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Regulation Of The Transmembrane Mucin Muc4 By Wnt/Β-Catenin In Gastrointestinal Cancers, Priya Pai

Theses & Dissertations

The transmembrane mucin MUC4 is a high molecular weight glycoprotein that is expressed de novo in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). MUC4 has been shown to play a tumor-promoting role in malignancies such as PDAC, ovarian cancer and breast cancer. Unlike the normal pancreas, MUC4 is ordinarily expressed by goblet and absorptive cells in the normal colonic epithelium. However, its expression/role in colorectal cancer (CRC) is not well studied.

In this dissertation, the goal was to identify factor(s) that may differentially regulate MUC4 in these two disparate malignancies. Furthermore, in light of its pro-tumorigenic role in other malignancies, we analyzed the …

Control Of The Basal Recycling And Surface Expression Of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor By The Endocytic Recycling Regulator Ehd1 Utilizing A Pathway Shared By Rusc2, Eric Tom

Theses & Dissertations

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a prototype receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) and oncogene aberrantly expressed or mutated in solid tumors. Its surface expression is dynamically regulated. Display of an activation-competent pool is essential for response to ligands. Internalization and degradation of EGFR following stimulation has received the most attention, fewer studies have characterized the recycling arm of EGFR transit, basal traffic and surface display are poorly understood. Thus, we evaluated the endocytic recycling of EGFR for its therapeutic potential in EGFR driven cancers. The C-Terminal Eps15 homology (EH) domain-containing proteins have emerged as regulators of surface receptor recycling …

A Role For Ehd Family Endocytic Regulators In Endothelial Biology, Alexandra E. J. Moffitt

Theses & Dissertations

Endocytic trafficking is an essential process in eukaryotic cells, specifically for the transport of nutrients, membrane components, and receptors. Cargo destined for endocytic traffic is internalized at the cell surface via clathrin-dependent and clathrin-independent pathways, and brought to the early or sorting endosomes. From there, cargo is further trafficked to lysosomes for degradation, trafficked to other compartments in the cell, or recycled back to the cell surface (either directly or via the endocytic recycling compartment).

Mammalian C-terminal Eps15 homology domain-containing proteins, or EHD proteins (EHD1 to 4), are a family of highly conserved ATPases that function as key regulators of …

Epacs: Epigenetic Regulators That Affect Cell Survival In Cancer., Catherine Murari

Theses & Dissertations

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is a second messenger responsive to many external stimuli, playing an important role in cellular gene expression, metabolism, migration, differentiation, hypertrophy, apoptosis and secretion. All of these cellular functions are important in many diseases including cancer. Most of its effects were initially attributed to the classical protein kinase A (PKA) protein, but cellular functions such as proliferation and migration were found to be PKA independent and dependent on the newly discovered exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP (EPACs). EPACs are single polypeptides that primarily function as guanine exchange factors (GEFs) for Rap proteins that allow the …

Mechanisms Of Hepatitis C Viral Resistance To Direct Acting Antivirals, Asma Ahmed, Daniel J. Felmlee

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Atypical Protein Kinase C Dependent Polarized Cell Division Is Required For Myocardial Trabeculation, Derek L. Passer

Theses & Dissertations

A hallmark of cardiac development is the formation of myocardial trabeculations exclusively from the luminal surface of the primitive heart tube. Although a number of genetic defects in the endocardium (Grego-Bessa et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2010) and cardiac jelly (Camenisch et al., 2000) disrupt myocardial trabeculation, the role of cell polarity machinery in driving this process remains unclear. Herein, we demonstrate that atypical protein kinase C iota (Prkci) and its interacting partners of Par polarity complex are localized to the luminal side of luminal myocardial cells. Remarkably, a subset of these cells undergoes polarized cell division with the …

The Role Of Cxcr2 In Pancreatic Cancer Development And Progression, Abhilasha Purohit

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of CXCR2, a seven transmembrane G- protein coupled receptor, in mediating autocrine as well as paracrine mechanisms during pancreatic cancer progression. Data presented in the initial section demonstrates the aberrant expression of the CXCR2 biological axis in human pancreatic cancer tissue specimens. A study performed within the first section of this dissertation investigates the contribution of CXCR2 signaling in pancreatic cancer initiation. These studies have identified a novel role of CXCR2 in mediating KRAS^(G12D) -induced autocrine growth transformation of pancreatic cancer cells. The upregulation of the CXCR2 biological axis was found to be directly …

The Role Of Genetic Alterations In Tumor Initiation, Progression And Transformation, Weiwei Zhang

Theses & Dissertations

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is the second most common lymphoma in the United States. Although it is generally an indolent lymphoma, FL is not curable, and, in about 30% of patients, the FL undergoes transformation into an aggressive lymphoma (tFL) with marked worsening of prognosis. To identify mutations preferentially present in tFL, we performed whole exome sequencing (WES) on paired FL and tFL arising in the same patients and developed a mutational analysis pipeline. After we identified potentially important genes that have been found to be mutated in our paired FL and tFL study, we constructed a custom capture platform including …

Regulatory Roles Of Mical-L1 And Ehd1 In Cell Signaling And Mitosis, James B. Reinecke

Theses & Dissertations

Membrane trafficking is a basic cell biological process that controls the distribution of proteins and lipids. Our lab is particularly interested in delineating the cellular functions as well as the molecular mechanisms that regulate the C-terminal Eps15 Homology Domain (EHD) protein family of adenosine-5’-triphosphatases in mammalian cells. EHD1-4 are ubiquitously expressed in mammalian tissues and serve partially overlapping but also distinct functions in regulating membrane shaping and fission along the endocytic pathway. Specifically, EHD1 is recruited to tubular recycling endosomes (TREs) by Molecule Interacting with CasL Like-1 (MICAL-L1) and facilitates TRE fission and release of cargo from the perinuclear endocytic …

The Role Of Tumor Suppressor Co-Chaperone Chip/Stub1 In Erbb2-Mediated Oncogenesis, Haitao Luan

Theses & Dissertations

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family member ErbB2 (Her2) is overexpressed in 20 -30% of invasive breast cancers and this overexpression correlates with poor prognosis and shorter overall as well as disease-free survival. Aberrant expression of ErbB2 through gene amplification, transcriptional deregulation and/or altered endocytic trafficking results in overexpression of ErbB2 at the plasma membrane and biases ErbB2 from primarily ligand-driven hetero-dimerization under normal expression conditions to increased ligand-independent homo-dimer and hetero-dimer formation and consequent activation. C-terminus of HSC70-Inteeracting protein (CHIP)/STIP1-homologous U-Box containing protein 1 (STUB1) is an HSP90/HSC70 interacting negative co-chaperone known to promote ubiquitination and degradation of …

The Battle Against Childhood Obesity, Allison Fox

Capstones

When 16-year-old Eric Foy came home from high school one weeknight in the fall of 2005, his life changed forever. His mother, Claudia, was resting on the tan couch in the living room, but she was slumped over to the left, towards the end table that held a dozen framed photos of his extended family. “Get me juice,” Claudia whispered to her son. Immediately, Eric knew what was happening –his mother’s blood sugar level was crashing. As he ran to the kitchen to pour a glass of orange juice, he started to panic.

Editorial: "Euscorpius" At 50, Victor Fet, Michael E. Soleglad

Euscorpius

Five years since its conception, “Euscorpius”, the online peer-reviewed research journal devoted to scorpion science, celebrates its 50th issue today with its 50th author, and shows no signs of aging or slowing down. We celebrate these achievements together with the colleagues and friends all around the world, since success of “Euscorpius” became possible only through collaboration, networking, and mutual support—aptly provided in the Internet environment. No other medium allows so much connectivity, rapid response, and coordination as this marvelous modern communication device. For us, “Euscorpius” in its five years became much more than a …

Conspectus Genericus Scorpionorum 1758–2006 (Arachnida: Scorpiones), Gérard Dupré

Euscorpius

Genus-group names introduced for all extant scorpions in 1758–2006, are listed. The treatment follows the Conspectus of Francke (1985), with considerable additional information accumulated during intensive scorpio-logical research of 1983–2006. We list, as currently valid, 191 genus-group names, which include 167 genera and 24 non-nominotypic subgenera. The list also includes all available genus-group synonyms as well as unavailable names and detected incorrect spellings.

Scorpions Of Iran (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Vi. Lorestan Province, Shahrokh Navidpour, Hassan H. Nayebzadeh, Michael E. Soleglad, Victor Fet, František Kovařík, Mohammad Hassan Kayedi

Euscorpius

Ten species of scorpions belonging to three families are reported from the Lorestan Province of Iran. Of these, five species are recorded from the province for the first time: Hottentotta zagrosensis Kovařík, 1997; Mesobuthus eupeus phillipsii (Pocock, 1889); Orthochirus iranus Kovařík, 2004; Razianus zarudnyi (Birula, 1903) ; and Scorpio maurus townsendi (Pocock, 1900). One new species is described, Hottentotta lorestanus sp. n.; it can be easily distinguished from the other four species of the genus known from Iran by its coloration; it is the only Iranian species which has the entire pedipalps yellow and the metasomal segments I to …

The Genus Vachoniolus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) In Oman, Graeme Lowe

Euscorpius

Study of new material collected in Oman by ultraviolet detection revealed three species of Vachoniolus, an unusual genus of psammophilous buthid scorpion distinguished by grossly swollen male pedipalp chelae. The presence of the type species, V. globimanus Levy, Amitai et Shulov, 1973, in Oman is confirmed, and two new species are described: V. batinahensis sp. nov. from the Al Batinah coastal plain north of the Al Hajar mountains, and V. gallagheri sp. nov. from desert alluvial fans south and west of the Al Hajar mountains. The number of Vachoniolus species is thereby raised to four, including …

Etudes On Iurids, Iv. Observations On Calchas Gruberi From Megisti Island, Greece (Scorpiones: Iuridae), Iasmi Stathi, Victor Fet, Michael E. Soleglad

Euscorpius

A series of Calchas specimens from the Greek island of Megisti (= Kastelorizo) was examined. It is shown by detailed analysis of several key diagnostic characters that this population from Megisti Island belongs to C. gruberi Fet, Soleglad et Kovařík, 2009. Therefore, C. nordmanni Birula, 1899 is not present in Greek fauna. The population of C. gruberi from Megisti comprises the largest specimens so far reported.

A New Case Of Duplication Of The Metasoma And Telson In The Scorpion Euscorpius Flavicaudis (Degeer, 1778) (Euscorpiidae), Wilson R. Lourenço, Florian Hypolite

Euscorpius

The specimen presented in this note is a juvenile female of Euscorpius flavicaudis (DeGeer, 1778), with a total length of 13 mm, including the telson. It was collected by the junior author, while searching for scor-pions in the Alps, during the early summer of 2010, at Laragne-Montéglin, Hautes-Alpes in France.

Taxonomic Position Of The Genus Simonoides Vachon Et Farzanpay, 1987, And Description Of A New Species Of Orthochirus Karsch From Iran (Scorpiones, Buthidae), František Kovařík, Victor Fet

Euscorpius

Simonoides Vachon et Farzanpay, 1987 is synonymized with Orthochirus Karsch, 1891. Lectotype is designated for Simonoides farzanpayi Vachon et Farzanpay, 1987. Orthochirus sobotniki Kovařík, 2004 is synonymized with Orthochirus farzanpayi (Vachon et Farzanpay, 1987), comb. n. Orthochirus gruberi, sp. n. (Iran) is described and dis-tinguished from all other Iranian species of the genus on a combination of two characters, the presence of rows of granules with internal and external granules on the movable fingers of pedipalps and hirsuteness of the entire me-tasoma and telson.

Two New Species Of Hottentotta Birula, 1908 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Northern Oman, Graeme Lowe

Euscorpius

Two new endemic species of Hottentotta Birula, 1908, are described from the Al Hajar Mountains of northern Oman: H. pellucidus sp. nov., from the Shir Plateau of Jabal Bani Jabir in the eastern Al Hajar, characterized by: medium size, uniform yellow color, dense cover of long and short macrosetae on pedipalps, legs and metasoma, only two macrosetae on tergite posterior margins, and slender male pedipalp chelae with very weakly scalloped fingers; and H. saxinatans sp. nov., from Jabal Akhdar in the western Al Hajar, characterized by: medium size, uniform yellow color with faint fuscosity on metasomal …

Observations On Prey-Capture Behavior Of Androctonus Crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) (Scorpiones: Buthidae) In Northern Iraq, Alexander K. Stewart

Euscorpius

Modern studies of scorpion prey-capture behavior have included several genera from a variety of habitats and have demonstrated that scorpions have a limited, yet similar, repertoire of reactions towards their prey. These experiments, however, by necessity have dealt with scorpions under the ecologically artificial conditions of an indoor laboratory. The experimental design presented here included both indoor and outdoor laboratory experiments to study the prey capture in Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807). Thirty indoor and twenty outdoor experiments recorded scorpion activities from initial prey recognition to prey ingestion. By experimenting with this indigenous species in its harsh environment (an outdoor laboratory, …

Redescription Of Scorpiops Margerisonae Kovařík, 2000, With The First Record Of Its Female, From China (Xizang) (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae: Scorpiopinae), Zhi-Yong Di, Ming-Sheng Zhu

Euscorpius

Scorpiops margerisonae Kovařík, 2000 (Euscorpiidae: Scorpiopinae), from China (Xizang) is redescribed; its female is reported and depicted here for the first time.

Rare Or Poorly Known Scorpions From Colombia. Iv. Additions, Synonymies And New Records (Scorpiones: Buthidae, Scorpionidae), Rolando Teruel, César A. Roncallo

Euscorpius

The results of the study of new samples of scorpions from Colombia are presented. Tityus erikae Lourenço, 1999 is demonstrated to be a junior synonym of Tityus tayrona Lourenço, 1991, and the adult female of Tarsoporosus macuira Teruel et Roncallo, 2007 is described for the first time. Also, new locality records and supplementary information on morphological variability (including some diagnosis updates) are given for Centruroides margaritatus (Gervais, 1841), Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel et Roncallo, 2008, Tityus tayrona, and Tarsoporosus macuira.

On The Adult Female Of Oiclus Nanus Teruel Et Chazal, 2010 (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae: Diplocentrinae), Rolando Teruel, Léonard Chazal

Euscorpius

The adult female of Oiclus nanus Teruel et Chazal, 2010 is herein described for the first time, on the basis of a topotypic specimen. Taxonomic diagnosis of this species endemic from Guadeloupe is emended, and the comparison to its closest relative is also improved.

Two New Species Of The Genus Chaerilus Simon, 1877 From Malaysia (Scorpiones: Chaerilidae), František Kovařík

Euscorpius

Two new species of Chaerilus are described. C. ojangureni sp. n. is most similar to C. laevimanus Pocock, 1899, from which it differs in the presence of carinae on the dorsal surface of metasomal segments and in having trichobothrium d₂ situated on the dorsal surface of the patella of pedipalps. C. sejnai sp. n. is 16 to 22 mm long, only slightly smaller than C. celebensis Pocock, 1894, C. petrzelkai Kovařík, 2000 and C. rectimanus Pocock, 1899. It is most similar to C. rectimanus from Malaysia, whose males however lack a pronounced internal tubercle on the patella of pedipalps. …

The Constitution And Societal Norms: A Modern Case For Female Breast Equality, Brenna Helppie-Schmieder

DePaul Journal of Women, Gender and the Law

“The Constitution and Societal Norms: A Modern Case for Female Breast Equality” argues that laws prohibiting the public display of the female breast, but not the male breast, are unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. That these laws discriminate against women is obvious, yet courts have historically refused to recognize an Equal Protection Clause violation. However, the primary reasons courts rely upon are ripe for review. Most significantly, courts typically justify female breast censorship laws based on the government interest in protecting public sensibilities, without recognizing that public sensibilities change. Indeed, perceptions of the public female breast have …

Permanent Draft Genome Sequence Of Frankia Sp. Strain Acn1ag, A Nitrogen-Fixing Actinobacterium Isolated From The Root Nodules Of Alnus Glutinosa, Erik Swanson, Rediet Oshone, Stephen Simpson, Krystalynne Morris, Feseha Abebe-Akele, W. Kelley Thomas, Louis S. Tisa

Molecular, Cellular & Biomedical Sciences

Frankia strain ACN1ag is a member of Frankia lineage Ia, which are able to re-infect plants of the Betulaceae and Myricaceae families. Here, we report a 7.5-Mbp draft genome sequence with a G+C content of 72.35% and 5,687 candidate protein-encoding genes.

The Environmental Impacts Of Colonialism, Lawrence Wood

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The politics of the global imperial era are having real-world environmental consequences globally, especially in the former colonies. Indifferent administration by overseas imperial powers transparently sought to enrich their home country with little to no thought about the long term environmental or political consequences for the colony. One of the main objectives of global imperialism, from the first Spanish colonies to the last of the British and Portuguese colonies, was the enhanced profitable extraction of resources. The industrial revolution fueled the need for colonial resource extraction. Industrialization and imperialism formed a positive feedback loop, in which one created a greater …

Permanent Draft Genome Sequence Of Frankia Sp. Strain Acn1ag, A Nitrogen-Fixing Actinobacterium Isolated From The Root Nodules Of Alnus Glutinosa, Erik Swanson, Rediet Oshone, Stephen D. Simpson, Krystalynne Morris, Feseha Abebe-Akele, William Kelley Thomas, Louis S. Tisa

New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station Publications

Frankia strain ACN1ag is a member of Frankia lineage Ia, which are able to re-infect plants of the Betulaceae and Myricaceae families. Here, we report a 7.5-Mbp draft genome sequence with a G+C content of 72.35% and 5,687 candidate protein-encoding genes.

Impact Of Executive Order 13211 On Environmental Regulation: An Empirical Study, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman

Publications and Research

A great deal has been written about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempting oil and gas operations using hydraulic fracturing from the purview of certain federal environmental laws. Far less attention has been paid to George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13211 (EO 13211), entitled “Actions Concerning Regulations that Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution or Use.” The executive order requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of federal regulations on “supply, distribution and use of energy.” This study examined the impact of EO 13211 on United States environmental and conservation regulations proposed and promulgated by federal agencies. The study found …

Moneyball To Moreyball: How Analytics Have Shaped The Nba Today, Joseph J. Catalfano

Sport Management Undergraduate

Moreyball is the concept of emphasizing three pointers and points in the paint over mid-range shots on offense, while forcing mid-range shots on defense. Understanding this concept is crucial not just for front office personnel, but the players and the coaches of the NBA. This research explored whether or not Moreyball accurately predicts success in the NBA. The methodology used multiple regressions between specific NBA statistics and the Win/Loss record of NBA teams. The results of this research showed that on its own, the main statistics of Moreyball were significant in predicting team success in the NBA. However when additional …