Digital Commons Network^™

Advancing Cr(Vi) Electroreduction: A Redox Mediator To Catalyze The Electrochemical Reduction Of Cr(Vi) In Water While Preventing Fouling Of Carbon Electrodes, Callie M. Stern, Malithi M. Abeythunga, Noémie Elgrishi

Faculty Publications

Hexavalent chromium is a contaminant of concern and is found in drinking water supplies. Electrochemical methods are well-suited to accomplish the reduction of toxic Cr(VI) to Cr(III). However, high overpotentials and plating of Cr(III) products on electrodes have stymied the development of efficacious purification methods. The Cr(VI) reduction reaction necessitates the transfer of multiple protons and electrons, which is accompanied by a high kinetic barrier. Following recent advances in the electrocatalytic energy storage community, we report that the use of [Fe(CN)6]^3- as a small molecular electrocatalyst not only diminishes the overpotential for Cr(VI) reduction on carbon electrodes by 0.575 …

Block-Based Programming For Two-Armed Robots: A Comparative Study, Felipe Fronchetti, Chandler Barfield, Nico Ritschel, Gabriella Chang, Logan Schorr, Rodrigo Spinola, Reid Holmes, David C. Shepherd

Faculty Publications

Programming industrial robots is difficult and expensive. Although recent work has made substantial progress in making it accessible to a wider range of users, it is often limited to simple programs and its usability remains untested in practice. In this article, we introduce Duplo, a block-based programming environment that allows end-users to program two-armed robots and solve tasks that require coordination. Duplo positions the program for each arm side-by-side, using the spatial relationship between blocks from each program to represent parallelism in a way that end-users can easily understand. This design was proposed by previous work, but not implemented or …

On Personality Measures And Their Data: A Classification Of Measurement Approaches And Their Recommended Uses, John D. Mayer, Victoria M. Bryan

Faculty Publications

We employ a new approach for classifying methods of personality measurement such as self-judgment, mental ability, and lifespace measures and the data they produce. We divide these measures into two fundamental groups: personal-source data, which arise from the target person’s own reports, and external-source data, which derive from the areas surrounding the person. These two broad classes are then further divided according to what they target and the response processes that produce them. We use the model to organize roughly a dozen kinds of data currently employed in the field. With this classification system in hand, we …

High-Yield And Rapid Isolation Of Extracellular Vesicles By Flocculation Via Orbital Acoustic Trapping: Float, Joseph Rufo, Peiran Zhang, Zeyu Wang, Yuyang Gu, Kaichun Yang, Joseph Rich, Chuyi Chen, Ruoyu Zhong, Ke Jin, Je He, Jianping Xia, Ke Li, Jiarong Wu, Yingshi Ouyang, Yoel Sadovsky, Luke P. Lee, Tony Jun Huang

Faculty Publications

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been identified as promising biomarkers for the noninvasive diagnosis of various diseases. However, challenges in separating EVs from soluble proteins have resulted in variable EV recovery rates and low purities. Here, we report a high-yield ( > 90%) and rapid ( <  10 min) EV isolation method called FLocculation via Orbital Acoustic Trapping (FLOAT). The FLOAT approach utilizes an acoustofluidic droplet centrifuge to rotate and controllably heat liquid droplets. By adding a thermoresponsive polymer flocculant, nanoparticles as small as 20 nm can be rapidly and selectively concentrated at the center of the droplet. We demonstrate the ability of FLOAT to separate urinary EVs from the highly abundant Tamm-Horsfall protein, addressing a significant obstacle in the development of EV-based liquid biopsies. Due to its high-yield nature, FLOAT reduces biofluid starting volume requirements by a factor of 100 (from 20 mL to 200 µL), demonstrating its promising potential in point-of-care diagnostics.

Left Ventricle Function And Post-Transcriptional Events With Exercise Training In Pigs, Stephanie L. Samani, Shayne C. Barlow, Lisa A. Freeburg, Traci L. Jones, Marlee Poole, Mark A. Sarzynski Ph.D., Faha, Facsm, Michael R. Zile, Tarek Shazly, Francis G. Spinale

Faculty Publications

Background

Standardized exercise protocols have been shown to improve overall cardiovascular fitness, but direct effects on left ventricular (LV) function, particularly diastolic function and relation to post-transcriptional molecular pathways (microRNAs (miRs)) are poorly understood. This project tested the central hypothesis that adaptive LV remodeling resulting from a large animal exercise training protocol, would be directly associated with specific miRs responsible for regulating pathways relevant to LV myocardial stiffness and geometry.

Methods and results

Pigs (n = 9; 25 Kg) underwent a 4 week exercise training protocol (10 degrees elevation, 2.5 mph, 10 min, 5 days/week) whereby LV chamber stiffness (KC) …

Left Ventricle Function And Post-Transcriptional Events With Exercise Training In Pigs, Stephanie L. Samani, Shayne C. Barlow, Lisa A. Freeburg, Traci L. Jones, Marlee Poole, Mark A. Sarzynski Facsm, Michael R. Zile, Tarek Shazly, Francis G. Spinale

Faculty Publications

Background

Standardized exercise protocols have been shown to improve overall cardiovascular fitness, but direct effects on left ventricular (LV) function, particularly diastolic function and relation to post-transcriptional molecular pathways (microRNAs (miRs)) are poorly understood. This project tested the central hypothesis that adaptive LV remodeling resulting from a large animal exercise training protocol, would be directly associated with specific miRs responsible for regulating pathways relevant to LV myocardial stiffness and geometry.

Methods and results

Pigs (n = 9; 25 Kg) underwent a 4 week exercise training protocol (10 degrees elevation, 2.5 mph, 10 min, 5 days/week) whereby LV chamber stiffness (KC) …

Estimating Lentic Recreational Fisheries Catch And Effort Across The United States, Matthew D. Robertson, Stephen R. Midway, Holly S. Embke, Anna L. Kaz, Mitchel Lang, Craig Paukert, Nicholas A. Sievert, Lyndsie Wszola, Abigail J. Lynch

Faculty Publications

Recreational fisheries represent a socially, ecologically, and economically significant component of global fisheries. The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat) database includes inland recreational fisheries survey data across the United States to facilitate large-scale analyses. However, because survey methods differ, a statistical method capable of integrating these surveys is necessary to assess patterns and relationships across regions. Here, we developed a hierarchical generalized linear mixed modeling approach to estimate the relationship between daily recreational fisheries catch and effort based on waterbody, socio-economic, and ecological covariates. We applied this approach to CreelCat data on lentic waterbodies and found that …

Effector-Triggered Susceptibility By The Rice Blast Fungus Magnaporthe Oryzae, Ely Oliveira-Garcia, Xia Yan, Miriam Oses-Ruiz, Samuel De Paula, Nicholas J. Talbot

Faculty Publications

Rice blast, the most destructive disease of cultivated rice world-wide, is caused by the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. To cause disease in plants, M. oryzae secretes a diverse range of effector proteins to suppress plant defense responses, modulate cellular processes, and support pathogen growth. Some effectors can be secreted by appressoria even before host penetration, while others accumulate in the apoplast, or enter living plant cells where they target specific plant subcellular compartments. During plant infection, the blast fungus induces the formation of a specialized plant structure known as the biotrophic interfacial complex (BIC), which appears to be crucial for …

Survival And Cause-Specific Mortality Of Male Wild Turkeys Across The Southeastern United States, Patrick H. Wightman, Erin E. Ulrey, Nicholas W. Bakner, Jay R. Cantrell, Charles R. Ruth, Emily Rushton, Cody A. Cedotal, John C. Kilgo, David J. Moscicki, Krishna Pacifici, Christopher E. Moorman, Bret A. Collier, Michael J. Chamberlain

Faculty Publications

Estimating survival and cause-specific mortality of male eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is important for understanding population dynamics and implementing appropriate harvest management. To better understand age-specific estimates of annual survival and harvest rates, we captured and marked male wild turkeys with leg bands (n = 311) or bands and transmitters (n = 549) in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina, USA, during 2014–2022. We fitted time to event models to data from radio-marked birds to estimate cause-specific mortality and annual survival. We used band recovery models incorporating both band recovery and telemetry data to further investigate harvest …

Robust Assessment Of Associations Between Weather And Eastern Wild Turkey Nest Success, Wesley W. Boone, Christopher E. Moorman, David J. Moscicki, Bret A. Collier, Michael J. Chamberlain, Adam J. Terando, Krishna Pacifici

Faculty Publications

Temperature and precipitation have been identified as factors that potentially influence eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) reproduction, but robust analyses testing the relationship between weather parameters and turkey nest success are lacking. Therefore, we assessed how weather influenced turkey daily nest survival using 8 years of data collected from 715 nests across the southeastern United States. We also conducted exploratory analyses investigating if weather conditions during or prior to nesting best predicted nest success. We then assessed the possible implications of climate change through 2041–2060 for future eastern wild turkey daily nest survival and nest success for variables determined …

Understanding Implications Of Detection Heterogeneity In Wildlife Abundance Estimation, Jeffrey L. Laake, Bret A. Collier

Faculty Publications

Negative bias in mark-recapture abundance estimators due to heterogeneity in detection (capture) probability is a well-known problem, but we believe most biologists do not understand why heterogeneity causes bias and how bias can be reduced. We demonstrate how heterogeneity creates dependence and bias in mark-recapture approaches to abundance estimation. In comparison, heterogeneity, and hence estimator bias, is not as problematic for distance sampling and mark-resight methods because both techniques estimate detection probabilities based on a known quantity. We show how the introduction of a known number of individuals planted into a study population prior to a mark-recapture survey can reduce …

Embryonic Exposure To The Benzotriazole Ultraviolet Stabilizer 2-(2h-Benzotriazol-2-Yl)-4-Methylphenol Decreases Fertility Of Adult Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Yamin Raza, Emily Mertens, Lauren Zink, Zhe Lu, Jon A. Doering, Steve Wiseman

Faculty Publications

Benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers (BUVSs) are emerging contaminants of concern. They are added to a variety of products, including building materials, personal care products, paints, and plastics, to prevent degradation caused by ultraviolet (UV) light. Despite widespread occurrence in aquatic environments, little is known regarding the effects of BUVSs on aquatic organisms. The aim of the present study was to characterize the effects of exposure to 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-methylphenol (UV-P) on the reproductive success of zebrafish (Danio rerio) following embryonic exposure. Embryos were exposed, by use of microinjection, to UV-P at < 1.5 (control), 2.77, and 24.25 ng/g egg, and reared until sexual maturity, when reproductive performance was assessed, following which molecular and biochemical endpoints were analyzed. Exposure to UV-P did not have a significant effect on fecundity. However, there was a significant effect on fertilization success. Using UV-P-exposed males and females, fertility was decreased by 8.75% in the low treatment group and by 15.02% in the high treatment group relative to control. In a reproduction assay with UV-P-exposed males and control females, fertility was decreased by 11.47% in the high treatment group relative to the control. Embryonic exposure to UV-P might have perturbed male sex steroid synthesis as indicated by small changes in blood plasma concentrations of 17β-estradiol and 11-ketotestosterone, and small statistically nonsignificant decreases in mRNA abundances of cyp19a1a, cyp11c1, and hsd17b3. In addition, decreased transcript abundances of genes involved in spermatogenesis, such as nanos2 and dazl, were observed. Decreases in later stages of sperm development were observed, suggesting that embryonic exposure to UV-P impaired spematogenesis, resulting in decreased sperm quantity. The present study is the first to demonstrate latent effects of BUVSs, specifically on fish reproduction. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:385–397. © 2023 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

Opposing Genetic Patterns Of Range Shifting Temperate And Tropical Gastropods In An Area Undergoing Tropicalisation, Karolina M. Zarzyczny, Michael E. Hellberg, Elena B. Lugli, Moira Maclean, David A. Paz-García, Marc Rius, Ethan G. Ross, Erick X. Treviño Balandra, James Vanstone, Suzanne T. Williams, Phillip B. Fenberg

Faculty Publications

Aim: The poleward range expansion of tropical species, and range contraction of temperate species (known as tropicalisation) has mainly been studied from an ecological perspective, with little research on its genetic consequences. Here, we used distributional and genetic data to document the consequences of tropicalisation in rocky shore gastropods and assess more broadly the future implications of tropicalisation on phylogeographic patterns. Location: Nineteen sampling sites along >3000 km of the eastern Pacific rocky intertidal zone, from the tip of the Baja California Peninsula to southern California. Taxon: Temperate gastropods: Lottia conus, L. strigatella, Fissurella volcano and Tegula gallina. Tropical gastropods: …

Mapping Crown Rust Resistance In The Oat Diploid Accession Pi 258731 (Avena Strigosa), Rawnaq N. Chowdhury, Tyler Gordon, Md Ali Babar, Stephen A. Harrison, Shahryar F. Kianian, Kathy Esvelt Klos

Faculty Publications

Oat crown rust, caused by Puccinia coronata Corda f. sp. avenae Eriks. (Pca), is a major biotic impediment to global oat production. Crown rust resistance has been described in oat diploid species A. strigosa accession PI 258731 and resistance from this accession has been successfully introgressed into hexaploid A. sativa germplasm. The current study focuses on 1) mapping the location of QTL containing resistance and evaluating the number of quantitative trait loci (QTL) conditioning resistance in PI 258731; 2) understanding the relationship between the original genomic location in A. strigosa and the location of the introgression in the A. sativa …

Ras/Mapk Signaling Mediates Adipose Tissue Control Of Ovarian Germline Survival And Ovulation In Drosophila Melanogaster, Tancia Bradshaw, Chad Simmons, Rachael Ott, Alissa Richmond Armstrong

Faculty Publications

From insects to humans, oogenesis is tightly linked to nutritional input, yet little is known about how whole organism physiology matches dietary changes with oocyte development. Considering that diet-induced adipose tissue dysfunction is associated with an increased risk for fertility problems, and other obesity-associated pathophysiologies, it is critical to decipher the cellular and molecular mechanisms linking adipose nutrient sensing to remote control of the ovary and other tissues. Our previous studies in Drosophila melanogaster have shown that amino acid sensing, via the amino acid response pathway and mTOR-mediated signaling function within adipocytes to control germline stem cell maintenance and ovulation, …

Life Cycle Assessment Of Hydrothermal Carbonization: A Review Of Product Valorization Pathways, Andrea Ogunleye, Joseph Flora, Nicole Berge

Faculty Publications

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has the potential to be a sustainable and environmentally beneficial approach for organic waste treatment. It is likely that HTC product use will dictate the viability of large-scale HTC facilities; therefore, understanding the viability and environmental implications associated with HTC product valorization pathways is critical. The overall goal of this review is to gain an understanding of how HTC product valorization is currently being modeled in life cycle assessment studies, and to use such information to assess current research and/or data needs associated with product valorization. To accomplish this, a review of existing HTC literature was conducted …

Simultaneous Detection And Quantification Of Multiple Pathogen Targets In Wastewater, Gouthami Rao, Drew Capone, Kevin Zhu, Abigail Knoble, Yarrow Linden, Ryan Clark, Amanda Lai, Juhee Kim, Ching Hua Huang, Aaron Bivins, Joe Brown

Faculty Publications

Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a critical tool for public health surveillance, building on decades of environmental surveillance work for pathogens such as poliovirus. Work to date has been limited to monitoring a single pathogen or small numbers of pathogens in targeted studies; however, few studies consider simultaneous quantitative analysis of a wide variety of pathogens, which could greatly increase the utility of wastewater surveillance. We developed a novel quantitative multi-pathogen surveillance approach (35 pathogen targets including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and helminths) using TaqMan Array Cards (TAC) and applied the method on concentrated wastewater samples collected at four wastewater treatment …

Global Change Impacts On Indigenous Sustainability In Sakha Republic: A Synthesis Of Knowledge, Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov, Andrey N. Petrov

Faculty Publications

Indigenous understanding of sustainability is embedded in close relations to land and environment, Indigenous Knowledge systems, Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies, and Indigenous languages. However, the sustainability of Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods is significantly affected by various global change drivers. In the Arctic, Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods are impacted by environmental, social, and cultural changes, including climate change, environmental pollution, economic processes, and resource extraction. This paper aims to review and synthesize recent academic and gray literature on the sustainability of Indigenous communities in Sakha Republic, Northeast Siberia, Russia in the face of global change with a particular focus on land- and water-based …

A Codified Liabilty Regime To Stimulate Greater Investment In Subpatentable Innovation, Ana Santos Rutschman, Jerome H. Reichman

Faculty Publications

The global intellectual property system rests on a distinction between exclusive property rights and free competition. Exclusive rights vary in strength and intensity, but the opposite of protection is almost always free competition. Distinctions of intensity are drawn in terms of the length of protection given to different subject matters plus variable lists of exceptions and limitations to exclusive rights. But the bottom line is that, when protection is not available under the existing system, free competition prevails, and vice-versa (i.e., where there is exclusivity, free competition is deferred for a specified period of time).

This Article departs from a …

The Nitrogen Footprint Of Ukraine: Why Personal Consumption Matters, Sergiy Medinets, Allison M. Leach, Tetiana Pavlik, Volodymyr Medinets, James N. Galloway

Faculty Publications

Unintended reactive nitrogen (N) losses from agriculture, energy and transportation pose significant environmental hazards, including eutrophication, acidification, water and air pollution, biodiversity loss, human health risks and climate change. The concept of a nitrogen footprint (NF) emerges as a pivotal metric, reflecting potential N losses in the entire production-consumption chain of goods and services used by an individual within a defined timeframe.In a pioneering assessment of per capita NF in Ukraine, key factors, such as the food production chain, consumption patterns, connection to wastewater treatment (WWT) system and the efficacy of WWT facilities, were identified as critical components. Addressing specific …

Women At Work: Pathways From Gender Stereotypes To Gender Bias And Discrimination, Madeline E. Heilman, Suzette Caleo, Francesca Manzi

Faculty Publications

Despite important advances, gender-based discrimination continues to hin-der women’s career progress. This review examines the role that gender stereotypes play in promoting gender bias and discrimination. After review- ing what is known about the content of gender stereotypes and examining both their descriptive and prescriptive aspects, we discuss two pathways through which stereotypes result in discrepant work outcomes for women and men. First, we consider how the characterization of women as com- munal but not agentic conflicts with the perceived demands of many male gender-typed jobs and fields, thus promoting perceptions of women’s lack of competence in those areas. Second, …

The Cetacean Sanctuary: A Sea Of Unknowns, Jason N. Bruck

Faculty Publications

Housing cetaceans in netted sea pens is not new and is common for many accredited managed- care facilities. Hence, the distinction between sanctuary and sea pen is more about the philosophies of those who run these sanctuary facilities, the effects of these philosophies on the animals’ welfare, and how proponents of these sanctuaries fund the care of these animals. Here, I consider what plans exist for cetacean sanctuaries and discuss the caveats and challenges associated with this form of activist-managed captivity. One goal for stakeholders should be to disregard the emotional connotations of the word “sanctuary” …

Ecological Diversification In An Adaptive Radiation Of Plants: The Role Of De Novo Mutation And Introgression, Benjamin Stone, Carolyn A. Wessinger

Faculty Publications

Adaptive radiations are characterized by rapid ecological diversification and speciation events, leading to fuzzy species boundaries between ecologically differentiated species. Adaptive radiations are therefore key systems for understanding how species are formed and maintained, including the role of de novo mutations versus preexisting variation in ecological adaptation and the genome-wide consequences of hybridization events. For example, adaptive introgression, where beneficial alleles are transferred between lineages through hybridization, may fuel diversification in adaptive radiations and facilitate adaptation to new environments. In this study, we employed whole-genome resequencing data to investigate the evolutionary origin of hummingbird-pollinated flowers and to characterize genome-wide patterns …

The Relationship Between The Saharan Air Layer, Convective Environmental Conditions, And Precipitation In Puerto Rico, P. W. Miller, C. Ramseyer

Faculty Publications

The Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is a hot, dry, and dust-laden feature that advects large concentrations of dust across the Atlantic annually to destination regions in the Americas and Caribbean. However, recent work has suggested the SAL may be a contributing factor to high-impact drought in the Caribbean basin. While the SAL's characteristic dust loadings have been the focus of much previous research, fewer efforts have holistically engaged the co-evolution of the dust plume, its associated convective environment, and resultant rainfall in Caribbean islands. This study employs a self-organizing map (SOM) classification to identify the common trans-Atlantic dust transport typologies …

Scaffold-Based 3d Cell Culture Models In Cancer Research, Waad H. Abuwatfa, William G. Pitt, Ghaleb A. Husseini

Faculty Publications

Three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures have emerged as valuable tools in cancer research, offering significant advantages over traditional two-dimensional (2D) cell culture systems. In 3D cell cultures, cancer cells are grown in an environment that more closely mimics the 3D architecture and complexity of in vivo tumors. This approach has revolutionized cancer research by providing a more accurate representation of the tumor microenvironment (TME) and enabling the study of tumor behavior and response to therapies in a more physiologically relevant context. One of the key benefits of 3D cell culture in cancer research is the ability to recapitulate the complex interactions …

Indigenous Peoples And Local Communities Report Ongoing And Widespread Climate Change Impacts On Local Social-Ecological Systems, Victoria Sharakhmatova, Victoria Reyes-García, David García-Del-Amo, Santiago Álvarez-Fernández, Petra Benyei, Laura Calvet-Mir, André B. Junqueira, Vanesse Labeyrie, Xiaoyue Li, Sara Miñarro, Vincent Porcher, Anna Porcuna-Ferrer, Anna Schlingmann, Christoph Schunko, Ramin Soleymani, Adrien Tofighi-Niaki, Mariam Abazeri, Emmanuel M.N.A.N. Attoh, Ayansina Ayanlade, Julia Vieira Da Cunha Ávila, Daniel Babai, Rodrigo C. Bulamah, Joao Campos-Silva, Rosario Carmona, Julián Caviedes, Rumbidzayi Chakauya, Mouna Chambon, Zhuo Chen, Fasco Chengula, Esther Conde, Aida Cuní-Sanchez

Faculty Publications

The effects of climate change depend on specific local circumstances, posing a challenge for worldwide research to comprehensively encompass the diverse impacts on various local social-ecological systems. Here we use a place-specific but cross-culturally comparable protocol to document climate change indicators and impacts as locally experienced and analyze their distribution. We collected first-hand data in 48 sites inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities and covering all climate zones and nature-dependent livelihoods. We documented 1,661 site-agreed reports of change corresponding to 369 indicators. Reports of change vary according to climate zone and livelihood activity. We provide compelling evidence that climate …

Scenario Setup And Forcing Data For Impact Model Evaluation And Impact Attribution Within The Third Round Of The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (Isimip3a), Katja Frieler, Jan Volkholz, Stefan Lange, Jacob Schewe, Matthias Mengel, María Del Rocío Rivas López, Christian Otto, Christopher P.O. Reyer, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Johanna T. Malle, Simon Treu, Christoph Menz, Julia L. Blanchard, Cheryl S. Harrison, Colleen M. Petrik, Tyler D. Eddy, Kelly Ortega-Cisneros, Camilla Novaglio, Yannick Rousseau, Reg A. Watson, Charles Stock, Xiao Liu, Ryan Heneghan, Derek Tittensor, Olivier Maury, Matthias Büchner, Thomas Vogt, Tingting Wang, Fubao Sun, Inga J. Sauer, Johannes Koch, Inne Vanderkelen, Jonas Jägermeyr

Faculty Publications

This paper describes the rationale and the protocol of the first component of the third simulation round of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3a, http://www.isimip.org, last access: 2 November 2023) and the associated set of climate-related and direct human forcing data (CRF and DHF, respectively). The observation-based climate-related forcings for the first time include high-resolution observational climate forcings derived by orographic downscaling, monthly to hourly coastal water levels, and wind fields associated with historical tropical cyclones. The DHFs include land use patterns, population densities, information about water and agricultural management, and fishing intensities. The ISIMIP3a impact model simulations driven …

Estimating The Cholesterol Affinity Of Integral Membrane Proteins From Experimental Data, Theodore L. Steck, S. M. Ali Tabei, Yvonne Lange

Faculty Publications

The cholesterol affinities of many integral plasma membrane proteins have been estimated by molecular computation. However, these values lack experimental confirmation. We therefore developed a simple mathematical model to extract sterol affinity constants and stoichiometries from published isotherms for the dependence of the activity of such proteins on the membrane cholesterol concentration. The binding curves for these proteins are sigmoidal, with strongly lagged thresholds attributable to competition for the cholesterol by bilayer phospholipids. The model provided isotherms that matched the experimental data using published values for the sterol association constants and stoichiometries of the phospholipids. Three oligomeric transporters were found …

Interactions Between Non‐Native Western Mosquitofish And Native Bluegill Sunfish: Mesocosm Experiments, Jessica E. Rettig, Elizabeth P. Tristano, Anthony C. Burger, Geoffrey R. Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Medical Authority And The Right To Life, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

This essay briefly explores this relationship between the understandings—existing and potential—of the right to “life” and the role of medical authority in constitutional abortion rights litigation. It proceeds as follows. Part I describes the dichotomy between two different understandings of “life” in U.S. legal discourse, with a particular focus on cases dealing with the so-called “right to die.” Part II then explains why this dichotomy is relevant in the post-Dobbs abortion rights context, as it holds the promise of an alternate path to protection for abortion rights at the federal and state levels. Part II also discusses how and why …