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Uah Magazine, Summer 2015, University Of Alabama In Huntsville

UAH Magazine

Topics in this issue include the construction of the student services building, the Patterson family, various research topics, the UAH Green Fund, and highlights of alumni.

The Effects Of Antiepileptic Inducers In Neuropsychopharmacology, A Neglected Issue. Part Ii: Pharmacological Issues And Further Understanding, Jose De Leon

Psychiatry Faculty Publications

The literature on inducers in epilepsy and bipolar disorder is seriously contaminated by false negative findings. Part II of this comprehensive review on antiepileptic drug (AED) inducers provides clinicians with further educational material about the complexity of interpreting AED drug-drug interactions.

The basic pharmacology of induction is reviewed including the cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes, the Uridine Diphosphate Glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs), and P-glycoprotein (P-gp). CYP2B6 and CYP3A4 are very sensitive to induction. CYP1A2 is moderately sensitive while CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 are only mildly sensitive. CYP2D6 cannot be induced by medications. Induction of UGT and P-gp are poorly understood. The induction of metabolic …

Addendum To Adoption: Adjusting The Adoption Statutes In South Carolina, Jennie Rischbieter

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Role Of Mitochondria In Regulating Microrna Activity And Its Relevance To The Central Nervous System, Wang-Xia Wang, Joe E. Springer

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1 Summer 2015, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Legacy - July 2015, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

Andrew White Joins the Research Archaeological Staff at the Institute.....p. 1
Director's Note.....p. 2
Won’t You Join Us For The Adventure!.....p. 3
BOEM-South Carolina Cooperative Agreement Survey Begins off Myrtle Beach.....p. 4
A Welcome to Daniel Brown.....p. 5
Recent Projects in the Applied Research Division 2015.....p. 6
Detecting the Past: Archaeology at Hobcaw Barony.....p. 8
The Santa Elena Lab Lives Again!.....p. 10
Reconstructing Santa Elena’s Fort San Felipe (I).....p. 11
The Yamasee Indians in South Carolina.....p. 14
Two Decades of Expedient Iron Conservation.....p. 17
Archaeological Testing and Paleoenvironmental Research at White Pond, Elgin, South Carolina.....p. 20
Progress in Developing …

Thriving In The Cold: Glacial Expansion And Post-Glacial Contraction Of A Temperate Terrestrial Salamander (Plethodon Serratus), Catherine E. Newman, Christopher C. Austin

Faculty Publications

© 2015 Newman, Austin. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The dynamic geologic history of the southeastern United States has played a major role in shaping the geographic distributions of amphibians in the region. In the phylogeographic literature, the predominant pattern of distribution shifts through time of temperate species is one of contraction during glacial maxima and persistence in refugia. However, the diverse biology and ecology of amphibian species suggest that a …

Comparative Study Of Genomic Features Of Evolutionarily Young Gene Duplicates, Lijing Bu

Biology ETDs

Gene duplication is considered a major contributor to genome evolution and functional diversity. Differences in genomic features (such as structural resemblance, transcriptional orientation, and genomic location) between members of a gene duplicate pair may indicate the possible duplication mechanisms, as well as the evolutionary fates the paralogs may experience. In addition to these genomic features, molecular genetic features, such as differences in codon usage and expression levels may provide further insight into functional changes between paralogs. In this dissertation, multiple genomic analyses were conducted in order to evaluate the differences in genomic and genetic properties between duplicate copies in order …

Macroecology And Sociobiology Of Humans And Other Mammals, Joseph Robert Burger

Biology ETDs

Despite being the most studied species on the planet, ecologists typically do not study humans the same way we study other organisms. My Ph.D. thesis contributes to scientific development in two ways: i) synthesizing our understand of the inter and intraspecific variation in social behavior in an understudied rodent lineage, the caviomorphs, providing a comparative context to understand social evolution in general, and 2) developing a macroecological approach to understand the metabolic trajectory of the human species. Through comparative analysis, chapter 2 synthesizes the available information on the diversity of sociality in the caviomorph rodents, both within and across species. …

Foliar Respiration And Carbon Dynamics Of Mature Piñon And Juniper Trees In Response To Experimental Drought And Heat, Adam D. Collins

Biology ETDs

Plant respiration (R) is generally well-coupled with temperature and in the absence of thermal acclimation, respiration is expected to increase as climate change brings higher temperatures. Increased drought is also predicted for future climate, which could drive respiration higher if the carbon (C) cost to maintain tissues (Rm) or grow increases, or lower if substrate or other factors become limiting. We examined the effects of temperature and drought on R as well as photosynthesis, growth, and carbohydrate storage of mature individuals of two co-dominant tree species. Three mature, in-situ piñon (Pinus edulis) and juniper (Juniperus monosperma) trees were assigned to …

Diversity Of Understudied Archaeal And Bacterial Populations Of Yellowstone National Park: From Genes To Genomes, Daniel Robert Colman

Biology ETDs

Yellowstone National Park (YNP) thermal springs have been a crucial resource for the discovery and characterization of microbial biodiversity. The use of cultivation-independent methods has documented many new phyla of uncultured Archaea and Bacteria within thermal springs. Here, I describe the phylogenetic diversity and distribution of Archaea within the YNP thermal spring ecosystem and the phylogenetic and physiologic characterization of novel, uncultured hyperthermophilic bacterial lineages from metagenomic data. In chapter two, I evaluated the efficacy of commonly used, 'universal' archaeal-specific 16S rRNA gene PCR primers in detecting archaeal phylogenetic diversity. In chapter three, using the PCR primers that would provide …

The Gene Blistered Selectively Controls Muscle Type Differentiation In Drosophila Melanogaster, Ashley A. Deaguero

Biology ETDs

The muscle fiber is a structural unit of skeletal muscle in many organisms. Muscle fiber composition has been implicated in maintaining muscle longevity and controlling systemic energy homeostasis, however not much is known about how different types of muscle fibers are specified. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster provides a useful model to study specification and differentiation of different types of muscle fiber. In this study, the functional properties of the transcription factor blistered (bs) were explored. The gene bs is evolutionarily conserved and has a mammalian homologue, Serum Response Factor (SRF). When bs is genetically down-regulated in all muscles, only …

Schistosomes Of Nepal, Ramesh Devkota

Biology ETDs

Globally, digenetic trematodes called schistosomes (Family Schistosomatidae) have enormous public and veterinary health significance because they cause debilitating and chronic infections collectively called schistosomiasis. Schistosomes have a life cycle featuring a bird or mammal definitive host in which adult worms are found, and freshwater snail intermediate hosts in which larval stages are found and free-swimming cercariae are produced which infect the definitive host. Although schistosomes are known to be common in tropical and subtropical Asia, their presence in Nepal, a small south Asian country situated between India and China, was almost completely unknown at the beginning of this study. Consequently, …

Drying Events In The Rio Grande: Effects On Hydrology, Riparian Vegetation, And Arthropod Communities, Kimberly Lorraine Fike

Biology ETDs

1. Anthropogenic-induced river intermittency is an increasing global concern with far-reaching ecological consequences. Cessation of flow outside of a rivers natural regime can have cascading effects on aquatic and terrestrial community composition and structure. Water abstraction during summer months often leaves the Rio Grande below Isleta Diversion Dam dry. This research investigates differences in hydrology, riparian vegetation, and arthropod communities within the Rio Grande floodplain, known locally as the 'bosque,' between perennial and intermittent reaches of the river.

2. Despite the high degree of interannual variability, a spatio-temporal analysis of stream discharge revealed a trend of declining flow in both …

How Ants Turn Information Into Food, Tatiana Paz Flanagan

Biology ETDs

Animals constantly process information from their environment. In social organisms, information exchange among individuals allows for behaviors to be finely tuned to local environmental cues. Such is the case of foraging in ants, where sharing information about the distribution of resources can drive adaptive behaviors to exploit those resources. In a first study, we quantified how clustering of experimental seed baits significantly increased foraging rates of seed harvester ants. That study found that species with larger colonies were no better than species with smaller colonies at collecting clumped seeds. In a second study, we integrated computer simulations, information science and …

Constraints On Distributions And Diversity Of Birds And Mammals Over Variable Environments, Trevor S. Fristoe

Biology ETDs

The distributions of species are determined by intrinsic factors such as physiological tolerances as well as extrinsic factors of the environment such as the availability of resources. While physiological tolerances generally change over evolutionary time scales, changes in environmental productivity due to processes such as succession or seasonal progression often occur over ecological times. I address both physiology and resource availability as drivers of the distributions and diversity of endothermic birds and mammals using a macroecological approach and a metabolic perspective. Migratory birds, altering communities over seasonal cycles, provide a unique opportunity to investigate the drivers of distributions and diversity …

Unraveling The Mysteries Of Plant Mating Systems In Raphanus Sativus, Lindsey C. Kaufman

Biology ETDs

Plant mating systems include a variety of mechanisms that result in non-random success of self- and outcross pollen, pollen from different compatible mates, and pollen from the same or different species. Although some of these mechanisms have received considerable attention (i.e., Charlesworth et al. 2005; Pannell and LaBouche 2013), most previous study has been of only one of these mechanisms at a time. Further in the field, a plant might simultaneously receive pollen of several types; thus, it is likely that multiple mechanisms of sorting among pollen operate simultaneously. If these mechanisms interact in ways that alter sorting among mates, …

Conservation Genetics At The Interface Of Theory And Application, Tyler Jess Pilger

Biology ETDs

Understanding the ecological mechanisms responsible for patterns of spatial genetic structure and diversity is a central issue to evolutionary ecology and biodiversity conservation. The Anthropocene has seen a mass extinction only previously observed through geological records, and freshwater fishes of North America have not been spared owing to large-scale modification of freshwater habitats and introduction of nonnative species. Concomitant with reduced numbers of species is a rapid reduction in genetic diversity within species; this diversity that is required for species to adapt to rapidly changing environments of human dominated landscapes. However, understanding why species exhibit different patterns of spatial genetic …

Evolution Of Young Gene Duplicates In The Caenorhabditis Briggsae Genome, Lucille Boreal Packard

Biology ETDs

Gene duplication plays a significant role in the evolution of novel function. Investigations concerning the genomic features of young gene duplicates can enhance our understanding of the nature of gene duplicates at inception and their fates over evolutionary time. Previous analysis of young gene duplicates in Caenorhabditis elegans has revealed genomic features of evolutionarily young gene duplicates with respect to structure, span, location and orientation of paralogous genes. The analysis of young gene duplicate pairs in Caenorhabditis briggsae provides insight into the characteristics of gene duplication in another member of the genus Caenorhabditis. The identification of 376 evolutionarily young gene …

Pre-Industrial Melanism: The Origin, Maintenance, And Genetic Basis Of An Urban Melanic Morph Of The Vermilion Flycatcher, Carl Jonathan Schmitt

Biology ETDs

Industrial melanism is a celebrated evolutionary phenomenon because it demonstrates the efficacy of natural selection in response to anthropogenic environmental change. We investigated a potential instance of industrial melanism in a vertebrate, the vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus). The species is strikingly bright red throughout its broad range, but a sooty brown morph is abundant in the heavily polluted city of Lima, Peru. We found that plumage morph is perfectly predicted by a single nucleotide polymorphism in the MC1R gene. We quantified genotype and allele frequencies in seven neighborhoods of Lima. Within neighborhoods, there were fewer heterozygotes than expected, and surveys …

Into The Tropics: A Quantitative Study Of Mammals In The Great American Biotic Interchange, Winifred S. B. Whiteman-Jennings

Biology ETDs

For almost 100 million years, North and South America were isolated from each other. This long period of geologic separation led to the evolution of strikingly different mammalian faunas: marsupials were prevalent in South America, while ecosystems in North America were composed of placental mammals. Roughly 3 Mya, a land bridge formed between the two continents leading to an accelerated exchange of mammalian fauna. The Great American Biotic Interchange (or GABI, as this has come to be called,) led to the successful colonization of many North American species, but few South American species. The highly asymmetrical nature of the faunal …

The Effects Of Ecology And Evolution On Avian Flight Morphology, Natalie A. Wright

Biology ETDs

The tendency for flying organisms to possess small genomes has been interpreted as evidence of natural selection acting on the physical size of the genome. Nonetheless, the flight-genome link and its mechanistic basis have yet to be well established by comparative studies within a volant clade. Is there a particular functional aspect of flight such as brisk metabolism, lift production, or maneuverability that impinges on the physical genome? I measured genome sizes, wing dimensions, and heart, flight muscle, and body masses from a phylogenetically diverse set of bird species. In phylogenetically controlled analyses, I found that genome size was negatively …

When It Comes To Clethra: Roots Matter, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Roots, too often, are out of sight and out of mind, but they are critical for vigorous, healthy plant growth. All plant enthusiasts—including gardeners, farmers, foresters, and naturalists—should think about and appreciate roots if they wish to acquire a holistic understanding of plant biology. This article introduces readers to the mycorrhizal roots of the 2015 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, Clethra alnifolia (Sweet Pepperbush), and explores the diversity of mycorrhizae in a closely related family, Ericaceae.

Velaglucerase Alfa (Vpriv) Enzyme Replacement Therapy In Patients With Gaucher Disease: Long-Term Data From Phase Iii Clinical Trials, Derralynn A. Hughes, Derlis Gonzalez, Elena A. Lukina, Atul Mehta, Madhulika Kabra, Deborah Elstein, Isaac Kisinovsky, Pilar Giraldo, Ashish Bavdekar, Thomas N. Hangartner, Nan Wang, Eric Crombez, Ari Zimran

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Type 1 Gaucher disease is an inherited lysosomal enzyme deficiency with variable age of symptom onset. Common presenting signs include thrombocytopenia, anemia, hepatosplenomegaly, bone abnormalities, and, additionally in children, growth failure. Fifty-seven patients aged 3–62 years at the baseline of two phase III trials for velaglucerase alfa treatment were enrolled in the single extension study. In the extension, they received every-other-week velaglucerase alfa intravenous infusions for 1.2–4.8 years at 60 U/kg, although 10 patients experienced dose reduction. No patient experienced a drug-related serious adverse event or withdrew due to an adverse event. One patient died following a convulsion that was …

Comparison Of Two Rapidarc Delivery Strategies In Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy Of Peripheral Lung Cancer With Flattening Filter Free Beams, Bao-Tian Huang, Jia-Yang Lu, Pei-Xian Lin, Jian-Zhou Chen, Yu Kuang, Chuang-Zhen Chen

Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

A Lego® Brewster Angle Microscope For Quantitative Monolayer Film Analysis, Nicholas Benz

Physics

In order to study single-molecule thick films and their phase behavior we built a Brewster Angle Microscope (BAM). BAM’s are inherently expensive due to their accuracy and precision. We built a fully functional BAM using Lego® Mindstorm® kits for the fraction of the price of a commercial BAM. And by utilizing the 10µm patented Lego® tolerance, comparable accuracy was attained. The BAM was mounted to a Langmuir-trough and will be used for laboratory experiments for optics and physical chemistry along with research on lung surfactant and on liquid crystals.

‘Something Really Weird Has Happened’: Losing The ‘Big Picture’ In Emergency Service Calls, Angela Cora Garcia

Natural & Applied Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper is a single case analysis of an emergency service call in which the caller failed to convince the call taker that the request for service was urgent in what turned out to be a tragic event. The analysis of this call using the techniques and findings of conversation analysis reveals that the actions of both the call taker and the caller created an interactional context in which the “big picture” (the potential for danger), became repeatedly submerged in “small picture” details (such as the identity and location of the caller and her role in the situation). This paper …

Placental Dna Methylation Related To Both Infant Toenail Mercury And Adverse Neurobehavioral Outcomes, Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar Maccani, Devin C. Koestler, Barry Lester, E Andres Houseman, David A. Armstrong, Karl T. Kelsey, Carmen J. Marsit

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background:

Prenatal mercury (Hg) exposure is associated with adverse child neurobehavioral outcomes. Because Hg can interfere with placental functioning and cross the placenta to target the fetal brain, prenatal Hg exposure can inhibit fetal growth and development directly and indirectly.

Objectives:

We examined potential associations between prenatal Hg exposure assessed through infant toenail Hg, placental DNA methylation changes, and newborn neurobehavioral outcomes.

Methods:

The methylation status of > 485,000 CpG loci was interrogated in 192 placental samples using Illumina’s Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadArray. Hg concentrations were analyzed in toenail clippings from a subset of 41 infants; neurobehavior was assessed using the NICU …

Immediate Postpartum Versus Interval Intrauterine Devices And Implant: A Cost Utility Analysis, Michelle R. Chungtuyco

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Objectives: To compare the cost per quality of life (QALY) between immediate postpartum and interval initiation of intrauterine devices (IUDs) and contraceptive implants from the societal perspective. Cost per unintended pregnancy prevented between timing strategies was also compared. Methods: Two decision analytic models were created using TreeAge Pro 2015 software for TCu380A IUD and levonorgestrel IUD and for the contraceptive implant. Each model compared immediate postpartum versus interval contraceptive provision to determine the occurrence of pregnancy events over time and their impact on costs and QALYs, using a time horizon of 1 to 5 years. The probabilities of insertion, expulsion/removal, …

Modeling Of Epizootics On Four Genera Of Arabian Gulf Corals, John Alexander Kluge

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Coral colonies, from a reef near Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), were counted and assessed for condition using photo-transects. An epidemic model, used to track how a communicable disease moves through a population, was constructed to help predict the future condition of this coral reef. In situ data from a disease outbreak that occurred in September 2011 provided a baseline for the model. Coral Populations of Porites, Platygyra, Acropora and Dipsastrea were modelled using condition categories that included Healthy, Black Band Disease Infected, Cyanobacteria Infected, Recovered, Recruits or Dead. Results from the modelling indicate that populations of Platygyra and …