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Regulation Of Thermogenic And Inflammatory Response In Adipose Tissue By 18-C Fatty Acids, Sunhyue Shin

Open Access Dissertations

Dietary fatty acids, in particular long-chain fatty acids (LCFA), are involved in the regulation of metabolic, oxidative, and inflammatory responses. This is a mechanism by which fatty acids participate in the regulation of energy homeostasis and impact development of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. White and brown adipose tissue play a significant role in energy storage and expenditure through fatty acid uptake and oxidation. LCFA, especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have been reported to induce thermogenesis by activating brown and beige adipocytes to oxidize more fuel molecules. However, the effects of 18-carbon (18-C) LCFA with …

Novel Tools To Study Modulation Of Adenylyl Cyclase Isoforms, Monica Soto-Velasquez

Open Access Dissertations

Adenylyl cyclases (AC) are a major component of the cAMP signaling pathway. The differential regulatory properties and tissue expression patterns of the nine transmembrane AC isoforms provide unique mechanisms to regulate cAMP signaling in a precise and organized manner. However, the understanding of the individual roles of AC isoforms in the overall cellular response presents considerable challenges due to the expression of multiple AC isoforms in cells, and the lack of available tools to accurately detect isoform-specific AC expression or selectively modulate its catalytic activity. For these reasons, the research aims of this study were to develop a series of …

Regulation Of The Endogenous Antioxidant Defense System In Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy, Mateusz A. Stochelski

Open Access Dissertations

Oxidative stress is implicated as a major contributor to the development of diabetes induced peripheral neuropathy. This debilitating condition significantly impacts the quality of life of patients, yet available treatment options are not optimal. They include tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and opiates. Unfortunately, these treatment options only reduce pain by 30-50%, and many patients discontinue use due to side effects. Furthermore, the current treatment options are focused on pain reduction, but not the protection of the peripheral nerves. Since oxidative stress driven by high glucose concentrations has been implicated as the key factor causing …

A Study Of Techniques And Mechanisms Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation For Treatment Of Inflammation, Jesse P. Somann

Open Access Dissertations

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been on the forefront of inflammatory disorder research for the better part of the last three decades and has yielded many promising results. There remains, however, much debate about the actual biological mechanisms of such treatments, as well as, questions about inconsistencies in methods used in many research efforts.

In this work, I identify shortcomings in past VNS methods and submit new developments and findings that can progress the research community towards more selective and relevant VNS research and treatments. In Aim 1, I present the most recent advancements in the capabilities of our fully …

Search For Electrophysiological Indices Of Hidden Hearing Loss, Chandan H. Suresh

Open Access Dissertations

Recent studies in animals indicate that even moderate levels of exposure to noise can damage synaptic ribbons between the inner hair cells and auditory nerve fibers without affecting audiometric thresholds, giving rise to the use of the term “hidden hearing loss” (HHL). Given the pervasive exposure to occupational and recreational noise in the general population, it is likely that individuals afflicted with HHL will go unidentified unless sensitive clinical measures are developed to diagnose this condition. To date, the studies employed to characterize HHL in humans have yielded equivocal results - some studies show wave I amplitude decrement while others …

Assessing Novel Bioelectric Effects Of Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields On Cell Stimulation, Proliferation And Microorganism Inactivation, Ram Anand Vadlamani

Open Access Dissertations

Bioelectrics is the application of electric fields to cells in a conducting media, treating the cell as a circuit comprising resistors and capacitors (membranes and intracellular fluids respectively). Recent advancements in construction of nanosecond pulse generators allow for construction of low cost devices capable of generating nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs). These fields are capable of forming pores on the extra and intra cellular membranes, while also affecting intracellular organelles, DNA and the nucleus. With the first generation of nano-signalling devices set to enter the medical field for treatments ranging from carcinomas to regenerative therapy, the intent of this study …

Effects Of Schisandrin B On Rod Photoreceptors In The Pde6c Larval Retina, Prahatha Venkatraman

Open Access Dissertations

Current Rapid prototyping tools although reduce development time, they still have several restrictions such as print volume and print times. Through this thesis, two prototyping kits are proposed, a rod connector based, user controlled computational support system that re-purposes surface models and transforms them into structurally scaffolded constructs with movable joints; and a planar connector based system that implements movable joints to create functional prototypes. The rod based system enables users to interactively personalize scaffolded structures by re-purposing existing surface mesh models; analyze scaffolded constructs in-situ for better structurality, add movable joints to increase functionality, and attach personalized appearances to …

Modulating Wettability Of Layered Materials By Controlling Headgroup Dynamics And Alkyl Chain Conformations, Terry Angelo Villarreal

Open Access Dissertations

Evolution to the next generation of organic photovoltaics and computer processors requires the capability to pattern organic and inorganic materials consistently at interfaces with feature sizes as small as 5-7 nm. A particular challenge is to generate interfaces that display chemical patterns consisting of two or more very different constituents at such scales. Biology routinely orders orthogonal chemical patterns at this scale, as is observed in the structure of the cellular membrane. Phospholipids have also been observed to form repeating striped phases on layered materials, e.g. graphene, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG).

Research performed in the …

Environmental Life Cycle Impact And Complexity Assessment Of Rare Earth Production, Ehsan Vahidi Movassagh

Open Access Dissertations

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) find applications in clean energy technology, including wind turbines, electric vehicles, and high efficiency lighting therefore, as the renewable energy market expands, demand of REEs is anticipated to rise. However, it is well known that the production of REEs carries large environmental burden and as a result, reducing environmental footprints of REE production becomes critical. The first action towards reducing the environmental degradation during production of REEs is the thorough examination of the energy requirements and environmental emissions. To date, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the standard methodology to evaluate the environmental performance of a system, …

Materials Design With Molecular Dynamics: Novel Properties In Martensitic Alloys Through Free Energy Landscape Engineering, Samuel Temple Reeve

Open Access Dissertations

Novel properties in martensitic alloys are predicted using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the uncertainty from input models in MD is explored and quantified, and new data infrastructure for MD is developed.

The possible regimes of material properties are extended through free energy landscape engineering (FELE), where coherent, epitaxial integration of two materials at the nanoscale can result in metamaterials with fundamentally different behavior. Free energy as a function of strain is calculated using MD simulations and analytically combined to predict potential new properties for a Ni 63% - Al 37% martensitic alloy combined with B2 NiAl, shown to be an …

Parental Divorce, Parental Conflict Dimensions, Perception Of Gains, Growth, And Parent-Child Relationship In College Students, Matthew M. Welsh

Open Access Dissertations

The primary focus of this study was to examine the possible associations among perceptions of pre-divorce parental conflict, perceived gains of parental divorce, posttraumatic growth, and current relationship quality with parents. The literature review focuses on college student development, empirical studies related to negative and positive outcomes for children, adolescents, and college students of divorce, and factors related to negative and positive outcomes for children, adolescents, and college students of divorce. Findings are based on data I collected from 430 participants from Purdue University. I addressed my questions and tested the associated hypotheses through the use of MANOVA and hierarchical …

Characterization Of The Human Dead-Box Rna Helicase Ddx5, Zheng Xing

Open Access Dissertations

Gene expression in eukaryotes is highly complex. The central player in gene expression is the messenger RNA (mRNA). After transcription, the mRNA is bound by numerous RNA binding proteins to form a messenger ribonucleoprotein complex (mRNP) that dictates the function and fate of the messengers. Proper mRNP formation is critical for gene expression. DEAD-box proteins are the largest class of RNA helicases that play fundamental roles in RNA and RNP structure remodeling. However, the precise biological roles of the vast majority of them are not well described. To fill in this gap, my research focused on the characterization of the …

Postsecondary Stem Paths Of High-Achieving Students In Math And Science: A Longitudinal Multilevel Investigation Of Their Selection And Persistence, Soohyun Yi

Open Access Dissertations

This study used a quantitative approach to investigate high-school students’ talent-development pathways in STEM from 10th through 12th grades and for 8 years thereafter. The purpose of this study was to longitudinally investigate three important choices and accomplishments on the STEM talent development trajectory: a) selecting a STEM major in college; b) persisting with the STEM major until graduation; and c) selecting a career in STEM after college graduation. Given that students with gifts and talents are more likely to persist and succeed in STEM fields than average achievers, and understanding their unique needs may be the first important task …

Random Weighting Approach In Nonlinear And Hierarchical Regression Models, Yue Zhang

Open Access Dissertations

Nonlinear regression models with random and fixed effects are commonly used to analyze repeated measures data. Such data, consisting of repeated measurements taken on several individuals, typically arise in biological and biomedical applications amongst many other applications. The standard two-stage estimation (STS) method is intuitive and simple to implement in such circumstance, but the main difficulty is that not much is available on the sampling distribution of the resulting parameters estimates. In this work, we develop re-sampled versions of the least squares estimators (LSE) of the parameters in nonlinear regression as well as hierarchical nonlinear regression models. The approach we …

Laboratory Safety Training Design And Evaluation For Aeronautical Engineering Technology Students In Part 147 Program, Xun Zhao

Open Access Dissertations

The FAA Part 147 program at Purdue University requires students in Aeronautical Engineering Technology (AET) major to take 1125 hours of laboratory works. Students are required to work in several different laboratory environments including airframe, powerplant, aircraft sheet metal processing, composite materials processing, electricity and electronics, non-destructive testing, aircraft system, maintenance practices and advanced manufacturing. Although course instructors emphasize laboratory safety, there is currently no pre-laboratory training for all students before they log any laboratory hours. Starting from 2004, occupational injuries and illness rates in the air transportation industry were shown to be much higher than the average for private …

Modeling The Behavioral Landscape Ecology Of A Reintroduced Carnivore, Casey C. Day

Open Access Dissertations

The American marten (Martes Americana) is an endangered forest carnivore native to the Upper Midwestern United States and culturally significant to local Ojibwe tribes. In this region, the marten faces a number of potential threats to its persistence, including competition, predation, lack of prey availability, lack of recruitment, and lack of population connectivity. To evaluate how marten behavior affects the conservation and management of this species, I developed an individual-based model to simulate marten dispersal and home range establishment. In Chapter 2, I describe the model and the process of calibrating it to perform comparably to real-world martens. I also …

The Role Of Il-2rα-Dependent Signaling In Treg Development, Homeostasis, And Suppressive Function, Kevin Henry Toomer

Open Access Dissertations

Deletion of interleukin-2 (IL-2) or IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) subunits in mice causes lethal autoimmunity, establishing the vital contribution of IL-2R signaling to thymic development of Foxp3+ Tregs. However, precise mechanisms of IL-2-driven functional programming in Tregs and pathogenic autoreactive T cells remain undefined. To investigate these issues, we characterized a germline knockout (gKO) versus Treg-targeted conditional knockout (cKO) of the IL-2Rα chain (CD25) in mice. Both KO models developed lethal autoimmunity, but disease onset was delayed in CD25 gKO mice due to IL-2 deprivation among CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Foxp3+ thymocytes from gKO mice showed greater reduction in Treg …

Deep Learning Based Imbalanced Data Classification And Information Retrieval For Multimedia Big Data, Yilin Yan

Open Access Dissertations

The development in information science has enabled an explosive growth of data, which attracts more and more researchers to engage in the field of big data analytics. Noticeably, in many real-world applications, large amounts of data are imbalanced data since the events of interests occur infrequently. Classification of imbalanced data is an important research problem as lots of real-world datasets have skewed class distributions in which the majority of instances (examples) belong to one class and far fewer instances belong to the others. A classifier induced from an imbalanced dataset is more likely to be biased towards the majority classes …

Associations Between Physical Frailty And Cognitive Functioning Using Factor Analysis, Ni Sun-Suslow

Open Access Dissertations

While there are several proposed definitions, Fried et al. (2001) is the first study to define the physical characteristics of frailty. To date there have been few attempts to validate this criterion. Further, there is a long-standing and growing interest in the relationship between frailty and cognitive impairment. Few studies have investigated this relationship using an unmodified Fried criterion and cognitive measures beyond a mental status screener. We first examined whether the physical indicators of Fried phenotype cluster together to describe frailty syndrome using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and we further explored the association between frailty as a latent variable …

The Role Of General Psychological Processes In The Association Between Parental Rejection And Lgb Youth Internalizing Problems, Brian Edmund James Richter

Open Access Dissertations

Upward of 70% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth experience some degree of negative parental reaction to their sexual orientation, which is problematic in light of data documenting an association between parental rejection and internalizing problems in these youth. While emerging studies have begun to study mediating factors, this research is limited and has significant gaps. To the author’s knowledge, the current study is the first to examine longitudinal data in this area as well as to investigate general psychological processes (i.e., factors common to all youth and known to be linked to youth mental health outcomes) that may …

Identification And Functional Characterization Of Dishevelled-Interacting Proteins In The Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus Purpuratus And The Cnidarian Nematostella Vectensis, Wei Wu

Open Access Dissertations

Wnt signaling plays a central role in establishing anterior-posterior (AP) polarity in metazoan embryos. A key cytoplasmic component mediating Wnt signaling is the Disheveled (Dvl) protein, which is generally considered to be the central “hub” of the Wnt signaling pathway. In the sea urchin, Dvl is highly enriched and differentially post-translationally modified in a specialized vegetal cortical domain (VCD) of the egg, and the vegetal blastomeres that inherit the VCD during embryogenesis. Functional analysis has shown that localized Dvl activity mediates Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway in vegetal blastomeres, but the molecular basis of Dvl asymmetric localization and activation remain unresolved. Therefore, …

Fluid Limit And Stochastic Stability For A Genetic Mutation Model, Carlos M. Bajo Caraballo

Open Access Dissertations

We develop the continuous time version of the particle model studied in [13]. The evolution is described by a pure jump, continuous time Markov process on the space of words of length L with a size N alphabet. Words change randomly in search of a preferred state, here the vector zero. In genome population models, this is the genome presenting selection advantage [21]; in cancer development, it is a state of a damaged gene by deleterious mutations, and in epidemiological models the number of infected individuals in the population. In the last two models, the characters in the preferred word …

Pulsatile Urea Excretion In Gulf Toadfish: Neuroendocrine Control And Potential Involvement In Chemical Communication, Maria C. Cartolano

Open Access Dissertations

Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta) are well studied for their ability to produce and excrete urea as an alternate form of nitrogenous waste. Urea is only produced by a few adult teleost species in substantial quantities because its production is energetically costly compared to ammonia. Toadfish uniquely excrete urea in distinct pulses and the process is controlled physiologically by the stress hormone cortisol and the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT). Decades of research have ruled out several explanations for the adaptive advantage of this pulsatile urea excretion and the remaining hypothesis is that signals are release via urea pulses for chemical communication. However, …

Development Of Turn-On Fluorescent Kinase Inhibitors, Heajin Lee

Open Access Dissertations

The EGFR/ERBB family of tyrosine kinase receptors (ERBB1-4) are involved in regulation of intracellular communications such as cell proliferation, metabolism, and numerous biological responses. The dysregulation of their signaling pathways contributes to development of cancer malignancies. This receptor family is a conventional chemotherapeutic target and serves as diagnostic modality. ERBB2, also known as HER2, is a prognostic biomarker implicated in about 20 % of invasive breast cancer incidence. Hence, the status of ERBB2 is a crucial factor in deciding treatment type for breast cancer patients. Common immunohistochemistry assays analyzing the ERBB2 receptor tyrosine kinase rely on use of antibodies. These …

Spinal Cord Neural Interface In Common Marmosets, Shubham Debnath

Open Access Dissertations

Patients suffering from paralysis or amputations can benefit from neural prosthetics to restore movement, such as control of a robotic limb for self-feeding or cursor control from communication. Current neuroprosthetics rely on stable, high quality recordings from chronically implanted microelectrode arrays in neural tissue. Microelectrodes implanted in brain tissue can be affected by multiple abiotic and biotic factors that lead to degradation in recording quality, ultimately resulting in electrode failure. While chronic electrophysiological recordings and electrode failure modes have been reported from larger non-human primates, studies in primary motor cortex from the marmoset model have not been previously described. The …

The Influence Of Seawater Chemistry On The Geochemistry Of Scleractinian Corals, Sharmila Joy Giri

Open Access Dissertations

The rise and fall of scleractinian coral dominated reefs throughout the Phanerozoic is strongly linked to the changes in the Earth’s climate and the chemistry of seawater (calcite vs. aragonite oceans). Changes in both the ocean’s saturation state and ion chemistry have had profound effects on the biomineralization process; calcite is precipitated in low Mg/Ca seawater, while aragonite is precipitated in high Mg/Ca seawater and the precipitation of these minerals is primarily controlled by the composition and saturation state of seawater. Corals do not precipitate their skeletons in equilibrium with seawater and vital effects (physiological processes that are responsible for …

Pharmacologic Approaches To Targeting Malignant Activation Of Cap-Dependent Protein Translation In Aggressive B-Cell Lymphomas, Tara Lenore Peters

Open Access Dissertations

Despite decades of research identifying molecular drivers of cancer, targeted therapies fail to provide long-term survival benefits for cancer patients much of the time, primarily due to tumor heterogeneity and redundancies of signaling pathways. In the most common lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), malignant activation of B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling drives cancer cell growth. Expression of the PIM kinases downstream of this signaling is a common feature of the Activated B-cell like (ABC) subtype of DLBCL, and a target of interest for therapy. We found the sensitivity of ABC DLBCL to pan-PIM kinase inhibition by the clinical compound PIM447 …

The Role Of The Serotonin Transporter (Sert) In Peripheral Serotonin Dynamics In The Gulf Toadfish, Opsanus Beta, Molly Hope Broome Amador

Open Access Dissertations

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a powerful neurochemical with diverse physiological effects in vertebrates. In mammals, peripheral 5-HT is tightly regulated by uptake through the 5-HT transporter (SERT) into a circulating platelet storage pool. Teleost fish possess SERT but do not appear to have a similar circulating 5-HT storage pool; thus, this dissertation sought to elucidate alternate mechanisms of 5-HT control in the periphery of a model teleost, the Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta). Toadfish SERT was first sequenced and characterized, revealing high conservation with other teleost SERTs, a ubiquitous distribution of transcript—with particularly high levels of transcript in the heart—and …

Modulating Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy And Sensory Dysfunction In Drosophila, Jennifer M. Brazill

Open Access Dissertations

The number of individuals living beyond a cancer diagnosis continues to increase due to advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, most cancer therapies are associated with a range of complications that can affect the course and completion of treatment as well as patient quality of life. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a serious side effect of many commonly used chemotherapeutic agents, including the microtubule-targeting agent paclitaxel. Sensory symptoms typically present in the distal extremities and include feelings of numbness, spontaneous pain, and abnormal or exaggerated sensitivity. Currently there are no neuroprotective or effective symptomatic treatments for CIPN. The in …

Military Life, Intersectionality, And Deployment: The Social Experiences And Difficulties Of Mothers Who Stay Behind, Roberto Cancio Jr

Open Access Dissertations

Studies on the military family are important because it sheds light on the phenomenon of the family, it offers a unique insight into the largest single government employer in the nation, and issues addressed surrounding it can have important implications for the further development of both health and military policy. Prior research on families has consistently found that social relationships, especially close personal relationships, like marriage, have important health consequences. For that reason, understanding the impact of military life on spouses is of great importance. However, most studies have examined spouses individually, rather than concurrently as families. Empirical research has …