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Developmental Changes And H+-Atpase Co-Localization In Nepenthes Alata Peristomal Nectary Glands, Alison Carini

Biology Honors Papers

Nepenthes alata is an east-Asian species of tropical carnivorous plant more commonly known as a pitcher plant. The pitcher is a modified epiascidiate leaf used to passively capture insects as nutritious supplements to its diet. In this study, the ultrastructure of different age stages of peristomal extrafloral nectary glands were surveyed, selected ages were immunolabeled for H+-ATPases. All nectary cells had numerous mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, plastids, and vacuoles in a dense cytoplasm consistent with an active secretory system. The larger class of immature pitchers (approx. 4 cm in diameter, lid closed) had budding structures affecting the plasma membrane …

Responses Of Forest Bird Populations To Long-­‐Term Changes In Local Vegetation And Regional Forest Cover, Mary Buchanan

Biology Honors Papers

Bird and vegetation surveys have been conducted periodically in the Connecticut College Arboretum since the 1950s, permitting analysis of long-term relationships of bird populations with the structure and floristic composition of the vegetation and with forest cover changes in the surrounding region. Principal component analyses created vegetation factors encompassing variables such as total basal area, basal area of common tree species, and tree diversity, and created a forest fragmentation factor based on GIS analysis of the landscape within 2 kilometers of the study site. Poisson regression models revealed relationships between these factors and population changes for twenty individual species and …

Ecotourism In The Galápagos Islands: A Case Study In The Anthropology Of Tourism, Claire Wellbeloved-Stone

Anthropology Department Honors Papers

This project originated my sophomore year as my application to the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA). In my search for a project that would relate to anthropology and the Galápagos Islands I discovered the potential to study the tourism industry and its effects on society. Over the course of three years the project developed from a proposal as part of my application to CISLA to an internship and an honors thesis.

The focus of this thesis is the study of ecotourism in the Galápagos Islands, with a concentration on the interaction between tourists and …

Developing Meaningful Carbon Offsets For Bates College, Horace Henriques, Nicolas Ford, Felix Xie

Community Engaged Research Reports

This project was conducted, as a template, to make Bates College a more sustainable energy community. By recommending renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets that are meaningful to the Bates Committee on Environmental Responsibility we have provided a roadmap for the college to obtain its ultimate goal of carbon neutrality. The aim of this project was to provide a general overview of the REC and carbon offset market for our community project partner Julie Rosenbach, the Manager of Sustainability Initiatives at Bates College. We are offering five recommendations of RECs and carbon offsets that are meaningful investments for Bates …

2014-2015 Hccp Year-End Summary, Darby Ray

Year-end Summaries

No abstract provided.

Finding Fault?: Exploring Legal Duties To Return Incidental Findings In Genomic Research, Elizabeth R. Pike, Karen H. Rothenberg, Benjamin E. Berkman

Faculty Scholarship

The use of whole genome sequencing in biomedical research is expected to produce dramatic advances in human health. The increasing use of this powerful, data-rich new technology in research, however, will inevitably give rise to incidental findings (IFs), findings with individual health or reproductive significance that are beyond the aims of the particular research, and the related questions of whether and to what extent researchers have an ethical obligation to return IFs. Many have concluded that researchers have an ethical obligation to return some findings in some circumstances, but have provided vague or context-dependent approaches to determining which IFs must …

"Practice Ready Graduates": A Millennialist Fantasy, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

The sky is falling on legal education say the pundits, and preparing “practice ready” graduates is one of the best strategies for surviving the fallout. This is a millennialist version of the argument for clinical legal education that dominated discussion in the law schools in the 1960s and 1970s. The circumstances are different now, as are the people calling for reform, but the two movements are alike in one respect: both view skills training as legal education’s primary purpose. Everything else is a frolic and detour, and a fatal frolic and detour in hard times such as the present.

No …

Setting The Stage: Enhancing Understanding Of Bioethical Challenges With Theatre, Karen H. Rothenberg

Faculty Scholarship

Theatre provides a dynamic platform to reflect upon the ethical, legal, and social implications of medical innovations and the powerful impact on personal and professional relationships. This article explores the last four to five decades of theatre, which coincide with the evolution of the formal discipline of bioethics and the field of medical humanities, to aid in the understanding of the bioethical challenges we face today and to place them in an historical and societal context. Four plays are discussed that reflect the ethical and legal context of their eras and reveal significant ethical challenges for us to consider.

Unexpected Links Between Baby Markets And Intergenerational Justice, Martha M. Ertman

Faculty Scholarship

Intergenerational justice does not require increased government regulation of reproductive technologies in the United States. Arguments tarring reproductive technologies as unnatural or immoral fail to withstand close scrutiny, and moreover ignore competing moral concerns like the liberty and equality of people to form families in different ways, as well as the interests of children born via assisted reproduction in having their families recognized just as coitally conceived children’s families are recognized. Embryo markets, in contrast, might present different challenges, requiring a separate analysis of their potential impact on intergenerational justice.

Protecting Health Privacy In An Era Of Big Data Processing And Cloud Computing, Frank A. Pasquale, Tara Adams Ragone

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines how new technologies generate privacy challenges for both healthcare providers and patients, and how American health privacy laws may be interpreted or amended to address these challenges. Given the current implementation of Meaningful Use rules for health information technology and the Omnibus HIPAA Rule in health care generally, the stage is now set for a distinctive law of “health information” to emerge. HIPAA has come of age of late, with more aggressive enforcement efforts targeting wayward healthcare providers and entities. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to assure that health privacy and all the values it is …

Molecular Medicine Commemorates The Career And Science Of Anthony Cerami, K. J. Tracey

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Phase I/Ii Study Of Resection And Intraoperative Cesium-131 Radioisotope Brachytherapy In Patients With Newly Diagnosed Brain Metastases., A. G. Wernicke, B. Parashar, D. Nori, K. S. Clifford Chao, P. Christos, I. Kovanlikaya, S. Pannullo, J. A. Boockvar, P. E. Stieg, T. H. Schwartz

Journal Articles

OBJECT: Resected brain metastases have a high rate of local recurrence without adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) remains the standard of care with a local control rate > 90%. However, WBRT is delivered over 10-15 days, which can delay other therapy and is associated with acute and long-term toxicities. Permanent cesium-131 ((131)Cs) implants can be used at the time of metastatic resection, thereby avoiding the need for any additional therapy. The authors evaluated the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of a novel therapeutic approach with permanent (131)Cs brachytherapy at the resection for brain metastases. METHODS: After institutional review board approval was …

A Systematic Nomenclature For The Redox States Of High Mobility Group Box (Hmgb) Proteins, D. J. Antoine, H. E. Harris, U. Andersson, K. J. Tracey, M. E. Bianchi

Journal Articles

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a central mediator in inflammation and immunity. Recently, it was shown that different redox states of the three cysteines of HMGB1 endow it with mutually exclusive activities, such as inducing chemotaxis or the transcription of cytokines and chemokines, via the interaction with different receptors. The different HMGB1 redox forms can be identified by mass spectrometry in body fluids of patients and may hold promise as biomarkers. We propose here a systematic nomenclature of the different redox forms of HMGB1 and related proteins, to replace the conflicting names used so far by different laboratories.

Associations Between Human Papillomavirus And History Of Cancer Among Us Adults In The National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (2003-2010), B. Liu, E. Taioli

Journal Articles

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is an infectious agent that has been associated with human cancer. We have updated the U.S. population sero-prevalence using a large National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sample of adults from 2003 to 2010, and have analysed the associations between HPV seropositivity and self-reported history of cancer. Methods: Four cross-sectional cycles (2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, and 2009-2010) were used, for a total of 12 759 participants who had both cancer history and HPV serum information. Results: The sero-prevalences of HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 were 15.0%, 4.8%, 11.5%, and 4.1%, respectively. Females had significantly …

World Trade Center Disaster Exposure-Related Probable Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Responders And Civilians: A Meta-Analysis, B. Liu, L. H. Tarigan, E. J. Bromet, H. Kim

Journal Articles

The World Trade Center (WTC) disaster on September 11, 2001 was an unprecedented traumatic event with long-lasting health consequences among the affected populations in the New York metropolitan area. This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the risk of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with specific types of WTC exposures. Meta-analytical findings from 10 studies of 3,271 to 20,294 participants yielded 37 relevant associations. The pooled summary odds ratio (OR) was 2.05 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.82, 2.32), with substantial heterogeneity linked to exposure classification, cohort type, data source, PTSD assessment instrument/criteria, and lapse time since 9/11. In general, responders (e. …

Hpv-Associated Lung Cancers: An International Pooled Analysis, C. Ragin, D. Gibbs, C. Koriyama, J. Koshiol, J. Sykes, S. W. Hee, J. Yokota, A. Zaravinos, E. Taioli

Journal Articles

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the etiologic risk factor for cervical cancer. Some studies have suggested an association with a subset of lung tumors, but the etiologic link has not been firmly established. We performed an international pooled analysis of cross-sectional studies (27 datasets, n = 3249 patients) to evaluate HPV DNA prevalence in lung cancer and to investigate viral presence according to clinical and demographic characteristics. HPV16/18 were the most commonly detected, but with substantial variation in viral prevalence between geographic regions. The highest prevalence of HPV16/18 was observed in South and Central America, followed by Asia, North America and …

Bioactive Lysophospholipids Generated By Hepatic Lipase Degradation Of Lipoproteins Lead To Complement Activation Via The Classical Pathway, W. Ma, D. C. Paik, G. R. Barile

Journal Articles

PURPOSE: We determined bioactivity of lysophospholipids generated by degradation of the low-density (LDL), very low-density (VLDL), and high-density (HDL) lipoproteins with hepatic lipase (HL), cholesterol esterase (CE), and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2). METHODS: The LDL, VLDL, and HDL were treated with HL, CE, and Lp-PLA2 after immobilization on plates, and complement activation studies were performed with diluted human serum. Complement component 3 (C3) fixation, a marker for complement activation, was determined with a monoclonal anti-human C3d antibody. Enzymatic properties of HL and CE were assayed with triglyceride and phosphatidylcholine substrates for triglyceride hydrolase and phospholipase A activities. The ARPE-19 cells …

Implications Of Gender Difference In Coronary Calcification As Assessed By Ct Coronary Angiography, A. N. Makaryus, C. Sison, M. Kohansieh, J. N. Makaryus

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Arterial calcium as measured by 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography (64-CT) is a reliable predictor of cardiovascular disease risk. Lipid-rich plaques with lower degrees of calcification may pose greater risk for adverse coronary events than more stabilized calcified plaques as a result of the increased risk of plaque rupture, migration, and subsequent acute coronary syndrome. We sought to examine coronary artery calcium scores as measured via 64-CT to assess the extent of calcification and plaque distribution in women compared to men. METHODS: A total of 138 patients referred for 64-CT were evaluated. Computerized tomographic angiography was performed using the …

The Hmgb1/Rage Inflammatory Pathway Promotes Pancreatic Tumor Growth By Regulating Mitochondrial Bioenergetics, R. Kang, D. Tang, N. E. Schapiro, T. Loux, K. M. Livesey, T. R. Billiar, H. Wang, B. Van Houten, M. T. Lotze, H. J. Zeh

Journal Articles

Tumor cells require increased adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to support anabolism and proliferation. The precise mechanisms regulating this process in tumor cells are unknown. Here, we show that the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) and one of its primary ligands, high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), are required for optimal mitochondrial function within tumors. We found that RAGE is present in the mitochondria of cultured tumor cells as well as primary tumors. RAGE and HMGB1 coordinately enhanced tumor cell mitochondrial complex I activity, ATP production, tumor cell proliferation and migration. Lack of RAGE or inhibition of HMGB1 release diminished ATP production …

Hmgb1 In Health And Disease, R. Kang, R. C. Chen, Q. H. Zhang, W. Hou, S. Wu, X. G. Fan, Z. W. Yan, X. F. Sun, H. C. Wang, D. L. Tang, +8 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Complex genetic and physiological variations as well as environmental factors that drive emergence of chromosomal instability, development of unscheduled cell death, skewed differentiation, and altered metabolism are central to the pathogenesis of human diseases and disorders. Understanding the molecular bases for these processes is important for the development of new diagnostic biomarkers, and for identifying new therapeutic targets. In 1973, a group of non-histone nuclear proteins with high electrophoretic mobility was discovered and termed high-mobility group (HMG) proteins. The HMG proteins include three superfamilies termed HMGB, HMGN, and HMGA. High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), the most abundant and well-studied HMG …

Gender Differences In Acute And Chronic Pain In The Emergency Department: Results Of The 2014 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference Pain Section, P. I. Musey, S. D. Linnstaedt, T. F. Platts-Mills, J. R. Miner, A. V. Bortsov, D. C. Lee, C. S. Nam, R. G. Patel, R. B. Fillingim, S. A. Mclean, +12 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Pain is a leading public health problem in the United States, with an annual economic burden of more than $630 billion, and is one of the most common reasons that individuals seek emergency department (ED) care. There is a paucity of data regarding sex differences in the assessment and treatment of acute and chronic pain conditions in the ED. The Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference convened in Dallas, Texas, in May 2014 to develop a research agenda to address this issue among others related to sex differences in the ED. Prior to the conference, experts and stakeholders from emergency medicine …

No Man Is An Island: Living In A Disadvantaged Neighborhood Influences Chronic Pain Development After Motor Vehicle Collision, J. C. Ulirsch, M. A. Weaver, A. V. Bortsov, A. C. Soward, R. A. Swor, D. A. Peak, J. S. Jones, N. K. Rathlev, D. C. Lee, S. A. Mclean, +2 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Living in a lower socioeconomic status neighborhood has been shown to alter stress system function and is associated with a number of adverse health outcomes, but its influence on musculoskeletal pain (MSP) outcomes after traumatic stress exposures such as motor vehicle collision (MVC) has not been assessed. We performed a multicenter, prospective study that enrolled 948 European-American individuals within 24 hours of MVC who were discharged home after emergency department evaluation. Follow-up evaluations were completed via telephone or Internet survey 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year after MVC on 91%, 89%, and 91% of participants, respectively. A robust aggregate …

Targeting Hmgb1 In The Treatment Of Sepsis, H. C. Wang, M. F. Ward, A. E. Sama

Journal Articles

Introduction: Sepsis refers to the host's deleterious and non-resolving systemic inflammatory response to microbial infections and represents the leading cause of death in the intensive care unit. The pathogenesis of sepsis is complex, but partly mediated by a newly identified alarmin molecule, the high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). Areas covered: Here we review the evidence that support extracellular HMGB1 as a late mediator of experimental sepsis with a wider therapeutic window and discuss the therapeutic potential of HMGB1-neutralizing antibodies and small molecule inhibitors (herbal components) in experimental sepsis. Expert opinion: It will be important to evaluate the efficacy of …

Pkm2 Regulates The Warburg Effect And Promotes Hmgb1 Release In Sepsis, L. C. Yang, M. Xie, M. H. Yang, Y. Yu, S. Zhu, M. T. Lotze, T. R. Billiar, H. C. Wang, L. Z. Cao, D. L. Tang, +2 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Increasing evidence suggests the important role of metabolic reprogramming in the regulation of the innate inflammatory response, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here we provide evidence to support a novel role for the pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2)-mediated Warburg effect, namely aerobic glycolysis, in the regulation of high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) release. PKM2 interacts with hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF1 alpha) and activates the HIF-1 alpha-dependent transcription of enzymes necessary for aerobic glycolysis in macrophages. Knockdown of PKM2, HIF1 alpha and glycolysis-related genes uniformly decreases lactate production and HMGB1 release. Similarly, a potential PKM2 inhibitor, shikonin, reduces serum lactate …

Intraperitoneal Administration Of Fetuin-A Attenuates D-Galactosamine/Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Liver Failure In Mouse, P. Zhang, H. Shen, J. L. Huang, H. C. Wang, B. X. Zhang, R. R. Zhou, B. Y. Zhong, X. G. Fan

Journal Articles

Fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) is a devastating syndrome, which sometimes results in death or liver transplantation, in which inflammation would aggravate the development of fetuin-A which would act as an anti-inflammatory factor and may be an available approach to attenuate FHF. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of fetuin-A on d-galactosamine/lipopolysaccharide (d-GalN/LPS)-induced liver failure in mice. A mouse model of FHF induced by d-GalN/LPS was established and fetuin-A was injected intraperitoneally prior to d-GalN/LPS treatment. At different time points after d-GalN/LPS intervention, serum TNF-alpha and IL-6 levels were measured by ELISA. Fetuin-A mRNA and protein expression …

Clozapine-Induced Agranulocytosis Is Associated With Rare Hla-Dqb1 And Hla-B Alleles, J. I. Goldstein, L. F. Jarskog, C. Hilliard, A. Alfirevic, H. L. Huang, M. Lek, A. L. Holden, D. L. Kelly, A. K. Malhotra, P. F. Sullivan, +21 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Clozapine is a particularly effective antipsychotic medication but its use is curtailed by the risk of clozapine-induced agranulocytosis/granulocytopenia (CIAG), a severe adverse drug reaction occurring in up to 1% of treated individuals. Identifying genetic risk factors for CIAG could enable safer and more widespread use of clozapine. Here we perform the largest and most comprehensive genetic study of CIAG to date by interrogating 163 cases using genomewide genotyping and whole-exome sequencing. We find that two loci in the major histocompatibility complex are independently associated with CIAG: a single amino acid in HLA-DQB1 (126Q) (P = 4.7 x 10(-14), odds ratio …

Schizophrenia Relapse After Stopping Olanzapine Treatment During Pregnancy: A Case Report, P. Ifteni, M. A. Moga, V. Burtea, C. U. Correll

Journal Articles

Women with schizophrenia have a high risk for symptom exacerbation or relapse during pregnancy and thereafter. Relapses are more frequent when antipsychotics are discontinued. This paper describes the case of a 28-year old woman with schizophrenia who continued treatment with olanzapine during the first trimester. Olanzapine, a second-generation antipsychotic, was administered at a therapeutic dose from week 1 of gestation until week 13 when she reported the pregnancy to her psychiatrist. Despite the psychiatrist's recommendation to continue treatment, the patient stopped olanzapine at 20 weeks. She was hospitalized at week 36 for a schizophrenia relapse and was transferred to the …

Molecular Genetic Evidence For Overlap Between General Cognitive Ability And Risk For Schizophrenia: A Report From The Cognitive Genomics Consortium (Cogent), T. Lencz, E. Knowles, G. Davies, S. Guha, D. C. Liewald, J. M. Starr, S. Djurovic, I. Melle, K. Sundet, A. Christoforou, I. Reinvang, S. Mukherjee, P. Derosse, A. Lundervold, V. M. Steen, M. John, T. Espeseth, K. Raikkonen, E. Widen, A. Palotie, J. G. Eriksson, I. Giegling, B. Konte, M. Ikeda, P. Roussos, S. Giakoumaki, K. E. Burdick, A. Payton, W. Ollier, M. Horan, G. Donohoe, D. Morris, A. Corvin, M. Gill, N. Pendleton, N. Iwata, A. Darvasi, P. Bitsios, D. Rujescu, J. Lahti, S. L. Hellard, M. C. Keller, O. A. Andreassen, I. J. Deary, D. C. Glahn, Anil Malhotra

Journal Articles

It has long been recognized that generalized deficits in cognitive ability represent a core component of schizophrenia (SCZ), evident before full illness onset and independent of medication. The possibility of genetic overlap between risk for SCZ and cognitive phenotypes has been suggested by the presence of cognitive deficits in first-degree relatives of patients with SCZ; however, until recently, molecular genetic approaches to test this overlap have been lacking. Within the last few years, large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of SCZ have demonstrated that a substantial proportion of the heritability of the disorder is explained by a polygenic component consisting of …

The Relationship Between Fasting Serum Glucose And Cerebral Glucose Metabolism In Late-Life Depression And Normal Aging, C. M. Marano, C. I. Workman, C. H. Lyman, E. Kramer, C. R. Hermann, Y. L. Ma, V. Dhawan, T. Chaly, D. Eidelberg, G. S. Smith

Journal Articles

Evidence exists for late-life depression (LLD) as both a prodrome of and risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The underlying neurobiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Impaired peripheral glucose metabolism may explain the association between depression and AD given the connection between type 2 diabetes mellitus with both depression and AD. Positron emission tomography (PET) measures of cerebral glucose metabolism are sensitive to detecting changes in neural circuitry in LLD and AD. Fasting serum glucose (FSG) in non-diabetic young (YC; n=20) and elderly controls (EC; n=12) and LLD patients (n = 16) was correlated with PET scans of cerebral glucose metabolism …

Copy Number Variation In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder And Tourette Syndrome: A Cross-Disorder Study, L. M. Mcgrath, D. M. Yu, C. Marshall, L. K. Davis, B. Thiruvahindrapuram, B. B. Li, C. Cappi, R. D. Bruun, Cathy Budman, J. M. Scharf, +112 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

Objective: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome (TS) are heritable neurodevelopmental disorders with a partially shared genetic etiology. This study represents the first genome-wide investigation of large (>500 kb), rare (