Digital Commons Network^™

Synaptic Clustering Of Psd-95 Is Regulated By C-Abl Through Tyrosine Phosphorylation, Karen Perez De Arce, Lorena Varela-Nallar, Olivia Farias, Alejandra Cifuentes, Paulina Bull, Brian A. Couch, Anthony J. Koleske, Nibaldo C. Inestrosa, Alejandra R. Alvarez

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The c-Abl tyrosine kinase is present in mouse brain synapses, but its precise synaptic function is unknown. We found that c-Abl levels in the rat hippocampus increase postnatally, with expression peaking at the first postnatal week. In 14 d in vitro hippocampal neuron cultures, c-Abl localizes primarily to the postsynaptic compartment, in which it colocalizes with the postsynaptic scaffold protein postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95) in apposition to presynaptic markers. c-Abl associates with PSD-95, and chemical or genetic inhibition of c-Abl kinase activity reduces PSD-95 tyrosine phosphorylation, leading to reduced PSD-95 clustering and reduced synapses in treated neurons. c-Abl can phosphorylate …

Molecular Basis Of A Novel Adaptation To Hypoxic-Hypercapnia In A Strictly Fossorial Mole, Kevin L. Campbell, Jay F. Storz, Anthony V. Signore, Hideaki Moriyama, Kenneth C. Catania, Alexander P. Payson, Joseph Bonaventura, Jörg Stetefeld, Roy E. Weber

Jay F. Storz Publications

Background: Elevated blood O₂ affinity enhances survival at low O₂ pressures, and is perhaps the best known and most broadly accepted evolutionary adjustment of terrestrial vertebrates to environmental hypoxia. This phenotype arises by increasing the intrinsic O₂ affinity of the hemoglobin (Hb) molecule, by decreasing the intracellular concentration of allosteric effectors (e.g., 2,3-diphosphoglycerate; DPG), or by suppressing the sensitivity of Hb to these physiological cofactors.

Results: Here we report that strictly fossorial eastern moles (Scalopus aquaticus) have evolved a low O₂ affinity, DPG-insensitive Hb - contrary to expectations for a mammalian species that is …

Phenotypic Plasticity And Genetic Adaptation To High-Altitude Hypoxia In Vertebrates, Jay F. Storz, Graham R. Scott, Zachary A. Cheviron

Jay F. Storz Publications

High-altitude environments provide ideal testing grounds for investigations of mechanism and process in physiological adaptation. In vertebrates, much of our understanding of the acclimatization response to high-altitude hypoxia derives from studies of animal species that are native to lowland environments. Such studies can indicate whether phenotypic plasticity will generally facilitate or impede adaptation to high altitude. Here, we review general mechanisms of physiological acclimatization and genetic adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia in birds and mammals. We evaluate whether the acclimatization response to environmental hypoxia can be regarded generally as a mechanism of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, or whether it might sometimes represent …

Genetic Differences In Hemoglobin Function Between Highland And Lowland Deer Mice, Jay F. Storz, Amy M. Runck, Hideaki Moriyama, Roy E. Weber, Angela Fago

Jay F. Storz Publications

In high-altitude vertebrates, adaptive changes in blood–O₂ affinity may be mediated by modifications of hemoglobin (Hb) structure that affect intrinsic O₂ affinity and/or responsiveness to allosteric effectors that modulate Hb–O₂ affinity. This mode of genotypic specialization is considered typical of mammalian species that are high-altitude natives. Here we investigated genetically based differences in Hb–O₂ affinity between highland and lowland populations of the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), a generalist species that has the broadest altitudinal distribution of any North American mammal. The results of a combined genetic and proteomic analysis revealed that deer mice harbor …

Candida Albicans Cellwall Components And Farnesol Stimulate The Expression Of Both Inflammatory And Regulatory Cytokines In The Murine Raw264.7 Macrophage Cell Line, Suman Ghosh, Nina Howe, Katie Volk, Swetha Tati, Kenneth W. Nickerson, Thomas M. Petro

Kenneth Nickerson Papers

Candida albicans causes candidiasis, secretes farnesol, and switches from yeast to hyphae to escape from macrophages after phagocytosis. However, before escape, macrophages may respond to C. albicans’ pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) through toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and dectin-1 receptors by expressing cytokines involved in adaptive immunity, inflammation, and immune regulation. Therefore, macrophages and the RAW264.7 macrophage line were challenged with C. albicans preparations of live wild-type cells, heat-killed cells, a live mutant defective in hyphae formation, a live mutant producing less farnesol, or an isolate producing farnesoic acid instead of farnesol. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-1b, IL- 10, and tumor …

Sirnas Compete With Mirnas For Methylation By Hen1 In Arabidopsis, Bin Yu, Liu Bi, Jixian Zhai, Manu Agarwal, Shengben Li, Qingfa Wu, Shou-Wei Ding, Blake C. Meyers, Hervé Vaucheret, Xuemei Chen

Bin Yu Publications

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) bear a 2'-O-methyl group on the 3'-terminal nucleotide. This methyl group is post-synthetically added by the methyltransferase protein HEN1 and protects small RNAs from enzymatic activities that target the 3'-OH. A mutagenesis screen for suppressors of the partial loss-offunction hen1-2 allele in Arabidopsis identified second-site mutations that restore miRNA methylation. These mutations affect two subunits of the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase IV (Pol IV), which is essential for the biogenesis of 24 nt endogenous siRNAs. A mutation in RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 2, another essential gene for the biogenesis of endogenous 24-nt …

Soil-Transmitted Helminthiases: Implications Of Climate Change And Human Behavior, Haylee J. Weaver, John M. Hawdon, Eric P. Hoberg

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Soil-transmitted helminthiases (STHs) collectively cause the highest global burden of parasitic disease after malaria and are most prevalent in the poorest communities, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change is predicted to alter the physical environment through cumulative impacts of warming and extreme fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, with cascading effects on human health and wellbeing, food security and socioeconomic infrastructure. Understanding how the spectrum of climate change effects will influence STHs is therefore of critical importance to the control of the global burden of human parasitic disease. Realistic progress in the global control of STH in a changing climate requires …

Muellerius Capillaris Dominates The Lungworm Community Of Bighorn Sheep At The National Bison Range, Montana, Vanessa O. Ezenwa, Alicia M. Hines, Elizabeth A. Archie, Eric P. Hoberg, Ingrid M. Asmundsson, John T. Hogg

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Lungworm infections are common among bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in North America, and the predominant species reported are Protostrongylus stilesi and P. rushi. The only records of another lungworm species, Muellerius capillaris, infecting bighorns come from South Dakota, USA. At the National Bison Range (NBR), Montana, USA we found that across six sampling periods, 100% of wild bighorn sheep surveyed were passing first-stage dorsal-spined larvae (DSL) which appeared to be consistent with M. capillaris. By contrast, only 39%or fewer sheep were passing Protostrongylus larvae. Using molecular techniques, we positively identified the DSL from the NBR …

Profess: A Protein Function, Evolution, Structure And Sequence Database, Thomas Triplet, Matthew D. Shortridge, Mark A. Griep, Jaime L. Stark, Robert Powers, Peter Revesz

Robert Powers Publications

The proliferation of biological databases and the easy access enabled by the Internet is having a beneficial impact on biological sciences and transforming the way research is conducted. There are ~1100 molecular biology databases dispersed throughout the Internet. To assist in the functional, structural and evolutionary analysis of the abundant number of novel proteins continually identified from whole-genome sequencing, we introduce the PROFESS (PROtein Function, Evolution, Structure and Sequence) database. Our database is designed to be versatile and expandable and will not confine analysis to a pre-existing set of data relationships. A fundamental component of this approach is the development …

Using Nmr Metabolomics To Investigate Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle-Dependent Signal Transduction In Staphylococcus Epidermidis, Marat R. Sadykov, Bo Zhang, Steven M. Halouska, Jennifer L. Nelson, Lauren W. Kreimer, Yefei Zhu, Robert Powers, Greg A. Somerville

Robert Powers Publications

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a skin-resident bacterium and a major cause of biomaterial-associated infections. The transition from residing on the skin to residing on an implanted biomaterial is accompanied by regulatory changes that facilitate bacterial survival in the new environment. These regulatory changes are dependent upon the ability of bacteria to “sense” environmental changes. In S. epidermidis, disparate environmental signals can affect synthesis of the biofilm matrix polysaccharide intercellular adhesin (PIA). Previously, we demonstrated that PIA biosynthesis is regulated by tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle activity. The observations that very different environmental signals result in a common phenotype (i.e. increased PIA …

Solution Structure And Function Of Yndb, An Ahsa1 Protein From Bacillus Subtilis, Jaime L. Stark, Kelly A. Mercier, Geoffrey A. Mueller, Thomas B. Acton, Rong Xiao, Gaetano T. Montelione, Robert Powers

Robert Powers Publications

The solution structure of the Bacillus subtilis protein YndB has been solved using NMR in order to investigate proposed biological functions. The YndB structure exhibits the helix-grip fold, which consists of a β-sheet with two small and one long α-helix, forming a hydrophobic cavity that preferentially binds lipid-like molecules. Sequence and structure comparisons to proteins from eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and archaea suggest that YndB is very similar to the eukaryote protein Aha1, which binds to the middle domain of Hsp90 and induces ATPase activity. Based on these similarities, YndB has been classified as a member of the Activator of Hsp90 ATPase …

Purification Of Parvalbumin From Carp: A Protocol That Avoids Heat Treatment, Stef J. Koppelman, Roland A. Romijn, Harmen H. J. De Jongh, Julie A. Nordlee, Sander Piersma, Martin Hessing, Steve L. Taylor

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Parvalbumin from carp, a major allergen,was purified to homogeneity using ion exchange chromatography and size exclusion chromatography (estimated purity > 95% to 98% based on SDS-PAGE and native PAGE) with a yield of 318 mg, and a number of basic biochemical characteristics were determined. The identity was confirmed by peptide-mass fingerprinting, and IgE-binding was demonstrated. The UV/Vis absorbance spectra were explained using the previously published amino acid sequences. Far UV-CD spectroscopy was used to confirm the folding character of parvalbumin. We conclude that parvalbumin from carp can be purified on a comparatively large (hundreds of milligrams) scale using a purification protocol …

Vaishno Devi, The Most Famous Goddess Shrine In The Siwāliks, Georgana Foster, Robert Stoddard

Geography Program: Faculty Publications

Vaishno Devi in Jammu has been designated as the "Elder Sister" among the six other Devi shrines in a fairly narrow belt of the Siwāliks between the Yumunii and Chenāb Rivers. During the last few decades Vaishno Devi has become especially important. Pilgrimage to the shrine has increased from 30,000 to almost 7 million since Independence, when the political geography of the region increased accessibility, both physically and perceptually. The growth in the number of visitors can be attributed also to a change in administration of the shrine and to the tremendous increase in religious tourism. Vaishno Devi is now …

Tuberculosis Vaccine, Mohammed A. Sarhan

Saudi Medical Journal

Tuberculosis (TB) is still one of the leading causes of death from a single infectious agent, killing 1.6 million people each year, mostly in developing countries. The existing vaccines, Bacille Calmette and Guerin (BCG), are efficient in preventing the most severe disseminated forms of disease in children and newborns, but its efficacy against active TB in adults has been challenged by several clinical studies. It is a common opinion that only the development of a new and more effective vaccine against TB would significantly ease the deadly disease. In recent years, looking for a new vaccine or an improved TB …

Rupture Of Liver Hydatid Cysts Into The Peritoneal Cavity. A Challenge In Endemic Regions, Haluk R. Unalp, Yeliz Yilmaz, Evren Durak, Erdinc Kamer, Ercument Tarcan

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical presentation and early and long-term outcomes of patients treated surgically for intraperitoneal ruptured liver hydatid cysts. METHODS: The medical records of 21 patients with rupture of hydatid cysts were evaluated retrospectively between January 2000 and April 2009 at Izmir Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey, as were the records of 368 patients with hydatid cysts. Age, gender, symptoms, laboratory findings, diagnostic procedures, surgical treatment modalities, in-hospital stay, morbidity, mortality, and recurrence were evaluated. RESULTS: Sixteen of these patients (76.2%) were women. The mean age was 43.8 years. Cysts were single in 16 cases (76.2%). …

Clubfoot Management By The Ponseti Technique In Saudi Patients, Ayman H. Jawadi

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of the Ponseti technique in the treatment of clubfoot in Saudi children. METHODS: The data of 175 patients (235 feet), who presented with clubfeet from September 2002 to June 2008 and who were treated with the Ponseti technique at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were collected and studied retrospectively. The Pirani score for clubfoot evaluation was used in this study. RESULTS: Age ranged from one week to 48 weeks, with an average age of 6.5 weeks. The average follow up was 37 months (range one year to 6 years and …

Outcomes Of Giant Inguinoscrotal Hernia Repair With Local Lidocaine Anesthesia, Osarumwense Osifo, Taiwu I. Amusan

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To report outcomes of giant inguinoscrotal hernia repair using local lidocaine anesthesia in a resource-poor subregion. METHODS: Patients treated with giant inguinoscrotal hernia at 2 private healthcare facilities in Nigeria were studied between January 2004 and December 2008. RESULTS: A total of 134 patients aged between 13 and 70 (mean 32 ± 7.6) years, accounting for 51.3% adults treated for groin hernias, had open repair of 136 giant inguinoscrotal hernia using lidocaine. Average duration of symptoms (14.5 years) before presentation was influenced by lack of awareness in 82 (61.2%) and financial constraint in 34 (25.4%). The procedure was well …

Is Long-Term Hunger (Ramadan Model) A Risk Factor For Acute Appendicitis?, Barlas Sulu, Yusuf Gunerhan, Baris Ozturk, Hasan Arslan

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether long-term hunger and the changes in nutritional routines during Ramadan constitute risk factors in acute appendicitis on the model of Ramadan fasting in this study. METHODS: This retrospective study was carried out in 2 different hospitals (Istanbul Haydarpasa Numune Training and Research Hospital and Kars State Hospital, Kars, Turkey) between January 2004 and December 2007. The data obtained from the patients were classified according to age, gender, age group, and pathological characteristics of the appendix. The data obtained during the Ramadan fasting period was compared with the periods before and after. RESULTS: Nine hundred and ninety-two …

The Importance Of Hiv Antenatal Screening Programs For Pregnant Women, Ali A. Al-Jabri, Zakaryia K. Al-Muharrami, Abdullah A. Balkhair, Shyam S. Ganguly

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To investigate retrospectively the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 and 2 among pregnant women during a 10-year period. METHODS: The total number of pregnant women attending the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), Muscat, Oman between January 1995 and December 2005 was 11553 women. Their age range was 16-45 years (average of 28.6–7.6 years). The women were tested for HIV-1 and 2 using the standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Positive samples were further tested by Western Blot. The data were statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 10.0. RESULTS: By ELISA testing, 21 women were positive …

Vitamin D Status In Health Care Professionals In Qatar, Salah Mahdy, Samar A. Al-Emadi, Izzat A. Khanjar, Mohammed M. Hammoudeh, Housam A. Sarakbi, Abdulrahim M. Siam, Mohammed Osman Abdelrahman

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among health care professionals working at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar. METHODS: Between 15th January 2007 and 15th January 2008, 340 healthy volunteers were included in this study. Each subject completed a diary to determine the duration of sunlight exposure, and vitamin D supplements. Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, total protein, and albumin were obtained. Those with abnormal results were called for counselling. RESULTS: The mean overall vitamin D level was 11.7 ng/ml. It was lower in females (10.3 ng/ml) than in …

Characteristics Of Women Attending A Urogynecology Clinic In Riyadh, Ahmed H. Al-Badr, Aneela G. Kamil, Ehab F. Wahbah, Valerie A. Zimmerman, Mohamad A. Al-Tannir

Saudi Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Survival Analysis Of Dialysis Patients And Its Associated Factors In Zahedan, Iran, Masoud Roudbari, Forugh Foruzandeh, Soudeh Roudbari

Saudi Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Are Brand Name Medicine Prices Really Lower In Ciudad Juárez?, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Osvaldo Miranda

Border Region Modeling Project

Relatively high brand name pharmaceutical prices have led many United States residents to cross the border into Mexico as “medical tourists.” To examine the savings potentially available to consumers willing to cross into Mexico, data are collected and analyzed for brand name prescription medicines sold in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Retail pharmacy prices are generally lower on the south side of the border and substantial savings result for some medicines. For some products, however, shelf prices are lower on the north side of the border.

It As A Resource For Competitive Agility: An Analysis Of Firm Performance During Industry Turbulence, Shoshana Altschuller, David S. Gelb, Theresa F. Henry

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

In an increasingly fast-paced business context, agility is crucial to firm performance. Competitive agility, the ability of a firm to rapidly sense and respond to changes in its environment, is especially important during industry turbulence. This research examines whether investment in Information Technology (IT) enhances firms’ competitive agility using analysis of firm performance during industry growth and contraction. The research approach addresses the causality question faced by previous IT productivity studies by focusing on ex-ante IT investment and subsequent firm performance during periods of unanticipated industry shocks. Findings indicate that IT investment enhances competitive agility but only in industries with …

A Framework For Analyzing Business Model Innovation In Mobile Commerce, Chung-Shing Lee, Jonathan C. Ho

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The paper develops and tests a framework for evaluating mobile commerce business models and strategies. To study business model innovation in mobile commerce, we analyze the cost, revenue, and growth components of the business model. In addition, we also investigate whether the implementation of the new business model successfully capitalized on the key disruptive attributes of mobile commerce. An analytical framework is developed to guide the empirical study of the two leading mobile commerce companies in Taiwan. The empirical research indicates that the mobile commerce industry in Taiwan has been able to capitalize on many but not all of the …

Lip Movement Exaggerations During Infant Directed Speech, Jordan R. Green, Ignatius S. B. Nip, Erin M. Wilson, Antje Mefferd, Yana Yunusova

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Purpose: Although a growing body of literature has indentified the positive effects of visual speech on speech and language learning, oral movements of infant directed speech have rarely been studied. This investigation used 3-dimensional motion capture technology to describe how mothers modify their lip movements when talking to their infants.
Method: Lip movements were recorded from twenty-five mothers as they spoke to their infants and other adults. Lip shapes were analyzed for differences across speaking conditions. The maximum fundamental frequency, duration, acoustic intensity, and first and second formant frequency of each vowel were also measured.
Results: Lip movements were significantly …

Vowel Recognition From Continuous Articulatory Movements For Speaker-Dependent Applications, Jun Wang, Jordan R. Green, Ashok Samal, Tom D. Carrell

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

A novel approach was developed to recognize vowels from continuous tongue and lip movements. Vowels were classified based on movement patterns (rather than on derived articulatory features, e.g., lip opening) using a machine learning approach. Recognition accuracy on a single-speaker dataset was 94.02% with a very short latency. Recognition accuracy was better for high vowels than for low vowels. This finding parallels previous empirical findings on tongue movements during vowels. The recognition algorithm was then used to drive an articulation-to-acoustics synthesizer. The synthesizer recognizes vowels from continuous input stream of tongue and lip movements and plays the corresponding sound samples …

Improved Arene Fluorination Methodology For I(Iii) Salts, Bijia Wang, Linlin Qin, Kiel D. Neumann, Shriharsha Uppaluri, Ronald Cerny, Stephen G. Dimagno

Ronald Cerny Publications

The use of low polarity aromatic solvents (benzene or toluene) and/or the removal of inorganic salts results in dramatically improved yields of fluorinated arenes from diaryliodonium salts. This methodology is shown to “scale down” to the conditions used typically for radiotracer synthesis.

Regiospecific Reductive Elimination From Diaryliodonium Salts, Bijia Wang, Joseph W. Graskemper, Linlin Qin, Stephen G. Dimagno

Stephen DiMagno Papers

StereoElectronic Control of Unidirectional Reductive Elimination (SECURE) is provided by the cyclophane substituent on iodine(III). Computational and experimental studies demonstrate that out of plane steric bulk strongly destabilizes the reductive elimination transition state, and leads to regiochemical control. This approach should be general for high valent main group and transition metal ions.

The Polypeptide Syn67 Interacts Physically With Human Holocarboxylase Synthetase, But Is Not A Target For Biotinylation, Yousef I. Hassan, Hideaki Moriyama, Janos Zempleni

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Holocarboxylase synthetase (HCS) catalyzes the binding of biotin to lysines in carboxylases and histones in two steps. First, HCS catalyzes the synthesis of biotinyl-5′-AMP; second, the biotinyl moiety is ligated to lysine residues. It has been proposed that step two is fairly promiscuous, and that protein biotinylation may occur in the absence of HCS as long as sufficient exogenous biotinyl-5′- AMP is provided. Here, we identified a novel polypeptide (Syn67) with a basic patch of lysines and arginines. Yeast-two-hybrid assays and limited proteolysis assays revealed that both N- and C-termini of HCS interact with Syn67. A potential target lysine in …