Digital Commons Network^™

Detection And Persistence Of Environmental Dna From An Invasive, Terrestrial Mammal, Kelly E. Williams, Kathryn P. Huyvaert, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Amy J. Davis, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive Sus scrofa, a species commonly referred to as wild pig or feral swine, is a destructive invasive species with a rapidly expanding distribution across the United States. We used artificial wallows and small waterers to determine the minimum amount of time needed for pig eDNA to accumulate in the water source to a detectable level. We removed water from the artificial wallows and tested eDNA detection over the course of 2 weeks to understand eDNA persistence. We show that our method is sensitive enough to detect very low quantities of eDNA shed by a terrestrial mammal that has …

Uab Magazine - Spring 2017, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

UAB Magazine

No abstract provided.

Slowing The Evolution And Outbreak Of Antibiotic Resistance, Connie Okasaki

HMC Senior Theses

Antibiotic resistance is a problem of significant and growing international concern, in part due to the rapid evolution of new resistances. One potentially important factor in the emergence of resistance is concentrated antibiotic use in environments such as hospitals. Such high use creates a strong selective pressure for pathogens to evolve resistance. We analyze some strategies hospitals can use to slow the evolution of resistance, and estimate the length of the delay between evolution and outbreak of resistance.

Menageries Multiple: An Introduction To Zoological Multiplicity In The Modern American Zoo, Emily D. Gratke

Scripps Senior Theses

American zoological parks have been sites of intense consumer and scholar interest since their origination in the 20th century. Today, zoos reside at a tenacious hub of ideologies, practices, and priorities contributed to by various stakeholder groups. I propose that the foundational cause of this tension is zoological multiplicity: the theory that through human practices and perceptions, animals can embody multiple identities. Via an exploration of zoological multiplicity in American zoos with specific focus on zoo management, zoogoer, and animal activist stakeholder groups, this project proposes the widespread acknowledgment and understanding of zoological multiplicity as a method to improve animal …

Using Natural Products To Treat Resistant And Persistent Bacterial Infections, Robert W. Deering

Open Access Dissertations

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat to human health both worldwide and in the United States. Most concerning is the emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens, especially the ‘ESKAPE’ pathogens for which treatment options are dwindling. To complicate the problem, approvals of antibiotic drugs are extremely low and many research and development efforts in the pharmaceutical industry have ceased, leaving little certainty that critical new antibiotics are nearing the clinic. New antibiotics are needed to continue treating these evolving infections. In addition to antibiotics, approaches that aim to inhibit or prevent antimicrobial resistance could be useful. Also, studies that …

Amitraz And Its Metabolite Modulate Honey Bee Cardiac Function And Tolerance To Viral Infection, Scott T. O'Neal, Carlyle C. Brewster, Jeffrey R. Bloomquist, Troy D. Anderson

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The health and survival of managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies are affected by multiple factors, one of the most important being the interaction between viral pathogens and infestations of the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor. Currently, the only effective strategy available for mitigating the impact of viral infections is the chemical control of mite populations. Unfortunately, the use of in-hive acaricides comes at a price, as they can produce sublethal effects that are difficult to quantify, but may ultimately be as damaging as the mites they are used to treat. The goal of this study was to …

Interdisciplinary Teaching Of Theatre And Human Rights In Honors, Maria Szasz

Honors in Practice Online Archive

One of the centerpieces of honors education is careful research and thorough analysis of what we teach and why we teach our chosen subjects. In creating my honors class Theatre and Human Rights, I explored how I would teach the course and the various components best suited to teaching this topic. After first considering the topic of human rights and its relevance to theatre in an honors context, I then considered the value of interdisciplinary teaching in such a course and what its impact could be on helping students understand human rights, specifically through the study of Athol Fugard’s 1982 …

Science As Speech, Natalie Ram

All Faculty Scholarship

In April 2015, researchers in China reported the successful genetic editing of human embryos using a new technology that promised to make gene editing easier and more effective than ever before. In the United States, the announcement drew immediate calls to regulate or prohibit
outright any use of this technology to alter human embryos, even for purely research purposes. The fervent response to the Chinese announcement was, in one respect, unexceptional. Proposals to regulate or prohibit scientific research following a new breakthrough occur with substantial frequency. Innovations in cloning technology and embryonic stem cell research have prompted similar outcries, and …

Expression And Purification Of Atg11: A Protein Involved In The Organization Of Autophagy, Carson Zois

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Autophagy is a physiological process for the degradation of internal cell components to promote cell survival. This process allows the cell to maintain homeostasis, recycle damaged cellular components and helps protect against disease. Autophagy can be selective or non-selective. Non-selective, or bulk, autophagy occurs during times of cellular starvation and results in non-specific degradation of cytoplasmic materials. Selective autophagy targets specific components within the cytoplasm for degradation, and is always active. In both forms of autophagy, components are degraded when a double-membraned structure, called the autophagosome, encapsulates the target cargo and is then recruited to the lysosome in mammalian cells, …

Role Of The Interleukin-22 And Stat3 Signaling Pathway In Gut Barrier Maintenance Following Intoxication And Burn Injury, Adam M. Hammer

Dissertations

More than half of patients admitted to burn centers for treatment have measurable alcohol levels in their blood. Intoxication that precedes a traumatic burn injury leads to worsened patient outcomes, including higher rates of infection and sepsis. The intestines harbor the largest concentration of bacteria in the human host. Any disruption of the intestinal barrier as a result of intoxication and burn injury could contribute to infection and/or sepsis from gut-derived microbes. Previous work has demonstrated that the intestinal barrier becomes leaky, and that administration of interleukin-22 (IL-22) significantly reduces gut barrier leakiness following alcohol and burn injury. However, the …

Endocytic Vesicle Rupture In The Pathogenesis And Propagation Of Neurodegenerative Proteinopathies, William P. Flavin

Dissertations

Numerous pathological amyloid proteins spread from cell-to-cell during neurodegenerative disease, facilitating the propagation of cellular pathology and disease progression. Understanding the mechanism by which disease-associated amyloid protein assemblies enter target cells and induce cellular dysfunction is therefore key to understanding the progressive nature of such neurodegenerative proteinopathies. In this study, we utilized an imaging-based assay to monitor the ability of disease-associated amyloid assemblies to induce the rupture of intracellular vesicles following endocytosis, as well as to elucidate the cellular consequences of this damaging mechanism of invasion. We observed that the ability to induce vesicle rupture is a conserved feature of …

The Female Urogynecological Microbiome: Determining Niche Specificity, Krystal Thomas-White

Dissertations

Contrary to dogma, urine is not sterile. Recent discoveries show that the female urinary bladder contains a unique microbiome,with differences in healthy and disease states. This female urinary microbiome (FUM) is distinguishable from vulvo-vaginal contamination; yet, only the few centimeters of the urethra separate these two niches. Recent studies show that the most common bladder organisms are Lactobacillus, Gardnerella, Streptococcus, Corynebacterium, and a diverse group of anaerobes, the same genera commonly found in the vagina. Thus, we asked if the bladder and vaginal microbiomes are interconnected.

Previous work suggests a link between these two niches. The vaginal tract of reproductive …

Parasite Microbiome Project: Systematic Investigation Of Microbiome Dynamics Within And Across Parasite-Host Interactions, Nolwenn M. Dheilly, Daniel Bolnick, Seth Bordenstein, Paul J. Brindley, Cédric Figuères, Edward C. Holmes, Joaquín Martínez Martínez, Anna J. Phillips, Robert Poulin, Karyna Rosario

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Understanding how microbiomes affect host resistance, parasite virulence, and parasite-associated diseases requires a collaborative effort between parasitologists, microbial ecologists, virologists, and immunologists. We hereby propose the Parasite Microbiome Project to bring together researchers with complementary expertise and to study the role of microbes in host-parasite interactions. Data from the Parasite Microbiome Project will help identify the mechanisms driving microbiome variation in parasites and infected hosts and how that variation is associated with the ecology and evolution of parasites and their disease outcomes. This is a call to arms to prevent fragmented research endeavors, encourage best practices in experimental approaches, and …

Balancing Interests And Risk Of Error: What Quarantine Process Is Due After Ebolamania, Jennifer Jolly-Ryan

Nebraska Law Review

I. Introduction

II. The Good Samaritan Nurse’s Return Home from Sierra Leone

III. Historical Background of Quarantines

IV. State and Federal Quarantine Powers ... A. The States’ Broad Police Powers and Quarantines … B. The Federal Government’s Commerce Power and Quarantines

V. Procedural Due Process Limits on Quarantine Powers … A. Weighing Individual Liberty Interests Quarantines Infringe ... B. Weighing the Risk of Error in Quarantine Procedures ... C. Weighing Government Interests, Adding Eradication of Discrimination

VI. Conclusion

Differences In Behavioral And Physiological Variables Measured With Precision Dairy Monitoring Technologies Associated With Postpartum Diseases, I Ching Tsai

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

The transition period is defined as the three weeks before and three weeks after the cow calves. Transition cow diseases are considered production diseases. Precision dairy monitoring (PDM) technologies measure physiological, behavioral, and production indicators on individual animals to improve management strategies and farm performance. The objective of the first study was to assess how hypocalcemia, hyperketonemia, and metritis affected variables measured by PDM technologies. The objective of the second study was to use variables from multiple commercially available PDM to examine alert performance generated from different analyses.

Methods For Determining Time To Return To Play After Recreational Injury In Field And Court Sport Athletes, Sarah N. Morris

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

An observational study was used to illustrate the application of time to event analysis methods to return to play; a secondary data analysis of athlete injury data from the High School RIO^TM Injury Surveillance System (ISS) database was conducted. National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA)-certified athletic trainers from approximately 100 high schools in the US enroll their school in the system and complete the online “Exposure Report Form” for reportable injuries each week. New lateral ankle sprains and single-ligament knee injuries experienced by high school athletes during regularly scheduled participation in school-sanctioned sports for seven academic years (2005-2006 through 2011-2012) …

Repugnant Business Models: Preliminary Thoughts On A Research And Policy Agenda, Claire Hill

Articles

No abstract provided.

Underutilized Community Health Needs Assessments: Four Environmental Actions For Hospitals That Improve Community Health, Warren G. Lavey

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Tax-exempt hospitals' community health needs assessments ("CHNAs") provide an underutilized resource for healthcare organizations and communities. These studies and action commitments, which the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") requires, are linked to financial incentives for hospitals to manage population health.

Workplace Management Knowledge And Support For Employee Breastfeeding Practices, Elizabeth Heimer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Breastfeeding has many benefits to both mother and child. It also happens to have benefits to workplaces who support breastfeeding. Research shows that lack of environmental support of breastfeeding at the workplace may discourage women from exclusively breastfeeding the recommended amount of time of SIX months (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2012). To investigate the management knowledge and workplace breastfeeding support services, an online survey was sent out employees in management positions at selected workplaces in Faribault, Martin and Watonwan counties in Minnesota. Of the 98 selected participants, only 16 participants completed the survey. The study aimed to discover whether there …

Role Of Healthcare Providers' Recommendation Style In Hpv Vaccine-Decision-Making Among Haitian Parents And Female Patients, Dudith Pierre-Victor, Dionne P. Stephens, Rachel Clarke, Kemesha Gabbidon, Purnima Madhivanan

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

Background and Purpose: The strong influence of physician recommendation on vaccine uptake is well established in the literature. However, its influence on HPV vaccine decision-making among young Haitian women is understudied. This study investigated the role of healthcare providers’ recommendation style in Haitian parents’ and female patients’ HPV vaccine decision-making. Methods: Thirty selfidentified Haitian women aged 17-26 years were recruited from a large university campus in the Southeastern United States (N=30). They completed in-depth face-to-face interviews regarding their HPV vaccine decision-making process. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Provider recommendation was cited as a major factor that influenced HPV …

A Comparative Study Of U.S. And Chinese Environmental Law With A Focus On The Real Estate Industry, Jihong Wang, Paul Kossof

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Virus Taxonomy In The Age Of Metagenomics, Peter Simmonds, Mike Adams, Mária Benkő, Mya Breitbart, J. Rodney Brister, Eric Carstens

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The number and diversity of viral sequences that are identified in metagenomic data far exceeds that of experimentally characterized virus isolates. In a recent workshop, a panel of experts discussed the proposal that, with appropriate quality control, viruses that are known only from metagenomic data can, and should be, incorporated into the official classification scheme of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Although a taxonomy that is based on metagenomic sequence data alone represents a substantial departure from the traditional reliance on phenotypic properties, the development of a robust framework for sequence-based virus taxonomy is indispensable for the …

Electronegativity And Intrinsic Disorder Of Preeclampsia-Related Proteins, Carlos Polanco, Jorge Alberto Castañón-González, Vladimir N. Uversky, Thomas Buhse, José Lino Mendoza, Juan J. Calva

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Preeclampsia, hemorrhage, and infection are the leading causes of maternal death in underdeveloped countries. Since several proteins associated with preeclampsia are known, we conducted a computational study in which evaluated the commonness and potential functionality of intrinsic disorder in these proteins and also made an attempt to characterize their origin. To this end, we used a several supervised techniques, as a Polarity Index Method (PIM), which evaluates the electronegativity of proteins from their sequence alone. Peculiarities of resulting polar profile of the group of preeclampsia-related proteins were then compared with profiles of a group of lipoproteins, antimicrobial peptides, angiogenesis-related proteins, …

Real Time Monitoring Of Children, And Adults With Mental Disabilities Using A Low-Cost Non-Invasive Electronic Device, Carlos Polanco, Ignacio Islas Vazquez, Adrian Martinez-Rivas, Miguel Arias-Estrada, Thomas Buhse, Juan J. Calva, Carlos Aguilar Salinas, Claudia Pimentel Instituto Nacional De Pediatría, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

There are a growing number of small children—as well as adults—with mental disabilities (including elderly citizens with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of age-related dementia) that are getting lost in rural and urban areas for various reasons. Establishing their location within the first 72 h is crucial because lost people are exposed to all kinds of adverse conditions and in the case of the elderly, this is further aggravated if prescribed medication is needed. Herein we describe a non-invasive, low-cost electronic device that operates constantly, keeping track of time, the geographical location and the identification of the subject using it. …

The Promise Of Systems Biology Approaches For Revealing Host Pathogen Interactions In Malaria., Meghan Zuck, Laura S Austin, Samuel A Danziger, John D Aitchison, Alexis Kaushansky

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Despite global eradication efforts over the past century, malaria remains a devastating public health burden, causing almost half a million deaths annually (WHO, 2016). A detailed understanding of the mechanisms that control malaria infection has been hindered by technical challenges of studying a complex parasite life cycle in multiple hosts. While many interventions targeting the parasite have been implemented, the complex biology of

Distinct Transcriptome Profiles Of Gag-Specific Cd8+ T Cells Temporally Correlated With The Protection Elicited By Sivδnef Live Attenuated Vaccine, Wuxun Lu, Yanmin Wu, Fangrui Ma, R. Paul Johnson, Qingsheng Li

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The live attenuated vaccine (LAV) SIVmac239Δnef (SIVΔnef) confers the best protection among all the vaccine modalities tested in rhesus macaque model of HIV-1 infection. This vaccine has a unique feature of time-dependent protection: macaques are not protected at 3±5 weeks post vaccination (WPV), whereas immune protection emerges between 15 and 20 WPV. Although the exact mechanisms of the time-dependent protection remain incompletely understood, studies suggested that both cellular and humoral immunities contribute to this time-dependent protection. To further elucidate the mechanisms of protection induced by SIVΔnef, we longitudinally compared the global gene expression profiles of SIV Gag-CM9+ CD8+ (Gag-specific CD8+) …

Chloroviruses Have A Sweet Tooth, James L. Van Etten, Irina V. Agarkova, David D. Dunigan, Michela Tonetti, Cristina De Castro, Garry A. Duncan

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Chloroviruses are large double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses that infect certain isolates of chlorella-like green algae. They contain up to approximately 400 protein-encoding genes and 16 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. This review summarizes the unexpected finding that many of the chlorovirus genes encode proteins involved in manipulating carbohydrates. These include enzymes involved in making extracellular polysaccharides, such as hyaluronan and chitin, enzymes that make nucleotide sugars, such as GDP-L-fucose and GDP-D-rhamnose and enzymes involved in the synthesis of glycans attached to the virus major capsid proteins. This latter process differs from that of all other glycoprotein containing viruses that traditionally use …

Tryptophan 375 Stabilizes The Outer-Domain Core Of Gp120 For Hiv Vaccine Immunogen Design, Duoyi Hu, Dane Bowder, Wenzhong Wei, Jesse Thompson, Mark A. Wilson, Shi-Hua Xiang

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The outer-domain core of gp120 may serve as a better HIV vaccine immunogen than the full-length gp120 because of its greater stability and immunogenicity. In our previous report, we introduced two disulfide bonds to the outer-domain core of gp120 to fix its conformation into a CD4-bound state, which resulted in a significant increase in its immunogenicity when compared to the wild-type outer-domain core. In this report, to further improve the immunogenicity of the outer-domain core based immunogen, we have introduced a Tryptophan residue at gp120 amino acid sequence position 375 (375S/W). Our data from immunized guinea pigs indeed shows a …

Accuracy Of Climate-Based Forecasts Of Pathogen Spread, Annakate M. Schatz, Andrew M. Kramer, John M. Drake

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Species distribution models (SDMs) are a tool for predicting the eventual geographical range of an emerging pathogen. Most SDMs, however, rely on an assumption of equilibrium with the environment, which an emerging pathogen, by definition, has not reached. To determine if some SDM approaches work better than others for modelling the spread of emerging, non-equilibrium pathogens, we studied time-sensitive predictive performance of SDMs for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a devastating infectious fungus of amphibians, using multiple methods trained on time-incremented subsets of the available data. We split our data into timeline-based training and testing sets, and evaluated models on each set …

United Nations Peacekeepers: Unchecked And Unaccountable, Benjamin Horwitz

Loyola University Chicago International Law Review

No abstract provided.