Digital Commons Network^™

Investigate The Seminal Plasma Biomarkers In Differentiation Between Obstructive- And Non-Obstructive Azoospermia, Naael H Ali, Abdulkareem M Jewad, Attayia K Attayia

Maaen Journal for Medical Sciences

Background: Azoospermia is a very severe form infertility in males. Today, clinicians depend on semen analyses for the prediction of the reproductive potential of males, and testicular biopsies are the only reliable methods for diagnosing various subtypes of azoospermia. In the recent times, advances in proteomics contributed to look for new infertility biomarkers in males whose seminal plasma proteins are rich with proteins of various genital tract origins. Therefore, the fields of proteomics helped to develop new infertility biomarkers in males. Extracellular Matrix Protein 1 and Seminal plasma proteins Testis Expressed Protein 101 assays currently existing of are under the …

Children’S Engineering Identity Development Within An At-Home Engineering Program During Covid-19, Amber Simpson, Peter N. Knox

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The culture of engineering and the culture of formal learning environments often make it difficult for individuals to develop an engineering identity. Conversely, recent research points to the home environment as an alternative setting to support disciplinespecific identity development of children, while less is known regarding the identity development of children as engineers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the development of children’s engineering identity through the co-creation of engineering concepts and engagement with engineering design thinking and processes with family members in home environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted interviews with nine families—nine parents and …

Imposed Food And Its Challenges To Food Security, Zachary Tobias

Acta Cogitata: An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) declares that food security exists when all people have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. This is taken to understand food security in four measures: availability, access, utilization, and stability. The focus of this paper will be on access which concerns the affordability and allocation of the food supply (Ahteensuu & Siipi, 2016). I argue that social pressures on food choice, which I call food impositions, limit one's access to sufficient and safe foods by encouraging undereating in women and unhealthily high volumes of meat consumption in men. People …

Return, Leilani Bascom

Theses and Dissertations

Return is a video-based installation which includes sound, performance, and textile elements. Leilani Bascom is the lone actor navigating the water and where the water meets the land in this personal project exploring concepts of the life cycle from birth to death and rebirth. Life's paradox of struggle and release unfolds with imagery of battling through waves to swim deep underwater, fighting a river current and then surrendering to the flow, and carving a hole in the sand to climb into and be held. Viewers are immersed in the movement and sounds of water to witness the power and meaning …

Isolation And Characterization Of Chi-Like Salmonella Bacteriophages Infecting Two Salmonella Enterica Serovars, Typhimurium And Enteritidis, Addisu D. Teklemariam, Mona G. Alharbi, Rashad R. Al-Hindi, Ibrahim Alotibi, Abdullah A. Aljaddawi, Sheren A. Azhari, Ahmed Esmael

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium and Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis are well-known pathogens that cause foodborne diseases in humans. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella serovars has caused serious public health problems worldwide. In this study, two lysogenic phages, STP11 and SEP13, were isolated from a wastewater treatment plant in Jeddah, KSA. Transmission electron microscopic images revealed that both phages are new members of the genus “Chivirus” within the family Siphoviridae. Both STP11 and SEP13 had a lysis time of 90 min with burst sizes of 176 and 170 PFU/cell, respectively. The two phages were thermostable (0 ^◦C …

Management Of Anti-Seizure Medications During Pregnancy: Advancements In The Past Decade, Charul Avachat, Jessica M. Barry, Xintian Lyu, Catherine M.T. Sherwin, Angela K. Birnbaum

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Management of seizures often involves continuous medication use throughout a patient’s life, including when a patient is pregnant. The physiological changes during pregnancy can lead to altered drug exposure to anti-seizure medications, increasing patient response variability. In addition, subtherapeutic anti-seizure medication concentrations in the mother may increase seizure frequency, raising the risk of miscarriage and preterm labor. On the other hand, drug exposure increases can lead to differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes in the developing fetus. Established pregnancy registries provide insight into the teratogenicity potential of anti-seizure medication use. In addition, some anti-seizure medications are associated with an increased risk of …

Diet And Disturbance: Seaside Sparrow Resource Use Driven By Oiling And Hurricane Isaac, Allison M. Snider, Andrea Bonisoli-Alquati, Anna A. Pérez-Umphrey, Stefan Woltmann, Philip C. Stouffer, Sabrina S. Taylor

Faculty Publications

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster led to extensive oil deposition in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, followed two years later by Hurricane Isaac. These disturbances led to changes in saltmarsh invertebrate communities, potentially affecting higher-level predators and the saltmarsh food web. Seaside Sparrows (Ammospiza maritima) are ubiquitous, year-round residents of the coastal saltmarsh affected by the DWH spill, where they consume diverse invertebrates and may be considered an indicator species for the ecosystem’s integrity. We used DNA metabarcoding to evaluate prey consumed by Seaside Sparrows to understand how sparrows responded to residual contamination from the DWH oil spill and ecosystem disturbance …

"A New Side Of One And The Same Lord": Helmut Thielicke's Theological Anthropology As An Evangelical Response To Contemporary Humanity's Existential Anfechtung, Mark H. Lack

Witness

No abstract provided.

Efforts Towards The Asymmetric De Novo Synthesis Of Lanostanes And Euphanes, Htoo Tint Wai

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Tetracyclic triterpenoids are ubiquitous in nature and biology, with members displaying a wide range of medically relevant properties and occupying rather distinct regions of chemical space. Members of this large class include well-known steroid hormones and sterols as well as structurally interesting subclasses such as lanostanes and euphanes, among others. Comprised of the tetracyclic skeleton with three stereodefined quaternary centers at ring-junction positions, lanostanes and euphanes present synthetic challenges that are different from those encountered in efforts targeting the structurally less complex steroid hormones. Lanostanes, in particular, stand as a historically important class of compounds as significant attention has been …

Reduction Splint For Edentulous Patients, Summer Joy Decker, Jonathan Michael Ford, Jessica Allen Ching

USF Patents

An off-the-shelf oral splint that is operatively secured to the maxilla and mandible to assist in reduction and provide maintenance of reduction of maxillary and mandibular fractures in the edentulous or partially edentulous patient. The oral splint is fabricated into a plurality of standardized sizes. These sizes are determined by imaging a population of jaws, measuring dimensions thereof, manipulating (e.g., calculating the mean) these dimensions, and generating a size that is representative of a subset of that population. This can be done for all sizes that would represent individuals in that population. The splint itself is fabricated virtually by creating …

Nutrition Education As A Tool Of Empowerment, Claire Devries

Masters Projects

This study investigates the nutrition education programs implemented by organizations that operate Fresh Markets in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the goal of connecting empowered nutrition education to a food justice context. A review of scholarly literature reveals that there has been limited published work within the last three decades that integrates empowered nutrition to a food justice context. Analysis of interviews conducted with the four organizations indicates that nutrition education is used as a tool of empowerment in a food justice framework. However, this study reveals that nutrition education cannot be used alone as a tool of empowerment, rather it …

The Wellbeing Nexus, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

Progress following the Passage of the 2022 Animal Welfare, Environment and Sustainable Development Resolution at the UN Environment Assembly

In March of this year (2022), the UN Environment Assembly passed a Resolution (EA.5/Res.1) that requested the Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, to produce a report on the Nexus (or links) between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development. The passage of the Resolution is a landmark event because, in WellBeing International’s opinion, it emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to global health that addresses the well-being of people, animals, and the …

Living With Urban Foxes, John Hadidian

WellBeing News

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the most widely distributed wild carnivore on the planet, with a natural range that spans the entire Northern Hemisphere. Below the equator, foxes have been introduced to the Falkland Islands and Australia, where they cause widespread damage to domestic livestock and native fauna. Fox predation is a common cause of fox-human conflict throughout their range, leading to a complex relationship with humanity. This relationship varies where the fox is alternatively regarded as verminous, if not demonic, but is also an object of affection and regard — a typically bipolar human-animal relationship.[i]

Does Central Executive Training And/Or Inhibitory Control Training Improve Emotion Regulation For Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder? A Randomized Controlled Trial, Nicole B. Groves, Elizabeth S.M. Chan, Carolyn L. Marsh, Fatou Gaye, Emma M. Jaisle, Michael J. Kofler

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Introduction: Approximately 48–54% of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairing difficulties with emotion regulation, and these difficulties are not ameliorated by first-line ADHD treatments. Working memory and inhibitory control represent promising intervention targets given their functional, if not causal, links with ADHD-related emotion dysregulation. Methods: This preregistered randomized controlled trial tested whether two digital therapeutic training protocols that have been previously shown to improve working memory (Central Executive Training [CET]) and inhibitory control (Inhibitory Control Training [ICT]) can improve emotion regulation in a sample of 94 children with ADHD aged 8–13 years (M = 10.22, SD = 1.43; 76% …

Independent - Dec. 6, 2022, Monty Stites

The Independent (1988-present)

No abstract provided.

Environment-Specific Selection Alters Flowering-Time Plasticity And Results In Pervasive Pleiotropic Responses In Maize, Nicole E. Choquette, James B. Holland, Teclemariam Weldekidan, Justine Drouault, Natalia De Leon, Sherry Flint-Garcia, Nick Lauter, Seth C. Murray, Wenwei Xu, Randall J. Wisser

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

• Crop genetic diversity for climate adaptations is globally partitioned. We performed experimental evolution in maize to understand the response to selection and how plant germplasm can be moved across geographical zones.
• Initialized with a common population of tropical origin, artificial selection on flowering time was performed for two generations at eight field sites spanning 25° latitude, a 2800 km transect. We then jointly tested all selection lineages across the original sites of selection, for the target trait and 23 other traits.
• Modeling intergenerational shifts in a physiological reaction norm revealed separate components for flowering-time plasticity. Generalized and local modes of …

Critical Race Theory, Natural Rights, And The Fate Of Liberalism, Landon Hooley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Is critical race theory compatible with liberalism? I argue that it is not, and that natural rights theory, liberalism's rational core, ought to be preferred as the primary framework to create public policy and understand the law. Critical race theory (CRT) has outgrown its original design as a legal critique and become a political worldview, although it is not developed enough to constitute an ideology or philosophy. It has inspired various organizations and movements that expand upon its principles and propose ideals and policies that conflict with the current constitutional liberal order. Many conflicts between natural rights theory and critical …

Eat Your Invasives: A Practical And Historical Analysis Of Foraging For Invasive Foods, Grace Hartman

Honors Projects

This paper discusses both the historical and modern role of foraging and why people may decide to forage, as well as barriers new foragers may face and how they can be overcome. Furthermore, the paper discusses how foraging for invasive species can be used as a method of conservation and how simple foraging can be encouraged for this reason.

Comparative Study Of Differentiating Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Into Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells In Hydrogel-Based Culture Methods, Qing Liu, Zhen Liu, Hongyu Gu, Yuxia Ge, Xuesheng Wu, Fuxing Zuo, Qian Du, Yuguo Lei, Zhanqi Wang, Haishuang Lin

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), which provides structural integrity and regulates the diameter of vasculature, are of great potential for modeling vascular-associated diseases and tissue engineering. Here, we presented a detailed comparison of differentiating human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into VSMCs (hPSCs-VSMCs) in four different culture methods, including 2-dimensional (2D) culture, 3-dimensional (3D) PNIPAAm-PEG hydrogel culture, 3-dimensional (3D) alginate hydrogel culture, and transferring 3- dimensional alginate hydrogel culture to 2-dimensional (2D) culture. Both hydrogel-based culture methods could mimic in vivo microenvironment to protect cells from shear force, and avoid cells agglomeration, resulting in the extremely high culture efficiency (e.g., high …

Historical And Recent Breeding Of The Western Grebe And Clark's Grebe In A Severely Impaired Ecosystem At Clear Lake, California, Floyd E. Hayes, Bryan J. Mcintosh, Dylan G. Turner, Douglas E. Weidemann

Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist

Clear Lake is a large (176.7-km²) natural lake in northern California, USA. An estimated 1000 pairs of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark’s Grebes (A. clarkii) nested on the lake prior to massive applications of the pesticide dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD) to kill the Clear Lake gnat (Chaoborus astictopus) during 1949–1957. Biomagnification of DDD was implicated as the cause of several mass mortality events of grebes and short-term reproductive failure in the 1950s, although other factors such as mercury (Hg) poisoning may have contributed. Successful nesting resumed in 1960 and increased gradually, with up …

The Link December 6, 2022, Access To Justice Institute

The Link Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Enhancing The Wettability Of Polyetheretherketone (Peek) Membrane With Ozone For Improving Fuel Cell Performance, Hunter Heineman, Omran Omar, Benjamin Rippel, Ryan Keeley, Michael Mehan, Surendra K. Gupta, Gerald A. Takacs

Articles

Ozone was reacted with the aromatic membrane polyetheretherketone (PEEK) to form oxidized functional groups on the surface to enhance the attraction and transport of protons in fuel cells. Ozonation of unsaturated C-C sp2 bonds in PEEK formed a primary ozonide which dissociated to primarily produce O=C-O/O=C-OH moieties, and the root mean squared roughness factor (Rq) decreased from 7.4 nm, for the untreated sample, down to 3.1 nm. The oxidation of the surface and decrease in surface roughness made the surface increase in hydrophilicity as observed by the decrease in the water contact angle (CA) from 80.3° for untreated PEEK down …

A Survey Of Speech-Language Pathologists' Academic Preparation In Craniofacial Anomalies, Francesca Myerski

Honors Theses

Craniofacial anomalies occur in 1 of 750 newborns a year with the three main types being cleft lip, cleft palate, and cleft lip and/or cleft palate. There are six main factors that affect craniofacial anomalies that are focused on in this research, including genetics, environmental factors, medications, diet, health risks, and surgical procedures/surgeons. The research found that there is a lot of information on craniofacial anomalies and speech-language pathologists need to learn about as much as possible. The lack of knowledge and academic preparations speech-language pathologists have in craniofacial anomalies has decreased their awareness in the birth defect and has …

The Integrative Conjugative Element Icespym92 Contributes To Pathogenicity Of Emergent Antimicrobial-Resistant Emm92 Group A Streptococcus, Ji-Sun Lee, Michael W Lero, Jose Mercado-Matos, Sha Zhu, Minjeong Jo, Claire E Tocheny, Jennifer S Morgan, Leslie M Shaw

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite the strong association of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) pathway with tumor initiation, recurrence, and metastasis, the mechanism by which this pathway regulates cancer progression is not well understood. Here, we report that IIS supports breast cancer stem cell (CSC) self-renewal in an IRS2-phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-dependent manner that involves the activation and stabilization of MYC. IRS2-PI3K signaling enhances MYC expression through the inhibition of GSK3β activity and suppression of MYC phosphorylation on threonine 58, thus reducing proteasome-mediated degradation of MYC and sustaining active pS62-MYC function. A stable T58A-Myc mutant rescues CSC function in Irs2−/− cells, supporting …

Expression Of P-Stat3 And C-Myc Correlates With P2-Hnf4Α Expression In Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (Nafld), Mamoun Younes, Lin Zhang, Baharan Fekry, Kristin Eckel-Mahan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We studied the expression of two hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4α) isoforms, p-STAT3. and c-Myc in 49 consecutive liver biopsies with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) using immunohistochemistry. All 49 biopsies (100%) were positive for nuclear expression of P1-HNF4α. Twenty-eight (57%) cases were positive for P2-HNF4α, 6 (12%) were positive for p-STAT3 and 5 (10%) were positive for c-Myc. All 6 (100%) p-STAT3-positive cases were also positive for P2-HNF4α (p = 0.03). p-STAT3-positive cases were more likely to be positive for c-Myc (67% vs. 2%, p = 0.0003). Four cases were positive for P2-HNF4α, p-STAT3 and c-Myc. p-STAT3 …

Identification Of Acenkps, A Committed Common Progenitor Population Of The Ilc1 And Nk Cell Continuum, Noe Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Paula A Clark, Mayuri Gogoi, Ana C F Ferreira, Bernhard Kerscher, Alastair Crisp, Helen E Jolin, Jane E Murphy, Meera Sivasubramaniam, Luisa Pedro, Jennifer A Walker, Morgan W D Heycock, Jacqueline D Shields, Jillian L Barlow, Andrew N J Mckenzie

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The development of innate lymphoid cell (ILC) transcription factor reporter mice has shown a previously unexpected complexity in ILC hematopoiesis. Using novel polychromic mice to achieve higher phenotypic resolution, we have characterized bone marrow progenitors that are committed to the group 1 ILC lineage. These common ILC1/NK cell progenitors (ILC1/NKP), which we call "aceNKPs", are defined as lineage-Id2+IL-7Rα+CD25-α4β7-NKG2A/C/E+Bcl11b-. In vitro, aceNKPs differentiate into group 1 ILCs, including NK-like cells that express Eomes without the requirement for IL-15, and produce IFN-γ and perforin upon IL-15 stimulation. Following reconstitution of Rag2-/-Il2rg-/- hosts, aceNKPs give rise to a spectrum of mature ILC1/NK cells …

Popdc1 Scaffolds A Complex Of Adenylyl Cyclase 9 And The Potassium Channel Trek-1 In Heart, Tanya A Baldwin, Yong Li, Autumn N Marsden, Susanne Rinné, Anibal Garza-Carbajal, Roland F R Schindler, Musi Zhang, Mia A Garcia, Venugopal Reddy Venna, Niels Decher, Thomas Brand, Carmen W Dessauer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The establishment of macromolecular complexes by scaffolding proteins is key to the local production of cAMP by anchored adenylyl cyclase (AC) and the subsequent cAMP signaling necessary for cardiac functions. We identify a novel AC scaffold, the Popeye domain-containing (POPDC) protein. The POPDC family of proteins is important for cardiac pacemaking and conduction, due in part to their cAMP-dependent binding and regulation of TREK-1 potassium channels. We show that TREK-1 binds the AC9:POPDC1 complex and copurifies in a POPDC1-dependent manner with AC9 activity in heart. Although the AC9:POPDC1 interaction is cAMP-independent, TREK-1 association with AC9 and POPDC1 is reduced upon …

A Unified Model Of Age-Related Cardiovascular Disease, Michael Fossel, Joe Bean, Nina Khera, Mikhail G Kolonin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite progress in biomedical technologies, cardiovascular disease remains the main cause of mortality. This is at least in part because current clinical interventions do not adequately take into account aging as a driver and are hence aimed at suboptimal targets. To achieve progress, consideration needs to be given to the role of cell aging in disease pathogenesis. We propose a model unifying the fundamental processes underlying most age-associated cardiovascular pathologies. According to this model, cell aging, leading to cell senescence, is responsible for tissue changes leading to age-related cardiovascular disease. This process, occurring due to telomerase inactivation and telomere attrition, …

Modulation Of Sirtuins During Monolayer Chondrocyte Culture Influences Cartilage Regeneration Upon Transfer To A 3d Culture Environment, Hannah K Heywood, Stephen D Thorpe, Renos M Jeropoulos, Paul W Caton, David A Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study examined the role of sirtuins in the regenerative potential of articular chondrocytes. Sirtuins (SIRT1-7) play a key role in regulating cartilage homeostasis. By inhibiting pro-inflammatory pathways responsible for cartilage degradation and promoting the expression of key matrix components, sirtuins have the potential to drive a favourable balance between anabolic and catabolic processes critical to regenerative medicine. When subjected to osmolarity and glucose concentrations representative of the in vivo niche, freshly isolated bovine chondrocytes exhibited increases in SIRT1 but not SIRT3 gene expression. Replicating methods adopted for the in vitro monolayer expansion of chondrocytes for cartilage regenerative therapies, we …

A Hug For Humanity: Metamodernism And Masculinity On Television In Ted Lasso, Kennedy Lesley Koford

Theses and Dissertations

The Apple TV+ sports comedy Ted Lasso has been a hit among fans, who flock to the show and its positive messages. The show offers a refreshing tone, one that promotes positivity and optimism even when faced with the reality of a cynical world. By using the analytical perspective of metamodernism to understand its popularity, scholars and fans alike can gain a deeper understanding of core message of the show, which mimics the oscillation between the cynical and the sincere. Fundamental scholars in the emerging study of metamodernism, such as Robin Van Den Akker, Timotheus Vermeulen, and Alison Gibbons will …