Digital Commons Network^™

Muscle Fatigue Resistance Via Energy Drink Consumption — Assessment Of Pre- And Post- Experiment Participant Feedback, Mary Kathleen Robbins

Honors Theses

Energy drink consumption poses a health risk among college students, and long-term health implications are unclear. Because energy drinks are classified as dietary supplements, the FDA is not responsible for proving consumption is safe for the consumer. This research project studies the consumption of an energy drink and an energy bean's effect on muscle fatigue using a grip force transducer, subjective perceptions of the participants after consumption across the two trials, and subjects' opinion of energy drinks after the conclusion of the experiment. All subjects, ages 18-24 and regular users of caffeine, were recruited through email at the University of …

A Global Perspective On Ethical Consumerism: A Study Of Advertisements From Social Enterprises To Identify The Ethical Consumer, Murray Miller

Honors Theses

This paper explores ethical consumerism in the United States and Latin America. I examined ethical consumerism in these two settings by identifying social enterprises from different countries in each setting to identify the ideal ethical consumer. After comparing and contrasting the ethical consumer in each context, I determined that ethical consumerism does exist in Latin America. According to scholarship, a country must be postmaterialist in order for ethical consumerism to exist. Through my research, I concluded that Latin America is postmaterialist, therefore ethical consumerism does exist.

Soul Food: An Interpretation Of The History, Significance And Southern Roots Of The American Cuisine, Sarah Bracy Penn

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of stories in which I explored several facets of soul food, the cuisine of the American South. It uses soul food as a prism to view the cuisine's connections to race, politics, economics, class, history and social consequences. Rather than write an academic paper, I presented my findings in a series of articles based on live interviews with food historians, culinary writers, entrepreneurs and chefs. I also examined various books, articles and blogs written by these culinary writers. This is not a comprehensive history of the cuisine, nor does it attempt to take sides with …

Spatializing The Soil-Ecological Factorial: Data Driven Integrated Land Management Tools, Travis Nauman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Soils form the dynamic interface of many processes key to the function of terrestrial ecosystems. Many soil properties both influence and are influenced by activity of flora and fauna. Interactions between soils, biota, and climate determine the potential ecosystem services that a given unique ecological site (ES) can support, and how resilient a site is to various pressures and disturbances. Soil data are needed to fully understand how these factors interact, but because this data is difficult to obtain, existing soil maps are sometimes not detailed enough to fully explore relationships. Environmental raster GIS data layers were used to increase …

Diabetes Among Hispanic Immigrants: The Impact Of Age At Migration, Nancy Hahn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Diabetes is a disease that affects the Hispanic population in disproportionate numbers. With larger numbers of immigrants coming to the United States who are of Hispanic origin, the individual risk and health burden of this disease will have a major impact on the quality of life and the health care system. Research into the influence of the timing of changes in lifestyle suggested an association between specific levels of socioecological exposures and certain health conditions. This study examined that possibility. The use of the National Health Interview Survey, 2005-2011, provided adequate data for examining whether age at migration was associated …

Tmi? Why The Optimal Architecture Of Disclosure Remains Tbd, Ryan Bubb

Michigan Law Review

We are inundated with disclosures in our daily lives. In one of the more evocative passages in their stimulating new book, More Than You Wanted to Know, Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider imagine a day in the life of someone who actually reads all those disclosures (pp. 95–100). During a commercial on the morning news, the protagonist hits pause on the TiVo to catch the fine print that would otherwise fly by. Breakfast is a slog, requiring close reading of the toaster’s ominous label and the disheartening nutrition facts on the butter and jam. More of the same awaits …

Functional Analysis And Transcriptional Regulation Of Oocyte-Specific Nuclear Transporter Kpna7, Lei Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The finely orchestrated development and maturation of the oocytes has been the focus of many studies in which oocyte-specific genes essential for folliculogenesis and early embryonic development have been identified. Studies using knockout mice models of Nobox, Sohlh1, Sohlh2, Figla and Lhx8 have revealed that these oocyte specific transcriptional factors form networks in which they regulate the expression of each other and downstream targets. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control the nuclear transport of these essential factors in oocytes and early embryos. The nuclear envelope separates the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartment in the cell and uncouples transcription …

Oral Care In The Long-Term Care Of Older Patients: How Can The Dental Hygienist Meet The Need?, Tracee S. Dahm, Ann Bruhn, Margaret Lemaster

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

It is estimated that the older population, aged 65 and older, will make up over 20% of the U.S. population by the year 2030. Research acknowledges about 4% of the older population resides in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), where the long-term older patient (LTOP) is under the formal supervised care or custody of institutions with skilled nurses. By the year 2040, 4 million geriatric residents are predicted to move into LTCFs in the U.S. In 2000, the Surgeon General reported LTOPs in LTCFs have greater oral hygiene needs than any other segment of the population to include: root caries, periodontal …

Soluble Oligomeric Abeta42 Affects Microglia Activation And Mitochondrial Respiration, Cong Tan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Microglia activation is associated with many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). When activated, microglia cells change their morphology and become phagocytic. In the Alzheimer's brain, microglia cells play an important role in scavenging plaque-damaged cells and in clearing Abeta plagues. Soluble oligomeric Abeta (oAbeta) is capable to stimulate microglia activation. In AD brain, microglia cells accumulate around senile plaques as a hallmark of the pathology. Recently, we found that mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation is affected in a dose-dependent manner in a microglia cell line (C8-B4) and primary rat glia cell. Mitochondrial basal, maximal and spare respiration capacities increase at …

Type 1 Diabetic Heart: Examination Of Mitochondrial Structure And Micrornas, Dharendra Thapa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Cardiac complications such as diabetic cardiomyopathy are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. Dysfunctional mitochondria, an effect associated with cardiomyopathy, are central in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Cardiac mitochondria are comprised of two spatially located mitochondria including mitochondria located beneath the sarcolemma, termed subsarcolemmal mitochondria (SSM) and those located in between myofibrils, termed interfibrillar mitochondria (IFM). Mitochondrial subpopulations have been shown to respond differently to pathological and physiological stimuli as reported in a review published by our laboratory. IFM mitochondria are most impacted in a type 1 diabetic setting. Proteomic alterations …

Does This Have Gluten? Comparison Of Gluten-Free And Unrestricted Diets In Intestinal Bacterial Populations And Diversity, Bradshaw Hammond

Honors Theses

As different diets continue to grow in popularity within the United States, the effect of these diets upon bacteria in the intestines is only beginning to be understood. This study focused on the effect that a shift to a gluten-free diet has on the human gut microbiome. Three genetically close subjects were selected for observation over a six month time period. One subject observed a consistent gluten-free diet. A second subject started on an unrestrictive diet, switched to a gluten-free diet for three months, then returned to an unrestricted diet for an additional three months. The third subject left an …

Distribution And Setting Of Farmers' Markets In The United States, Kirsten Shea Harrison

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Psychosocial Risk Factors For Acute Myocardial Infarction: Results Of A Case-Control Study In A Teaching Hospital At Karachi, Pakistan, Kiran Abdul Sattar, Waris Qidwai, Kashmira Nanji

Department of Family Medicine

Objective: To determine psychosocial risk factors for acute myocardial infarction at a teaching hospital in Karachi. Methods: One hundred and fifty three cases were recruited from cardiology clinics and 153 controls from internal medicine and family medicine clinics of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, through non-probability sampling using a structured questionnaire. Cases were those who were diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction for the first time in past month. Controls were selected from family medicine and internal medicine clinics of the same hospital and included patients above the age of 40 years without acute myocardial infarction. Associations between psychosocial risk …

Responses To Cadmium Stress In Two Tomato Genotypes Differing In Heavy Metal Accumulation, Shouping Zhao, Yongzhi Zhang, Xuezhu Ye, Qi Zhang, Wendan Xiao

Turkish Journal of Botany

Our previous research defined two tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) genotypes: high cadmium (Cd) accumulator YSL189 and low Cd accumulator HZ903. Further hydroponics experiments investigated the different tolerance mechanisms to Cd stress between YSL189 and HZ903 at the seedling stage. When Cd concentration was >20 µM in the growing medium, the uptake rate of Cd was significantly higher in roots of YSL189 than it was in roots of HZ903. When plants were supplied with 50 and 100 µM Cd in the growing medium, there were higher Cd concentration, higher biomass and plant height, shorter roots, and higher expression levels of transporter genes …

Clonal Propagation And Synthetic Seed Production From Nodal Segments Ofcape Gooseberry (Physalis Peruviana L.), A Tropical Fruit Plant, Bahti̇yar Buhara Yücesan, Ali̇yu Mohammed, Merve Arslan, Ekrem Gürel

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Physalis peruviana L. contains polyphenols and carotenoids with antiinflammatory and antioxidant activities used against diabetes. To establish an efficient regeneration system using nodal segments excised from 4-week-old germinated seedlings, direct plant regeneration, without additional rooting stage, was achieved on LS medium containing 0.5 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), kinetin (KIN), thidiazuron (TDZ), or gibberellic acid (GA3), alone or in combination with 0.25 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) or indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), after 2 weeks of incubation. The highest mean numbers of shoots and well-developed roots were obtained on LS medium containing solely 0.5 mg/L TDZ, producing 5.3 shoots and 3.3 roots per explant …

The Ethics Of Food, Fuel & Feed, Brian G. Henning

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

As the collective impact of human activity approaches Earth's biophysical limits, the ethics of food become increasingly important. Hundreds of millions of people remain undernourished, yet only 60 percent of the global harvest is consumed by humans, while 35 percent is fed to livestock and 5 percent is used for biofuels and other industrial products. This essay considers the ethics of such use of edible nutrition for feedstock and biofuel. How humanity uses Earth's land is a reflection of its values. The current land-use arrangements, which divert 40 percent of all food to feed animals or create fuels, suggest that …

Investigating The Role Of Polyploidy In The Response Of Chamerion Angustifolium To Increased Soil Nitrogen Availability And Insect Herbivory, Alex Bales

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Human activities have more than doubled the input rate of nitrogen to terrestrial ecosystems. Increased soil nitrogen availability is associated with increased plant productivity, changes in plant resource allocation strategies, and changes in interactions between plants and their associated insect herbivores. For example, nitrogen-rich conditions can alter the physiological and chemical properties of plants in ways that increase their ability to deter herbivore attack (resistance) and maintain fitness following herbivore attack (tolerance). The ecological tolerance of plants to such abiotic and biotic environments is thought to be influenced by autopolyploidy, a commonly occurring phenomenon in plants in which individuals have …

On The Protective Properties Of Glycine Based Osmolytes In A Thiol Reducing Environment, John Michael Hausman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The protective properties of osmolytes have been studied intently for decades. Originally used to aid in the crystallization of proteins in x-ray diffraction studies, these cosolvents have been shown to reverse protein denaturation and aggregation. Osmolytes aid extremophiles in surviving harsh environments by preferentially excluding themselves from the surface of the protein, thus directing water molecules to the protein’s surface. These osmolytes are naturally found in many health foods and also in many daily use products such as shampoo. Due to their osmoprotective effect their use in everyday consumer product is increasing. Consumers also supplement their diets with thiol-based antioxidants …

Oviposition Site Selection By Mosquitoes: Predator-Released Kairomones And Responses To Different Taxa, Lauren Larea Eveland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oviposition site selection is a critical reproductive behavior for egg-laying organisms that offer little to no parental care. Determining the mechanisms females use to assess sites is critical to understanding life history traits, community structure, and species interactions. Mosquitoes are excellent model organisms for studying oviposition site selection for numerous reasons: 1) a poor decision can lead to zero reproductive success, 2) females actively assess and choose among habitat patches when locating an oviposition site, 3) larvae remain in the habitat where they hatch until they metamorphose, and 4) they lay conspicuous egg rafts that allow direct assessment of oviposition. …

Faculty Need To Reclaim Narrative On Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

I Eat Shit Food And Am Not Worthy: Negotiating The Queer Weight Of "White Trash" Embodiment In Dorothy Allison's Corpus, Rebecca Albright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that Dorothy Allison’s work—and specifically the women who hate me (1983), Trash (1988), and Skin: Talking about Sex, Class, and Literature (1994)—explores the unexpected alliances and radical difference and desire produced by interactions between fatness, queerness, and “white trashiness” on the terrain of late-twentieth-century representational and lived southern culture, and specifically how queer and “white trash” embodiments are both legible in terms of fatness, much in the way that gravy thickens in Allison’s writing to envelop and signify simultaneously lack and excess, shame and ecstasy, disgust and desire, and difference and community. Indeed, it is in the …

Deregulation, Distrust, And Democracy, Lindsay Wiley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Environmental, public health, alternative food, and food justice advocates are working together to achieve incremental agricultural subsidy and nutrition assistance reforms that increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables. When it comes to targeting food and beverage products for increased regulation and decreased consumption, however, the priorities of various food reform movements diverge. This article argues that foundational legal issues, including preemption of state and local authority to protect the public's health and welfare, increasing First Amendment protection for commercial speech, and eroding judicial deference to legislative policy judgments, present a more promising avenue for collaboration across movements than discrete …

Potential For Crop Production Increase In Argentina Through Closure Of Existing Yield Gaps, Fernando Aramburu Merlos, Juan Pablo Monzon, Jorge L. Mercau, Miguel Taboada, Fernando H. Andrade, Antonio J. Hall, Esteban Jobbagy, Kenneth Cassman, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Favorable climate and soils for rainfed crop production, together with a relatively low population density,results in 70–90% of Argentina grain production being exported. No assessment to date has tried to estimate the potential for extra grain production for soybean, wheat and maize, which account for 78%of total harvested area, by yield gap closure on existing cropland area and its impact at a global scale.The objectives of this paper are (i) to estimate how much additional grain could be produced without expanding crop area by closing yield gaps in Argentina, (ii) to investigate how this production and yield gaps varies across …

Plants Coping Abiotic And Biotic Stresses: A Tale Of Diligent Management, Hatem Rouached, Sikander Pal, Shimon Rachmilevitch, Marc Libault, Lam-Son Phan Tran

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Plants unlike other living forms are sessile thereby facing severe biotic and abiotic stresses. Plants have evolved different efficient defence responses which thrive upon a number of intrinsic factors, such as genotypic and phenotypic constitutions and developmental circumstances, and extrinsic factors like severity and duration of the stresses. Stress management uses molecular and biochemical level controls, the competence, and speed, at which a stress signal is perceived and transmitted to generate stress signal molecules and activate stress-protective mechanisms. A well-concerted action of the plants’ competence at morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular strata regulates numerous adaptive responses to biotic and abiotic …

Engaging Asset-Based Education: Practicing What We Preach In Multicultural Education Course, James Hollar

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This article centers on one teacher educator’s experiences and observations in teaching a Multicultural Education course to pre-service teachers at a teacher preparation program in the Northwest. The author asserts that, although the course intends to convey the positives of asset-based teaching and the negatives of deficit-based thinking, it is possible both the teacher educator and implicit messages within the course structure itself send the opposite message to pre-service teachers. One example of this contradiction lies in the language of the course description. In centering the course on “the development of cultural competence,” the implied assumption is that pre-service teachers …

Frequency Of Metabolic Syndrome In Psychiatric Patients, Is This The Time To Develop A Standardized Protocol To Reduce The Morbidity From An Acute Care Psychiatry Unit., Tariq Munshi, Archana Patel, Mir Nadeem Mazhar, Emaduddin Siddiqui

Department of Emergency Medicine

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the frequency of Metabolic Syndrome among psychiatric patients and to look for the correlation between the two medical conditions.

METHODS:

The cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2013 at the acute care psychiatry in-patient unit at Kingston General Hospital, Ontario, Canada, and comprised adult patients of both genders diagnosed under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. For Metabolic Syndrome, definitions outlined by the International Diabetes Federation were used. The patients were divided into two groups on the basis of presence or absence of the Syndrome and were compared for clinical and …

Identification And Pathogenicity Of Bacteria In The Mediterranean Corn Borer Sesamia Nonagrioides Lefebvre (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Ardahan Eski̇, Fi̇li̇z Özkan Çakici, Mustafa Güllü, Hacer Muratoğlu, Zi̇hni̇ Demi̇rbağ, İsmai̇l Demi̇r

Turkish Journal of Biology

Sesamia nonagrioides (Lep.: Noctuidae) is one of the most serious pests of corn in Turkey and other Mediterranean countries. Although various cultural, chemical, and biological methods are used to control this pest, its damage still continues in all Mediterranean countries. In this study, to find an effective bacterium that can be used as a biocontrol agent against S. nonagrioides, we isolated 15 bacteria from S. nonagrioides larvae and evaluated the larvicidal potency of all isolates on the pest. According to their morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular properties, the isolates were identified as Achromobacter insolitus (Sn1), Morganella morganii (Sn2), Klebsiella pneumoniae …

Antioxidant Activity Of Heme Oxygenase 1 In Brassica Juncea (L.) Czern.(Indian Mustard) Under Salt Stress, Khushbu Verma, Shubham Dixit, Gyan Singh Shekhawat, Afroz Alam

Turkish Journal of Biology

Antioxidant enzymes play a protective role in plants under oxidative stress. The present study explores the role of antioxidant system heme oxygenase1 (HO1) in Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. in salt stress conditions. B. juncea seedlings were treated with different NaCl concentrations (0-200 mM) for 5 days. Salt stress elicited the highest response at 150 mM NaCl concentration; at this level, gene expression of HO1 was also upregulated. Apart from HO1, ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POD), and glutathione reductase (GR) also showed their highest activity at 150 mM NaCl concentration. The study shows that HO1 is indispensable in B. juncea for …

Designing A Bacterial Biosensor For Detection Of Mercury In Water Solutions, Amir Roointan, Nooshin Shabab, Jamshid Karimi, Alireza Rahmani, Mohammad Yousef Alikhani, Massoud Saidijam

Turkish Journal of Biology

Due to increasing advances in physical and chemical techniques for the assessment of pollutants in the environment, there is an immediate demand for a bioassay that can report both the presence of an analyte and its biological effects. In accordance with this need, there has been a fast growth in whole-cell biosensor technology. In this study we aimed to design a whole-cell bacterial biosensor to detect mercury in liquid solutions. The Pseudomonas pBS228 merR gene and its related promoter/operator was synthesized by Bioneer. The green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene was used as a reporter. GFP was cloned downstream of the …

Storage Temperature Of Boar Semen And Its Relationship To Changes In Sperm Plasma Membrane Integrity, Mitochondrial Membrane Potential, And Oxidoreductive Capability, Dariusz Gaczarzewicz, Jan Udala, Malgorzata Piasecka, Barbara Blaszczyk, Tomasz Stankiewicz

Turkish Journal of Biology

The aim of this study was to analyze changes in sperm plasma membrane integrity, mitochondrial activity, and extracellular environment during storage of boar semen at 5 °C, 16 °C, and 25 °C for 10 days. Progressive sperm motility, plasma membrane integrity (SYBR-14/PI-test and HOS test), aspartate aminotransferase (AAT), and mitochondrial activity (JC-1-test and NADH-dependent NBT assay), as well as pH and osmolality were assessed in nine ejaculates of Polish Landrace boars. The plasma membrane integrity of the semen stored at 5 °C was similar to that of the semen stored at 16 °C and 25 °C; however, an increase in …