Digital Commons Network^™

Comprehensive Structure And Functional Adaptations Of The Yeast Nuclear Pore Complex, Christopher W Akey, Digvijay Singh, Christna Ouch, Ignacia Echeverria, Ilona Nudelman, Joseph M Varberg, Zulin Yu, Fei Fang, Yi Shi, Junjie Wang, Daniel Salzberg, Kangkang Song, Chen Xu, James C Gumbart, Sergey Suslov, Jay Unruh, Sue L Jaspersen, Brian T Chait, Andrej Sali, Javier Fernandez-Martinez, Steven J Ludtke, Elizabeth Villa, Michael P Rout

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) mediate the nucleocytoplasmic transport of macromolecules. Here we provide a structure of the isolated yeast NPC in which the inner ring is resolved by cryo-EM at sub-nanometer resolution to show how flexible connectors tie together different structural and functional layers. These connectors may be targets for phosphorylation and regulated disassembly in cells with an open mitosis. Moreover, some nucleoporin pairs and transport factors have similar interaction motifs, which suggests an evolutionary and mechanistic link between assembly and transport. We provide evidence for three major NPC variants that may foreshadow functional specializations at the nuclear periphery. Cryo-electron …

Design And Fabrication Of A Low-Cost, Portable, Battery-Operated Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers) Optical Device, Blessing Adewumi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Raman Spectroscopy is a time-honored, non-invasive method for analyzing and identifying the molecular composition of materials. However, unenhanced Raman Spectroscopy has extremely low sensitivity which limits its sensing capability. SERS brings rough nano-metallic surfaces in contact with the material molecules to enormously enhance the Raman signals.

The sensitivity of SERS can be exploited in probe applications where the spectrometer needs to be brought near the specimen. For example, a long optical fiber coupled to a SERS device can be used to characterize and identify easy-to-reach cancerous tissues in organisms. Unfortunately, background signals in a long fiber can easily mask any …

Evaluating Educational Efficiency In Texas Public Schools Utilizing Data Envelopment Analysis, Jeremy Thompson, J. Kenneth Young, Kaye Shelton

School Leadership Review

Policymakers and professional educators attempt to be good stewards of public funds while simultaneously raising expectations for student outcomes that reflect academic excellence in the public school system. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of Texas public school districts and the factors influencing the inefficiency of districts. This study is a replication of a similar efficiency study conducted by Carter (2012), which considered student performance in the 2009-10 school year on the TAKS tests. This study utilized quantitative research methods to gather data and implemented data envelopment analysis (DEA) to calculate a relative efficiency score for …

Transformers In Vision: A Survey, Salman Khan, Muzammal Naseer, Munawar Hayat, Syed Waqas Zamir, Fahad Shahbaz Khan, Mubarak Shah

Computer Vision Faculty Publications

Astounding results from Transformer models on natural language tasks have intrigued the vision community to study their application to computer vision problems. Among their salient benefits, Transformers enable modeling long dependencies between input sequence elements and support parallel processing of sequence as compared to recurrent networks e.g., Long short-term memory (LSTM). Different from convolutional networks, Transformers require minimal inductive biases for their design and are naturally suited as set-functions. Furthermore, the straightforward design of Transformers allows processing multiple modalities (e.g., images, videos, text and speech) using similar processing blocks and demonstrates excellent scalability to very large capacity networks and huge …

Directions For The Development Of Personal Subsidiary Farms And Increasing Sources Of Income In The Future, Yakupov Kabil

Karakalpak Scientific Journal

This article discusses the features of the development of personal subsidiary farms in modern conditions, defines their functions in the agrarian economy and in the life of society as a whole. Modern agrarian policy provides for the development of various forms of management, including personal subsidiary farms. Personal subsidiary farms are an organic part of the agricultural sectors and make a significant contribution to solving the food problem of the country. The provision of the population with food products is carried out by personal subsidiary farms through their own consumption, as well as the sale of surplus products.

Democratic Belonging As Informed Citizenry - Empowering Faculty To Empower Learners Via Information Literacy, Anna Santucci, Amanda K. Izenstark, Mary C. Macdonald

Public Services Faculty Presentations

Presentation at the AAC&U 2022 Annual Meeting as a Pre-Meeting Workshop.

Responsible citizens need the agility to navigate a changing information landscape. Intentionally designing learning experiences that integrate accessible Information Literacy (IL) skills for all students is a crucial step towards educational justice, a paramount responsibility in the democratic mission of our institutions. With this goal, the University of Rhode Island’s Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning has partnered with instruction librarians since 2018 in developing and facilitating a High Impact Teaching Seminar for faculty. Participants will learn about the seminar’s theoretical framework, impact and structure, engage in …

Commonwealth Times 2022-01-19

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

January 19, 2022 Greenmail, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

GreenMail (student newsletter through 2024)

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Responses Of Blue-Winged Teal And Northern Shoveler To Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Surveys, Mason D. Ryckman, Kaylan Kemink, Christopher J. Felege, Brian J. Darby, Gregory S. Vandeberg, Susan N. Ellis-Felege

Biology Faculty Publications

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become a popular wildlife survey tool. Most research has focused on detecting wildlife using UAVs with less known about behavioral responses. We compared the behavioral responses of breeding blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) (n = 151) and northern shovelers (Spatula clypeata) (n = 46) on wetlands flown over with a rotary DJI Matrice 200 quadcopter and control wetlands without flights. Using a GoPro camera affixed to a spotting scope, we conducted focal individual surveys and recorded duck behaviors for 30 minutes before, during, and 30 minutes after UAV flights to determine if …

A Muscle Cell-Macrophage Axis Involving Matrix Metalloproteinase 14 Facilitates Extracellular Matrix Remodeling With Mechanical Loading, Bailey D. Peck, Kevin A. Murach, R. Grace Walton, Alexander J. Simmons, Douglas E. Long, Kate Kosmac, Cory M. Dungan, Philip A. Kern, Marcas M. Bamman, Charlotte A. Peterson

Center for Muscle Biology Faculty Publications

The extracellular matrix (ECM) in skeletal muscle plays an integral role in tissue development, structural support, and force transmission. For successful adaptation to mechanical loading, remodeling processes must occur. In a large cohort of older adults, transcriptomics revealed that genes involved in ECM remodeling, including matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14), were the most upregulated following 14 weeks of progressive resistance exercise training (PRT). Using single-cell RNA-seq, we identified macrophages as a source of Mmp14 in muscle following a hypertrophic exercise stimulus in mice. In vitro contractile activity in myotubes revealed that the gene encoding cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor ( …

The Current - Volume 32 Issue 17, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Indole-3-Glycerol Phosphate Synthase From Mycobacterium Tuberculosis: A Potential New Drug Target, Nikolas Esposito, David W. Konas, Nina M. Goodey

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, affects millions of people worldwide. Several TB drugs have lost efficacy due to emerging drug resistance and new anti-TB targets are needed. Recent research suggests that indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase (IGPS) in M. tuberculosis (MtIGPS) could be such a target. IGPS is a (β/α)8-barrel enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of 1-(o-carboxyphenylamino)-1-deoxyribulose 5’-phosphate (CdRP) into indole-glycerol-phosphate (IGP) in the bacterial tryptophan biosynthetic pathway. M. tuberculosis over expresses the tryptophan pathway genes during an immune response and inhibition of MtIGPS allows CD4 T-cells to more effectively fight against M. tuberculosis. Here we review the published …

Genetic Parameters, Heterosis, And Breed Effects For Body Condition Score And Mature Cow Weight In Beef Cattle, André Mauric F. Ribeiro, Leticia P. Sanglard, Warren M. Snelling, R. Mark Thallman, Larry A. Kuehn, Matthew L. Spangler

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Understanding the genetic relationship between mature cow weight (MWT) and body condition score (BCS) is useful to implement selection programs focused on cow efficiency. The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters, heterosis, and breed effects for MWT and BCS. In total, 25,035 and 24,522 overlapping records were available for MWT and BCS on 6,138 and 6,131 cows, respectively, from the Germplasm Evaluation program, a crossbred beef population at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. Pedigree was available for 48,013 individuals. Univariate animal models were used to estimate heritabilities for each trait by parity. …

A Muscle Cell-Macrophage Axis Involving Matrix Metalloproteinase 14 Facilitates Extracellular Matrix Remodeling With Mechanical Loading, Bailey D. Peck, Kevin A. Murach, R. Grace Walton, Alexander J. Simmons, Douglas E. Long, Kate Kosmac, Cory M. Dungan, Philip A. Kern, Marcas M. Bamman, Charlotte A. Peterson

Center for Muscle Biology Faculty Publications

The extracellular matrix (ECM) in skeletal muscle plays an integral role in tissue development, structural support, and force transmission. For successful adaptation to mechanical loading, remodeling processes must occur. In a large cohort of older adults, transcriptomics revealed that genes involved in ECM remodeling, including matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14), were the most upregulated following 14 weeks of progressive resistance exercise training (PRT). Using single-cell RNA-seq, we identified macrophages as a source of Mmp14 in muscle following a hypertrophic exercise stimulus in mice. In vitro contractile activity in myotubes revealed that the gene encoding cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor ( …

The Directed Steps Of Hans Christian Gram: How Providence Played A Role In The Gram Stain, Which Illumines The Ordered Pattern Of Bacterial Cell Walls And Helps Identify Pathogens Of Infectious Diseases, Alan L. Gillen

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper honors Hans Christian Joachim Gram. In published papers, he simply identified as Christian Gram. Gram devised a staining technique that is still used to identify and classify different types of bacteria. He was a Danish microbiologist, born in Copenhagen on September 13, 1853. In German microbiologist Karl Friedländer’s lab, Gram noticed that staining a smear of pneumonia bacteria with a crystal violet followed by iodine and organic solvent showed differences in various samples. “Gram-negative” bacteria have thin cell walls that allow the solvent to wash away part of the stain. “Gram-positive” bacteria appear purple in microscopy because their …

The Parthenon, January 19, 2022, Tyler Spence, Conner Woodruff, Tyler Kennett, Evan Green, Shauntelle Thompson, Rafael Alfonso, Abby Hanlon, Abby Ayes, Alaiana Laster, Isabella Robinson

The Parthenon

No abstract provided.

Short Chain Fatty Acids Taken At Time Of Thrombectomy In Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Are Independent Of Stroke Severity But Associated With Inflammatory Markers And Worse Symptoms At Discharge, Nicholas Henry, Jacqueline A. Frank, Christopher J. Mclouth, Amanda L. Trout, Andrew J. Morris, Jianzhong Chen, Ann M. Stowe, Justin F. Fraser, Keith R. Pennypacker

Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) are gut microbiota-derived metabolites that contribute to the gut-brain axis and may impact stroke outcomes following gut dysbiosis. We evaluated plasma SCFA concentrations against stroke severity parameters and identified SCFA-associated protein networks.

Methods: The Blood and Clot Thrombectomy Registry and Collaboration (BACTRAC), a continuously enrolling tissue bank, was used to obtain stroke samples. Arterial blood distal and proximal to the thrombus was obtained from Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) Patients (n=53) during thrombectomy. Patient demographics, stroke presentation and outcome parameters were reported. The SCFAs were isolated from proximal plasma via chemical derivatization UHPLC coupled tandem …

Crop Rotational Complexity Affects Plant-Soil Nitrogen Cycling During Water Deficit, Timothy M. Bowles, Andrea Jilling, Karen Moran-Rivera, Jorg Schnecker, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

One of the biggest environmental challenges facing agriculture is how to both supply and retain nitrogen (N), especially as precipitation becomes more variable with climate change. We used a greenhouse experiment to assess how contrasting histories of crop rotational complexity affect plant-soil-microbe interactions that govern N processes, including during water stress. With higher levels of carbon and N cycling hydrolytic enzymes, higher mineral-associated organic matter N concentrations, and an altered microbial community, soils from the most complex rotation enabled 80% more corn N uptake under two moisture regimes, compared to soil from monoculture corn. Higher levels of plant N likely …

Microplastics Through The Lens Of Colloid Science, Ahmed Al Harraq, Bhuvnesh Bharti

Faculty Publications

Microplastics are sub-millimeter-sized fragments of plastics and a relatively new class of pollutant increasingly found in the environment. Due to their size and surface area to volume ratio, the physicochemical characteristics of microplastics can diverge from those of their macroscopic counterparts. This is partly why it is challenging to understand their origin, analyze their behavior, and predict their fates in the environment compared to large pollutants. We believe that adopting a view of microplastics as a colloid provides a holistic framework that connects their physical properties and surface chemistries with observations of their dynamics in the environment. In particular, we …

Comparative Study On The Chronic Vascular Responses Induced By Regular Versus Occasional Waterpipe Smoke Inhalation In Mice, Naserddine Hamadi, Sumaya Beegam, Nur Elena Zaaba, Ozaz Elzaki, Badreldin H Ali, Abderrahim Nemmar

All Works

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Waterpipe smoke (WPS) is the second most prevalent form of smoking in the world. There are ample evidences about the vascular alterations caused by regular WPS (Reg-WPS). Nonetheless, comparison of the chronic vascular response induced by regular versus occasional WPS (Occ-WPS) exposure is very scarce. METHODS: We investigated, in BALB/c mice, the effects of Occ-WPS (30 minutes/day, 1 day/week) versus Reg-WPS (30 minutes/day, 5 days/week) for 6 months on thrombogenicity and platelet aggregation in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, various markers of endothelial integrity, inflammation and oxidative stress were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and colorimetric assay. Control mice …

Spectroscopic Properties Relevant To Astronomical And Laboratory Detection Of Mch And Mch+ (M = Al, Mg), Vincent J. Esposito, Tarek Trabelsi, Joseph S. Francisco

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

New spectroscopic parameters have been calculated to aid in the laboratory and observational detection of AlCH, AlCH⁺, MgCH, MgCH⁺, and their deuterated analogs. All species exist in linear geometry except for AlCH+, which exhibits a bent structure. Rotational frequencies have been calculated and the transition with maximum intensity is discussed for three temperature regions present in space: 100 K for a central circumstellar envelope (CSE), 30 K for an outer CSE, and 3 K indicative of the interstellar medium. Pertinent frequencies range from 25 to 250 GHz, depending on the species. At 30 K, the most …

Prenatal Exposure To Maternal Psychological Distress And Telomere Length In Childhood, Stephanie A. Stout-Oswald, Laura M. Glynn, Marco Bisoffi, Catherine H. Demers, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Telomere length (TL) is a biological marker of cellular aging, and shorter TL in adulthood is associated with increased morbidity and mortality risk. It is likely that these differences in TL are established long before adulthood, and there is growing evidence that TL can reflect prenatal experiences. Although maternal prenatal distress predicts newborn TL, it is unknown whether the relation between prenatal exposure to maternal distress and child TL persists through childhood. The purpose of the current longitudinal, prospective study is to examine the relation between prenatal exposure to maternal distress (perceived stress, depressive symptoms, pregnancy-related anxiety) and TL in …

Chemical Weapons And Their Unforeseen Impact On Health And The Environment, Alexandra Chen

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The May 2020 police murder of George Floyd catalyzed a racial reckoning in the United States that saw millions of people take to the streets to protest police brutality against people of color. In following months, law enforcement used massive amounts of "less-lethal" chemical weapons against protesters in cities across the country. Despite widespread use of chemical weapons by police agencies and mounting evidence of related environmental and health harms, the federal government does not regulate the use nor the manufacture of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons contain toxic ingredients such as hexavalent chromium, lead salts, and methylene chloride, which are …

Uranium 233: The Nuclear Superfuel No One Is Using, Maris Hanson

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Nuclear power offers more energy in less physical space than solar and wind and yields more energy per pound than fossil fuels. However different nuclear fuels yield different waste profiles and create different beneficial products. Uranium 233 (U233) resists use in nuclear weapons, yields beneficial daughter products, and produces dramatically less of the most problematic waste products than Uranium 235 (U235). U233 results from reactions with Thorium, a plentiful, ubiquitous element currently considered waste from rare earth mines. Additionally, U233 functions well in a liquid fuel reactor resulting in safer, more efficient reactors than current solid fuel U235 or Plutonium …

The Gut Microbiota Of Chickens In A Commercial Farm Treated With A Salmonella Phage Cocktail, Viviana Clavijo, Tatiana Morales, Martha Josefina Vives-Flores, Alejandro Reyes Muñoz

Open Access Publications

The microbiota in broiler chicken intestines affects the animals' health, metabolism, and immunity both positively and negatively. Accordingly, it has a significant impact on animal productivity. Phages, host-specific parasites of bacterial cells, are a promising antimicrobial alternative that selectively target pathogens without disturbing the microbiota. The purpose of this study is to further characterize the commensal microbial community at production scale in broiler chickens treated with a Salmonella phage treatment. We evaluated the cecal microbiota of broilers reared in a commercial farming system where a phage cocktail against Salmonella, SalmoFree was supplied to animals. To do so, two field trials …

Niche Diversity Predicts Personality Structure Across 115 Nations, Patrick K. Durkee, Aaron W. Lukaszewski, Christopher Von Rueden, Michael D. Gurven, David M. Buss, Elliot M. Tucker-Drob

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The niche-diversity hypothesis proposes that personality structure arises from the affordances of unique trait combinations within a society. It predicts that personality traits will be both more variable and differentiated in populations with more distinct social and ecological niches. Prior tests of this hypothesis in 55 nations suffered from potential confounds associated with differences in the measurement properties of personality scales across groups. Using psychometric methods for the approximation of cross-national measurement invariance, we tested the niche-diversity hypothesis in a sample of 115 nations (N = 685,089). We found that an index of niche diversity was robustly associated with …

The Lived Experience In The Clinical Setting Of Nursing Students With Disabilities, Amy Luckowski

Dissertations

With the implementation of the 504 Rehabilitation Act, the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), more students with disabilities are being admitted into universities and into nursing programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences in the clinical setting of nursing students with disabilities. Moustakas's psychological phenomenology was utilized to describe the meaning of the student's experiences. A purposeful sample of 13 junior and senior baccalaureate nursing students with disabilities from two northeastern baccalaureate nursing programs who had at least one semester of clinical experience were interviewed …

Sustainability Of Mahogany Production In Plantations: Does Resource Availability Influence Susceptibility Of Young Mahogany Plantation Stands To Hypsipyla Robusta Infestation?, C. B. Darko, E. Opuni-Frimpong, S. A. Owusu, B. Kyere, A. J. Storer

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Hypsipyla robusta Moore (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), like many other moth species, shows selectivity when choosing host plants for its eggs. Four Meliaceae species (Khaya grandifoliola, K. ivorensis, Swietenia macrophyla, and Entandrophragma cylindricum) were established in a moist semideciduous forest in Ghana to study this selectivity at 12 and 21 months after planting. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) at a P-value of 0.05 was used to test the significance of differences in infestation by H. robusta between the species. H. robusta attacks were recorded by month 12 after planting in the field, and only Khaya spp. was attacked, with attacks evident on …

The Impact Of Aging On The Lung Alveolar Environment, Predetermining Susceptibility To Respiratory Infections, Jordi B. Torrelles, Blanca I. Restrepo, Yidong Bai, Corinna Ross, Larry S. Schlesinger, Joanne Turner

School of Medicine Publications

Respiratory infections are one of the top causes of death in the elderly population, displaying susceptibility factors with increasing age that are potentially amenable to interventions. We posit that with increasing age there are predictable tissue-specific changes that prevent the immune system from working effectively in the lung. This mini-review highlights recent evidence for altered local tissue environment factors as we age focusing on increased tissue oxidative stress with associated immune cell changes, likely driven by the byproducts of age-associated inflammatory disease. Potential intervention points are presented.

Materials And Methodologies For Spectroscopic And Optical Analytical Applications In Cultural Heritage Conservation Science, Lyndsay Nichole Kissell

Dissertations and Theses

The field of conservation science falls in the intersection of science and art. The work of conservation scientists may include any single subdiscipline of chemistry, though it is most commonly a highly interdisciplinary field taking skills from analytical, organic, and inorganic chemistry, as well as surface and materials science. The aims of conservation scientists are to answer questions about the production and aging of material cultural heritage. Knowing the materials used by an artist can lead to insight about the intentions of the object and knowing how those materials degrade will enable the use of preventative measures to ensure the …