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Understanding Cancer Metastasis: The Role Of Zyxin In Actin Dynamics, Nicholas Bishop, Dr. Marc D. Hansen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My research aims to elucidate the protein interactions at cell-cell contacts (adherens junctions or AJ’s) by studying the fluorescence recovery of three known AJ proteins (zyxin, VASP, and actin) after photobleaching. At AJ’s, zyxin interacts with VASP (Vasioukhin et al., 2000) which in turn encourages the polymerization of actin (Vasioukhin et al., 2000). Mutation of certain regions of zyxin may reveal their role in zyxin-VASP binding and regulation. The effects of altering VASP activity should be evident in actin turnover rate. In Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP), regions of cell-cell adhesions with fluorescently labeled zyxin, VASP, or actin are bleached …

Dynamic Model Constraints On Oxygen-17 Depletion In Atmospheric O 2 After A Snowball Earth, Xiaobin Cao, Huiming Bao

Faculty Publications

A large perturbation in atmospheric CO2 and O2 or bioproductivity will result in a drastic pulse of 17O change in atmospheric O2, as seen in the Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion (MOSD) event in the immediate aftermath of a global deglaciation 635 Mya. The exact nature of the perturbation, however, is debated. Here we constructed a coupled, four-box, and quick-response biosphere-atmosphere model to examine both the steady state and dynamics of the MOSD event. Our model shows that the ultra-high CO2 concentrations proposed by the "snowball' Earth hypothesis produce a typical MOSD duration of less than 106 y and a magnitude of …

Parental Involvement's Effects On Academic Performance: Evidence From The Youthsave Ghana Experiment, Gina A. N. Chowa, Rainier D. Masa, Jenna Tucker

Center for Social Development Research

Research in developed countries suggests that parental involvement is associated with youth academic success, but little is known about this relationship in developing countries. Further, it is unclear which type of parental involvement may impact the academic performance of youth from developing countries. This study examines whether (a) parental involvement at home and in school are meaningfully different constructs in a population of Ghanaian youth and their parents and (b) parental involvement predicts academic performance. Results suggest that parental involvement is a bidimensional construct consists of home and school involvement. The effect of parental involvement on youth academic performance appears …

Crow's Nest, September 3, 2013, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The September 3, 2013, issue of the Crow's Nest.

Acylsulfonamides And Processes For Producing The Same, Hong-Gang Wang, Roman Manetsch, Xiangdong Hu, Sameer Kulkarni, Jiazhi Sun

USF Patents

The present disclosure relates to acylsulfonamides and processes for their preparation. The processes involve a target-guided synthesis approach, whereby a thioacid and a sulfonyl azide are reacted in the presence of a biological target protein, a Bcl-2 family protein, to form the acylsulfonamide.

Segmented Assimilation Trajectories And Latino Health : An Analysis Of The Adaptation Process Over Time, Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa

Psychology ETDs

Cultural adaptation factors likely influence health status and social mobility. Using data from the Corazón Life Journey Studies, cross-sectional interviews of immigrant Latino, U.S.-born Latino, and Non-Hispanic White adults (n=272), we investigated acculturation factors, social mobility, and health outcomes across four time points, elementary school, middle school, high school and current adulthood. Using growth mixture modeling, lifetime segmented assimilation trajectories were developed describing different acculturation and social mobility changes. A four-class model best described the data. Significant differences emerged among the ethnic groups. Family Traditionalism significantly predicted acculturations starting point and change over time. Initial acculturation values predicted social mobility. …

Myeloperoxidase, Paraoxonase-1, And Hdl Form A Functional Ternary Complex, Ying Huang, Zhiping Wu, Meliana Riwanto, Shengqiang Gao, Bruce S. Levison, Xiaodong Gu, Xiaoming Fu, Matthew A. Wagner, Christian Besler, Gary Gerstenecker, Renliang Zhang, Xin Min Li, Anthony J. Didonato, Valentin Gogonea, W.H. Wilson Tang, Jonathan D. Smith, Edward F. Plow, Paul L. Fox, Diana M. Shih, Aldons J. Lusis, Edward A. Fisher, Joseph A. Didonato, Ulf Landmesser, Stanley L. Hazen

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and paraoxonase 1 (PON1) are high-density lipoprotein–associated (HDL-associated) proteins mechanistically linked to inflammation, oxidant stress, and atherosclerosis. MPO is a source of ROS during inflammation and can oxidize apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1) of HDL, impairing its atheroprotective functions. In contrast, PON1 fosters systemic antioxidant effects and promotes some of the atheroprotective properties attributed to HDL. Here, we demonstrate that MPO, PON1, and HDL bind to one another, forming a ternary complex, wherein PON1 partially inhibits MPO activity, while MPO inactivates PON1. MPO oxidizes PON1 on tyrosine 71 (Tyr71), a modified residue found in human atheroma that is critical for …

Dynamic Model Constraints On Oxygen-17 Depletion In Atmospheric O 2 After A Snowball Earth, Xiaobin Cao, Huiming Bao

Faculty Publications

A large perturbation in atmospheric CO2 and O2 or bioproductivity will result in a drastic pulse of 17O change in atmospheric O2, as seen in the Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion (MOSD) event in the immediate aftermath of a global deglaciation 635 Mya. The exact nature of the perturbation, however, is debated. Here we constructed a coupled, four-box, and quick-response biosphere-atmosphere model to examine both the steady state and dynamics of the MOSD event. Our model shows that the ultra-high CO2 concentrations proposed by the "snowball' Earth hypothesis produce a typical MOSD duration of less than 106 y and a magnitude of …

New Challenges For Strategy Development In Irish Higher Education Institutions., Deirdre Lillis, Marion Lynch

Articles

Strategic planning has become an integral part of the management of higher education institutions worldwide. The experiences of all but one of the Republic of Ireland’s 21 Universities and Institutes of Technology with strategic planning are explored from 2000-2010. At the starting point in 2000 only two Institutions had a documented strategic plan. Ten years later all had undergone one or more iterations of strategic planning. Qualitative research methods were used including document analysis of n=42 strategic plans, n=12 institutional review reports and n=26 interviews with senior managers with responsibility for strategic planning. The paper considers whether the strategic planning …

The Effects Of Poor Maternal Nutrition On Postnatal Growth And Development Of Lambs, Kristen N. Peck

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne, Georgia Southern University

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Dynamic Vegetation Roughness In The Riparian Zone, Tyler Gillihan

Civil Engineering ETDs

Vegetation in the floodplain plays an important role in dictating the hydraulics of an open channel river system. While vegetation is beneficial to the biological productivity of the river system, it can also increase flood risk due to increased channel roughness. Traditional means of predicting flow hydraulics involve applying a constant roughness value, while neglecting change in roughness due to flow characteristics and variation of vegetation parameters. The objective of this research was to develop and demonstrate techniques to hydraulically model an open channel river system while taking into account dynamic roughness due to vegetation. The Sedimentation and River Hydraulics …

Significance Of Nanosilica Incorporation In Type G Oil Well Cement Pastes, Andrew Griffin

Civil Engineering ETDs

Emergent interest in advanced hydrocarbon exploration and geological carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration has brought about a requisite for improving existing oil well cementing materials and understanding the macro and microstructural characterization mechanisms of oil well cement (OWC). OWC slurries have stringent performance requirements, including low viscosity, rapid strength development, low permeability and enhanced degradation resistance. Preliminary research work showed that nanosilica is capable of reducing OWC porosity and therefore is was thought that nanosilica incorporation may have potential to improve the aforementioned performance requirements. In this research, Type G OWC paste specimens produced with water to binder (w/b) ratio of …

Parallel Simulation Of Particle Dynamics With Application To Micropolar Peridynamic Lattice Modeling Of Reinforced Concrete Structures, Hossein Honarvar Gheitanbaf

Civil Engineering ETDs

As the first goal of this thesis, we will explain a general purpose parallel particle dynamics code (pdQ2). We describe the re-architecting of pdQ (the MD/PD code that was developed in [Sakhavand 2011]) as pdQ2. pdQ2 is completely non-domain-specific in that user files are clearly separated from non-user files and no #ifdefs exist in the code. Thus, it operates as a particle simulation engine that is capable of executing any parallel particle dynamics model. As in the original pdQ, users can customize their own physical models without having to deal with complexities such as parallelization, but the ease of extensibility …

Restraurant Regions : An Ecological Community Based Model Of Restaurant Chain Distribution In The United States, Stephen Griego

Geography ETDs

The scope of this paper is an exercise in regional identification within the geography of the United States. This paper applied a hierarchical clustering methodology to analyze the distribution of restaurants in the landscape. The clustering model utilized in this study is commonly used in analysis of ecological communities. Each restaurant chain was treated as an individual biological species, and the clustering software analyzed it as such. The individual restaurant chain locations were treated as individual samples in the environment. Wards (1963) algorithm was used to group the individual restaurant chain locations into related clusters using simple correlation as the …

Disruption Of Ritual: Doctor/Patient Interactions In The Era Of Internet, Amanda Seeman

Sociology ETDs

The historical establishment of medicine as a profession laid the foundation on which it claims dominance and authority over medical decision-making. Through scientific discoveries and a state-recognized monopoly over medical work, doctors were able to subdue patients during doctor/patient interactions and conceal specialized knowledge from the public. Ritualized doctor/patient interactions are characterized as expert physician decision-making for passive compliant patients. However, the democratization of information on the internet has disrupted the ritual interactions of doctors and patients by granting open access to specialized medical knowledge. Internet informed patients bring their own knowledge to clinical encounters and use it to be …

Origami-Based Design For Engineering Applications, Kevin Campbell Francis

Theses and Dissertations

Origami can be a powerful source of design inspiration in the creation of reconfigurable systems with unparalleled performance. This thesis provides fundamental tools for designers to employ as origami-based designs are pursued in their respective fields of expertise. The first chapter introduces origami and makes connections between origami and engineering design through a survey of engineered applications and characterizing the relationship between origami and compliant mechanisms. The second chapter evaluates the creasing of non-paper sheet materials, such as plastics and metals, to facilitate origami-based compliant mechanism design. Although it is anticipated that most origami-based design will result from surrogate folds …

Comparing Water To Dna For Simulation Of Auger Electron Direct Damage To Dna Using Geant4, Elliott Leonard

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

Typically water is used as an analog material for Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) in Monte Carlo simulations of biological radiation interactions. Prior to this work, it was unclear whether water is an appropriate stand-in for DNA when simulating direct radiation damage on the nano scale. The increased interest in targeted tumor therapy using Auger electrons has requires an understand of the radiobological effectiveness of low energy electrons. A chromatin ber was constructed within the Geant4 simulation toolkit down to the molecular level. The Binary Encounter Bethe (BEB) model for electron impact ionization was added to the Geant4 Toolkit so the cross …

Field And Lab Conditions Alter Microbial Enzyme And Biomass Dynamics Driving Decomposition Of The Same Leaf Litter, Zachary L. Rinkes, Robert L. Sinsabaugh, Daryl L. Moorhead, A. Stuart Grandy, Michael N. Weintraub

Faculty Publications

Fluctuations in climate and edaphic factors influence field decomposition rates and preclude a complete understanding of how microbial communities respond to plant litter quality. In contrast, laboratory microcosms isolate the intrinsic effects of litter chemistry and microbial community from extrinsic effects of environmental variation. Used together, these paired approaches provide mechanistic insights to decomposition processes. In order to elucidate the microbial mechanisms underlying how environmental conditions alter the trajectory of decay, we characterized microbial biomass, respiration, enzyme activities, and nutrient dynamics during early (<10% mass loss), mid- (10–40% mass loss), and late (>40% mass loss) decay in parallel field and laboratory litter bag incubations for deciduous tree litters …

Anchoring Energy Of Dengue E Protein Into Host Membranes And Quaternary Assembly Depend Upon Lipid Composition, Briana Vernon

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Dengue virus is a devastating human pathogen responsible for millions of infections each year. No antiviral therapies for Dengue currently exist, making effective treatment of the virus challenging. Dengue is taken into the cell through endocytosis. Low-pH mediated structural rearrangements of the envelope protein E leads to the formation of fusogenic E trimers that facilitate membrane fusion with late endosomes. The fusion mechanism is not fully understood, but poses as a key target for inhibiting the viral infection pathway. An important aspect of fusion is the requirement of anionic lipids in the endosomal membrane. This study aims to characterize the …

Effects Of Environmental Factors And Nutrient Availability On The Biochemical Composition Of Algae For Biofuels Production: A Review, Ankita Juneja, Ruben Michael Ceballos, Ganti S. Murthy

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Due to significant lipid and carbohydrate production as well as other useful properties such as high production of useful biomolecular substrates (e.g., lipids) and the ability to grow using non-potable water sources, algae are being explored as a potential high-yield feedstock for biofuels production. In both natural and engineered systems, algae can be exposed to a variety of environmental conditions that affect growth rate and cellular composition. With respect to the latter, the amount of carbon fixed in lipids and carbohydrates (e.g., starch) is highly influenced by environmental factors and nutrient availability. Understanding synergistic interactions between multiple environmental variables and …

Cloning And Characterization Of Ef-Tu And Ef-Ts From Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Stephanie O. Palmer, Edna Y. Rangel, Alberto E. Montalvo, Alexis T. Tran, Kate C. Ferguson, James M. Bullard

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

We have cloned genes encoding elongation factors We have cloned genes encoding elongation factors EF-Tu and EF-Ts from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and expressed and purified the proteins to greater than 95% homogeneity. Sequence analysis indicated that P. aeruginosa EF-Tu and EF-Ts are 84% and 55% identical to E. coli counterparts, respectively. P. aeruginosa EF-Tu was active when assayed in GDP exchange assays. Kinetic parameters for the interaction of EF-Tu with GDP in the absence of EF-Ts were observed to be = 33 μM, = 0.003 s−1, and the specificity constant was  s−1 μM−1. In the presence of EF-Ts, these values were …

Executive And Nonverbal Contributions To Pragmatic Language In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Ashley B. De Marchena Ph.D.

Doctoral Dissertations

Pragmatic language deficits are universal in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Pragmatic language skills require the integration of multiple communicative and social skills, and as such represent an intersection of two of the three major domains of impairment in ASD: communication and social interaction. Data from typically developing (TD) populations also suggests that pragmatic language is supported by complex skills such as gesture and the executive functions. Here we investigate common ground, a pragmatic language skill in which speakers adjust the contents of their speech based on their listener’s perceived knowledge, in adolescents with ASD and TD. We designed an …

Snp Interactions In The Genetic Architecture Of Blood Pressure, Jacob John Basson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Evidence suggests that there is a substantial genetic component to the regulation of blood pressure: BP) but most BP variance remains unattributed to specific genetic variants. Candidate gene studies show linkage to rare Mendelian disorders but inconsistent association with BP. Massive consortia of genome-wide association studies have identified several dozen loci explaining less than 3% of BP variance. Many explanations have been offered for these observations, of which the current study addresses two: the focus on SNP main effects to the exclusion of interactions, and the low statistical power resulting from the strong multiple-testing burden necessarily imposed when analyzing millions …

Modeling And Control Of A Dynamic Information Flow Tracking System, Maria Khater

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis introduces and details the effort of modeling and control design of an information tracking system for computer security purposes. It is called Dynamic Information Flow Tracking (DIFT) system. The DIFT system is developed at the Computer Science Department at the University of New Mexico, works by tagging data and tracking it to measure the information flow throughout the system. DIFT can be used for several security applications such as securing sensor networks and honeypot - which is a trap set to detect, deflect, or counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Existing DIFT systems cannot track address …

September 2, 2013, James Madison University

The Breeze, 2010-2019

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Preserving Moral Recognition In The Face Of Aggression: Aikido As A Practice Of Physical Intersubjectivity, Charles W. Wright

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Practitioners of Aikido advance the claim, peculiar to many, that martial training can support moral action. This essay examines the claim by exploring communicative structures implicit in the response to attack made possible by this art's techniques. This exploration reveals three dimensions of intersubjectivity embedded in the practice of Aikido, dimensions that explicate the ethical imperative of the art.

Antimycobacterial And Photosynthetic Electron Transport Inhibiting Activity Of Ring-Substituted 4-Arylamino-7-Chloroquinolinium Chlorides, Rodeney Govender, Aidan Coffey, Jim O'Mahony, Et. Al.

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

In this study, a series of twenty-five ring-substituted 4-arylamino-7-chloroquinolinium chlorides were prepared and characterized. The compounds were tested for their activity related to inhibition of photosynthetic electron transport (PET) in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) chloroplasts and also primary in vitro screening of the synthesized compounds was performed against mycobacterial species. 4-[(2-Bromophenyl)amino]-7-chloroquinolinium chloride showed high biological activity against M. marinum, M. kansasii, M. smegmatis and 7-chloro-4-[(2-methylphenyl)amino]quinolinium chloride demonstrated noteworthy biological activity against M. smegmatis and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. The most effective compounds demonstrated quite low toxicity (LD50 > 20 μmol/L) against the human monocytic leukemia THP-1 cell line within preliminary in …

Antimycobacterial And Photosynthetic Electron Transport Inhibiting Activity Of Ring-Substituted 4-Arylamino-7-Chloroquinolinium Chlorides, Jan Otrevel, Pavel Bobal, Iveta Zadrazilova, Rodeney Govender, Matus Pesko, Stanislava Keltosova, Petra Koleckarova, Petr Marsalek, Ales Imramovsky, Aidan Coffey, Jim O'Mahony, Peter Kollar, Alois Cizek, Katarina Kralova, Josef Jampilek

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

In this study, a series of twenty-five ring-substituted 4-arylamino-7-chloroquinolinium chlorides were prepared and characterized. The compounds were tested for their activity related to inhibition of photosynthetic electron transport (PET) in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) chloroplasts and also primary in vitro screening of the synthesized compounds was performed against mycobacterial species. 4-[(2-Bromophenyl)amino]-7-chloroquinolinium chloride showed high biological activity against M. marinum, M. kansasii, M. smegmatis and 7-chloro-4-[(2-methylphenyl)amino]quinolinium chloride demonstrated noteworthy biological activity against M. smegmatis and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis. The most effective compounds demonstrated quite low toxicity (LD₅₀ > 20 μmol/L) against the human monocytic leukemia THP-1 cell line within preliminary …

The Collegian (2013-09-02), Cleiri Quezada

UTB/TSC Archives - The Collegian [Newspaper]

Vol. 66, No. 2