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Immunology Symposium Keystone For Research In The Southeast, Clinton Colmenares

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No abstract provided.

Pediatrics Faculty To Chair National Study Section, Jim Bakken

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No abstract provided.

Predicted Risks Of Radiogenic Cardiac Toxicity In Two Pediatric Patients Undergoing Photon Or Proton Radiotherapy, Rui Zhang, Rebecca M. Howell, Kenneth Homann, Annelise Giebeler, Phillip J. Taddei, Anita Mahajan, Wayne D. Newhauser

Faculty Publications

Background: Hodgkin disease (HD) and medulloblastoma (MB) are common malignancies found in children and young adults, and radiotherapy is part of the standard treatment. It was reported that these patients who received radiation therapy have an increased risk of cardiovascular late effects. We compared the predicted risk of developing radiogenic cardiac toxicity after photon versus proton radiotherapies for a pediatric patient with HD and a pediatric patient with MB.Methods: In the treatment plans, each patient's heart was contoured in fine detail, including substructures of the pericardium and myocardium. Risk calculations took into account both therapeutic and stray radiation doses. We …

Computational And Experimental Insights Into The Mechanism Of Substrate Recognition And Feedback Inhibition Of Protoporphyrinogen Oxidase, Ge-Fei Hao, Ying Tan, Sheng-Gang Yang, Zhi-Fang Wang, Chang-Guo Zhan, Zhen Xi, Guang-Fu Yang

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (PPO; EC 1.3.3.4) is an essential enzyme catalyzing the last common step in the pathway leading to heme and chlorophyll biosynthesis. Great interest in PPO inhibitors arises from both its significance to agriculture and medicine. However, the discovery of PPO inhibitors with ultrahigh potency and selectivity is hampered due to lack of structural and mechanistic understanding about the substrate recognition, which remains a longstanding question central in porphyrin biology. To understand the mechanism, a novel binding model of protogen (protoporphyrinogen IX, the substrate) was developed through extensive computational simulations. Subsequently, amino acid residues that are critical for …

An Analysis Of The Underrepresentation Of Black Students In The Advanced Placement Program: Implications For Postsecondary Access, Faye Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Using a qualitative approach, this study explored the factors that contribute to the underrepresentation of Black students in the AP program. The sample was comprised of 12 Black students who attended a suburban public high school in New Jersey. Seven of the participants were enrolled in AP classes and five were enrolled in Honors classes. Themes unique to the AP group were: discomfort and isolation in AP courses and teacher expectations. The theme that emerged from the non AP student interviews was comfort in Honors. Themes common to both groups were: lack of AP information, the impact of guidance counselors, …

Transcriptomic And Physiological Variations Of Three Arabidopsis Ecotypes In Response To Salt Stress., Yanping Wang, Li Yang, Zhimin Zheng, Rebecca Grumet, Wayne Loescher, Jian-Kang Zhu, Pingfang Yang, Yuanlei Hu, Zhulong Chan

Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture Faculty Publications

Salt stress is one of the major abiotic stresses in agriculture worldwide. Analysis of natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis is an effective approach to characterize candidate salt responsive genes. Differences in salt tolerance of three Arabidopsis ecotypes were compared in this study based on their responses to salt treatments at two developmental stages: seed germination and later growth. The Sha ecotype had higher germination rates, longer roots and less accumulation of superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide than the Ler and Col ecotypes after short term salt treatment. With long term salt treatment, Sha exhibited higher survival rates and lower electrolyte …

Function And X-Ray Crystal Structure Of Escherichia Coli Yfde, Elwood Mullins, Kelly L. Sullivan, T. Joseph Kappock

Department of Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Many food plants accumulate oxalate, which humans absorb but do not metabolize, leading to the formation of urinary stones. The commensal bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes consumes oxalate by converting it to oxalyl- CoA, which is decarboxylated by oxalyl-CoA decarboxylase (OXC). OXC and the class III CoA-transferase formyl- CoA:oxalate CoA-transferase (FCOCT) are widespread among bacteria, including many that have no apparent ability to degrade or to resist external oxalate. The EvgA acid response regulator activates transcription of the Escherichia coli yfdXWUVE operon encoding YfdW (FCOCT), YfdU (OXC), and YfdE, a class III CoA-transferase that is ~ 30% identical to YfdW. YfdW and …

Fabrication Of Surface Amine Gradients By Controlled-Rate Infusion For Chromatographic Applications, Balamurali Kannan

Theses and Dissertations

Surface gradients are materials that exhibit a variation in properties such as chemical composition, topography etc., in a continuous and/or discrete fashion. They are broadly classified as chemical and physical gradients depending upon the properties that gradient exhibits. Among those, chemical gradients on various surfaces have been a great interest in materials research for the last two decades. This is due to the applications of gradients in various fields such as biological sciences, separation science, etc. There have been several different approaches developed for the preparation of chemical gradients. Silane-based approaches are among those that are widely used because of …

Efferent Copy And Corollary Discharge Motor Control Behavior Associated With A Hopping Activity, Wangdo Kim, António P. Veloso, Filipa João, Sean S. Kohles

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hoppers respond not only to stimuli from the ground surfaces but also to cues generated by their own behaviors. This leads to desensitization because although the afferent and reafferent signals have distinct causes, they are carried by the same sensory channels. From a behavioral viewpoint, it may be necessary to distinguish between signals from the two causes especially when monitoring changes in the external environment separate from those due to self-movement. We were able to separate afferent sensory stimuli from self-generated, reafferent signals using an action oriented perception system and dynamic programming approach. This effort addressed the question of how …

Gene Expression-Based Biomarkers For Anopheles Gambiae Age Grading, Mei Hui Wang, Osvaldo Marinotti, Daibin Zhong, Anthony A. James, Edward Walker, Tom Guda, Eliningaya J. Kweka, John Githure, Guiyun Yan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Information on population age structure of mosquitoes under natural conditions is fundamental to the understanding of vectorial capacity and crucial for assessing the impact of vector control measures on malaria transmission. Transcriptional profiling has been proposed as a method for predicting mosquito age for Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes, however, whether this new method is adequate for natural conditions is unknown. This study tests the applicability of transcriptional profiling for age-grading of Anopheles gambiae, the most important malaria vector in Africa. The transcript abundance of two An. gambiae genes, AGAP009551 and AGAP011615, was measured during aging under laboratory and field conditions …

Phylogeography And Species Status Of Ramphogordius Sanguineus, Cora Runnels

Theses and Dissertations

Ramphogordius sanguineus (Rathke 1799) is a gregarious nemertean with a worldwide distribution and found mainly on hard substrates associated with mussels, oysters and other organisms of the fouling community. Asexual reproduction occurs by spontaneous fragmentation and only anecdotal accounts of sexual reproduction exist. This is the first phylogeographic study of R. sanguineus as well as the first species delimitation analyses employing DNA markers. Analysis of the mitochondrial gene nad6 and nuclear ISSR markers showed little diversity among geographically widespread populations, but AMOVA analyses of both markers revealed moderate to high genetic differentiation. Populations from Maine and Massachusetts exhibited the highest …

Ex Vivo Reprogramming Of Tumor-Reactive Immune Cells From Fvbn202 Mice Bearing Lung Metastatic Mammary Carcinoma: An Immunotherapeutic Opportunity Revealed Against Recurrence, Charles Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Metastatic breast cancer treatment has seen few advances in recent years, yet treatment resistance continues to rise, causing disease recurrence. A pilot study was performed to determine the efficacy of ex vivo expansion and reprogramming of tumor-reactive immune cells from experimental metastatic tumor-sensitized mice. Also, phenotypic changes in tumors due to metastasis or tumor microenvironment influences were characterized. Metastatic neu+ mouse mammary carcinoma (mMMC) and its distant relapsing neu-antigen-negative variant (mANV) were investigated in FVBN202 mice. Tumor-reactive central memory CD8+ T cells and activated NK/NKT cells were successfully reprogrammed and expanded during 6-day expansion from mMMC- and/or mANV-sensitized mice, resulting …

Solomon’S Child: How Baby Veronica Came To Be Returned Home After A Long Legal Battle, Joanna L. Grossman

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

At the ripe old age of three-and-a-half, Baby Veronica will now make her third transition to a new home. At birth, her biological mother placed her for adoption with adoptive parents, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, who live in South Carolina. When Baby Veronica was twenty-seven months, however, a court ordered that she be taken from the Capobiancos and given to her biological father, whose rights, the court said, had not been adequately protected in the adoption process. And now, almost two years later, she will be returned to the Capobiancos, who took their fight for her all the way to …

Regenerating The Enthesis: Characterizing Tendon To Bone Interface Development On Polymer Scaffolds Under Cyclic Strain Application, Lauren Eichaker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This research is the application of cyclic strain to a polyester terepthalate (PET) scaffold seeded with fibroblast cells on one half and osteoblast cells on the other half for 28 days. The apparatus ensured that osteoblasts received no applied strain except that from the flowing media. Fibroblasts received strain (0%, 2.5%, and 5%) in the form of 0.089 Hz load cycles, which incorporated 10 seconds of rest, 4 hours per day. This preliminary research showed that fibroblasts can respond to strain application and media flow by depositing approximately 2 times more glycosaminoglycans and collagen matrix onto the PET scaffold per …

Alien Evolutions: Darwinian Influence On The History And Transformation Of The Anglo-American Science Fiction Alien, 1885 To 1936, Greg D. Conley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation argues that the alien as a literary figure gained meaning through writers’ use of evolutionary theory and the literary grotesque as they created alien monsters. The alien pointed to foreigners, people from other countries, religions, or other social groups – strange but not totally unfamiliar. Evolutionary theory alienated many people from each other, their surroundings, and even abstract constructs that shaped their world such as Nature and Time. This alienation anxiety found its way into the literature of monsters, which used the grotesque to represent and discuss this anxiety. The alien had been human, and people as grotesque …

Barometric Pressure And Aggressive Behavior: A Correlational Case Study, William V. Justice Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the correlation between environmental stimuli (e.g., barometric pressure) and aggressive behaviors emitted by an individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Specifically, the researcher measured barometric pressure with a data-logging instrument (designed and built by the primary researcher) in a ¬clinical setting where adults with ASD and challenging high-intensity behaviors (e.g. self-injurious behavior and physical aggression) reside. Relationships between the selected variables were examined quantitatively using binary logistic regression in an effort to statistically analyze if the environmental conditions might be a setting event for aggressive behaviors for the participant studied. Outcomes …

Wicked Futures: Metadesign, Resilience And Transformative Classrooms, Les Hooper, Sue Fraser Welch, Natalie Wright

Learn X Design Conference Series

This paper presents an Australian case study entitled “Designing Futures”. It examines a six month multidisciplinary design program offered by a large coeducational, inner-city state school in Queensland in 2011. The program extended an already successful and innovative school-based design curriculum and involved students in Philosophy, Science, Mathematics and English classes, as well those in Art and Design. Additionally, there were 5 full-day workshops where students combined a wide range of skills to brainstorm, design and create sustainable solutions. The design thinking used in this program was based on the concepts of metadesign, design activism and design futuring. “Designing Futures” …

The Influences Of Early Temperament And Emotion Regulation On Social Competence In Middle Childhood, Elizabeth Carmen Penela

Open Access Dissertations

Behaviorally inhibited children are predisposed toward social difficulties, but other environmental and within-child characteristics, such as emotion regulation, also influence social development. This study longitudinally examined: (1) independent influences of behavior inhibition and emotion regulation on future social competence, (2) associations between behavior inhibition and emotion regulation, and (3) the moderating role of emotion regulation on the relation between behavior inhibition and social competence. Participants (N = 257) were enrolled in a larger study of temperament and social development. Maternal-report questionnaires and behavioral observations (ages 2 and 3) were used to assess behavior inhibition. Children’s active and passive regulation strategy …

Testing The Relative Performance Of Data Adaptive Prediction Algorithms: A Generalized Test Of Conditional Risk Differences, Benjamin A. Goldstein, Eric Polley, Farren Briggs, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

In statistical medicine comparing the predictability or fit of two models can help to determine whether a set of prognostic variables contains additional information about medical outcomes, or whether one of two different model fits (perhaps based on different algorithms, or different set of variables) should be preferred for clinical use. Clinical medicine has tended to rely on comparisons of clinical metrics like C-statistics and more recently reclassification. Such metrics rely on the outcome being categorical and utilize a specific and often obscure loss function. In classical statistics one can use likelihood ratio tests and information based criterion if the …

Improved Economic Feasibility Of Green Energy And Fuel Production Through Wastewater Based Microalgae Growth, Cole Adams

Theses

A growing concern of the impacts from carbon emitting fuels has lead to the development of potentially carbon natural biofuels in the form of biodiesel, bioethanol, and biogas. Unfortunately, first generation sources such as corn, palm, and soy, have not been able to meet the needs of an environmental friendly fuel. In response, microalgae have been proposed by many as an alternative, with the potential to overcome many of the limitations of the first generation sources. Biofuel production from microalgae, however, has not been economically competitive with other petroleum based fuel, and has environmental issues of its own. The viability …

Exfoliation And Chemical Modifications Of Natural Flake Graphite, Andrew Jason Oyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Graphene, a two-dimensional sheet of atomically thin carbon, has recently gained

attention due to its excellent electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. It has the

potential for use in a variety of applications such as circuits, solar cells, and

transparent conducting electrodes. In order to feasibly produce graphene, practical

methods for its preparation need to be developed. Current methods, such as

micromechanical exfoliation (Scotch tape™), solvent exfoliation and chemical vapor

deposition (CVD) are far from ideal. Micromechanical exfoliation produces minute

amounts of very small graphene flakes, and CVD is expensive and lacks scalability.

This work presented in this thesis focuses on …

The Role Of Gender In Scholarly Authorship, Jevin D. West, Jennifer Jacquet, Molly M. King, Shelley J. Correll, Carl T. Bergstrom

Sociology

Gender disparities appear to be decreasing in academia according to a number of metrics, such as grant funding, hiring, acceptance at scholarly journals, and productivity, and it might be tempting to think that gender inequity will soon be a problem of the past. However, a large-scale analysis based on over eight million papers across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities reveals a number of understated and persistent ways in which gender inequities remain. For instance, even where raw publication counts seem to be equal between genders, close inspection reveals that, in certain fields, men predominate in the prestigious first …

Impacts Of Traditional Livestock Corrals On Woody Plant Communities In An East African Savanna, Kari E. Veblen

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

In African savannas, humans and their livestock leave long-term legacies on the landscape in the form of abandoned livestock bomas (corrals). Once abandoned, bomas develop into nutrient-rich herbivore hotspots characterised by distinctive plant communities. Impacts of bomas, however, extend beyond the boundaries of the boma site itself. This is especially true for woody species which are intensively harvested for boma fencing material and fuel wood. Following boma abandonment, it is not clear how quickly, or to what extent, woody plant communities may change and develop over time. A chronosequence approach was used to investigate the effects of traditional livestock bomas …

Great Bay Estuary Tidal Tributary Monitoring Program (Gbettmp) 2013-2017 Quality Assurance Project Plan, New Hampshire Department Of Environmental Services, Matthew A. Wood

Quality Assurance Project Plans

No abstract provided.

Uab Professor Leveraging Social Networks To Help Visually Impaired Children In Bangladesh, Staff

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No abstract provided.

Genetic Analysis Of Population Structure And Reproductive Mode Of The Termite Reticulitermes Chinensis Snyder, Qiuying Huang, Ganghua Li, Claudia Husseneder, Chaoliang Lei

Faculty Publications

The subterranean termite Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder is an important pest of trees and buildings in China. Here, we characterized genetic structure and reproductive modes of R. chinensis from China for the first time. A total of 1,875 workers from 75 collection sites in Huanggang, Changsha and Chongqing cities were genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. Analysis of genetic clusters showed two subpopulations in Chongqing city. The Huanggang population showed a uniform genetic pattern and was separated from the other populations by the largest genetic distances (FST: 0.17-0.20). In contrast, smaller genetic distances (FST: 0.05-0.12) separated Changsha, Chongqing-1 and Chongqing-2 populations. Chongqing-1 …

West Nile Virus Methyltransferase Domain Interacts With Protein Kinase, Julie A. Keating, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Pei-Yin Lim, Shaun Falk, Bernard Weisblum, Kristen A. Bernard, Mayuri Sharma, Richard J. Kuhn, Rob Striker

Department of Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

The flaviviral nonstructural protein 5 (NS5) is a phosphoprotein, though the precise identities and roles of many specific phosphorylations remain unknown. Protein kinase G (PKG), a cGMP-dependent protein kinase, has previously been shown to phosphorylate dengue virus NS5.

Methods

We used mass spectrometry to specifically identify NS5 phosphosites. Co-immunoprecipitation assays were used to study protein-protein interactions. Effects on viral replication were measured via replicon system and plaque assay titering.

Results

We identified multiple sites in West Nile virus (WNV) NS5 that are phosphorylated during a WNV infection, and showed that the N-terminal methyltransferase domain of WNV NS5 can be …

Role Of Tyk2 In Regulating Energy Expenditure And Preventing Obesity, Vidisha Raje

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity develops when energy intake exceeds energy expenditure. Defect in the function of brown fat and skeletal muscle, two of the major tissues that contribute towards energy expenditure, lead to the development of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Our previous findings suggest that Tyk2 deficient mice become obese and develop the metabolic syndrome. Tyk2, which is a tyrosine kinase of the JAK-STAT signaling family, is important for optimal brown development and function. Since brown fat and skeletal muscle, both are derived from the Myf5+ lineage of mesenchymal stem cells, we also characterized the role of Tyk2 in the development and function …

Searching For Stable SiNCN Clusters: Combination Of Stochastic Potential Surface Search And Pseudopotential Plane-Wave Car-Parinello Simulated Annealing Simulations, Xiaofeng F. Duan, Lingyu Huang, Larry W. Burggraf

Faculty Publications

To find low energy Si_nC_n structures out of hundreds to thousands of isomers we have developed a general method to search for stable isomeric structures that combines Stochastic Potential Surface Search and Pseudopotential Plane-Wave Density Functional Theory Car-Parinello Molecular Dynamics simulated annealing (PSPW-CPMD-SA). We enhanced the Sunders stochastic search method to generate random cluster structures used as seed structures for PSPW-CPMD-SA simulations. This method ensures that each SA simulation samples a different potential surface region to find the regional minimum structure. By iterations of this automated, parallel process on a high performance computer we located hundreds to …

Elk (Cervus Elaphus) Seasonal Habitat Selection In A Heterogeneous Forest Structure, Jesse N. Popp, David N.C. Mcgeachy, Josef Hamr

Aspen Bibliography

Seasonal habitat selection by the reintroduced Burwash elk population, approximately 30 km south of Sudbury, Ontario, has been analysed in order to assist in the development of future management. Twenty-five adult females were radio-collared and tracked 1–3 times a week for 3 years. The most prominent patterns included selection of intolerant hardwood forests (trembling aspen, white birch, and balsam poplar) during all seasons, while Great Lakes-St. Lawrence pines (white and red pine dominated stands) were used less than expected based on availability for all seasons. The selection patterns are likely associated with seasonal climatic conditions and forage preferences. Because the …