Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Host-Tumor Interactions In Liver Metastasis Of Colorectal Cancer, Yu Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Colon cancer is the third most frequent cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Liver metastasis is the major cause of death in colon cancer. Successful metastases depend on productive collaborations between tumor cells and host-derived cells in the tumor microenvironment, target organ environments, and cells in the hematopoietic compartment.

To identify the host-tumor interactions promoting liver metastasis and their molecular and cellular mediators, an orthotopic mouse model of liver metastasis of colon cancer was established that recapitulates all stages of tumor growth and metastasis. A highly metastatic mouse carcinoma cell line CT26-FL3 was …

Quantifying Regional-Scale Water Storage Using Models And Observations: Application For Drought Assessment In South Carolina, Mirza Md Mozaddid Billah

Theses and Dissertations

Hydrologic models are widely used to determine the occurrence and severity of droughts, and to aid in the decision making process for reducing drought impacts. These models apply approaches including water and energy balance equations to determine water availability at field to continental scales. One challenge in implementing hydrologic models at larger scales (regional to continental) is the lack of data with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to represent actual conditions within the modeling domain. If such data is available, the challenge remains how best to find, access, and process the data so that it can be used within hydrologic …

Gelation Characteristics And Osteogenic Differentiation Of Stromal Cells In Inert Hydrolytically Degradable Micellar Polyethylene Glycol Hydrogels, Danial Barati

Theses and Dissertations

The use of polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels in tissue engineering is limited by their persistence in the site of regeneration. In an attempt to produce degradable PEG-based hydrogels while preserving the unique properties of PEG, linear (LPELA) and star (SPELA) poly(ethylene glycol-co-lactide) acrylate, star (SPEDA) poly(ethylene glycol-co-dioxanone), star (SPEGA) poly(ethylene glycol-co-glycolide) acrylate as the least hydrophobic and (SPECA) poly(ethylene glycol-co-caprolactone) as the most hydrophobic macromonomers with short hydrophobic segments were synthesized. The hydrogels were characterized with respect to gelation time, modulus, water content, sol fraction, degradation, and osteogenic differentiation of encapsulated marrow stromal cells (MSCs). Chain extension of PEG with …

Development And Figures Of Merit Of Microextraction And Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography For Forensic Characterization Of Dye Profiles On Trace Acrylic, Nylon, Polyester, And Cotton Textile Fibers, Scott James Hoy

Theses and Dissertations

Methodology for the microextraction of basic dyes on acrylic, acid dyes on nylon, disperse dyes on polyester, and reactive dyes, direct dyes, and indigo on cotton textile fibers is reported. Although these processes are destructive to the fiber evidence, the ability to analyze dye extracts from sub-millimeter fiber lengths of single fibers, coupled with detection limits in the hundred picogram range by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) with both diode array detection (DAD) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) makes routine forensic characterization feasible.

Microextraction, followed by UPLC, can often distinguish similar fibers containing different, but similar, dyes with the combination of …

Decoding Prmt1: Studies On The Catalytic Mechanism, Regulation, Inhibition, And Crosstalk Of Prmt1-Dependent Methylation, Heather L. Rust

Theses and Dissertations

Arginine methylation is catalyzed by the protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) family of enzymes, which transfer a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to the guanidinium group of an arginine residue. This reaction first produces monomethylated arginine (MMA) that can then be further methylated to produce either asymmetrically dimethylated arginine (ADMA) or symmetrically dimethylated arginine (SDMA). There are nine PRMT family members described to date, with PRMT1 as the predominant member, suggested to be responsible for ~85% of asymmetric dimethylation. In addition, PRMT1-dependent methylation likely plays a significant role in a plethora of diseases (e.g., cancer, heart disease, and ALS). These observations …

Dislocation Reduction In Silicon Doped High Aluminum Content Algan Layers For Deep Uv Optoelectronic Devices, Hung-Chi Chen

Theses and Dissertations

III-Nitride based deep ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) are prospective candidates to replace the conventional bulky, expensive and environmentally harmful mercury lamp as new UV light sources, used in the applications of water and air purification, germicidal and biomedical instrumentation systems, etc. Due to the lack of native substrates and poor carrier injection, AlGaN-based deep UV LED is suffering from low optical power and low overall efficiency, which prevents the availability of low cost, high efficiency deep UV LED on the market.

This dissertation is focused on improving the efficiency of deep UV LEDs, by improving the base template …

Investigating The Predictive Validity Of A Domain-Specific Versus Global Measure Of Life Satisfaction In The Context Of School, Rachel Long

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the utility of a global versus a domain-specific measure of life satisfaction in predicting behavioral and achievement outcome variables among a sample of adolescents in the context of school. The sample included 694 middle school students (7th and 8th grade) from a suburban school district located in the Southeastern United States who completed self-report measures of life satisfaction, engagement, behavior, and grades. Actual grade point average (GPA) and standardized MAP test scores were reported by the school. Based on previous research and the guiding principal, specificity matching, this study hypothesized that a measure of school satisfaction would …

Silylation-Based Kinetic Resolution Of Α-Hydroxy Carbonyl Compounds And Synthesis Of Chiral Isothiourea Catalysts, Yan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis describes the silylation-based kinetic resolution for α-hydroxy carbonyl compounds catalyzed by isothiourea catalyst as well as our effort to make novel chiral isothiourea catalyst.

In Chapter 1, general background will be introduced, including chirality, general methods to obtain enantiopure compounds and kinetic resolution. In Chapter 2, the mechanism of the chiral recognition was discussed and a novel isothiourea catalyst was design to investigate the mechanism. The synthesis of the new catalyst was also described in this chapter.

In Chapter 3, the silylation-based kinetic resolution for α-hydroxy carbonyl compounds will be discussed. Since silylation-based kinetic resolution have already been …

Hiding In Plain Sight: The Rhetorical Workings Of Simone De Beauvoir's Feminist Language, Emily Crawford

Theses and Dissertations

Simone de Beauvoir's 1952 English rendering of The Second Sex translated into instant U.S. feminist acceptance, but by 1981 Julia Kristeva's call for "Women's Time" coupled with the rise of poststructuralism in the academy essentially sounded the death knell for Beauvoir in the world of feminist language theories. Where the new French feminists explored experimental ecriture feminine, Beauvoir's language appeared unsophisticated and outdated. In the past twenty years a handful of feminists have slowly and intermittently begun to reconsider Beauvoir's language from a variety of post-poststructuralist perspectives. My dissertation adds to this growing scholarship by exploring the rhetorical workings of …

Going Hard, Going Easy, Going Home: Death And Dying In 20th Century African American Literature, Chayah Amayala Stoneberg-Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation answers the question: How can art represent the essential human experience of death, particularly when the creative context is one of extreme violence? And, what can be learned about the risks and rewards of the living's relationship with the dead by way of these artistic representations? Further, how do these aesthetic renderings of death construct the ethics of life for survivors? In the case of African America, discussion of, and responses to, these questions have been primarily explored in novelist and creative writing. This dissertation examines these novelistic treatments of death-tropes, or thanatropes in eight novels written by …

An Essay On Musical Narrative Theory And Its Role In Interpretation, With Analyses Of Works For Saxophone By Alfred Desenclos And John Harbison, Ian Macdonald Jeffress

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years the field of semiotics has increasingly been applied to musicology, with particular attention paid to the area of narrative theory. This study will provide an introduction to the essential concepts of semiotics and narrative theory, the development of a methodology of narrative analysis with examples from the saxophone repertoire, and the application of that analytical approach to Alfred Desenclos' Prélude, Cadence, et Finale and John Harbison's San Antonio. The goal of this study will be the demonstration of narrative theory's applicability to a variety of styles pertinent to the concert saxophone repertoire. It is hoped that this …

Plant Virus Based Materials For Cell Alignment And Differentiation, Elizabeth Balizan

Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on developing and using plant virus based scaffolds to understand substrate control over cell alignment and differentiation. The first part of this work centered on development of virus based patterns that were then used to align and elongate aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Virus patterns were generated in capillary tubes via a simple drying method. Three experimental parameters were used to control pattern formation: (1) protein concentration, (2) salt concentration, and (3) hydrophobicity of the pre-deposition surface. By controlling these parameters several aspects of the final virus patterns were controlled. First, virus orientation was controlled. Patterns were …

A Silylation Based Kinetic Resolution Of Secondary Alcohols And The Synthesis And Structural Characterization Of Pyridyl-Oxazolidine Compounds, Cody Ian Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations

Described herein is the first enantioselective silylation based kinetic resolution of monofunctional secondary alcohols to achieve useful levels of enantioselectivity. Using commercially available reagents, the reaction conditions were optimized and found to successfully resolve several secondary alcohols with high enantioselectivity. It was discovered that the nucleophilic isothiourea compound (-)-tetramisole, with Ph3SiCl as the silyl source, gave superior results to other nucleophilic catalysts and was capable of performing the kinetic resolution in as little as 45 minutes using mild reaction conditions. The structural and electronic characteristics of successful and less successful substrates are also discussed.

Chapter three discusses mechanistic investigations and …

The Role Of The Trickster Figure And Four Afro-Caribbean Meta-Tropes In The Realization Of Agency By Three Slave Protagonists, David Sebastian Cross

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I aim to demonstrate that the figure of the trickster is a key trope for the achievement of agency by the narrators of the three slave narratives Autobiografia de un esclavo, "Routes in North Africa by Abu Bekr es siddik" [sic], and Biografia de un cimarron. I also intend to show how both the realization of the trickster's role and the achievement of agency to which such a role is oriented are dependent on the use of the four Afro-Caribbean meta-tropes ndoki, nkisi, nganga, and simbi. To demonstrate this, I plan to analyze these four meta-tropes; their …

Identifying Values And Benefits Of Congaree National Park, Maka Bitsadze

Theses and Dissertations

Protected areas are important tools for the conservation of biological diversity. They also support a wide range of ecosystem services and provide economic, cultural and social values and benefits. Many values and benefits of protected areas are poorly understood and greatly under-valued by decision-makers, the business sector, and the general public. Accordingly, identification and assessment of values and benefits of protected areas has been increasingly promoted during recent years.

This research investigates values and benefits of Congaree National Park and provides guidance for the further economic valuation of identified values and benefits. While the ecological significance of Congaree National Park …

Critical Functions Specified By The Mll Cxxc Domain Determine Leukemogenic Capacity, Noah Warren Birch

Dissertations

TheMixed Lineage Leukemia(MLL) gene can participate in chromosomal translocations which generate a fusion protein leading to acute leukemia. A better understanding of how MLL fusion proteins contribute to leukemia is necessary in order to develop more effective treatments. In my dissertation project, I investigated the functional role of amino acids within the MLL CXXC domain to determine how specific residues contribute to leukemogenic capacity.

MLL fusion proteins retain the amino-terminal portion of MLL including the CXXC DNA-binding domain while the carboxy-terminal portion is comprised of a fusion partner. The closest homolog of MLL, MLL2 (alternatively named MLL4), also contains a …

Toward The Development Of The Stereotypical Roles Of Black Young Men Scale, Amber Hewitt

Dissertations

There is a significant amount of literature on identity development in general, but there is a dearth of research focusing on identity development in relation to how other processes and constructs influence the identity development of African American young men. One such construct is the presence of stereotypical roles. The primary purpose of this study was to create a reliable and valid measure of the stereotypical roles of African American young men. This study explored the relationship between the endorsement of stereotypical roles, stigma consciousness, and masculinity of African American young men. African American young men (n = 164) between …

Psychosocial Distress Mediates Immune Dysregulation Through Alterations In Global Epigenetic Patterns And Chromatin Remodeling Proteins, Karen Krukowski

Dissertations

Psychosocial distress, characterized by increased perceived stress, anxiety and mood disturbance, is a common response of women to a diagnosis of breast cancer (Northouse, 1992; Pettingale et al., 1988; Stark and House, 2000; Witek-Janusek et al., 2007). This psychosocial distress leads to activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and increased circulating glucocorticoids (GCs) (Chrousos, 2000; Chrousos and Gold, 1992; Schoneveld and Cidlowski, 2007). Increased psychosocial distress and increased HPA activation can lead to immune dysregulation consisting of reduced natural killer (NK) cell activity (NKCA) (Biondi, 2001; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 1987; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2002; Witek-Janusek et al., 2008; Witek-Janusek et …

Open Enrollment In Advanced Placement Courses: Experiences Of Traditional And Non-Traditional Students, Scott Errol Mcalister

Dissertations

Beginning in the late 1990's, amongst concern that traditionally underrepresented groups of students such as minorities and low income students had been denied the opportunity to enroll in AP courses, The College Board (the non profit agency that runs the AP program) began to emphasize its belief that all students should have the right to take AP courses if they desire and that secondary schools should not limit AP enrollment based on prerequisites such as teacher recommendation, GPA, and class rank. As a result of these factors, the AP program began to see dramatic gains in the number of students …

Effects Of Acute Alcohol Exposure On Post Burn Intestinal Immunity: Role Of Il-23, Juan L. Rendon

Dissertations

More than one million burn injuries are reported yearly within the United States. These injuries result in approximately 500,000 emergency room visits and 40,000 hospitalizations annually. Greater than 50% of these injuries occur under the influence of alcohol/ethanol (EtOH) intoxication. Burn victims who sustain injury under the influence of EtOH exhibit significantly higher rates of morbidity and mortality than patients without EtOH exposure at the time of injury. Several lines of evidence suggest that gut pathogens and/or their products may play a role in the development of sepsis and multiple organ failure reported in burn and trauma patients. In line …

Just Like Everyone Else? Locating South Asians In 21st Century American Popular Media, Bhoomi K. Thakore

Dissertations

In the 21st century, representations of South Asians in American popular media have grown exponentially. This is a particularly interesting phenomenon when considering the status that South Asians occupy in the American racial hierarchy. In Just Like Everyone Else? Locating South Asians in 21st Century American Popular Media, I examine audience perceptions of South Asian/Indian characters and actors in American popular media. My research is guided by the following question: to what extent do audience perceptions of South Asians in U.S. popular media reflect pre-existing ideologies of race, gender, ethnicity, and immigration? Using data from 155 open-ended online questionnaires and …

Remembering The Cultural Trauma Legacies Of Slavery: African American Young Adult Perceptions On Racism, Ethnic Identity, And Racial Socialization, Kimya Pearl Barden

Dissertations

The purpose of this research investigation is to explore cultural trauma theory on African American young adult development. Cultural trauma theory asserts the adverse cross-cultural encounter, North American slavery, reproduces intergenerational psychosocial legacies for contemporary African Americans. Accordingly, cultural trauma theory is used to explore with African American young adults three "slave" legacies: ethnic identity formation, perceptions of racism, and racial socialization experiences. A qualitative case study approach is used for (N=26) participants enrolled in either college or a GED program. Each young adult participates in either an individual or focus group interview. To aid in data triangulation, older African …

Student Achievement In Middle Grades: Gauging The Effect Of Teacher Training On Student Learning, Natalya Gnedko

Dissertations

In the United States, teacher certification has been a baseline measure of teacher quality and gateway to the teaching profession for many decades. Research suggests that teacher certification is beneficial to student achievement, with findings particularly promising when content area of teacher certification is taken into account. Positive findings are largely limited to high school. However, in recent years middle grades have been increasingly viewed as a starting point for success in high school and college, which led many school districts to require advanced training for middle grades teachers. To examine the effectiveness of advanced teacher training in middle grades, …

Perceived Social Class, College Interest, And Post-Secondary Goals: An Application Of The Scat Interest And Choice Model, Jason Daniel Hacker

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of perceived social class (PSC) in the educational development of 176 racially and economically diverse high school students. PSC was defined based on the tenants of differential status identity theory (Fouad & Brown, 2000) and then incorporated as a person variable in the interest and choice model of social cognitive career theory (Lent & Brown, 1996; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). The study first examined the relation of PSC to students' choice intention to pursue a college degree via cognitive self-evaluations (college self-efficacy, college outcome expectations, college interest). Alternatively, PSC …

Targeting The Notch-1/Igf-1r/Akt Axis In At Orthotopic Model Of Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Shuang Liang

Dissertations

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. and worldwide. The most frequent type of lung cancer is non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). NSCLC is mostly diagnosed at advanced stages (stage IIIB 18% of cases, stage IV 40% of cases) due to the lack of effective early detection methods. Thus, the discovery of alternative therapeutic strategies is of extreme importance.

Others and we have previously found that Notch signaling plays a crucial role in NSCLC. Our preliminary results indicate that Notch-1 provides necessary survival signals to NSCLC cells by positively regulating IGF-1R to activate the Akt-1 …

Spiders, Ryan S. Davis, Ricardo A. Ramirez

All Current Publications

Spiders are arachnids, a group that includes other 8-legged arthropods like ticks, mites, sun spiders, scorpions, and harvestmen (daddy longlegs). There are approximately 621 species of spiders known to occur in Utah (Allred and Kaston, 1983). Spiders are beneficial predators and the majority of them are harmless to humans.

Where Does Neisseria Acquire Foreign Dna From: An Examination Of The Source Of Genomic And Pathogenic Islands And The Evolution Of The Neisseria Genus, Catherine Putonti, Bogdan Nowicki, Michael Shaffer, Yuriy Fofanov, Stella Nowicki

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

This journal is now called BMC Ecology and Evolution

Background

Pathogenicity islands (PAIs) or genomic islands (GEIs) are considered to be the result of a recent horizontal transfer. Detecting PAIs/GEIs as well as their putative source can provide insight into the organism’s pathogenicity within its host. Previously we introduced a tool called S-plot which provides a visual representation of the variation in compositional properties across and between genomic sequences. Utilizing S-plot and new functionality developed here, we examined 18 publicly availableNeisseria genomes, including strains of both pathogenic and non-pathogenic species, in order to identify regions of unusual compositional properties …

Expression Of Cytosolic Peroxiredoxins In Plasmodium Berghei Ookinetes Is Regulated By Environmental Factors In The Mosquito Bloodmeal, Benjamin A. Turturice, Michael A. Lamm, James J. Tasch, Angelika Zalewski, Rachel Kooistra, Eric H. Schroeter, Sapna Sharma, Shin-Ichiro Kawazu, Stefan M. Kanzok

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Plasmodium ookinete develops over several hours in the bloodmeal of its mosquito vector where it is exposed to exogenous stresses, including cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS). How the parasite adapts to these challenging conditions is not well understood. We have systematically investigated the expression of three cytosolic antioxidant proteins, thioredoxin-1 (Trx-1), peroxiredoxin-1 (TPx-1), and 1-Cys peroxiredoxin (1-Cys Prx), in developing ookinetes of the rodent parasite Plasmodium berghei under various growth conditions. Transcriptional profiling showed that tpx-1 and 1-cys prx but not trx-1 are more strongly upregulated in ookinetes developing in the mosquito bloodmeal when compared to ookinetes growing under …

From Where Does Neisseria Acquire Foreign Dna: An Examination Of The Source Of Genomic And Pathogenic Islands And The Evolution Of The Neisseria Genus, Catherine Putonti, Bogdan Nowicki, Michael Shaffer, Yuriy Fofanov, Stella Nowicki

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background

Pathogenicity islands (PAIs) or genomic islands (GEIs) are considered to be the result of a recent horizontal transfer. Detecting PAIs/GEIs as well as their putative source can provide insight into the organism’s pathogenicity within its host. Previously we introduced a tool called S-plot which provides a visual representation of the variation in compositional properties across and between genomic sequences. Utilizing S-plot and new functionality developed here, we examined 18 publicly available Neisseria genomes, including strains of both pathogenic and non-pathogenic species, in order to identify regions of unusual compositional properties (RUCPs) using both a sliding window as well as …

College Student Pathways To The Stem Disciplines, Mark Engberg, Gregory C. Wolniak

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background/Context: As concerns mount about the shortage of students entering science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, policy makers throughout the United States are contemplating strategies to maintain and enhance our nation's economic vitality and international competitiveness. Within this policy and program environment, researchers have focused considerable attention on improving STEM education at different stages of the educational pipeline, yet we lack evidence on how resources from one educational setting may influence outcomes in a successive educational setting. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus: The purpose of the study is to examine individual- and school-level factors that influence students' pathways to the STEM fields …