Digital Commons Network^™

Identification And Characterization Of An Effective Antimicrobial Peptide Defensin And Its Effects On Transmission Efficiency, Kody Johnson, Dr. David Erickson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Among many transmissible infectious diseases falls the Bubonic Plague, a disease that is caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium. It is still a concern because there have been human cases as recent as last year in our home state of Utah. While health care has advanced significantly since the last large plague epidemic, there are still areas of the world where health care is not as efficient or advanced and it is in these areas that this disease causes the greatest harm.

Feun As A Regulator In A Two Component System, Rebecca Carlyon, Dr. Joel Griffitts

Journal of Undergraduate Research

How does infection work? There exists a process in which a bacterium receives a signal from the environment which starts a series of events which initiates infection. This process is vital for understanding both disease-causing and beneficial bacteria, and could prove to be vital for the agricultural process, yet remains an under-researched subject.

Lymphocyte Apoptosis In The Involuting Mammary Gland And The Application Of Qpcr In Gene Expression Profiling, Kathryn Distelhorst, Dr. Eric Wilson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The initial aim of this project was to discover the fate of lymphocytes in the mammary gland after lactation. I hypothesized that lymphocytes, in an analogous mechanism used by mammary gland-specific epithelial cells, undergo apoptosis, or programmed cell death. This non-inflammatory mechanism ensures cell homeostasis, and defects in this process are implemented in certain diseases such as multiple myeloma, a severe cancer of plasma cells that is generated from an over-proliferation of antibody-secreting cells (ASCs).

Discovering The Involvement Of Lipid-Rafts In The Interleukin-6 Pathway Of Cortisol Release From Adrenal Cells, Timothy Chang, Dr. Allan M. Judd

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex and is involved in response to stress and increases blood pressure, blood sugar levels, suppresses the immune system, and may cause infertility in women. The pathway in which protein Interleukin-6, also known as IL-6, stimulates the synthesis of this steroid is not completely understood. One aspect of the pathway that has not been studied is whether or not the IL-6 pathway is dependent on cell membrane lipid-rafts for cortisol release. In discovering the involvement of lipid-rafts in the IL-6 pathway, we will not only further understand IL-6 involvement in cortisol …

Trpv1 Modulation Of Synaptic Plasticity In The Hippocampus, Douglas Bennion, Dr. Jeff Edwards

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Learning and memory are phenomena that are made possible via physical changes at neuronal synapses in the brain, a phenomenon known as synaptic plasticity. Because synaptic plasticity affects physical changes in the brain in response to external stimuli, it is suspected of playing an essential role in strengthening or weakening the neural pathways regulating short-term learning and memory within the hippocampus. Dysfunctions in synaptic plasticity contribute to such diseases and disorders as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and retrograde amnesia.1 By further clarifying the mechanism of synaptic plasticity, in which TRPV1 is suspected of participating, I have tried to fill a …

Vista: August 30, 2013, University Of San Diego

USD Vista (1965-)

No abstract provided.

Montana Kaimin, August 30, 2013, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Mechanics And Modeling Of Postnatal Arterial Development In Mouse Models Of Varying Elastin, Jeffrey Karl Cheng

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Proper arterial function requires a specific composition of extracellular matrix: ECM) proteins to produce a vessel with the right mechanical properties. Closed circulatory systems driven by a beating heart have pulsatile flow, requiring the large elastic arteries to have the ability to distend and recoil to dampen the pulsatile output. This unique ability is made possible by elastin in the ECM that imparts elastic behavior to the artery. Genetic mutations that affect the amount and organization of elastin result in congenital cardiovascular defects that lead to lifelong cardiovascular complications. In order to devise proper treatments we must understand how development …

Benthic Foraminifera Show Some Resilience To Ocean Acidification In The Northern Gulf Of California, Mexico., L. R. Pettit, M. B. Hart, A. N. Medina-Sánchez, C. W. Smart, R. Rodolfo-Metalpa, J. M. Hall-Spencer, R. M. Prol-Ledesma

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Extensive CO2 vents have been discovered in the Wagner Basin, northern Gulf of California, where they create large areas with lowered seawater pH. Such areas are suitable for investigations of long-term biological effects of ocean acidification and effects of CO2 leakage from subsea carbon capture storage. Here, we show responses of benthic foraminifera to seawater pH gradients at 74-207m water depth. Living (rose Bengal stained) benthic foraminifera included Nonionella basispinata, Epistominella bradyana and Bulimina marginata. Studies on foraminifera at CO2 vents in the Mediterranean and off Papua New Guinea have shown dramatic long-term effects of acidified seawater. We found living …

Massive Open Online Courses (Moocs) And Other Digital Initiatives, Kenneth C. Green

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Forget basketball and March madness. Aside from always pressing financial issues, it is “MOOC madness” that has emerged as the topic du jour at a growing number of American colleges and universities. Indeed, in boardrooms all across the country, people are grappling with what the advent of MOOCs—massive open online courses—means to their institutions.

Comparing Academic And Non-Academic Salaries: Establishing Homogeneous Groups By Discipline, Educational Credentials, And Job Category, Martin Finkelstein, Kevin Iglesias, Valerie Martin Conley

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This presentation compares academic and non-academic salaries, demonstrating variations by field, sub-field and industry, sector, and career stage. The fields considered are law, biology, psychology, and engineering.

Exploitation Of Androgen Receptor Signaling By Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor Vav3 In Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer, Stephanie Peacock

Open Access Dissertations

Advanced or metastatic prostate cancer is treated by androgen deprivation; however, patients inevitably relapse with castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). CRPC remains dependent on androgen receptor (AR) signaling, which may include constitutive, ligand-independent action of naturally occurring AR splice variants. For example, the AR splice variant AR3 (also termed AR-V7) is expressed in CRPC and is linked to poor prognosis. Vav3, a Rho GTPase guanine nucleotide exchange factor, is an AR coactivator that is up-regulated in human prostate cancer, compared to benign tissue, and in pre-clinical models of CRPC. Vav3 confers castration-resistant growth to androgen-dependent human prostate cancer cells. Despite …

Great Bay Estuary Eelgrass Monitoring Program For 2013, Philip Trowbridge

Quality Assurance Project Plans

No abstract provided.

August 29, 2013, James Madison University

The Breeze, 2010-2019

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

August 29, 2013, Ohio University Board Of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Ohio University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes document the activities of Ohio University's Board of Trustees.

The Creation Of Α2nc1 Transgenic Drosophila Melanogaster, Jordan Olberding

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The α2 isoform of collagen IV’s noncollagenous 1 domain (α2NC1 or canstatin) has shown promise as an anti-cancer molecule, possessing both angiostatic and pro-apoptotic properties. This work aims to further the knowledge of α2NC1 by conducting a truly in vivo study in which the Gal4-induced endogenous overexpression of α2NC1 in Drosophila melanogaster will be used to assess the effects of α2NC1 upon normal development as well as tumorigenesis. To this end, transgenic fly lines capable of overexpressing α2NC1 were created. Initial overexpression studies indicated no developmental phenotype was caused by abundance of α2NC1. However, future overexpression studies in which α2NC1 …

Adaptive Strategies Of Parián Chinese: Fictive Kinship And Credit In Seventeenth-Century Manila, Joshua Kueh

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

Based on a seventeenth-century baptismal book of the Parián, a 1689 list of debts owed to non-Catholic Chinese, and a 1690 membership list for gremios de sangleyes infieles, thisarticle argues that adaptation by the Chinese in Manila to secure themselves and their livelihoods followed two major strategies: (a) fictive kinship in the form of compadrazgo (coparenthood) and padrinazgo (godparenthood), and (b) extending credit. The Chinese used both strategies to create or solidify networks of mutual obligation and aid within their own community and with other residents of Manila. These strategies helped spin webs of interconnection that made colonial society stable …

The Changing Meanings Of Objects: Calatagan And Archaeological Research In The Philippines, Grace; University Baretto-Tesoro

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

As objects with a biography, artifacts—acquired by individuals or institutions, displayed in museums or privately appreciated—gain different meanings during production, acquisition, deposition in archaeological contexts, recovery, and analysis. Thisarticle examines the artifacts recovered from Calatagan, Philippines, to understand the layers and dynamic meanings of objects as commodities, mortuary goods, archaeological data, museum objects, and private collection items. It demonstrates the influence of archaeological practice in the Philippines on the interpretation of the Calatagan sites and artifacts. By understanding how meanings are produced, thisarticle illumines different contexts in which artifacts are utilized and create multiple experiences for people.Keywords: archaeology • meanings …

Vegetation Response To Extreme Climate Events On The Mongolian Plateau From 2000 To 2010, Ranjeet John, Jiquan Chen, Zu-Tao Ou-Yang, Jingfeng Xiao, Richard Becker, Arindam Samanta, Sangram Ganguly, Wenping Yuan, Ochirbat Batkhishig

All Materials

Climate change has led to more frequent extreme winters (aka, dzud) and summer droughts on the Mongolian Plateau during the last decade. Among these events, the 2000–2002 combined summer drought–dzud and 2010 dzud were the most severe on vegetation. We examined the vegetation response to these extremes through the past decade across the Mongolian Plateau as compared to decadal means. We first assessed the severity and extent of drought using the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation data and the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI). We then examined the effects of drought by mapping anomalies in vegetation indices (EVI, EVI2) …

Uab Research Sheds New Light On Rna Polymerase, Alicia Rohan

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Pegleg Crutch, Levi Leishman, Darrel Zeltner

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The progress of a cheap, simple and practical substitute for the common crutch for us has had many design improvements and successes in this year. We were able to meet with medical, educational, and engineering professionals who were all able to input their criticisms and advice. We have decided on a final design that is not the best design for use, but the best when considering cost. See figure 1 for a visual of the final design.

The Missouri Miner, August 29, 2013

The Missouri Miner Newspaper

No abstract provided.

Entrepreneurial Transformation Of The School Of Education At One Midwestern Public University: A Case Study, Inna Molitoris

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Globalization and the rapidly changing market cause universities to seek new and creative ways to survive and succeed. The term entrepreneurial university is an ideological umbrella for those higher education institutions that are attempting to fully participate in the social and economic life of society. This qualitative study was aimed to investigate the entrepreneurial transformation at the departments of the School of Education at one Midwestern large public comprehensive university. The researcher sought to better understand the growth of the programs and services at the organization and how entrepreneurial concepts such as entrepreneurial behavior, culture, entrepreneurial products, creativity, innovations, and …

Polydnaviral Ankyrin Proteins Aid Parasitic Wasp Survival By Coordinate And Selective Inhibition Of Hematopoietic And Immune Nf-Kappa B Signaling In Insect Hosts, Gwenaelle Gueguen, Marta E. Kalamarz, Johnny Ramroop, Jeffrey Uribe, Shubha Govind

Publications and Research

Polydnaviruses are mutualists of their parasitoid wasps and express genes in immune cells of their Lepidopteran hosts. Polydnaviral genomes carry multiple copies of viral ankyrins or vankyrins. Vankyrin proteins are homologous to IκB proteins, but lack sequences for regulated degradation. We tested if Ichnoviral Vankyrins differentially impede Toll-NF-κB-dependent hematopoietic and immune signaling in a heterologous in vivo Drosophila, system. We first show that hematopoiesis and the cellular encapsulation response against parasitoid wasps are tightly-linked via NF-κB signaling. The niche, which neighbors the larval hematopoietic progenitors, responds to parasite infection. Drosophila NF-κB proteins are expressed in the niche, and non cell-autonomously …

The Alestle - Vol. 66 No. 3 - 08/29/2013, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The Alestle

Vol. 66 No. 3

A New Low In Getting High: Illegal Drug Use And Crime, Erica Jean Ferrelli

Dissertations and Theses

The current research analyzed the relationship between methamphetamine use, cocaine use and marijuana use within the last 12 months and crime committed within the last 12 months. Crime is defined as drug sales, property and violent crime. The research design is a quantitative approach which uses secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to provide evidence toward the research question; does illegal drug use increase the risk of committing a crime?The public access, 2008 Wave III data results of this nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7 through 12 in the US in …

Planarians Require An Intact Brain To Behaviorally React To Cocaine, But Not To React To Nicotine, Oné R. Pagán, Sean Deats, Debra Baker, Erica Montgomery, Galia Wilk, Matthew Tenaglia, Joshua Semon

Biology Faculty Publications

Planarians possess a rudimentary brain with many features in common with vertebrate brains. They also display a remarkable capacity for tissue regeneration including the complete regeneration of the nervous system. Using the induction of planarian seizure-like movements (pSLMs) as a behavioral endpoint, we demonstrate that an intact nervous system is necessary for this organism to react to cocaine exposure, but not necessary to react to nicotine administration. Decapitated planarians (Girardia tigrina) display pSLMs indistinguishable from intact worms when exposed to nicotine, but cocaine-induced pSLMs are reduced by about 95% upon decapitation. Decapitated worms recover their normal sensitivity to cocaine within …

Comparisons Of Genetic Diversity Among Disjunct Populations Of Magnolia Tripetala, Victoria A. Gilkison

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Plant ranges are often made up of core areas where the distribution is continuous and the population density is high with small disjunct populations at the margins of the core. One well-studied type of disjunct population is formed by long distance dispersal as plants migrate away from disjunct Pleistocene refugial populations. The retreat of the Wisconsinan glaciation resulted in the outward dispersal of many plant species from their refugial locations to areas with suitable habitat. Many plants expanded their ranges through rare-long-distance dispersal.

This study used microsatellites to compare the genetic diversity, inbreeding levels, and gene flow frequency of disjunct …

Consolidated E-Book Usage Statistics 2012-2013, Andree Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Consolidated usage statistics for e-books available through the University of Rhode Island Libraries from July 2012 through June 2013. Data from three COUNTER-compliant reports are included: BR2, BR1, and JR1. Usage for titles that received no use during the time period is excluded.

Platforms include:

• Early English Books Online
• EBSCOhost
• Gale
• OVID
• Morgan & Claypool
• ProjectMUSE
• Safari Books Online
• Salem Online
• ScienceDirect
• SpringerLink

Mutant Bacterium Photorhabdus Luminescens’ Effect On Nematode’S Ability To Enter Endotokia Matricida, Jared Nielsen, Dr. Byron Adams

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Nematodes (roundworms), like all organisms, must develop, survive, and reproduce. For entomopathogenic nematodes (insect pathogens) such as H. bacteriophora, this is only possible when the worm can find an adequate food source (host insects). As the nematode scours the surrounding soil and finds a potential host, it will pass directly into the hemolymph of the insect. Inside its newly-found host, the nematode will then regurgitate a colony of bacteria. This particular bacteria, P. luminescens, works together with the nematode in a symbiotic relationship to kill and devour the insect (3). After the bacteria and nematodes have feasted on their host …