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Morphometrics In Developmental Neurobiology: Quantitative Analysis Of Growth Cone Motility In Vivo, Anokh Sohal, James Ha, Manuel Zhu, Fayha Lakhani, Lauren Olszewski, Raagav Mohanakrishnan, Tamira Elul

Faculty Publications & Research of the TUC College of Osteopathic Medicine

In order for the nervous system to function properly, neurons in the brain must establish specific connections during embryonic development. Formation of neuronal circuits involves axons extending from cell bodies and navigating through diverse tissues to reach their targets in the brain. Once axons reach their target tissues, they arborize and make synaptic connections. Axon pathfinding is driven by dynamic motility behaviors expressed by terminal growth cones at the tips of the axons. Here, we applied morphometrics to determine quantitative values for six morphological and motility parameters for growth cones of optic axons navigating through the optic tract of a …

Detection Of Intestinal Pathogens In River, Shore, And Drinking Water In Lima, Peru, David Grothen, Sydney J. Zach, Paul H. Davis

Biology Faculty Publications

Water quality management is an ongoing struggle for many locations worldwide. Current testing of water supplies can be time-consuming, expensive, and lack sensitivity. This study describes an alternative, easy-to-use, and inexpensive method to water sampling and testing at remote locations. This method was employed to detect a number of intestinal pathogens in various locations of Lima, Peru. A total of 34 PCR primer pairs were tested for specificity and high-yield amplification for 12 different pathogens using known DNA templates. Select primers for each pathogen were then tested for minimum detection limits of DNA. Water samples were collected from 22 locations. …

Predicting Hiv Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Efficacy For Women Using A Preclinical Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic In Vivo Model, Angela Wahl, Phong T. Ho, Paul W. Denton, Katy L. Garrett, Michael G. Hudgens, Glenn Swartz, Cynthia O'Neill, Fulvia Veronese, Angela D. Kashuba, J. Victor Garcia

Biology Faculty Publications

The efficacy of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) relies on adherence and may also depend on the route of HIV acquisition. Clinical studies of systemic tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) PrEP revealed reduced efficacy in women compared to men with similar degrees of adherence. To select the most effective PrEP strategies, preclinical studies are critically needed to establish correlations between drug concentrations (pharmacokinetics [PK]) and protective efficacy (pharmacodynamics [PD]). We utilized an in vivo preclinical model to perform a PK-PD analysis of systemic TDF PrEP for vaginal HIV acquisition. TDF PrEP prevented vaginal HIV acquisition in a dose-dependent manner. PK-PD modeling of …

Robust Spatial Frameworks For Leveraging Research On Sustainable Crop Intensification, Patricio Grassini, Cameron M. Pittelkow, Kenneth Cassman, Haishun S. Yang, Sotirios Archontoulis, Mark Licht, Kendall R. Lamkey, Ignacio A. Ciampitti, Jeffrey A. Coulter, Sylvie M. Brouder, Jeffrey J. Volenec, Noemi Guindin-Garcia

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Meeting demand for food, fiber, feed, and fuel in a world with 9.7 billion people by 2050 without negative environmental impact is the greatest scientific challenge facing humanity. We hypothesize that this challenge can only be met with current and emerging technologies if guided by proactive use of a broad array of relevant data and geospatial scaling approaches to ensure local to global relevance for setting research priorities and implementing agricultural systems responsive to real-time status of weather, soils, crops, and markets. Despite increasing availability of field-scale agricultural data, robust spatial frameworks are lacking to convert these data into actionable …

Short-Wavelength Light-Blocking Eyeglasses Attenuate Symptoms Of Eye Fatigue, Carl Bassi, Jonathan Lin, Blair Gerratt, Rajendra Apte

College of Optometry Faculty Works

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether subjects who wear short wavelength–blocking eyeglasses during computer tasks exhibit less visual fatigue and report fewer symptoms of visual discomfort than subjects wearing eyeglasses with clear lenses.Methods: A total of 36 healthy subjects (20 male; 16 female) was randomized to wearing no-block, low-blocking, or high-blocking eyeglasses while performing a 2-hour computer task. A masked grader measured critical flicker fusion frequency (CFF) as a metric of eye fatigue and evaluated symptoms of eye strain with a 15-item questionnaire before and after computer use.Results: We found that the change in CFF after …

Winter Is Changing: Trophic Interactions Under Altered Snow Regimes, Rachel M. Penczykowski, Brian M. Connolly, Brandon T. Barton

Biology Faculty Scholarship

Shifts in abiotic conditions can strongly influence not only the demography, ecology, and evolution of individual species, but also the networks of interactions that structure communities and ecosystems. Though many studies have addressed how changes in mean temperature or rainfall patterns will affect ecosystems, there has been far less attention on the impact of changing snow regimes. As climate change alters the abundance and persistence of snowpack in temperate and polar regions of the globe, novel reductions or accumulations of snow may dramatically impact the nature of interactions between organisms in these ecosystems. In this review, we focus on four …

You Don't Know How Strong You Are Until Being Strong Is Your Only Option : Examining Resiliency In Survivors Of A Parent Or Caregiver's Suicide, Haley A. Rice

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Suicide is a prevalent public health issue in the United States as it intimately effects many Americans annually. This study explored the bereavement and coping processes as well as strength and resiliency of adult children who lost their parent to death by suicide. Twelve adult children were recruited for this study through social media and suicide support groups. Participants were interviewed by phone and interviews were transcribed and analyzed using an inductive approach. The following themes were identified: intensity of the loss, secondary trauma of suicide, feelings of stigma, solace in talking about their parent, researching mental illness, attending grief …

Cyclosporine A Alters Expression Of Renal Micrornas: New Insights Into Calcineurin Inhibitor Nephrotoxicity, Jennifer L Gooch, Clayton King, Cynthia E Francis, Paul S Garcia, Yun Bai

PCOM Scholarly Works

Calcineurin inhibitors are powerful immunosuppressants that revolutionized organ transplantation. However, non-immune effects of the calcineurin inhibitor, such as cyclosporine A (CsA), have significantly hindered their use. Specifically, nephrotoxicity, which is associated with tubulointerstitial fibrosis, inflammation, and podocyte damage, affects up to half of all transplant patients. Calcineurin is involved in many aspects of kidney development and function; therefore, mechanisms of CsA-induced nephrotoxicity are complex and not yet fully understood. MicroRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that regulate protein-coding RNA expression through post-translational repression of target messenger RNAs. MicroRNA dysregulation is known to be involved in kidney diseases including fibrosis. In this …

Disasters In The United States : Frequency, Costs, And Compensation, Vera Brusentsev, Wayne Vroman

Upjohn Press

Disasters are increasing in both frequency and financial costs. Analysis presented here deals with what we know about disasters in the United States including their increasing frequency of occurrence and associated financial costs, compensation available to survivors, where particular types of disasters are most likely to occur, and how disasters can be mitigated.

Reproductive Biology Of The Critically Endangered Endemic Planterodium Somanum In Turkey, Di̇lek Oskay

Turkish Journal of Botany

The reproductive characteristics of Erodium somanum (Geraniaceae), a critically endangered endemic species, were investigated in order to evaluate the main factors that affect its reproductive success and to evaluate their importance on its conservation. The estimated pollen/ovule ratio was calculated as 1187. Pollen viability and stigma receptivity experiments showed that stigma receptivity and pollen viability were high and synchronous throughout the anthesis. E. somanum is a strictly dioecious species and pollinated by insects. Flower visitors in the studied populations were mostly beetles and ants. The average percentage of fruit formation for each plant was determined as 46%. Capacity of seed …

Proteomic Analysis Of Flowers At Two Developmental Stages In Thermopsis Turcica (Fabaceae), Mustafa Yildiz, Emre Pehli̇van, Hakan Terzi̇

Turkish Journal of Botany

Flower development is a complex physiological phenomenon that is affected by environmental stimuli and endogenous signals. Several molecular approaches have provided a comprehensive view of the physiological processes associated with flower development, but little is known about proteomic changes. Therefore, we investigated the proteomic alterations during flower development in endemic Thermopsis turcica (Vuralia turcica), an unusual legume species with 3-4 free carpels in a single flower. A comparative proteomic analysis to identify proteins involved in flower development was carried out in T. turcica. Alterations in proteomes of the flower buds and fully opened flowers were studied by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. …

Characterization Of Rice Polyphenol Oxidase Promoter In Transgenic Arabidopsis Thaliana, Wasim Akhtar, Ejaz Aziz, Hisashi Koiwa, Tariq Mahmood

Turkish Journal of Botany

Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzymes are ubiquitous in plant kingdom and catalyze the oxidation of phenols to highly reactive quinones. The PPO gene plays an important role in plant defense mechanisms against biotic and abiotic stresses but the regulation of PPO promoter in stresses remains unclear. Here Oryza sativa (OsPPO) promoter was fused to firefly Luciferase (LUC) and β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter genes separately to test the effects of wounding, abscisic acid (ABA), and methyl jasmonate (MeJ) applications on PPO promoter induction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about rice PPO promoter induction in response to wounding …

Phlomis Iranica (Lamiaceae: Lamioideae), A New Species Fromthe Khorassan-Kopet Dagh Floristic Province, Ne Iran, Jamil Vaezi, Maryam Behroozian, Mohammad Reza Joharchi, Farshid Memariani

Turkish Journal of Botany

The genus Phlomis L. consists of three species, Ph. cancellata Bunge, Ph. chorassanica Bunge, and Ph. herba-venti L., in the Khorassan-Kopet Dagh floristic province, NE Iran. A new species is described and illustrated here as Ph. iranica Joharchi & Vaezi sp. nov. from this area. We included voucher specimens of the new and allied species in a morphological and molecular (nrDNA ITS) framework to examine the taxonomic status of the new taxon. Results showed that Ph. iranica can be morphologically distinguished from the species distributed in NE Iran by seven diagnostic traits including length and width of calyx tube, flower …

Dianthus Ucarii (Caryophyllaceae): A New Species From The Northwest Of Turkey, Ergi̇n Hamzaoğlu, Murat Koç, İlker Büyük

Turkish Journal of Botany

Dianthus ucarii Hamzaoğlu & Koç (Caryophyllaceae) is described as a new species to science based on material collected in Kırklareli Province in northwestern Turkey. The new taxon belongs to sect. Carthusiani (Boiss.) F.N.Williams and it is closely related to Dianthus pinifolius Sm., an Eastern Mediterranean element. A description, illustration, and identification key for the new species are given. In addition, D. ucarii and D. pinifolius are compared in terms of general morphology and molecular phylogeny.

Contributions To The Macrofungi Of Bingöl, Turkey, Yusuf Uzun, İsmai̇l Acar, Mustafa Emre Akçay, Abdullah Kaya

Turkish Journal of Botany

The present study was carried out on macrofungi samples collected from Bingöl Province between 2006 and 2010. As a result of field and laboratory investigations 112 species belonging to Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were determined. Ten of them are new records for the Turkish mycobiota: Orbilia auricolor (A. Bloxam) Sacc.; Orbilia luteorubella (Nyl.) P. Karst.; Mollisia lividofusca (Fr.) Gillet; Calycina languida (P. Karst.) Baral, R. Galán & G. Platas; Vibrissea filisporia (Bonord.) Korf & A. Sánchez; Iodophanus carneus (Pers.) Korf; Amanita gilbertii Beauseign.; Conocybe brachypodii (Velen.) Hauskn. & Svrcek; Coprinopsis cordispora (T. Gibbs) Gminder; and Paxillus vernalis Watling.

Environmental Monitoring Plan , January 2017 - June 2017, Tennessee. Department Of Environment And Conservation.

Environmental Monitoring Plans

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), Division of Remediation, Oak Ridge Office (DoR-OR), is providing an annual environmental monitoring plan (EMP) for the first six months of calendar year 2017, under terms of the Tennessee Oversight Agreement (TOA) Section A.6.1.1.

Civil Rights/Anti-Discrimination—I Didn’T Volunteer For This: A Solution For Protecting Volunteers From Discrimination In Massachusetts, Joseph D. Greenhalgh

Western New England Law Review

Many have volunteered in some way or another. Volunteers seek to help others and to improve themselves. Unfortunately, if volunteers are discriminated against due to membership in a protected class, whether actual or perceived, they have very limited protections afforded to them.

Few jurisdictions have examined what, if any, protections against discrimination should be available to volunteers. Federal circuit courts are conflicted regarding the circumstances under which volunteers should be protected pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A small number of states have examined whether volunteers should be protected under state public accommodation anti-discrimination statutes, …

Testing The Effectiveness Of Brief Psychoeducation To Improve Parent Problem Recognition, Caroline M. Segal

Open Access Dissertations

A significant discrepancy exists between the rate of mental health problems in children and adolescents and their engagement in mental health services. A major contributor to this problem is poor mental health literacy among parents. Parents are typically responsible for identifying mental health issues in their children, but studies show that they struggle with problem recognition. The current study is the first randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of an intervention to increase parents’ recognition skills of children’s mental health problems. Participants included 298 participants recruited from community and online settings. Participants ranged in age from 24 to 58 …

Insights Into Chromatin Modification And Fancd2 Phosphorylation In Dna Damage Repair, David Vierra Ii

Open Access Dissertations

Fanconi Anemia (FA) is a rare autosomal X-linked recessive disorder, characterized by congenital abnormalities, pediatric bone marrow failure and cancer susceptibility. FA is caused by biallelic mutation in any one of 22 different genes. The main functions of the FA-BRCA pathway is the resolution of interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) within the DNA. The main activating step of the pathway is the monoubiquitination of the proteins FANCD2 and FANCI. In the first chapter of this dissertation I discuss how methylation and acetylation affect chromatin architecture and activation of the pathway. In the second chapter I will discuss the effects of FANCD2 phosphorylation …

Religious Privilege To Discriminate As Religious Freedom: From Charitable Choice To Faith Based Initiatives To Rfra And Fada, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

The movement for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Inter-sex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) rights has had three main themes since the civil rights era: freedom from criminalization of relationships and harassment by police; protection from discrimination in employment, housing, public ac-commodations, and government services; and civil protections for familial re-lationships, like the right to marry.[1] Freedom from criminalization of inti-mate relationships was won in 2003, when the Supreme Court held that the federal constitution protected same-sex intimate conduct and that states could not make that conduct criminal,[2] and that decision accelerated the fight for civil protections for familial relationships. In May …

Lessons From Ferguson And Beyond: Bias, Health, And Justice, Sidney D. Watson

All Faculty Scholarship

August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American teen, killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri.

November 22, 2014, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African American child, killed by police in Cleveland, Ohio.

April 4, 2015, Walter Scott, a 50-year-old African American man, killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina.

November 15, 2015, Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old African American man, killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African American man, killed by police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

The list of Black men and women killed by police goes on and seems to grow by the …

Nitrosative Stress Sensing In Porphyromonas Gingivalis: Structure And Function Of The Heme Binding Transcriptional Regulator Hcpr, Benjamin R. Belvin

Theses and Dissertations

Porphyromonas gingivalis, a Gram negative anaerobe implicated in the progression of periodontal disease, is capable of surviving and causing infection despite high levels of reactive nitrogen species found in the oral cavity due to its efficient nitrosative stress response. HcpR is an important sensor-regulator that plays a vital step in the initiation of the nitrosative stress response in many Gram negative anaerobic bacteria. We employ a combination of X-ray crystallography, SAXS, resonance Raman spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and molecular biology techniques to better understand this key regulator. Knockout of the hcpR gene in W83 P. gingivalis results in the inability of …

Salvianolic Acid B For Pulmonary Delivery Towards Reversal Of Emphysema, Sneha Dhapare

Theses and Dissertations

A new pathobiologic hypothesis has recently emerged that the alveolar structural destruction and loss in emphysema are caused by the deficiency of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Therefore, this project hypothesized that such pathobiologic VEGF deficiency of emphysematous lungs can be recovered with a natural caffeic acid tetramer, salvianolic acid B (SalB), through activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), so that emphysema can be reversed as a result of inhibition of induced cell death, stimulation of cell proliferation and migration, and promotion of stem cell recruitment to the lungs.

SalB was first shown to be potently …

The Isolation And Characterization Of The First Auxin Conjugate Amido-Hydrolase From Physcomitrella Patens, Richard Sylvester Skibitski

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Auxin is arguably the most important phytohormone found in the plant kingdom. The hormone is required for a multitude of growth control functions, including gravitropism and phototropism. Auxin homeostatic control is achieved in plants by a process of conjugation in which auxin is inactivated by being bound to another molecule, such as an amino acid or sugar. Auxin can be kept in a large, inactive pool by this method of chemical '‘conjugation” and the amide or ester bonds hydrolyzed as needed to provide “free” active hormone to the plant. The IAR3 gene family is highly conserved in Plantae and function …

Sleep In Adolescents : Sleep And The Prediction Of Academic Investment And Achievement, Justin Farhat

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study was part of a larger and ongoing research effort involving the investigation of aggression, socioeconomic status, student productivity, social functioning, sleep patterns, school environment, and academic achievement in 892 high-school adolescents. The present study specifically examines potential psycho-physiological, environmental, and habitual predictors of adolescent academic achievement and academic investment. Students were assessed on various dimensions including instances of insomnia, restless leg syndrome, sleep hygiene; and attributes such as demographics, academic investment, and GPA. It was hypothesized that participants’ levels of sleep disturbances, would in turn significantly predict grade point averages. Furthermore, it was believed that sleep quality, measured …

Analyzing The Quality Of Attention Of A Client With Williams Syndrome During Improvisational Music Therapy, Hyun Kyoung Kim

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study sought to investigate the effectiveness of improvisational music therapy for a client with Williams Syndrome (WS). The study employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis to assess the quality of attention of a client with WS during improvisational music therapy. The participant of this study was a teenage boy with Williams Syndrome who received music therapy at the Rebecca Center for Music Therapy and Molloy College in New York. The study analyzed the participant’s attention behaviors in musical-play by reviewing video recordings that had been made of the client’s therapy sessions at the Rebecca Center. To analyze the quantitative …

Grain Size And Organic Geochemistry Of Kattegat Sediment To Determine Paleoenvironments Of The Last Interglacial-Glacial Cycle, Taylor Ann Krolik

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Periods of glaciation followed by deglaciation are a result of the complex processes that drive climate on Earth. To understand these processes and the types of climate that they induce, sediment cores can be analyzed to extract data to determine depositional environment and relative sea level in an area. This project will investigate the particle size and organic geochemistry from a sediment core (IODP Expedition 347, Hole M0060A) taken outside the Baltic Sea, at Anholt Loch which is located in the southern Kattegat. The objective of this study is to better understand the depositional environment and relative sea level changes …

Road Salt Impact On A Stream-Dwelling Salamander, Eurycea Bislineata : A Low Threshold For Behavioral And Physiological Effects, Kelly Ann Krolik

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Road salt runoff into aquatic habitats is a major ecological issue for amphibian species due to potential toxic effects from chemicals such as hydrocarbons, de-icing agents and salts. Road salt runoff can affect different aspects of amphibian biology, such as osmotic balance, growth, reproduction, behavior, and survival. This study investigated the behavioral and physiological salinity tolerance of adult two-lined salamanders, Eurycea bislineata. Two-lined salamanders are found in small streams and rivulets and may be exposed directly to salt runoff. In laboratory behavior trials, E. bislineata showed strong aversion to increasing salinity concentrations. They spent less time in higher NaCl concentrations …

The Mechanism Of Inhibition Of Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A By Two Quinolinol Compounds, Yacoba Vroom Teschemaker Minnow

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Quinolinol-based compounds are a promising starting point for discovery o f effective inhibitors o f the clostridial neurotoxin, botulinum neurotoxin type A light chain (BoNT/A LC). Insights into the mechanism o f inhibition by quinolinol compounds facilitate interpretation o f docking data and inhibitor optimization. In this study, a fluorogenic substrate o f BoNT/A, SNAPtide, was used to study the mechanism by which two new quinolinol compounds, MSU58 and MSU84, with IC₅₀ values of 3.3 uM and 5.8 uM, respectively, inhibit BoNT/A LC. Kinetic studies and model discrimination analysis showed both compounds to be competitive inhibitors o f BoNT/A …

Investigation Of Hsp90 Structure-Activity Relationships In Epigallocatechin Gallate, Arpita Patel

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

(-)-Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is a polyphenolic natural product that inhibits the key chaperone protein Hsp90 by binding to the carboxy terminal portion of the protein. The natural product has modest activity as an Hsp90 inhibitor and there is little information in the literature on structure activity relationships for EGCG analogs. Previous studies from this laboratory provided initial data on the effect of a limited range of changes associated with functional groups, substituents and stereochemistry. The focus of this research is to explore these initial results in more detail with a focus on the synthesis of EGCG analogs with more drug …