Digital Commons Network^™

Vegetation Disturbance Regimes And Conifer Succession In Gunnison Sage Grouse (Centrocerus Minimus) Habitat, Panmei Jiang

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The major reason for Gunnison sage-grouse decline in southwestern Colorado is thought to be loss and fragmentation of its sagebrush habitat by pinyon and juniper encroachment. This encroachment could be driven by both anthropogenic disturbance and natural climate variation. This project determines these potential drivers of Rocky Mountain juniper and pinyon pine forest expansion into sagebrush area at low elevations in Gunnison County, Colorado. Fire, grazing, and other anthropogenic activities was assessed to explain juniper and pine forest invasion patterns on sagebrush steppe. I hypothesize that recent land use, climate variability, over-grazing, and fire will drive pinyon or juniper tree …

Milestone 2018, Hope College

Milestone

Milestone, the Hope College yearbook, is an annual publication of Hope College. The first yearbook was published in 1905 as a single edition and was titled The Hope College Annual. The yearbooks became an annual publication in 1916, which was also when it was titled Milestone.

Project Muse Ebooks [E-Product Review], Kevin Mcdonough

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

A Tangled Web: Origins Of Reproductive Parasitism, Joseph J. Gillespie, Timothy P. Driscoll, Victoria I. Verhoeve, Mohammed Sayeedur Rahman, Kevin R. Macaluso

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

While typically a flea parasite and opportunistic human pathogen, the presence of Rickettsia felis (strain LSU-Lb) in the non-blood- feeding, parthenogenetically reproducing booklouse, Liposcelis bostrychophila, provides a system to ascertain factors governing not only host transitions but also obligate reproductive parasitism (RP). Analysis of plasmid pLbAR, unique to R. felis str. LSU-Lb, revealed a toxin–antitoxin module with similar features to prophage-encoded toxin–antitoxin modules utilized by parasitic Wolbachia strains to induce another form of RP, cytoplasmic incompatibility, in their arthropod hosts. Curiously, multiple deubiquitinase and nuclease domains of the large (3,841 aa) pLbAR toxin, as well the entire antitoxin, facilitated the …

Patent: Combination Product For The Prevention Of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Barry R. O'Keefe, Melissa Robbiani, José Fernández-Romero

Formulation/Product Development

Disclosed are compositions for inhibiting transmission of a sexually transmitted infection that contain one or more polyanionic microbicides, such as carrageenans, including lambda carrageenan, as well as water-soluble metal salts and specified lectins. Also disclosed are methods for making and using the compositions.

Sex, Lies, And Ultrasound, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

State-mandated falsehoods are rampant in the context of abortion regulation. State legislatures have required doctors, before performing abortions, to provide scientifically unsupported information to women, such as that having an abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, or that it has negative mental health effects. Given the lack of evidence to sustain these sorts of claims, it seems reasonable to refer to such statements as government-mandated lies. However, this article argues that government mandated lies in the abortion context are unique in several ways that make them unlikely to be found unconstitutional, despite the fact that they obviously hinder patients’ …

Preparing For The Apocalypse: A Multi-Prong Proposal To Develop Countermeasures For Biological, Chemical, Radiological, And Nuclear Threats, Constance E. Bagley, Anat Alon-Beck

Faculty Publications

The false alarm of an Hawaiian nuclear attack in January 2018 is an example of the lack of U.S. preparedness for attacks using nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. To address such threats, this Article proposes the establishment of a nation-wide integrated defense of health countermeasures initiative (“DHCI”), which is a multi-prong program to create a defensive triad comprising government, private industry, and academia to develop countermeasures for health threats posed by biological, chemical, radiological, and nuclear (“BCRN”) attacks. Key elements of our multi-faceted proposal include the use of the government’s Other Transaction Authority to simplify procurement arrangements, the …

Global Perspective-Taking: Extending Interdisciplinary Pedagogies Into International Classrooms, Tami S. Carmichael

English Faculty Publications

As William Newell observed, in order to obtain an excellent undergraduate education, it is necessary for students to move between disciplinary and interdisciplinary educational experiences; additionally, he claims it is essential that "students also…shuttle back and forth between the classroom and the outside world" (Newell, 2010, p. 12). This movement, both intellectual and physical, promotes the development of the perspective-taking that can help students better understand, and potentially begin to address, complex global issues (Newell, 2001). If moving between disciplines and beyond the classroom into the physical world (and back) could have an impact on students' perspective-taking development, what might …

Big Data Analytics: What Can Go Wrong, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

It is not uncommon to read that long-held beliefs about medical treatments have been dislodged by new studies. For example, there is now doubt as to whether women should undergo annual mammograms, previously a cornerstone of cancer screening. Hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women, once considered highly suspect in light of worrisome research findings, is now being reconsidered as a beneficial therapy. These reversals trouble and confuse many Americans.

This Article explores why medical research findings can be erroneous and what can go wrong in the process of designing and conducting research studies. It provides readers with essential analytical tools …

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Meghan Mcgill

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the role of competition in food webs, and more specifically, in trophic cascades induced by biodiversity loss. Trophic cascades are food web disturbances that result from the removal of an important species, often a predator, and lead to dramatic changes in herbivore and plant populations. It is critical to understand the mechanisms that drive and mitigate trophic cascades, because global biodiversity loss is increasing. Previous research suggests that biodiversity, specifically intraguild biodiversity with members in the same trophic level, is an important factor in reducing the negative effects of trophic cascades. …

Chemical And Phycological Structure Of Surface Microlayer And Subsurface Water In A Southern Baltic Sea Estuary, Józef Piotr Antonowicz, Anna Kozak

Journal of Marine Research

The surface microlayer of water (SML) is a unique ecotone found on all water bodies. It is an interphase for the exchange of matter between the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. This ecotone is capable of accumulating chemicals and microorganisms in amounts as high as 100-fold greater than those observed in the pelagic zone. Here we report on the accumulation of chemicals and phytoneuston in the SML of the estuarial Łebsko Lake located at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in the unpolluted region of the World Biosphere Reserve: the Słowínski National Park in Poland. The physicochemical parameters and phytoplankton …

Cancer Care Annual Report 2017-2018, Children's Mercy Hospital

Cancer Center Annual Reports

Annual report of cancer care and oncology services at the Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City MO, a pediatric medical center. This report has a focus on the HOPE Clinic (Clinica de Hematologia/Oncologia: Puente de Esperanza).

The Great War And Lake Superior Part 2, Russell M. Magnaghi

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

This two-part article documents World War I’s influence in the Lake Superior Basin, in both Canada and the United States. It examines how the Great War affected Native Americans, recent immigrants, and the host society, with an emphasis on rumored and actual sabotage activities. It likewise explores vigilantism and regional responses. The War also engendered food production, scrap metal drives, and other habits of resource. These and other activities, designed to further the war effort in the Lake Superior region, are also studied. This final part of the two-part article focuses on recruitment, transportation, mining, and industry among other topics.

The Ciceronian - Volume 1, Morehead State University. Cicero Society.

Ciceronian Journal Archive

2018 issue of The Ciceronian.

Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies And Entrepreneurial Intention Of Non-Business Students Enrolled In An Introductory Entrepreneurship Course, Gemma U. Reyes, Rachelle A. Mariano, Maria Noriza Q. Herrera, Nohreen Ethel P. Manipol, Jewel Joanna S. Cabardo

Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development

The objectives of the study are two-fold. The first is to find out the relationship between the personal entrepreneurial competencies (PEC), as identified by Management Systems International, and the entrepreneurial intention of non-business students who are taking up an introductory entrepreneurship course. The second is to determine whether the entrepreneurial competencies of the students improved after taking the course. Using Spearman rank-order correlation, the study reveals that eight of the ten entrepreneurial competencies have a significant correlation with entrepreneurial intention although the relationship ranges only from moderate to weak. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed to test whether the post …

A Moving Landscape For Comparative Genomics In Mammals, Stephen James O'Brien, Gaik Tamazian, Aleksey Komissarov, Pavel Dobrynin, Ksenia Krasheninnikova, Sergey Kliver, Nikolay Cherkasov, Klaus-Peter Koepfli

Biology Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

Today we count some 62,000 species of vertebrates (half are fishes) including some 550 species of mammals on earth. The genome sequencing of non-laboratory species in recent years is expanding our breadth and understanding of genetic bases of adaptation and evolution in varied and amazing ways.

Recent completion and inspection of whole genome sequence and assembly for over 200 species of mammals, from platypus to panda to human, offer the prospect of a better view of the patterns of changes within genome organization across the mammalian radiations. In 2009 my colleagues and I have created Genome-10K, an international consortium of …

X Chromosome Evolution In Cetartiodactyla, Anastasiya A. Proskuryakova, Anastasia I. Kulemzina, Polina L. Perelman, Alexey I. Makunin, Natalya A. Lemskaya, Violetta R. Beklemisheva, Denis M. Larkin, Marta Farre, Anna V. Kukekova, Oliver A. Ryder, Stephen James O'Brien, Alexander S. Graphodatsky

Biology Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

The mammalian X chromosome is characterized by high level of conservation. On the contrary the Cetartiodactyl X chromosome displays variation in morphology and G-banding pattern. It is hypothesized that X chromosome has undergone multiple rearrangements during Cetartiodactyla speciation. To investigate the evolution of this sex chromosome we have selected 26 BAC clones from cattle CHORI-240 library evenly distributed along the cattle X chromosome. High-resolution maps were obtained by fluorescence in situ hybridisation in a representative range of cetartiodactyl species from different families: pig (Suidae), gray whale (Eschrichtiidae), pilot whale (Delphinidae), hippopotamus (Hippopotamidae), Java mouse deer (Tragulidae), pronghorn (Antilocapridae), Siberian musk …

Pinniped Karyotype Evolution Substantiated By Comparative Chromosome Painting Of 10 Pinniped Species (Pinnipedia, Carnivora), Violetta R. Beklemisheva, Polina L. Perelman, Natalya A. Lemskaya, Anastasia I. Kulemzina, Anastasiya A. Proskuryakova, Vladimir N. Burkanov, Stephen James O'Brien, Alexander S. Graphodatsky

Biology Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

Numerous Carnivora karyotype evolution investigations have been performed by classical and molecular cytogenetics and were supplemented by reconstructions of the Ancestral Carnivora Karyotype (ACK). However, the group of Pinnipedia was not studied in detail. Here we reconstruct pinniped karyotype evolution and refine ACK using published and our new painting data for 10 pinniped species. The combination of human (HSA) and domestic dog (CFA) whole-chromosome painting probes was used for the construction of the comparative chromosome maps for species from all three pinniped families: Odobenidae– Odobenus rosmarus Linnaeus, 1758, Phocidae – Phoca vitulina Linnaeus, 1758, Pusa sibirica Gmelin, 1788, Erignathus barbatus …

Synthesis Of Volatile And Thermally Stable Aluminum Hydride Complexes And Their Use In Atomic Layer Deposition Of Metal Thin Films, Kyle Blakeney

Wayne State University Dissertations

The research discussed in this dissertation spans both synthetic inorganic and nanomaterials chemistry. Aluminum hydride complexes have been synthesized and characterized which are highly volatile and thermally stable and their potential as reducing agents for ALD of electropositive metal and metal-containing films was evaluated. A major discovery has been the deposition of aluminum metal films by thermal ALD using an aluminum dihydride complex supported by a simple amido-amine ligand (Chapters 2). Aluminum is the most electropositive element deposited by purely thermal ALD to date and represents a significant breakthrough for this field. This process may have important industrial applications and …

The Role Of The Alcohol Industry In Policy Interventions For Alcohol-Impaired Driving, Thomas F. Babor, Katherine Robaina, Jonathan K. Noel

Health & Wellness Department Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Determination Of T Follicular Helper Cell Fate By Dendritic Cells., Jayendra Kumar Krishnaswamy, Samuel Alsén, Ulf Yrlid, Stephanie C Eisenbarth, Adam Williams

Faculty Research 2018

T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are a specialized subset of CD4⁺ T cells that collaborate with B cells to promote and regulate humoral responses. Unlike other CD4⁺ effector lineages, Tfh cells require interactions with both dendritic cells (DCs) and B cells to complete their differentiation. While numerous studies have assessed the potential of different DC subsets to support Tfh priming, the conclusions of these studies depend heavily on the model and method of immunization used. We propose that the location of different DC subsets within the lymph node (LN) and their access to antigen determine their potency in …

Synthetic Peptide Ck2.3 Enhances Bone Mineral Density In Senile Mice., John Nguyen, Hilary Weidner, Lora M Schell, Linda Sequeira, Ryan Kabrick, Saurabh Dharmadhikari, Harold Coombs, Randall L Duncan, Liyun Wang, Anja Nohe

Faculty Research 2018

Background: Osteoporosis is a silent disease caused by low bone mineral density that results in bone fractures in 1 out of 2 women and 1 in 4 men over the age of 50. Although several treatments for osteopenia and osteoporosis are available, they have severe side effects and new treatments are desperately needed. Current treatments usually target osteoclasts and inhibit their activity or differentiation. Treatments that decrease osteoclast differentiation and activity but enhance osteogenesis and osteoblast activity are not available. We recently developed a peptide, CK2.3, that induces bone formation and increases bone mineral density as demonstrated by injection over …

Editorial: Axonopathy In Neurodegenerative Disease., Robert W. Burgess, Samuel D Crish

Faculty Research 2018

No abstract provided.

Sebaceous Gland Abnormalities In Fatty Acyl Coa Reductase 2 (Far2) Null Mice Result In Primary Cicatricial Alopecia., John P Sundberg, Tong Shen, Oliver Fiehn, Robert H Rice, Kathleen A Silva, Victoria E. Kennedy, Nicholas E Gott, Louise A. Dionne, Lesley S Bechtold, Stephen A Murray, Raoul Kuiper, C Herbert Pratt

Faculty Research 2018

In a large scale screen for skin, hair, and nail abnormalities in null mice generated by The Jackson Laboratory's KOMP center, homozygous mutant Far2tm2b(KOMP)Wtsi/2J (hereafter referrred to as Far2-/-) mice were found to develop focal areas of alopecia as they aged. As sebocytes matured in wildtype C57BL/NJ mice they became pale with fine, uniformly sized clear lipid containing vacuoles that were released when sebocytes disintegrated in the duct. By contrast, the Far2-/- null mice had sebocytes that were similar within the gland but become brightly eosinophilic when the cells entered the sebaceous gland duct. As sebocytes disintegrated, their contents did …

Jepegmix2: Improved Gene-Level Joint Analysis Of Eqtls In Cosmopolitan Cohorts., Chris Chatzinakos, Donghyung Lee, Bradley T Webb, Vladimir I Vladimirov, Kenneth S Kendler, Silviu-Alin Bacanu

Faculty Research 2018

Motivation: To increase detection power, researchers use gene level analysis methods to aggregate weak marker signals. Due to gene expression controlling biological processes, researchers proposed aggregating signals for expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTL). Most gene-level eQTL methods make statistical inferences based on i) summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and ii) linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns from a relevant reference panel. While most such tools assume homogeneous cohorts, our Gene-level Joint Analysis of functional SNPs in Cosmopolitan Cohorts (JEPEGMIX) method accommodates cosmopolitan cohorts by using heterogeneous panels. However, JEPGMIX relies on brain eQTLs from older gene expression studies and does …

Nicotinamide Treatment Robustly Protects From Inherited Mouse Glaucoma., Pete A. Williams, Jeffrey M. Harder, Brynn H Cardozo, Nicole E Foxworth, Simon W M John

Faculty Research 2018

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a key molecule in several cellular processes and is essential for healthy mitochondrial metabolism. We recently reported that mitochondrial dysfunction is among the very first changes to occur within retinal ganglion cells during initiation of glaucoma in DBA/2J mice. Furthermore, we demonstrated that an age-dependent decline of NAD contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction and vulnerability to glaucoma. The decrease in NAD renders retinal ganglion cells vulnerable to a metabolic crisis following periods of high intraocular pressure. Treating mice with the NAD precursor nicotinamide (the amide form of vitamin B₃) inhibited many age- and high …

Modularity Of The Metabolic Gene Network As A Prognostic Biomarker For Hepatocellular Carcinoma., Fengdan Ye, Dongya Jia, Mingyang Lu, Herbert Levine, Michael W Deem

Faculty Research 2018

Abnormal metabolism is an emerging hallmark of cancer. Cancer cells utilize both aerobic glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) for energy production and biomass synthesis. Understanding the metabolic reprogramming in cancer can help design therapies to target metabolism and thereby to improve prognosis. We have previously argued that more malignant tumors are usually characterized by a more modular expression pattern of cancer-associated genes. In this work, we analyzed the expression patterns of metabolism genes in terms of modularity for 371 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that higher modularity significantly correlated with glycolytic phenotype, later …

Sensing The Cilium, Digital Capture Of Ciliary Data For Comparative Genomics Investigations., Karen R. Christie, Judith A. Blake

Faculty Research 2018

BACKGROUND: Cilia are specialized, hair-like structures that project from the cell bodies of eukaryotic cells. With increased understanding of the distribution and functions of various types of cilia, interest in these organelles is accelerating. To effectively use this great expansion in knowledge, this information must be made digitally accessible and available for large-scale analytical and computational investigation. Capture and integration of knowledge about cilia into existing knowledge bases, thus providing the ability to improve comparative genomic data analysis, is the objective of this work.

METHODS: We focused on the capture of information about cilia as studied in the laboratory mouse, …

Centrilobular Emphysema And Coronary Artery Calcification: Mediation Analysis In The Spiromics Cohort, Surya P. Bhatt, Hrudaya P. Nath, Young-Il Kim, Rekha Ramachandran, Jubal R. Watts, Nina L.J. Terry, Sushil Sonavane, Swati P. Deshmane, Prescott G. Woodruff, Elizabeth C. Oelsner, Sandeep Bodduluri, Meilan K. Han, Wassim W. Labaki, J. Michael Wells, Fernando J. Martinez, R. Graham Barr, Mark T. Dransfield, Spiromics Investigators

Journal Articles: Pulmonary & Critical Care Med

BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with a two-to-five fold increase in the risk of coronary artery disease independent of shared risk factors. This association is hypothesized to be mediated by systemic inflammation but this link has not been established.

METHODS: We included 300 participants enrolled in the SPIROMICS cohort, 75 each of lifetime non-smokers, smokers without airflow obstruction, mild-moderate COPD, and severe-very severe COPD. We quantified emphysema and airway disease on computed tomography, characterized visual emphysema subtypes (centrilobular and paraseptal) and airway disease, and used the Weston visual score to quantify coronary artery calcification (CAC). We used …

Yale Medicine Magazine, Winter 2018, Yale University. School Of Medicine

Yale Medicine Magazine - alumni bulletin and magazine

This is the Winter 2018 issue of Yale Medicine Magazine, v. 52, no. 2. Prepared in cooperation with the alumni and development offices at the School of Medicine. Earlier volumes are called Yale School of Medicine alumni bulletins, dating from v.1 (1953) through v.13 (1965) and Yale Medicine: alumni bulletin of the School of Medicine, v.1 (1965) through v. 52, no.1. (Autumn, 2017).