Digital Commons Network^™

Exogenous Ubiquitin: Role In Myocardial Inflammation And Remodeling Post- Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury, Stephanie Scofield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sympathetic stimulation occurs in the heart after injuries such as ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) and myocardial infarction and affects myocardial remodeling. Prolonged sympathetic stimulation can result in myocardial dysfunction through its effects on cardiac myocyte apoptosis and myocardial fibrosis. Ubiquitin (UB) is well known for its role of tagging old or damaged proteins for degradation via the UB-proteosome pathway. The role of exogenous UB however, is not fully understood. Previously, our lab showed that β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) stimulation increased levels of extracellular UB in the conditioned media of adult rat ventricular myocytes and that UB inhibits β-AR-stimulated apoptosis. This study investigates the …

Video Game Evaluation Based On Player Decision Cycles, Adam Wentworth

All Theses

In this thesis we describe a three pronged framework that captures the important aspects of player engagement in a video game. The focus of the framework is the Player Decision Cycle, which refers to the overlapping decisions that players make during game play. These various decisions must be made many times, but each type of decision has to be made at different rates. These decisions interact to produce the pacing of the gameplay experience. To illustrate the framework we have designed and implemented two prototype RPGs. These two RPGs are Dragon Mist and Radium Seas. These games exemplify adherence to …

Comparison Of Growth And Reproductive Traits Of Young Growing Beef Bulls Developed On Forage With Or Without Concentrate Supplementation, Graham Scott Sell

All Theses

The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and reproductive development of young growing beef bulls on a complete forage ration (F) to development of similar young growing beef bulls on a forage ration supplemented with concentrate (CT). Data was collected from the 665 beef bulls, grouped into breed codes (BC) of continental (CN; n = 103) or British (B; n = 562) that participated in the Edisto Forage Bull Test (EFBT) in Blackville, SC from 2006 to 2016 with the exception of 2012. Data from 2012 was lost in a clerical mishap. All Angus, red Angus, and …

Interleukin-12/Hfasti: A Humanized Bifunctional Fusion Protein For Cancer Immunotherapy, Chelsea Anne Pennington-Krygier

All Theses

Cancer remains a major health issue worldwide, and the leading cause of death in nearly half the states in America. As our understanding of the immune system has improved, so too has our ability to create and tailor immunotherapy and gene therapy for cancer treatment. Therapy with cytokines to boost immune activity against cancer cells has had limited success, but is largely restrained by the toxicity of systemic administration of the high doses needed to elicit the desired effect. Also limiting the effect of such cytokine therapy is the issue of cancerous cells already implementing tactics to evade immune detection, …

Green Salamander Distribution, Abundance, And Physiology In The Southern Blue Ridge, Jillian C. Newman

All Theses

Green salamanders, Aneides aeneus, are a priority species throughout their range and have been negatively affected by habitat loss, climate change, disease, and over-collection. Many historical locations for this species in the Blue Ridge Escarpment have not been visited for ~25 years and thus were in need of a status update. I constructed both small-scale and large scale distribution models for green salamanders. For the small-scale distribution model, I conducted visual encounter surveys across three counties in South Carolina using a headlamp to search rock outcrops and binoculars to search trees. I detected green salamanders at 30 of the …

Tactile Interactions, Lacy Ann Miller

All Theses

This installation of utilitarian ceramics developed from the value I place on function, ergonomics, tactility, and surface decoration which abstractly reference the biological structures facilitating our perception. I bring together these elements to playfully explore our relationships with objects - my pots are intended to be filled with food or drink, picked up, passed to a neighbor, and enjoyed in lively daily use. Audiences are familiar with tableware, its use and purpose in the home are common across history and culture. This intimate acquaintance places my work closer to its intended destination- people's lives and hands. Referring to this phenomenon …

Precision Agriculture Technology Development And Utilization For Hay Production, Perry Jonathan Loftis

All Theses

Mass flow sensor algorithms were developed for a hay yield monitoring system using ultrasonic sensors to measure windrow height. The algorithms indicated accuracies of 17.34% to 9.51%, with a wide tolerance to mounting positions. The developed mass flow algorithms were used in a nitrogen rate strip test on a 25 ac irrigated Tifton 85 bermudagrass field. Results suggested that yield, crude protein content and profit was maximized with the highest nitrogen rate only during the first harvest of 2017. All other harvest suggested a lower rate of nitrogen should be applied in order to maximize profit. A second method of …

Persistence Of Escherichia Coli O157:H7 And Listeria Monocytogenes On The Exterior Of Common Packaging Materials, Duleeka Prasadani Kuruwita Arachchige

All Theses

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE), a major cause of illness, results in 179 million AGE cases every year in the United States. AGE bacteria that have low-infectious dose include E. coli O157:H7 (<10-100 cells) and L. monocytogenes (<1000 cells). Because of their low-infectious dose and high environmental resistance, contaminated surfaces, such as the exterior surface of food packages, could be a source for disease transmission. Our aim was to determine the persistence of E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes on three packaging materials - oriented polyethylene terephthalate (OPET), oriented polypropylene (OPP), and nylon-6. Coupons (25 cm2) from each material were sterilized under ultraviolet light for 5 minutes. Spot and spread inoculation was done on treatment coupons with ca. 7 log CFU of a 3-strain-mixture of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled E. coli O157:H7. All the coupons were incubated at Technical …

Hierarchical Off-Road Path Planning And Its Validation Using A Scaled Autonomous Car', Angshuman Goswami

All Theses

In the last few years. while a lot of research effort has been spent on autonomous vehicle navigation, primarily focused on on-road vehicles, off-road path planning still presents new challenges. Path planning for an autonomous ground vehicle over a large horizon in an unstructured environment when high-resolution a-priori information is available, is still very much an open problem due to the computations involved. Localization and control of an autonomous vehicle and how the control algorithms interact with the path planner is a complex task. The first part of this research details the development of a path decision support tool for …

A Hybrid Approach For Treatment Of Naphthenic Acid Fraction Compounds In Oil Sands Process-Affected Water, Daniel Peter Gaspari

All Theses

Extensive volumes of oil sands process-affected waters (OSPWs) are produced at surface mines in the Athabasca Oil Sands. OSPW contains constituents, including a complex mixture of refractory organics known as naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs), that require treatment prior to government-mandated reclamation of mining leases. Hybrid constructed wetland treatment systems (CWTSs) implementing film-based TiO2 photocatalysis were investigated as a passive, low-energy method for treatment of constituents of concern (COCs) in OSPW.

Bench-scale settled TiO2 batch reactors were assembled and degradation of NAFCs in a specific OSPW was measured as a function of cumulative solar ultraviolet radiation (UV insolation) and by …

Development Of New Bioinformatic Approaches For Human Genetic Studies, Jose Andres Guevara Coto

All Dissertations

The development of bioinformatics methods for human genetic studies utilizes the vast amount of data to generate new valuable information. Machine learning and statistical coupling analysis can be used in the study of human diseases. These diseases include intellectual disabilities (ID), prevalent in 1-3% of the population and caused primarily by genetics. Although many cases of ID are caused by mutations in protein-coding genes, the possible involvement of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in ID due to their role in gene expression regulation, has been explored. In this study, we used machine learning to develop a new expression-based model trained using …

Flow Assessment Using Optical Coherence Microscopy Based Particle Image Velocimetry, Siyu Ma

All Dissertations

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common forms of congenital malformation in newborns. Among all types of CHDs, a large portion is contributed by malformation of endocardial cushion malformation during early heart development. Although the etiology of endocardial cushion malformation is unclear, it is a result of interactions between genetic and environmental factors has been confirmed. There is hypothesis indicating that malformation of endocardial cushion is caused by altered shear stress conditions where in cushion forming area the shear stress is supposed to be high compare with other area in congenital heart. However it is difficult to justify due …

Interrelationships Between Carbohydrate Fractions, Starch Degradability, And Unsaturated Fatty Acids In The Rumen And The Effects On Milk Fat Depressing Conditions, Louisa E. Koch

All Dissertations

Diet-induced milk fat depression is a multifactorial disorder characterized by sustained reduction in milk fat. Feeding high amounts of starch and unsaturated fatty acids have been shown to reduce milk fat yield and concentration, and alter ruminal biohydrogenation. In addition, starch with high rates of degradability may lead to a decrease in ruminal pH and an increase in the outflow of ruminal biohydrogenation intermediates. It is possible that starch sources of high degradability could still be utilized in diets for the recovery of milk fat depression, provided the unsaturated fat level is reduced. Replacing a portion of the starch, especially …

Impacts Of Exposure To A High Concentrate Based Diet On Marbling Development In Beef Cattle, Brandon Michael Koch

All Dissertations

The value of a carcass is largely dependent on lipid deposition. The subcutaneous and visceral depots are often reported to develop and fill first. These depots also have little to no value, and often result in carcass price discounts. The intramuscular depot is well correlated with consumer palatability and carcass value. The ability to increase deposition of intramuscular lipid while minimizing the filling of low value fat depots provides ample opportunity to improve carcass value. Three studies were performed to investigate the ability to improve marbling deposition by altering the timing and duration of exposure to high concentrate diets. The …

Fabrication Of Human Serum Albumin Film For Enhanced Hemocompatibility And Mitigation Of Intimal Hyperplasia Under Physiologically Relevant Flow Shear Conditions, Astha Khanna

All Dissertations

Current endovascular stents and synthetic vascular grafts have poor clinical outcomes in small diameter applications due to high incidence of thrombogenicity and intimal hyperplasia. To address this, we have developed an albumin film for mitigation of the complications of platelet adhesion and smooth muscle cell hyperplasia and hypertrophy. A human serum albumin (HSA) film is fabricated on an anchoring layer of poly (glycidyl methacrylate) on surfaces of metallic and polymeric substrates. The PGMA and HSA layers are characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and contact angle analysis. We have confirmed the thromboresistance of albumin film …

Investigating Embodied Interaction In Near-Field Perception-Action Re-Calibration On Performance In Immersive Virtual Environments, Elham Ebrahimi

All Dissertations

Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) are becoming more accessible and more widely utilized for training. Previous research has shown that the matching of visual and proprioceptive information is important for calibration. Many state-of-the art Virtual Reality (VR) systems, commonly known as Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE), are created for training users in tasks that require accurate manual dexterity. Unfortunately, these systems can suffer from technical limitations that may force de-coupling of visual and proprioceptive information due to interference, latency, and tracking error. It has also been suggested that closed-loop feedback of travel and locomotion in an IVE can overcome compression of visually …

Naturally Derived Anti-Inflammatory And Antibacterial Coatings For Surgical Implants, Dmitry Gil

All Dissertations

The evolution of surgical approaches and procedures over the past century is remarkable. The brutality and risks associated with operations has substantially decreased, whereas the procedures themselves became safe and efficient. Nevertheless, none of the surgical procedures is completely safe, reliable and painless, which often leads to the patients experiencing post-operative discomforts. These discomforts are usually resolved within several days after the operation, and do not require any additional prophylaxes or treatments. However, in some cases, surgeries are followed by post-operative complications that cannot be resolved without additional medical attention. Shock, hemorrhage, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary complications, urinary retention, reaction …

Whole Body Irradiation And Degradation Of Structural And Functional Properties Of Mouse Bone: X-Rays, Protons, And Heavy Ions, Laura Christine Bowman

All Dissertations

Bone loss has been identified as a characteristic response to radiation exposure in both clinical and space settings. One of the known long-term consequences of radiation treatment for cancer is increased risk of fracture due to declined bone health. Astronauts are also at risk, although the sources and total doses are much different than that of radiotherapy patients. The development of radiation protection countermeasures for long-term space missions requires a thorough understanding of the radiation's biological effects and the mechanisms behind them. The main objective of these studies is to further our understanding of the effect spaceflight relevant radiation has …

The Evolutionary Diversity Of Uracil Dna Glycosylase Superfamily, Jing Li

All Dissertations

Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) is a crucial member in the base excision (BER) pathway that is able to specially recognize and cleave the deaminated DNA bases, including uracil (U), hypoxanthine (inosine, I), xanthine (X) and oxanine (O). Currently, based on the sequence similarity of 3 functional motifs, the UDG superfamily is divided into 6 families. Each family has evolved distinct substrate specificity and properties. In this thesis, I broadened the UDG superfamily by characterization of three new groups of enzymes. In chapter 2, we identified a new subgroup of enzyme in family 3 SMUG1 from Listeria Innocua. This newly found …

Our Land Is Not Just Soil: Knowing, Feeling, And Doing Environmental Activism In The Arkansas Ozarks, Ramey Arlen Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Ozarks is a holey place, an ancient plateau formed from ancient rocks and the sediment of millions of years of living things. The Ozarks is also, from another perspective a place made from a mesh of overlapping lines, lines of migration, lines of living things, lines of water movement over and through the land. This dissertation engages with the practice of conservation and environmentalism as it is performed and lived by Ozarkers and Arkansawyers, natives and transplants. Based on more than a year of ethnographic fieldwork conducted with the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, Save the Ozarks, Arkansas Master Naturalists, …

Small Rna-Dependent Gene Silencing In The Green Alga Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii: Functions And Mechanisms, Eun Jeong Kim

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

Small RNAs (sRNAs), ~20-30 nucleotides in length, are non-coding RNAs that play essential roles in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. They lead to inactivation of cognate sequences at the post-transcriptional level via a variety of mechanisms involved in translation inhibition and/or RNA degradation.

In the Chlorophyta Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, however, the molecular machinery responsible for sRNA-mediated translational repression remains unclear. To address the mechanisms of translation inhibition by sRNA, we have isolated an RNAi defective mutant (Mut26), which contains a deletion of the gene encoding the homolog of CCR4 in Chlamydomonas. We investigated the expression …

Resource Allocation For Acorn Production: A Comparison Across Species Pairs Of Oaks With Contrasting Acorn Production Patterns And Water Use Strategies, Kyle A. Funk

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

Mast seeding, or masting, is a phenomenon where inter-annual seed production by individuals is synchronized across a population of plants. Masting is hypothesized to confer a selective advantage to plants by increasing rates of pollination or by decreasing rates of seed predation. Masting can also play a crucial role in ecosystem functioning as fluctuations in annual seed crops correspond with fluctuations in seed predator populations, which in turn have consequences that ripple throughout food webs. The mechanism(s) that causes masting is unresolved, but the high variability in seed production of masting plants is hypothesized to be caused, in part, by …

Vicarious Liability, Non-Delegable Duty And The Ng Huat Seng Decision, Kee Yang Low

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article considers the evolving law relating to the delegability of the duty of care and the principle of vicarious liability, focusing particularly on the recent Singapore Court of Appeal decision in Ng Huat Seng v Munib Mohammad Madni.

Notes: Range Extension Of The Virginia Opossum (Didelphis Virginiana) In North Dakota, Lisa L. Walsh, Robert Seabloom, Cody W. Thompson

The Prairie Naturalist

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is broadly distributed across North America from Costa Rica in the south to southern Ontario in the north and from the southern Great Plains in the west to the eastern United States. The Virginia opossum also was introduced multiple times to thePacific Coast beginning in the late 1800s and has established populations in that region. This species is a habitat generalist known to frequent wetland and hardwood habitats but also can be found in grasslands, along forest edges, and in agricultural and suburban settings throughout its range. However, the Virginia opossum is adapted …

The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society

The Prairie Naturalist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

45 EDITOR’S NOTE

RESEARCH ARTICLES

48 Avian Diversity, Abundance, and Nest Success among Managed Prairies and Agricultural Plots in Oklahoma and Texas Phillip J. Leonard, Douglas R. Wood, and Wayne E. Meyer

57 Severe Drought Impacts Female Pheasant Physiology in Southwest Nebraska Jessica A. Laskowski, Gwen C. Bachman, and Joseph J. Fontaine

66 Field Discrimination of Prairie Deer Mice and White-footed Mice using Morphological Characteristics Jacob L. Berl, Kelton M. Verble, Elizabeth A. Flaherty, and Robert K. Swihart

NOTES

72 Range Extension of the Virgina Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in North Dakota Lisa L. Walsh

76 Prairie Falcon …

The Great Plains Natural Science Society

The Prairie Naturalist

The Great Plains Natural Science Society, formerly the North Dakota Natural Science Society, was founded in 1967 and seeks to promote interest in and understanding of natural history in the Great Plains, to encourage the conservation of natural resources, and to provide communication among individuals, institutions, and organizations of like interests. The GPNSS actively promotes the study of natural history of the Great Plains region, including geology, plants, birds, mammals, fish, insects, and other forms of life. Together with local, state, and national conservation organizations, the GPNSS fosters natural resource conservation and preservation of outstanding natural areas. The GPNSS publishes …

December 2017 Commencement Program, Bowling Green State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Genetic Diversity Of Kemp's Ridley (Lepidochelys Kempii) Sea Turtles On South Padre Island, Texas, Hilary R. Frandsen

Theses and Dissertations

In 2010, researchers observed an abrupt decline in nesting numbers of the Kemp’s ridley following 35 years of positive growth. In wake of this halt, and subsequent lowered nesting averages, evaluation of the genetic diversity of remaining individuals is relevant to investigate the plausibility of a genetic bottleneck, and determine the reproductive stability of the Kemp’s ridley.

Here, I evaluate the genetic diversity within a sampling of the Kemp’s ridleys on South Padre Island using two methods: targeting the mitochondrial control region and targeting the complete mitochondrial genome. Opportunistic samples were donated from juvenile ridleys on the East coast, and …

Foxo3 Regulation Of Stem Cell Markers Oct4 And Sox2 In Pten-Null Glioblastomas, Eduardo Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

The PI3K pathway controls many cellular processes such as cell growth, survival, metabolism, apoptosis, and differentiation. Canonically, PI3K activates AKT leading to subsequent nuclear exportation of FOXO transcription factors. Dysregulation of the PI3K pathway is a hallmark in many cancers and often is attributable to a null mutation in PTEN. PTEN is a phosphatase that reverses the reactions catalyzed by PI3K. Loss of PTEN leads to constitutive inactivation of tumor suppressor FOXO proteins. However, there is increasing evidence that FOXO may still reside and promote transcriptional activity in the nucleus despite high PI3K output within certain advance cancers and …

Medicinal Herbs And Mosquitoes: A Study Of Plant-Based Insect Repellents, December 2017, Miguel Alejandro Ochoa

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Mosquito-borne illnesses present a great threat to human health, and result in millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of extracted essential oils from three neotropical plants traditionally used in Costa Rican folk medicine as mosquito repellents. I extracted the essential oils of Siparuna decipiens (Monimiaceae), Gliricidia sepium (Fabaceae), and Neuroloena lobata (Asteraceae) via simple steam distillation. The extracted oils were then examined and compared to a negative control in the field on live volunteers, focusing on the mosquitoes in the Monteverde Zone, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica. After a total …