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Determining The Role Of Dnttip1: Piecing Together The Callipyge Sheep Muscle Hypertrophy Pathway, Kimberly Lutz

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Callipyge sheep have muscle hypertrophy in their loin and pelvic limbs due to a mutation in the DLK1-DIO3 imprinted gene cluster, which results in a 30–40% increase in muscle mass without altering live weight. There is also a change in the myosin gene expression causing an increase in fast twitch glycolytic fibers. Previous gene expression studies have shown that DNTTIP1 (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase interacting protein 1) is up-regulated in the callipyge muscle. DNTTIP1 is a transcription factor, meaning it binds to a specific DNA sequence to control the amount of mRNA produced. DNTTIP1 may regulate other genes, ultimately leading to …

Infants' Speech Segmentation: The Impact Of Mother-Infant Facial Synchrony, Allison Kish, Katie Courtaney, Adi Dilger, Tori Gallo, Lauren King, Amy Jarvis, Ambry Roberson, Meredith Smith, Serina Thottichira

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Various measures of infant responsiveness have been shown to predict child outcomes. Despite this extensive research, there is no work examining links between infant responsiveness during caregiver-infant interactions with infants' ability to perform basic linguistic tasks. One key task in early linguistic development is word segmentation, an achievement that allows infants to build their mental dictionaries. We hypothesized that infants' responsiveness to caregiver facial expressions might be related to their word segmentation ability.

In order to test this hypothesis, mothers came into the lab and were videotaped reading books containing target words to their 5-month-old children. After the infants were …

The Regulation Of Mammary Cell Growth: Determining The Role Of Clock, Emily C. Erickson

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Changes in modern lifestyle such as lack of sleep, stress, and light exposure late at night are associated with increased rates of breast cancer. Most physiological processes, including growth, development, and metabolism, are controlled by circadian clocks. Circadian clocks respond to environmental cues to synchronize internal physiological processes, and thus, the disruption of this system may be responsible for this connection. The master clock in the brain coordinates peripheral circadian clocks located in every tissue of the body, including the mammary gland, and the core circadian component CLOCK regulates circadian oscillation of gene expression. Currently, the physiological function of the …

Directing The Development Of Posterior Neural Fates: The Role Of Fgf, Cdx, And Hox Genes, Albert G. Hayward Ii

Open Access Dissertations

Understanding how the anatomical complexity of the nervous system arises is key to understanding the function of the nervous system. Neural development is a complex process consisting of multiple discrete steps regulated and coordinated by signaling events. Surprisingly, a rather small number of signals are implicated in regulating these vastly different neural developmental processes. A striking example is the case of the signaling molecule Fibroblast Growth Factor, or FGF, which regulates the induction of neural tissues from prospective ectoderm cells, regionalizes the neural tissue into forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord, and provides discrete anterior-posterior (A-P) identity to hindbrain and …

2014 Fall Convocation Program, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Communications and Marketing Publications Archive

Fall convocation program held on August 13, 2014.

Amos Isaac, Wilmer Amina Carter Foundation

Bridges Digital Archive: Audio and Video Recordings

Dr. Amos Isaac was born in Arcadia, Louisiana where he and his family of 10 lived. Eventually his family moved to San Bernardino, California, where Amos attended schools throughout his K-12 education. Following high school, he attended San Bernardino Valley College. He then went on to get his masters from the University of Redlands. While attending the Redlands, Amos did not have access to transportation so he walked from San Bernardino to Redlands. His dedication towards attaining his degree was very telling as Amos dedicated his life to bettering education for the Black community. Post Masters’ degree, Amos attended Claremont …

A City Club Report On Ip52: Religious Liberties, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Leak Of Sulfuric Acid Forces Authorities To Declare Environmental Emergency For Several Communities Along Sonora River, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Abq Free Press, August 13, 2014, Abq Free Press

ABQ Free Press

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of N-Heterocycles For Activity On Monoamine Transporters And Exploration Of Iridium Chemistry For Synthesis Of Medicinally Important Molecules, Tushar D. Apsunde

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The focus of these studies was directed towards the synthesis of novel N-heterocyclic compounds and pharmacological evaluation of these compounds for activity at monoamine transporters. A series of novel piperidine and pyrrolidine analogues were prepared from commercially available starting material with a three and four step synthetic method, respectively. A variety of substituents on the aromatic ring were incorporated to achieve a diverse library of compounds. The preliminary binding studies of piperidine molecules showed strong affinity towards serotonin transporters and moderate affinity towards dopamine transporters. The focus of further studies was directed towards utilization of iridium catalysis for the development …

Determining Kinetics For Simulated Sunlight-Exposed Oil Compounds, Dustin D. Kountz

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Understanding of the fate of oil in the environment is of utmost importance; however, accurate, predictive models are still in very early stages. To aid in the development of these models, photodegradation of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in an n-alkane hydrocarbon matrix was followed for individual PAHs and mixtures of PAHs similar to that found in the Deepwater Horizon spill. Tetracene in tetradecane photodegraded quickest of all observed PAHs, with a loss of 99% after only one hour of irradiation. Binary mixtures of PAHs showed different degradation amounts, including changes in PAH kinetics. These results suggest that the …

Comparison Of Nonlinear Filtering Methods For Battery State Of Charge Estimation, Klaus Zhang

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In battery management systems, the main figure of merit is the battery's SOC, typically obtained from voltage and current measurements. Present estimation methods use simplified battery models that do not fully capture the electrical characteristics of the battery, which are useful for system design. This thesis studied SOC estimation for a lithium-ion battery using a nonlinear, electrical-circuit battery model that better describes the electrical characteristics of the battery. The extended Kalman filter, unscented Kalman filter, third-order and fifth-order cubature Kalman filter, and the statistically linearized filter were tested on their ability to estimate the SOC through numerical simulation. Their performances …

Here There Is No Place That Does Not See You, Carolyn B. Mikulencak

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Hotline Press Newspaper- August 2014 Vol 30 No 14, Hotline Press Newspaper

Hotline Press Newspaper 2014

No abstract provided.

Manipulation Of Larval And Winter Habitat Reveals Potential Effects Of Urbanization And Climate Change On Wood Frogs In Connecticut, Jason H. O'Connor

Master's Theses

Human activity can result in both local and global changes in the environment which in turn can affect other organisms and may result in population declines and loss of biodiversity. At the local scale, human activity often causes changes in habitat quality. For example, development and agriculture increase water turbidity which can influence wetland communities. At a global scale, carbon emissions are altering Earth’s climate, leading to increasing air temperatures. Using Wood Frogs, Lithobates sylvaticus, a wide-ranging, pond breeding amphibian, I sought to determine how sediment input affects larval amphibians and to assess how predicted loss of snow cover …

An Uncommon Presentation For Cardiac Melanoma, Burcu Gul, Michael N. Young, David A. Slosky, Mark A. Lawson, Jeffrey N. Rottman

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

A 66-year-old man with locally advanced malignant melanoma, which was surgically resected, presented with a 3-week history of dizziness, recurrent near-syncopal episodes and generalized weakness. He was found to have sustained polymorphic ventricular tachycardia in the setting of cardiac melanoma. We draw attention to an unusual presentation of malignant melanoma with cardiac metastasis and discuss both its etiology and treatment options.

Self-Distancing To Reduce Anger In High School Students, Koichi Yoshikawa

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study employed an experimental design to examine the efficacy of self-distancing as an intervention in a sample of high school students for promoting reflective adaptation to anger inducing events relative to a control group using self-reflection/self-immersion. Despite the prevalent assumption that self-reflection facilitates the resolution of negative emotions, evidence demonstrates that self-reflection often leads to anger rumination. Recent experimental studies on college students, elementary school students, and couples have found that self-distancing interventions, as compared to self-immersion/reflection interventions or a no-treatment control, lead to adaptive responses to anger and reductions in future aggression. As adolescents are particularly prone …

Inferring The Provenance Of An Alien Species With Dna Barcodes: The Neotropical Butterfly Dryas Iulia In Thailand, Noah A. Burg, Ashman Pradhan, Rebecca M. Gonzalez, Emely Z. Morban, Erica W. Zhen, Watana Sakchoowong, David J. Lohman

Publications and Research

The Neotropical butterfly Dryas iulia has been collected from several locations in Thailand and Malaysia since 2007, and has been observed breeding in the wild, using introduced Passiflora foetida as a larval host plant. The butterfly is bred by a butterfly house in Phuket, Thailand, for release at weddings and Buddhist ceremonies, and we hypothesized that this butterfly house was the source of wild, Thai individuals. We compared wing patterns and COI barcodes from two, wild Thai populations with individuals obtained from this butterfly house. All Thai individuals resemble the subspecies D. iulia modesta, and barcodes from wild and captive …

The Adversity Pop Culture Has Posed, Darel Joseph

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I am a collage artist working with multiple mediums such as paint, photography, video, audio, and performance. As a New Orleans’ native, I have a unique history that is unflattering, for my history echoes that of America’s historical misdeeds. I make sociopolitical art because I am of a historically oppressed people. I make art that celebrates my diverse culture that is a collage of Native American, African, and New Orleans’ French Creole.

Eclectica, Melanie D. Fitch

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

MFA thesis

Data Visualization To Evaluate And Facilitate Targeted Data Acquisitions In Support Of A Real-Time Ocean Forecasting System, Edward A. Holmberg Iv

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A robust evaluation toolset has been designed for Naval Research Laboratory’s Real-Time Ocean Forecasting System RELO with the purpose of facilitating an adaptive sampling strategy and providing a more educated guidance for routing underwater gliders. The major challenges are to integrate into the existing operational system, and provide a bridge between the modeling and operative environments. Visualization is the selected approach and the developed software is divided into 3 packages: The first package is to verify that the glider is actually following the waypoints and to predict the position of the glider for the next cycle’s instructions. The second package …

New Orleans Producers: Directing The Regional Food System One Informal Contract At A Time, Emily Nichols

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Large corporations largely control food production and distribution in the global food system and have generated a desire for locally produced food. Although small independent producers still contribute to regional food systems, there is little understanding about how they distribute and market their products. This thesis uses both semistructured interviews to investigate the distribution practices of urban, family, and regional producers in the New Orleans region and discourse analysis to disclose how localist discourse shapes producers marketing practices. The discourse analysis discovered that the web presence of local New Orleans restaurants, farmers, and Crescent City Farmers Market targeted concepts that …

The Isle Of Flightless Birds: A Concise History, Carin Chapman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

Effect Of Increased Water Temperature On Warm Water Fish Feeding Behavior And Habitat Use, Eric Walberg

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Global warming could cause changes in species behavior and life history. Stream fish may be significantly affected by climate change because individuals are restricted in their movements by water systems and other physical factors, preventing migration to locations more thermally suitable. The effect of warmer waters on stream fish could change behavior and affect the fish species survival and ultimately ecosystem function. During my experiment I observed the effects of increased water temperature on the feeding behavior and habitat use of two native Minnesota fish species, black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) and black bullhead (Ameiurus melas). An increase of 2oC over …

The Art Of Being: A Study Of The Relationship Between Daoism And Art, Jessica Ortis

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Ever since the beginning of time, artists have been inspired by the religion they choose to follow. Sometimes religion was the subject, but more often than not, one had to really dig deeper into a work of art to understand the religious meaning. In my paper, I focused on contemporary Chinese artist Song Dong, who uses his artistic abilities to reflect the ideals of Daoism. Focusing on a couple of more well known works by Song Dong, one can see that he shows how one is able to move down the path to lead a more full life through the …

A Contemporary Spin On Tradition: Xu Bing's Cultural Exploration, Karen Obermeyer-Kolb

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This paper analyzed the artwork of Xu Bing and his exploration of cultural values, specifically of language in China. Chinese is one of the oldest written languages of the world, with forms established by 1000CE. One of the purposes of classical Chinese calligraphy was self expression. The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s brought a shift to this tradition by using large characters as propaganda. Xu Bing uses prominent symbols of culture and language, stemming from the classical teaching of his parents and his work experience during the Cultural Revolution, to convey views of society, as well as to …

Computational Model Of A Left Ventricle: Showing The Effects Of Inertia On Cardiac Dyssynchrony, Andrew Mcnally, Matthew Korpela, Erin Lamke, Matthew Hudson

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In an effort to research heart failure, a leading cause of death in the industrialized world, this research team has developed a segmented lumped parameter model of the left ventricle. The computations model developed focuses on dyssynchrony, a heart condition where some regions of the heart vary significantly in properties like internal muscle resistance, mass, or elastance. Inertial effects are often assumed as negligible by cardiovascular models. One primary function of this model is to investigate inertial effects as they relate to mechanical cardiac dyssynchrony. An added dimension of this analysis is to observe the thermodynamics of the cardiac cycle …

Coexistence Of Multi-Allelic Polymorphism With Migration And Selection, Andrew Flick

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Population ecology is concerned with the growth patterns of populations. This field has many applications, ranging from survival at the environmental level, to the spread of infectious diseases at the cellular level. Mathematical modeling and computer simulation can be powerful tools in researching this area. I will be investigating the spatial patterns in populations (or gene frequencies) due to migration and selection. My research conditions are for the maintenance of polymorphism under a variety of migration schemes in discrete-space and continuous-time mathematical models. The results will be applicable from the ecological level to the molecular level. Some species are better …

Anti-Predator Responses Of Fathead Minnows To Alarm Substance Pheromone, Sarah Thomson

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In some fish, alarm substances are released from skin cells when they are bitten by a predator, signaling nearby fish in potential danger. Such anti-predator defenses have been studied in the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas), and some have hypothesized that the response to the alarm substance is not instinctual, but rather fish must learn to associate it with a predation cue such as motion. The purpose of this study is to detect an effect of conditioning (associating alarm substance with predation threat) on minnow responses to alarm substance. We tested the prediction that conditioned fish would react more strongly to …

Atrazine Influence On Northern Pike Sperm Motility And Viability In Minnesota, Andy Stevens, Paul Pallardy

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Concern has been noted by fish hatchery biologists with the Department of Natural Resources that southern Minnesota northern pike Esox lucius populations have exhibited reduced hatching rates, a trend not occurring with northern Minnesota pike populations. The chemical atrazine is a frequently used herbicide in Minnesota and has been found to cause gonadal dysgenesis and reproductive development issues in amphibians and fish. Sperm, length, and age data were collected from northern pike in four Minnesota lakes. Water samples were obtained from two of the lakes to test for atrazine. Test results indicated atrazine concentrations0.10 and r2 < 0.06 for all regressions). Sperm motility reductions in northern pike could be related to declining populations and warrants further research.