Digital Commons Network^™

Molecular Adaptation Of Mercuric Reductase To Hypersaline Environments, Emanbellah Ramadan

Theses and Dissertations

The Kebrit brine pool is located in the Northern Red Sea along the rift axis of the seafloor at a depth of 1549 m. It is characterized with high salinity of around 26% and high concentration of heavy metals including toxic mercury compounds. To survive in such an environment, microorganisms have evolved and adapted for detoxification of mercury through reduction of Hg2+ to less toxic and volatile Hg0 by the enzyme mercuric reductase. In addition, microbial community that reside in an environment with such salinity have developed two strategies to adjust their cytoplasmic pressure to the physiological range through the …

Water Splitting By Defects: Insights Into Multinary Transition Metal Oxides For Solar Water Splitting, Samar Mohamed Fawzy Adam Shahin

Theses and Dissertations

With the energy deficiency problem becoming more threatening, the need to find reliable and alternative energy resources is becoming inevitable. Hydrogen gas is considered a good and cleaner alternative due to its green combustion; and it is used in many applications. Accordingly, the use of solar energy in water splitting to produce hydrogen gas is attracting much attention. Finding the optimum semiconducting material that can efficiently absorb sun light and use it in charge carriers’ generation to split water into hydrogen and oxygen is a hot research topic; as many challenges exist in this regard. For instance, wide-bandgap semiconductors have …

Automated Early Plant Disease Detection And Grading System: Development And Implementation, Hashem Rizk

Theses and Dissertations

As the agriculture industry grows, many attempts have been made to ensure high quality of produce. Diseases and defects found in plants and crops, affect the agriculture industry greatly. Hence, many techniques and technologies have been developed to help solving or reducing the impact of plant diseases. Imagining analysis tools, and gas sensors are becoming more frequently integrated into smart systems for plant disease detection. Many disease detection systems incorporate imaging analysis tools and Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) profiling techniques to detect early symptoms of diseases and defects of plants, fruits and vegetative produce. These disease detection techniques can be …

Aquaponics As A Sustainable Alternative To New Land Reclamation And Conventional Agriculture In Egypt, Hisham Ahmed Samy El Essawy

Theses and Dissertations

Agriculture in Egypt is facing dramatic changes that affect its productivity, and accordingly the Egyptian economy. Egypt started in the 1930s, expanding agricultural land through land reclamation projects. Many of these projects did not perform as expected or planned due to lack of water and other challenges. While land reclamation and conventional agriculture techniques have a lot of technical, social, and economical problems in Egypt; soilless agriculture and aquaponics are being successfully used in other regions for urban food production as a sustainable solution. Aquaponics is a technique that integrates fish and crop productions by bringing aquaculture with hydroponics (soilless …

Reproducibility Of Tract-Based White Matter Microstructural Measures Using The Enigma-Dti Protocol, Ashley Acheson, S Andrea Wijtenburg, Laura M. Rowland, Anderson M. Winkler, Charles W. Mathias, L Elliot Hong, Neda Jahanshad, Binish Patel, Nancy L. Thompson, Stephen A. Mcguire

School of Medicine Publications

Background: In preparation for longitudinal analyses of white matter development in youths with family histories of substance use disorders (FH+) or without such histories (FH-), we examined the reproducibility and reliability of global and regional measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) values, measured using the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics Through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA)-diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) protocol. Highly reliable measures are necessary to detect any subtle differences in brain development.

Methods: First, we analyzed reproducibility data in a sample of 12 healthy young adults (ages 20-28) imaged three times within a week. Next, we calculated the same metrics in data collected …

An Examination Of The 16pf Demographic Variables As Predictors Of The Scale For Accurate Personality Prediction (Sapp), Jack Dorian Bartel

Theses and Dissertations

The Scale of Accurate Personality Prediction (SAPP) was first developed in 2000 by Miller. Its principal purpose is to serve as a measure of one’s ability to accurately predict his or her personality traits, and as such, potentially reflect the level of one’s self-knowledge. The measure is derived from the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). The purpose of the current study was to follow up on a recent attempt to identify the best predictors of the SAPP using the 16 primary factors of the 16PF (Mazur, 2013). This study focuses on certain demographics to determine their potential ability to predict …

Jia Cui Wins Graduate Travel Award From The American Society For Biochemistry And Molecular Biology, Jeff Hansen

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Prairie Strips For Sediment And Nutrient Control And Biodiversity, Nancy Grudens-Schuck, Matthew J. Helmers, Timothy D. Youngquist, Mark S. Johnson

Journal of Extension

Installation of prairie strips is a new conservation best management practice (BMP) that involves using a species-rich mix of native prairie grasses, forbs, and legumes. "Prairie strips" are planted along the contours of an agricultural field at the 10% level to manage potentially polluting runoff and are promising for control of nitrogen and phosphorus. Researchers used whole watersheds to replicate findings, providing a high degree of rigor in the study of this new BMP. Moreover, cooperating farmers and landowners have successfully used farm programs to subsidize prairie strip plantings. Besides sediment and nutrient control, an additional benefit is high plant …

Assessment Of An Online Nematology Training For County Extension Agents, Mia Gentry, Leslie D. Edgar, Donna L. Graham, Terry Kirkpatrick

Journal of Extension

A set of online nematology modules was administered to county Extension employees for the purpose of assessing its efficacy as a training tool on the basis of participants' changes in knowledge and evaluative feedback. Mean pretest and posttest scores indicated increases in participants' levels of nematology knowledge and comfort with nematology topics. Participants found using the modules to be an effective method of learning. We recommend that other online training modules be developed and that future research involve testing the materials in a controlled setting so that a determination can be made as to whether the knowledge change was due …

Cynomolgus Macaques Naturally Infected With Trypanosoma Cruzi-I Exhibit An Overall Mixed Pro-Inflammatory/Modulated Cytokine Signature Characteristic Of Human Chagas Disease, Danielle Marquete Vitelli-Avelar, Renato Sathler-Avelar, Armanda Moreira Mattoso-Barbosa, Nicolas Gouin, Marcelo Perdigão-De-Oliveira, Leydiane Valério-Dos-Reis, Ronaldo Peres Costa, Silvana Maria Elói-Santos, Jane F. Vandeberg, John Vandeberg

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Non-human primates have been shown to be useful models for Chagas disease. We previously reported that natural T. cruzi infection of cynomolgus macaques triggers clinical features and immunophenotypic changes of peripheral blood leukocytes resembling those observed in human Chagas disease. In the present study, we further characterize the cytokine-mediated microenvironment to provide supportive evidence of the utility of cynomolgus macaques as a model for drug development for human Chagas disease.

Methods and findings: In this cross-sectional study design, flow cytometry and systems biology approaches were used to characterize the ex vivo and in vitro T. cruzi-specific functional cytokine signature …

Mirna Nanotherapeutics For Cancer, Aditya Ganju, Sheema Khan, Bilal B. Hafeez, Stephen Behrman, Murali M. Yallapu, Subhash C. Chauhan, Meena Jaggi

School of Medicine Publications

miRNAs are noncoding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression through diverse mechanisms. Increasing evidence suggests that miRNA-based therapies, either restoring or repressing miRNA expression and activity, hold great promise. However, the efficient delivery of miRNAs to target tissues is a major challenge in the transition of miRNA therapy to the clinic. Cationic polymers or viral vectors are efficient delivery agents but their systemic toxicity and immunogenicity limit their clinical usage. Efficient targeting and sustained release of miRNAs/ anti-miRNAs using nanoparticles (NPs) conjugated with antibodies and/or peptides could reduce the required therapeutic dosage while minimizing systemic and cellular toxicity. Given their …

Molecular Profiling Of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Hypothalamic Neurones Provides Developmental Insights Into Genetic Loci For Body Weight Regulation, L. Yao, Y. Liu, Satish Kumar, Joanne E. Curran, John Blangero, Y. Chen, Donna M. Lehman

School of Medicine Publications

Recent data suggest that common genetic risks for metabolic disorders such as obesity may be human-specific and exert effects via the central nervous system. To overcome the limitation of human tissue access for study, we have generated induced human pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neuronal cultures that recapture many features of hypothalamic neurones within the arcuate nucleus. In the present study, we have comprehensively characterised this model across development, benchmarked these neurones to in vivo events, and demonstrate a link between obesity risk variants and hypothalamic development. The dynamic transcriptome across neuronal maturation was examined using microarray and RNA sequencing methods …

Ozone Depletion, A Big Threat To Climate Change: What Can Be Done?, Sumera Aziz Ali, Savera Aziz Ali, Nadir Suhail

Community Health Sciences

Ozone in the stratosphere is very important as it acts as a safeguard for the earth and protects life from harmful ultraviolet radiations coming from the sun. Depletion of stratospheric ozone, resulting from atmospheric pollution has led to increased ultraviolet radiation at the earth’s surface as well as spectral shifts to the more biologically damaging shorter wavelengths. A decrease in the concentration of stratospheric ozone enhances the solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which is harmful to the growth of the plant and various other metabolic processes of the organisms and might cause changes in pigment concentrations, nucleic acids, and proteins. Multiple …

Target Intestinal Microbiota To Alleviate Disease Progression In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Yong-Guo Zhang, Shaoping Wu, Jianxun Yi, Yinglin Xia, Dapeng Jin, Jingsong Zhou, Jun Sun

Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose: Emerging evidence has demonstrated that gut microbiome plays essential roles in the pathogenesis of human diseases in distal organs. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons. Treatment with the only drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in ALS, riluzole, extends a patient׳s life span by only a few months. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel interventions that for alleviate disease progression and improve quality of life in patients with ALS. Here we present evidence that intestinal dysfunction and dysbiosis may actively …

Yeast Pro- And Paraprobiotics Have The Capability To Bind Pathogenic Bacteria Associated With Animal Disease, Gabriel A. Posadas, Paul R. Broadway, Justin A. Thornton, Jeffery A. Carroll, Amanda Lawrence, Jimmie R. Corley, Amber Thompson, Janet R. Donaldson

Faculty Publications

Live yeast probiotics and yeast cell wall components (paraprobiotics) may serve as an alternative to the use of antibiotics in prevention and treatment of infections caused by pathogenic bacteria. Probiotics and paraprobiotics can bind directly to pathogens, which limits binding of the pathogens to the intestinal cells and also facilitates removal from the host. However, knowledge of bacterial binding, specificity, and/or capability is limited with regard to probiotics or paraprobiotics. The goal of this study was to characterize the qualitative and quantitative nature of two Saccharomyces cerevisiae probiotics and three S. cerevisiae paraprobiotics to adhere to thirteen different pathogenic bacteria …

Making Sense Of Words: A Robotic Model For Language Abstraction, F Stramandinoli, D Marocco, A Cangelosi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Building robots capable of acting independently in unstructured environments is still a challenging task for roboticists. The capability to comprehend and produce language in a ‘human-like’ manner represents a powerful tool for the autonomous interaction of robots with human beings, for better understanding situations and exchanging information during the execution of tasks that require cooperation. In this work, we present a robotic model for grounding abstract action words (i.e. USE, MAKE) through the hierarchical organization of terms directly linked to perceptual and motor skills of a humanoid robot. Experimental results have shown that the robot, in response to linguistic commands, …

Faunal Response To Sea-Level And Climate Change In A Short-Lived Seaway: Jurassic Of The Western Interior, Usa, S Danise, Sm Holland

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Understanding how regional ecosystems respond to sea-level and environmental perturbations is a main challenge in palaeoecology. Here we use quantitative abundance estimates, integrated within a sequence stratigraphic and environmental framework, to reconstruct benthic community changes through the 13 myr history of the Jurassic Sundance Seaway in the western United States. Sundance Seaway communities are notable for their low richness and high dominance relative to most areas globally in the Jurassic, and this probably reflects steep temperature and salinity gradients along the 2000 km length of the Seaway that hindered colonization of species from the open ocean. Ordination of samples shows …

Global Proteome And Phospho-Proteome Analysis Of Merlin-Deficient Meningioma And Schwannoma Identifies Pdlim2 As A Novel Therapeutic Target, Kayleigh Bassiri, Sara Ferluga, Vikram Sharma, Nelofer Syed, Claire L. Adams, Edwin Lasonder, C. Oliver Hanemann

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Sociological Perspective Of Racism And The Supreme Court, Sidney M. Willhelm

The Catholic Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Secondary Minerals From Salt Caves In The Atacama Desert (Chile): A Hyperarid And Hypersaline Environment With Potential Analogies To The Martian Subsurface, Jo De Waele, Cristina Carbone, Laura Sanna, Marco Vattano, Ermanno Galli, Francesco Sauro, Paolo Forti

International Journal of Speleology

Over the past 15 years several expeditions by French, American and especially Italian cavers have unveiled over 50 caves in the Cordillera de la Sal (Atacama Desert, Northern Chile). Many of these caves contain a variety of speleothems and minerals, some of which have rarely been observed within karst systems. Most of the secondary deposits in these caves are composed of halite, but also other halide, carbonate, sulphate, nitrate, phosphate, and silicate minerals have been found. Among the sixteen cave mineral species recognized, atacamite, darapskite, blödite, leonite, anhydrite, and especially antarcticite are worth mentioning. In one of the samples an …

Roosevelt, Naturally, Duane G. Jundt

Northwestern Review

This essay examines the outpouring of works on Theodore Roosevelt the conservationist and hunter since the publication of Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior in 2009. It provides brief reviews of several books, including children’s books, and an episode of a television documentary series. It also looks at two museum exhibitions and a play that deal with Roosevelt and conservation. The essay emphasizes the centrality that many of the works give to the connection between Roosevelt’s environmental ethos and his hunting. Under review are Douglas Brinkley, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America; R.L. Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt: …

Book Review: Feminist Edges Of The Qur'an, Merna Aboul-Ezz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Feminist Edges of the Qur'an, by Aysha A. Hidayatullah. Oxford University Press, 2014

Sexual Identity And Disturbed Intellectual Female Terrain In J. M. Coetzee's Foe And Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's The Ship: An Ecofeminist Reading, Jihan Zakarriya

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the representation of mental and cultural subjugation in J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s The Ship (1970) from an ecofeminist perspective. Central to the ecofeminist theory is the deconstruction of the systematic ways within which cultural and political forces act, and which do not merely buttress gender inequality, but also produce oppressive patriarchal and hierarchal social, spatial and environmental systems. This paper specifically relates the psychological effects of sexism and discrimination on the female characters in the two novels to both the workings of the social laws in their societies and the cultural and …

A Comparative Study In The Mena Region Within Gender Equality Perspective, Rania F. Al-Rabadi, Anas N. Al-Rabadi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article presents key findings of basic research in the MENA region via a comparative perspective of active citizenship and gender equality. The article discusses the pre-existing inequality in the family and presents a significant issue in Bahrain, for there is a Sunni-Shi’ite division, which Jordan does not have. This is relevant to citizenship and gender equality for how family codes have an effect on women’s political participation in both countries. The political participation will be analysed via women constitutional rights. Whether this right is really exercised in Jordan and Bahrain remains arguable. Other important issues are the state machinery …

The Maternal Lineage: Orality And Language In Natalia Ginzburg's Family Sayings, Veruska Cantelli

Journal of International Women's Studies

As its title, Family Sayings, suggests, it is through a body of sayings, stories, poems and songs, recalled by her mother, that the author Natalia Ginzburg tells the story of her family before, during and after WWII. Within the turmoil and chaos of the fascist regime and the war, there is a language, a lexicon, capable of establishing a comforting and familiar zone for the members of the family. Through repetitions of sayings and sketches, Natalia Ginzburg will present a work, partly oral and partly written, blurring the relationship between author/reader and storyteller/listener. In a time when consumerism is rampant …

Enemies Of The State: Curbing Women Activists Advocating Rape Reform In Sudan, Liv Tønnessen

Journal of International Women's Studies

Sudanese women activists launched a legal campaign in 2009 calling attention to how the country’s Sharia-based Criminal Act of 1991 produced impunity for sexual assault in the Darfur conflict. After years of mobilization, Sudan enacted rape reform in 2015. While on the surface a success story, extensive interviews conducted in Khartoum suggest that this regime-controlled rape reform is more about the struggle of an authoritarian state to keep an emerging independent women’s movement under control, rather than the protection of rape victims in Darfur. By situating the reform within the broader political dynamics of the International Criminal Courts’ (ICC) arrest …

Executive Committee - Agenda 1/31/2017, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 92, No. 29, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Board of Regents Name WKU’s 10^th President – Timothy Caboni
• Ares, Nicole. Extreme Vetting – Elnaz Jalali, International Students
• Williams, Jamie. Board Approves President, Coach Contract – Timothy Caboni, Mike Sanford
• Austin, Emma. Attorney General Rules WKU Violates Open Records Law
• Williams, Tyger. WKU Celebrates Chinese New Year: Year of Rooster
• Editorial Cartoon re: Immigration, Big Red as Statue of Liberty
• Henderson, Andrew. Attacks on Refugee Rights Attack Universal Human Rights
• Hormell, David. A Soliloquy for the Forgotten People – Immigration
• Mattingly, Evan. The …

Multi-Instrument Comparison And Compilation Of Non-Methane Organic Gas Emissions From Biomass Burning And Implications For Smoke-Derived Secondary Organic Aerosol Precursors, Lindsay E. Hatch, Robert J. Yokelson, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Patrick R. Veres, Isobel J. Simpson, Donald R. Blake, John J. Orlando, Kelley C. Barsanti

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Multiple trace-gas instruments were deployed during the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME- 4), including the first application of proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-TOFMS) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-offlight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) for laboratory biomass burning (BB) measurements. Open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) was also deployed, as well as whole-air sampling (WAS) with onedimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis. This combination of instruments provided an unprecedented level of detection and chemical speciation. The chemical composition and emission factors (EFs) determined by these four analytical techniques were compared for four representative fuels. The results demonstrate that the instruments are …

Forgotten Youth: Homeless Lgbt Youth Of Color And The Runaway And Homeless Youth Act, Michelle Page

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Over the years, the rate of youth homelessness in America has steadily risen, prompting the creation and subsequent revision of corrective policies. One such policy is the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act of 1974. The Act is not a cure-all for homelessness but it does provide services and programs specifically designed to aid homeless youth. It has had some success, but not all homeless youth benefit from it equally.

Obviously, the youth population is not a homogenous one. Youth are of varying ages, races, genders, and sexualities. Unfortunately, the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act does not specifically account for these …