Digital Commons Network^™

Cell Viability, Cytoskeleton Organization And Cytokines Secretion Of Raw 264.7 Macrophages Exposed To Gram-Negative Bacterial Components, Ali Awadh Alshehri

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Macrophages play an important role in innate immunity by controlling cellular responses. In this study, the effects of gram-negative bacterial components (Flagellin, lipoprotein, lipopolysaccharides (LPS), outer membrane proteins-A (OMP-A) and peptidoglycan) were determined on cell viability, morphology, cytoskeletal filament and cytokines secretion of murine RAW 264.7 macrophages at 24 hours. The effect of LPS, flagellin and peptidoglycan from gram negative bacteria on viability murine RAW 264.7 macrophages were evaluated using different concentrations (1, 5 and 10 µg/ml). Cells stimulated with LPS displayed ~ 2-fold decrease (P=0.001) in cell viability compared to control cells at 24 hours whereas cells stimulated with …

De-Anonymization Attack Anatomy And Analysis Of Ohio Nursing Workforce Data Anonymization, Jacob M. Miracle

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Data generalization (anonymization) is a widely misunderstood technique for preserving individual privacy in non-interactive data publishing. Easily avoidable anonymization failures are still occurring 14 years after the discovery of basic techniques to protect against them. Identities of individuals in anonymized datasets are at risk of being disclosed by cyber attackers who exploit these failures. To demonstrate the importance of proper data anonymization we present three perspectives on data anonymization. First, we examine several de-anonymization attacks to formalize the anatomy used to conduct attacks on anonymous data. Second, we examine the vulnerabilities of an anonymous nursing workforce survey to convey how …

Translocation And Phosphorylation Of Ampa Receptors Following Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation In Vivo, Justin Andrew Stafford

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Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is the current technique used clinically to attenuate the effects of various neurological related deficits and augment functions such as memory and learning. The cellular and molecular mechanisms behind tDCS remain largely unknown and this study provides some of the first insights into the mechanisms behind tDCS. Direct current stimulation has been used to increase levels of long term potentiation (LTP) ex vivo suggesting that this stimulation has an effect on the LTP mechanisms of action. Subcellular protein extraction and fractionation methods were used to isolate synaptoneurosomes from various brain regions to assess the effects …

The Expression Of Dopamine-Related Genes And Behavioral Performance In Mice, Victoria Lynne Dershem

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While the neurotransmitter dopamine has been well-studied for its role in mood regulation and activation of the intrinsic reward pathway, several psychiatric disorders linked to dopamine are also known to cause memory impairment, a phenomenon which has attracted much less attention. In the current study, whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing was performed, and transcript levels of several dopamine-related genes were compared to results of behavioral assays designed to test spatial and emotional memory, as well as anxiety. The results suggest a positive relationship between expression level of Nurr1, a nuclear receptor known to initiate transcription of genes necessary for dopaminergic signaling, …

The Effect Of Green Structures On Hydrology In Urban Areas Of Akron, Ohio, Brooke Hayes, Brian Long

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Stormwater runoff is a major environmental concern in dense urban areas. Runoff in these areas contributes to flooding as well as water quality problems in the streams, lakes, and reservoirs downstream. The Cuyahoga River is the receiving waterbody for the City of Akron’s stormwater runoff. Currently, combined sewer overflow (CSO) from the city's outdated sewer system is the overriding reason for poor water quality in the Cuyahoga River.

Implementation of green infrastructure is one way to mitigate problems associated with stormwater runoff from urban areas. In this study, hydrologic modeling of the Little Cuyahoga watershed was conducted to determine how …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of The New Senior Ed Program At Summa Akron City Hospital, Ahmed F. Ozgur

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Objectives: To compare the outcomes of patients seen during a pilot Senior Emergency Department (ED) program to a historical cohort of geriatric patients receiving usual ED care.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of quality assurance data obtained to evaluate the implementation of a pilot Senior ED program at a 78,000 visit hospital ED. The historical cohort covered 1/23/2012 to 12/31/2012. The pilot Senior ED program was implemented from 1/1/2013 to 12/31/2013. Patients 65 years and older arriving between 8:30 am and 8:30 pm were triaged to a 15 bed Senior ED. Interventions included assessment by a nurse transitional …

Criminogenic Of The Older Adult With Addiction: Case Study, Maria A. Dixon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Throughout history of America’s criminal justice system as it relates to drug use has been utilize as a reactive solution to crime and addiction. In current times, this framework has become ineffective in addressing the criminogenic of the older adult with substance abuse. There needs to be alternatives to the incarceration of this population. The implication for social work is advocacy for policy change, and alternative programs.

Investigation Of Exoribonuclease-1 Function In Regulation Of Stem Cells During Planarian Regeneration, Steven Gobinsing Sayson

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Precise regulation of gene expression is crucial for the maintenance of pluripotency and proper differentiation of stem cells. Due to their exceptional capacity for stem cell-driven regeneration, planarians are ideal models to dissect mechanisms regulating gene expression that secure stem cell function in vivo. While mechanisms of transcriptional regulation of gene expression in stem cells have been extensively investigated, less is known about regulation at the post-transcriptional level. Exoribonuclease-1 (XRN-1) is a conserved enzyme in eukaryotes that catalyzes 5' to 3' exonucleolytic degradation of RNA. XRN-1 is known to be required for proper regeneration of Dugesia japonica. Here, I …

Development And Validation Of Virus And Ebola Misconceptions Assessment (Viremia): Ebola Virus Misconceptions In College Students, Michele Miller

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In this study an assessment (VirEMiA) on college students' knowledge and misconceptions of the Ebola virus was created and validated. VirEMiA was then used to determine what misconceptions college students have about Ebola, if there is a difference in misconceptions between students with and without a strong science background, and if Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) increases students' knowledge of Ebola and decreases their misconceptions. VirEMiA was shown to be a valid and reliable assessment whether confidence was integrated (seprel=0.97) or not (seprel=0.98), and for measuring misconceptions (seprel=0.97). If psychology and nursing majors were considered to have a strong background in science, …

A Stochastic Petri Net Based Nlu Scheme For Technical Documents Understanding, Adamantia Psarologou

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Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a very old research field, which deals with machine reading comprehension. Despite the many years of work and the numerous accomplishments by several researchers in the field, there is still place for significant improvements. Here, our goal is to develop a novel NLU methodology for detecting and extracting event/action associations in technical documents. In order to achieve this goal we present a synergy of methods (Kernel extraction, Formal Language Modeling, Stochastic Petri-nets (SPN) mapping and Event Representation via SPN graph synthesis). In particular, the basic meaning of a natural language sentence is given by its …

The Timing Of Fluoxetine, Simvastatin And Ascorbic Acid Administration In A Post-Ischemic Stroke Environment Affects Infarct Volume And Hemorrhagic Transformation Frequency, Neal R. Verma

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Previous animal experiments have indicated that administration of fluoxetine and simvastatin at 20-26 hours post-stroke decreases the volume of ischemic infarcts. This experiment expanded on previous experiments by adding ascorbic acid to the post-stroke regimen, initiating simvastatin pre-stroke, and adding a third initiation time frame (48-54 hours). Male retired breeder Sprague-Dawley rats were on simvastatin for 7 days prior to stroke induction. Combined medications of 5 milligrams/kilogram of fluoxetine, 1 milligram/kilogram of simvastatin and 20 milligrams/kilogram of ascorbic acid were orally administered at 6-12 hours, 20-26 hours, or 48-54 hours, respectively, following stroke induction. Adult rats that were treated 20-26 …

Gender And The American State, E. Mcdonagh, Carol Nackenoff

Political Science Faculty Works

The study of gender in American political development (APD) challenges the efficacy for advancing women’s political inclusion of a liberal tradition valorizing principles of individual equality and positing a separation of the family and the state. Masked are ways in which gender roles and the family are integral to governance and state-building. Gender is both a dependent and an independent variable in APD. Shaped by institutions and policies of the state, it also shapes institutions and policies that promote women’s political citizenship and expand the state’s capacity for social provision—by asserting not only liberal claims of women’s equality with men, …

Fgprp4 Kinase Is Important For Spliceosome B-Complex Activation And Splicing Efficiency In Fusarium Graminearum, Xuli Gao, Qiaojun Jin, Cong Jiang, Yang Li, Chaohui Li, Huiquan Liu, Zhensheng Kang, Jin-Rong Xu

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

PRP4 encodes the only kinase among the spliceosome components. Although it is an essential gene in the fission yeast and other eukaryotic organisms, the Fgprp4 mutant was viable in the wheat scab fungus Fusarium graminearum. Deletion of FgPRP4 did not block intron splicing but affected intron splicing efficiency in over 60% of the F. graminearum genes. The Fgprp4 mutant had severe growth defects and produced spontaneous suppressors that were recovered in growth rate. Suppressor mutations were identified in the PRP6, PRP31, BRR2, and PRP8 orthologs in nine suppressor strains by sequencing analysis with candidate tri-snRNP …

Type One Protein Phosphatase 1 And Its Regulatory Protein Inhibitor 2 Negatively Regulate Aba Signaling, Hou Yueju, Yingfang Zhu, Pengcheng Wang, Yang Zhao, Shaojun Xie, Giorgia Batelli, Bangshing Wang, Chengguo Duan, Xingang Wang, Lu Xing, Mingguang Lei, Jun Yan, Xiaohong Zhu, Jian-Kang Zhu

Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture Faculty Publications

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates plant growth, development and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. The core ABA signaling pathway consists of three major components: ABA receptor (PYR1/PYLs), type 2C Protein Phosphatase (PP2C) and SNF1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2). Nevertheless, the complexity of ABA signaling remains to be explored. To uncover new components of ABA signal transduction pathways, we performed a yeast two-hybrid screen for SnRK2-interacting proteins. We found that Type One Protein Phosphatase 1 (TOPP1) and its regulatory protein, At Inhibitor-2 (AtI-2), physically interact with SnRK2s and also with PYLs. TOPP1 inhibited the kinase activity of SnRK2.6, and …

De Novo Genome Assembly Of Geosmithia Morbida, The Causal Agent Of Thousand Cankers Disease, Taruna A. Schuelke, Anthony Westbrook, Kirk Broders, Keith E. Woeste, Matthew D. Macmanes

Department of Forestry & Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Geosmithia morbida is a filamentous ascomycete that causes thousand cankers disease in the eastern black walnut tree. This pathogen is commonly found in the western U.S.; however, recently the disease was also detected in several eastern states where the black walnut lumber industry is concentrated. G. morbida is one of two known phytopathogens within the genus Geosmithia, and it is vectored into the host tree via the walnut twig beetle. We present the first de novo draft genome of G. morbida. It is 26.5 Mbp in length and contains less than 1% repetitive elements. The genome possesses an …

Chloroplast Rna-Binding Protein Rbd1 Promotes Chilling Tolerance Through 23s Rrna Processing In Arabidopsis, Shuai Wang, Ge Bai, Shu Wang, Leiyun Yang, Fen Yang, Yi Wang, Jiankang Zhu, Jian Hua

Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture Faculty Publications

Plants have varying abilities to tolerate chilling (low but not freezing temperatures), and it is largely unknown how plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana achieve chilling tolerance. Here, we describe a genome-wide screen for genes important for chilling tolerance by their putative knockout mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana. Out of 11,000 T-DNA insertion mutant lines representing half of the genome, 54 lines associated with disruption of 49 genes had a drastic chilling sensitive phenotype. Sixteen of these genes encode proteins with chloroplast localization, suggesting a critical role of chloroplast function in chilling tolerance. Study of one of these proteins RBD1 with an …

Innovation Of A Regulatory Mechanism Modulating Semi-Determinate Stem Growth Through Artificial Selection In Soybean, Yufeng Liu, Dajian Zhang, Jieqing Ping, Shuai Li, Zhixiang Chen, Jianxin Ma

Department of Agronomy Faculty Publications

It has been demonstrated that Terminal Flowering 1 (TFL1) in Arabidopsis and its functional orthologs in other plants specify indeterminate stem growth through their specific expression that represses floral identity genes in shoot apical meristems (SAMs), and that the loss-of-function mutations at these functional counterparts result in the transition of SAMs from the vegetative to reproductive state that is essential for initiation of terminal flowering and thus formation of determinate stems. However, little is known regarding how semi-determinate stems, which produce terminal racemes similar to those observed in determinate plants, are specified in any flowering plants. Here we …

Changes In The Proteome Of Langat-Infected Ixodes Scapularis Ise6 Cells: Metabolic Pathways Associated With Flavivirus Infection, Jeffrey M. Grabowski, Rushika Perera, Ali M. Roumani, Victoria E. Hedrick, Halina Dorota Inerowicz, Catherine A. Hill, Richard Kuhn

Department of Entomology Faculty Publications

Background: Ticks (Family Ixodidae) transmit a variety of disease causing agents to humans and animals. The tick-borne flaviviruses (TBFs; family Flaviviridae) are a complex of viruses, many of which cause encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever, and represent global threats to human health and biosecurity. Pathogenesis has been well studied in human and animal disease models. Equivalent analyses of tick-flavivirus interactions are limited and represent an area of study that could reveal novel approaches for TBF control. Methodology/Principal Findings: High resolution LC-MS/MS was used to analyze the proteome of Ixodes scapularis (Lyme disease tick) embryonic ISE6 cells following infection with Langat virus …

Regulation Of Brown And White Adipocyte Transcriptome By The Transcriptional Coactivator Nt-Pgc-1Α, Jihyun Kim, Vivian E. Fernand, Tara M. Henagan, Jeho Shin, Peter Huypens, Susan Newman, Thomas W. Gettys, Ji Suk Chang

Department of Nutrition Science Faculty Publications

The β3-adrenergic receptor (AR) signaling pathway is a major component of adaptive thermogenesis in brown and white adipose tissue during cold acclimation. The β3-AR signaling highly induces the expression of transcriptional coactivator PGC-1α and its splice variant N-terminal (NT)-PGC-1α, which in turn activate the transcription program of adaptive thermogenesis by co-activating a number of transcription factors. We previously reported that NT-PGC-1α is able to increase mitochondrial number and activity in cultured brown adipocytes by promoting the expression of mitochondrial and thermogenic genes. In the present study, we performed genome-wide profiling of NT-PGC-1α-responsive genes in brown adipocytes to identify genes potentially …

Β-Aminopropionitrile-Induced Reduction In Enzymatic Crosslinking Causes In Vitro Changes In Collagen Morphology And Molecular Composition, Silvia P. Canelón, Joseph M. Wallace

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student Publications

Type I collagen morphology can be characterized using fibril D-spacing, a metric which describes the periodicity of repeating bands of gap and overlap regions of collagen molecules arranged into collagen fibrils. This fibrillar structure is stabilized by enzymatic crosslinks initiated by lysyl oxidase (LOX), a step which can be disrupted using β-aminopropionitrile (BAPN). Murine in vivo studies have confirmed effects of BAPN on collagen nanostructure and the objective of this study was to evaluate the mechanism of these effects in vitro by measuring D-spacing, evaluating the ratio of mature to immature crosslinks, and quantifying gene expression of type I collagen …

Gifted Education In Rural Schools, Paige E. Yeager

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report is a summary of the observations and data collected during twenty hours of field work and observation. This project focuses on one child, identified as gifted, in a rural school district with limited resources. The report discusses the student’s current level of performance, analysis of the developmental domains (cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor), accommodations and modifications used by the student’s teachers, guidelines determined by the State of Ohio and the W. Local School District, alignment to the state requirements, and suggestions for the improvement of the student’s educational experience. The report will explain how the student is …

The Psychological Effects Of Cochlear Implants: A Comparison Of One Adult With A Cochlear Implant And One Without., Sarah Schwartzer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study involved the development, implementation and analyzation of two qualitative case studies, with one involving a profoundly deaf individual who possesses a cochlear implant, the other with an individual who possesses normal hearing ranges. Participants were given two quantitative measures of observation, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire and the Thought Control Questionnaire, before participating in a semi-structured interview that was intended to gather information about the individuals, their life experiences, and the factors of psychological flexibility, adaptability and resiliency as applied to their lives. The semi-structured interview involved a set list of questions that were posed to the individuals; …

New Facets Of The Balanced Minimal Evolution Polytope, Logan Keefe

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The balanced minimal evolution (BME) polytope arises from the study of phylogenetic trees in biology. It is a geometric structure which has a variant for each natural number n. The main application of this polytope is that we can use linear programming with it in order to determine the most likely phylogenetic tree for a given genetic data set. In this paper, we explore the geometric and combinatorial structure of the BME polytope. Background information will be covered, highlighting some points from previous research, and a new result on the structure of the BME polytope will be given.

Best Practices In Museum Education, William W. Fleming Jr.

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Museums are visited more often than ever before, and as a result, are offering far more educational and interactive experiences to draw in a greater audience. As such, it is important to define how learning takes place in the museum setting, and also, how the museum experience can be refined in order to better accommodate visitor learning and their experience. The problem is, however, the museum setting is a nontraditional and unstructured environment, far different than the classroom, and museum staff, usually reserved to maintaining the collection and nothing else, are now being forced to build the museum experience around …

A Literature Review On Heat Exchanger Air Side Fouling In Heating, Ventilation And Air-Conditioning (Hvac) Applications, Omer Sarfraz, Christian Bach

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

This paper provides a review on the fouling mechanism and its effect onto the performance of finned tube heat exchangers in HVAC systems. Fouling tends to degrade the performance of heat exchangers by decreasing the heat transfer coefficient and increasing the air-side pressure drop across the heat exchangers. Air side fouling depends on a number of factors on the air side, including type and concentration of fouling matter, size of particles in the fouling matter, and air velocity. Additionally, it depends on the heat exchanger design, e.g. heat exchanger geometry, fin geometry, and fin spacing. Various studies indicate that the …

Screening Criteria For Ils Used In Nh3 Based Absorption Heat Pump Systems, Meng Wang, Carlos A. Infante Ferreira

International Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference

This paper describes a properties-optimization work for the working fluids in NH3 / ionic liquid (ILs) based single-effect absorption heat pumps. The optimum parameters of the IL can be used as criteria in screening task-specified ILs, which play the role of absorbents, in absorption heat pumps. First, a 8-parameter thermodynamic model to calculate performances of a single-effect absorption heat pump cycle was proposed, which is based on the non-random two-liquid (NRTL) activity coefficient model for the vapor pressure and a linear function for the heat capacity. Then, experimental data on the vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) of solutions and heat capacities of …

De Novo Assembly And Characterization Of Bud, Leaf And Flowers Transcriptome From Juglans Regia L. For The Identification And Characterization Of New Est-Ssrs, Meng Dang, Tian Zhang, Yiheng Hu, Huijuan Zhou, Keith E. Woeste, Peng Zhao

Department of Forestry & Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.), valued for both its nut and wood, is an ecologically important temperate tree species native to the mountainous regions of central Asia. Despite its importance, there are still few transcriptomic resources in public databases for J. regia, limiting gene discovery and breeding. Here, more than 49.9 million sequencing reads were generated using Illumina sequencing technology in the characterization of the transcriptome of four J. regia organs (bud, leaf, female flowers, and male flowers). De novo assembly yielded 117,229 unigenes with an N50 of 1955 bp. Based on sequence similarity searches against known proteins, …

Vegetative And Adaptive Traits Predict Different Outcomes For Restoration Using Hybrids, Philip A. Crystal, Nathanael I. Lichti, Keith E. Woeste, Douglass F. Jacobs

Department of Forestry & Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Hybridization has been implicated as a driver of speciation, extinction, and invasiveness, but can also provide resistant breeding stock following epidemics. However, evaluating the appropriateness of hybrids for use in restoration programs is difficult. Past the F1 generation, the proportion of a progenitor’s genome can vary widely, as can the combinations of parental genomes. Detailed genetic analysis can reveal this information, but cannot expose phenotypic alterations due to heterosis, transgressive traits, or changes in metabolism or development. In addition, because evolution is often driven by extreme individuals, decisions based on phenotypic averages of hybrid classes may have unintended results. We …

Completion Of The Chloroplast Genomes Of Five Chinese Juglans And Their Contribution To Chloroplast Phylogeny, Yiheng Hu, Keith E. Woeste, Peng Zhao

Department of Forestry & Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Juglans L. (walnuts and butternuts) is an economically and ecologically important genus in the family Juglandaceae. All Juglans are important nut and timber trees. Juglans regia (Common walnut), J. sigillata (Iron walnut), J. cathayensis (Chinese walnut), J. hopeiensis (Ma walnut), and J. mandshurica (Manchurian walnut) are native to or naturalized in China. A strongly supported phylogeny of these five species is not available due to a lack of informative molecular markers. We compared complete chloroplast genomes and determined the phylogenetic relationships among the five Chinese Juglans using IIumina sequencing. The plastid genomes ranged from 159,714 to 160,367 bp encoding 128 …

Differential Gene Expression In Varroa Jacobsoni Mites Following A Host Shift To European Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera), Gladys K. Andino, Michael R. Gribskov, Denis L. Anderson, Jay D. Evans, Greg Hunt

Department of Entomology Faculty Publications

Background: Varroa mites are widely considered the biggest honey bee health problem worldwide. Until recently, Varroa jacobsoni has been found to live and reproduce only in Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) colonies, while V. destructor successfully reproduces in both A. cerana and A. mellifera colonies. However, we have identified an island population of V. jacobsoni that is highly destructive to A. mellifera, the primary species used for pollination and honey production. The ability of these populations of mites to cross the host species boundary potentially represents an enormous threat to apiculture, and is presumably due to genetic variation that exists …