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Deletion Of Period Genes Exacerbates Diet-Induced Obesity In Female, But Not Male, Mice, Elizabeth Kantra

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Sex differences in obesity in mice are mediated by differential responses of circadian rhythms to high-fat feeding in males and females. Other studies also showed circadian Period genes regulate diet-induced obesity in mice. In this study, we investigated the role of the Period genes in regulating sex differences in obesity. Male and female C57BL/6J wild type, Per1/2 KO, and Per1/2/3 KO mice were housed in 12L:12D and fed high-fat diet for 12 weeks. We found a striking sex difference in obesity such that disabling the Period genes exacerbated adiposity in female, but not male, mice. Increased adiposity in female Period …

Understanding The Effects Of Embryonic Hyperglycemia On Retinal Development And Maintenance, Kayla Titialii-Torres

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Hundreds of millions of people are affected by diabetes worldwide. Whether they are diagnosed with prediabetes or Type I or II diabetes, there are a variety of mechanisms in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Diabetes is a disease which consists of recurring states of hyperglycemia that can be difficult to manage due to either lack of insulin production or improper utilization of insulin. While these mechanisms of action differ, complications induced by diabetes occur in both poorly regulated Type I and II. Common complications of diabetes include nerve damage, kidney damage, and eye damage. Eye damage specifically is called diabetic retinopathy …

Identifying Epidermal Enriched Genes Required For Planarian Regeneration- Sp. Schmidtea Mediterranea, Pallob Barai

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The outer epithelial layer covering an organism, commonly known as the epidermis, is crucial for maintaining homeostasis and for the wound healing processes after injury. The planarian epidermis allows flatworms to heal their wounds and virtually restore any missing tissues. Immediately after amputation, planarians contract their muscle and stretch their epidermis to heal the wound area. However, how the planarian epidermis coordinates with other tissues and mechanisms after the initial wound healing processes begins is not understood in detail. I hypothesized that epidermal cell stretching upon wound healing induces transcriptional changes that are required for effective regeneration. To test this …

Assessing Ear Pinna Repair In The Mrl/Mpj Mouse Strain, Fatemeh Safaee

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The outcome of tissue repair varies across species. Vertebrates such as salamanders have the ability to not only heal scar-free but also completely regenerate lost appendages. In contrast, most mammals heal their wounds with fibrotic scarring. Understanding the key drivers of these divergent injury responses remains a major unanswered question in animal biology. Previous work with the Murphy’s Roth Large (MRL/MpJ) inbred mouse strain suggested they have the ability to rapidly close small (2mm) ear holes. While this ability was originally published as an example of regeneration, subsequent work by other groups suggested that it might represent something more akin …

The Role Of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type F In Intestinal Homeostasis And Colorectal Cancer, Ashley T. Skaggs

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Protein phosphorylation defines one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in cell signaling. PTPRF, protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type F, belongs to the class I R2A subfamily of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTP). The overall objective of this dissertation is to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which PTPRF regulates normal and cancer stem cells by controlling Wnt signaling.

Dysregulation of Wnt signaling promotes the initiation and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). We first determined the functional important of PTPRF in regulating Wnt signaling in CRC. Combining cell culture, 3D tumor organoid and xenograft models, results from our study establish PTPRF as …

A Multidisciplinary Characterization Of The Enzymology And Biology Of Reversible Glucan Phosphorylation In Toxoplasma Gondii , Robert Murphy

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic, protozoan parasite of all warm-blooded animals, infecting roughly one-third of humans worldwide. Humans acquire infections by consuming T. gondii tissue cysts in undercooked meat or from oocysts shed in cat feces. Encysted parasites convert into rapidly growing tachyzoites that disseminate throughout the body, defining the acute phase of infection. Under host immune pressure, tachyzoites convert into bradyzoites that populate tissue cysts found in CNS or muscle tissue and persist for the lifetime of the host, defining the chronic phase of infection. Tissue cysts are responsible for transmission via carnivory, but also possess the ability to …

Defining Patient Cohorts For Guiding Clinical Trials And Treatment In Lafora Disease: A Model For The Rare Disease Community, Katherine Janae Donohue

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

In the US, approximately 8000 rare diseases have been identified. Combined, rare diseases impact more than 30 million people in the U.S. alone, with 75% of those being children. However, research, funding, and therapeutic development for the rare disease community remains challenging because of the incredible diversity – not only between diseases, but often even within a single disease.

LD is an ultra-rare childhood dementia and epilepsy caused by mutations in one of two driver genes: EPM2A, which encodes for the glycogen phosphatase laforin, and EPM2B/NHLRC1, which encodes the E3 ubiquitin ligase malin. Children with LD …

Remote Sensing For Quantifying C3 And C4 Grass Ratios In Pastures, Jordyn Alyssa Bush

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

The following studies investigate the accuracy and practicality of exploiting the color dichotomy present between C₃ and C₄ grass species to estimate their respective proportions from drone or camera captured imagery. Understanding the proportions of C₃ and C₄ grasses in pastures is vital to sound decision making for livestock production. The ability to monitor these proportions remotely will also allow for large scale monitoring as well as detection of changes in botanical composition over time and in response to weather events, management, or climate change. A free green canopy cover (GCC) analyzing software, Canopeo, was used …

Tirso De Molina’S El Melancólico And The Performative Authenticity Of Early Modern (Pseudo-)Melancholy, Paul Michael Johnson

Global Language Studies Faculty publications

La melancolía se ha convertido casi en sinónimo de la temprana modernidad, no ya como una aflicción crónica de la psicología médica, sino como un sentimiento definitorio del periodo en términos generales. Esto es de aplicación especial para el caso de España, cuya reputación como creadora de melancólicos fue legendaria dentro y fuera de sus fronteras. Recientemente se ha dudado sobre su autenticidad, y los estudiosos han cuestionado cuánto en esa melancolía era condición psicológica, o bien moda pasajera, obsesión auto-creada, histeria colectiva imaginada o performance dramática. Este ensayo analiza las implicaciones mutuas de la melancolía y la incertidumbre en …

Monastic Landscapes: A New Approach To Columbanian Monasticism, Albrecht Diem

History - All Scholarship

T his contribution proposes different notions of "monastic landscapes" (geographic, political, textual, economic, spiritual) and discusses whether applying them to the monastic movement allegedly initiated by Columbanus may help us to refine or deconstruct the concept of "Columbanian monasticism." Comparing evidence on monastic life in Gregory of Tours' hagiographic and historiographic works with the depiction of monastic life in Jonas of Bobbio's Vita Columbani shows that we can indeed identify a shift from a "landscape with monasteries" in sixth-century Merovingian Francia to a politically integrated "monastic landscape" in the seventh century. However, this does not mean that the fundamental shift …

Una Solució, Si Us Plau: Self-Determination And The Catalan Crisis, Jared Skinner

Emory International Law Review

Nestled in the corner of Spain is the birthplace of a people and a political conflict as old as the history of the peninsula itself. Catalonia, long a bastion for independence movements around the world, is caught at the center of tensions between traditional regionalism and political centrality in Spain. As internal unrest continues to intensify, miring discussion and dialogue, the crisis creeps closer to a point of drastic political uncertainty. Exhausted with the enduring lethargy of domestic and European legal fora, the Catalans have often thought of turning to international law for a solution. This Comment draws upon decades …

The Third Message Of Islam?, Upendra Baxi

Emory International Law Review

Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im makes a spirited call for reformation of the Shari’a human rights, democracy, and constitutional compliance. He does so not as the problem of any metaphysical framework, or everydayness of the “fatigue of the Sharia,” but as accentuating a moral duty of non-humiliation itself as a human right to live with dignity as the core of Islam and all other religions. He crafts Islamic traditions of dialogue in a world that increasingly only knows the demagogic soliloquies of power. An-Na’im follows the “moderate revolutionary” Ustadh Mohamad Taha, who offered the Second Message of Islam, espousing the Mecca …

A Different Look At Rawlings's The Secret River, Anne Bellissimo

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.

Coming Of Age In Post-Climate Change Florida In Karen Russell's "The Gondoliers", Christopher Nank

The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature

No abstract provided.

Finding The Right Angle: Lessons From Mathematics For The Legal Writing Classroom, Maria Termini

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Law Schools Should Leave Behind, Danielle L. Tully

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Improving User Experiences For Wiki Systems, Parth Patel

Master's Projects

Wiki systems are web applications that allow users to collaboratively manage the content. Such systems enable users to read and write information in the form of web pages and share media items like videos, audios, books etc. Yioop is an open-source web portal with features of a search engine, a wiki system and discussion groups. In this project I have enhanced Yioop’s features for improving the user experiences. The preliminary work introduced new features like emoji picker tool for direct messaging system, unit testing framework for automating the UI testing of Yioop and redeeming advertisement credits back into real money. …

Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater: Education Consortium, Kove Lambert

Goal 1: No Poverty

No abstract provided.

A Simulation Of The Economic Impact Of Disaster Events, Richie Pajak

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Your Body, Your Cells? Direct-To-Consumer Marketing Of Autologous Stem Cell Therapies In The United States, Japan, And Australia, Kathleen C. Laird

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Stem cell tourism has relocated; patients in search of stem cell therapies to treat nearly any disease can find clinics selling miracle cures without traveling beyond their national borders. Businesses marketing unproven autologous stem cell therapies are now plentiful in highly regulated, wealthy countries, including the United States, Japan, and Australia. Despite regulatory oversight of stem cell therapies and strong support for scientific innovation in these countries, the internet and social media have facilitated the rapid growth and success of a new industry selling unproven treatments directly to consumers. Clinics selling unproven autologous stem cell therapies have succeeded by developing …

Model Of A Biotic Hard Substrate Community: Paleoecology Of Large Trepostome Bryozoans From The Upper Ordovician (Katian) Of The Cincinnati Region, Usa, Kate Runciman

Senior Independent Study Theses

The calcite skeletons of trepostome bryozoan colonies from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of the Cincinnati region record the diverse interactions and growth responses these colonies experienced. Trepostome specimens from three Cincinnatian strata; the Bellevue Member, the Bull Fork Formation, and the Whitewater Formation, were studied within this project. These three strata were deposited in a shallow epicontinental sea environment that was located in the southern subtropics, approximately 20-23°S at the time of deposition. The focus of this project was the paleoecology of large trepostome bryozoans, which was studied by examining bryozoan growth patterns, trace fossils, and sedimentation. Microscopic examination of …

Tofurky V. Strain, Middle District Of Louisiana

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Facetoface Biometrics V Apple, Eastern District Of Missouri

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Learn Programming In Virtual Reality? A Project For Computer Science Students, Benjamin Alexander

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This paper presents the development of a new learning platform in Virtual Reality to create a more immersive and intuitive learning experience for introduction of programming courses at an intermediate level. This platform is designed to create a central hub for interactive courseware and facilitate distance learning in our post COVID world. Utilizing Virtual Reality, the application teaches specific topics in Computer Science using scripted animations, tutorials, and interactive games. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the user experience and learning outcomes. Participants of this study reported they were more engaged and motivated in learning programing concepts. We found …

Strafford County 2021 Annual Report Of The Commissioners, Treasurer, Other County Officers, And The Strafford County Delegation For The Year Ending December 31, 2021., Strafford County Representatives

Strafford County, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a county in the state of New Hampshire.

Natural Resource Management Newsletter, January 2022, Department Of Natural Resource Management

NRM Newsletter

CAFES Awards: Teacher of the Year & Student Club Honorable Mention 2021
NRM Affiliate Professor Receives Fulbright to Norway
Service Awards
Elisha YT Summer Internship
Deva Raj Khanal 2021 ASPT Research Award
Gary Larson Memorial Burr Oak at Dakota Nature Park in Brookings
Oak Lake Field Station Jon Haertel Undergraduate Research Award
Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Day (URSCAD)
Seven Wokini Challenge Grants Awarded for FY 2022 - Lan Xu
Fire School at Oak Lake Field Station
USDA project to produce wildflower seeds, improve soil health
Pollinators in an Agricultural Context
Welcome new faculty members: Alison, Chris, Amanda & …

Modeling Als-Associated Matrin-3 Toxicity In Yeast, Widad El-Zein

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord leading to progressive paralysis and ultimately death. Perturbations in RNA metabolism and RNA binding proteins have emerged as underlying defects in ALS pathogenesis. Matrin-3 is a multifunctional RNA binding protein that has been linked to familial and sporadic ALS. Matrin-3 is normally found in the nucleus, but mutations in the gene cause mislocalization of the protein from the nucleus into the cytoplasm of neuronal cells where it forms protein aggregates. In this study, we show that over-expressing human MATR3 in …

Reconstruction Of Gut Microbiome Via Intermittent Feeding, Kourtney Sprague

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The benefits of intermittent fasting have been studied across many facets of health. It is known that physiologically fasting results in a metabolic switch from liver-derived glucose to adipose cell derived ketones to be used as energy and signaling molecules. Fasting down-regulates inflammation, increases expression of antioxidant defenses, and activates pathways for DNA repair and autophagy. While fasting or intermittent feeding effects on host physiology have been identified, the relationship between fasting and gut microbiome is not as well known. In times of gut rest, resident microbes undergo detoxication and motility, and in times of activity, gut microbes undergo DNA …

Outcome Of Vital Pulp Therapy On Immature Permanent Teeth With Calcium Silicate-Based Materials: Retrospective Cohort Study, Brian I. Hone

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: The purpose of vital pulp therapy is to maintain pulp viability by eliminating bacteria from the dentin-pulp complex and to establish an environment in which apexogenesis can occur. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of vital pulp therapy on immature permanent teeth using different calcium silicate-based materials. Methods: This study was carried out in the Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Endodontics department in Richmond, Virginia. Vital pulp therapy cases performed by graduate endodontic residents were retrospectively searched and charts were reviewed to determine inclusion into this study. All cases …

Shenandoah Valley Partnership: Growing And Enhancing The Food And Beverage Manufacturing Industry, Justin Williams

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This plan analyzes how the Shenandoah Valley Partnership can grow and enhance its food and beverage manufacturing industry. To answer this question, I interviewed and surveyed food and beverage manufacturers to understand their business needs, as well as interviewed service providers to identify their relationships with this industry. The four main results from the plan were:

• There is a need for more capital for the businesses.

• There is a labor shortage in the industry.

• The Shenandoah Valley has an excellent distribution location.

• The industry has a poor relationship with the region’s service providers.

The plan outlines recommendations on how institutions …