Digital Commons Network^™

Bodybuilding At The Cellular Level: Pushing Our Body's Natural Limits, Anna Slebonick

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.

Diffusion And Osmosis: Passive Movement Of Molecules In Biological Systems, Ana Lucia Fuentes, Maria Entezari

Open Educational Resources

During this lab, students determine the salinity of collected water samples. They also compare the effect of the solute concentration of their samples with that of solutions of known solute concentrations on plant cells.

Evaluating A Culprit: A Review Of The Biochemical Mechanisms Of Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance, Callie Cinque

Honors Theses

Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance (NCGI) has evaded biological and chemical mechanisms since it was first reported in 1978. Celiac Disease, a multi-system immune mediated disorder has long served as the most similar counterpart to NCGI. Less cases of celiac disease are going undiagnosed reflecting an improvement on sensitive and decisive diagnostic tools. However, NCGI has been significantly growing as a diagnosis over the past decade with little match or similarity to the markers found in celiac disease patients. Critical evaluation of NCGI theories, experimentation, and existing hypotheses is necessary. This review seeks to synthesize multiple disciplines of gluten research and enhance …

The Influence Of Flooding On Macroinvertebrate Diversity Of The James River Rock Pools, Meghan Leber

Honors Theses

Biodiversity within an ecosystem can be greatly influenced by environmental disturbances, such as fires, flooding, or other extreme events. Studying the effects of these disturbances on species diversity can be complicated though, due to difficulties tracking species-level responses and isolating the effects of disturbances. Model systems in community ecology, such as rock pools, are a beneficial way to scale down the study of disturbances in discrete communities without losing the ability to analyze important influences or interactions. In this study, macroinvertebrates within the James River rock pools were surveyed to investigate seasonal and annual differences in species richness and diversity, …

Storytelling For Fundraising: Assessing The Impact Of Personal Stories On Donation Behavior, Kate A. Mccarthy

Honors Theses

In fundraising, some nonprofits have sought to channel the power of personal stories by including them in appeal letters. Are stories an effective tool in soliciting donations? In this study, participants read one of three appeals from an unnamed abortion fund. Two conditions contained a personal story, either an “unapologetic” or a “uncontroversial” narrative, about a woman who underwent an abortion; one condition did not include a story. Participants were then asked questions regarding the appeal and the organization before being given a “bonus” dollar, and offered the option of donating a portion of that to an abortion fund. Results …

Design Of New Ruthenium Complexes For Photoactivated Chemotherapy, Lindsey Paul

Honors Theses

Photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) offers a targeted approach to cancer treatment through selective drug activation. Substitutionally labile ruthenium-based prodrugs undergo ligand-loss when irradiated, producing an unbound ligand and a Ru-aqua complex. We report the synthesis and cytotoxicity of several new ruthenium-centered complexes and their irradiation products for use in PACT. A series of complexes were synthesized in order to study the effects of structural differences on cell viability. Cell viability was tested on T47D human breast cancer cells in the presence of compound to determine cytotoxicity and dose-response. While neither the Rucomplexes nor their ligands demonstrated cytotoxicity, their Ru-aqua dissociation complexes …

“Put Your Phone Down, And Say Hi!” Cultivating Positivity Resonance At Ur, Natalie Szumel

Honors Theses

The goal of this study is to advance our understanding of outcomes related to experiencing positivity resonance and additionally to examine the role of technology as a potential barrier to experiencing positivity resonance (PR). I expect to see positivity resonance associated with physical, psychological, and social well-being, while phone use will predict lower levels of positivity resonance.

This study is unique because it focuses on a college campus population and analyses how their well-being is affected by their social behaviors. This study is especially important for a campus like UR given how segregated and exclusive the student population has become, …

Application Of Β-Chloroenals: One-Pot Syntheses To Create Highly Variable, Functional, And Biologically Interesting Molecules, Julia Powell Siewert

Honors Theses

Pyrroles and pyrazoles are privileged structures which provide a molecular framework found in many different classes of bioactive compounds, thus rendering their syntheses useful in pharmaceutical drug development. Additionally, being able to selectively create these molecules with interesting substituents allows for different pharmacological and biological activities, such as antitumor and antibiotic effects. Our group has used β-chloroenals in the application of many different unique synthetic strategies in the past, and here I show that chloroenals can be used to synthesize novel 1,2,5 trisubstituted pyrroles as well as 1,5 di- and 1,4,5 trisubstituted pyrazoles in fewer steps and with milder conditions …

Biasing Medial Axis Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees With Safe Hyperspheres, David Qin

Honors Theses

Motion planning is a challenging and widely researched problem in robotics. Motion planning algorithms aim to not only nd unobstructed paths, but also to construct paths with certain qualities, such as maximally avoiding obstacles to improve path safety. One such solution is a Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) variant called Medial Axis RRT that generates the safest possible paths, but does so slowly. This paper introduces a RRT variant called Medial Axis Ball RRT (MABallRRT) that uses the concept of clearance -- a robot's distance from its nearest obstacle -- to efficiently construct a roadmap with safe paths. The safety of …

The Effects Of Signaling Molecules To Agrobacterium Tumefaciens Tumorigenesis At Plant Wound Sites, Nicole Walker

Honors Theses

Agrobacterium tumefaciens can live independently within soil before infecting its host (McCullen and Binns, 2006). The bacterium infects the plant through the rhizosphere, an area of soil along the plant root surface which contains microorganisms, making up the “external metabolome” (Bais et al. 2006). As these bacteria live in the rhizosphere, they are exposed to a multitude of chemical signals. These chemical signals include several conditions that must be met before the virulence machinery is expressed. These conditions include signaling from phenols and sugars as well as low PO4 levels and low pH. Upon wounding, sugars and phenols are released …

Fighting Back From The Brink: International Efforts To Prevent Illegal Trafficking In Endangered Species, Kara Consalo

Journal Publications

This article advances the argument for sustainable harvesting as a broad supplement, even replacement, to the prevailing no-trade policies currently used in many countries and international organizations. It is the author’s premise that the no-trade conservation paradigm is failing to adequately prevent illegal trafficking and endangered wildlife populations are suffering catastrophic losses as a result. This article will explain the current state of prevailing no-trade regulations and efforts to stem the onslaught of illegal wildlife trafficking. The article will then explore two examples of successful sustainable farming and harvesting programs, the American alligator and the Peruvian vicuñas. After a comparison …

The Saltpan Microbiome Is Structured By Sediment Depth And Minimally Influenced By Variable Hydration, Eric A. Weingarten, Lauren A. Lawson, Colin R. Jackson

Faculty and Student Publications

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Saltpans are a class of ephemeral wetland characterized by alternating periods of inundation, rising salinity, and desiccation. We obtained soil cores from a saltpan on the Mississippi Gulf coast in both the inundated and desiccated state. The microbiomes of surface and 30 cm deep sediment were determined using Illumina sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Bacterial and archaeal community composition differed significantly between sediment depths but did not differ between inundated and desiccated states. Well-represented taxa included marine microorganisms as well as multiple halophiles, both observed in …

Cryptic Diversity Among Yazoo Darters (Percidae: Etheostoma Raneyi) In Disjunct Watersheds Of Northern Mississippi, Ken A. Sterling, Stuart V. Nielsen, Andrew J. Brown, Melvin L. Warren, Brice P. Noonan

Faculty and Student Publications

© Copyright 2020 Nasser et al. The Yazoo Darter, Etheostoma raneyi (Percidae), is an imperiled freshwater fish species endemic to tributaries of the Yocona and Little Tallahatchie rivers of the upper Yazoo River basin, in northern Mississippi, USA. The two populations are allopatric, isolated by unsuitable lowland habitat between the two river drainages. Relevant literature suggests that populations in the Yocona River represent an undescribed species, but a lack of data prevents a thorough evaluation of possible diversity throughout the range of the species. Our goals were to estimate phylogenetic relationships of the Yazoo Darter across its distribution and identify …

The Application Of Machine Learning Models In The Concussion Diagnosis Process, Sujit Subhash

Masters Theses

“Concussions represent a growing health concern and are challenging to diagnose and manage. Roughly four million concussions are diagnosed every year in the United States. Although research into the application of advanced metrics such as neuroimages and blood biomarkers has shown promise, they are yet to be implemented at a clinical level due to cost and reliability concerns. Therefore, concussion diagnosis is still reliant on clinical evaluations of symptoms, balance, and neurocognitive status and function. The lack of a universal threshold on these assessments makes the diagnosis process entirely reliant on a physician’s interpretation of these assessment scores. This study …

Link Between Energy Investment In Biosynthesis And Cellular Resistance To Oxidative Insult: Test The Cost-Quality Hypothesis In Insects, Taiwo Bolanle Iromini

Masters Theses

“The metabolic cost of growth is the amount of energy invested to fuel the anabolic biochemical reactions of biosynthesis. It has been implicated in the efficiency of farm animals and fishes, thus, increased economic profit. The metabolic cost of growth in the cockroach nymph was reported to be 20-fold higher than that of the painted lady butterfly caterpillar. The cost-quality hypothesis was proposed to explain the extremely low biosynthesis energy cost in painted lady caterpillar when physiological and ecological processes the metabolic growth cost was attributed to could not. In this study, the cost-quality hypothesis was tested.

Midgut cells were …

Mid-Infrared Chiral Metsurface Coupling With Molecular Vibration, Md Shamim Mahmud

Masters Theses

“The mid-infrared design of chiral metamaterial shows a tremendous absorption capability of infrared rays, and it has the significant application of circular dichroism based device development. Plasmon-phonon coupling is one of the application of metamaterial that provides a new path for tailoring the surface in the nanoscale, which is also applicable in molecules detection. It is possible to change the Plasmon-Phonon coupling strength not only through the chemical change of molecules but also by changing the metamaterial light-matter interaction property. So far, linearly polarized light shows the strong coupling between metamaterial and molecules. However, it is possible to observe strong …

Workflow For Constructing Social Networks From Automated Telemetry Systems, Daizaburo Shizuka, Sahas Barve, Allison Johnson, Eric L. Walters

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Advances in datalogging technologies have provided a way to monitor the movement of individual animals at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales, both large and small. When used in conjunction with social network analyses, these data can provide insight into fine scale associative behaviors. The variety of technologies demand continuous progress in workflows to translate data streams from automated systems to social networks, based on biologically relevant metrics.

2. Here we present a workflow for generating flexible association matrices from automated radio-telemetry data that can be parsed into both spatial and temporal dimensions. These can then be used to generate …

Anatomizing White Rage: “Race Is My Religion!" And “White Genocide”, Kate E. Temoney

Department of Religion Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

From The Legal Literature: The Threat And Promise Of Police Use Of Dna Databases, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Considering A Domestic Terror Statute And Its Alternatives, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Recent years have seen an increase in right-wing extremist violence within the United States, which has highlighted the disparities in law enforcement’s handling of “international” as opposed to “domestic” terrorism. Public, legal, and law enforcement commenters have begun calling for a “domestic terrorism statute,” arguing that the lack of such a statute is the largest hurdle in prosecuting domestic terrorists. This Essay explains that the primary cause of the disparity in prosecutions between domestic and international terrorists is not a lack of a domestic terrorism statute but rather the lack of a generalized terrorism statute and the failure to designate …

Polymeric Nanoparticle As A New Platform For High Removal Of Endotoxins From Biopharmaceutical Solutions, Sidharth Razdan

Doctoral Dissertations

"Presently, approximately one-third of all biopharmaceutical drugs are derived from biological sources like gram-negative bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria like E.coli are much cheaper to cultivate and provide higher biotherapeutic yield compared to mammalian cells. On extracting the useful biotherapeutics from the gram-negative bacterial cells (E.coli), endotoxin present in the bacteria is released in the surrounding media thus contaminating the lifesaving biotherapeutics. Application of the endotoxin-contaminated therapeutics to humans or animals can cause serious health issues like septic shock, tissue injury and ultimately death. Hence, thorough purification of biotherapeutics before parenteral application is necessary. Although there are multiple methods for …

An Emi Characterization And Modeling Study For Consumer Electronics And Integrated Circuits, Chunyu Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

“As internet-of-things (IoT) applications surge, wireless connectivity becomes an essential part of the network. Smart home, one of the most promising application scenarios of IoT, will improve our life quality enormously. However, electromagnetic interference (EMI) to the receiving antenna, either from another electronic product or from a module/an integrated circuit(IC) inside the same wireless device, will degrade the performance of wireless connectivity, thus influencing the user experience. Characterization and modeling of the EMI become increasingly important.

In the first part, an improved method to extract equivalent dipoles from magnitude- only electromagnetic-field data based on the genetic algorithm and back-and-forth iteration …

Investigation On Nanoparticle Based Combination Therapy For Targeted Cancer Treatment, Muhammad Raisul Abedin

Doctoral Dissertations

“The current treatment methods in cancer are associated with toxicity in healthy tissues, partial therapeutic response, drug resistance and finally recurrence of the disease. The cancer drugs are challenged by non-specific binding, undesired toxicity in healthy cells, low therapeutic index and finally poor therapeutic outcome. In this work, a targeted nanoscale therapeutic system Antibody Drug Nanoparticle (ADN) was engineered to selectively inhibit the breast cancer cell growth with reduced toxicity in healthy cells. The ADNs were designed by synthesizing rod shaped anoparticles using pure chemotherapeutic drug and covalently conjugating a therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) on the surface of the drug …

Prospective Molecular Profiling Of Circulating Tumor Cells From Patients With Melanoma Receiving Combinatorial Immunotherapy., Selena Y Lin, Shu-Ching Chang, Stella Lam, Romela Irene Ramos, Kevin Tran, Shuichi Ohe, Matthew P Salomon, Ali Asgar S Bhagat, Chwee Teck Lim, Trevan D Fischer, Leland J Foshag, Christine L Boley, Steven J O'Day, Dave Hoon

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

BACKGROUND: Blood molecular profiling of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can enable monitoring of patients with metastatic melanoma during checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy (CII) and in combination with targeted therapies. We developed a microfluidics-based CTC platform to explore CTC profiling utility in CII-treated patients with melanoma using a melanoma messenger RNA (mRNA)/DNA biomarker panel.

METHODS: Blood samples (n = 213) were collected prospectively from 75 American Joint Committee on Cancer-staged III/IV melanoma patients during CII treatment and those enriched for CTCs. CTC profiling was performed using 5 known melanoma mRNA biomarkers and BRAF V600E DNA mutation. CTC biomarker status associations with clinical …

Big Five, Self-Regulation, And Coping Strategies As Predictors Of Achievement Emotions In Undergraduate Students, Jesús De La Fuente, Paola Paoloni, Douglas Kauffman, Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, Paul Sander, Lucía Zapata

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The study focused on the analysis of linear relations between personality, self-regulation, coping strategies and achievement emotions. The main objective was to establish a model of linear, empirical, associative to infer needs and proposals for intervening in emotional health in the different profiles of university students. A total of 642 undergraduate students participated in this research. Evidence of associative relations between personality factors, self-regulation and coping strategies was found. The neuroticism factor had a significant negative associative relationship with Self-Regulation both globally and in its factors; especially important was its negative relation to decision making, and coping strategies focused in …

Attributions Of Blame In A Hypothetical Child Sexual Abuse Case: Roles Of Behavior Problems And Frequency Of Abuse, Kate Theimer, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Youth who are blamed for their sexual abuse may experience increased negative outcomes, such as amplified self-blame. Similarly, blaming nonoffending parents can impede their ability to support their child following disclosure. Understanding the factors that influence how people perceive victim, caregiver, and perpetrator responsibility is imperative for the protection and treatment of families who have experienced sexual abuse. Little research has explored victim and abuse characteristics that influence the perception of sexual abuse. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the roles of behavior problems and frequency of abuse in the attribution of blame in a hypothetical …

An Integrated Relational Framework Of Depressed Mood And Anhedonia During Pregnancy, Rebecca L. Brock, Molly Franz, Erin L. Ramsdell

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective: The aim of the present study was to test a unified framework that integrates several theories into a cohesive model to explain the interplay between neuroticism and intimate relationship quality as risk factors for prenatal depression.

Background: There is a notable spike in risk for depression during pregnancy, and the processes unfolding in the interparental relationship during this important time in the family life cycle might serve to mitigate or enhance this risk. Yet there is a need for theory-driven research integrating multiple conceptual frameworks to explicate the role of intimate relationship quality in depression.

Method: In a sample …

R-Α-Lipoic Acid And 4-Phenylbutyric Acid Have Distinct Hypolipidemic Mechanisms In Hepatic Cells, Bo He, Régis Moreau

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

The constitutive activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) leads to the overproduction of apoB-containing triacylglycerol-rich lipoproteins in HepG2 cells. R-α-lipoic acid (LA) and 4-phenylbutyric acid (PBA) have hypolipidemic function but their mechanisms of action are not well understood. Here, we reported that LA and PBA regulate hepatocellular lipid metabolism via distinct mechanisms. The use of SQ22536, an inhibitor of adenylyl cyclase, revealed cAMP’s involvement in the upregulation of CPT1A expression by LA but not by PBA. LA decreased the secretion of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) in the culture media of hepatic cells and increased …

Perceptions And Beliefs Of African American Men And Women 30 Years And Older About The Health Care System In The United States, Jacqueline Chadwick Mcnair

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study described perceptions and beliefs of African American men and women ages 30 and over regarding their experiences with the health care system in the United States. The health belief model was the theory that drove this research, and it was grounded in the concept of cultural competency. The study used grounded theory methodology as well as phenomenology to describe the lived experiences of the participants and ethnography to describe the cultural characteristics of African American men and women ages 30 and over as related to their perceptions and beliefs about health care in the United States. The …

Moderators Of Depression And Self-Management In Type 2 Diabetes Patients, Cynthia Elaine Fraser

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although Type 2 diabetes can be reversed or controlled, many individuals choose not to adhere to treatment regimens, nor do they engage in self-management practices. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore self-management among individuals with Type 2 diabetes, examining whether some psychosocial variables have a moderating effect on self-management. The psychosocial variables explored in this research were perception of body image, fear of hypoglycemia, level of family support, and depression. The biopsychosocial model was the theoretical framework. Using the Body Appreciation Scale, Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire, The Family Relationship Scale, Hypoglycemic Fear Survey (HFS-II), and the Beck Depression …