggs in natural and artificial containers and thrive in peridomestic environments. The goal of our study was to examine the types and characteristics of containers that are most productive for these species in the northeastern United States. In total, 306 containers were sampled in urban, suburban, and rural areas of New Jersey. Multiple biotic and abiotic factors were recorded in an attempt to identify variables associated with the productivity …

Spheres, Jülichs High-Flux Neutron Backscattering Spectrometer At Frm Ii, Joachim Wuttke, Alfred Budwig, Matthias Drochner, Hans Kämmerling, Franz Joseph Kayser, Harald Kleines, Vladimir Ossovyi, Luis Carlos Pardo, Michael Prager, Dieter Richter, Gerald J. Schneider, Harald Schneider, Simon Staringer

Faculty Publications

SPHERES is a third-generation neutron backscattering spectrometer, located at the 20MW German neutron source FRM II and operated by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science. It offers an energy resolution (fwhm) better than 0.65 μeV, a dynamic range of ± 31 μeV, and a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 1750:1. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Assessment Of The Mass, Length, Center Of Mass, And Principal Moment Of Inertia Of Body Segments In Adult Males Of The Brown Anole (Anolis Sagrei) And Green, Or Carolina, Anole (Anolis Carolinensis), Pierre Legreneur, Dominique G. Homberger, Vincent Bels

Faculty Publications

This study provides a morphometric data set of body segments that are biomechanically relevant for locomotion in two ecomorphs of adult male anoles, namely, the trunk-ground Anolis sagrei and the trunk-crown Anolis carolinensis. For each species, 10 segments were characterized, and for each segment, length, mass, location of the center of mass, and radius of gyration were measured or calculated, respectively. The radii of gyration were computed from the moments of inertia by using the double swing pendulum method. The trunk-ground A. sagrei has relatively longer and stockier hindlimbs and forelimbs with smaller body than A. carolinensis. These differences between …

Playing Without Aces: Offset And The Limits Of Flexibility Under Clean Air Act Climate Policy, Nathan D. Richardson

Faculty Publications

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to move ahead with regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act (CAA). Previous work has indicated that basic forms of compliance flexibility—trading—appear to be legally permissible under section III of the CAA. This Article takes a close look at more expansive and ambitious types of flexibility: trading between different kinds of sources, biomass co-firing, and above all, offsets. It concludes that most types of such extended flexibility are either legally incompatible with the CAA, or so legally problematic that EPA is unlikely to adopt them. This has important implications …

Evolution Of A Sexually Dimorphic Trait In A Broadly Distributed Topminnow (Fundulus Olivaceus), Jacob F. Schaefer, David D. Duvernell, Brian R. Kreiser, Charles Champagne, Scott R. Clark, Melissa Gutierrez, Laura K. Stewart, Chazz Coleman

Faculty Publications

Understanding the interaction between sexual and natural selection within variable environments is crucial to our understanding of evolutionary processes. The handicap principle predicts females will prefer males with exaggerated traits provided those traits are indicators of male quality to ensure direct or indirect female benefits. Spatial variability in ecological factors is expected to alter the balance between sexual and natural selection that defines the evolution of such traits. Male and female blackspotted topminnows (Fundulidae: Fundulus olivaceus) display prominent black dorsolateral spots that are variable in number across its broad range. We investigated variability in spot phenotypes at 117 sites …

Impacts Of Upstream Drought And Water Withdrawals On The Health And Survival Of Downstream Estuarine Oyster Populations, Laura E. Petes, Alicia J. Brown, Carley R. Knight

Faculty Publications

Increases in the frequency, duration, and severity of regional drought pose major threats to the health and integrity of downstream ecosystems. During 2007-2008, the U.S. southeast experienced one of the most severe droughts on record. Drought and water withdrawals in the upstream watershed led to decreased freshwater input to Apalachicola Bay, Florida, an estuary that is home to a diversity of commercially and ecologically important organisms. This study applied a combination of laboratory experiments and field observations to investigate the effects of reduced freshwater input on Apalachicola oysters. Oysters suffered significant disease-related mortality under high-salinity, drought conditions, particularly during the …

Survival, Growth And Reproduction Of Non-Native Nile Tilapia Ii: Fundamental Niche Projections And Invasion Potential In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Michael R. Lowe, Wei Wu, Mark S. Peterson, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson, William T. Slack, Pamela J. Schofield

Faculty Publications

Understanding the fundamental niche of invasive species facilitates our ability to predict both dispersal patterns and invasion success and therefore provides the basis for better-informed conservation and management policies. Here we focus on Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Linnaeus, 1758), one of the most widely cultured fish worldwide and a species that has escaped local aquaculture facilities to become established in a coastal-draining river in Mississippi (northern Gulf of Mexico). Using empirical physiological data, logistic regression models were developed to predict the probabilities of Nile tilapia survival, growth, and reproduction at different combinations of temperature (14 and 30°C) and salinity …

Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Appears To Attenuate Particulate Air Pollution-Induced Cardiac Effects And Lipid Changes In Healthy Middle-Aged Adults, Haiyan Tong, Ana G. Rappold, David Diaz-Sanchez, Susan E. Steck, Jon Berntsen, Wayne E. Cascio, Robert B. Devlin, James M. Samet

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Air pollution exposure has been associated with adverse cardiovascular health effects. Findings of a recent epidemiological study suggest that omega-3 fatty acid (fish oil) supplementation blunted cardiac responses to air pollution exposure.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a randomized, controlled exposure study to evaluate the efficacy of fish oil supplements in attenuating adverse cardiac effects of exposure to concentrated ambient fine and ultrafine particulate matter (CAP).

METHODS: Twenty-nine healthy middle-aged participants (mean 58 ± 1 years of age) were supplemented in a randomized, double-blinded manner with 3 g/day of either fish oil or olive oil for 4 weeks before sequential chamber …

Experimental Evidence For The Interplay Of Exogenous And Endogenous Factors On The Movement Ecology Of A Migrating Songbird, Emily B. Cohen, Frank R. Moore, Richard A. Fischer

Faculty Publications

Movement patterns during songbird migration remain poorly understood despite their expected fitness consequences in terms of survival, energetic condition and timing of migration that will carry over to subsequent phases of the annual cycle. We took an experimental approach to test hypotheses regarding the influence of habitat, energetic condition, time of season and sex on the hour-by-hour, local movement decisions of a songbird during spring stopover. To simulate arrival of nocturnal migrants at unfamiliar stopover sites, we translocated and continuously tracked migratory red-eyed vireos (Vireo olivaceus) throughout spring stopover with and without energetic reserves that were released in two replicates …

Were Multiple Stressors A "Perfect Storm" For Northern Gulf Of Mexico Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In 2011?, Ruth H. Carmichael, William M. Graham, Allen Aven, Graham Worthy, Stephan D. Howden

Faculty Publications

An unusual number of near term and neonatal bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) mortalities occurred in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) in 2011, during the first calving season after two well documented environmental perturbations; sustained cold weather in 2010 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWHOS). Preceding the stranding event, large volumes of cold freshwater entered the nGOM due to unusually large snowmelt on the adjacent watershed, providing a third potential stressor. We consider the possibility that this extreme cold and freshwater event contributed to the pattern of perinatal dolphin strandings along the nGOM coast. During the 4-month period starting …

Salt Stress Induced Variation In Dna Methylation Pattern And Its Influence On Gene Expression In Contrasting Rice Genotypes, Ratna Karan, Teresa Deleon, Hanamareddy Biradar, Prasanta K. Subudhi

Faculty Publications

Background: Salinity is a major environmental factor limiting productivity of crop plants including rice in which wide range of natural variability exists. Although recent evidences implicate epigenetic mechanisms for modulating the gene expression in plants under environmental stresses, epigenetic changes and their functional consequences under salinity stress in rice are underexplored. DNA methylation is one of the epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene expression in plant's responses to environmental stresses. Better understanding of epigenetic regulation of plant growth and response to environmental stresses may create novel heritable variation for crop improvement. Methodology/Principal Findings: Methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) technique was used to …