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Contribution Of Nrf2 To Atherogenic Phenotype Switching Of Coronary Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells Lacking Cd38 Gene, Ming Xu, Xiao-Xue Li, Lei Wang, Mi Wang, Yang Zhang, Pin-Lan Li

Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

Background/Aims: Recent studies have indicated that CD38 gene deficiency results in dedifferentiation or transdifferentiation of arterial smooth muscle cells upon atherogenic stimulations. However, the molecular mechanisms mediating this vascular smooth muscle (SMC) phenotypic switching remain unknown. Methods & Results: In the present study, we first characterized the phenotypic change in the primary cultures of coronary arterial myocytes (CAMs) from CD38-/- mice. It was shown that CD38 deficiency decreased the expression of contractile marker calponin, SM22α and α-SMA but increased the expression of SMC dedifferentiation marker, vimentin, which was accompanied by enhanced cell proliferation. This phenotypic change in CD38-/- CAMs was …

Concentration-Dependent Diversification Effects Of Free Cholesterol Loading On Macrophage Viability And Polarization, Xiaoyang Xu, Aolin Zhang, Ningjun Li, Pin-Lan Li, Fan Zhang

Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

Background/Aims: The accumulation of free cholesterol in atherosclerotic lesions has been well documented in both animals and humans. In studying the relevance of free cholesterol buildup in atherosclerosis, contradictory results have been generated, indicating that free cholesterol produces both pro- and anti-atherosclerosis effects in macrophages. This inconsistency might stem from the examination of only select concentrations of free cholesterol. In the present study, we sought to investigate the implication of excess free cholesterol loading in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis across a broad concentration range from (in µg/ml) 0 to 60. Methods:Macrophage viability was determined by measuring formazan formation and …

Biob 595.02: Special Topics - Organismal Function, Bret W. Tobalske, Creagh W. Breuner

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Comx 115s.03c: Introduction To Interpersonal Communication, Patrick K. Marx

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Allure Of The Incomplete, Imperfect, And Impermanent: Designing And Appreciating Architecture As Nature, Rumiko Handa

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

For as long as we can remember, architects have operated with the notion that a building is complete when construction is finished, and that any subsequent alterations are degeneration. They strive to make the building perfect and wish to keep it so permanently. The notion that a building is complete when construction is finished is problematic in a number of ways. First, it does not reflect reality. After construction is finished, people move in and events take place, and alterations inevitably are made as people’s needs change and the building becomes obsolete. In fact the “afterlife” is the very “life” …

An Exhortation To Study God’S Two “Books”, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

From the birth of modern science at the end of the sixteenth century, Galileo famously believed that God had written two books — the scriptures and the Book of Nature. The scriptures, he contended, should be interpreted by scholars and theologians, whereas the Book of Nature was the province of scientists:

The Surprising Resilience Of State Opposition To Abortion: The Supreme Court, Federalism, And The Role Of Intense Minorities In The U.S. Politics System, Gerald Rosenberg

Articles

No abstract provided.

Scale Up Isolation Of Aaptamine For In Vivo Evaluation Indicates Its Neurobiological Activity Is Linked To The Delta Opioid Receptor, Nicole L. Mcintosh, Eptisam Lambu, Laura Millan-Lobo, Fei Li, Li He, Phillip Crews, Jennifer L. Whistler, Tyler Johnson

Student Research Posters

Opioid receptors belong to the large superfamily of seven transmembrane-spanning (7TM) G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). As a class, GPCRs are of fundamental physiological importance mediating the actions of the majority of known neurotransmitters and hormones. The Mu, Delta, and Kappa (MOP, DOP, KOP) opioid receptors are particularly intriguing members of this receptor family as they are the targets involved in many neurobiological diseases such as addiction, pain, stress, anxiety, and depression. Recently we discovered that the aaptamine class of marine sponge derived natural products exhibit selective agonist activity in vitro for the DOP versus MOP receptor. Our findings may explain …

Use Of Generalized Ordered Logistic Regression For The Analysis Of Multidrug Resistance Data, Getahun E. Agga, H. Morgan Scott

Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center: Reports

Statistical analysis of antimicrobial resistance data largely focuses on individual antimicrobial’s binaryoutcome (susceptible or resistant). However, bacteria are becoming increasingly multidrug resistant (MDR). Statistical analysis of MDR data is mostly descriptive often with tabular or graphical presentations. Here we report the applicability of generalized ordinal logistic regression model for the analysis of MDR data. A total of 1,152 Escherichia coli, isolated from the feces of weaned pigs experimentally supplemented with chlortetracycline (CTC) and copper, were tested for susceptibilities against 15 antimicrobials and were binary classified into resistant or susceptible. The 15 antimicrobial agents tested were grouped into eight different …

Transparent Problem-Based Learning Across The Disciplines In The Community College Context: Issues And Impacts, Franca Ferarri, Andreas Salis, Kostas Stroumbakis, Amy Traver, Tanya Zhelecheva

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Research reveals that students benefit from high-impact practices (HIPs), transparent teaching-learning methods, and problem-based curricula. These benefits appear to be particularly profound for traditionally underserved students. This study uses pre-post survey and rubric-based assessment methods to examine the use of HIPs, transparent teaching-learning methods, and problem-based curricula in tandem and across the disciplines to support traditionally underserved students’ academic engagement and performance in the community college context. Findings related to faculty implementation, students’ perceptions of transparency, and students’ development of problem-solving skills are discussed.

Using Behavior Change Plans To Make Wellness An Informed Priority: Health Education Meets General Education, Joanne M. Crossman

NERA Conference Proceedings 2015

Students advanced health education and general education skills through a multi-phased behavior change plan project. Predominantly selecting nutrition or fitness as focus areas for improvement, 145 students set SMART goals, reported BCP progress, perceived obstacles, and behaviors important toward goal attainment, illuminating their importance in successfully teaching/managing health behavior change. One-group posttest-only design included quantitative analysis of reported BCP success. Qualitative evaluation of students’ reports were distilled into common themes. Seven behaviors were found important to goal attainment, physical/psychological/financial benefits were reported, correlations to the study site’s core values were reported, and final reflections indicated students would use BCP processes …

Assessment Of Microbial Populations Within Chicago Area Nearshore Waters And Interfaces With River Systems, Emily Sible, Alexandria Cooper, Kema Malki, Katherine Bruder, Thomas Hatzopoulos, Siobhan C. Watkins, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

The Chicago area locks separate and control water flow between the freshwaters of Lake Michigan and the network of Illinois waterways. Under extreme storm conditions, however, the locks are opened and storm waters, untreated waste, and runoff are released directly into the lake. These combined sewer overflow (CSO) events introduce microbes, viruses, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous into nearshore waters which likely affect the native species. We collected surface water samples from four Chicago area beaches – Gillson Park, Montrose Beach, 57th Street Beach, and Calumet Beach – every two weeks from May 13 through August 5, 2014. …

Assessment Of A Metaviromic Dataset Generated From Nearshore Lake Michigan, Siobhan C. Watkins, Neil Kuehnle, C Anthony Ruggeri, Kema Malki, Katherine Bruder, Jinan Elayyan, Kristina Damisch, Naushin Vahora, Paul O'Malley, Brianne Ruggles-Sage, Zachary Romer, Catherine Putonti

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

Bacteriophages are powerful ecosystem engineers. They drive bacterial mortality rates and genetic diversity, and affect microbially mediated biogeochemical processes on a global scale. This has been demonstrated in marine environments; however, phage communities have been less studied in freshwaters, despite representing a potentially more diverse environment. Lake Michigan is one of the largest bodies of freshwater on the planet, yet to date the diversity of its phages has yet to be examined. Here, we present a composite survey of viral ecology in the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan. Sequence analysis was performed using a web server previously used to analyse …

Algae Population Self-Replenishment, R. Corban Harwood

Faculty Publications - Department of Mathematics

This modeling scenario investigates the massive algal blooms that struck Lake Chapala, Mexico, in 1994. After reading a summary of news articles on the incident, students create an ODE system model from a verbal description of the factors, visualize this system using an executable Java applet (PPLANE) to predict overall behavior, and then analyze the nonlinear system using the Jacobian matrix, eigenvalues, phase plane, and feasibility conditions on parameters to fully describe the system behavior. Students are expected to be familiar with systems of differential equations, equilibria, jacobian matrices, and eigenvalues. Students will learn modeling from qualitative descriptions, nondimensionalization, applying …

A New Design Method For Vanadium Redox Batteries In Renewable Energy Systems, Casey Gibson, Karla G. Morrissey Unversity Of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

This study investigated the behavior of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs), which are batteries capable of easily switching between charging and discharging modes, making them a suitable option for storing intermittent sources of alternative energies (solar, wind, etc). Since different sizes of the battery provide varying voltages, optimal parameters for a particular home are key for implementation. These parameters, specifically the cell and tank volumes of the battery that are capable of providing consistent on-load voltage, were determined using data from a 13 kW solar array and a medium-sized house. Charge/discharge current values were used to run a mathematical model …

Editorial Board And Staff, Inquiry Editors

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Inquiry: The University Of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal - Volume 19 - Fall 2015, Inquiry Editors

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Terahertz Imaging Platform To Characterize The Growth Of In-Vitro Breast Tumors, Scarlett-Marie Acklin

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

This study aimed at evaluating the ideal plating method and density for imaging with the terahertz (THz) spectrometer. In this study, different methods were used to grow in-vitro tumors using the 4T1 cell line. Here, attempts to grow breast tumors in-vitro were conducted. Results were produced in two environments, flat-bottomed plates and round-bottomed multiwell plates. The second method allowed for faster clumping and increased cell aggregation, producing tumors up to 7mm. Terahertz spectroscopy produced images that correlated well to photomicrographs taken of the in-vitro tumors. This methodology shows great promise for providing a reliable, parameter-controlled source of in-vitro breast tumors …

Interface Property Of Collagen And Hydroxyapatite In Bone And Developing Bioinspired Materials, Clint Paul

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Bone at the nanoscale consists of type I collagen and hydroxyapatite (HAP). Type I collagen and HAP [Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2] are responsible for most of the structural integrity of bone. Collagen fibrils contain HAP platelets of varying size dispersed between the collagen. We investigate heterotrimeric collagen interaction with HAP using Steering Molecular Dynamics to obtain the force-displacement relation as the collagen is undergoing shearing and peeling on the surface of HAP. Results indicate that the collagen requires 40% less force to separate form the HAP surface under peeling, when compared to shear loading conditions. In both shearing and peeling, the number of …

Pound And Disability, Václav Paris

Publications and Research

Pound and disability: the two keywords of my title are not happy bedfellows. Why then insist on their conjunction? My answer is that neither Pound studies, on its own, nor a Pound-free disability studies can offer a history of American twentieth-century poetry that is both sensitive to changes in a literary tradition and changes in attitudes towards disability.

Western Michigan University Undergraduate Catalog 2015-2016, Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University Course Catalogs (1904-present)

• General Information
• Colleges
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Tuning The Size Of Elastin-Like Polypeptide Nanoparticles, Adam Maraschky

Undergraduate Research Posters 2015

The ability to control the size of biologically-based, environmentally-sensitive colloidal nanoparticles can advance their application in areas such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and biosensors. Controlling size is a primary task in engineering nanomaterials because many of their properties depend on size. With the aim of fine- tuning the size of particles, we characterize mixtures of two elastin-like polypeptide structures: a linear and a trimer configuration. Both constructs undergo aggregation above their inverse transition temperatures, but the linear ELP forms large aggregates which coalesce into a protein-rich phase, while the ELP trimer with polar head groups forms stable polymer micelles …

Fatherless Homes And Implications On Student Achievement, Timothy James Garland

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a relationship between fatherly involvement in students' lives and select factors of student descriptors and school success. Specifically, the study sought to discover if there is a significant relationship between fatherlessness and student success and if there is a significant relationship between fatherlessness and select student descriptors. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were used to interpret and analyze the data for the study. There were 1,780 respondents who participated in the study. Respondents included seniors from rural, suburban, and urban public schools. In conducting this study, the …

Unm Pathology Pathfinder Winter 2015, Unm Department Of Pathology

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Affordable Care Act's Premium Tax Credit: Ensuring Access To Safety Net Programs, Mary Leto Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

The United States took a gigantic step toward universal health care with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA'). Under the ACA, nearly everyone is required to have coverage, and correspondingly, no one can be turned away. To ease the financial burden of the individual mandate, the ACA subsidizes coverage for lower-income people. The primary subsidy is a refundable tax credit called the Premium Tax Credit, first available in 2014. To claim the credit, a person must file a tax return--but not just any return. The ACA requires married individuals to file jointly. For many, this is problematic if …

Examining The Effects Of Preschool Writing Instruction On Emergent Literacy Skills: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Anna H. Hall, Amber Simpson, Ying Guo, Shanshan Wang

Publications

This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature involving writing interventions in the preschool setting. The information presented is timely considering the current expectations for young children to write. Framing the empirical literature within different philosophical approaches, trends were analyzed to identify instructional strategies related to increases in emergent literacy outcomes and where gaps in the literature existed. The results from 22 intervention conditions from 1990 to 2013 indicated the overall effect size was g = .44, 95% CIs [.27, .60], suggesting that preschool writing interventions enhanced children’s early literacy outcomes. The findings also highlighted the …

Point-Quarter Harvested Plant Weight Measurements To Estimate Shrub Anpp In A Chihuahuan Desert Creosote Shrubland At The Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico (2007- Present), Esteban Muldavin, Douglas I. Moore

Sevilleta LTER Program Data

In an effort to better quantify NPP of Creosotebush in the Five-Points region, it was decided to test the Point-Quarter method against the standard 1-m2 quadrat method that has been in use since 1998. Transects were laid out across the 5 mammal trapping webs as well as across burned and unburned plots of the Mixed Shrub site (MS). Repeat measures of the same bushes are performed seasonally. Whole shrubs of various size classes are collected and sorted and weighed to develop regressions for biomass.

2015 Program, Belmont University

Humanities Symposium Programs

No abstract provided.

Chemical Composition Of Some Apiaceae Plants Commonly Used In Herby Cheese In Eastern Anatolia, Murat Tunçtürk, Fevzi̇ Özgökçe

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Traditional uses of wild edible plants in daily diets are common in Eastern Anatolia. It is well known that more than 40 different plant species have been used as fresh vegetable, dried herbs, and pickled plants in some sole or mixed milk and meat products. The major use of wild edible plants is Van herby cheese in this region. To date, the mineral compositions of wild edible plants used in Van herby cheese production have been studied individually. In the present study, the plants were grouped by their plant families and their mineral compositions were determined. Therefore, variations and relations …

Pathogenic Variability Among Tilletia Indica Isolates And Distribution Of Heterothallic Alleles In The Northwestern Plains Zone Of India, Shabana Parveen, Mahander Singh Saharan, Ajay Verma, Indu Sharma

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Tilletia indica Mitra, the causal agent of Karnal bunt of wheat (KB), is a quarantined disease of international importance whose pathogen shows high variability due to its heterothallic nature. Pathogenic variation was studied under artificially inoculated conditions on 13 wheat genotypes including bread and dicoccum wheat. This study used 34 T. indica isolates collected from 6 major wheat growing states in India (Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh). Mean coefficient of infection of the isolates ranged from 2.11% (KBR4) to 14.60% (KBH1). Among the 13 genotypes screened, only 1 genotype was found to be highly susceptible to …