Digital Commons Network^™

Changes In Apoptotic Gene Expression Induced By Dna Cross-Linkers, Jordanne B. Dunn

Honors Theses

The Millard Research Laboratory is interested in the cytotoxic mechanisms of the bifunctional alkylators diepoxybutane (DEB), epichlorohydrin (ECH), and (1-chloroethenyl) oxirane (COX). Studies performed in the laboratory examine the dual nature of these DNA cross-linking compounds that can act as carcinogens or anti-cancer agents. The mechanisms through which these compounds induce cell death are explored in this study. Cells either undergo cell death due to necrosis or apoptosis. HL-60 cells were treated with varying concentrations of DEB, ECH, or COX. A caspase 3/7 assay was used to test for induction of apoptosis in the treated cells at varying incubation times. …

Learning The Lay Of Their Land: Data Recording By Maine Land Trusts, Patrick John Roche

Honors Theses

Land trusts have led the recent, rapid expansion in private land conservation in the US. As they have grown, many questions have emerged as to the value of their conservation efforts, especially in the long-term. To address this data gap, studies have evaluated easement restrictions and the characteristics of land trust protected property. I take a novel approach by investigating the data that land trusts record about their protected properties and its impact on their capacity to protect conservation values. I surveyed 55 land trusts operating in Maine about data they record in baseline documentation reports. A majority (82%) had …

Factors Influencing Conservation Success Or Failure In Tiger Range States, Megan C. Saunders

Honors Theses

Tigers are currently found in 13 countries. Three of eight recognized subspecies are extinct and the other subspecies are considered endangered throughout their range. Major threats to tigers include habitat and prey loss and poaching. Most studies of tiger decline, to date, have explored direct threats. This study uses a range-wide approach to explore possible underlying drivers of tiger decline. I used recent tiger population estimates and identified 6 biological measures and 27 socioeconomic measures to ask why some countries are more successful in conserving tigers than others. Data were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses in SPSS. Higher rates …

Creation Of A Topoisomerase I-Efgp Cell Line Using Recent Knock-In Technology, James Wayne Delancey

Honors Theses

Topoisomerase I (TOPI) is a nuclear enzyme that relieves torsional strain in DNA during transcription or replication. Furthermore, TOPl is the target enzyme for camptothecin antitumor drugs. Traditional immunohistochemical methods of studying TOPl expression require cell fixation, which arrests cellular metabolism at an instance in time. In efforts where TOPl studies rely on a function of time, cell fixation must occur at many finite intervals so that researchers may take many data points to simulate a real time assessment. To study TOPl activity continuously in cells, we are implementing recent gene targeting/knock-in technology to create a natively expressed TOP 1-EGFP …

Influence Of Particle Size On Mixed Culture Bacterial Biofilms, Kaleb James Page

Honors Theses

Little research has investigated particle size as a structuring factor of microbial communities in aquatic environments. One study focused on the influence of particle size on microbial community structure as observed in nature, and the study described here tested those findings in vivo. Stream water was collected and used to inoculate samples containing glass beads of various sizes, fine (106 pm), medium (500 pm), and (1000 pm), and a mixture of all particle sizes; each sample had the same total surface area. Half of the samples were left standing, and half were rotated to simulate the movement of a stream …

Localization Of Deformed Wing Virus (Dwv) In The Brains Of Apis Mellifera (European Honey Bees), Karan Samir Shah

Honors Theses

The purpose of the current research project is to design a successful in-situ hybridization to identify regions within the brains of honeybees where DWV replicates. The localization of the virus in the brains of the bees can draw a connection between CCDand DWV.In conclusion, these results demonstrate that in bees infected with DWV the virus replicates actively in very important regions of the brain, including neuropils that are responsible for vision and olfaction. This means that the virus could adversely affect the vision and olfaction of the honeybees making it difficult for bees to behave normally.

Cosmological Vision(S) : History, Modernism, And American Renewal In Hart Crane's The Bridge, Lauren Grewe

Honors Theses

With the help of recent Crane studies, along with my own ear, I intend to prove the worth of Crane's myth of bridging as a way of responding to and eventually reforming the Elitonian vision of the modem world. The Bridge counters Eliot as a way to offer hope to the modem world in place of despair, as a way to offer a system of belief that is neither dogmatic nor futile, that incorporates a vision of the future just as much as a vision of the past.

Adrenergic Receptor Expression On Raw264.7 Macrophages, Lindsay Ward

Honors Theses

In this study, AR surface expression patterns and regulation via AR-catecholamine interactions were characterized. Macrophage function was shown to be regulated by catecholamines through both Alpha- and Beta-ARs, as evidenced by corresponding alterations in cytokine production. Treatment of activated macrophages with NE, a general catecholamine, or fomoterol, a P-AR agonist, produced significant decreases in TNF and IL-6 secretion. The effecis of clonidine, an Alpha-AR agonist, produced less consistent results, but clonidine-mediated enhancement of cytokine secretion appears to be mediated by Alpha-AR signaling. LPS was shown to noticeably change the surface expression ofboth types of ARs in RAW264.7 macrophages. However, NE …

Can She Ever Be "The Man"? : The Effect Of Gender On Implicit Perceptions Of Leadership Ability In An Applied Hiring Task, Rebecca S. Frazier

Honors Theses

Despite numerous advances in the eld of women's rights and a general decline in explicit discrimination, there still exists a dramatic lack of women in leadership positions across America. This research seeks to expand upon past studies suggesting that there is a basic cognitive incongruency between traditional male and leadership roles which leads ordinarily "unbiased" individuals to perceive women as less suited r leadership positions than men. Thus, this experiment investigates the implicit biases against women leaders by asking if the subtle addition of gender information alters individuals' initial impressions of leadership capability in an applied hiring task involving resumes, …

Seasonal Changes In Bacterial Communities In Magnolia (Magnolia Grandiflora) Leaf Phyllosphere, William Craig Denney

Honors Theses

What is currently known about bacterial diversity of the phyllosphere has largely come from studies of plants involved in commercial agriculture. With very few studies dedicated to examining phyllosphere bacterial communities of natural forests, the issue of seasonal changes in bacterial communities in Magnolia gvandifloi'a leaf phyllosphere was investigated. In order to examine the issue, 16S rRNA sequencing techniques were used to identify and compare bacterial communities between leaf samples collected in February, May, August and December of 2008. When M. grandiflora DNA samples were examined with denaturing gel electrophoresis (DGGE), similarities between the bacterial communities of each leaf could …

Graph Theoretical Problems Computable By Networks Of Finite Automata., Cameron Taylor Byrum

Honors Theses

Graphs are a popular model in mathematics, and automata, or abstract models of machines, are a useful tool in computer science. Our research looks at combining these two powerful fields. We will begin by looking at some pre liminaries of graph theory and automata theory. We also discuss other meth ods for recognizing graph properties such as algebras, grammars, and monadic second-order logic. We will then explore the concept of “intelligent graphs,” or networks of finite automata operating at each vertex of a graph, and we will show implementations for using such networks to solve labryinth problems and to compute …

The Emergence Of Biotechnology In The State Of Mississippi: A Review, Whitman Scott Dowlen

Honors Theses

This publication was written with the intention of performing an analysis of the present in-state bioscience initiative and subsequent Mississippi industry incumbents. Hopefully, this publication will be employed as an informative tool to Mississippi residents, universities, policy makers and private corporations considering investment in research and development in the state of Mississippi.

The University Of Mississippi's Role In The Presidential Election, Sara Ann Ralph

Honors Theses

There are many ways to survey a population and analyze the data. Our research applies these techniques to a real world situation, specifically the out come of the 2008 Presidential Election. We will examine current sampling techniques, as well as look at past presidential predictions. Then we will con duct our own survey on the Oxford Campus of the University of Mississippi in an attempt to see what will have an effect on the voting patterns of the population.

The Effects Of Background Stress On Cardiovascular Responses To Acute Stress, Christine Malishka Jean Bocek

Honors Theses

The goal of this study was to investigate further the nature of the relationship between background stress and cardiovascular response to relationships between mood and background stress, and background stress and psychological distress were also explored. The background stress levels of 59 undergraduate students were measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Measures of psychological distress were taken using the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), mood was assessed with the Brief Mood Induction Scale (BMIS), and other relevant data were collected. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured through three 8-minute test periods, an 8-minute Mood Induction …

Crowning Glory: A Sociological Study Of Gender In The Beauty Pageant System, Lee Taylor

Honors Theses

This thesis provides a sociological examination of the personal experiences of beauty pageant participants in the South. By deconstructing the ideal view of women in beauty pageants, I attempted to answer how pageant contestants view their individual participation in the oppressive framework of the beauty pageant contest. In order to provide an in-depth analysis on the role of gender in beauty pageants, I conducted personal interviews and field study observations. Additionally, I researched current online sources and scholarly publications concerning gender and beauty pageants. The beauty pageant system demands that young women alter their bodies and personalities in order to …

Assessment Of Eating Disorder Knowledge Among College Students & The Effectiveness Of A Primary Prevention Program, Patricia Eileen Edwards

Honors Theses

Objective: To assess the current knowledge of eating disorders among college students and to determine the effectiveness of a prevention program in increasing eating disorder knowledge. Participants: College students enrolled in the University of Mississippi and in a Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) 311 Nutrition course. Methods: Participants in attendance of an FCS 311 Nutrition course were administered a 21 question survey to assess a baseline knowledge level of eating disorders. Participants were later educated on eating disorders through a primary prevention program “Eating Disorders 101”. The previous survey was administered again to assess the knowledge gained and the effectiveness …

Cost Benefit Analysis: A Policy Tool Of Anthropocentric Utilitarianism, Nora Anne Watson

Honors Theses

For the last three decades, there has been a lively debate over the best way for a govemapproach decisions of environmental policy. Adherents to anthropocentric utilitari anism - those who believe that actions are right as they tend to promote utility for humans - favor the use of cost-benefit analysis - a tool that is used to come up with recommendations the basis of their probable costs and ment to for or against particular environmental policies benefits. Although making decisions this way may seem like a straightforward approach that should be acceptable to everyone, many challenge the latent assumptions of …

Perceptions Of Nursing Students Regarding Patient Suffering, Molly Marie Shivers

Honors Theses

The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the experience of nursing students in situations involving the suffering of a patient. Through analysis of interviews of senior nursing students, six themes were gathered. The themes discovered were: Student nurses in the face of suffering, desire knowledge and support from faculty: allowing time for student interaction and sharing prior to and post experience is important; Student nurses in most cases have prior experiences with suffering that color the student nurse professional view of suffering; Student nurses stay busy in the face of suffering, feel helpless and without interventions, however, …

Dopamine D2 Receptor Antagonist Raclopride's Effects On Core Temperature Alone And During Methamphetamine Administration At Varying Ambient Temperatures, Danielle Marie Fulbright

Honors Theses

Rationale Methamphetamine (METH) induces hypothermia at cool (18°) ambient temperatures and hyperthermia at neutral (24°) and warm (30°) ambient temperatures. Our objective was to determine if pretreatment with raclopride (RAC), a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist would alter METH-induced core temperature changes. Methods Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, RAC was administered alone, to determine its effects, if any, on core temperature. In Experiment 2, rats received pretreatment injections of 0.3, 0.6, or 1.2-mg/kg RAC or a saline control (sal) injection; rats then received injections of 10 mg/kg METH or sal injection. In both Experiment 1 and 2, core temperature …

Acetylcholine Muscarinic Receptor-Mediated Contractility Of Ovine Pulmonary Arteries: Changes With Maturation And Chronic Hypoxia, Dangtue Hu Nguyen

Honors Theses

Pulmonary vasculature tone is mediated by Acetylcholine Muscarinic Receptors (mAChR) located on the vascular smooth muscle wall which are responsible for vasoconstriction through the activation of Ca^'*’ dependant intracellular signaling pathways and by the endothelium which is responsible for vasodilation through the generation of Nitric Oxide (NO). The dismption and subsequent loss of the endothelium results in vasoconstriction of pulmonary arteries (PA). This effect is observed in several studies utilizing different animal models. Chronic Hypoxia (CH) has been shown to dismpt the endothelium which in turn alleviates the vasodilatory response associated with acetylcholine (ACh) stimulation. The interplay between smooth muscle …

Upgrade Of A Raman Spectrometer With Modern Computer Control And Data Acquisition For Studies Of Hydrogen Bonding In Pyrimidine, Austin Howard

Honors Theses

The restoration of a Cold War era high resolution Raman spectrometer to working order as well as its control and data acquisition upgrade using a Labview program authored for this purpose are discussed. The restored Raman spectrometer was used in an investigation of intermolecular interactions involving pyrimidine. Following in this manuscript are three chapters. The first chapter is a brief description of the history and theory of Raman spectroscopy as well as some details of the instrumentation used in Raman spectroscopy. The second chapter contains technical details of the restoration and upgrade of the high resolution Raman spectrometer. The third …

On The Metaphysics Ofphenomenal Mental States: An Inquiry Into The Mind-Body Problem From Ordinary Intuition Ofthe Mental, Brian Kyle Ferriss

Honors Theses

Brian Kyle Ferriss-On the Metaphysics of Phenomenal Mental States: An Inquiry into the Mind-Body Problem from Ordinary Intuition ofthe Mental (Under the direction of Dr. Robert Barnard)

The purpose ofthis thesis is to explore certain metaphysical issues central to the mind-body problem. This thesis approaches the debate by first addressing ordinary intuitions about the mind arguing that such an approach is appropriate and a necessary starting point for any insightful discussion on the mind. This essay, then, applies what it claims to be ordinary beliefs about the mind to a number of philosophical and psychological theories. It investigates these theories …

Neural Cadherin: A Study Of Domain 1., Elaine Ann Clark

Honors Theses

Cadherins are a class of transmembrane proteins responsible for calcium dependent cell-cell adhesion. Classic cadherins share a common structure involving five extracellular domains, each connected by a 7 residue sequence known as a linker region. As these domains are modular in nature, this study focuses primarily on the first extracellular domain of neural cadherin without and with the adjacent linker region. NCADl and NCADl-Ll. Upon calcium binding, a tryptophan residue located in domain 1 allows for the adhesive activity of the cadherin through formation of a strand crossover structure. With the dissected NCADl and NCADl-LI, the binding pocket for calcium …

The Osmolytic Effect And Its Action On Topoisomerase-I, Matthew Paul Dukes

Honors Theses

While the presence of water within biological systems is acknowledged to be of utmost importance, its specific role at the molecular level within these systems has only recently been studied carefully. Of particular interest are the effects of water on the interactions that occur between topoisomerase-I and DNA. Topoisomerase-I relaxes supercoiled DNA, a process critical for cellular processes such as transcription and replication. Relaxation occurs when the enzyme breaks one strand of the double-stranded DNA, rotates a broken end around the intact strand, and rejoins the two broken ends. consequently changing the linking number of the supercoiled DNA by an …

Hydrologic And Water Quality Assessment Of Miller Run: A Study Of Bucknell University’S Impact, Alison C. Schaffer

Honors Theses

Human development causes degradation of stream ecosystems due to impacts on channel morphology, hydrology, and water quality. Urbanization, the second leading cause of stream impairment, increases the amount of impervious surface cover, thus reducing infiltration and increasing surface runoff of precipitation, which ultimately affects stream hydrologic process and aquatic biodiversity. The main objective of this study was to assess the overall health of Miller Run, a small tributary of the Bull Run and Susquehanna River watersheds, through an integrative hydrologic and water quality approach in order to determine the degree of Bucknell University’s impact on the stream. Hydrologic conditions, including …

Deporting "Red Emma" : The Political And Legal Battles For Citizenship, 1917-1921, Kara D. Schultz

Honors Theses

As Americans worked to construct a national creed in the early nineteenth century, xenophobia and cultural exceptionalism were in constant tension with conceptions of free speech and personal liberty. The emergence of deportation as the solution to America's "radical problem" was built upon representations of the political subversive that had little grounding in reality. The differing ideologies and organizations of the anarchist and communist movements in America were constantly being reshaped, yet ... the press and political rhetoric blurred distinctions between parties, assuming that both philosophies were elements of the same menace that sought violent overthrow of the government. Reducing …

Narses And The Birth Of Byzantine Egypt : Imperial Policy In The Age Of Justinian, Marion W. Kruse Iii

Honors Theses

Late Antiquity has long been portrayed as a period of transition between the classical and medieval worlds. Its history, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, has been forced to fit the contours of a transitional model, and no figure has been as ill-treated by this interpretive schema as the Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565 AD).

Justinian is known both as the last Roman and first Byzantine emperor; in fact he was neither. It is true that he ruled an empire which was both physically and intellectually the heir of Augustus' Rome and that he introduced wide-ranging reforms which were maintained by …

Exploring The Role Of Iscsua And Suf Operon In Shigella Flexneri Invasion And Resistance To Oxidative Stress, Benjamin R. Lloyd

Honors Theses

Shigella flexneri is a facultative intracellular pathogen capable of causing dysentery, a condition that afflicts many around the world, especially in developing countries. There are several aspects of Shigella pathogenesis that are not well understood, including a number of genetic and cellular changes that allow Shigella to adapt to stresses encountered while invading and replicating within the eukaryotic cytosol. It was the goal of this research to examine the roles of iscSUA and suf, gene systems predicted to encode for iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis proteins, in Shigella surviving exposure to oxidative stress agents and during Shigella invasion and plaque formation …

Characterization Of Sox Family Members In Sponge Stem Cells And During Development, Karen E. Leeds

Honors Theses

Sponges are considered the oldest and most basal part of the metazoan lineage and therefore possess a unique set of gene families that are highly conserved among all animals. One of these gene families is known as Sox transcription factors. Sox genes are known to play important roles in complex animals such as the specification of the primary layers of the body, determination of sex, and most recently induction of induced pluirpotent stem cells (iPS cells) from both human and mouse fibroblasts with the help of three other transcription factors. We have found that two different demosponge species Halichondria bowerbanki …

Use Of Phylogenetic Stains To Determine The Feeding Preferences Of Microbivorous Soil Nematodes, E. Harlan Michelle

Honors Theses

Due to their numerous and diverse roles in soil ecological processes – most notably decomposition and nutrient mineralization – nematodes have long been recognized as important biotic indicators of soil health (Ekschmitt et al., 2001; Ritz and Trudgill, 1999). The predominate means of assessing the information that these organisms might contain has been through nematode community analyses, a methodology that seeks to convert the vast amount of data regarding features such as diversity, maturity and richness into a series of indices which can be used to evaluate soil health and make comparisons across samples. Performance of these analyses typically involves …