Digital Commons Network^™

Rh Glycoprotein As An Ammonia Transport Molecule, Matthew B. Phillips

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Fish use their gills to excrete ammonia in order to eliminate nitrogenous waste. We hypothesize that this mechanism is accomplished by one or more transport proteins in the Rh glycoprotein (RhxG) family. Longhorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus) cDNA was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then the PCR products were visualized on an agarose gel. The cDNA from the gel bands was then sequenced and the gene sequence fragments were assembled and completed by rapid amplification of the cDNA ends (RACE). By this process we have obtained large portions of the gene sequences of the four known paralogues located in …

The Liberal Gene: Sociobiology As Emancipatory Discourse In The Late Soviet Union, Yvonne Howell

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

In the following analysis, we will find that Soviet sociobiology did not develop incrementally out of daring interdisciplinary probes; rather, it seemed to spring forth fully formulated in the comprehensive Novyi mir article. Moreover, already in 1971, several years before Wilson's book established its controversial eponymous discipline in the United States, the biosocial paradigm was framed by its earliest Soviet proponents as a scientific vindication for diversity, pluralism, individual difference, heterogeneity, human rights, and ultimately, individual responsibility for one's own actions. In short, the same scientific discipline that in the west was associated with racism, reductionism, and social determinism developed …

Sacred Heart University Magazine, Summer 2010, Sacred Heart University

Sacred Heart University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Legal Liability, Intellectual Property And Genetically Modified Crops: Their Impact On World Agriculture, Kanchana Kariyawasam

Washington International Law Journal

The use of genetic engineering and biotechnology in agriculture has attracted worldwide attention over the past decade. This technology has raised highly controversial issues and considerable international debate over the liabilities associated with crops containing genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”). In particular, the extension of intellectual property protection to GMOs, especially genetically modified crops, has produced one of the most controversial and strenuous debates of recent times. After looking briefly at some of the key features, advantages and disadvantages of GM crops, this paper outlines the debate over the associated legal liability issues. This article also examines the major elements of …

Focus, 2010, Summer, Andrews University

Focus

FOCUS (ISSN 1077-9345) is published quarterly, free of charge, for alumni and friends of Andrews University, an institution owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The Influence Of Psychosocial Factors On Academic Performance Of Adolescents: A Quality Assurance Project, Saleema A. Gulzar, Tazeen S. Ali, Amina Aijaz, Neesha Hussain

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Adolescence is a time of rapid psychological and physiological changes and is associated with anxiety and mental distress. This project looks at the potential of school-based programs to reduce these negative effects of academic performance in both the short- and long-term. This study was conducted in a private school in Karachi, Pakistan between October 1998 and December 2006 on 305 students with low academic performance. Results show that students scoring low grades had a mean of 55 + 2.8 and postintervention score of 56 + 2.6. The intervention package significantly created a difference in reducing the number of students receiving …

Summer 2010: Life's A Journey, St. Norbert College

St. Norbert College Magazine 2007-2012

The transformative nature of travel

Antisthenes said it: “To the wise man, nothing is foreign.” The Greek philosopher’s aphorism is the lived reality in academe, where scholarly and educational connections of all kinds build bridges across continents.

On the cover: Signposts on the De Pere campus align the St. Norbert College experience in its global context. A place of scholarship and growth like this liberal arts environment inevitably draws from, and contributes to, a world of discovery. It’s a place we call home, yes. But we are both grounded and inspired by a sense of where we have come from, …

Mechanisms Of Augmented Coronary Artery Constriction Following Exposure To Diesel Exhaust, Tom W. Cherng

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Numerous epidemiology studies demonstrate that acute increases in air pollutants correlate with an increase in cardiovascular disease-related mortality. The pollutant diesel exhaust (DE) has been shown to impair both flow-mediated and agonist-induced dilation of the brachial artery, used as a surrogate for coronary artery function. It is speculated that enhanced sensitivity to the endogenous vasoconstrictor ET-1 impairs cardiac blood flow and contributes to the immediate onset of myocardial ischemia and infarction in humans following DE exposure. In addition, impaired endothelium-dependent dilation can be improved with the restoration of nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) activity. We therefore sought to determine the …

The Role Of Bcl-2 Modifying Factor (Bmf) In Airway Epithelial Cell Death, Amelia H. T. Unione

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

One of the components that obstruct the airway in asthma is the sudden and increased secretion of mucus from metaplastic mucous cells in small airways. Because previous studies have shown that the resolution of mucous cell metaplasia (MCM) during prolonged exposure of mice to allergen is mediated by IFN gamma and the Bcl-2 family of proteins, we investigated the regulation and the role of a pro-apoptotic BH3 domain-only protein, Bmf, in airway epithelial cells (AECs) treated with IFN gamma. We hypothesize that Bmf is crucial for IFN gamma-induced cell death. Our findings show that IFN gamma suppressed Bmf expression in …

- Immunosupression Of T-Dependent Antibody Responses By Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons And Arsenic In Spleen Cells From C57bl/6j Mice, Qian Li

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and arsenic are both toxic contaminants that are widely distributed in the environment. Previous studies have shown that certain levels of PAHs and arsenic exposure individually can lead to immune suppression and carcinogenesis. Co-exposures to these two classes of chemicals are commonly seen in the environment. However, no previous studies have evaluated the immunotoxicity following simultaneous exposure to both arsenic and PAHs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to define the immunotoxicity of selected PAHs and arsenic in a murine spleen cell system, and to elucidate possible toxicological mechanisms. Spleen cells were isolated from male …

Changes In C-Myb Activity During Proliferation, Anita M. Quintana

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

c-myb encodes a transcription factor and is the cellular parent of the v-myb oncogene, which causes acute myeloid leukemia in chickens and mice. Truncation or deletion can unmask the oncogenic potential of the human c-myb gene and recent reports have established that the human c-myb locus is subject to translocation and duplication in human pediatric T-ALL. c-Myb is expressed in all proliferating hematopoietic progenitor cells and has been implicated in some solid tumors, such as breast and colon. Evidence suggests that c-Myb activity is cell type specific and cell cycle dependent. For example, c-Myb interacts with cyclin D1 and CDK6 …

Characterization Of Subspecies B1 Human Adenovirus Orf E3-10.9k, Kathryn Marie Frietze

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Subspecies B1 human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are important causes of acute respiratory disease in pediatric and military recruit populations. Although extensive epidemiological data document the genetic diversity of these human pathogens, little is known about the relevance of this genetic diversity on the pathogenesis and fitness of subspecies B1 HAdVs. Additionally, the unique molecular biology of these pathogens is understudied compared to the species C HAdV serotypes 2 and 5. One of the uniquely diverse regions of the HAdV genomes is the early region 3 (E3) transcription unit. These genes are implicated in pathogenesis, host-species specificity, and the modulation of the …

The Dickey Bird Scientists Take Charge: Science, Policy, And The Spotted Owl, Thomas R. Wellock

History Faculty Scholarship

In 1992, the Forest Service adopted a new operating policy, Ecosystem Management, which minimized the agency's timber production goals in favor of a more ecologically balanced view of its responsibilities. In explaining this shift, scholars have dismissed the possibility of internal reform, arguing that the Service could not change without irresistible external pressure from environmental activists and new public values supporting biodiversity. Viewing the Service's shift through the lens of the spotted owl controversy, however, demonstrates the important role agency culture played in instigating bureaucratic change. The Service's evolution stemmed from the rising influence of its scientists in policy formation. …

On A Quest For Safer Skies: Managing The Growing Threat Of Wildlife Hazards To Aviation, Gail Keirn, Jonathon D. Cepek, Bradley Blackwell, Travis L. Devaul

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The images remain indelible: On a chilly January day in 2009, a United States Airways Airbus A320 departed from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. About five miles out, flying at 2,000 feet, it collided with a flock of Canada geese (Branta canadensis), severely damaging the plane’s engines. Within minutes of the collision the pilot safely conducted an emergency landing on the Hudson River. All 155 passengers survived.

Regulation Of The G2/M Transition In Rodent Oocytes, Stephen M. Downs

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Regulation of maturation in meiotically competent mammalian oocytes is a complex process involving the carefully coordinated exchange of signals between the somatic and germ cell compartments of the ovarian follicle via paracrine and cell–cell coupling pathways. This review highlights recent advances in our understanding of how such signaling controls both meiotic arrest and gonadotropin-triggered meiotic resumption in competent oocytes and relates them to the historical context. Emphasis will be on rodent systems, where many of these new findings have taken place. A regulatory scheme is then proposed that integrates this information into an overall framework for meiotic regulation that demonstrates …

Clinical And Economic Impact Of Infusion Reactions In Patients With Colorectal Cancer Treated With Cetuximab., K A Foley, P F Wang, B L Barber, S R Long, J E Bagalman, V Wagner, X Song, Z Zhao

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Systemic agents in cancer treatment were often associated with possible infusion reactions (IRs). This study estimated the incidence of IRs requiring medical intervention and assessed the clinical and economic impacts of IRs in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) treated with cetuximab.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Details on patients with CRC receiving cetuximab in 2004-2006 were extracted from a large USA administrative claims database. IRs were identified based on the occurrence of outpatient treatment, emergency room (ER) visit, and/or hospitalization for hypersensitivity and allergic reactions. Multivariate regressions were used to examine potential risk factors and quantify the economic impact of IRs. …

Diurnal Rhythms Of Behavior And Brain Mrna Expression For Arginine Vasotocin, Isotocin, And Their Receptors In Wild Amargosa Pupfish (Cyprinodon Nevadensis Amargosae), Sean C. Lema, Lauren J. Wagstaff, Nina M. Gardner

Biological Sciences

Amargosa pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosae) occupy remote desert habitats that vary widely in environmental conditions from day to night. In this study, die! patterns of behavior were documented for pupfish in their natural habitat, and examined relative to changes in the abundance of mRNAs encoding prepro-arginine vasotocin (pro-VT), prepro-isotocin (pro-IT), three distinct vasotocin receptors (V1a1, V1a2, and V2), and an isotocin receptor (ITR) in the brain. The behavior of wild pupfish varied diurnally, with frequent aggression from 12:00 to 15:00 h and courtship and spawning most common between 15:00 and 19:00h. Transcript abundance for pro-VT in the brain …

Knowledge Transfer Project 2009/2010 1st Year Annual Report, Asia-Pacific Institute Of Ageing Studies, Lingnan University

APIAS Research Report 研究報告

Knowledge Transfer(KT) is never confined to science and technology; it is rather encompassing and may involve the very basic of life skills such as how to take care of oneself to the high-sounding spiritual yearns of human beings such as positive behaviors and attitude and moral values and etc. The central theme of Knowledge Transfer in Lingnan University is to promote "Ageing: From a Life Course Perspective" in a social context, appropriating the strengths of the two main drivers behind it – Asia Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS) and the Office of Service-Learning (OSL).

The design and implementation of …

Location, Location, Location: Important For Jet-Lagged Circadian Loops, Mary E. Harrington

Psychology: Faculty Publications

It is now believed that frequent jet lag or shifts of daily rhythms caused by rotating shift work can lead to deleterious health outcomes. Indeed, many serious health problems, including breast cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular disease, have been linked to an occupational history of shift work. This has heightened interest in better understanding the biological responses to jet lag and shift work, with the hope that this will pave the way to developing compounds that can help people avoid their negative health consequences. In this context, a report in this issue of the JCI takes us to a new level …

Nuances In A Panethnic Southwest Landscape, Angelica Solares

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Urban landscapes of places with large immigrant populations are transformed as immigrants bring a different use of space with them. Mexican immigrants throughout the southwestern United States have physically transformed the landscape, and these trans-formed places often result in spaces that foster socialization and assert cultural identity. This thesis proposes that a three-stage cycle of spatial production exists in Mexicano communities in the United States, and describes the authors three-stage cycle of spatial production model in detail. The cycle begins with the formation of an enclave, followed by the transformation of the urban landscape which then results in one of …

Digitalcommons@University Of Rhode Island Statistics 2009-2010

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Statistics on the total number of full text downloads from the DigitalCommons@University of Rhode Island institutional repository for 2009-2010. Data are provided monthly on the number of full text downloads by collection and document, and on the number of referrals by domain and country. Dissertations are included in the statistics. Digital Commons statistics are COUNTER-compliant, with downloads from robots and automated processes filtered out.

Computational Modeling Of Biological Neural Networks On Gpus: Strategies And Performance, Byron Galbraith

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Simulating biological neural networks is an important task for computational neuroscientists attempting to model and analyze brain activity and function. As these networks become larger and more complex, the computational power required grows significantly, often requiring the use of supercomputers or compute clusters. An emerging low-cost, highly accessible alternative to many of these resources is the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) - specialized massively-parallel graphics hardware that has seen increasing use as a general purpose computational accelerator thanks largely due to NVIDIA's CUDA programming interface. We evaluated the relative benefits and limitations of GPU-based tools for large-scale neural network simulation and …

Pkcα And Cpi-17 Expression And Spatial-Temporal Distribution With Activation In Pig Stomach Antrum And Fundus, Yu Zhang

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Smooth muscle contraction is a complicated process coordinated by contractile, regulatory and cytoskeletal proteins. The force generation depends on the phosphorylation of Myosin Regulatory Light Chain (MLC20). Myosin Light Chain Kinase (MLCK) and Myosin Light Chain Phosphatase (MLCP) are the two main regulators of the MLC20 phosphorylation level. MLCP is further controlled by two known pathways including the G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs)/ phospholipase C (PLC)/ diacylglycerol (DAG)/ protein kinase C (PKC)/ PKC-potentiated inhibitory protein for heterotrimeric myosin light chain phosphatase of 17 kDa (CPI-17) pathway. While messengers involved in this pathway have been proposed, studies on the details of …

Deconstructing The Time-Out: What Do Mothers Understand About A Common Disciplinary Procedure?, Amy K. Drayton

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Problem behavior is extremely common throughout childhood, and time-out (TO) is one of the most common disciplinary tactics used by parents to address problem behavior. However, despite the prevalence of use and five decades of research demonstrating the efficacy of time-out, parents rate time-out as one of the least useful behavior modification techniques. This discrepancy between parental opinion and empirical data may be due to the fact that all research conducted thus far has used adults highly trained in empirically-supported time-out procedures. No research has examined the degree of similarity between time-out conducted by untrained parents to empirically-supported time-out procedures. …

Emotional Intimacy, Coparenting, And Family Work: A Latent Class Growth Analysis, Adam Michael Galovan

Theses and Dissertations

From a family systems theoretical view, this paper uses both variable-oriented and person-oriented research approaches to examine parental marriage as a dynamic, interdependent system, and extends the literature by examining parental marriage across a 15 year time span. Employing latent growth curve analysis of 490 mother-father dyads from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, this study considers multiple aspects of the relationship husbands and wives have together as spouses (emotional intimacy), parents (ideas about discipline and a child-centered vs. adult-centered orientation to childrearing), coparents (agreement regarding parenting beliefs and discipline), and household managers (agreement on the …

Toxicity Of Flow Line, Durafill Vs, And Dycal To Dental Pulp Cells: Effects Of Growth Factors, Alyssa Furey, Julie Hjelmhaug, Doug Lobner

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction

The objective was to determine the effects of growth factor treatment on dental pulp cell sensitivity to toxicity of 2 composite restoration materials, Flow Line and Durafill VS, and a calcium hydroxide pulp capping material, Dycal.

Methods

Toxicity of the dental materials to cultures of primary dental pulp cells was determined by the MTT metabolism assay. The ability of 6 different growth factors to influence the toxicity was tested.

Results

A 24-hour exposure to either Flow Line or Durafill VS caused approximately 40% cell death, whereas Dycal exposure caused approximately 80% cell death. The toxicity of Flow Line and …

Analysis And Design Of An Intra-Coaxial Reflected-Power Telemetry System, Jeffrey Kemp

Theses

Failures of connectors used in radio frequency (RF) systems cost the telecom industry, mainly cellular phone providers, billions of dollars annually. This cost is incurred because the integrity of the connectors cannot currently be monitored in-system and failure results in catastrophic signal loss. The Smart Connector project aims to solve this problem by designing a connector with the capability to sense and report its own integrity. An integrated sensor chip has been developed that mounts on a molded inter-connect device inside of a coaxial cable connector. The current prototype system uses a direct connection to the chip to send the …

Renewable Energy Projects In Southwestern Deserts – Update On Our Involvement, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Like many in the conservation field, we have a good understanding of the urgent need for alternative energy sources, but also of the negative environmental tradeoffs of placing renewable energy developments on vast tracts of public lands in southwestern deserts as currently envisioned. We also understand political and economic reasons, good or bad, for not doing some obvious things that make sense for renewable energy like placing solar arrays on building tops in cities, within multi-use contexts such as crops, and on already impacted land when alternative energy projects (right or wrong) are to be placed on public land.

Acoustic And Electrical Property Changes Due To Microbial Growth And Biofilm Formation In Porous Media, C. A. Davis, L. J. Pyrak-Nolte, E. A. Atekwana, D. D. Werkema, M. E. Haugen

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the effect of microbial growth and biofilm formation on compressional waves, and complex conductivity during stimulated microbial growth. Over the 29 day duration of the experiment, compressional wave amplitudes and arrival times for the control (nonbiostimulated) sample were observed to be relatively uniform over the scanned 2-D region. However, the biostimulated sample exhibited a high degree of spatial variability in both the amplitude and arrival times, with portions of the sample exhibiting increased attenuation (similar to 80%) concurrent with an increase in the arrival times, while other portions exhibited decreased attenuation (similar to …

Algorithmic Temperature 1 Self-Assembly, Yunhui Fu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

We investigate the power of the Wang tile self-assembly model at temperature 1, a threshold value that permits attachment between any two tiles that share even a single bond. When restricted to deterministic assembly in the plane, no temperature 1 assembly system has been shown to build a shape with a tile complexity smaller than the diameter of the shape. Our work shows a sharp contrast in achievable tile complexity at temperature 1 if either growth into the third dimension or a small probability of error are permitted. Motivated by applications in nanotechnology and molecular computing, and the plausibility of …