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Nutritional Ecology And Growth In Juvenile Phayre's Leaf Monkeys, Kerry Michele Ossi-Lupo

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Primates exhibit slow growth and an extended juvenile period relative to other similar-sized mammals. Certain evolutionary explanations have linked the costs or benefits of bigger primate brains to slow life histories in general, although a link specifically to the length of juvenility is less clear. The ecological risk aversion hypothesis singles out the juvenile period as a target of selection, positing that slower growth rates and smaller size provide juveniles with an energetic buffer (i.e. | lower absolute metabolic demand) against starvation risk during a critical period of heightened vulnerability. This greater vulnerability is attributed largely to juveniles' lower foraging …

Value And Risk Processing In Cocaine Addiction: Relationship To Brain Function, Structure, And Connectivity, Anna Borisova Konova

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Cocaine addiction is a chronically relapsing disorder characterized by a compulsive drive to seek and ingest cocaine, often at the expense of negative personal or social consequences and other rewarding outcomes. As such, it has been hypothesized that addiction impacts the brain circuits necessary for exerting self-control and those involved in processing the incentive value of environmental stimuli. The present set of studies aims to explore the effects of chronic cocaine use on these functions, and the brain systems supporting them, using multimodal neuroimaging and behavioral assessments and the highly generalizable reinforcer, money. Study 1 examines the interplay between brain …

Formation And Inhibition Of Islet Amyloid In Type 2 Diabetes, Ling-Hsien Tu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Amyloid fibrils are insoluble protein aggregates found in organs and tissues, and are structurally dominated by β -strands. Amyloid formation has been implicated in a wide range of human diseases. Each disease is characterized by a specific protein or peptide that aggregates in certain conditions. For example, the amyloid β protein (Aβ ) forms amyloid plaques in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease and this leads to neuronal degeneration. Parkinson's disease, another common neurodegenerative disorder, is associated with the intracellular aggregation of alpha-synuclein to form Lewy bodies in the brains of patients. This dissertation focuses on a polypeptide hormone, …

The Feminine Aesthetic Of Failure: Negative Female Subjectivity In The Modern Novel, Anne Cunningham

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

" The Feminine Aesthetic of Failure: Negative Female Subjectivity in the Modern Novel" examines how the failure to adhere to restrictive codes of normative femininity functions as a form of feminist critique in novels by women modernists published during the interwar period. In these novels, issues of gender identity and the development of literary modernism intersect with a distinct feminine aesthetic and rhetoric of failure. In arguing for this feminine aesthetic of failure, I consider five works by four authors: Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out (1915), Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928), Jean Rhys's After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930) and Voyage in …

Marginal Forms And Marginalized Subjectivities: The Hybrid Modernisms Of Barnes, Woolf, Stein, And H.D., Meghan C. Fox

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation examines the relationship between literary modernism's mixed-genre forms and its representations of marginalized characters through a study of works by Djuna Barnes, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and H.D. I argue that these authors borrow from various established genres to create new hybrid forms capable of granting fuller expression to the female and queer subjects of the early twentieth century. Though scholars took up hybridity as a way to theorize postcolonial identities and forms of resistance in the 1990s, this project reveals that the aforementioned modernist authors began to strategically deploy forms of hybrid subjectivity decades earlier. Marked by …

Phospho-Naproxen: A Novel Agent For The Control Of Arthritis And Colon Cancer, Vinal Patel

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently used to treat various inflammatory diseases. In particular, the NSAID naproxen is a major first-line treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory disease affecting 1% of the population worldwide. The potential use of NSAIDs also spans to other debilitating and chronic diseases, including cancer. Epidemiological studies have shown that the use of naproxen significantly correlates with a lower risk of colon cancer, the third most common type of cancer in the United States. Although conventional naproxen can subdue arthritic inflammation and reduce the risk of developing colon cancer, its long-term use is associated with significant …

Influence Of Maturation On Hypoxic Ventilatory Responses In P0-P30 Neonatal Rat In Vivo, Inefta M. Reid

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Hypoxia is a common feature of many pathologies including but not limited to asthma, spinal cord injury, chronic obstructive sleep pulmonary disease, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Even though neuromodulatory effects mediated by maturation have been widely studied in other disciplines, such efforts have been lacking in the area of respiratory control. This dissertation is motivated by questions such as how does a known change in respiratory neurotransmitters manifest differently in the modulation of known respiratory output, especially in response to moderate, mild, and sever hypoxia. Aimed at understanding the characteristics and underlying mechanisms involved maturation of the hypoxic …

Modeling Brain Structures From Hundreds Of Hypoglossal Motoneurons To Millions Of Cerebellar Cells, Heraldo Memelli

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Computational neuroscience is a rapidly growing field in the quest to discover how the human brain works. Mathematical modeling and computer simulations increasingly help neuroscientists test hypotheses and explore neuronal mechanisms from the level of single cells to billions of neurons. In this PhD thesis, we have implemented and analyzed computational models of two mammalian brain structures: the hypoglossal nucleus and the cerebellum. As a first project, we have developed a detailed computational model for a network of Hypoglossal Motoneurons (HMs). HMs are located in the brainstem and exhibit synchronous firing activity. They are coupled by gap junctions, direct electrical …

Benchmarks 2015, August 21, The Rockefeller University

BenchMarks 2015

BenchMarks. Friday, August 21, 2015

The community newsletter of The Rockefeller University

BenchMarks is published monthly and is distributed on the campus of The Rockefeller University. It produced by the Office of Communications and Public Affairs

The Impact Of The Updated National School Lunch Program Meal Standards On Fruit And Vegetable Consumption Among Elementary School Students In Cache County Utah, Jillian C. Fox

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to the short time the updated National School Lunch Program standards have been in place since fall of 2012, few research studies have explored what effect these new standards have had on fruit and vegetable (F/V) consumption, particularly among elementary school students. Because the new standards require schools to offer students more F/V than before, researchers are interested to know if F/V consumption has indeed increased.

The participants in the study were enrolled in a program to motivate students to eat more F/V – the Food Dudes program. The results of the data analysis found that most students, regardless …

Western Duck Sickness: Avian Botulism And Conservation In The Bear River Marsh, 1910-1933, Andrew J. Simek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis investigates how the Bear River marsh’s protection became a national interest and a cause for conservation in the Progressive Era. The thesis documents how the marsh declined because of irrigation development culminating with an outbreak of avian botulism in 1910, and traces the long process to protect the marshland. The research focused on examining local water development patterns of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ornithological research in the 1910s, and the national sportsmen’s conservation movement of the 1920s. Upon examination of these events, it becomes clear that a coalition of ornithologists, sportsmen, and policy makers worked together …

Late Taino Occupation Of Jamaica: A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Faunal Materials From The Bluefields Bay Site, Diana M. Azevedo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

My thesis seeks to answer the broad questions: can early foragers alter marine resources in island settings and can archaeological data provide insights into these changes. These questions highlight two important issues. The first issue reflects the common belief that small-scale societies did not affect their environments. The second issue centers on growing concern over the collapse of fisheries across the globe.

To answer these questions, I use fish bones recovered from an archaeological site located in Belmont, Jamaica near the Bluefields Bay marine sanctuary. The Bluefields Bay site dates to the late Taíno occupation of Jamaica. The name Taíno …

The Effects Of Interactive Computer Simulation And Animation On Student Learning Of Rigid Body Dynamics: A Mixed Method Study, Oai Ha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Engineering Dynamics (ED) courses are known as challenging and demanding for undergraduate students majored in many engineering fields, such as mechanical and aerospace engineering and civil and environmental engineering. The course is built upon the foundation and framework of mathematics and physics and requires students to have strong abstract thinking and reasoning skills. Rigid body dynamics (RBD), the second part of ED, investigates kinematics and kinetics of rigid bodies and is considered as a difficult subject by many undergraduate students because the course requires them to visualize abstract objects in motions. Although there have been many studies reporting the uses …

Characterization And Performance Of Algal Biofilms For Wastewater Treatment And Industrial Applications, Maureen Kesaano

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was carried out on algal biofilms grown using rotating algal biofilm reactors (RABRs) with the aim of: i) characterizing their growth in terms of photosynthetic activity and morphology ii) evaluating their performance as a wastewater treatment option and a feedstock for biofuels production, and iii) examining the algal-bacteria interactions.

A review of algal biofilm technologies currently employed in wastewater treatment processes was made to compare nutrient removal efficiencies, factors that influenced algal biofilm growth, and the different bioproducts generated from algal biomass. Consequently, research efforts were directed towards addressing pertinent issues identified in literature in order to optimize …

Virulence Evolution Of Fungal Pathogens In Social And Solitary Bees With An Emphasis On Multiple Infections, Ellen G. Klinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The health of pollinators, especially bees, is of the utmost importance to success of many agricultural ecosystems. Microorganisms can cause diseases in bees; such microbes are pathogenic. The ability of a pathogen to cause harm to its host (such as a bee) is termed its virulence. Studying the evolution of different levels of virulence can lead researchers to a better understanding of pathogens, and potentially predict how much harm a pathogen can cause in the future. We studied the evolution of virulence levels for a fungal disease of bees. This group of fungi is composed of 28 species, and some …

The Colorado Plateau As A Virtual Laboratory For Mobile Games For Geoscience Education And Relations Between Rock Strength And River Metrics, Natalie Bursztyn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation encompasses two studies: one developing virtual field trips for mobile devices for an innovative approach to lower-division geoscience education, and the other examining the role of rock strength in river erosion and landscape evolution.

The education study involves the development of three virtual field trip modules (Geologic Time, Geologic Structures, and Hydrologic Processes, all free on iTunes and Google Play) that lead students down a virtual Colorado River through Grand Canyon by physically moving around their campus quad, football field or other location, using their GPS-equipped smart phone or tablet. As students reach each location in the scaled …

Religious Outsiders And The Catholic Critique Of Protestantism In America, Bradley Kime

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous new religious and irreligious groups arose throughout the United States. These groups were often radical in their assertions of religious authority, their interpretations of scripture, their predictions about Christ’s second coming, their practice of supernatural gifts, their rejection of traditional Christian doctrines, or their rejection of Christianity altogether. American Catholics watched and commented as these groups multiplied and gained momentum. Catholics believed that the growth of radical religious and irreligious groups was the fault of mainstream Protestantism. Over the centuries, Catholics had argued that the Pope’s authority was necessary to provide spiritual …

Ecology, Behavior And Taxonomy Of Anurans From Brazil's Atlantic Forest, Rodrigio Barbosa Ferreira

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Anura is a diverse group with more than 7382 species described, which represents 88% of the species belonging to the Class Amphibia. Anurans are among the first organisms to be affected by environmental stressors, so when they show decline in the wild, it is a warning to other species, including humans. It is alarming that one-third of the world’s anurans are facing extinction. Following the same trend, a substantive portion of the 988 recognized species of the Atlantic Forest have suffered population declines and local extinctions, attributed primarily to habitat changes.

Despite the unique life history characteristics that make amphibians …

Suramin Protects From Cisplatin-Induced Acute Kidney Injury., Tess Dupre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In rodent models, suramin improves recovery following acute kidney injury (AKI). We hypothesized that suramin would be useful in protection against cisplatin-induced AKI. This hypothesis was tested by pre-treating C57BL/6j mice with suramin prior to cisplatin. Our data indicates that suramin protects the kidney from injury by decreasing cisplatininduced decreases in kidney function. Renal histology indicated that suramin significantly protected from cisplatin-induced AKI. Data indicate that suramin pretreatment attenuated mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines following cisplatin treatment, while also decreasing markers of cell stress and cell death. We utilized the same experimental design with 10-month old FVB mice …

Exercise Mitigates The Effects Of Hyperhomocysteinemia On Adverse Skeletal Muscle Remodeling., Lee Winchester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is heavily implicated in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. HHcy is known for causing inflammation and vascular remodeling, particularly through production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). Although its impact on skeletal muscle is rather unclear, HHcy is known to cause skeletal muscle weakness and functional impairment. The impact of HHcy on inflammation makes it seem likely that HHcy causes skeletal muscle fibrosis through induction of inflammatory factors and destructive macrophages. Exercise has been shown to reduce homocysteine levels and therefore, could serve as a promising intervention for HHcy. The purpose of this study was …

Performing A Steady-State Seepage Analysis Using Seep/W : A Primer For Engineering Students., Matthew R. Broaddus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is comprised of five independent modules that were developed to provide a primer to understanding groundwater seepage. These modules serve as the template to conduct steady-state seepage analyses through embankments utilizing SEEP/W, a finite element seepage modeling program. Module 1 and 2 are more theoretical in nature to provide the background knowledge necessary to conduct a steady-state seepage analysis, while Modules 3, 4, and 5 focus more on the application of seepage models and how they can be used to solve various groundwater seepage problems. Supplementary material, including PowerPoint presentations, handouts, and a manual on how to utilize …

The Neuropsychological Profile Of Older Adult Musicians And Non-Musicians : Implications For Cognitive Reserve In Late Life., Jessica Vemich Strong,

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Published literature studying children and adults musicians suggests significant differences in neuroanatomy, in brain regions that include the auditory and motor cortices, language centers, and frontal regions and tracts. Studies examining cognitive correlates to these neuroanatomical differences have consistently found that children and adult musicians have better cognitive abilities in the domains of language, verbal or non-verbal memory and executive function. Only one study has examined the differences in cognitive performance between older adult musicians and non-musicians to see how normal age-related cognitive changes may affect these differences. The current study compared cognitive test performance among older adult non-musicians, low-activity …

Metabolic Profiles Of Household Pseudomonas Species Groups., Ogochukwu S. Onyiri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Resources influence the distribution, behavior, growth and reproduction of bacterial species. Understanding how closely related species utilize resources will shed light on the ecological traits or principles that shape biogeographic patterns and promote coexistence of species. Twelve Pseudomonas strains isolated from a single human home and PA01, the standard laboratory strain were evaluated in Luria Bertani media to understand whether their growth traits are influenced by their species group and/or their environment of isolation. Total growth, growth rate, early cumulative area under the growth curve (CUC) over 48 hours and viability (viable bacteria count per ml) at 24 and 48 …

Youth Graffiti Vandalism : Liminal Perspectives In The Light Of Masculinity, Social Contract Theory And Transformative Process., Alton C. Frabetti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American adolescents experience liminality as their rights, obligations and cognitive development place them in a transitional life-period between childhood and adulthood. This liminal period inspires compensatory activities, such as identification with mainstream popular styles, radical adherence to an ideology or religion, or, for those especially struggling, destructive behavior. Graffiti is one such compensatory activity. Its practitioners' risky conduct, as well as their overall claims to exalted artistic activity, are especially appealing to certain males attempting to construct a retrogressive notion of masculinity and self-esteem in response to the further condition of male liminal identity. The practice of graffiti confronts the …

Identifying Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Hcc) Cells With Cancer Stem Cell-Like Properties., Harshulkumar M. Pandit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is a challenging condition to treat in the clinic due to its distinct tumor phenotype, aggressive growth, and chemotherapy resistance. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) are a poorly differentiated subpopulation of cells within the tumor microenvironment, and role of CSCs in tumor initiation and chemotherapy resistance is not well understood in HCC. In this study, we have successfully identified HCC cells with CSC-like properties that showed resistance to Doxorubicin. Using the established serum free culture techniques, we have enriched CSC-like cells among hepatocellular cancer cells. These enriched cells exhibit all CSC-like properties i.e. self-renewal capability, anchorage independent growth …

Chronic Ethanol Exposure Sensitizes The Lung In A Mouse Model Of Endotoxemia-Induced Acute Lung Injury : Potential Role Of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1., Lauren G. Poole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project is to characterize a new mouse model of alcohol-enhanced acute lung injury (ALI) and to determine the role of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) in this model. Male mice (WT and PAI-1-/-) were exposed to ethanol-containing Lieber-DeCarli diet or pair-fed control diet for 6 weeks; some animals were administered intraperitoneal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) prior to sacrifice. Chronic alcohol feeding enhanced induction of the chemokines MIP-2 and KC (murine IL-8 homologues) after LPS injection in wild type animals. This enhanced chemokine expression did not correlate with enhanced pulmonary neutrophil infiltration, however animals exposed to chronic ethanol showed sustained …

Improved Oncolytic Virotherapy By Increasing Virus Spread Within Tumors., Stephen Wechman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oncolytic adenoviruses (Ads) have great therapeutic potential for lung cancer. Cancer selective E1b-deleted Ads are safe, however their efficacy remains limited clinically. To improve E1b-deleted Ads, Adhz60 was selected for greater anti-cancer efficacy by a process called bioselection, producing AdUV. AdUV preferentially lysed A549 and H1299 lung cancer cells more effectively than both the cancer selective Adhz60 and non-selective Ad5. AdUV induced greater LC3-II expression, relative to LC3-I, indicating that AdUV (30.9-fold) induced autophagy more effectively than Ad5 (12.2-fold) and Adhz60 (7.8-fold) in A549 cells. Mice treated with AdUV had significantly smaller tumors (p-value < 0.001) and prolonged survival (p-value = 0.0005) than mice treated with the negative control AdGFP. These results suggest that AdUV efficiently lyses lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Regulation Of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases By Ubiquilin1., Zimple Kurlawala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTK’s) like EGFR, Insulin Receptor, IGF1R and others mediate growth, proliferation and balance between apoptosis and survival. Dysregulation of RTK activity has been identified in a wide range of cancers and contributes to initiation, progression and metastasis of tumors. Ubiquilins (UBQLN) are fairly novel proteins and are studied mostly in the field of neurodegenerative disorders. Our laboratory recently discovered a link between UBQLN1 function and tumorigenesis. UBQLN1 is lost in about 50% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases. We have identified an interaction between UBQLN1 and IGF1R. Furthermore, UBQLN1 regulates activity of IGF1R and EGFR. Following …

Promoting Differentiation And Survival Of Human C-Kit+ Cardiac Progenitor Cells Ex Vivo., Tareq Al-Maqtari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

c-kit+ cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) have recently gained much attention due to the therapeutic effects they exert on cardiac function following their administration into the infarcted heart as evidenced by animal studies and by a recent clinical trial (SCIPIO). However, injecting these cells in the heart is associated with poor differentiation into specialized cardiac cell types and with rapid death of the engrafted cells. With the ultimate goal of advancing cardiac stem cell therapy, we sought to facilitate the differentiation of human CPCs into cardiac cell types (e.g. cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts) by overexpressing selected …

Relational Processes In Prayer : A Reflection Of The Effects Of Culture On Religious Experience., Benjamin David Jeppsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the mediating effect of one’s perceived relationship with God on the relationship between prayer and mental health in a cultural context. As an interpersonal activity, prayer may operate along relational constructs. Research supports a theoretical mechanism of prayer that aligns with the benefits of supportive interpersonal relationships. It is possible, then, that as relational processes change across dimensions of individualism and collectivism, prayer may mirror these same changes. A model for collectivistic and individualistic approaches to prayer is proposed and placed within a relational model for prayer’s effects on mental health. However, due to instrument failure, the …