Digital Commons Network^™

Institute For Scientific Information-Indexed Biomedical Journals Of Saudi Arabia: Their Performance From 2007-2014, Dileep K. Rohra, Vikram K. Rohra, Peter Cahusac

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To compare the journal impact factor (JIF) and Eigenfactor score (ES) of Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)-indexed biomedical journals published from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) over the last 8 years. Methods: This is a retrospective study, conducted at Alfaisal University, Riyadh, KSA from January to March 2016. The Journal Citation Reports of ISI Web of Knowledge were accessed, and 6 Saudi biomedical journals were included for analysis. Results: All Saudi journals have improved their IF compared with their baseline. However, the performance of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Neurosciences has been exceptionally good. The biggest improvement …

The Prospector, November 1, 2016, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: Women's Basketball Team Overlooked Despite Success

Experimental Investigation Of Co2 Transport Through Combined Membrane Absorber And Regenerator, Nima Mohammadrasool Atbaei

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Theses

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide have been known to contribute significantly to global warming, which in turn has resulted in serious global environmental problems. Carbon dioxide is the main gaseous contaminant in the atmosphere, representing about 80% of greenhouse gases. It is reported that industry and power plants using fossil fuels such as coal-combustion power generators produce half of the CO₂ emissions. These emissions create the need for low energy-consumption, and efficient technologies for the capture and removal of CO₂ from gas mixtures produced by industrial sources.

Conventional gas absorption processes for the removal of CO_{2 …}

Toxic Environmental Exposures And Kidney Health In Children., Darcy K. Weidemann, Virginia M. Weaver, Jeffrey J. Fadrowski

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

High-level exposures to a number of agents are known to have direct nephrotoxic effects in children. A growing body of literature supports the hypothesis that chronic, relatively low-level exposure to various nephrotoxicants may also increase the risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD) or accelerate its progression. In this review we highlight several environmental nephrotoxicants and their association with CKD in children and adolescents. We also discuss unique epidemiological challenges in the use of kidney biomarkers in environmental nephrotoxicology.

Branched Chain Amino Acids Cause Liver Injury In Obese/Diabetic Mice By Promoting Adipocyte Lipolysis And Inhibiting Hepatic Autophagy., Fuyang Zhang, Shihao Zhao, Wenjun Yan, Yunlong Xia, Xiyao Chen, Wei Wang, Jinglong Zhang, Chao Gao, Cheng Peng, Feng Yan, Huishou Zhao, Kun Lian, Yan Lee, Ling Zhang, Wayne Bond Lau, Xin-Liang Ma, Ling Tao

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

The Western meat-rich diet is both high in protein and fat. Although the hazardous effect of a high fat diet (HFD) upon liver structure and function is well recognized, whether the co-presence of high protein intake contributes to, or protects against, HF-induced hepatic injury remains unclear. Increased intake of branched chain amino acids (BCAA, essential amino acids compromising 20% of total protein intake) reduces body weight. However, elevated circulating BCAA is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and injury. The mechanisms responsible for this quandary remain unknown; the role of BCAA in HF-induced liver injury is unclear. Utilizing HFD or …

Academic Senate - Agenda, 11/1/2016, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

A Novel Assessment Tool For Quantitative Evaluation Of Science Literature Search Performance: Application To First-Year And Senior Undergraduate Biology Majors, Jason M. Blank, Karen Mcgaughey, Elena Keeling, Kristen L. Thorp, Conor C. Shannon, Jeanine Marie Scaramozzino

Library Scholarship

Expertise in searching and evaluating scientific literature is a requisite skill of trained scientists and science students, yet information literacy instruction varies greatly among institutions and programs. To ensure that science students acquire information literacy skills, robust methods of assessment are needed. Here, we describe a novel tool for longitudinal, crossover assessment of literature-searching skills in science students and apply it to a cross-sectional assessment of literature-searching performance in 145 first-year and 43 senior biology majors. Subjects were given an open-ended prompt requiring them to find multiple sources of information addressing a particular scientific topic. A blinded scorer used a …

Incentivizing Healthy Eating In Children: An Investigation Of The “Ripple” And “Temporal” Effects Of Reward-Based Interventions, Saied Toossi

Center for Policy Research

Although previous studies have established the effectiveness of using small reward-based incentives in inducing the choice and consumption of healthier foods among children, little is known about their impact outside of experimental settings or their effectiveness over time when administered daily. This paper presents the results of a field experiment conducted to provide insight on these matters. The study employs a pretest-posttest within-subject design and was conducted at a summer program catering to low-income children between the ages of 5 and 12. Corroborating existing studies, the introduction of small reward-based incentives was found to induce large increases in the number …

Motivational Factors That Sustain Experienced Teachers In High-Need, Low-Performing Public Schools: A Phenomenological Study, Michelle Casey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe factors that sustained public school teachers in high-need areas. Teacher sustainability was generally defined as teachers who remained in a high-need public school located in southeastern North Carolina beyond the initial three years of teaching. This study explored the following: (1) How do public school teachers describe their experience working in a high-need educational community in North Carolina? (2) How do public school teachers perceive their former life history as having an impact retaining their profession beyond the initial three years of teaching in a high-need, low-performing public school? (3) …

Overexpression Of Hdac1 Induces Functional Β-Cell Mass, Carrie Draney

Theses and Dissertations

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that results in β-cell dysfunction and ultimate destruction, and leads to impaired glucose homeostasis. High rates of proliferation and differentiation of pancreatic β-cells occurs mostly during neonatal development. However, research shows these mechanisms remain intact as β-cell proliferation has been observed during pregnancy and obesity. We have shown that overexpression of the β-cell transcription factor Nkx6.1 is sufficient to induce β-cell proliferation. Exploration of the transcriptional targets of Nkx6.1 has identified histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) as a down-stream target of Nkx6.1. Here we demonstrate that HDAC1 overexpression is sufficient to induce β-cell proliferation, …

A Cryab Interactome Reveals Clientele Specificity And Dysfunction Of Mutants Associated With Human Disease, Whitney Katherine Hoopes

Theses and Dissertations

Small Heat Shock Proteins (sHSP) are critical molecular chaperones that function to maintain protein homeostasis (proteostasis) and prevent the aggregation of other proteins during cellular stress. Any disruption in the process of proteostasis can lead to prevalent diseases ranging from cancer and cataract to cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease. CryAB (αB-crystallin, HspB5) is one of ten known human sHSP that is abundant in the lens, skeletal, and cardiac muscle. This protein is required for cardiac function and muscle cell integrity. When the cell experiences physiological stress, including heat shock, CryAB moves to the cytoskeleton to act as a chaperone and prevent …

Assessing Diversity Among Corporations In Brazil: An Exploratory Study, Helga Sheyla Pereira

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore what corporations in Brazil, whether with Brazilian headquarters or not, are doing in regards to communicating their diversity practices and initiatives to the public. Understanding these companies' positions on diversity can paint a better picture of how much Brazil has advanced on diversity in the workplace matters, since the topic started coming about in discussions in the 1990s (Fleury, 2000). A sample of 15 companies was selected from Exame magazine "Melhores e Maiores Ranking 2014" (2015), and a content analysis of each company's website was performed during the summer of 2016, based …

The Roles Of Biotin In Candida Albicans Physiology, Nur Ras Aini Ahmad Hussin

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Due to the increased number of immunocompromised patients, infections by Candida albicans have significantly increased in recent years. C. albicans transition from yeast to germ tubes is an essential factor for virulence. In this study we noted that Lee's medium, commonly used to induce filamentation, contained 500-fold more biotin than needed for growth. Thus, we investigated the effects of excess biotin on growth rate and filamentation by C. albicans in different media. At 37 °C, excess biotin (4 µM) enhanced germ tube formation (GTF) ca. 10-fold in both Lee's medium and a defined glucose proline medium, and ca. …

Inter- And Intra-Individual Variation In Predator-Related Behavioral Plasticity Expressed By Female Green Swordtails (Xiphophorus Hellerii), Rachael A. Disciullo

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of one genotype to express multiple phenotypes under variable environments. Behavioral plasticity is a type of phenotypic plasticity in which individuals adjust behavior in response to changes in environment. Often, behavioral plasticity is studied at the level of the population, rather than at the level of the individual. Further, few studies have considered the effect of individual traits, such as size and age, on the expression of behavioral plasticity, or, how individual plasticity may be correlated across different contexts. In this study, we used female green swordtails (Xiphophorus hellerii) to test the effects …

Country Roads, Take Me Home ... To My Friends: How Intelligence, Population Density, And Friendship Affect Modern Happiness, Norman P. Li, Satoshi Kanazawa

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We propose the savanna theory of happiness, which suggests that it is not only the current consequences of a given situation but also its ancestral consequences that affect individuals’ life satisfaction and explains why such influences of ancestral consequences might interact with intelligence. We choose two varied factors that characterize basic differences between ancestral and modern life – population density and frequency of socialization with friends – as empirical test cases. As predicted by the theory, population density is negatively, and frequency of socialization with friends is positively, associated with life satisfaction. More importantly, the main associations of life satisfaction …

Whither Gene Patenting And The Patenting Of Diagnostic Methods Post-Mayo And Myriad? The Need For Certainty In Navigating The High Seas Of Policy, Cheng Lim Saw

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper is prompted by a series of recent high-profile decisions emanating from the apex courts in the US and Australia – namely, Mayo and Myriad – on the patent eligibility of gene-based inventions. Adopting a comparative approach, this paper critically examines whether isolated gene sequences and diagnostic methods qualify as patentable subject matter in several leading jurisdictions, including the US, Australia, Europe and the UK. An attempt will also be made, after carefully considering various arguments on both sides of the policy debate, at predicting what the future might hold (or, perhaps more accurately, at suggesting what the future …

United States Environmental Protection Agency Response To The Office Of Science And Technology Policy Memo, 2013: Public Access Plan (November 2016)

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

EPA response to OSTP memo, 2013: Public Access Plan (November 2016)

Adulthood In Law And Culture, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

Young people today come of age in a cultural and economic milieu that prolongs their attainment of the traditional markers of adulthood. Their subjective conceptions of the transition to adulthood also depart radically from the traditional conception, with its emphasis on discrete transition events (including marriage and entry into the workforce). Instead, the modern transition to adulthood is a gradual process comprising the acquisition of general capabilities, rather than the achievement of externally constructed events. The state-established age of legal majority stands in marked contrast to this gradual and prolonged process. Not only does it categorically establish the inception of …

Leave And Marriage: The Flawed Progress Of Paternity Leave In The U.S. Military, T. J. Keefe

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Patent Disclosure, Jeanne C. Fromer

Vanderbilt Law Review

Those who tout the role of disclosure as a benefit of the patent system emphasize-as the Supreme Court has-that the information in patents "add[s] to the general store of knowledge [and is] of such importance to the public weal that the Federal Government is willing to pay the high price of ... exclusive use for its disclosure, which disclosure ... will stimulate ideas and the eventual development of further significant advances in the art." As I excavate in this Article, the current state of patent disclosure-which many think is poor and does not achieve its objective of stimulating innovation-is impoverished …

Symptom Clusters., Andrea M. Barsevick

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

The Targetable Epigenetic Tumor Protein Ezh2 Is Enriched In Intraocular Medulloepithelioma., Sarah E. Avedschmidt, Anna M. Stagner, Ralph C Eagle, George J. Harocopos, Yali Dou, Rajesh C. Rao

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

Purpose: Intraocular medulloepithelioma (IM), the second most common primary neuroepithelial tumor of the eye, can lead to blindness in the affected eye and in rare cases, is deadly. Intraocular medulloepithelioma lacks targetable biomarkers for potential pharmacologic therapy. The purpose of this study was to identify actionable, tumor-specific proteins for potential diagnostic or therapeutic strategies. We hypothesize that the tumor-specific epigenetic enzyme EZH2 is selectively expressed in IM.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective case series study of five IM from five eyes of four children and one adult. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stains of sections from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks of IM …

The Relevance Of Sex Differences In Performance Fatigability, Sandra K. Hunter

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

Performance fatigability differs between men and women for a range of fatiguing tasks. Women are usually less fatigable than men, and this is most widely described for isometric fatiguing contractions and some dynamic tasks. The sex difference in fatigability is specific to the task demands so that one mechanism is not universal, including any sex differences in skeletal muscle physiology, muscle perfusion, and voluntary activation. However, there are substantial knowledge gaps about the task dependency of the sex differences in fatigability, the involved mechanisms, and the relevance to clinical populations and with advanced age. The knowledge gaps are in part …

Muscle Fatigue From The Perspective Of A Single Crossbridge, Edward Patrick Debold, Robert H. Fitts, Christopher W. Sundberg, Thomas M. Nosek

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The repeated intense stimulation of skeletal muscle rapidly decreases its force- and motion-generating capacity. This type of fatigue can be temporally correlated with the accumulation of metabolic by-products, including phosphate (P_i) and protons (H⁺). Experiments on skinned single muscle fibers demonstrate that elevated concentrations of these ions can reduce maximal isometric force, unloaded shortening velocity, and peak power, providing strong evidence for a causative role in the fatigue process. This seems to be due, in part, to their direct effect on muscle’s molecular motor, myosin, because in assays using isolated proteins, these ions directly inhibit myosin’s …

Anti-Müllerian Hormone Levels And Urinary Cortisol In Women With Chronic Abdominal Pain, Theresa M. Hardy, Donna O. Mccarthy, Nicolaas Fourie, Wendy Henderson

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Abstract

Objective

To explore the association of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal activity with ovarian functioning in women with and without chronic abdominal pain (CAP).

Design and Setting

A secondary data analysis was performed with data from female participants in a natural history protocol at the National Institutes of Health.

Participants

A total of 36 women (age range = 19–39 years, mean = 27.11 years) were included in the study.

Methods

This pilot study was conducted with a subset of participants enrolled in a natural history protocol conducted in the Hatfield Clinical Research Center at the National Institutes of Health. The parent study included …

The Influence Of Age On The Diagnostic Performance Of White Blood Cell Count And Absolute Neutrophil Count In Suspected Pediatric Appendicitis., Richard G. Bachur, Peter S. Dayan, Nanette C. Dudley, Lalit Bajaj, Michelle D. Stevenson, Charles G. Macias, Manoj K. Mittal, Jonathan Bennett, Kelly A. Sinclair, Michael C. Monuteaux, Anupam B. Kharbanda

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVE: White blood cell (WBC) count and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) are a standard part of the evaluation of suspected appendicitis. Specific threshold values are utilized in clinical pathways, but the discriminatory value of WBC count and ANC may vary by age. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the diagnostic value of WBC count and ANC varies across age groups and whether diagnostic thresholds should be age-adjusted.

METHODS: This is a multicenter prospective observational study of patients aged 3-18 years who were evaluated for appendicitis. Receiver operator characteristic curves were developed to assess overall discriminative power of …

Racial Differences In Renal Replacement Therapy Initiation Among Children With A Nonglomerular Cause Of Chronic Kidney Disease., Derek K. Ng, Marva Moxey-Mims, Bradley A. Warady, Susan L. Furth, Alvaro Muñoz

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

PURPOSE: African American (AA) adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a faster progression to end-stage renal disease and are less likely to receive a kidney transplant. It is unclear whether AA children experience renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease sooner than non-AA children after accounting for socioeconomic status (SES).

METHODS: Among children with nonglomerular CKD in the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children study, we investigated time to RRT (i.e., first dialysis or transplant) after CKD onset using parametric survival models and accounted for SES differences by inverse probability weights.

RESULTS: Of 110 AA and 493 non-AA children …

Ibd Live Case Series-Case 6., Dhyan Rajan, Julia B. Greer, Miguel D. Regueiro, Leonard Baidoo, David G. Binion, Hans H. Herfarth, Corey A. Siegel, Douglas J. Hartman, Francis A. Farraye, Ioannis E. Koutroubakis, Myron H. Brand, Emmanuelle D. Williams, Alka Goyal, Raymond K. Cross

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

No abstract provided.

Association Between Prolonged Neutropenia And Reduced Relapse Risk In Pediatric Aml: A Report From The Children's Oncology Group., Lillian Sung, Richard Aplenc, Todd A. Alonzo, Robert B. Gerbing, Yi-Cheng Wang, Soheil Meshinchi, A S. Gamis

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Objective was to describe the relationship between the number of sterile site infections and duration of neutropenia during the first four cycles of chemotherapy and the risk of recurrence and overall survival in children with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AAML0531 was a Children's Oncology Group randomized phase 3 clinical trial that included 1022 children with de novo AML. For this analysis, we focused on non-Down syndrome favorable and standard risk patients who completed at least 4 cycles of chemotherapy without recurrence or withdrawal during protocol therapy. Those receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in first remission were excluded. Five …

Risk Factors For Sleep-Related Infant Deaths In In-Home And Out-Of-Home Settings., Hilina Kassa, Rachel Y. Moon, Jeffrey D. Colvin

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Background and objective: Multiple environmental risk factors are associated with sleep-related infant deaths. Little is known about differences in risk factors for deaths occurring in-home and out-of-home. We sought to compare risk factors for in-home and out-of-home infant deaths.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of sleep-related infant deaths from 2004 to 2014 in the National Child Fatality Review and Prevention database. The main exposure was setting (in-home versus out-of-home) at time of death. Primary outcomes were known risk factors: sleep position, sleep location (eg, crib), objects in the environment, and bed sharing. Risk factors for in-home versus out-of-home deaths …