Digital Commons Network^™

Second Harmonic Generation – A Novel Approach In Retinal Imaging, Denis Y. Sharoukhov

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Here we present the utilization of Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) for label-free imaging of microtubules (MTs) in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). MTs are an important part of axonal cytoskeleton, providing structural support and serving as a railroad in intracellular transport. We demonstrate the application of SHG microscopy to the following studies: 1) Can changes in MT conformation be detected when treated with a stabilizing drug (Taxol); 2) if disruption in MT precedes loss of axons in a mouse model of glaucoma (DBA/2J); and 3) if elevated levels of intraocular pressure affect MT integrity. Our results validate SHG imaging …

Queering Addiction, Tararose Macuch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Much has been written about the subject of addiction, but very little has been written from a queer feminist standpoint. Most of the work available concerning addiction is aimed primarily at a clinical audience, those interested in treating people with addictions. Most non-clinical work is aimed predominantly at people who are either suffering from addiction themselves or close to someone dealing with addiction. In pursuing this thesis project, I want to add the queer feminist discourse as well as a disability discourse to the larger public dialogue on the addict’s embodied identity. I am proposing that the addict’s perspective is …

Open Works: Between The Programmed And The Free, Art In Italy 1962 To 1972, Lindsay A. Caplan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation historicizes and theorizes a group of Italian artists who were among the first to use computers and cybernetics to make artworks, developing the genre of Arte Programmata, or Programmed Art. It argues that the artists of Arte Programmata (Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, and collectives Gruppo T and Gruppo N) turned to the generative, interactive, and probabilistic aspects of early computers not simply as new media for making art but as platforms for radically altering what it means to be a participant in an increasingly mediated and networked world. This is apparent in how each of their works deploys …

Genes Encoding Two Theileria Parva Antigens Recognized By Cd8+ T-Cells Exhibit Sequence Diversity In South Sudanese Cattle Populations But The Majority Of Alleles Are Similar To The Muguga Component Of The Live Vaccine Cocktail, Diaeldin A. Salih, Roger Pelle, Joram M. Mwacharo, Moses N. Njahira, Wani L. Marcellino, Henry Kiara, Agol K. Malak, Abdel Rahim M.E.L. Hussein, Richard Bishop, Robert A. Skilton

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

East Coast fever (ECF), caused by Theileria parva infection, is a frequently fatal disease of cattle in eastern, central and southern Africa, and an emerging disease in South Sudan. Immunization using the infection and treatment method (ITM) is increasingly being used for control in countries affected by ECF, but not yet in South Sudan. It has been reported that CD8+ T-cell lymphocytes specific for parasitized cells play a central role in the immunity induced by ITM and a number of T. parva antigens recognized by parasite-specific CD8+ T-cells have been identified. In this study we determined the sequence diversity among …

Can Toxicants Used Against Cotton Mealybug Phenacoccus Solenopsis Be Compatible With An Encyrtid Parasitoid Aenasius Bambawalei Under Laboratory Conditions?, Hayat Badshah, Farman Ullah, Paul Andre Calatayud, Hidayat Ullah, Bashir Ahmad

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

The cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Sternorrhyncha: Pseudococcidae) is a serious pest of various cultivated plants in Pakistan. Recent reports show that the parasitoid Aenasius bambawalei Hayat (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) is a good biocontrol agent of the pest. Compatibleness is important in any IPM programme, and the insecticide used must have little or no effects on the biological control agent. This study investigated the compatibility of neem treatments and a commercial insecticide, imidacloprid on A. bambawalei. Bioassays were laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) under laboratory conditions. Results showed that the adult stage of the parasitoid was more susceptible …

Dependence Of The Martian Radiation Environment On Atmospheric Depth: Modeling And Measurement, Jingnan Guo, Tony C. Slaba, Cary Zeitlin, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Francis F. Badavi, Eckart Böhm, Stephan Böttcher, David E. Brinza, Bent Ehresmann, Donald M. Hassler

Physics Faculty Publications

The energetic particle environment on the Martian surface is influenced by solar and heliospheric modulation and changes in the local atmospheric pressure (or column depth). The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on board the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity on the surface of Mars has been measuring this effect for over four Earth years (about two Martian years). The anticorrelation between the recorded surface Galactic Cosmic Ray-induced dose rates and pressure changes has been investigated by Rafkin et al. (2014) and the long-term solar modulation has also been empirically analyzed and modeled by Guo et al. (2015). This paper employs the …

Ecological Risk Assessments To Guide Decision-Making: Methodology Matters, Gj Piet, Am Knights, Rh Jongbloed, Et Al

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Ecological risk assessment is often applied to guide the decision-making process that underpins ecosystem-based management and prioritisation of risk factors for management. Several studies have recently used ecological risk assessment approaches to identify risk factors of greatest concern, but rarely are the underlying methodological decisions discussed in terms of the effect that those decisions have on the outcome of the assessment and ultimately, how that affects prioritisation of risk factors for management. This study therefore evaluates the effect of methodological decisions involving (1) the choice and definition of risk factors, and (2) the calculation of risk scores, providing, where possible, …

Grants Report, February 2017, Grants And Foundation Relations, Illinois Wesleyan University

Reports

No abstract provided.

Deep Dive: Differentiated Ebook Usage Between Collection Types Across Disciplines, Antje Mays

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Spatio-Temporal Patterning In Primary Motor Cortex At Movement Onset, Matthew D. Best, Aaron J. Suminski, Kazutaka Takahashi, Kevin A. Brown, Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Voluntary movement initiation involves the engagement of large populations of motor cortical neurons around movement onset. Despite knowledge of the temporal dynamics that lead to movement, the spatial structure of these dynamics across the cortical surface remains unknown. In data from 4 rhesus macaques, we show that the timing of attenuation of beta frequency local field potential oscillations, a correlate of locally activated cortex, forms a spatial gradient across primary motor cortex (MI). We show that these spatio-temporal dynamics are recapitulated in the engagement order of ensembles of MI neurons. We demonstrate that these patterns are unique to movement onset …

Multiple Ubxm Family Members Inhibit Retrovirus And Lentivirus Production And Canonical Nfkappabeta Signaling By Stabilizing Ikappabalpha, Y Hu, K O'Boyle, J Auer, S Raju, F You, Penghua Wang, E Fikrig, R Sutton

NYMC Faculty Publications

UBXN proteins likely participate in the global regulation of protein turnover, and we have shown that UBXN1 interferes with RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) signaling by interacting with MAVS and impeding its downstream effector functions. Here we demonstrate that over-expression of multiple UBXN family members decreased lentivirus and retrovirus production by several orders-of-magnitude in single cycle assays, at the level of long terminal repeat-driven transcription, and three family members, UBXN1, N9, and N11 blocked the canonical NFkappaB pathway by binding to Cullin1 (Cul1), inhibiting IkappaBalpha degradation. Multiple regions of UBXN1, including its UBA domain, were critical for its activity. Elimination of UBXN1 …

Electron-Impact Ionization Of H₂O At Low Projectile Energy: Internormalized Triple-Differential Cross Sections In Three-Dimensional Kinematics, Xueguang Ren, Sadek Amami, Khokon Hossen, Esam Ali, Chuangang Ning, James Colgan, Don H. Madison, Andrew Dorn

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We report a combined experimental and theoretical study of the electron-impact ionization of water (H₂O) at the relatively low incident energy of E₀=81eV in which either the 1b₁ or 3a₁ orbitals are ionized leading to the stable H₂O cation. The experimental data were measured by using a reaction microscope, which can cover nearly the entire 4π solid angle for the secondary electron emission over a range of ejection energies. We present experimental data for the scattering angles of 6⁰ and 10⁰ for the faster of the two outgoing electrons as a function …

Phylogenetic Patterns And The Adaptive Evolution Of Osmoregulation In Fiddler Crabs (Brachyura, Uca), Samuel Coelho Faria, Diogo Borges Provete, Carl Leo Thurman, John Campbell Mcnamara

Faculty Work

Salinity is the primary driver of osmoregulatory evolution in decapods, and may have influenced their diversification into different osmotic niches. In semi-terrestrial crabs, hyperosmoregulatory ability favors sojourns into burrows and dilute media, and provides a safeguard against hemolymph dilution; hypo-osmoregulatory ability underlies emersion capability and a life more removed from water sources. However, most comparative studies have neglected the roles of the phylogenetic and environmental components of inter-specific physiological variation, hindering evaluation of phylogenetic patterns and the adaptive nature of osmoregulatory evolution. Semi-terrestrial fiddler crabs (Uca) inhabit fresh to hyper-saline waters, with species from the Americas occupying higher …

Data-Generating Patents, Brenda M. Simon, Ted Sichelman

Northwestern University Law Review

Patents and trade secrets are often considered economic substitutes. Under this view, inventors can decide either to maintain an invention as a trade secret or to seek a patent and disclose to the public the details of the invention. However, a handful of scholars have recognized that because the patent disclosure requirements are not always rigorous, inventors may sometimes be able to keep certain aspects of an invention secret, yet still receive a patent to the invention as a whole. Here, we provide further insight into how trade secrets and patents may act as complements. Specifically, we introduce the concept …

Illinois State, February 2017, Illinois State University, University Marketing And Communications

State: The Magazine of Illinois State University (1999-present)

Illinois State University alumni magazine

Age-Dependent Absolute Abundance Of Hepatic Carboxylesterases (Ces1 And Ces2) By Lc-Ms/Ms Proteomics: Application To Pbpk Modeling Of Oseltamivir In Vivo Pharmacokinetics In Infants., Mikael Boberg, Marc Vrana, Aanchal Mehrotra, Robin E. Pearce, Andrea Gaedigk, Deepak Kumar Bhatt, J Steven Leeder, Bhagwat Prasad

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

The age-dependent absolute protein abundance of carboxylesterase (CES) 1 and CES2 in human liver was investigated and applied to predict infant pharmacokinetics (PK) of oseltamivir. The CES absolute protein abundance was determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry proteomics in human liver microsomal and cytosolic fractions prepared from tissue samples obtained from 136 pediatric donors and 35 adult donors. Two surrogate peptides per protein were selected for the quantification of CES1 and CES2 protein abundance. Purified CES1 and CES2 protein standards were used as calibrators, and the heavy labeled peptides were used as the internal standards. In hepatic microsomes, CES1 and …

Therapeutic Exploitation Of Metabolic Checkpoints In Cancer Cells, Deven S. Patel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the G1 phase of the cell cycle, normal cells respond to growth factors and nutrients prior to entering S-phase to replicate its genome. We previously reported that the growth factor-mediated restriction point is distinguishable from a series of late G1 metabolic checkpoints mediated by essential amino acids (EAAs), the conditionally essential amino acid glutamine (Gln), and mTOR – the mammalian target of rapamycin. Mutations in genes encoding proteins that regulate G1 cell cycle progression are observed in virtually all cancers. We observed that cancer cells with K-Ras mutations bypass the late G1 Gln checkpoint when deprived of Gln and …

State-Dependent And -Independent Effects Of Dialyzing Excitatory Neuromodulator Receptor Antagonists Into The Ventral Respiratory Column, Thomas M. Langer Iii, Suzanne E. Neumueller, Emma Crumley, Nicholas J. Burgraff, Sawan Talwar, Matthew R. Hodges, Lawrence Pan, Hubert V. Forster

Physical Therapy Faculty Research and Publications

Unilateral dialysis of the broad-spectrum muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine (50 mM) into the ventral respiratory column [(VRC) including the pre-Bötzinger complex region] of awake goats increased pulmonary ventilation (V̇i) and breathing frequency (f), conceivably due to local compensatory increases in serotonin (5-HT) and substance P (SP) measured in effluent mock cerebral spinal fluid (mCSF). In contrast, unilateral dialysis of a triple cocktail of antagonists to muscarinic (atropine; 5 mM), neurokinin-1, and 5-HT receptors does not alter V̇i or f, but increases local SP. Herein, we tested hypotheses that 1) local compensatory 5-HT and SP responses to 50 mM atropine …

Exploring For Plants: A Bibliography, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

The Scientific Names Of Plants, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

Hydrodynamic Resistance Of A Surfboard: An Analytical, Empirical, And Statistical Analysis, Andrew Leonard Kledzik

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the present study defines a drag coefficient for a 9’0” surfboard. The hydrodynamic drag of a surfboard is derived from theory outlining the mathematical foundation used. Analytical solutions provide values for boundary layer thickness, momentum flux width, shear stress, drag force and the drag coefficient. This study also examines maximum velocities attainable from in-situ observations of surfers paddling in a controlled environment. The theoretical predictions are compared with experimental observations of surfboard resistance; while simultaneously validating instrumentation and methods of measurement. A number of problems are highlighted, ranging from mathematical problems on turbulent flow analysis to impacts …

Iterative Non-Proteinogenic Residue Incorporation Yields Α/Β-Peptides With A Helix-Loop-Helix Tertiary Structure And High Affinity For Vegf, James W. Checco, Samuel H. Gellman

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Publications

Inhibition of specific protein-protein interactions is attractive for a range of therapeutic applications, but the large and irregularly shaped contact surfaces involved in many such interactions make it challenging to design synthetic antagonists. Here, we describe the development of backbone-modified peptides containing both α- and β-amino acid residues (“α/β-peptides”) that target the receptor-binding surface of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Our approach is based on the Z-domain, which adopts a three-helix bundle tertiary structure. We show how a two-helix “mini-Z-domain” can be modified to contain β and other non-proteinogenic residues while retaining the target-binding epitope using iterative non-natural residue incorporation. …

Deep Learning Architectures For Novel Problems, Felipe Petroski Such

Theses

With convolutional neural networks revolutionizing the computer vision field it is important to extend the capabilities of neural-based systems to dynamic and unrestricted data like graphs. Doing so not only expands the applications of such systems, but also provide more insight into improvements to neural-based systems.

Currently most implementations of graph neural networks are based on vertex filtering on fixed adjacency matrices. Although important for a lot of applications, vertex filtering restricts the applications to vertex focused graphs and cannot be efficiently extended to edge focused graphs like social networks. Applications of current systems are mostly limited to images and …

Multiple Metabolisms Constrain The Anaerobic Nitrite Budget In The Eastern Tropical South Pacific, Andrew R. Babbin, Brian D. Peters, Calvin W. Mordy, Brittany Widner, Karen L. Casciotti, Bess B. Ward

OES Faculty Publications

The Eastern Tropical South Pacific is one of the three major oxygen deficient zones (ODZs) in the global ocean and is responsible for approximately one third of marine water column nitrogen loss. It is the best studied of the ODZs and, like the others, features a broad nitrite maximum across the low oxygen layer. How the microbial processes that produce and consume nitrite in anoxic waters interact to sustain this feature is unknown. Here we used ¹⁵N-tracer experiments to disentangle five of the biologically mediated processes that control the nitrite pool, including a high-resolution profile of nitrogen loss rates. …

Mineral Estate Conservation Easements: A New Policy Instrument To Address Hydraulic Fracturing And Resource Extraction, Jessica Owley, Robert B. Jackson, James Salzman

Articles

No abstract provided.

Antioxidant Effect Of Vitamin E And 5-Aminosalicylic Acid On Acrylamide Induced Kidney Injury In Rats, Nisreen A. Rajeh, Najlaa M. Al-Dhaheri

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To explore renal toxicity caused by sub-acute exposure of acrylamide and to study the protective effect of 5-Aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) and Vitamin E (vit-E)on Acrylamide (ACR) induced renal toxicity. Methods: This study was conducted at King Fahad Medical Research Centre, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, between August and November 2015. A total of 49 adult Wistar rats (250 ± 20g) aged 60 days were kept in a controlled environment and used in the present study. The rats were divided into 7 groups (control, ACR alone, ACR+5-ASA, ACR+vit-E, ACR+ASA+vit-E, vit-E alone, and ASA alone). After 5 days …

Final Trial Results Confirm Ebola Vaccine Provides High Protection Against Disease

Saudi Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Software Facilitated Teaching On Final Grades Of Dental Students In A Dental Morphology Course, Ahmad M. Al-Thobity, Imran Farooq, Soban Q. Khan

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To evaluate differences in students’ performance in a dental morphology course after the introduction of a 3D software-teaching program. Methods: This retrospective study took place at the College of Dentistry, University of Dammam, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from Augst 2013 to January 2016. The study included 3 groups of students taking the course during 3 different academic years: group 1, 2013-14 control; group 2, 2014-2015; and group 3, 2015-2016. The total sample size was 294 (n = 294; group 1 = 94; group 2 = 100; and group 3 = 100). Group 1 =students did not receive teaching …

Diabetes Mellitus In Two Genetically Distinct Populations In Jordan: A Comparison Between Arabs And Circassians/Chechens Living With Diabetes, Laith N. Al-Eitan, Ahmad M. Nassar, Rana B. Dajani, Basima A. Almomani, Nesreen A. Saadeh

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To compare clinical, anthropometric, and laboratory characteristics in diabetes type 2 patients of 2 genetically-distinct ethnicities living in Jordan, Arabs and Circassians/Chechens. Methods: This cross sectional ethnic comparison study was conducted in King Abdullah University Hospital, Irbid and The National Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Genetics, Amman, Jordan between June 2013 and February 2014. A sample of 347 (237 Arab and 110 Circassian/Chechen) people living with diabetes were included in the study. Data were collected through direct interviews with the participants. Clinical data were collected using a questionnaire and anthropometric measurements. Laboratory data were extracted from the patients’ medical …

Climate-Related Risks And Management Issues Facing Agriculture In The Southeast: Interviews With Extension Professionals, David C. Diehl, Nicole L. Sloan, Elder P. Garcia, Sebastian Galindo-Gonzalez, Daniel R. Dourte, Clyde W. Fraisse

Journal of Extension

To explore Extension professionals' perceptions of the potential impact of climate variability and climate change on agriculture and to identify the top climate-related issues facing farmers, we conducted interviews with agricultural Extension personnel from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Of those interviewed, 92% believed climate change will affect agriculture a moderate amount or a great deal. Qualitative analyses revealed that the Extension professionals considered scarcity of water resources, temperature fluctuations, pest and disease pressures, forecast challenges, seasonal variability, and adaptation strategies as among the most important climate-related issues affecting agriculture in the Southeast.