Digital Commons Network^™

Unsung Survivors: Va Advocacy For The Spouses, Widows, And Children Of Elderly Veterans, Craig M. Kabatchnick, Jonathan B. Kelly

Marquette Elder's Advisor

No abstract provided.

A Morphological Study Of Nanomaterials And Biomolecules Using Atomic Force Microscopy., Ravi A. Patel

Open Access Theses

Understanding the morphologies of molecules and particles has played a key role in understanding key concepts such as mechanisms of formation, interaction and application. In the current work, atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques are used to emphasize the importance of topography in the field of nanomaterials and biochemistry. The intriguing relationship between graphene oxide and the copolymer Pluronic F-127 is investigated for its potential use in biological applications. Additionally, the importance of characterizing and calculating size distributions in semiconducting quantum dots as it relates to conduction efficiency is also described. AFM is similarly used in determining binding characteristics of two …

Bacterial Virulence Factor And Host Stress-Response Kinase, Niraj Shrestha

Open Access Dissertations

Animals possess several different defense mechanisms to resist microbial infection. These defense mechanisms have different signaling pathway and receptors. Pathogens have also evolved different mechanisms to act against such defense mechanisms of the host. Previously we observed that in a yeast-based model, the activities of the Yersinia protein-kinase A (YpkA) and outer- protein J (YopJ) virulence factors converge on the eIF2α kinase Hri2. This pathway, eIF2α signaling, has been well characterized for regulation of global protein synthesis and to facilitate this function, in case of stress, four kinases are present in mammalian cells (GCN2, PERK, PKR and HRI). Out of …

The Role Of Sonic Hedgehog Signaling In The Regulation Of Muscle Wasting And Cancer Cachexia, Rui Zhan

Open Access Dissertations

Cancer cachexia, defined by severe weight loss with inflammation, is responsible for one third of all cancer deaths. Inflammatory cytokines have been linked to muscle atrophy in cancer cachexia, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are still not fully understood. Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling is known to regulate embryonic muscle development and muscle regeneration. We show here, in vitro and in vivo, that cancer and cancer-related cytokines functionally activated Shh signaling in muscle cells. Activation or inhibition of Shh signaling led to muscle atrophy or muscle hypertrophy, respectively. Mechanistically, Shh signaling promoted self-renewal of selected myogenic progenitors in atrophied muscle, preventing …

Acceleration Of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic Plasma Simulations Via Gpu Computing, Christopher John Wordingham

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Fitting And Interpreting Continuous-Time Latent Markov Models For Panel Data, Jane M. Lange, Vladimir N. Minin

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Multistate models are used to characterize disease processes within an individual. Clinical studies often observe the disease status of individuals at discrete time points, making exact times of transitions between disease states unknown. Such panel data pose considerable modeling challenges. Assuming the disease process progresses according a standard continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) yields tractable likelihoods, but the assumption of exponential sojourn time distributions is typically unrealistic. More flexible semi-Markov models permit generic sojourn distributions yet yield intractable likelihoods for panel data in the presence of reversible transitions. One attractive alternative is to assume that the disease process is characterized by …

Transitions Among Health States Using 12 Measures Of Successful Aging: Results From The Cardiovascular Health Study, Stephen Thielke, Paula Diehr

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Introduction

Successful aging has many dimensions, which may manifest differently in men and women and at different ages. We sought to characterize one-year transitions in 12 measures of successful aging among a large cohort of older adults.

Methods

We analyzed twelve different measures of health in the Cardiovascular Health Study: self-rated health, ADLs, IADLs, depression, cognition, timed walk, number of days spent in bed, number of blocks walked, extremity strength, recent hospitalizations, feelings about life as a whole, and life satisfaction. We dichotomized responses for each variable into “healthy” or “sick”, and estimated the prevalence of the healthy state and …

Nicotine And 4-(Methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-Pyridyl)-1-Butanone Binding And Access Channel In Human Cytochrome P450 2a6 And 2a13 Enzymes, Natasha M. Devore, Emily E. Scott

College of Natural and Applied Sciences

Cytochromes P450 (CYP) from the 2A subfamily are known for their roles in the metabolism of nicotine, the addictive agent in tobacco, and activation of the tobacco procarcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). Although both the hepatic CYP2A6 and respiratory CYP2A13 enzymes metabolize these compounds, CYP2A13 does so with much higher catalytic efficiency, but the structural basis for this has been unclear. X-ray structures of nicotine complexes with CYP2A13 (2.5 Å) and CYP2A6 (2.3 Å) yield a structural rationale for the preferential binding of nicotine to CYP2A13. Additional structures of CYP2A13 with NNK reveal either a single NNK molecule in the active site …

Far Across The Ocean: An Otterbein Librarian At Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Elizabeth A. Salt

Library Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This presentation, done for the OPAL (Ohio Private Academic Libraries) Consortium Annual Conference, describes what Elizabeth (Betsy) Salt, Cataloger/Metadata Librarian at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, learned about Chinese academic libraries and library practices while serving as an exchange librarian at the libraries of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China during a portion of the months of June and July in 2011. Photos from travel in China which immediately followed the librarian exchange are also included.

The Social Identity Of Wales In Question: An Analysis Of Culture, Language, And Identity In Cardiff, Bangor, And Aberystwyth, Clara Martinez

Fulbright Grantee Projects

The Fulbright Commission Wales Summer Institute is a six-week cultural and academic program held at three internationally renowned universities: Cardiff University, Bangor University, and Aberystwyth University. This reflective journal portfolio, completed as part of the academic coursework, shares Martinez's personal experience as a participant in the program. Composed in a style that offers a balance between academic and reflective writing, the journal entries focus on a specific theme: the social identity of Welsh people.

Studies Toward Tetrahydrofuran-Containing Natural Products: Total Synthesis Of Amphidinolide C And Oxylipids, Sudeshna Roy

Dissertations

Tetrahydrofurans (thf) and tetrahydropyrans (thp) are important structural motifs found in a broad array of biologically relevant natural products such as polyether antibiotics and acetogenins. Classic methods used for thf- or thp-ring synthesis have their own advantages and disadvantages which tend to be substrate specific. Therefore, development of new and efficient methods is imperative especially to address the issue of diastereoselectivity when attainment of both cis- and trans-2,5-thf (or 2,6-thp) is highly desirable. Herein, a strategy of cross-metathesis and Pd(0)-catalyzed cyclization, useful for obtaining both cis- and trans-2,5-disubstituted thf (or 2,6-disubstituted thp), will be discussed along with its application in …

Expanding And Testing A Computational Method For Predicting The Ground State Reduction Potentials Of Organic Molecules On The Basis Of Empirical Correlation To Experiment, Eugene J. Lynch, Amy L. Speelman, Bryce A. Curry, Charles S. Murillo, Jason G. Gillmore

Faculty Publications

A method for predicting the ground state reduction potentials of organic molecules on the basis of the correlation of computed energy differences between the starting S-0 and one-electron-reduced D-0 species with experimental reduction potentials in acetonitrile has been expanded to cover 3.5 V of potential range and 74 compounds across 6 broad families of molecules. Utilizing the conductor-like polarizable continuum model of implicit solvent allows a global correlation that is computationally efficient and has improved accuracy, with r(2) > 0.98 in all cases and root mean square deviation errors of(mean absolute deviationsmV) for either B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) or B3LYP//6-31G(d) with an appropriate choice …

Cotton/Soybean Insect Newsletter, August 3, 2012, Jeremy K. Greene

Clemson University Cotton/Soybean Insect Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Climate Variability And Human Colonization On The Vegetation Of The Gala´Pagos Islands, Alejandra Restrepo, Paul A. Colinvaux, Mark B. Bush, Alexander Correa-Metrio, Jessica L. Conroy, Mark R. Gardener, Patricia Jaramillo, Miriam Steinitz-Kannan, Jonathan T. Overpeck

Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Faculty Publications

A high-resolution (2-9 year sampling interval) fossil pollen record from the Galapagos Islands, which spans the last 2690 years, reveals considerable ecosystem stability. Vegetation changes associated with independently derived histories of El Niño Southern Oscillation variability provided evidence of shifts in the relative abundance of individual species rather than immigration or extinction. Droughts associated with the Medieval Climate Anomaly induced rapid ecological change that was followed by a reversion to the previous state. The paleoecological data suggested nonneutral responses to climatic forcing in this ecosystem prior to the period of human influence. Human impacts on the islands are evident in …

Circadian Rhythm In Yeast, Jake Yablonowski, Michael Borchert

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Circadian rhythms are found in a variety of organisms and are involved in controlling activity of the organism. However, a circadian rhythm for yeast has not been discovered yet. The goal of this study is to find evidence for a circadian rhythm in yeast by looking for changes in GAPDH concentrations and peroxiredoxin levels. GAPDH and peroxiredoxin have been shown to be controlled by the circadian clock in many organisms. A continuous yeast culture is sampled every two hours over a period of about 104 hours. Each sample is processed and tested for the concentration of GAPDH using GAPDH reagent. …

Water Quality In Restored Wetlands And The Valparaiso Chain Of Lakes Watershed, Diandra Obermeyer, John Stewart

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Over the past decade, The Great Marsh has been undergoing a restoration process. In conjunction with the National Park Service and LAC, Valparaiso has taken an active role in monitoring the restoration effort. Previously, 18 different sites entering, within, and exiting The Great Marsh had been established. Over the past few years, 16 water quality parameters were monitored at those sites. These parameters included total and reactive phosphorus testing, temperature, chloride, nitrate, and dissolved oxygen levels. Previously the data has shown a decrease in all values from entering to exiting the marsh. This decrease indicates that the wetland has been …

Minor Pilins Of The Type Iv Pilus System Participate In The Negative Regulation Of Swarming Motility, S L. Kuchma, E. F. Griffin, G. A. O'Toole

Dartmouth Scholarship

Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibits distinct surface-associated behaviors, including biofilm formation, flagellum-mediated swarming motility, and type IV pilus-driven twitching. Here, we report a role for the minor pilins, PilW and PilX, components of the type IV pilus assembly machinery, in the repression of swarming motility. Mutating either the pilW or pilX gene alleviates the inhibition of swarming motility observed for strains with elevated levels of the intracellular signaling molecule cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) due to loss of BifA, a c-di-GMP-degrading phosphodiesterase. Blocking PilD peptidase-mediated processing of PilW and PilX renders the unprocessed proteins defective for pilus assembly but still functional in c-di-GMP-mediated swarming …

Minutes Of 08/03/2012 Hsc Board Of Directors Mtg, Patrice Martin

HSC Committee (A subcommittee of the UNM Board of Regents)

No abstract provided.

Ocean Acidification: Understanding The Coastal Carbon Pump In A High Co2 World, Rachel Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1800s, carbon dioxide emissions due to human activities have contributed significantly to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Approximately a third of this carbon is absorbed by the ocean, through air-sea fluxes at the ocean surface (Sabine, 2004). Increased CO2 has changed the carbon chemistry of the ocean and hence the pH. pH is expected to drop by 0.4 by the year 2100. It is unclear how this lower pH will affect carbon cycling and sequestration with respect to the biological carbon pump. Most studies have focused on open ocean phytoplankton or bacterial communities in large, stationary …

Suspended Polypyrrole Films Supporting Alamethicin Reconstituted Bilayer Membranes, Robert Northcutt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel architecture for a sensing element fabricated from a conducting polymer and a bioderived membrane. The thin film device provides controlled, selective ion transport from a chemical concentration and produces measurable electrical signals, ion storage, and small scale actuation. A chemical gradient applied across a bioderived membrane generates ion flow through protein transporters in the presence of a gating signal. A conducting polymer undergoes ion ingress/egress in the presence of an electrical and chemical potential, which causes a change on the polymers conformal backbone. A ligand (or) voltage gated protein in the bioderived membrane results in …

Fine-Scale Habitat Use Of Reintroduced Black-Footed Ferrets On Prairie Dog Colonies In New Mexico, Jennifer G. Chipault, Dean E. Biggins, James K. Detling, Dustin H. Long, Robin M. Reich

Western North American Naturalist

Black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) are among the most endangered animals in North America. Reintroductions of captive-born ferrets onto prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies are crucial to the conservation of the species. In September 2007, captive-born ferrets were released on a black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colony at the Vermejo Park Ranch, New Mexico. Ferret kits experimentally released in areas of comparatively low and high prairie dog burrow densities were located via spotlight surveys. Some maturing ferret kits were subsequently translocated to areas of low and high burrow densities on nearby prairie dog colonies. For 2 …

Efficient Algorithms For Sorting On Gpus, Seema M. Munavalli

Master's Theses

Sorting is an important problem in computing that has a rich history of investigation by various researchers. In this thesis we focus on this vital problem. In particular, we develop a novel algorithm for sorting on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). GPUs are multicore architectures that offer the potential of affordable parallelism. We present an efficient sorting algorithm called Fine Sample Sort (FSS). Our FSS algorithm extends and outperforms sample sort algorithm presented by Leischner[2], which is currently the fastest known comparison based algorithm on GPUs. The performance gain of FSS is mainly achieved due to the quality of the samples …

Summer Commencement Ceremonies, University Of North Florida

Commencement Printed Materials

Program for the Summer Commencement ceremonies.

Information On Black-Footed Ferret Biology Collected Within The Framework Of Ferret Conservation, Dean E. Biggins

Western North American Naturalist

Once feared to be extinct, black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) were rediscovered near Meeteetse, Wyoming, in 1981, resulting in renewed conservation and research efforts for this highly endangered species. A need for information directly useful to recovery has motivated much monitoring of ferrets since that time, but field activities have enabled collection of data relevant to broader biological themes. This special feature is placed in a context of similar books and proceedings devoted to ferret biology and conservation. Articles include general observations on ferrets, modeling of potential impacts of ferrets on prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), discussions on relationships …

Use Of Multi-Opening Burrow Systems By Black-Footed Ferrets, Dean E. Biggins

Western North American Naturalist

Multi-opening burrow systems constructed by prairie dogs (Cynomys) ostensibly provide escape routes when prairie dogs are pursued by predators capable of entering the burrows, such as black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes), or by predators that can rapidly dig into the tunnels, such as American badgers (Taxidea taxus). Because badgers also prey on ferrets, ferrets might similarly benefit from multi-opening burrow systems. Using an air blower, white-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys leucurus) burrow openings were tested for connectivity on plots occupied by black-footed ferrets and on randomly selected plots in Wyoming. Significantly more connected openings …

Black-Footed Ferret Digging Activity In Summer, David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins, Dustin Marsh, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Travis M. Livieri

Western North American Naturalist

Black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) excavate soil from prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) burrows, thereby creating characteristic soil deposits at burrow openings. These soil deposits have been observed only rarely in summer. We monitored adult ferrets during June–October of the years 2007 and 2008 on a 452-ha colony of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) in the Conata Basin, South Dakota. We located and identified ferret excavations during nighttime spotlight surveys for ferrets and daytime sampling of prairie dog burrow openings around locations where ferrets were located via spotlight. We accumulated 48 observations of in-process or recently completed …

Digging Behaviors Of Radio-Tagged Black-Footed Ferrets Near Meeteetse, Wyoming, 1981–1984, Dean E. Biggins, Louis R. Hanebury, Kathleen A. Fagerstone

Western North American Naturalist

Intensive radio-tracking during August–December enabled us to collect detailed information on digging behaviors of a small sample of black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) occupying colonies of white-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys leucurus). A sample of 33 prairie dogs, also radio-tagged, progressively ceased aboveground activity during late summer and fall, presumably as they descended into burrows to hibernate. Most of the time ferrets spent digging was in November–December when >95% of the radio-tagged prairie dogs were inactive, suggesting that digging was primarily to excavate hibernating prey. Although 43.9% of the burrow openings were estimated to be in large mounds, …

Patterns Of Surface Burrow Plugging In A Colony Of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs Occupied By Black-Footed Ferrets, David A. Eads, Dean E. Biggins

Western North American Naturalist

Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) can surface-plug openings to a burrow occupied by a black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). At a coarse scale, surface plugs are more common in colonies of prairie dogs occupied by ferrets than in colonies without ferrets. However, little is known about spatial and temporal patterns of surface plugging in a colony occupied by ferrets. In a 452-ha colony of black-tailed prairie dogs in South Dakota, we sampled burrow openings for surface plugs and related those data to locations of ferrets observed during spotlight surveys. Of 67,574 burrow openings in the colony between …

Importance Of Lunar And Temporal Conditions For Spotlight Surveys Of Adult Black-Footed Ferrets, David A. Eads, David S. Jachowski, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Dean E. Biggins

Western North American Naturalist

Black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) spend most daylight hours underground in prairie dog (Cynomys) burrows and exhibit aboveground movements primarily at night. Moonlight can influence the activity patterns of ferrets and, consequently, might influence the efficiency of spotlight surveys used by biologists to monitor ferret populations. We related detection of adult ferrets during postbreeding spotlight surveys to lunar and temporal conditions. We most frequently located ferrets during surveys in which the moon breached the horizon. The data suggested intersexual differences in response to moonlight. We located male ferrets most frequently during nights with greater moon illumination, but …

Black-Footed Ferret Home Ranges In Conata Basin, South Dakota, Travis M. Livieri, Eric M. Anderson

Western North American Naturalist

We estimated annual home ranges and core areas of black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) in Conata Basin, South Dakota, by collecting 834 locations of 28 ferrets (20 females, 8 males) through spotlighting from October 1997 to September 2000. Area-per-observation curves showed that a minimum of 23 locations were needed to estimate fixed-kernel home-range size. Mean 95% and 50% fixed-kernel annual home-range sizes of females (95%: 64.7 ha, SE = 11.6; 50%: 12.7 ha, SE = 3.0) were significantly smaller and less variable than those of males (95%: 131.8 ha, SE = 40.3; 50%: 35.6 ha, SE = 16.5). Minimum …