Digital Commons Network^™

Prediction Of Rupture In Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, Qusay Alfaori

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studying the development of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) through quantification of its growth kinetics and rupture criteria is important to decrease the risk of this life-threatening event. Uniaxial and biaxial testing of healthy and time-dependent Type-I collagen degraded aortic specimens from pigs was performed. Stress-strain suitable mathematical models describing the behavior of abdominal aortic tissue were utilized to derive specific tissue properties and parameters. Reduction in Type-I collagen fraction was observed using picrosirius red staining method, bright field microscopy, and MATLAB. Finite Element Modeling (FEM) of healthy and time-dependent Type-I collagen degraded abdominal aortas were performed using ABAQUS finite element …

Anna Rice Honors Portfolio, Anna Grace Rice

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Anna Rice's honors portfolio captured in December 2015.

Applying The Philosophies Of The Beacon Model, Michael P. Raisch

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to apply all the knowledge and skills learned from a master’s degree in Creative Studies at Buffalo State college combined with personal experience in order to share perspective on what a “Beacon” is and how its core values are the foundation for enriching your life as well as the lives of those around you and how it all relates to Creativity. Furthermore, this project applies the concepts from the Beacon model more deeply through supporting philosophies and how the Halloween holiday naturally serves as a Beacon. There is a relationship due to the fact …

Methylseleninic Acid Promotes Antitumour Effects Via Nuclear Foxo3a Translocation Through Akt Inhibition, Míriam Tarrado-Castellarnau, Roldán Cortés, Miriam Zanuy, Josep Tarragó-Celada, Ibrahim H. Polat, Richard Hill, Teresa W-M Fan, Wolfgang Link, Marta Cascante

Toxicology and Cancer Biology Faculty Publications

Selenium supplement has been shown in clinical trials to reduce the risk of different cancers including lung carcinoma. Previous studies reported that the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic activities of methylseleninic acid (MSA) in cancer cells could be mediated by inhibition of the PI3K pathway. A better understanding of the downstream cellular targets of MSA will provide information on its mechanism of action and will help to optimize its use in combination therapies with PI3K inhibitors. For this study, the effects of MSA on viability, cell cycle, metabolism, apoptosis, protein and mRNA expression, and reactive oxygen species production were analysed in A549 …

Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress And Ethanol Neurotoxicity, Fanmuyi Yang, Jia Luo

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Ethanol abuse affects virtually all organ systems and the central nervous system (CNS) is particularly vulnerable to excessive ethanol exposure. Ethanol exposure causes profound damages to both the adult and developing brain. Prenatal ethanol exposure induces fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) which is associated with mental retardation and other behavioral deficits. A number of potential mechanisms have been proposed for ethanol-induced brain damage; these include the promotion of neuroinflammation, interference with signaling by neurotrophic factors, induction of oxidative stress, modulation of retinoid acid signaling, and thiamine deficiency. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) regulates posttranslational protein processing and transport. The accumulation of …

Chronic Systemic Immune Dysfunction In African-Americans With Small Vessel-Type Ischemic Stroke, Candice M. Brown, Cheryl D. Bushnell, Gregory P. Samsa, Larry B. Goldstein, Carol A. Colton

Neurology Faculty Publications

The incidence of small vessel-type (lacunar) ischemic strokes is greater in African-Americans compared to whites. The chronic inflammatory changes that result from lacunar stroke are poorly understood. To elucidate these changes, we measured serum inflammatory and thrombotic biomarkers in African-Americans at least 6 weeks post-stroke compared to control individuals. Cases were African-Americans with lacunar stroke (n = 30), and controls were age-matched African-Americans with no history of stroke or other major neurologic disease (n = 37). Blood was obtained > 6 weeks post-stroke and was analyzed for inflammatory biomarkers. Freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide …

Impact Of Urban Factors And Invasive Species On White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus Leucopus) Habitat Use And Foraging Behavior In An Urban Forest Park., William Persons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

White-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) select for areas of greater canopy cover at the macro scale, and for areas with more CWD at the micro-scale. White-footed mice potentially avoid habitats with higher invasive species richness. White-footed mice preferentially foraged under the honeysuckle canopy in response to changes in temperature and humidity. This study suggests that the interaction between P. leucopus and ground layer invasive species is complex, and that the effect of moonlight may be diminished in this urban park. Urban ecosystems demonstrate high levels of anthropogenic land-use change, modification of abiotic inputs, and altered disturbance regimes. These changes result …

Assessing The Water Quality Benefits Of Green Infrastructure Stormwater Control Measures., Sam Abdollahian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Permeable pavements systems and tree boxes are a common type of Green Infrastructure (GI) Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs) that are often used for mitigating the stormwater runoff. In this study two permeable pavement systems and a tree box installed along parking lanes of an urban street in Louisville, KY, were investigated to evaluate their performance on improving stormwater runoff quality. The water quality monitoring was accomplished by analysis of samples collected from stormwater runoff and the captured stormwater volume at the bottom of the permeable pavements’ sub-base reservoir and by a drain gauge (lysimeter) installed in the tree box. Pollutants …

Development Of A Vascularized, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Liver-Tissue Mimic For Therapeutic Applications., Venkat Madhav Ramakrishnan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the incorporation of several technologies (stem cells, gene therapy, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine) into a single project that aims to produce a liver-tissue mimic for therapeutic applications. The liver is arguably one of the most complex organs in the body. In addition to its remarkable capacity to regenerate, it performs a host of vital functions. As a result, its impairment has widespread systemic consequences. The work described herein focused on the liver in the context of cardiovascular disease and used the heritable disorder Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) as a clinical disease model. As (a) the only definitive …

Circulating Angiogenic Stem Cells In Diabetes., Nagma Zafar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Circulating angiogenic stem cells (CACs) are rare cells found in peripheral blood that have been shown to contribute to endothelial repair and new blood vessel formation. These cells could be biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets for the assessment and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the leading cause of mortality globally and in the United States. Diabetes is an independent risk factor for CVD, and there are inconsistent reports on the role of CACs in diabetic vasculopathy. To study this further we tested the hypothesis that diabetes depletes circulating levels of CACs, due to hyperglycemia or insulin resistance and that …

A Plant-Made Cholera Toxin B Subunit Enhances Mucosal Wound Healing And Protects Against Ulcerative Colitis And Colon Cancer., Keegan J Baldauf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the previously unidentified effects of a plant-produced recombinant cholera toxin B subunit (CTBp) on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and its ability to protect against inflammation in a mouse model of colonic injury and ulcerative colitis (UC). To comprehensively analyze CTBp’s impacts on the GI tract, we employed global analysis methodologies based on multi-color flow cytometry to analyze immune cell populations in GI and systemic lymphatic compartments, gene expression microarray to decipher transcript-level changes in the colon and small intestine, and 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize fecal microbiota. Based on a drastic shift observed in the immune cell …

Immunomodulation Of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells By Particulate B-Glucan In Cancer., Sabrin Husein Albeituni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are a heterogeneous population of immature myeloid cells that promote tumor progression. In this study, we investigated the effect of dectin-1 stimulation by yeast-derived particulate β-glucan in MDSC function and differentiation in cancer. In vivo treatment of mice bearing lewis lung carcinoma and mammary cell carcinoma with particulate β-glucan decreased tumor weight and splenomegaly, and reduced the accumulation of polymorphonuclear-MDSC (PMN-MDSC) but not monocytic-MDSC (M-MDSC) in the spleen and tumor. In addition, particulate β-glucan differentially modulated the function of different MDSC subsets; it enhanced PMN-MDSC respiratory burst and apoptosis, and induced the differentiation of M-MDSC into …

A Culturally-Sensitive Model Of The Development Of Child Anxiety., Jenny Marie Petrie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Explanatory models significantly enhance the understanding of etiological influences that place children at risk for anxiety, yet little is known about processes that promote resilient outcomes in children. While contextual factors influence risk and protective processes, cultural constructs have not been incorporated into existing models of anxiety and the role of culture remains obscure. The current study proposes a culturally sensitive model for understanding the etiological and mitigating processes underlying anxious symptoms in ethnic minority youth, and preliminarily tests basic components of the proposed model within a non-clinical community sample of 49 African American (AA) parent-child dyads who completed self-report …

Virtual Electronics Laboratory For Visualized Education And Training, Sreelatha Aihloor Subramanyam

Electrical Engineering Theses

On-line education is utilized extensively and has been found to be effective in a multitude of subject areas, including engineering education. However, for on-line education to be fully effective in engineering education, a means must be developed to provide on-line students with laboratory experiences that achieve the same learning outcomes as face-to-face laboratories. To address this need, a pilot computer program, Project VELVET (Virtual Electronics Laboratory for Visualized Education and Training), for a virtual electronics laboratory is being developed. VELVET operates on Windows-based computers in a real-time environment. It presents to its user a virtual breadboard into which components may …

Evolving Efficient Foraging Behavior In Biologically-Inspired Robot Swarms, Joshua Peter Hecker

Computer Science ETDs

Human beings are driven to explore distant new worlds as we seek to better understand our place in the Universe. Because of the inherent dangers of human spaceflight, we often send robots as surrogate explorers, controlled from millions of miles away by teams of capable rover drivers here on Earth. As technology continues to advance, scientists and engineers aspire to build low-cost, durable, fully autonomous rovers to succeed today's tele-operated extraplanetary explorers. Here we aim to advance this goal by designing and programming robots that can successfully navigate unknown and variable environments. We present a swarm robotics system that mimics …

Mechanisms By Which Dietary Ellagic Acid Attenuates Obesity And Obesity-Mediated Metabolic Complications, Inhae Kang

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ellagic acid (EA) is a polyphenol found in various fruits and plants, such as berries, pomegranates, muscadine grapes, nuts and bark of oak tree. EA has been known to exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative effects in various types of cancer. However, little is known about the effects of EA on obesity. Herein, 1) the lipid-lowering role of EA was identified in primary human adipose stem cells (hASCs) and human hepatoma Huh7 cells; 2) the molecular mechanisms by which EA attenuates adipogenesis by epigenetic modification were identified; 3) the effects of EA on high fat and high sucrose-mediated obesity was …

Effects Of Wind Turbine Noise On Male Greater Prairie-Chicken Vocalizations And Chorus, Cara E. Whalen

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wind energy facilities are constructed without full knowledge of their effects on birds, and the noise generated by wind turbines is a particular concern. I investigated the effects of wind turbine noise on male Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) vocalizations and chorus near Ainsworth, NE, USA in 2013 and 2014. I studied 14 leks located in the area surrounding a 36-turbine wind energy facility. I used two main approaches in this study. First, I recorded Greater Prairie-Chicken boom, cackle, whine, and whoop vocalizations at each of the study leks and measured the duration, sound pressure level, peak frequency, …

Occupancy Analysis And Density Estimation Of Kori Bustards (Ardeotis Kori) And Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida Meleagris) For Use In Landscape Conservation Planning In The Northern Tuli Game Reserve, Botswana, Kathryn R. Mccollum

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

For understudied species, more informed conservation planning and decision-making on both the local and landscape levels may be attained through the use of occupancy and abundance estimations. Here, we focus on two iconic bird species in eastern Botswana, kori bustards (Ardeotis kori) and helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris). The overall goal of this project was to better understand the hierarchy of factors that influence occupancy (ψ) and density of kori bustard and helmeted guineafowl populations within the Northern Tuli Game Reserve and how these factors may interact to affect landscape conservation and usage. We performed distance sampling …

Physical Assessment Of Children With Fasd: Evidence Based Practice, Tabitha Waller

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the leading preventable cause of developmental delay worldwide. Early diagnosis and intervention are vital to the prevention of secondary disabilities for those with FASD. Current diagnostic guidelines fail to identify the many physical malformations associated with prenatal alcohol exposure and recommendations for diagnostic differentials vary between guidelines. A critical appraisal of the literature and review of current guidelines was conducted to create an evidence-based physical anomaly checklist and differential diagnostic table. The critical appraisal consisted of 27 articles and resulted in 85 physical anomalies associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. The review of current guidelines …

Linguistic Relativity And Multilingualism, Nicholas M. Casorio

HIM 1990-2015

Over the last decade, linguistic relativity has seen a resurgence in research and discourse on thought, language, and culture. One particular facet of this research, multilingualism, has been relatively sparse in comparison to the wealth of research available focusing on individual languages and monolingual speakers. This study represents a preliminary investigation that enters this arena by focusing specifically on how speakers of English as a second language use English basic color terms in respect to monolingual speakers. This is done by using a modified methodology from the World Color Survey as a comparative model of a speaker’s division of colors. …

Drama Has Issues: A Brief Retrospective On The American Theatre Critic In New York From 1925 To Present, Teresa M. Kilzi

HIM 1990-2015

Theatre criticism has evolved with the advancement of technology and the decline of print journalism. As consumers are given increasing agency by which they can filter the news and reporting they read and occasionally replace it with their own, the idea that a sole voice on a certain topic brandishes more dominance over it than the masses of people involved in its creation and sustainment becomes progressively absurd. Conversely, however, readers rely on theatre critics to make theatergoing decisions for them explicitly because critics are supposed experts on the subject and their opinions are to be respected and observed accordingly. …

The Influence Of Gun Control Legislation On Rampage Shootings, Andrew D. Manor

HIM 1990-2015

The United States has experienced several mass shootings in the past few years. It has been averaging one shooting every week in 2015, and something must be done about it. This problem appears to be limited to the United States since several other nations have been able to minimize, and almost eliminate the number of mass shootings. By taking an analysis of the gun laws of the United States with those of Australia and Canada it can be concluded that some aspects of strict gun control can reduce the number of mass shootings. Further, the United States should look at …

Role Of B Cell Receptor Signaling In Il-10 Production By Normal And Malignant B-1 Cells., Sara S Alhakeem, Vishal J Sindhava, Mary K Mckenna, Beth W Gachuki, John C Byrd, Natarajan Muthusamy, Subbarao Bondada

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

B-1 cells are considered innate immune cells, which produce the majority of natural antibodies. B-1 cell responses to B cell receptor (BCR) and Toll-like receptor ligation are tightly regulated owing to the cross-reactivity to self-antigens. CD5 has been shown to play a major role in downregulation of BCR responses in B-1 cells. Here, we provide evidence for another mechanism by which BCR response is regulated in B-1 cells. B-1 cells, as well as their malignant counterpart, B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) cells, produce interleukin-10 (IL-10) constitutively. IL-10 secretion by normal B-1 cells downregulates their proliferation responses to BCR ligation. …

The Daily Gamecock, Tuesday, December 1, 2015, The University Of South Carolina, Office Of Student Media

December

No abstract provided.

An Epigenetic Toolkit Allows For Diverse Genome Architectures In Eukaryotes, Xyrus X. Maurer-Alcalá, Laura A. Katz

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Genome architecture varies considerably among eukaryotes in terms of both size and structure (e.g. distribution of sequences within the genome, elimination of DNA during formation of somatic nuclei). The diversity in eukaryotic genome architectures and the dynamic processes are only possible due to the well-developed epigenetic toolkit, which probably existed in the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA). This toolkit may have arisen as a means of navigating the genomic conflict that arose from the expansion of transposable elements within the ancestral eukaryotic genome. This toolkit has been coopted to support the dynamic nature of genomes in lineages across the eukaryotic …

Early Archaic Settlement Along The Central Savannah River, Re-Visited, J. Christopher Gillam

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Civil Liability For Injuries Caused By Dogs After Tracey V. Solesky: New Path To The Future Or Back To The Past?, Alberto Bernabe

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Deciphering The Neuroprotective Potential Of Interleukin-1Β (Il-1Β) Using In Vitro Murine Models Of Oxidative Stress, Twinkle Chowdhury

Dissertations - ALL

Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), a key cytokine driving neuroinflammation in the Central Nervous System (CNS), is enhanced in many neurological diseases/disorders, including but not limited to ischemic stroke, Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease. The dominant view is that IL-1β contributes to and/or sustains pathophysiological processes. However, other studies demonstrate that IL-1β can play an important role in neural protection and repair. It may do so by modifying astrocyte behavior. Indeed, studies from our laboratory demonstrate that IL-1β increases the synthesis and release of the antioxidant molecule glutathione (GSH) from astrocytes and that IL-1β-treated astrocytes show increased resistance …

An Experimental Study On Thermal Stability Of Faee Biodiesel Fuel With Ethanol, Yujie Shen

Dissertations - ALL

Biodiesel fuel is usually synthesized from vegetable oil and animal fat, and now it has been widely used in tractors, trucks, buses and ships. Unlike traditional fossil fuels, biodiesel is more environment-friendly and it is renewable, which can help people solve the energy crisis to some extent.

Nowadays, supercritical esterification has become a novel way to produce biodiesel, but high temperature may cause the decomposition of biodiesel. Researchers mainly focus on studying the properties of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), however, fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) biodiesel has only been slightly explored. So in this study, ethanol was used to …

Coordination Chemistry In Biology And Medicine, Christopher Chu

Dissertations - ALL

PART I. Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Metal-Citrate Complexes and the Investigation of Metal-Citrate Transporters in Gram-Positive Bacteria

Abstract.

Syntheses of new barium, cadmium, calcium, cobalt, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, nickel, and strontium citrate complexes have been attempted using different methods such as room temperature slow evaporation and hydrothermal reactions to create new metal-citrate complexes. Crystallizations were conducted under conditions varying metal and ligand concentrations, solution pH, temperature, solvents, and the presence of coligands. All structures of crystals obtained were characterized by X-ray crystallography. A novel lead-citrate complex was synthesized with a formula of (Na)[Pb5(C6H5O7)3(C6H6O7)(H2O)] 8H2O. The structure is two-dimensional …