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Write Free Or Die: Vol. 03, No. 01, Unh Writing Programs

Writing Program Newsletter

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Danger Signals, Inflammasomes, And The Intricate Intracellular Lives Of Chlamydiae, M. A. Pettengill, A. A. Sater, R. Coutinho-Silva, David M. Ojcius

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens, and as such are sensitive to alterations in the cellular physiology of their hosts. Chlamydial infections often cause pathologic consequences due to prolonged localized inflammation. Considerable advances have been made in the last few years regarding our understanding of how two key inflammation-associated signaling pathways influence the biology of

Study On Appropriate Methods For Extraction Of Antioxidant Compounds From Black Glutinous Rice, Chalerm Jansom, Ekasith Skulkhu, Vanida Jansom Jansom, Nusiri Lerdvuthisopon, Kornkarn Bhamarapravati

Asian Medical Journal and Alternative Medicine

Introduction: Black glutinous rice has high chemical constituents and antioxidant compounds. This research aimed to determine appropriate extraction method of black glutinous rice for highest antioxidant compounds of the crude extract. The method was considered on low cost, safety and efficiency condition.

Method: Black glutinous rice was extracted with 12 solvents. Total phenolic compound, total monomeric anthocyanin, cyanidin 3-glucoside and antioxidant activities determined by DPPH radical scavenging assay of the crude extracts were measured.

Result: The extraction with 1%hydrochloric acid (1%HCl) in 95%ethanol and 10%HCl in 95%ethanol were significantly highest chemical constituents and antioxidant activities. This solvent (1%HCI in 95%ethanol) …

Black Health Matters: Disparities, Community Health, And Interest Convergence, Mary Crossley

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Health disparities represent a significant strand in the fabric of racial injustice in the United States, one that has proven exceptionally durable. Many millions of dollars have been invested in addressing racial disparities over the past three decades. Researchers have identified disparities, unpacked their causes, and tracked their trajectories, with only limited progress in narrowing the health gap between whites and racial and ethnic minorities. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the movement toward value-based payment methods for health care may supply a new avenue for addressing disparities. This Article argues that the ACA’s requirement that tax-exempt …

Predicting Positive Education Outcomes For Emerging Adults In Mental Health Systems Of Care, Eileen M. Brennan, Peggy Nygren, Robert L. Stephens, Adrienne Croskey

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Emerging adults who receive services based on positive youth development models have shown an ability to shape their own life course to achieve positive goals. This paper reports secondary data analysis from the Longitudinal Child and Family Outcome Study including 248 culturally-diverse youth ages 17 through 22 receiving mental health services in systems of care. After 12 months of services, school performance was positively related to youth ratings of school functioning, and service participation and satisfaction. Regression analysis revealed ratings of young peoples’ perceptions of school functioning and their experience in services added to the significant prediction of satisfactory school …

Forgotten And Concealed: The Emblematic Cases Of The Assyrian And Romani Genocides, Riccardo Armillei, Nikki Marczak, Panayiotis Diamadis

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

By exploring how the Assyrian and Romani genocides came to be forgotten in official history and collective memory, this paper takes a step towards redress for years of inadvertent neglect and deliberate concealment. In addressing the roles played by scholars and nations, and the effect of international law and government policy, it notes the inaccessibility of evidence, combined with a narrow application of definitions of victim groups, and a focus on written proof of perpetrator intent. Continuing persecution of survivors in the aftermath of the genocides, and government actions to erase the genocides from history, are common to both cases. …

Working With The Remains In Cambodia: Skeletal Analysis And Human Rights After Atrocity, Julie M. Fleischman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This essay will discuss the research being conducted on Khmer Rouge-era human skeletal remains in Cambodia, and the implications of this work. First, the Cambodian project to conserve and analyze the remains at the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (Choeung Ek) will be briefly discussed. This exceptional undertaking was the first complete scientific analysis of human remains from a Cambodian mass gravesite. Second, the author’s independent research at Choeung Ek and a collaborative project at another mass gravesite will be reviewed. The author’s research focuses on the traumatic injuries and demographics of the remains at Choeung Ek, while also incorporating cultural …

Decorating Behavior And Decoration Preference In The Masking Crab, Loxorhynchus Crispatus, Catherine Anne Drake

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Organisms adapt to responses in their environment, and over time if that adaptation is successful in increasing survival within the population, the species will evolve accordingly. An example of induced evolution is through predator-­prey interactions. As a predator hunts its prey, the prey must find ways to avoid predation in order to survive. Evolved traits or behaviors to avoid predation include escape through size refuge, various physical or chemical defensive strategies, vertical migration through a water column, inducible morphological shifts, unpalatability, mimicry, or camouflage. To camouflage oneself, organisms have been observed to use coloration or change their shape—morphological changes to …

Talin2-Mediated Traction Force Drives Matrix Degradation And Cell Invasion, Lei Qi, Naser Jafari, Xiang Li, Zaozao Chen, Liqing Li, Vesa P. Hytönen, Benjamin T. Goult, Chang-Guo Zhan, Cai Huang

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Talin binds to β-integrin tails to activate integrins, regulating cell migration, invasion and metastasis. There are two talin genes, TLN1 and TLN2, encoding talin1 and talin2, respectively. Talin1 regulates focal adhesion dynamics, cell migration and invasion, whereas the biological function of talin2 is not clear and, indeed, talin2 has been presumed to function redundantly with talin1. Here, we show that talin2 has a much stronger binding to β-integrin tails than talin1. Replacement of talin2 Ser339 with Cys significantly decreased its binding to β1-integrin tails to a level comparable to that of talin1. Talin2 localizes at invadopodia and is indispensable …

Communication Structures Of Supplemental Voluntary Kin Relationships, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Jenna Stephenson, Julia Moore, Katie Brockhage

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Although scholars have constructed typologies of voluntary (fictive) kin, few have considered challenges and opportunities of interaction and relationships between biolegal and voluntary kin. This study focused on one type of voluntary kin, supplemental voluntary kin, relationships that often arise because of differing values, underperformed roles, or physical distance from the biolegal family, and wherein relationships are maintained with biolegal and voluntary kin. We examined how these family systems are constructed via interactions in relational triads of “linchpin” persons between biolegal family and voluntary kin. From in-depth interviews with 36 supplemental voluntary kin, we examined themes in the linchpins’ discourse …

Stable Engraftment Of Bifidobacterium Longum Ah1206 In The Human Gut Depends On Individualized Features Of The Resident Microbiome, María X. Maldonado-Gómez, Inés Martínez, Francesca Bottacini, Amy O’Callaghan, Marco Ventura, Douwe Van Sinderen, Benjamin Hillmann, Pajau Vangay, Dan Knights, Robert W. Hutkins, Jens Walter

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Live bacteria (such as probiotics) have long been used to modulate gut microbiota and human physiology, but their colonization is mostly transient. Conceptual understanding of the ecological principles as they apply to exogenously introduced microbes in gut ecosystems is lacking. We find that, when orally administered to humans, Bifidobacterium longum AH1206 stably persists in the gut of 30% of individuals for at least 6 months without causing gastrointestinal symptoms or impacting the composition of the resident gut microbiota. AH1206 engraftment was associated with low abundance of resident B. longum and underrepresentation of specific carbohydrate utilization genes in the pre-treatment microbiome. …

Comparison Of Hermetic Storage Of Wheat With Traditional Storage Methods In India, Pavel Somavat, Haibo Huang, Sunil Kumar, Mukesh K. Garg, Mary-Grace C. Danao, Vijay Singh, Marvin R. Paulsen, Kent D. Rausch

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

India is among the countries experiencing high postharvest losses. Four hermetic bags, two metallic bins, and two gunny bag (also known as jute or burlap bag) piles each containing 1 tonne of wheat were instrumented with temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide sensors. Representative samples from each structure were collected each month and tests for moisture, germination, insect-damaged grain, and milling yield were performed. After nine months, wheat stored in hermetic bags had higher germination (87%) and lower insect-damaged grain percentages (0% to 0.33% with a mean value of 0.2%). Hermetic bags with deliberately introduced Rhyzopertha dominica successfully eliminated the …

Predictable Convergence In Hemoglobin Function Has Unpredictable Molecular Underpinnings, Chandrasekhar Natarajan, Federico G. Hoffmann, Roy E. Weber, Angela Fago, Christopher C. Witt, Jay F. Storz

Jay F. Storz Publications

To investigate the predictability of genetic adaptation, we examined the molecular basis of convergence in hemoglobin function in comparisons involving 56 avian taxa that have contrasting altitudinal range limits. Convergent increases in hemoglobin-oxygen affinity were pervasive among high-altitude taxa, but few such changes were attributable to parallel amino acid substitutions at key residues.Thus, predictable changes in biochemical phenotype do not have a predictable molecular basis. Experiments involving resurrected ancestral proteins revealed that historical substitutions have context-dependent effects, indicating that possible adaptive solutions are contingent on prior history. Mutations that produce an adaptive change in one species may represent precluded possibilities …

A Novel Missense Mutation In The C2c Domain Of Otoferlin Causes Profound Hearing Impairment In An Omani Family With Auditory Neuropathy, Nadia M. Al-Wardy, Mohammed N. Al-Kindi, Mazin J. Al-Khabouri, Yahya Tamimi, Guy Van Camp

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To identify genetic defects in an Omani family diagnosed with deafness. Methods: A cross-sectional association study was conducted at the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud, Oman and the Centre of Medical Genetics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium between August 2010 and September 2014. Microsatellites markers for nine non-syndromic genes were used to genotype the defective locus using the extracted DNA from family members. Sanger sequencing method was used to identify the disease causative mutation. Eazy linkage 5.05 was used to calculate the logarithm of odds score. Lasergene suite was used to …

Prevalence And Characterization Of Occult Hepatitis B Infection Among Blood Donors In Central Saudi Arabia, Areej I. Alshayea, Gamal E. Eid, Malak M. El-Hazmi, Abdulkarim F. Alhetheel

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of occult hepatitis B viral infections (OBIs) among blood donors considering the clinical and epidemiological importance of identifying OBIs. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between January 2011 and January 2012. Blood donors (n=8501) were screened for Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B core antibodies (HBcAb). All HBsAg-negative and HBcAb-positive samples were tested further for hepatitis B surface antibodies (HBsAb), hepatitis B virus (HBV)-DNA, and HBV genotyping. Results: Of the 8501 serum samples tested, 56 (0.7%) were positive and 8445 (99.3%) were negative for HBsAg. …

Educational Attainment And Self-Rated Health Among African-Americans In Pitt County, Nc, Eeshwar K. Chandrasekar, Zimo Z. Banta, Kathleen R. Ragan, Michelle M. Schmitz, Sherman A. James

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: To help fill the knowledge gap regarding relationships between educational attainment and self-rated health (SRH) in minority populations, we analyzed the data of a community-based cohort of African-Americans residing in Pitt County, NC, between 1988 and 2001.

Methods: Data from the Pitt County Study (a community-based, longitudinal survey of risk factors for hypertension and related disorders disproportionately affecting African-Americans) were used to explore associations between educational attainment and SRH, stratified by sex, in a cohort of individuals from 1988 (n=1,773), 1993 (n=1,195), and 2001 (n=1,117) using continuous, ordinal, and binary correlated data analyses.

Results: For males and females with …

Assessing The Archaeoparasitological Potential Of Quids As A Source Material For Immunodiagnostic Analyses, Johnica J. Morrow, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

In the present study, quids from La Cueva de los Muertos Chiquitos (CMC) were subjected to ELISA tests for 2 protozoan parasites, Toxoplasma gondii (n=45) and Trypanosoma cruzi (n=43). The people who occupied CMC, the Loma San Gabriel, lived throughout much of present-day Durango and Zacatecas in Mexico. The known pathoecology of these people puts them into at-risk categories for the transmission of T. gondii and T. cruzi. Human antibodies created in response to these 2 parasites can be detected in modern saliva using ELISA kits intended for use with human serum. For these reasons, quids were reconstituted and …

Fungi In The Healthy Human Gastrointestinal Tract, Heather E. Hallen-Adams, Mallory J. Suhr

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Many species of fungi have been detected in the healthy human gut; however, nearly half of all taxa reported have only been found in one sample or one study. Fungi capable of growing in and colonizing the gut are limited to a small number of species, mostly Candida yeasts and yeasts in the family Dipodascaceae (Galactomyces, Geotrichum, Saprochaete). Malassezia and the filamentous fungus Cladosporium are potential colonizers; more work is needed to clarify their role. Other commonly-detected fungi come from the diet or environment but either cannot or do not colonize (Penicillium and Debaryomyces species, which are …

Prehistoric Pathoecology As Represented By Parasites Of A Mummy From The Peruaçu Valley, Brazil, Karl Reinhard, Adauto Araújo

Karl Reinhard Publications

Paleopathologists have begun exploring the pathoecology of parasitic diseases in relation to diet and environment. We are summarizing the parasitological findings from a mummy in the site of Lapa do Boquete, a Brazilian cave in the state of Minas Gerais. These findings in context of the archaeology of the site provided insights into the pathoecology of disease transmission in cave and rockshelter environments. We are presenting a description of the site followed by the evidence of hookworm, intestinal fluke, and Trypanosoma infection with resulting Chagas disease in the mummy discovered in the cave. These findings are used to reconstruct the …

The Court After Scalia, Kevin C. Walsh

Law Faculty Publications

In this editorial, Professor Walsh surveys the 2015-2016 U.S. Supreme Court term, with particular attention to the effects the late Justice Antonin Scalia's absence had on the Court's decisions.

Ursinus Magazine, Fall 2016, Brock Blomberg, Wendy Greenberg, Ellen Labrecque, Andrew Edwards, Rebecca Evans, Richard L. Wallace

Ursinus Magazine, 1995–Present

They're here: The Class of 2020! • Out of this world • Cutting college costs • Celebrating the bard • Borough-inspired mural for Berman gallery • By the numbers: Best PA CPA pass rate • Hall of fame • Triple play: A top 100 college • Lost and found • The food network • Fulfilling a promise for our future • Welcome to the (academic) neighborhood • The Philadelphia story • "Superhero" UC ball runners • Burning question: Are there still gender gaps in political attitudes toward women as emerging political players? • Anatomy of Welcome Week • Wine and …

Anaerobic Co-Digestion Of Chlorella Vulgaris And Dairy Whey For Enhanced Methane Production, Paula Drouin Ms

All Student Scholarship

The anaerobic digestion process is an additional step that can be implemented at wastewater treatment facilities for the production of biogas (i.e. methane) that can be used to generate energy and significantly reduce the facility's energy cost. An emerging area of interest with anaerobic digestion is the inclusion of high-strength degradable organic waste (in addition to wastewater solids) that can lead to increased methane production by methanogens. Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris), a species of green microalgae, is ubiquitous green alga often present at water-water treatment plants. I investigated its usefulness in an existing wastewater treatment process. Two investigations …

Sample Preparation Techniques For Grain Boundary Characterization Of Annealed Triso-Coated Particles, M. L. Dunzik-Gougar, I. J. Van Rooyen, C. M. Hill, T. Trowbridge, J. Madden, J. Burns

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Crystallographic information about layers of silicon carbide (SiC) deposited by chemical vapor deposition is essential to understanding layer performance, especially when the the layers are in nonplanar geometries (e.g., spherical). Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to analyze spherical SiC layers using a different sampling approach that applied focused ion beam (FIB) milling to avoid the negative impacts of traditional sample polishing and address the need for very small samples of irradiated materials for analysis. The mechanical and chemical grinding and polishing of sample surfaces can introduce lattice strain and result in the unequal removal of SiC and the surrounding …

Growth Promotion Of Tomato By The Implementation Of Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria And Plant Growth Regulators -Producing Bacteria In Calcareous Saline Soil In The United Arab Emirates, Asma Hamad Alsedeeri

Theses

In the present thesis, the ability of different plant growth promoting actinomycetes to promote the growth of tomato plants under saline conditions was examined using phosphorus solubilizing actinomycetes and/or plant growth regulates producing actinomycetes compared to tomato plants grown in soil not amended with any actinomycetes isolates. The overall aim of the present project was to determine whether enhanced phosphorus solubilization, as a result of soil inoculation with either phosphorus-solubilizing actinomycetes and/or with the production of plant growth regulators by plant growth promoting actinomycetes or the combination of both characteristics will results in the promotion of tomato plant growth.

To …

Deep-Based Ingredient Recognition For Cooking Recipe Retrieval, Jingjing Chen, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Retrieving recipes corresponding to given dish pictures facilitates the estimation of nutrition facts, which is crucial to various health relevant applications. The current approaches mostly focus on recognition of food category based on global dish appearance without explicit analysis of ingredient composition. Such approaches are incapable for retrieval of recipes with unknown food categories, a problem referred to as zero-shot retrieval. On the other hand, content-based retrieval without knowledge of food categories is also difficult to attain satisfactory performance due to large visual variations in food appearance and ingredient composition. As the number of ingredients is far less than food …

Inferring Links Between Concerns And Methods With Multi-Abstraction Vector Space Model, Yun Zhang, David Lo, Xin Xia, Tien-Duy B. Le, Giuseppe Scanniello, Jianling Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Concern localization refers to the process of locating code units that match a particular textual description. It takes as input textual documents such as bug reports and feature requests and outputs a list of candidate code units that are relevant to the bug reports or feature requests. Many information retrieval (IR) based concern localization techniques have been proposed in the literature. These techniques typically represent code units and textual descriptions as a bag of tokens at one level of abstraction, e.g., each token is a word, or each token is a topic. In this work, we propose a multi-abstraction concern …

A General Elliptic Nonlinear System Of Two Functions With Application, Timothy Robertson, Joon Hyuk Kang

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to give a sufficient condition for the existence and nonexistence of positive solutions to a rather general type of elliptic system of the Dirichlet problem on the bounded domain Ω in Rn. Also considered are the effects of perturbations on the coexistence state and uniqueness. The techniques used in this paper are upper-lower solutions, eigenvalues of operators, maximum principles and spectrum estimates. The arguments also rely on some detailed properties for the solution of logistic equations. These results yield an algebraically computable criterion for the positive coexistence of competing species of animals in many …

Impacts Of Port Development On Estuarine Morphodynamics: Ribadeo (Spain), M Prumm, G Iglesias

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Port developments in estuaries can significantly affect estuarine dynamics, causing hydrodynamic changes that can in turn affect sediment transport patterns. Understanding these impacts is crucial in view of the socioeconomic relevance of estuaries and their high sensitivity – as the complex natural systems that they are. The objective of this work is to investigate the impact of port expansion on estuarine dynamics through a case study. Process-based models are implemented to investigate the morphodynamic response of the estuary to the expansion of the Port of Ribadeo. The models simulate the hydrodynamics and sediment transport of the estuary with and without …

Identifying Invasive Species Educational Needs In Florida: Opportunities For Extension, Pei-Wen Huang, Alexa J. Lamm

Journal of Extension

Florida's ecology has been adversely affected by invasive species. In Florida, a study was conducted to explore opportunities for Extension educators to contribute to combating the issue of invasive species. Florida residents' responses were captured through the use of an online public opinion survey. The findings revealed a need for invasive species education and respondent interest in learning about invasive species. Potential communication strategies Extension educators should use for invasive species programming also are discussed.

Direct Measurement Of Actual Levels Of Nitric Oxide (No) In Cell Culture Conditions Using Soluble No Donors, Weilue He, Megan C. Frost

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Applying soluble nitric oxide (NO) donors is the most widely used method to expose cells of interest to exogenous NO. Because of the complex equilibria that exist between components in culture media, the donor compound and NO itself, it is very challenging to predict the dose and duration of NO cells actually experience. To determine the actual level of NO experienced by cells exposed to soluble NO donors, we developed the CellNO Trap, a device that allows continuous, real-time monitoring of the level of NO adherent cells produce and/or experience in culture without the need to alter cell culturing procedures. …