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Evaluation Of The Impact Of Dust Containing Platinum Group Elements On Bacterial Growth, Oxidative Stress Sensitivity And Biofilm Formation, Mohammed Olufemi Suraju

Theses (Pre-2016)

The rising concentrations of Platinum Group Elements (PGEs) in the environment have raised serious concerns about their physiological impact. Some of the consequences of PGE exposures are known to include platinosis (which is characterized by extreme wheezing and sneezing), increased sensitivity to allergens and diarrhea. Currently, it is not known if dust containing PGEs are a bonafide microbial stress agent or if they. have any impact on microbes. Here, it was demonstrated by analysis of growth, oxidative stress sensitivity, and biofilm production assays that dust containing PGEs (house and road dust) are bonafide microbial stress agents. In addition, it was …

Impact Of Children's Literature On Family Structures And Children's Perceptions Of Family, Lindsey M. White

Education Masters

This study asks, what is the impact of children’s literature on children’s perceptions of family structures? Literature teaches young children a great deal about the world in which they live; therefore, literature plays a large role in children’s perceptions of others. This study uses triangulation with three forms of qualitative data collected by children’s drawings of families, interviews, questionnaires, and discussions. The study found that young children can understand differences of others. Teachers hold a great deal of responsibility for shaping the minds of the future and literature has a large impact on how children learn about others and perceive …

Microrna-Mediated Plant Development And Response To Environmental Stress In Perennial Grasses, Shuangrong Yuan

All Dissertations

World population will pass nine billion by 2050, while the agricultural land area will not increase dramatically in the coming decades. To meet the ever-increasing food demand, genetically engineered crops have been rapidly adopted for crop productivity. MicroRNAs have become increasingly attractive as targets in crop genetic modification due to their regulatory role in fine-tuning many essential biological processes. My research explores the potentials of microRNA528 (miR528) and miR396 for use in genetic modifications of the important agronomic traits of plant development, abiotic stress response, and/or flowering time control in an economically and environmentally important perennial monocot species, creeping bentgrass …

Sex-Associated Mitochondrial Genes: Tools For Understanding Unionid Reproduction And Development, Amy Louise Maynard

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Gonochoristic species of the bivalve order Unionida possess two types of mitochondria. The female-inherited mitochondria (F-mt) is found in the somatic cells of both sexes, while male-inherited mitochondria (M-mt) is found in the male gonad. These mitochondria possess different open reading frames (M-ORF or F-ORF respectively). Previous studies suggested that two types of sperm might exist, each carrying one or the other mitochondrial haplotype, and it was hypothesized that the presence of either F-mt or M-mt in sperm may be involved in determination of offspring sex. I investigated this hypothesis in Bleedingtooth (Venustaconcha pleasii). Sperm samples were obtained from field-collected …

Systemic Insulin Sensitivity And Skeletal Muscle Akt Signaling In Rats Artificially Selected For Low And High Aerobic Capacity, Kyle Levi Fulghum

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The mechanism(s) linking physical inactivity, obesity, and type-II diabetes are unclear. I hypothesized low intrinsic aerobic capacity is associated with reduced systemic insulin sensitivity via skeletal muscle insulin signaling. After 34 generations of selective breeding, high aerobic capacity (HCR) rats exhibited an 8-fold increase in running distance vs low aerobic capacity (LCR) rats (n=14 per group). LCR rats had higher rates of weight gain vs HCR (p<0.05) though food consumption was constant (p=0.86) over a 12-week study. Rats were divided into 4 groups: 1) LCR-Sham Surgery, 2) LCR-Catheterization, 3) HCR-Sham Surgery or 4) HCR-Catheterization (n=7 per group). Euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamps on catheterized rats tested insulin sensitivity while sham LCR and HCR were used for basal tissue analysis. Plasma insulin levels did not differ during the clamps, but LCR required lower glucose infusion rates than HCR (p<0.05). Upon insulin stimulation, both absolute and normalized phospho-Akt(Ser473) of soleus muscle were significantly increased in HCR above basal group (p<0.05), but not in LCR. No difference was observed between insulin-stimulated phospho-Akt(Ser473) of HCR and LCR groups . These data support that LCR is linked to a reduction in insulin sensitivity in vivo without impairments of insulin-stimulated skeletal muscle phospho-Akt(Ser473) vs HCR rats.

Development Of A Set Of Force Response Equations To Represent The Musculature In Infants To Study Development Dysplasia Of The Hip, Brendan Jones

HIM 1990-2015

This paper describes how a force response equation was created to model muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the hip joint to improve a biomechanical model of an infant hip to study Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH). DDH is the most common abnormality in newborn infants and is defined as any amount of instability in the hip including complete dislocation. Researchers at our institution are attempting to increase the success rate of treatment methods by creating computer models of the biomechanics of infant hip instability and dislocation. The computer model used a scaled adult pelvis, femur, tibia, fibula and foot …

Fabrication, Characterization, And Application Of Carbon Nanoparticles For The Detection Of Heavy Metal Ions In Aqueous Media, Aaron Michael Simpson

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This research set out to develop a method for producing Carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) from glycerol and use them to detect Cu2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ ions in aqueous solution. Three synthesis methods were developed using the following mixtures: (1) glycerol and silica, (2) glycerol, silica, and H3PO4, and (3) glycerol with H3PO4. The structure of the particles was characterized using a variety of spectroscopic techniques. Size distributions were obtained from scanning electron microscopy images. The particles were spherical with average diameters of 66, 58, and 89 nm respectively and believed to consist of a carbon core with carboxylic acid and alcohol …

The Effect Of Leucine Supplementation On Mitochondrial Biogenesis And Mitochondrial Protein Synthesis In Rats Fed A High-Fat Diet, David M. Skinner

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study aims to illuminate interaction between leucine supplementation and mitochondrial proteins concerned with synthesis and biogenesis. We hypothesized that supplementation with leucine will attenuate the weight gain of the high fat diet in comparison with the normal chow group, by enhancing mitochondrial biogenesis and content. We conducted a laboratory experiment using Western Blotting techniques to determine protein expression. Proteins of interest in this study include PGC-1α, COX-IV, TUFM, TFAM, and mtIF2. The findings from the research show a main effect of an increase in the expression of PGC-1 α in high fat diets. There was no difference in the …

Synthesis Of Medicinally Relevant Thiazolyl Aryl Ketones Under Mild Conditions, Danielle M. Gardner

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Purpose: The growing amount of clinical resistance observed in current antifungal drugs and in anti-HIV pharmaceuticals is a concern in the medical community. The purpose of this study is to develop a mild synthetic process for biomedically relevant thiazolyl aryl ketones that can be used to develop antifungal and anti-HIV drugs. We hypothesized that the proposed synthetic technique would be more efficient, produce fewer unwanted byproducts, and be more tolerant of functional groups than existing methods.

Methods: Prior to each of the ketone reactions, the necessary salt was synthesized by mixing thiazole and 9-bromofluorene neat in a reaction tube heated …

Problem Solving Skill And Obesity In Children, Caitlin R. Spano

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract:

Introduction: Childhood obesity is a problem that leads to many serious health effects including early maturation, decreased quality of life and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. In 2012, over one third of children were considered obese (Childhood Obesity Facts 2015). Efforts have been made to reduce this number but they have not been fully successful (Nutrition Standards for School Meals 2015, Prevalence of Childhood obesity in the United States 2011-2012 2015). What other factors are causing kids to choose foods that lead to weight gain.

Literature Review: In research regarding psychological motivations of overeating, there has been a correlation …

Kdac8 Substrate Specificity Quantified By A Biologically Relevant, Label-Free Deacetylation Assay, Tasha B. Toro, Terry J. Watt

Faculty and Staff Publications

Analysis of the human proteome has identified thousands of unique protein sequences that contain acetylated lysine residues in vivo. These modifications regulate a variety of biological processes and are reversed by the lysine deacetylase (KDAC) family of enzymes. Despite the known prevalence and importance of acetylation, the details of KDAC substrate recognition are not well understood. While several methods have been developed to monitor protein deacetylation, none are particularly suited for identifying enzyme-substrate pairs of label-free substrates across the entire family of lysine deacetylases. Here, we present a fluorescamine-based assay which is more biologically relevant than existing methods and amenable …

Phylogeography Of The Military Macaw (Ara Militaris) And The Great Green Macaw (A. Ambiguus) Based On Mtdna Sequence Data, Jessica R. Eberhard, Eduardo E. Iñigo-Elias, Ernesto Enkerlin-Hoeflich, E. Paùl Cun

Faculty Publications

© 2015 The Wilson Ornithological Society. The Military Macaw (Ara militaris) and the Great Green Macaw (A. ambiguus) are species whose close relationship is reflected in their morphological similarity as well as their geographic ranges. Military Macaws have a disjunct distribution, found in Mexico as well as several areas in South America, while Great Green Macaws have two or more disjunct populations from Honduras to eastern Ecuador. We used mitochondrial sequence data to examine the phylogenetic relationships between these two species, and also among representative samples across their ranges. Our data clearly support recognition of the two species as being …

Reliability Of 3-Dimensional Measures Of Single-Leg Cross Drop Landing Across 3 Different Institutions: Implications For Multicenter Biomechanical And Epidemiological Research On Acl Injury Prevention, Christopher A. Dicesare, Nathaniel A. Bates, Kim D. Barber Foss, Staci M. Thomas, Samuel C. Wordeman, Dai Sugimoto, Benjamin D. Roewer, Jennifer M. Medina Mckeon, Stephanie Di Stasi, Brian W. Noehren, Kevin R. Ford, Adam W. Kiefer, Timothy E. Hewett, Gregory D. Myer

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are physically and financially devastating but affect a relatively small percentage of the population. Prospective identification of risk factors for ACL injury necessitates a large sample size; therefore, study of this injury would benefit from a multicenter approach.

Purpose: To determine the reliability of kinematic and kinetic measures of a single-leg cross drop task across 3 institutions.

Study Design: Controlled laboratory study.

Methods: Twenty-five female high school volleyball players participated in this study. Three-dimensional motion data of each participant performing the single-leg cross drop were collected at 3 institutions over a period of 4 …

Modelling Water Uptake Provides A New Perspective On Grass And Tree Coexistence, Michael G. Mazzacavallo, Andrew Kulmatiski

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Root biomass distributions have long been used to infer patterns of resource uptake. These patterns are used to understand plant growth, plant coexistence and water budgets. Root biomass, however, may be a poor indicator of resource uptake because large roots typically do not absorb water, fine roots do not absorb water from dry soils and roots of different species can be difficult to differentiate. In a sub-tropical savanna, Kruger Park, South Africa, we used a hydrologic tracer experiment to describe the abundance of active grass and tree roots across the soil profile. We then used this tracer data to parameterize …

Vol. 7 No. 1, Fall 2015; Equal Access: A Proposal For Homeschooled Students And Athletics, Cora Moy

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

A prevalent issue that homeschooled students face is access to interscholastic athletics at public schools. Over the past several decades, the United States has seen an upward trend in the number of children who are homeschooled. In Illinois, the local public school determines whether homeschooled students may participate in activities at public schools. While this Comment explores a sample of varying laws and regulations on homeschooled student participation in public school athletics, the purpose is to examine the debate on homeschooler's access to public schools and why the Illinois Legislature should create a minimum standard that would allow homeschooled students …

Bioarchaeological Analysis Of Oak View Landing (40dr1): An Archaic Population In The Kentucky Lake Reservior, Katy D. Grant-Mclemore

Master's Theses

The biocultural examination of the Archaic population recovered at Oak View Landing (40DR1) investigates the lifeways and adaptations of prehistoric people as they reflect sociopolitical and subsistence strategies.

A comprehensive bioarchaeological analysis was conducted on the adult individuals (18 males, 16 females, 16 of indeterminate sex) excavated from a multiple occupation site located along the Tennessee River in Decatur County, Tennessee. Skeletal indicators used to understand biocultural phenomena were assessed macroscopically on cranial and postcranial elements. Furthermore, mortuary data, for adults and subadults, were used to determine any patterns of preferential treatment at death.

Results from this study indicate that …

Comprehensive Neural Network Forecasting System For Ground Level Ozone In Multiple Regions, Gautam Raghavendra Eapi

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

A comprehensive neural network daily maximum 8 hour-ozone forecasting model was developed based on five years of data (2010-2014) collected from 50 monitoring sites from the Dallas Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Los Angeles, San Joaquin and San Diego regions. This work represents the first neural network developed to forecast ozone in multiple regions, as well as multiple sites in the same region. Previous studies have developed separate neural network models to forecast ozone at each location. Two stages of feature selection were applied to reduce input vector dimension and redundancy. These are Piecewise Linear Orthonormal Floating Search (PLOFS), and Karhunen - …

Post Hoc Analysis On The Effect Of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention Provided To Preschool Children On The Autism Spectrum, Catherine R. Maxwell Dumont

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) provides a framework for educators to assist children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to increase independence and positive social skills in the classroom (Reichow, 2012). Preschoolers with ASD who do not have access to programs tend to display negative and socially inappropriate behavior, such as acts of aggression, withdrawal, and inability to attend to lessons. Studies on program effectiveness documented that preschool children who received EIBI scored higher on IQ, language comprehension, imitation, expressive language, nonverbal communication, play, stereotyped behaviors and adaptive functioning compared to preschool children who do not receive EIBI. The literature …

Low-Rank Network Decomposition Reveals Structural Characteristics Of Small-World Networks, Victor J. Barranca, D. Zhou, D. Cai

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

Small-world networks occur naturally throughout biological, technological, and social systems. With their prevalence, it is particularly important to prudently identify small-world networks and further characterize their unique connection structure with respect to network function. In this work we develop a formalism for classifying networks and identifying small-world structure using a decomposition of network connectivity matrices into low-rank and sparse components, corresponding to connections within clusters of highly connected nodes and sparse interconnections between clusters, respectively. We show that the network decomposition is independent of node indexing and define associated bounded measures of connectivity structure, which provide insight into the clustering …

Correcting For Measurement Error In Latent Variables Used As Predictors, Lynne Steuerle Schofield

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

This paper represents a methodological-substantive synergy. A new model, the Mixed Effects Structural Equations (MESE) model which combines structural equations modeling and item response theory, is introduced to attend to measurement error bias when using several latent variables as predictors in generalized linear models. The paper investigates racial and gender disparities in STEM retention in higher education. Using the MESE model with 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data, I find prior mathematics proficiency and personality have been previously underestimated in the STEM retention literature. Pre-college mathematics proficiency and personality explain large portions of the racial and gender gaps. The …

Public Trust Doctrine Implications Of Electricity Production, Lance Noel, Jeremy Firestone

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The public trust doctrine is a powerful legal tool in property law that requires the sovereign, as a trustee, to protect and manage natural resources. Historically, the public trust doctrine has been used in relationship to navigable waterways and wildlife management. Despite electricity production’s impact on those two areas and the comparatively smaller impacts of renewable energy, electricity production has garnered very little public trust doctrine attention. This Article examines how electricity production implicates the public trust doctrine, primarily through the lens of four states—California, Wisconsin, Hawaii, and New Jersey—and how it would potentially apply to each state’s electricity planning …

Prey Size And Dietary Niche Of Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat (Corynorhinus Rafinesquii), Luke E. Dodd, Michael J. Lacki, Joseph S. Johnson, Lynne K. Rieske

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Bats in the genus Corynorhinus possess a suite of morphological characters that permit them to effectively use both gleaning and aerial-hawking foraging strategies to capture Lepidoptera. Consequently, they occupy a specialized feeding niche within North American bat assemblages and are of particular interest for dietary studies. We collected fecal pellets from a colony of C. rafinesquii (Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat) at Mammoth Cave National Park during August–October 2011 and amplified cytochrome-c oxidase subunit 1 fragments of prey from these pellets. We used the Barcode of Life Database to identify prey, and evaluated the size of prey species based on published values. …

The Vascular Flora Of Wayne County, Mississippi, Daniel M. Mcnair

Master's Theses

The vascular flora of Wayne County, Mississippi, was surveyed from 2013–2015, and the species of native and naturalized plants are listed. In total, 1,135 species were identified from field collections, previously collected herbarium specimens, and field observations. These belong to 556 genera and 165 families. Four of these species represent first recorded occurrences in the state of Mississippi: Blyxa aubertii Rich., Gomphrena serrata Pav. ex Moq., Isoetes valida (Engelm.) Clute, and Polypogon interruptus Kunth. GPS coordinates are given for important collection sites representing the diversity of plant communities in the county. All voucher specimens from the survey are deposited in …

A Platform For Fast Detection Of Let-7 Micro Rna Using Polyaniline Fluorescence And Image Analysis Techniques, Partha P. Sengupta

Master's Theses

The project describes a new strategy for transducing hybridization events through modulating intrinsic properties of the electroconductive polymer polyaniline (PANI). When DNA based probes electrostatically interact with PANI, its fluorescence properties are increased, a phenomenon that can be enhanced by UV irradiation. Hybridization of target nucleic acids results in dissociation of probes causing PANI fluorescence to return to basal levels. By monitoring restoration of base PANI fluorescence as little as 10^-11 M (10 pM) of target oligonucleotides could be detected within 15 minutes of hybridization. Detection of complementary oligos was specific, with introduction of a single mismatch failing to …

Same-Sex Socio-Sexual Interactions Among A Group Of Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Natalia Botero Acosta

Master's Theses

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) frequently engage in non-reproductive sexual behavior, including homosexual encounters. In order to better understand the nature and function of these interactions, a longitudinal study of the patterns of association and the dynamics of initiator/recipient role exchange was conducted. Underwater video footage of a colony of bottlenose dolphins housed at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), collected between March of 2010 and May of 2013, was analyzed. Associations occurring during homosexual interactions were transitory for most individuals. Nonetheless, subsequent analyses allowed the rejection of the null hypothesis of random association, suggesting the existence of …

Staging Sex Or Fighting Foreignness? Marlowe's Edward Ii As Xenophobic Drama, James D. Baker

Master's Theses

Christopher Marlowe’s drama Edward II has long been known for its representation of a close male, arguably homosexual, friendship between King Edward II and his favorite, the French Piers Gaveston, as well as their union’s negative effects on the court. Indeed much criticism exists on the common belief that the characters’ relationship is problematic in early modern England both because the two characters are male and because there is an obvious class divide. However, critics have seemed to overlook Gaveston’s being French, even in light of the massive immigration to England during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This …

Management Strategy Evaluation For The Atlantic Surfclam, Spisula Solidissima, Using A Fisheries Economics Model, Kelsey M. Kuykendall

Master's Theses

The Atlantic surfclam, Spisula solidissima, is an economically valuable bivalve harvested along the northeastern United States. The surfclam’s range has contracted and the center of the stock’s distribution has shifted north driven by warmer bottom water temperatures. Declining landings per unit effort (LPUE) in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) is one result. Declining stock abundance and LPUE suggest that overfishing may be occurring off New Jersey. The objective of this project is to perform a management strategy evaluation (MSE) for Spisula solidissima. The terminal goal is to identify a preferred management option that promotes enhanced surfclam productivity in the …

High Resolution Melt Analysis Of Samples With Differential Dna Methylation To Identify Tissue Source Of Origin, Stephanie M. Ledgerwood

Master's Theses

In Forensic Science casework, identifying the source of a tissue can assist in crime scene reconstruction. Currently, presumptive testing methods to identify tissue type are utilized in crime scene laboratories, but there is a need for a more reliable confirmatory test for tissue type identification. High Resolution Melt (HRM) analysis is an innovative technology that has the potential to determine tissue types through variations in DNA methylation patterns. Recently, DNA methylation patterns have been found to correspond with specific tissue types in particular regions of DNA. Two markers, B_SPTB_03 and DDX4 have been effective in differentiating sperm from other tissue …

Burial Chronological Sequencing Of The Colonial Maya Cemetery At Tipu, Belize Using Fluoride Ion Analysis, Nicole Musselwhite

Master's Theses

This thesis ascertains the sequence of burials using fluoride ion electrode analysis at the colonial cemetery at Tipu, Belize in order to explore demographic and other cultural effects associated with European contact. The cemetery at Tipu in west central Belize, dating from within the first century of Spanish contact, has provided one of the largest and best preserved Maya skeletal series, with over 500 burials recovered. While this series has undergone vast amounts of analysis, there has yet been an analysis conducted to view how patterns changed over time. This is of interest given the rapid culture change associated with …

Gut Microbiota Of Migratory Passerines At Stopover, William Bagley Lewis

Master's Theses

Although the gut microbiota provides many beneficial functions to animal hosts, relatively little is known about the gut microbiota of passerines. It is likely that gut microbes are especially important during the migratory phase; however gut atrophy experienced during prolonged migratory flight may cause disruptions of the stable microbiota. Fecal samples were collected from several species of passerine after crossing the Gulf of Mexico during spring migration and before crossing during fall, and microbiota communities were analyzed using next-generation sequencing. Despite showing large inter-individual variation, a core microbiota composed largely of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria was identified in all birds. Microbiota …