Digital Commons Network^™

Developing An Ecosystem-Based Approach To Management Of The Gulf Menhaden Fishery Using Ecopath With Ecosim, Tess Misak Geers

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

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is a valuable ecosystem both socially and economically, and fisheries contribute substantially to this value. Gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, support the largest fishery in the Gulf (by weight) and provide forage for marine mammals, seabirds and commercially and recreationally important fish species. Understanding the complex interactions among multiple fisheries and myriad unfished species requires tools different from those used in traditional single-species management. Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is increasingly being used to construct food web models of aquatic ecosystems and to evaluate fisheries management options within a broader, ecosystem context. An EwE model was developed …

Studies On Synthesis And Characteristics Of Metallic Nanoparticles, Xiao Li

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

The thesis mainly focused on the synthesis of nanoparticles by using sonolysis. Different precursors and solvents were used during the sonolysis. We analyzed the kinetics of sonolysis process to find the difference between the sonolysis using different precursors and solvents. The surface morphology and particle size were determined using SEM, TEM, and XRD. The data were then compared and analyzed. | 41 pages

The Impact Of Dna Transposable Elements On Allelic Diversity In Maize, Jong-Jin Han

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

Transposable elements (TE) are indispensible to understand the evolution of genes and genomes in almost all organisms. DNA transposable elements, class 2 elements, have become a source of material for coordination of eukaryotic gene regulatory systems and for chromosomal reconstruction. In particular, mobility of DNA transposons has been used for insertional mutagenesis to generate new alleles in plants and animals. The well-known MuDR/Mu system in maize has been adopted for saturation mutagenesis and allowed for the production of myriads of novel mutant alleles in the Maize-Targeted-Mutagenesis (MTM) collection. However, the potential value of this collection has not been properly realized …

Expression And Functional Significance Of Maguks On Cortical Interneurons, Gulcan Akgul

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

GABAergic inhibitory interneurons, which constitute twenty percent of the entire neuron population, are crucial to the function of brain. They have several subgroups with distinct morphological, biochemical and most importantly physiological properties. Parvalbumin (PV) and Somatostatin (SOM) expressing inhibitory interneurons represent two major subgroups of interneurons in the cortex as well as most other brain regions. Their activity is driven by the excitatory input they receive from pyramidal neurons. SAP97 is a scaffolding protein at the postsynaptic density of the excitatory synapses. It has important functional roles in trafficking and clustering of various types of ion channels and therefore is …

A Stochastic Segmentation Model For Joint Dna-Rna Microarray Data Analysis, Yi Su

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

DNA copy number change and epigenetic alteration often induce abnormal RNA expression level and have been linked to the development and progression of cancer. While various methods have been proposed for studying microarray DNA copy number and RNA expression data respectively, little statistical work has been done in modeling the relationship between the two. We propose for the joint analysis of the two types of data a new stochastic change-point model with latent variables, and an associated estimation procedure. Our method integrates hidden Markov model with Bayesian statistics to yield joint posterior distribution of DNA and RNA signal intensities throughout …

Evaluation Of Very High- And Very Low-Dose Intravitreal Aflibercept In Patients With Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration., Quan Dong Nguyen, Peter A. Campochiaro, Syed Mahmood Shah, David J. Browning, Henry L. Hudson, Peter L. Sonkin, Seenu M. Hariprasad, Peter K. Kaiser, Jason Slakter, Julia A. Haller, Diana V. Do, William Mieler, Karen Chu, Avner Ingerman, Robert Vitti, Alyson J. Berliner, Jesse Cedarbaum, Clear-It 1 Investigators

Journal Articles: Ophthalmology

PURPOSE: To determine bioactivity and duration of effect of intravitreal aflibercept injection (also known as vascular endothelial growth factor Trap-Eye) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

METHODS: In this double-masked, phase 1 study, 28 patients with lesions ≤12 disc areas, ≥50% active choroidal neovascularization (CNV), and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) ≤20/40 were randomized 1:1 to a single intravitreal injection of aflibercept 0.15 or 4 mg. The primary end point was the change from baseline in central retinal/lesion thickness (CR/LT) at week-8. Secondary outcomes were the change from baseline BCVA, the change in CNV lesion size and area of leakage, …

Immunoproteomics: The Key To Discovery Of New Vaccine Antigens Against Bacterial Respiratory Infections, Ruth Dennehy, Siobhan Mcclean

Articles

The increase in antibiotic resistance and the shortage of new antimicrobials to prevent difficult bacterial infections underlines the importance of prophylactic therapies to prevent infection by bacterial pathogens. Vaccination has reduced the incidence of many serious diseases, including respiratory bacterial infections. However, there are many pathogens for which no vaccine is available and some vaccines are not effective among all age groups or among immunocompromised individuals. Immunoproteomics is a powerful technique which has been used to identify potential vaccine candidates to protect against pathogenic bacteria. The combination of proteomics with the detection of immunoreactive antigens using serum highlights immunogenic proteins …

Criminal Law, Franklin J. Hogue, Laura D. Hogue

Mercer Law Review

The Authors reviewed the most important criminal cases during this reporting period-from June 1, 2011 through May 31, 2012-that will likely have an effect upon the way prosecutors and defense attorneys approach criminal cases in Georgia.

Domestic Relations, Barry B. Mcgough, Elinor H. Hitt

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses significant case law and statutory changes that arose during the survey period.2 Legislation passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2011 regarding the appellate procedure and in 2012 regarding grandparent visitation rights took effect, and the Georgia Supreme Court continued to accept nonfrivolous appeals in divorce cases, providing guidance regarding domestic relations law.

Wills, Trusts, Guardianships, And Fiduciary Administration, Mary F. Radford

Mercer Law Review

This Article describes selected cases and significant legislation from the period of June 1, 2011 through May 31, 2012 that pertain to Georgia fiduciary law and estate planning.

Force-Feedback High-Speed Atomic Force Microscope For Studying Large Biological Systems, Byung I. Kim, Ryan Boehm

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We designed and developed a high-speed atomic force microscope (HSAFM) utilizing a force-feedback scheme for imaging large biological samples. The system collects three simultaneous images: a deflection image, a topographic image, and a force image. We demonstrated that this force-feedback HSAFM is capable of acquiring large topographic images of Escherichia coli biofilms at approximately one frame per second in air. We discuss how the self-actuating cantilever and the piezo tube follow those larger biological topographic features during the HSAFM imaging process.

Omaha, Nebraska's Costly Signaling At The Trans-Mississippi And International Exposition Of 1898, Courtney L. Cope Ziska

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

At the close of the nineteenth-century, Omaha, Nebraska hosted the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898. Despite financial depression, drought, and war, the city chose to allocate its limited financial, time, and energy resources to the Exposition effort with no guarantee of success and little potential for profit. This thesis aims to make sense of this seemingly wasteful or irrational event by exploring its possible function as a costly social signal of Omaha’s qualities to potential residents, businesses, and city partners. Utilizing data from historical, geophysical, and demographic resources, this thesis assesses the Exposition as a costly signal and the …

How Can An Anaerobic Digester Benefit A Community Both Environmentally And Economically?, Sam Neal

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the current practices for utilizing biomass within a municipality and discuss what changes can be made to make the process more efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly. The study was conducted using the town of River Forest, Illinois as a representative town of America. The findings and structure of the study can be used as a template to improve other cities environmentally and economically.

Machining Stability Of Wire Edm Of Titanium, Farnaz Nourbakhsh

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work presents an experimental investigation of wire electro-discharge machining (WEDM) of titanium alloy. The outstanding characteristics of titanium alloys such as their compatibility and noticeable physical, mechanical and biological performances has led to increased application of them in various industries especially in biomedical industries over the last 50 years. However, due to low thermal conductivity of titanium and its alloys and their reactivity with cobalt in most tool materials, there are some difficulties in machining titanium and its alloys by conventional machining. On the other hand, unconventional machining processes especially Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) are more appropriate techniques …

Pseudokarst Commission Newsletter, No. 23, December 2012, Jan Urban

Pseudokarst Commission Newsletter

Contents: World Pseudokarst in 1684 -- A Large Abrasion Cave near Auckland (New Zealand) -- Caves in the Austroalpine Flysch -- Jubilee of the Hungarian Pseudokarst Researchers -- Conference "Sandstorm Landscapes III" -- 12th International Symposium on Pseudokarst -- Editorial Note

G-Ruption: The Third International Meeting On G-Quadruplex And G-Assembly, Liliya A. Yatsunyk, T. M. Bryan, F. B. Johnson

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

A three and a half day conference focusing on nucleic acid structures called G-quadruplexes (G4s) and other guanine-based assemblies was held in Sorrento. Italy (June 28-July 1, 2011) and featured 35 invited talks and over 89 posters. The G-quadruplex field continues to expand at an explosive rate with the emergence of new connections to biology, chemistry, physics, and nanotechnology. Following the trend established by the previous two international G4 meetings, the conference touched upon all these areas and facilitated productive exchanges of ideas between researchers from all over the world.

Creativity With Images: A Workshop For Learning And Practicing Ideational Thinking For Visual Thinkers, Ana L. Castelan Valles

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to communicate the foundations of creativity and some tools of ideational thinking to visual thinkers. The goal of this project is to bring visual thinkers into the science of creativity and demonstrate that they can use ideational thinking tools to improve their visual skills. This project also serves as an attempt to identify the cognitive preferences of visual thinkers to foster their creative skills and to enhance their creative process. The finished product is the content of a workshop comprised by five sections. Each section includes an explanation of the essential topics about creativity …

Service-Learning At St. Margaret's Nursing Home, Simone A. Walters

XULAneXUS

No abstract provided.

Racial Discourse In Elizabethan England, Jasmine Smith

XULAneXUS

No abstract provided.

Dog Woman And The Complexities Of The Maternal Instinct In Jeanette Winterson's Sexing The Cherry, Heather Brown Hudson

Faculty Scholarship

In Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson’s Dog Woman is a gigantesque weapon yielding force to be reckoned with. As the title teases with the notion of gendering within language, both her physical appearance and actions beg for a reevaluation of what has been defined as both maternal and instinctual. She is at once a stable and loving, yet in order to protect her son from harm, she revolts against the powers that be and oscillates between time and place in both a self-made utopia as well as a force-fed dystopia. To her son, she is shelter, to her enemies, menacing …

Spiritual Flow: The Influence Of Religious Experience On Psychological Well-Being, Christian H. Monson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Early-Life Influences On Body Composition, Metabolic Economy, And Age At Menarche, Megan A. Workman

Anthropology ETDs

Prenatal energy balance and postnatal psychosocial experiences have been linked by separate literatures to maturational timing, adult body composition (e.g., height, skeletal muscle mass), and life-long differences in metabolic physiology. This dissertation examines the potential influences of prenatal energy balance and postnatal psychosocial experiences in simultaneous analyses designed to test whether they exert additive or interacting influences on adult body composition (chapters 2 and 4), metabolic physiology (chapter 3), and age at menarche (chapter 4) among samples of U.S. men and women. Evolutionary models that address human developmental plasticity are explored as possible explanations for the observed relationships.

Identification Of Functional Glycosylation Of Adamtsl2, Andrew Taibi

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

ADAMTSL2 has been shown to play a role in regulation of Transforming Growth Factor β (TGFβ) signaling through binding Latent TGFβ Binding Protein 1 (LTBP1) and Fibrillin 1 (FBN1) in the extracellular matrix. A genetic screen revealed mutations to Adamtsl2 cause a rare growth disorder called Geleophysic Dysplasia (GD). Multiple GD mutations fall within ADAMTSL2's seven Thrombospondin Type 1 Repeats (TSRs). TSRs often undergo a form of glycosylation called O-fucosylation. The addition of a fucose sugar to TSRs has been shown to be a necessary process in the secretion of related proteins. Among several mutations to ADAMTSL2 within TSRs which …

Low Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound: Countermeasure For Microgravity-Induced Bone Loss, Sardar Muhammad Zia Uddin

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

Microgravity (MG) during space flight is known to have adverse effect on bone quality and quantity. Data collected from studies conducted on astronauts show a loss of 1-1.6% bone mineral density (BMD) per month of space-flight. This decreased BMD has been recorded in the load-bearing region of the legs and spine. The reduction in bone quality can be due to decreased osteoblast and/or increased osteoclast activity when exposed to microgravity. During space-flights, rigorous exercise has been used to reduce to bone loss due to microgravity, but thus far it has proven inadequate to produce significant results. Some studies have considered …

Design, Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of Novel Curcumin Analogues As Inhibitors Of Matrix Metalloproteinases And Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines, Yu Zhang

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

There are two principal reasons why we age: 1) the toxicity of oxygen species; 2) the continuous degradation of collagen by groups of enzymes such as the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The MMPs are a group of more than 25 structurally zinc-containing enzymes that are involved in the degradation of numerous extracellular, pericellular and non-matrix proteins. In many disease conditions their levels and proteinase activity rise, producing pathological and serious structural damage. Tetracyclines (TCs) are known inhibitors of mammalian-derived MMPs, and non-antibiotic formulations of doxycycline are FDA-approved to treat periodontitis and the chronic inflammatory skin disease, rosacea. However, a significant limitation …

Mitigation Of Bone Loss And Augment Of Anabolic Adaptation By Physiological Dynamic Fluid Flow Stimulation, Minyi Hu

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

Novel modalities with strong translational potential to prevent osteoporosis are urgently called for, as osteoporosis strikes the society with high incidences of disease-related fractures and excessive medical costs. While bone fluid flow (BFF) regulates bone adaptation, intramedullary pressure (ImP) can initiate BFF and influence osteogenic signals. To establish the translational potential, a non-invasive intervention with direct ImP-coupled BFF can help develop new non-pharmaceutical treatments for osteopenia/osteoporosis. The overall objective of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of a novel, non-invasive dynamic hydraulic stimulation (DHS) on skeletal regulatory responses at the tissue, cellular, and molecular levels. The global hypothesis was …

Feeding The Christians, James Patrick Redmond

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

Feeding the Christians is a work of fiction about Grey Daniels, a young man managing his family's restaurant and choosing to "live under the radar" in his conservative community in Ft. Sackville, Indiana. When Trace, a 17-year-old employee, comes out to Grey, their lives are changed forever by local social constructs. The story is about God, guns, gays, and green beans. | 236 pages

Ph.D, Mi Jin Son

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

Membrane lipid species are not identically distributed in the inner and outer leaflet of biological membranes. This metastable asymmetric distribution of lipids is called `lipid asymmetry', and it is an important feature of many biological membranes. Investigation of various aspects of lipid asymmetry has been limited by a lack of robust methods to prepare stable artificial asymmetric vesicles. We recently developed a method in which methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MβCD)-induced lipid exchange is used to prepare model membrane vesicles with lipid asymmetry and which, like eukaryotic plasma membranes, have an outer leaflet rich in sphingomyelin (SM) and have an inner leaflet rich in …

Evolution Of The Cardiac Electrophysiological System And Regulation Of Ion Channel Gene Expression, Qinghong Yan

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

There are two basic ways by which biological systems can evolve, either by changes in the sequence of protein coding regions (structural evolution) or by changes in gene regulatory function (regulatory evolution). The relative importance of regulatory versus structural evolution for the evolution of different biological systems is a subject of controversy. The primacy of regulatory evolution in the diversification of morphological traits has been promoted by many evolutionary developmental biologists. For physiological traits, however, the role of regulatory evolution has received less attention or has been considered to be relatively unimportant. To address this issue for electrophysiological systems, I …

Planktonic Microbial Community Structure In Great South Bay, Ny, Where Aureococcus Anophagefferens Blooms Frequently Occur, Yuan Liu

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

The eukaryotic and prokaryotic planktonic microbial communities in Great South Bay (GSB), NY, were characterized using Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (TRFLP) for both 18S rDNA and 16S rDNA in 2008 when there was an Aureococcus anophagefferens &lsquobrown tide&rsquo bloom and in 2009 when there was no bloom. TRFLP data and A. anophagefferens cell counts using microscopy demonstrated both a spring and a fall bloom in 2008. Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling analysis of TRFLP profiles from samples collected along a ten station transect in the middle GSB from May to October (2008) and May to December (2009) revealed that while plankton …