Digital Commons Network^™

Fabrication And Characterization Of Polylactic Acid And Polylactic Acid/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Nanofibers Through Centrifugal Spinning, Richard Patlan

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Biocompatible polymer nanofibers hold great potential in the biomedical engineering field. Their biodegradable nature and enhanced properties could help solve a wide array of health related problems, particularly in the areas of tissue regeneration, drug delivery, and biosensor design. The novel ForcespinningTM method allows the production of submicron fibers without many of the drawbacks found in electrospinning, while also providing a substantial increase in fiber production. The aim of the study was to utilize this method to fabricate non-woven nanofibrous mats composed of polylactic acid (PLA) and polylactic acid/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite fibers. The morphology, thermal properties, and crystalline structure …

Nullomer Derived Anticancer Peptides (Nullops): Differential Lethal Effects On Normal And Cancer Cells In Vitro, Abdelkrim Alileche, Jayita Goswami, William Bourland, Mike Davis, Greg Hampikian

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We demonstrate the first use of the nullomer (absent sequences) approach to drug discovery and development. Nullomers are the shortest absent sequences determined in a species, or group of species. By identifying the shortest absent peptide sequences from the NCBI databases, we screened several potential anti-cancer peptides. In order to improve cell penetration and solubility we added short poly arginine tails (5Rs), and initially solubilized the peptides in1M trehalose. The results for one of the absent sequences 9R (RRRRRNWMWC), and its scrambled version 9S1R (RRRRRWCMNW) are reported here. We refer to these peptides derived from nullomers as PolyArgNulloPs. A control …

The Conduit, Volume 12, No. 2, December 2012, Annette Summers Engel

The KWI Conduit

Contents: Welcome to The Conduit -- 2013 Karst Award Recipient: Dr. Norman Pace -- Announcement: William L. Wilson Scholarship Deadline -- Upcoming 2014 Conference: Hypogene Cave Morphologies -- Where are they know? Wilson Scholarship Research -- How the Karst Waters Institute Became Established -- KWI Happenings -- Upcoming Conferences and Courses

Fak Is A Critical Regulator Of Neuroblastoma Liver Metastasis, Sora Lee, Jingbo Qiao, Pritha Paul, Kathleen L. O'Connor, B. Mark Evers, Dai H. Chung

Surgery Faculty Publications

Neuroblastomas express increased levels of gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRP-R). However, the exact molecular mechanisms involved in GRP-R-mediated cell signaling in neuroblastoma growth and metastasis are unknown. Here, we report that focal adhesion kinase (FAK), as a critical downstream target of GRP-R, is an important regulator of neuroblastoma tumorigenicity. We found that FAK expression correlates with GRP-R expression in human neuroblastoma sections and cell lines. GRP-R overexpression in SK-N-SH cells increased FAK, integrin α3 and β1 expressions and cell migration. These cells demonstrated flatter cell morphology with broad lamellae, in which intense FAK expression was localized to the leading edges of …

Journeys To Others And Lessons Of Self: Carlos Castaneda In Camposcape, Ageeth Sluis

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, this article examines the importance of place and gender within constructions of race politics in Carlos Castaneda’s series on shamanism. Championing a “separate reality” predicated on an indigenous worldview, Castaneda’s lessons invited transnational middle-class youth to "journey" alongside him to camposcape—an anachronistic and idealized countryside—as a means to escape the bourgeois values of their homelands and find spiritual fulfillment in a timeless and "authentic" Mexico. Castaneda’s work proposed new viable spaces of difference in Mexico, yet inscribed these spaces with a masculinist discourse that served to neutralize the gender trouble within the counterculture …

The Texas Caver, Volume 58, No. 4, December 2012, Jill Orr

The Texas Caver

Contents: Project Deeper - Trip Reports - Fern Cave - Memorable First - Caver in the Headlamp - The Scoop on Texas Grottos - TCR Photos

Pages News, Volume 20, No. 2, December 2012, Takeshi Nakatsuka, Ryuji Tada, Kenji Kawamura

PAGES

Contents: Inside PAGES -- PAGES calendar -- Special Section: Japanese Paleoscience Editorial -- Japanese paleoscience on past climate and environmental changes -- Science Highlights -- Ocean circulation in the North Pacific during the last glacial termination -- North Pacific - North Atlantic linkages during the Last Glacial Termination -- Teleconnection between Asian Monsoon and the North Atlantic -- Latent 1500-year climate oscillation in the Holocene -- The history of Lake Biwa drilling -- Lake Suigetsu 2006 Varved Sediment Core Project -- Monsoon in subtropical Asia from oxygen isotope ratios of tree-ring cellulose -- Hydroclimate reconstruction in Indonesia by stalagmite isotopic …

Separating Component Signals Of Episodic Simulation Using A Catch Trial Design, Adrian W. Gilmore

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Tasks that require mentally simulating events, such as remembering events from one’s past and imagining events from one’s future, have been shown to involve a highly overlapping set of brain regions. Across a growing number of studies, relatively few regions have been found that show differences in activity between remembered and imagined events. However, studies have not disambiguated neural activity related to task orientation: i.e., preparing to remember events from the past or imagine events in the future) from activity related simulating events, per se. The current experiment uses functional MRI and employs a catch trial design to test the …

The Role Of Loneliness And Life Events: Comparing Avoidant And Borderline Personality Features And Their Relation To Depression, Janine Galione

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Personality disorders are theoretically and empirically linked to experiencing high negative affect, such as depression, and individuals with features from some personality disorders, such as borderline: BDL) and avoidant: AVD), are hyper-responsive to rejection. Loneliness has also been established as a vulnerability to the onset of depressive episodes and as an outcome to rejection sensitivity, however the relationship between personality pathology and loneliness is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to compare whether AVD and BDL features might be differentially associated with depression scores by analyzing the interaction with life events and loneliness. We studied a representative, community-based …

New Fusion Transcripts Identified In Normal Karyotype Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Hongxiu Wen, Yongjin Li, Sami N. Malek, Yeong C. Kim, Jia Xu, Pei Xian Chen, Fengxia Xiao, Xin Huang, Xianzheng Zhou, Zhenyu Xuan, Shiva Mankala, Guihua Hou, Janet D. Rowley, Michael Q. Zhang, San Ming Wang

Journal Articles: Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy

Genetic aberrations contribute to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, half of AML cases do not contain the well-known aberrations detectable mostly by cytogenetic analysis, and these cases are classified as normal karyotype AML. Different outcomes of normal karyotype AML suggest that this subgroup of AML could be genetically heterogeneous. But lack of genetic markers makes it difficult to further study this subgroup of AML. Using paired-end RNAseq method, we performed a transcriptome analysis in 45 AML cases including 29 normal karyotype AML, 8 abnormal karyotype AML and 8 AML without karyotype informaiton. Our study identified 134 fusion transcripts, all of …

Assessment And Treatment Of Anxiety And Problem Behavior In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders And Intellectual Disability, Lauren Jill Moskowitz

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The relationship between anxiety and problem behavior has not been systematically investigated in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although there are numerous studies demonstrating successful treatment of anxiety in neurotypical populations, there is little research on the functional assessment and treatment of anxiety in children with ASD and intellectual disability (ID). Thus, the present study evaluated a multimethod strategy for the assessment and treatment of anxiety and problem behavior in three children with comorbid ASD and ID. In Study 1, anxiety was operationally defined, a functional analysis of problem behavior was conducted in High-Anxiety versus Low-Anxiety conditions, and heart …

Characterization Of Outer Membrane Vesicles And Nanotubes In Francisella, William Daniel Mccaig

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Francisella spp. are highly infectious and virulent bacteria that cause the zoonotic disease tularemia. The identification of virulence factors and mechanisms of virulence factor secretion by Francisella spp. are not well understood. Gram-negative bacteria constitutively release vesicles from their cell surface, and these outer membrane vesicles (OMV) may function in the delivery of virulence factors to host cells. In addition, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells have been shown to produce membrane-enclosed projections, termed nanotubes (NT), which appear to function in cell-cell communication and exchange of molecules. Examination of Francisella bacteria revealed the presence of NT extending out from the bacterial surface, …

Fas-Activated Serine Threonine Kinase 4 Is A Mitochondrial Protein, Johnna St Clair

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Mitochondria play an essential role in eukaryotic cells, supplying energy levels which vastly exceed those available to prokaryotes. They rely heavily on the import of nuclear encoded proteins for their function. The FAST family of proteins which are synthesized in the cytoplasm and imported into mitochondria are an example of this. The FAST family has not been well characterized, and next to nothing is known about several FAST family members. In the following I have reviewed what is known about each member of the FAST protein family including conserved domains, structures, including roles in cellular function, apoptosis and disease. Additionally, …

The Role Of Dystroglycan In Differentiating Oligodendroglia And Cns Myelination, Christopher Edward Eyermann

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

During central nervous system (CNS) development, individual oligodendrocytes myelinate multiple axons, thus requiring the outgrowth and extensive branching of oligodendroglial processes. Extrinsic cues including the extracellular matrix (ECM) molecule laminin regulate oligodendrocyte maturation; indeed, laminin-deficient mice have fewer myelinated axons, which may indicate a defect in the ability to properly extend and branch processes. It remains unclear, however, to what extent ECM receptors contribute to oligodendroglial process remodeling itself. Here I report that the ECM receptor dystroglycan is necessary for laminin enhancement of filopodial formation, process outgrowth, and process branching in differentiating oligodendroglia. During early oligodendroglial differentiation, the disruption of …

Functional Analysis Of Human Sts-2 And Sts-2 Mutants Derived From Vitiligo Patients, Liucong Ling

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The purpose of this study was twofold: firstly, to investigate the functional differences between the short and long isoforms of human Sts-2, and secondly to identify functional consequences of specific mutations within the human T cell signaling protein Sts-2 (hSts-2). The mutations are associated with generalized vitiligo, an autoimmune disease affecting 0.5-2% population. Sts-2 exists in two forms, a short form containing 623 amino acids and a longer splice variant form containing 661 amino acids. Because two forms of hSts-2 exist, the effect of mutations in both forms was investigated. Short form hSts-2 was found to express at much higher …

Alendronate And Pth Differentially Modulate Bone Quality And Reduce Adiposity In An Ovx Rat Model, Andrea Trinward Kwaczala

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Post-menopausal osteoporosis is defined by a reduction in bone quantity and quality. Bone quality is an accumulation of factors including bone mass, structure, geometry, microarchitecture, tissue mineral density and chemistry. Currently, osteoporosis is treated with pharmaceuticals such as anti-catabolic bisphosphonates such as alendronate (ALN) which maintains bone mass by blocking bone resorption, or anabolic drugs such as parathyroid hormone (PTH) which increases bone mass by increasing bone formation. Due to their different modes of preserving bone, there may be differential drug-driven alterations to bone tissue quality which affect bone strength. Additionally, osteoporosis is associated with increased body mass and abdominal …

Factors Influencing Metal Accumulation In Two Estuarine Fish, Jessica Dutton

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Small forage fish are a conduit for the transfer of metals from lower trophic levels to their predators and potentially human consumers of contaminated seafood. A metal bioaccumulation model has been developed for aquatic organisms, including fish, to determine: (1) the predicted body burden of metals at steady-state based upon the rate of metal uptake and loss from aqueous and dietary sources, and (2) the percentage of accumulated metal attributable to dietary exposure. However, this model assumes that rates of metal uptake and loss following aqueous and dietary exposure are constant and that fish only consume one type of prey. …

Understanding Carbohydrate Recognition By Antiviral Lectins: Applying Computational Methods To Protein-Carbohydrate Complexes, Yukiji Karen Fujimoto

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection of T-cells begins when the viral envelope glycoprotein, gp120, binds to CD4 receptors on the target cell surface. Over the past several years, proteins isolated from various prokaryotes have been shown to inhibit HIV cell entry by binding to gp120 and thus blocking the association with CD4. Lectins that bind to high-mannose oligosaccharides on gp120 are an attractive class of antiviral agents. While several of these have been quite well characterized both structurally and biochemically, there remain many open questions regarding their mechanism of inhibition. Among the best studied is cyanovirin-N (CVN), which is currently …

Screening For Steroid-Derived Immunomodulatory Metabolites Biosynthesized By Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis), Xiaoqian Jin

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Tuberculosis (Tb) is a serious worldwide threat to human health killing 1.4 million people every year. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), the causative agent for Tb, has infected 30% of the world's population. The emergence of multidrug, extensively drug, and total drug resistant organisms (MDR/XDR/TDR TB) creates an urgent demand to develop new drugs with novel mechanisms to be effective against both sensitive and drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis. The cholesterol metabolism pathway in M. tuberculosis is important for mycobacterial survival in the host macrophage. We proposed that cholesterol serves as a starting material for biosynthesis of steroid-derived immunomodulators that down-regulate …

Understanding The Effects Of Multivalent Glycopolymer Structure On Molecular Recognition, Eunjung Lee

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Carbohydrate-protein interactions are involved in a large number of important physiological and pathological processes. The weak binding affinity of a monovalent carbohydrate is compensated by multivalency in which multimeric recognition elements interact with a cell surface display of two or more receptors. In order to study lectin-carbohydrate interactions and find analytical and diagnostic applications, a large number of synthetic glycoconjugates have been investigated in the last decade. In order to explore the effects of structural features of glycopolymers on the binding events, a series of polymers were synthesized. Multivalent ligands with pendant saccharide moieties were prepared from two different types …

A Stochastic Segmentation Model For Categorical And Continuous Features Of Various Biological Sequential, Yifan Mo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Nowadays, Hidden Markov Model (HMM) has been widely used in analysis of various biological data for both smoothing and clustering. However, characterizing each hidden state by a single distribution, the classical HMM might have some limitations on the data whose hidden state is composed by a mixture of distributions (Heng Lian et al. | 2006). To address this issue, we proposed a new stochastic segmentation model and an associated estimation procedure that has attractive analytical and computational properties. We combined the forward and backward filter together based on Bayes' theorem to calculate the posterior mean and variance. Besides, we developed …

The Confessions Of Augustine's Flesh: Counter-Conducts Overwhelming To Pastoral Power In Christian Conversion, Darla Senami Migan

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In his 1978 lectures at the College de France, Security Territory Population, Michel Foucault shifts his analysis of power by arguing for pastoral power as both the prelude to governmentality and as the decisive moment in the constitution of the Western subject. If the history of the Christian pastorate involves " the entire history of procedures of human individualization in the West (184)," then, Foucault argues, there has never been a revolt against pastoral power because such a revolt would be a revolt against the constitution of the self, that is to say against self-consciousness. If the revolt against pastoral …

A Gay Neoclassical Movement, Robert E. Diamond

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In anticipation of a larger project, I propose a broad view of the Neoclassical period. The question of gay culture, and, particularly, where it exists before the emergence of the modern internal gay subculture in the 20th century, is a pertinent art historical topic, since the very evidence for gay communities comes in large part from visual culture. The Neoclassical period offers a rich repository of homoerotic art that is, in fact, based on self-conscious artistic expression emerging from an underground but bourgeoning homosexual community. This expression includes not only the movement's important theorist, Winckelmann, but also many of the …

Artifacts And Noise In Dna Profiling, Dan E. Krane

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Benchmarks 2012, December 14, The Rockefeller University

BenchMarks 2012

BenchMarks. Friday, December 14, 2012

The community newsletter of The Rockefeller University

BenchMarks is published monthly and is distributed on the campus of The Rockefeller University. It produced by the Office of Communications and Public Affairs

Winter 2012 E-Certi Newsletter, Center For Educational Research And Teaching Innovation

CAFE Faculty Newsletters

Hello S&T instructors: Another semester has rushed by at nano speed! Don’t forget to take a moment to enjoy what you have accomplished, as well as the accomplishments of some of your colleagues, which are highlighted in this issue. Also check out tips for handling interruptions and increasing class participation in discussion, as well as a feature on Dr. Martin Bohner.

Syntheses, Characterization, And Applications Of Injectable Citrate-Based Mussel-Inspired Biodegradable Adhesive (Icmba) Polymers And Hydrogels, Mohammadreza Mehdizadeh

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Tissue adhesives are increasingly gaining more popularity in various areas of biomedical applications. They are utilized as surgical adhesives, as a replacement or adjunct to conventional wound closure and bleeding control techniques such as suturing, as well as in other applications such as tissue engineering and drug delivery.Unfortunately, the existing surgical adhesives are not ideal for wet tissue adhesion required in many surgeries such as those for internal organs. Developing surgical adhesives with strong wet tissue adhesion, controlled degradability and mechanical properties, and excellent biocompatibility has been a significant challenge. Herein, learning from nature, we report a one-step synthesis of …

Acknowledgements, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Biologically Relevant Metal Ions On Fluorinated Scorpionates, Jean-Luc Nshimiyimana

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Gsk3Β Inhibition Blocks Melanoma Cell/Host Interactions By Downregulating N-Cadherin Expression And Decreasing Fak Phosphorylation., Jobin K John, Kim H T Paraiso, Vito W Rebecca, Liliana P Cantini, Ethan V Abel, Nicholas Pagano, Eric Meggers, Rahel Mathew, Clemens Krepler, Victoria Izumi, Bin Fang, John M Koomen, Jane L Messina, Meenhard Herlyn, Keiran S M Smalley

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

This study addresses the role of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3β signaling in the tumorigenic behavior of melanoma. Immunohistochemical staining revealed GSK3β to be focally expressed in the invasive portions of 12 and 33% of primary and metastatic melanomas, respectively. GSK3 inhibitors and small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of GSK3β were found to inhibit the motile behavior of melanoma cells in scratch wound, three-dimensional collagen-implanted spheroid, and modified Boyden chamber assays. Functionally, inhibition of GSK3β signaling was found to suppress N-cadherin expression at the messenger RNA and protein levels, and was associated with decreased expression of the transcription factor Slug. Pharmacological …