Digital Commons Network^™

Exploration Of The Interaction Of Maternal Experience Of Trauma And Infant Temperament On Maternal Parenting, Julie Christine Van Weelden

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Among women over age 18, 1 in 3 have experienced intimate partner violence, including physical aggression and stalking, and nearly 1 in 5 have experienced some type of sexual violence during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood (Black et al., 2011). Given the high rates of trauma experiences in women of childbearing age, especially in low-income populations (Gillepsie et al, 2009), it is critical to examine the effect these experiences have on women´s parenting, especially during infancy, a sensitive period for many important domains of child development (Bornstein, 2002). Previous research has demonstrated experiencing victimization can affect maternal caregiving (Trickett, Noll, Putnam, …

Comparative Brain Anatomy Of Lamniform Sharks (Elasmobranchii: Lamniformes) And Its Implications To Function, Behavioral Ecology, And Evolution, Francesco Guzzo

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the diversity of brain morphology is important to understand the evolution of cognitive ability and how ecology and phylogeny have influenced the variation in brain complexity. I examined the morphological variation of the brain in the shark order Lamniformes based on museum specimens and literature. Where I illustrate a wide range of morphological diversity in lamniform brains, my study shows that there is a strong positive correlation between brain size and body size that sharks with a larger brain tend to have a more foliated cerebellum, but that the body weight over brain weight did not correlate with cerebellar …

A New Pachyrhizodontid Fish (Actinopterygii: Teleostei) From The Tarrant Formation (Cenomanian) Of The Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Group Of Texas, U.S.A., Maxwell G. London

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

SMU 76938 is a fossil skeleton of a large, nearly complete actinopterygian bony fish housed in Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, USA. It was collected from the Upper Cretaceous Tarrant Formation (middle Cenomanian; ~96 Ma) of the Eagle Ford Group in Tarrant County, Texas, an area where it was near the western margin of the East Texas Embayment during the Late Cretaceous. Although parts of the skull and dorsal fin are damaged, SMU 76938 is relatively complete, especially in the preservation of the caudal fin with its soft tissue outline. The fish has a fusiform body and measures about …

Integument-Based Inferences On The Swimming Ability And Prey Hunting Strategy Of The Bigeye Thresher Shark, Alopias Superciliosus (Lamniformes: Alopiidae), Joseph Aaron Frumkin

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Alopias is a group of lamniform sharks characterized by a highly elongate caudal fin with three known extant species: A. pelagicus (pelagic thresher shark), A. superciliosus (bigeye thresher shark), and A. vulpinus (common thresher shark). Alopias pelagicus and A. vulpinus are considered fast swimmers and use their caudal fin to hunt for small schooling fish by stunning them, but the feeding behavior has never been directly observed for A. superciliosus. Under the ecomorphological framework, I examined the following four integumentary variables of selected fast swimming (e.g., A. pelagicus, A. vulpinus, and Lamna) and slow swimming (e.g., Mitsukurina and Megachasma) lamniform …

Zygote Gene Expression And Plasmodial Development In Didymium Iridis, Sean Schaefer

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Didymium iridis is a cosmopolitan species of plasmodial slime mold consisting of two distinct life stages. Haploid amoebae and diploid plasmodia feed on microscopic organisms such as bacteria and fungi through phagocytosis. Sexually compatible haploid amoebae act as gametes which when fused embark on an irreversible developmental change resulting in a diploid zygote. The zygote can undergo closed mitosis resulting in a multinucleated plasmodium. Little is known about changes in gene expression during this developmental transition. Our principal goal in this study was to provide a comprehensive list of genes likely to be involved in plasmodial development. We performed suppressive …

A Rare Heterozygous Trem2 Coding Variant Identified In Familial Clustering Of Dementia Affects An Intrinsically Disordered Protein Region And Function Of Trem2, M Karsak, K Glebov, M Scheffold, Et Al

Peninsula Medical School

Rare coding variants in the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-2 (TREM2) gene have been associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) and homozygous TREM2 loss-of-function variants have been reported in families with monogenic frontotemporal-like dementia with/without bone abnormalities. In a whole-exome sequencing study of a family with probable AD-type dementia without pathogenic variants in known autosomal dominant dementia disease genes and negative for the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele, we identified an extremely rare TREM2 coding variant, that is, a glycine-to-tryptophan substitution at amino acid position 145 (NM_018965.3:c.433G>T/p.[Gly145Trp]). This alteration is found in only 1 of 251,150 control alleles in …

A Rare Heterozygous Trem2 Coding Variant Identified In Familial Clustering Of Dementia Affects An Intrinsically Disordered Protein Region And Function Of Trem2, M Karsak, K Glebov, M Scheffold, T Bajaj, A Kawalia, I Karaca, S Rading, J Kornhuber, O Peters, M Diez‐Fairen, L Frölich, M Hüll, J Wiltfang, M Scherer, S Riedel‐Heller, A Schneider, Mt Heneka, K Fliessbach, A Sharaf, H Thiele, M Lennarz, F Jessen, W Maier, C Kubisch, Z Ignatova, P Nürnberg, P Pastor, J Walter, A Ramirez

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Hla Develops Robust Molecular Propeller That Enables Unidirectional Rotations, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Environmental Enrichment Improves Sociability In Btbr Mice, A Rodent Model For Autism, Bradley Andrew Diamond

Theses - ALL

This study examined the hypothesis that environmental enrichment (EE) would reduce autistic-like symptoms on three behavioral tasks in BTBR mice, an inbred strain used as a genetic model for autism. Based on our previous work with adversity induced symptoms of mental disorder in an outbred mouse strain, we predicted that EE would 1) increase preference for social stimuli in the 3-chamber apparatus, 2) enhance preference for home nest odors versus clean familiar shavings on the odor preference test, and 3) reduce anxiety-like behavior on the elevated plus maze. We found that EE 1) increased BTBR preference for a stranger mouse …

Dissolved Organic Matter Dynamics In Calcium-Treated And Reference Watersheds At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Nicholas Alexander Lorusso

Theses - ALL

Organic carbon makes up the molecular structure of all living organisms on Earth and is essential to understanding ecological interactions. For forest ecosystems, organic carbon pools and fluxes have been extensively quantified, while less is known about its more highly variable composition. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a major source of biologically available organic carbon and nitrogen and serves as an indicator of watershed carbon processing. The extent to which DOM is metabolized, before it is transported from the watershed, is highly dependent on its source molecular structure and the processes exacted upon it. Spectroscopic techniques, such as fluorescence characterization, …

Modeling The Interactions Of Forest Cutting And Climate Change On The Hydrology, Biomass And Biogeochemistry Of A Northeastern Forest, Mahnaz Valipour

Dissertations - ALL

Global and regional environmental disturbances, including harvesting and climate change, can lead to integrated and interactive effects on forest ecosystems, altering their structure and function, and therefore long-term sustainability. Understanding both short- and long-term impacts of harvesting practices (e.g., cutting rotation length, intensity) on forest dynamics is a key factor in developing criteria and guidelines for sustainable forest management practices. Process ecosystem models are useful tools to improve predictive understanding of complex, interacting ecological process and their response to disturbance. Few studies have rigorously tested model simulations against field measurements which would provide more confidence in efforts to quantify logging …

Gender And Legitimacy In United Nations Mediation, Catriona Standfield

Dissertations - ALL

In 2000, the United Nations (UN) adopted Resolution 1325, the foundation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. It aims to make peace and security more gender-sensitive and inclusive. Scholars have examined the implementation of the WPS Agenda in peacebuilding and peacekeeping; however, mediation, particularly UN-brokered peace processes, remains under-researched. Nineteen years on, progress is inconsistent. Numbers of women have increased in negotiations, but they remain a minority. While the UN has guidelines on gender in mediation, peace processes do not consider gender issues systematically. This project considers the problem of how the UN has institutionalized the WPS Agenda …

Synthetic Studies On Small Molecule Modulators Of Src Homology 2 (Sh2) Domain-Containing Inositol 5’-Phosphatase (Ship), Otto Milhous Dungan

Dissertations - ALL

Small molecule modulators of SH2-containing inositol 5’-phosphatase (SHIP) have recently become a hotly pursued area in medicinal chemistry. Pharmaceutical targeting of SHIP with small molecules has been identified as a new method to directly influence the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) cell signaling pathway. Modulation of this pathway may be utilized in the development of interesting new therapeutics. A better understanding of the role that SHIP phosphatase activity plays in a number of disease states ranging from cancer to autoimmune disease to obesity may be ascertained by use of small molecule inhibitors. These investigations involved the synthesis of aminosteroid inhibitors and a …

Intrusion Detection For Cyber-Physical Attacks In Cyber-Manufacturing System, Mingtao Wu

Dissertations - ALL

In the vision of Cyber-Manufacturing System (CMS) , the physical components such as products, machines, and tools are connected, identifiable and can communicate via the industrial network and the Internet. This integration of connectivity enables manufacturing systems access to computational resources, such as cloud computing, digital twin, and blockchain. The connected manufacturing systems are expected to be more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective.

However, the extensive connectivity also increases the vulnerability of physical components. The attack surface of a connected manufacturing environment is greatly enlarged. Machines, products and tools could be targeted by cyber-physical attacks via the network. Among many emerging …

Towards Real-Time Monitoring Of Bacterial Cultures Without The Need For Physical Sampling: Elastic Scattering, Fluorescence And Raman Spectroscopy Of Escherichia Coli Cultures., Richard Thomas Mcdonough

Dissertations - ALL

The first part of this dissertation pertains to the fringe analysis of a hydration layer that forms spontaneously when biofilms dry. This layer at optical thickness ˂ 20 µm is approximately 1-2 orders of magnitude thinner than the biofilm thickness as measured by confocal Raman microscopy and confocal fluorescent microscopy. Drying/rehydration experiments performed on films withstood multiple cycles, returning to the same optical thickness proving their robust nature. The strength of a distinct water peak (1451 nm) in addition to others, reflects the thickness of the hydration layer. Confocal Raman microscopy showed that biofilms are chemically very similar to pure …

Development Of Substrate Degradation Enzyme Therapy For Mucopolysaccharidosis Iva Murine Model., Kazuki Sawamoto, Shunji Tomatsu

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA) is caused by a deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase (GALNS). Conventional enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is approved for MPS IVA. However, the fact that the infused enzyme cannot penetrate avascular lesions in cartilage leads to minimal impact on the bone lesion. Moreover, short half-life, high cost, instability, and narrow optimal pH range remain unmet challenges in ERT. Thermostable keratanase, endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase, has a unique character of a wide optimal pH range of pH 5.0-7.0. We hypothesized that this endoglycosidase degrades keratan sulfate (KS) polymer in circulating blood and, therefore, ameliorates the accumulation of KS in …

Cruising, Crossings & Care: Sounds Of Collective Black Girlhood, Blair Ebony Smith

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is an autoethnography of my three-year and ongoing participation in Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT), a creative organizing collective that focuses on envisioning and creating spaces within the local community that celebrates the complex lived experiences of Black girls with Black girls. In this project, I argue sounds of collective Black girlhood, created in SOLHOT, reveal the importance of collective music-making practices in Black girlhood studies and girl programming. Cruising, Crossings and care, as sounds of collective Black girlhood created in SOLHOT, resound us towards 1) being with Black girls and women across difference in deep …

A Renal Cell Carcinoma With Biallelic Somatic Tsc2 Mutation: Clinical Study And Literature Review., Jian Pang, Linang Wang, Jing Xu, Qiubo Xie, Qiuli Liu, Dali Tong, Gaolei Liu, Yiqiang Huang, Xingxia Yang, Jinhong Pan, Xiaochu Yan, Qiang Ma, Dianzheng Zhang, Jun Jiang

PCOM Scholarly Works

OBJECTIVES: To elucidate the effect of the biallelic somatic TSC2 mutations, identified in one adolescent patient, in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

METHODS: Mutation analyses, immunohistochemistry and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were conducted.

RESULTS: Two novel somatic mutations of TSC2 in unilateral and solitary RCC samples from a 14-year-old female were identified. The pathological features suggest the tumor as a clear-cell renal cell carcinoma. In addition, immunohistochemistry revealed elevated levels of phosphorylated S6K1. Results from in vitro cellular experiments suggest that the mutant TSC2 proteins were quickly degraded and they failed to repress the phosphorylation of S6K1 and STAT3, which …

The Shape Of Soft Matter: Geometry And Defects, Francesco Serafin

Dissertations - ALL

How does shape emerge at macroscopic scales from the spontaneous self-organization of building blocks at smaller scales? In this thesis, I will address this question in the context of closed soft two-dimensional membranes with internal order. Soft matter represents a good arena to identify simple universal mechanisms for shape selection. In fact, a distinctive property of soft materials is that they can undergo dramatic changes in geometric conformation at relatively low energetic cost. Thus, shape itself becomes a statistically fluctuating degree of freedom, and in some cases it can be found as the ground state of an appropriate free energy …

The Longitudinal Association Of Neighborhood Stress And Sexual Risk Behaviors And Outcomes Among Black Adolescents: Main Effects And Theoretically-Informed Mediation, Sarah Rose Lafont

Dissertations - ALL

Neighborhood stress stemming from exposure to physical and social decay, as well as violence and crime may be a critical risk factor for risky sexual behaviors among adolescents. The present study sought to: 1) characterize the prospective association of neighborhood stress with adolescent sexual risk behaviors; 2) test whether depression and perceived peer risk norms mediate this association, as proposed by the stress and coping hypothesis and social control theory, respectively; and 3) test whether plausible alternative hypotheses to the stress and coping hypothesis and social control theory can explain the data as well as these hypotheses. Path analysis was …

Towards Solving A Scientific Controversy – The Effects Of Ionising Radiation On The Environment, N. A. Beresford, N. Horemans, D. Copplestone, K. E. Raines, G. Orizaola, M. D. Wood, P. Laanen, H. C. Whitehead, J. E. Burrows, M. C. Tinsley, J. T. Smith, J. M. Bonzom, B. Gagnaire, C. Adam-Guillermin, S. Gashchak, A. N. Jha, Menezes A De, N. Willey, D. Spurgeon

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Background. Human use of radioactivity is increasing in fields such as nuclear power generation and nuclear medicine. Nuclear power continues to be a part of many countries’ energy portfolios and may increase dramatically in some Asian countries and Russia, with up to 300 new reactors currently proposed; other countries without existing nuclear power programmes are beginning to develop them (e.g. some African nations and Persian Gulf states). Worldwide there are c.450 operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) and 60 under construction (World Nuclear Association 2019). The continued use of nuclear power is considered, by some, as essential in the transition to …

Brd4 Is Required For Granule Cell Progenitor Proliferation, Marie E. Maloof

Open Access Dissertations

Bromodomain and extraterminal domain proteins are epigenetic reader proteins that recognize and bind acetylated histones to facilitate gene transcription. Because of their influence on transcription of genes involved in proliferation and differentiation, small molecule bromodomain inhibitors have entered clinical trials for various indications including several types of cancer. However, our understanding of bromodomain protein function is incomplete, as we do not completely understand their role in vertebrate development. We are investigating the role of the BET protein, Brd4, in cerebellar granule cell progenitor proliferation and cell cycle exit. Dysregulation of cerebellar granule cell progenitor proliferation leads to medulloblastoma, the most …

Is Ai Intelligent, Really?, Bruce D. Baker

SPU Works

The question of intelligence opens up a bouquet of interrelated questions:

Suppose that some future AGI systems (on-screen or robots) equaled human performance. Would they have real intelligence, real understanding, real creativity? Would they have selves, moral standing, free choice? Would they be conscious? And without consciousness, could they have any of those other properties?[1]

The only way out of the morass is to recognize that truth claims do not stand on their own, aloof and cut off from the sea of meaning which grants epistemic access. In other words, truth presumes access to: (1) a way of knowing, …

Gazing Into The Anthosphere: Considering How Microbes Influence Floral Evolution, Maria Rebolleda-Gomez, Nicole Forrester, Avery Russell, Na Wei, Andrea M. Fetters, Jessica D. Stephens, Tia-Lynn Ashman

College of Natural and Applied Sciences

The flower is the hallmark of angiosperms and its evolution is key to their diversification. As knowledge of ecological interactions between flowers and their microbial communities (the anthosphere) expands, it becomes increasingly important to consider the evolutionary impacts of these associations and their potential eco‐evolutionary dynamics. In this Viewpoint we synthesize current knowledge of the anthosphere within a multilevel selection framework and illustrate the potential for the extended floral phenotype (the phenotype expressed from the genes of the plant and its associated flower microbes) to evolve. We argue that flower microbes are an important, but understudied, axis of variation that …

Effect Of Promoting Psychosocial Resilience In Adolescents With Diabetes: An Integrative Literature Review, Britney Sandino

Grace Peterson Nursing Research Colloquium

Background: Adolescent obesity and diabetes increase the risk of numerous physiological health threats and psychosocial stress disorders. Educating this population on how to cope with physical and psychosocial stressors improves their health status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Objectives: The purpose of this review was to provide the nursing community with insight on the health promotion effects of fostering psychosocial resilience in diabetic adolescents aged 7 to 17 and suggest specific methods to integrate into their plan of care.

Methods: An integrative literature review was performed using PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Health Literature, Ovid Medline, ProQuest …

2019 Ursinus College Academic Convocation Program, Ursinus College

Academic Convocation Programs

This Ursinus College Academic Convocation program lists speakers and events for the opening of the 2019 academic year.

Comparative Models In German Elections: Using The German Far-Right Party As A Proxy For Ethnic Conflict, Clay H. Parham

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

In 2017, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) became the first the far-right party to win seats in the Bundestag since 1933. By campaigning on ethnic division, the AfD saw an unprecedented rise in support, especially in East Germany. This paper tests two models of ethnic conflict within comparative politics, primordialism and constructivism, to see which better explains the result of the AfD’s 2017 election. By examining the rhetorical use of political advertisements, the Manifesto Project’s analysis of the AfD’s platform, and differences of support between East and West Germany, the paper finds that constructivism better shows that highly-educated elites within …

Hepsin-Mediated Processing Of Uromodulin Is Crucial For Salt-Sensitivity And Thick Ascending Limb Homeostasis., Eric Olinger, Jennifer Lake, Susan Sheehan, Guglielmo Schiano, Tomoaki Takata, Natsuko Tokonami, Huguette Debaix, Francesco Consolato, Luca Rampoldi, Ron Korstanje, Olivier Devuyst

Faculty Research 2019

Uromodulin is a zona pellucida-type protein essentially produced in the thick ascending limb (TAL) of the mammalian kidney. It is the most abundant protein in normal urine. Defective uromodulin processing is associated with various kidney disorders. The luminal release and subsequent polymerization of uromodulin depend on its cleavage mediated by the serine protease hepsin. The biological relevance of a proper cleavage of uromodulin remains unknown. Here we combined in vivo testing on hepsin-deficient mice, ex vivo analyses on isolated tubules and in vitro studies on TAL cells to demonstrate that hepsin influence on uromodulin processing is an important modulator of …

The Finch Effect: Evolutionary Metaphors And Illiberal Democracy In Central And Eastern Europe, Abigail Woodfield

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

In recent years, several states in Central and Eastern Europe have seen democratic digression. Such illiberal resurgences came as a surprise to the many political scientists who assumed that the future of these states was democratic. Indeed, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the world largely regarded liberal democracy as the predominant system of government. The future seemed bright, and it was tempting to understand that future in evolutionary terms—just as humans evolved under natural selection to become the dominant species, democracy had survived a similar competition and defeated all other systems of government to become the dominant regime. …

Spectroscopic Description Of The E1 State Of Mo Nitrogenase Based On Mo And Fe X‑Ray Absorption And MöSsbauer Studies, Casey Van Stappen, Roman Davydov, Zhi-Yong Yang, Ruixi Fan, Yisong Guo, Eckhard Bill, Lance C. Seefeldt, Brian M. Hoffman, Serena Debeer

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Mo nitrogenase (N2ase) utilizes a two-component protein system, the catalytic MoFe and its electron-transfer partner FeP, to reduce atmospheric dinitrogen (N₂) to ammonia (NH₃). The FeMo cofactor contained in the MoFe protein serves as the catalytic center for this reaction and has long inspired model chemistry oriented toward activating N₂. This field of chemistry has relied heavily on the detailed characterization of how Mo N2ase accomplishes this feat. Understanding the reaction mechanism of Mo N2ase itself has presented one of the most challenging problems in bioinorganic chemistry because of the ephemeral nature of its …