Digital Commons Network^™

Unique Breast Cancer Features Within The Vietnamese Population, Polly Niravath, Melissa Bondy, Susan G. Hilsenbeck

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is known to be a heterogeneous disease across women, and even within individual tumors. However, relatively little is known about heterogeneity across cultures. There has been some evidence to suggest that Asian women are more likely to have HER2+ breast cancer than their Caucasian counterparts.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to further investigate the unique pattern of breast cancer incidence and subtype in the Vietnamese population.

METHODS: We retrospectively collected data on all Vietnamese women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at the Lester & Sue Smith Breast Center in Houston, Texas over a four year …

Race, Age, And Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status In Low Birth Weight Disparities Among Adolescent Mothers: An Intersectional Inquiry, Sheryl L. Coley, Tracy R. Nichols

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Introduction: Few studies examined socioeconomic contributors to racial disparities in low birth weight outcomes between African-American and Caucasian adolescent mothers. This cross-sectional study examined the intersections of maternal racial status, age, and neighborhood socioeconomic status in explaining these disparities in low birth weight outcomes across a statewide sample of adolescent mothers.

Methods: Using data from the North Carolina State Center of Health Statistics for 2010-2011, birth cases for 16,472 adolescents were geocoded by street address and linked to census-tract information from the 2010 United States Census. Multilevel models with interaction terms were used to identify significant associations between maternal racial …

Gamifying A First Year Biology Lab Library Session, Lisa Rose-Wiles, Veronica Amour

Praxis Presentations

Three years of work with a Biology lab course suggests that an embedded librarian has a positive impact on some student research skills. However, student feedback indicated that students want more interactive library sessions. The science librarian worked with an instructional designer to introduce elements of “gamification” into a library presentation and other library materials. In fall 2016 the science librarian integrated Top Hat, a teaching platform designed to help professors engage students, into library sessions for 16 biology labs. She also introduced Bernard Lonergan's Generalized Empirical Method (GEM) as a research framework. In this session we report on the …

Host Sympatry And Body Size Influence Parasite Straggling Rate In A Highly Connected Multihost, Multiparasite System, Jose Rivera-Parra, Iris Levin, Kevin Johnson, Patricia Parker

Biology Department Faculty Works

Parasite lineages commonly diverge when host lineages diverge. However, when large clades of hosts and parasites are analyzed, some cases suggest host switching as another major diversification mechanism. The first step in host switching is the appearance of a parasite on an atypical host, or “straggling.” We analyze the conditions associated with straggling events. We use five species of colonially nesting seabirds from the Galapagos Archipelago and two genera of highly specific ectoparasitic lice to examine host switching. We use both genetic and morphological identification of lice, together with measurements of spatial distribution of hosts in mixed breeding colonies, to …

Phosphorylation Of Cytochrome C Threonine 28 Regulates Electron Transport Chain Activity In Kidney: Implications For Amp Kinase, Gargi Mahapatra, Ashwathy Varughese, Qinqin Ji, Icksoo Lee, Jenney Liu, Asmita Vaishnav, Christopher Sinkler, Alexandr A. Kapralov, Carlos T. Moraes, Thomas H. Sanderson, Timothy L. Stemmler, Lawrence I. Grossman, Valerian E. Kagan, Joseph S. Brunzelle, Arthur R. Salomon, Brian Fp Edwards, Maik HüTtemann

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Mammalian cytochrome c (Cytc) plays a key role in cellular life and death decisions, functioning as an electron carrier in the electron transport chain and as a trigger of apoptosis when released from the mitochondria. However, its regulation is not well understood. We show that the major fraction of Cytc iso- lated from kidneys is phosphorylated on Thr28, leading to a par- tial inhibition of respiration in the reaction with cytochrome c oxidase. To further study the effect of Cytc phosphorylation in vitro, we generated T28E phosphomimetic Cytc, revealing supe- rior behavior regarding protein stability and its ability to degrade …

Comparative Postembryonic Skeletal Ontogeny In Two Sister Lineages Of Old World Tree Frogs (Rhacophoridae: Taruga, Polypedates), Gayani Senevirathne, Ryan R. Kerney, Madhava Meegaskumbura

Biology Faculty Publications

Rhacophoridae, a family of morphologically cryptic frogs, with many genetically distinct evolutionary lineages, is understudied with respect to skeletal morphology, life history traits and skeletal ontogeny. Here we analyze two species each from two sister lineages, Taruga and Polypedates, and compare their postembryonic skeletal ontogeny, larval chondrocrania and adult osteology in the context of a well-resolved phylogeny. We further compare these ontogenetic traits with the direct-developing Pseudophilautus silus. For each species, we differentially stained a nearly complete developmental series of tadpoles from early postembryonic stages through metamorphosis to determine the intraspecific and interspecific differences of cranial and postcranial …

A Cationic Amphiphilic Random Copolymer With Ph-Responsive Activity Against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus., Sungyoup Hong, Haruko Takahashi, Enrico T Nadres, Hamid Mortazavian, Gregory Caputo, John G Younger, Kenichi Kuroda

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

In this report, we demonstrate the pH-dependent, in vitro antimicrobial activity of a cationic, amphiphilic random copolymer against clinical isolates of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The polymer was developed toward a long-term goal of potential utility in the treatment of skin infections. The proposed mechanism of action of the polymer is through selectively binding to bacterial membranes and subsequent disruption of the membrane structure/integrity, ultimately resulting in bacterial cell death. The polymer showed bactericidal activity against clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant or vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus. The polymer was effective in killing S. aureus at neutral pH, but inactive under acidic conditions (pH …

Earliest Human Presence In North America Dated To The Last Glacial Maximum: New Radiocarbon Dates From Bluefish Caves, Canada, Lauriane Bourgeon, Ariane Burke, Thomas Higham

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

Cognition-Mediated Evolution Of Low-Quality Floral Nectars, Vladislav Nachev, Kai Petra Stich, Clemens Winter, Alan B. Bond, Alan Kamil, York Winter

Alan Bond Publications

Plants pollinated by hummingbirds or bats produce dilute nectars even though these animals prefer more concentrated sugar solutions. This mismatch is an unsolved evolutionary paradox. Here we show that lower quality, or more dilute, nectars evolve when the strength of preferring larger quantities or higher qualities of nectar diminishes as magnitudes of the physical stimuli increase. In a virtual evolution experiment conducted in the tropical rainforest, bats visited computer-automated flowers with simulated genomes that evolved relatively dilute nectars. Simulations replicated this evolution only when value functions, which relate the physical stimuli to subjective sensations, were nonlinear. Selection also depended on …

Earliest Human Presence In North America Dated To The Last Glacial Maximum: New Radiocarbon Dates From Bluefish Caves, Canada, Lauriane Bourgeon, Ariane Burke, Thomas Higham

KIP Articles

The timing of the first entry of humans into North America is still hotly debated within the scientific community. Excavations conducted at Bluefish Caves (Yukon Territory) from 1977 to 1987 yielded a series of radiocarbon dates that led archaeologists to propose that the initial dispersal of human groups into Eastern Beringia (Alaska and the Yukon Territory) occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This hypothesis proved highly controversial in the absence of other sites of similar age and concerns about the stratigraphy and anthropogenic signature of the bone assemblages that yielded the dates. The weight of the available archaeological evidence …

Biological Functions Of Cdk5 And Potential Cdk5 Targeted Clinical Treatments., Alison Shupp, Mathew C. Casimiro, Richard G. Pestell

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Cyclin dependent kinases are proline-directed serine/threonine protein kinases that are traditionally activated upon association with a regulatory subunit. For most CDKs, activation by a cyclin occurs through association and phosphorylation of the CDK's T-loop. CDK5 is unusual because it is not typically activated upon binding with a cyclin and does not require T-loop phosphorylation for activation, even though it has high amino acid sequence homology with other CDKs. While it was previously thought that CDK5 only interacted with p35 or p39 and their cleaved counterparts, Recent evidence suggests that CDK5 can interact with certain cylins, amongst other proteins, which modulate …

Gardner-Webb University Gallery Hosts Works By Professor Emeritus, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

Dr. Les Brown, Gardner-Webb Professor Emeritus, spent 40 years studying and teaching biology at the University. When he retired in 2005, Brown transferred his observations of nature to works on canvas, paper and in clay. His paintings, drawings and pottery will be displayed Jan. 16-Feb. 17 in the Tucker Gallery inside the Tucker Student Center on the Gardner-Webb University campus.

Predictive Screening Of M1 And M2 Macrophages Reveals The Immunomodulatory Effectiveness Of Post Spinal Cord Injury Azithromycin Treatment, John C. Gensel, Timothy J. Kopper, Bei Zhang, Michael B. Orr, William M. Bailey

Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center Faculty Publications

Spinal cord injury (SCI) triggers a heterogeneous macrophage response that when experimentally polarized toward alternative forms of activation (M2 macrophages) promotes tissue and functional recovery. There are limited pharmacological therapies that can drive this reparative inflammatory state. In the current study, we used in vitrosystems to comprehensively defined markers of macrophages with known pathological (M1) and reparative (M2) properties in SCI. We then used these markers to objectively define the macrophage activation states after SCI in response to delayed azithromycin treatment. Mice were subjected to moderate-severe thoracic contusion SCI. Azithromycin or vehicle was administered beginning 30 minutes post-SCI and …

Metastable Pain-Attention Dynamics During Incremental Exhaustive Exercise, Agnė Slapšinskaitė, Robert Hristovski, Selen Razon, Natàlia Balagué, Gershon Tenenbaum

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Genome Editing Of Wnt-1, A Gene Associated With Segmentation, Via Crispr/Cas9 In The Pine Caterpillar Moth, Dendrolimus Punctatus, Huihui Liu, Qun Liu, Xuguo Zhou, Yongping Huang, Zhen Zhang

Entomology Faculty Publications

The pine caterpillar moth, Dendrolimus punctatus, is a devastating forest pest. Genetic manipulation of this insect pest is limited due to the lack of genomic and functional genomic toolsets. Recently, CRISPR/Cas9 technology has been demonstrated to be a promising approach to modify the genome. To investigate gene functions during the embryogenesis, we introduced CRISPR/Cas9 system in D. punctatus to precisely and effectively manipulate gene expressions inmutant embryos. Compared to controls, knocking out of DpWnt-1, a gene well known for its role in the early body planning, led to high embryonic mortality. Among these mutants, 32.9% of the embryos …

No Effect Of A Whey Growth Factor Extract During Resistance Training On Strength, Body Composition, Or Hypertrophic Gene Expression In Resistance-Trained Young Men, Michael J. Dale, Alison M. Coates, Peter R.C. Howe, Grant Tomkinson, Matthew T. Haren, Andrew Brown, Marissa Caldow, David Cameron-Smith, Jonathan D. Buckley

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

Growth factors can be isolated from bovine milk to form a whey growth factor extract (WGFE). This study examined whether WGFE promoted activation of the AKT/mTOR pathway enabling increased lean tissue mass and strength in resistance trained men. Forty six men with >6 months of resistance training (RT) experience performed 12 weeks of RT. Participants consumed 20 g/day of whey protein and were randomised to receive either 1.6 g WGFE/day (WGFE; n = 22) or 1.6 g cellulose/day (control, CONT; n = 24). The primary outcome was leg press one-repetition maximum (LP1-RM) which was assessed at baseline, 6 and 12 …

Part I Convergent Total Synthesis Of Bioactive Dipeptide–Lipids Isolated From Porphyromonas Gingivalis: Possible Biomarker For Multiple Sclerosis Part Ii Synthesis Of Nitroimidazole Indocyanine Green Dye Conjugates For Targeting Hypoxia In Tumor Cells For Near Infrared Fluorescence Frequency Domain Optical Tomography, Christopher James Dietz

Doctoral Dissertations

Mankind’s greatest attribute is the capability of higher order intellect being applied to prolonging life and improving one’s overall health. Modern medicine and the research therein has created opportunities to understand and combat disease at incredible levels. Yet, some of the most befuddling diseases are ones that our own bodies inheritably produce. Autoimmune disease is a condition in which the body’s own defense mechanisms begin to target healthy cells as if they were foreign threats. Cancer is a condition in which abnormal cell growth can spread throughout the body and begin to shut down vital bodily functions. Medicinal chemistry has …

Report For Nmdgf Permit: 3643, 2016, Joel E. Pagel

Natural Heritage New Mexico Documents

Document from New Mexico Department of Game & Fish Scientific permit.

Edmund S. Muskie: A Man With A Vision, Leon G. Billings

Maine Law Review

At Senator Muskie’s funeral I noted that I had been on his staff for fifteen years, but had worked for him for thirty. In a way I am still working for him, or at lease, because of him. This fall my colleague and minority counsel, Tom Jorling, and I are team-teaching a course entitled “Origins of Environmental Law” at Columbia University. Preparing for that course, reading old memos to the Senator, re-reading his floor statements, interrogatories, and speeches and going back to the transcripts of Subcommittee discussion has been revealing, inspiring, and refreshing. I am not sure that, at the …

Maine's Open Lands: Public Use Of Private Land, The Right To Roam And The Right To Exclude, Peter H. Kenlan

Maine Law Review

On a late summer afternoon, a boy pilots a small boat toward a deserted beach while another crouches in the bow with an anchor poised and ready. As the boat gently scrapes to a halt, the anchor lands in the wet sand with a dull thud and the two boys splash ashore. Equipped only with peanut butter sandwiches, they set off along the beach looking for tide pools. Behind them, they leave only a few ephemeral footprints--readily erased by the waves. On a bright and clear February morning, a man rides his snowmobile along a well-traveled trail. The scenery flashes …

From Orphans To Families In Crisis: Parental Rights Matters In Maine Probate Courts, Deirdre M. Smith

Maine Law Review

This Article examines the sources of the contemporary problems associated with the adjudication of parental rights matters in Maine's probate courts and identifies specific reforms to address both the structural and substantive law problems. The Article first reviews the development of Maine's probate courts and their jurisdiction over parental rights matters. It traces the expansion of jurisdiction over children and families from a limited role incidental to the administration of a decedent's estate to the current scope—a range of matters that may result in the limitation, suspension, or termination of the rights of living parents. Maine's probate courts not adjudicate …

Lotting Large: The Phenomenon Of Minimum Lot Size Laws, Paul Boudreaux

Maine Law Review

A dominant feature of American metropolitan areas is large lot zoning—the policy through which only house lots of a minimum size are permitted. This practice of "lotting large" contributes greatly to the sprawling nature of American suburbs. By restraining the supply of housing, large lot zoning laws please existing suburban homeowners. But they harm all other segments of the American populace, including the million new households who seek a home in the United States each year. This article explains how courts have been unwilling or unable to impose any meaningful restraints on local governments. It develops a simple economic model …

Sequence Specific Dna Damage On P53 Gene Fragments For Determination Of Tissue Specific Cancers Using Lc-Ms/Ms & Biosensors For Multiple Prostate Cancer Biomarker Detection, Spundana Malla

Doctoral Dissertations

Cancer is the second leading cause of deaths in the United States. This thesis focuses on two research project (1) development of novel LC-MS/MS methodology to screen chemicals and their metabolites for DNA damaging effects which might eventually lead to cancer and (2) development of automated and 3D printed elecrochemical biosensors to detect panels of prostate cancer biomarkers for early diagnosis and to differentiate aggressive and non-aggressive versions of prostate cancer.

Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction and describes goals and significance of the thesis. It also gives an overview of genotoxicity, DNA damaging events, xenobiotics, and cytochrome P450 enzymes …

Species-Specific Responses Of Juvenile Rockfish To Elevated Pco2: From Behavior To Genomics, Scott L. Hamilton, Cheryl A. Logan, Hamilton W. Fennie, Susan M. Sogard, James P. Barry, April D. Makukhov, Lauren R. Tobosa, Kirsten Boyer, Christopher F. Lovera, Giacomo Bernardi

School of Natural Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the California Current ecosystem, global climate change is predicted to trigger large-scale changes in ocean chemistry within this century. Ocean acidification—which occurs when increased levels of atmospheric CO2 dissolve into the ocean—is one of the biggest potential threats to marine life. In a coastal upwelling system, we compared the effects of chronic exposure to low pH (elevated pCO2) at four treatment levels (i.e., pCO2 = ambient [500], moderate [750], high [1900], and extreme [2800 μatm]) on behavior, physiology, and patterns of gene expression in white muscle tissue of juvenile rockfish (genus Sebastes), integrating responses from the transcriptome to the …

Design, Synthesis, And Evaluation Of Dasatinib–Amino Acid And Dasatinib–Fatty Acid Conjugates As Protein Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors, Rakesh K. Tiwari, Alex Brown, Neda Sadeghiani, Amir Nasrolahi Shirazi, Jared Bolton, Amanda Tse, Gennady Verkhivker, Keykavous Parang, Gongqin Sun

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Derivatives of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib were synthesized by esterification with 25 carboxylic acids, including amino acids and fatty acids, thereby extending the drug to interact with more diverse sites and to improve specificity. The dasatinib–l-arginine derivative (Das-R, 7) was found to be the most potent of the inhibitors tested, with IC50values of 4.4, <0.25, and <0.45 nm against Csk, Src, and Abl kinases, respectively. The highest selectivity ratio obtained in our study, 91.4 Csk/Src, belonged to compound 18 (Das-C10) with an IC50value of 3.2 μm for Csk compared with 35 nm for Src. Furthermore, many compounds displayed increased selectivity toward Src over Abl. Compounds 15 (Das–glutamic acid) and 13 (Das–cysteine) demonstrated the largest gains (10.2 and 10.3 Abl/Src IC50ratios). Das-R (IC50=2.06 μm) was significantly more potent than the parent dasatinib (IC50=26.3 μm) against Panc-1 cells, whereas both compounds showed IC50<51.2 pm against BV-173 and K562 cells. Molecular modeling and binding free energy simulations revealed good agreements with the experimental results and rationalized the differences in selectivity among the studied compounds. Integration of experimental and computational approaches in the design and biochemical screening of dasatinib derivatives facilitated rational engineering and diversification of the dasatinib scaffold, providing useful insight into mechanisms of kinase selectivity.

Trichophycin A, A Cytotoxic Linear Polyketide Isolated From A Trichodesmium Thiebautii Bloom, Matthew Bertin, Paul G. Wahome, Paul V. Zimba, Haiyin He, Peter D. R. Moeller

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

In an effort to isolate and characterize bioactive secondary metabolites from Trichodesmium thiebautii blooms, collected cyanobacteria biomass was subjected to bioassay-guided extraction and fractionation using the human colon cancer cell line HCT-116, resulting in the isolation and subsequent structure characterization of a linear polyketide trichophycin A (1). The planar structure of 1 was completed using 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy and high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HRESIMS). Trichophycin A was moderately toxic against the murine neuroblastoma cell line Neuro-2A (EC₅₀: 6.5 μM) and HCT-116 cells (EC₅₀: 11.7 μM). Trichophycin A was significantly more cytotoxic than the …

Phospholipase Dζ Enhances Diacylglycerol Flux Into Triacylglycerol, Wenyu Yang, Geliang Wang, Jia Li, Philip Bates, Xuemin Wang, Douglas Allen

Biology Department Faculty Works

Plant seeds are the primary source of triacylglycerols (TAG) for food, feed, fuel, and industrial applications. As TAG is produced from diacylglycerol (DAG), successful engineering strategies to enhance TAG levels have focused on the conversion of DAG to TAG. However, the production of TAG can be limited by flux through the enzymatic reactions that supply DAG. In this study, two Arabidopsis phospholipase Dζ genes (AtPLDζ1 and AtPLDζ2) were coexpressed in Camelina sativa to test whether the conversion of phosphatidylcholine to DAG impacts TAG levels in seeds. The resulting transgenic plants produced 2% to 3% more TAG as a component of …

Passerine Morphology: External Measurements Of Approximately One-Quarter Of Passerine Bird Species, Robert Ricklefs

Biology Department Faculty Works

Studies of community organization and clade diversification that include functional traits have become an important component of the analysis of ecological and evolved systems. Such studies frequently are limited by availability of consistently collected data. Here, I present a data set including eight measurements of the external morphology of 1642 species, roughly one‐quarter of all passerine birds (Aves: Order Passeriformes), from all parts of the world, characterizing the relative proportions of the wing, tail, legs, and beak. Specimens were measured opportunistically over the past 40 years in museums in the United States and Europe. Numbers of individuals measured per species …

Career Corner: Quidel Corp Seeks Molecular Qc Technician, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Functionality And Robustness Of Injured Connectomic Dynamics In C. Elegans: Linking Behavioral Deficits To Neural Circuit Damage, James M. Kunert, Pedro D. Maia, J. Nathan Kutz

Mathematics Faculty Publications - Archive

Using a model for the dynamics of the full somatic nervous system of the nematode C. elegans, we address how biological network architectures and their functionality are degraded in the presence of focal axonal swellings (FAS) arising from neurodegenerative disease and/or traumatic brain injury. Using biophysically measured FAS distributions and swelling sizes, we are able to simulate the effects of injuries on the neural dynamics of C. elegans, showing how damaging the network degrades its low-dimensional dynamical responses. We visualize these injured neural dynamics by mapping them onto the worm’s low-dimensional postures, i.e. eigenworm modes. We show that a diversity …