Digital Commons Network^™

The Synthesis Of Novel Boron Nanomaterials For Biomedical Application, Rebecca A.. Dominguez

Honors Capstones

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is one biomedical application in which boron nanomaterials are of crucial importance. Current research focuses on increasing the boron content and improving the cancer cell targeting in treatment agents. Thus, multiple routes of synthesizing functionalized boron nanoparticles were explored. Boron nanoparticles were synthesized by pyrolysis and functionalized with bromine. An alternate synthesis by sodium reduction was performed and those nanoparticles were functionalized with octanol and azido-PEG3-amine. The sugar 5-thio-D-glucose was modified for use as a targeting agent. The products of these reactions were characterized with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and …

A Study Of Structure-Function Relationships Of Dna Polymerase Activity On Dna Interstrand Crosslinks, Upasana Roy

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are DNA lesions that covalently link two strands of a DNA duplex, thereby acting as a block to DNA replication and transcription. As a result ICLs are particularly toxic to dividing cells, and ICL-forming agents such as cisplatin, nitrogen mustards and MMC are widely used in cancer chemotherapy. However, there are complex cellular pathways that repair ICLs, contributing to the problem of resistance to these anti-tumor agents. There appear to be multiple ICL repair pathways operating in cells but the majority of ICLs in vertebrates are repaired in a replication-coupled manner. A key step in this …

The Inevitable Fusion: A Mixed-Methods Sociological Approach To Comprehensive Kodiak Bear Viewing Management, Jacqueline M. Keating

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is home to one of the highest concentrations of brown bears in Alaska. As the public demand for bear viewing opportunities continues to increase, managers are faced with the challenge of accommodating this new kind of visitor use on a refuge that was traditionally managed for the sustainable hunting of bears. To inform the public use management planning process, the Kodiak Refuge allocated funding to support social science research that objectively assessed the current nature of bear viewing opportunities and the factors that influence the quality of those opportunities. Ecologist Aldo Leopold claimed that the …

"Less Than A Relationship:" Transitions Into An Impactful Romantic Relationship, Yuliya Yurashevich

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Are we friends, dating partners, significant others, or who are we? To answer this question, the study examined transitions into an impactful romantic relationship using relational turbulence theory (RTT). The goal of this thesis was to investigate communicative behaviors during romantic relationship transitions in association to relational uncertainty and relational satisfaction. Using axial and emergent coding, lay individuals’ definition of the impactful romantic relationship was derived and several types of transitions (most commonly, acquaintances to romantic partners and acquaintances through friends to romantic partners) were identified. Regression analyses revealed the support for half of the theory-driven hypotheses. Taking into consideration …

Validation Of Standard Operating Procedures In A Multicenter Retrospective Study To Identify-Omics Biomarkers For Chronic Low Back Pain, Concetta Dagostino, Manuela De Gregori, Christian Gieger, Judith Manz, Ivan Gudelj, Gordon Lauc, Laura Divizia, Wei Wang, Moira Sim, Iain K. Pemberton, Jane Macdougall, Frances Williams, Jan Vn Zundeert, Dragan Primorac, Yurii Aulchenko, Leonardo Kapural, Massimo Allegri

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is one of the most common medical conditions, ranking as the greatest contributor to global disability and accounting for huge societal costs based on the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study.

Large genetic and -omics studies provide a promising avenue for the screening, development and validation of biomarkers useful for personalized diagnosis and treatment (precision medicine). Multicentre studies are needed for such an effort, and a standardized and homogeneous approach is vital for recruitment of large numbers of participants among different centres (clinical and laboratories) to obtain robust and reproducible results. To date, no validated …

Size Separation And Characterization Of Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles With Agarose Gel Electrophoresis, Amirhossein Jafariyan

All Theses

Conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) or "polydots" are among the most promising fluorescent nanoparticle probes for many fluorescence-based techniques used in biological analysis as a result of their small size, large absorption cross-sections, tunable emission wavelengths and high fluorescence quantum yields. For this reason, various fluorescence-based applications are being pursued such as particle tracking and single nanoparticle sensors. Some applications require or could benefit from narrower particle size distributions, and there is also interest in the dependence of particle properties on size. Thus there is interest in developing and improving methods for separating conjugated polymer nanoparticles by size. This dissertation is …

Participation In Amateur Orchestra And Subjective Well-Being In Korea: A Perspective From Community Music Therapy, Hyun-Jung Kang

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods research was to investigate which individual and external factors related to participation in an amateur orchestra influence members’ subjective well-being (SWB) and how those factors contribute to members’ SWB from a community music therapy (CoMT) perspective in South Korea. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. Quantitative data were gathered from 126 members of nine amateur orchestras through a survey questionnaire including demographics and musical background, Perceived Values of the Amateur Orchestra Members (PVAOM), the Basic Psychological Needs Scales (BPNS), the Individualism and Collectivism Scale (INS-COL), and the Satisfaction with the Life Scale (SWLS). …

Comparative Analyses Of Zebrafish Anxiety-Like Behavior Using Conflict-Based Novelty Tests, Elana V. Kysil, Darya A. Meshalkina, Erin E. Frick, David J. Echevarria, Denis B. Rosemberg, Caio Maximino, Monica Gomes Lima, Murilo S. Abreu, Ana C. Giacomini, Leonardo J.G. Barcellos, Cai Song, Allan V. Kalueff

Faculty Publications

Modeling of stress and anxiety in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) is increasingly utilized in neuroscience research and central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery. Representing the most commonly used zebrafish anxiety models, the novel tank test (NTT) focuses on zebrafish diving in response to potentially threatening stimuli, whereas the light-dark test (LDT) is based on fish scototaxis (innate preference for dark vs. bright areas). Here, we systematically evaluate the utility of these two tests, combining meta-analyses of published literature with comparative in vivo behavioral and whole-body endocrine (cortisol) testing. Overall, the NTT and LDT behaviors demonstrate a generally good cross-test correlation …

The Role Of Administrative Support In The Retention Of Special Education Teachers, Atinart Koonkongsatian

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Administrative support of special education teachers can be a determining factor towards their success in teacher retention, motivation, and overall well-being. Special education teachers manage paperwork, meetings, and other administrative duties in addition to their teaching responsibilities. The extensive workload often leads these teachers to feel stressed, inadequate, and most importantly, this reduces their desire to continue working in their field. Administrative support of special education teachers can play an important role in promoting retention, increasing motivation, and supporting the overall well-being of a special education teacher. Their caseload of students is extensive, and often these teachers do not receive …

Normal Is Not Biblical : An Exploratory Study Of Ministry With Developmental Disabilities In The Arkansas Conference Of The United Methodist Church, Stephen E. Waggoner

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Diras Family Members In Regulating Ras Function, Cancer Growth And Autophagy, Margie Nicole Sutton

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

DIRAS3 is a maternally imprinted tumor suppressor gene that is downregulated by multiple mechanisms across several tumor types. When re-expressed, DIRAS3 decreases proliferation, inhibits motility, and induces autophagy and tumor dormancy. DIRAS3 encodes a 26 kDa small GTPase with 60% homology to Ras and Rap, differing from oncogenic Ras family members by a 34-amino acid N-terminal extension that is required for its tumor suppressive function in ovarian cancer. By assessing the structure-function relationship, I found that DIRAS3 inhibits Ras-induced transformation and is a natural antagonist of Ras/MAPK signaling. DIRAS3 binds directly to Ras and disrupts cluster formation inhibiting the activation …

Statistical Methods For Assessing Structural Change In Human & Microbial Genomes, Xuan Zhu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Genetic sequencing has been recognized as an effective approach to accurately address biological problems, such as clinical detection of disease, mutation discovery, and targeting specific biomarkers associated with complex diseases. Compared with conventional Sanger sequencing, next-generation sequencing costs much less due to massively parallel high-throughput sequencing. However, due to large numbers of short read sequences, the accuracy of high-throughput sequencing data remains a challenge in that the data obtained from next-generation sequencing often has higher error rates, which may impact downstream genomic analysis. Even if the downstream genomic analysis performs well, the quality of the result will still be impacted …

Chaos To Permanence - Through Control Theory, Sherli Koshy Chenthittayil

All Dissertations

Work by Cushing et al. [18] and Kot et al. [60] demonstrate that chaotic behavior does occur in biological systems. We demonstrate that chaotic behavior can enable the survival/thriving of the species involved in a system. We adopt the concepts of persistence/permanence as measures of survival/thriving of the species [35]. We utilize present chaotic behavior and a control algorithm based on [66, 72] to push a non-permanent system into permanence. The algorithm uses the chaotic orbits present in the system to obtain the desired state. We apply the algorithm to a Lotka-Volterra type two-prey, one-predator model from [30], a ratio-dependent …

Genome-Scale Precision Proteomics Identifies Cancer Signaling Networks And Therapeutic Vulnerabilities, Hong Wang

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Mass spectrometry (MS) based-proteomics technology has been emerging as an indispensable tool for biomedical research. But the highly diverse physical and chemical properties of the protein building blocks and the dramatic human proteome complexity largely limited proteomic profiling depth. Moreover, there was a lack of high-throughput quantitative strategies that were both precise and parallel to in-depth proteomic techniques. To solve these grand challenges, a high resolution liquid chromatography (LC) system that coupled with an advanced mass spectrometer was developed to allow genome-scale human proteome identification. Using the combination of pre-MS peptide fractionation, MS2-based interference detection and post-MS computational interference correction, …

Chaos To Permanence-Through Control Theory, Sherli Koshy Chenthittayil

All Dissertations

Work by Cushing et al. \cite{Cushing} and Kot et al. \cite{Kot} demonstrate that chaotic behavior does occur in biological systems. We demonstrate that chaotic behavior can enable the survival/thriving of the species involved in a system. We adopt the concepts of persistence/permanence as measures of survival/thriving of the species \cite{EVG}. We utilize present chaotic behavior and a control algorithm based on \cite{Vincent97,Vincent2001} to push a non-permanent system into permanence. The algorithm uses the chaotic orbits present in the system to obtain the desired state. We apply the algorithm to a Lotka-Volterra type two-prey, one-predator model from \cite{Harvesting}, a ratio-dependent one-prey, …

Synthesis Of A Bifunctional Macrocycle, Hasina Noory

Anthropology

Macrocycles are important organic ligands for encapsulating metal ions. This work describes the first step of a synthesis to create a bifunctional macrocyclic ligand suitable for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) studies. Cyclen is an organic macrocycle that contains twelve atoms total, with four nitrogen atoms incorporated into the cyclic backbone. Cyclen can be modified to coordinate a variety of metal ions by adding additional chelating arms. This synthesis is focused on functionalizing three of the donor nitrogens with carboxylate arms, while strategically leaving the fourth nitrogen available for further modification.

Synthesis, Characterization And Biological Studies Of Technetium-99m And Rhenium-188 Peptides, Vanessa Anne Sanders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Radiopharmaceuticals are very powerful diagnostic tools for evaluation of a host of medical conditions. These drugs are labeled with radioactive isotopes, which are utilized to create pictures of areas of interest through absorption of the drug. They are currently in high demand due to their ability to image areas that traditional imaging devices cannot. The radioisotope 99mTc, with a half-life of 6.01 hours and a 140 keV gamma emission, is central to many radiopharmaceutical compounds. This isotope is easily obtained from a 99Mo-99mTc generator, through beta decay and column chromatography separations. Very little technetium, less than 6 ng, is needed …

Photoactivatable Bodipys For Bioimaging Applications, Yang Zhang

Open Access Dissertations

Self-assembling nanoparticles of amphiphilic polymers can transport hydrophobic molecules across hydrophilic media and, as a result, can be valuable delivery vehicles for a diversity of biomedical applications. We designed molecular guests with photoactivatable fluorescence for these supramolecular hosts and demonstrated that the activation of the fluorescent cargo, under optical control, permits the tracking of the nanocarrier translocation across hard and soft matrices with the sequential acquisition of fluorescence images. In addition, the supramolecular delivery of these photoactivatable probes into the cellular blastoderm of Drosophila melanogaster embryos allows the real-time visualization of translocating molecules with no detrimental effects on the developing …

Pore Water Salinity Drives Brackish Vegetation Change In Salt Marsh Tidal Restoration, Shri Andrea L. Verrill Ms

All Student Scholarship

Salt marsh vegetation plays an important role in building and maintaining elevation on the marsh surface. For marshes to persist as sea-level-rise (SLR) occurs, the marsh accretion process must increase elevation at a rate greater than or equal to the rate of SLR. If salt marshes do not maintain elevation above sea level, salt marshes will drown, and associated benefits to humans, fish, and wildlife, and their contribution to the health of estuarine and marine ecosystems will be lost. Salt tolerant plant species are adapted to frequent and prolonged periods of inundation with seawater and typically maintain elevation where they …

Network Exploration Of Correlated Multivariate Protein Data For Alzheimer's Disease Association, Matthew J. Lane

Theses

Alzheimer Disease (AD) is difficult to diagnose by using genetic testing or other traditional methods. Unlike diseases with simple genetic risk components, there exists no single marker determining as to whether someone will develop AD. Furthermore, AD is highly heterogeneous and different subgroups of individuals develop the disease due to differing factors. Traditional diagnostic methods using perceivable cognitive deficiencies are often too little too late due to the brain having suffered damage from decades of disease progression. In order to observe AD at early stages prior to the observation of cognitive deficiencies, biomarkers with greater accuracy are required. By using …

Rseqrep: Rna-Seq Reports, An Open-Source Cloud-Enabled Framework For Reproducible Rna-Seq Data Processing, Analysis, And Result Reporting, Travis L. Jensen, Michael Frasketi, Kevin Conway, Leigh Villarroel, Heather Hill, Konstantinos Krampis, Johannes B. Goll

Publications and Research

RNA-Seq is increasingly being used to measure human RNA expression on a genome-wide scale. Expression profiles can be interrogated to identify and functionally characterize treatment-responsive genes. Ultimately, such controlled studies promise to reveal insights into molecular mechanisms of treatment effects, identify biomarkers, and realize personalized medicine. RNA-Seq Reports (RSEQREP) is a new open-source cloud-enabled framework that allows users to execute start-to-end gene-level RNA-Seq analysis on a preconfigured RSEQREP Amazon Virtual Machine Image (AMI) hosted by AWS or on their own Ubuntu Linux machine. The framework works with unstranded, stranded, and paired-end sequence FASTQ files stored locally, on Amazon Simple Storage …

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - April 9, 2017, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the April 9, 2017 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's Newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include:

2017 Gumbo Chili Showdown a Success

Dr. Steve Lim Awarded $1.52M NIH Research Grant

April 13 DSS to Feature Dr. Roderick O’Sullivan

USA Libraries Hosting Book Drive for Pediatrics

Finding Rare, Disease-Associated Variants In Isolated Groups: Potential Advantages Of Mennonite Populations, Fabiana L. Lopes, Liping Hou, Angelica B. W. Boldt, Layla Kassem, Veronica M. Alves, Antonio E. Nardi, Francis J. Mcmahon

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Large-scale genotyping and next-generation sequencing techniques have allowed great advances in the field of molecular genetics. Numerous common variants of low impact have been associated with many complex human traits and diseases, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Although they may exert a greater impact on risk, few rare disease variants have been found, owing to the greatly increased sample sizes that are typically necessary to demonstrate association with rarer variants. One alternative strategy is to study isolated populations, where historical bottlenecks reduce genetic diversity and some otherwise rare variants may drift to higher frequencies. Here we describe the Mennonite …

Quantitative Analysis Of High Pressure Hazards In Oil And Gas Field Operations, Giuseppe Feo

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Conformational Studies Of A Domain Of The Influenza A M2 Protein Involved In Viral Budding And Morphology, Alice L. Herneisen , '17

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

In my two years working in the Howard lab, I have cycled through a number of projects. These projects fall under the broad context of studying of how the cytoplasmic tail of a particular membrane protein of the influenza A virus, the Matrix protein 2 (M2), is involved in viral budding. I have chosen to present each project in the form of an independent manuscript, with separate Introduction, Experimental, Results, and Discussion sections. Some broader background and theory is briefly provided in Chapters 1 and 2, but Chapters 3-5 are designed to be largely self-contained. Potential future directions pertaining to …

Informed Consent And Privacy Of Non-Identified Bio-Specimens And Estimated Data: Lessons From Iceland And The United States In An Era 1251 Of Computational Genomics, Donna M. Gitter

Cardozo Law Review

This Article analyzes issues of informed consent and patient autonomy raised by advances in bioinformatics and computational genomics. The Article describes the increasing use in biomedical research of estimated data. Researchers are able to use genetic and genealogical data from research subjects, who did agree to participate in genetic testing, in order to make educated guesses about the genetic profiles of their relatives who did not volunteer to participate. This estimated data can then be combined with health records of the non-volunteers in order to conduct computational genetic research, often termed "in silico" biology, without their informed consent. The Article …

Scalable Unsupervised Learning With Game Theory, Alireza Chakeri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recently dominant sets, a generalization of the notion of the maximal clique to edge-weighted graphs, have proven to be an effective tool for unsupervised learning and have found applications in different domains. Although, they were initially established using optimization and graph theory concepts, recent work has shown fascinating connections with evolutionary game theory, that leads to the clustering game framework. However, considering size of today's data sets, existing methods need to be modified in order to handle massive data. Hence, in this research work, first we address the limitations of the clustering game framework for large data sets theoretically. We …

Abundance And Habitat Preferences Of Introduced Muscovy Ducks (Cairina Moschata), Jacqueline Marie Perry Cahanin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Muscovy ducks are native only to Central and South America, Mexico, and parts of southern Texas and are considered invasive in some areas outside of their native range. Although they have been introduced worldwide, they remain largely unstudied. The primary focus of this study was to relate Muscovy duck abundance to habitat characteristics of wetlands in Tampa, Florida. Muscovy abundance was measured using point count methods at 21 wetland sites that occur within an eight km radius of the University of South Florida’s main campus. Habitat features at these sites were assessed using field methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) …

Predicting The Knowledge: Recklessness Distinction In The Human Brain, Owen D. Jones, Iris Vilares, Michael J. Wesley, Woo-Young Ahn, Et Al.

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Criminal convictions require proof that a prohibited act was performed in a statutorily specified mental state. Different legal consequences, including greater punishments, are mandated for those who act in a state of knowledge, compared with a state of recklessness. Existing research, however, suggests people have trouble classifying defendants as knowing, rather than reckless, even when instructed on the relevant legal criteria.

We used a machine-learning technique on brain imaging data to predict, with high accuracy, which mental state our participants were in. This predictive ability depended on both the magnitude of the risks and the amount of information about those …

Screening Of Epiphytic Algae On The Aquatic Plant Phragmites Australis Inhabiting Tigris River In Al-Jadria Site, Baghdad, Iraq, Jinan S. Al Hassany, Hind E. Al Bayaty

Baghdad Science Journal

The present work included qualitative study of epiphytic algae on dead and living stems, leaves of the aquatic plant Phragmitesaustralis Trin ex Stand, in Tigris River in AL- Jadria Site in Baghdad during Autumn 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, and Summer 2015. The physical and chemical parameters of River’s water were studied (water temperature, pH, electric conductivity, Salinity, TSS, TDS, turbidity, light intensity, dissolve oxygen, BOD5, alkalinity, total hardness, calcium, magnesium and plant nutrient). A total of 142 isolates of epiphytic algae were identified. Diatoms were dominant by 117 isolates followed by Cyanobacteria (13isolates), Chlorophyta (11 isolates) and Rhodophyta (1 …