Entire DC Network | Open Access Articles | Digital Commons Network™

Using Land And Water Conservation Fund Money To Protect Western Migration Corridors, Travis Brammer

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

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The Hybrid Guardian Ad Litem: Adopting Standards Of Practice To Improve The Quality Of Representation For Children In Custody Cases, Dona Playton

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

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Grizzlies, Wolves, And Law In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Wildlife Management Amidst Jusidictional Complexity And Tension, Robert Keiter

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

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Science Methods For Elementary Teachers, Ron Browne, David Kimori

Science Methods for Elementary Teachers

Complete Digitized Text of Science Methods for Elementary Teachers by Ron Browne and David Kimori, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2022.

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Endogenous Neurosteroid Hormone Production And Early Oligodendricyte Development, Paige Winokur

Student Theses and Dissertations

The field of neuroendocrinology grew immensely with the realization that steroid hormone production is not confined to the adrenal and reproductive glands but also occurs in the central nervous system (CNS). Steroids synthesized de novo in the brain and spinal cord are referred to as neurosteroid or neuroactive hormones and encompass estrogens, androgens, glucocorticoids, and mineralocorticoids. Though all substrates and enzymes required for neurosteroid biosynthesis exhibit CNS expression, a thorough comprehension of their functionality is lacking. In addition to mediating stress responses, neurosteroids influence CNS-specific processes known to regulate neural development and pathology. Multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder …

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Integration Sites In The Persistence Of Latent Hiv-1, Amy S. Huang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), the pathogen that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), remains one of the world's most pressing health issues. Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, over 32M people have succumbed to AIDS-related illnesses. Despite remarkable advances in HIV-1 biology, neither a vaccine or cure have been achieved. While antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly improved disease outcomes for people with HIV-1 and reduced transmission, treatment is often accompanied by long-term side effects or stigma, or impeded by limited access to health care. Furthermore, because viral load quickly rebounds upon treatment interruption, ART is required to be a …

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Structure And Mechanism Of Pcat1, A Polypeptide Processing And Secretion Transporter, Virapat Kieuvongngam

Student Theses and Dissertations

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters utilize the energy from ATP to transport substrates across biological membranes. Various ABC transporters perform diverse biological functions across all forms of life ranging from importing essential nutrients to exporting toxic drugs (Ford and Beis 2019; ter Beek, Guskov, and Slotboom 2014). Bacterial cells utilize a class of ABC transporters for exporting proteins or peptides. Unlike the Sec translocon machinery, the ABC peptide exporters are dedicated to specific peptides (Fath and Kolter 1993). These peptides function as quorum sensing peptides, biofilms, or antimicrobial peptides. Among these ABC peptide exporters are Peptidase Containing ABC Transporters (PCATs) that …

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Reproductive Resilience Of Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes, Krithika Venkataraman

Student Theses and Dissertations

Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes impose a severe global public health burden as vectors of viruses that cause dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika, and parasites that cause lymphatic filariasis. Under optimal environmental conditions, Aedes aegypti females have access to human hosts that provide blood proteins required for egg development, conspecific males that provide sperm required for fertilization, and freshwater in natural or manmade containers that serves as an egg-laying substrate suitable for offspring survival during larval and pupal stages. As global temperatures rise, Aedes aegypti females are faced with climate challenges like intense droughts and intermittent bouts of precipitation, which …

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Modulation Of Prefrontal Cortex Activity And Sociability By Local Interneurons Expressing Corticotropi-Releasing Hormone, Michael Riad

Student Theses and Dissertations

The cerebral cortex is composed primarily of two neuronal cell types: excitatory pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons. Their neurochemical diversity and complex organization into interconnected laminar and columnar circuits imbues the cortex with countless computational and functional possibilities. At the behavioral level, changes in the molecular profile and electrophysiological activity of cortical neurons produce noticeable changes in perception, learning and memory, motor skills, and executive cognitive functions. In the initial chapter of this thesis, I briefly cover the history and progress of cell type studies in cerebral cortex and provide frameworks for understanding and interrogating interneuron diversity. We next apply …

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Transcriptomic And Proteomic Studies Of Intercellular Communication Between Melanocytes And Keratinocytes In Human Skin, Gabriella Stephanne Spitz-Becker

Student Theses and Dissertations

The epidermis is a stratified epithelium composed of multiple cell types. Keratinocytes are the most prevalent cells in the epidermis and provide the barrier function of the skin. Interspersed amongst the keratinocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis are melanocytes, the pigment producing cells of the epidermis. Melanocytes produce melanin pigment which resides in melanosomes, organelles that are transferred to keratinocytes. In my thesis work, I focused on identifying downstream results of intercellular communication between melanocytes and keratinocytes for each of these cell types. I characterized the transcriptomes of human melanocytes and keratinocytes that were freshly derived from human …

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Characterization Of A Novel Sensing Mechanism Governing Antigenic Variation In P. Falciparum, Victoria M. Schneider

Student Theses and Dissertations

Plasmodium falciparum expresses a multi-copy gene family called var in the intraerythroyctic stages of its life cycle in a mutually exclusive manner. var genes encode the chief antigenic and virulence determinant of P. falciparum, PfEMP1, and switching between active genes results in antigenic variation, allowing the parasite to evade the human immune system and cause chronic infections. The molecular mechanisms that control activation and silencing of individual var genes, as well as coordination of the switching process, presently remain incompletely defined. P. falciparum contains only ~60 var gene family members in its genome. Consequently, the question remains as to how …

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New Roles For The Integrated Stress Response In Cancer And Proteostasis, Brian Hurwitz

Student Theses and Dissertations

The integrated stress response (ISR) is a highly conserved pathway that senses diverse stresses and responds by limiting total protein synthesis and redirecting translation to stress response transcripts. The ISR has the potential to modify a broad range of processes in cancer, but the major cancer-relevant functions of the pathway have remained elusive due to the complex and redundant nature of the upstream kinases that sense stress and activate the pathway. To overcome this challenge, we genetically targeted the central, regulatory node of the pathway, eIF2α-serine 51, directly, in primary squamous cell carcinoma cells to generate "ISR-null" SCCs. We surprisingly …

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Uncovering Regulators Of Whole-Body Metabolism By Chemoproteomic Profiling Of The Adipocyte Secretome, Chan Hee J. Choi

Student Theses and Dissertations

A major threat to human health, obesity is associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic complications such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and many types of cancers. Whereas white adipocytes efficiently store energy in the form of triglycerides, thermogenic brown and beige adipocytes can dissipate energy into heat. Adipose tissue is now considered an important endocrine organ, and increasing evidence suggests that divergent metabolic effects of different types of adipocytes are in part mediated by their secretory function. In addition, dysregulation of adipose tissue's secretory function in the setting of chronic positive energy balance plays a central role in …

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Multi-Modal Regualtion Of Actin Networks, Lin Mei

Student Theses and Dissertations

Eukaryotic cells employ the actin cytoskeleton to maintain cell shape, support motility, and sense and respond to external mechanical stimuli. An intricate network of actin filaments constitutes the foundation of tissue architecture by forming key cellular structures including the muscle fiber, the filopodium, the lamellipodium, and the cell cortex. Cellular and tissue level studies have shown that more than 150 actin-binding proteins regulate almost every single aspect of actin physiology, such as actin polymerization, actin severing, and actin crosslinking, but at the molecular level, the structural mechanisms by which different actin binding proteins bind, assemble, and regulate different actin networks …

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Biased Constitutive Activity In The Uveal Melanoma Oncogene Cysltr2 Is Unique In Cysltr2 Germline And Pan-Cancer Human Variome, Mizuho Horioka-Duplix

Student Theses and Dissertations

Uveal melanoma is the most common eye cancer in adults and is clinically and genetically distinct from skin cutaneous melanoma. In a subset of cases, the oncogenic driver is an activating mutation in CYSLTR2, the gene encoding the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) cysteinylleukotriene receptor 2. The mutant CYSLTR2 encodes for CysLTR2-L129Q receptor, with the substitution of Leu to Gln at position 129 (3.43). The ability of CysLTR2-L129Q to cause malignant transformation has been hypothesized to result from constitutive activity, but how the receptor could escape desensitization is unknown. In this work, we characterized the functional properties of CysLTR2-L129Q. CysLTR2 signals …

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Dna Methylation And Dna Methyltransferases In The Clonal Raider Ant, Ooceraea Biroi, Ivasyk Iryna

Student Theses and Dissertations

DNA methylation and DNA methyltransferase enzymes (DNMTs) are ubiquitous and predate the origin of eukaryotes. In animals, DNA methylation primarily is carried out by DNMT1, which targets hemi – methylated DNA and maintains methylation patterns through cycles of cell replication, and DNMT3, the de novo methyltransferase. These genes are essential to mammalian development, and mutations lead to embryonic (DNMT1 and DNMT3b) or post – natal (DNMT3a) lethality. Studies of DNA methylation and DNMTs in invertebrates have been limited to non – traditional model organisms because Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster lack the DNMT enzymes, and their DNA has no detectable …

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Intestinal Cd4+T Cell Responses To Food, Ainsley Lockhart

Student Theses and Dissertations

During routine digestion and absorption of food, massive quantities of diet-derived polypeptides pass through the intestine. The intestinal immune system must maintain tolerance to these dietary antigens while still protecting against pathogens and noxious agents. Oral tolerance, a robust mechanism whereby oral administration of antigen results in both local and systemic tolerance to that antigen, is a key component of this critical homeostasis. Oral tolerance requires CD4⁺ T cells including specifically regulatory T cells (Tregs), however the role of intestinal CD4⁺ T cells and the T cell repertoire in a physiological response to food protein remains largely unexplored. …

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Mechanistic Understanding Of The Role Of Trf1 In Telomere Replication, Zhe Yang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Mammalian telomeres are hard to replicate, and the shelterin subunit TRF1 is important for facilitating the replication of telomeric DNA. Deletion of TRF1 results in several phenotypes that are thought to be associated with telomere replication stress, including ATR signaling, fork stalling, sister telomere associations, and fragile telomeres. Fragile telomeres are structures that resemble common fragile sites (CFSs), but how they are formed is not known. TRF1 functions in part by recruiting the BLM helicase, which can resolve G-quadruplexes on the lagging-strand template. Deletion of BLM leads to lagging strand specific fragile telomere formation. In this thesis, I report that …

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Tumor Suppression By A Trna Synthetase, Maria Passarelli

Student Theses and Dissertations

Despite substantial progress in treatment, breast cancer remains a leading cause of cancer mortality among women. During malignant transformation, healthy mammary cells must bypass tumor suppressive checkpoints and activate pro-growth pathways. Enhanced protein translation is one such hallmark of tumor transformation and cancer progression; many oncogenes promote translation by driving synthesis and activity of translational machinery. In the first part of this thesis, we report the surprising finding that leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LARS), a tRNA synthetase responsible for ligating leucine to corresponding leucyl-tRNAs, becomes strongly repressed during mammary cell transformation and in breast cancer. Monoallelic genetic inactivation of LARS in mouse …

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Ras Drives Malignancy Through Stem Cell Crosstalk With The Microenvironment, Shaopeng Yuan

Student Theses and Dissertations

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) are triggered by marked elevation of RAS/MAPK signaling and progression from benign papilloma to invasive malignancy. A subset of tumor-initiating basal progenitors, the cancer stem cells, obtain increased resistance to chemo and immunotherapy along this path. However, the distribution and changes in cancer stem cells during progression from a benign state to an invasive SCC remain elusive. Here we show that following HRASG12V activation, cancer stem cells rewire their gene expression program and trigger self-propelling, aberrant signaling crosstalk with their tissue microenvironment that drives their malignant progression. Surprisingly, the non-genetic, dynamic cascade of crosstalk involves pathways …

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Restriction-Modification And Crispr-Cas Systems: Cooperation Between Innate And Adaptive Immunity In Prokaryotes, Pascal Maguin

Student Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria have evolved numerous mechanisms to resist the constant assault of viruses (called bacteriophages, or simply phages) that can infect and kill them. Restriction-modification (RM) systems represent one such strategy. Generally, these systems provide defense by coordinating the activities of two distinct enzymes: a restriction endonuclease and a methyltransferase. Both enzymes recognize the same short DNA sequences. The methyltransferase modifies these target sites in the host chromosome, which prevents the restriction endonuclease from cleaving the host's own DNA. In contrast, foreign phage DNA is usually not methylated at these sequences. Consequently, upon injection into the host, the viral DNA is …

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Novel Optical Tools To Investigate Presenilin Control Of Neurotransmission, Ryan J. Farrell

Student Theses and Dissertations

Neurotransmission is a critical function for neurons that underlies the complex processes of the brain. Deficits in synaptic function often manifest in neurodegenerative diseases, motivating the study of control points of neurotransmission. The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) has recently been described as one such control point, as ER Ca²⁺ levels can regulate the magnitude of synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Here we investigate the controversial hypothesis that Presenilins are ER Ca²⁺ leak channels to determine if a role in ER Ca²⁺ leak can explain the previously described regulation of neurotransmission by Presenilins. While Presenilins are best known for their involvement …

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Structural Studies Of The Nucleolar Stages Of Ribosome Biogenesis In Yeast, Linamarie Miller

Student Theses and Dissertations

The ribosome is the RNA-protein machine responsible for the essential task of translating mRNA into proteins. Ribosomes are heterodimers made up of a small subunit (SSU, 40S) and a large subunit (LSU, 60S). At the interface of these subunits, the mRNA is decoded by the small subunit and peptide bond formation is catalyzed by the rRNA of the large subunit. The cell therefore requires the timely and accurate assembly of functional ribosomal subunits, a complex process termed ribosome biogenesis. In addition to the ribosomal RNAs and ribosomal proteins that make up the mature subunits, eukaryotic cells require over 200 trans-acting …

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Sign-Inverting Vectors Underlie A Coordinate Transformation In The Drosophila Central Brain, Itzel Gonzalez Ishida

Student Theses and Dissertations

Our coherent sense of orientation is built from combining sensory experiences across different modalities. How animal brains compute and remember the directions of motion of the body, limbs, objects or landmarks in a shared reference frame is only now becoming clear.This dissertation focuses on a system of neurons that signals wind direction in the Drosophila central brain. We found that the activity of these neurons, called PFNa, can be thought of as a set of vectors whose summed activity yields the direction of wind in an allocentric reference frame — that is, relative to external landmarks like the sun, as …

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Songbird Brain Organization And Its Molecular Convergence With Humans For Vocal Imitation Learning, Gregory Gedman

Student Theses and Dissertations

The rich diversity of neural cell populations and their specialized connections give rise to a suite of complex behaviors across vertebrates. The presence of common neural cell types may be a product of either shared ancestry through homology or parallel evolution through convergence. However, the extent as to which these two processes are utilized by diverse nervous systems is poorly understood. Understanding the evolutionary relationships of these neural populations, both within and across vertebrate species, is critical for the study of complex trait evolution. Here, I investigate these two evolutionary processes within the adult avian brain and their impact on …

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Human Antibody Response To Flaviviruses And Sars-Coronavirus-2, Marianna Elizabeth Agudelo

Student Theses and Dissertations

The last decade has seen a number of viral epidemics and global pandemic. Increased global connectivity makes the likelihood of future mass outbreaks ever greater. Understanding the adaptive immune response to these pathogens will expand basic understanding of viral immunity mechanisms and can help inform vaccine and therapeutic development. This thesis describes the characterization of the human antibody response to several important viral pathogens, all of which are either emerging pathogens posing significant public health burdens or are already responsible for epidemic outbreaks. These include tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), Powassan virus (POWV), Zika virus (ZIKV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome …

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Building An Allocentric Traveling-Direction Signal Via Vector Computation, Cheng Lyu

Student Theses and Dissertations

Many behavioral tasks require the manipulation of mathematical vectors, but, outside of computational models, it is not known how brains perform vector operations. Here we show how the Drosophila central complex, a region implicated in goal-directed navigation, performs vector arithmetic. First, we describe a neural signal in the fan-shaped body that explicitly tracks a fly's allocentric traveling angle, that is, the traveling angle in reference to external cues. Past work has identified neurons in Drosophila and mammals that track an animal's heading angle referenced to external cues (e.g., head-direction cells), but this new signal illuminates how the sense of space …

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Peptidergic Signaling Controls The Dynamics Of Sickness Behavior In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Javier Marquina-Solis

Student Theses and Dissertations

Disease is accompanied by modifications to host behavior that promote recovery and survival. The neural and molecular mechanisms that rule the switch to a sickness behavioral state are an active area of research. One established model for sickness behavior is the interaction between Caenorhabditis elegans and the pathogenic bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14. After a few hours of exposure to and infection by PA14, C. elegans develops a sickness-like behavior termed pathogen avoidance. Here I identify neuronal signals generated during the infection and associate them with antagonistic circuits that shape the host behavior. Using an unbiased cell-directed neuropeptide screen, I show …

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A Developmental Pathway For Epithelial-To-Motoneuron Transformation In C. Elegans, Alina Rashid

Student Theses and Dissertations

During animal development, neurons and neuron-like cells are generated from progenitor cells that often line tubes. For example, in the developing spinal cord, basal processes of radial glial stem cells line the fluid-filled spinal canal. Notch/Delta signaling is implicated in the differentiation of these cells into motoneurons through control of their proliferative state. Down-regulation of the Notch-dependent Hes1 and Hes5 transcriptional inhibitors in differentiating cells induces expression of the proneural bHLH transcription factors Olig2 and Ngn2, leading to adherens junction loss, delamination from the epithelium, cell migration, and neuronal maturation. A similar sequence of events characterizes formation of pancreatic insulin-secreting …

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Palbociclib Suppresses The Cancer Stem Cell Properties And Cell Proliferation Through Increased Levels Of Mir-506 Or Mir-150 In Panc-1 And Miapaca-2 Cells, Özge Rencüzoğullari, Eli̇f Damla Arisan

Turkish Journal of Biology

The prognostic characteristics of pancreatic cancer (PC) are determined by the contributing factors from the tumor microenvironment. Leptin is a critical oncogenic factor released by adipocytes as an adipokine into the tumor microenvironment, where it promotes tumor development by activating cancer stem cell (CSC) molecular regulators Notch, Hedgehog, and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling. One of the downstream targets of these pathways is CDK4/6 and cyclin D which is controlled by P16 INK4A that is highly mutated in PC. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a CDK4/6 inhibitor, palbociclib, on Leptin-induced PC cells and to target the …

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Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Using Land And Water Conservation Fund Money To Protect Western Migration Corridors, Travis Brammer

Wyoming Law Review

The Hybrid Guardian Ad Litem: Adopting Standards Of Practice To Improve The Quality Of Representation For Children In Custody Cases, Dona Playton

Wyoming Law Review

Grizzlies, Wolves, And Law In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Wildlife Management Amidst Jusidictional Complexity And Tension, Robert Keiter

Wyoming Law Review

Science Methods For Elementary Teachers, Ron Browne, David Kimori

Science Methods for Elementary Teachers

Endogenous Neurosteroid Hormone Production And Early Oligodendricyte Development, Paige Winokur

Student Theses and Dissertations

Integration Sites In The Persistence Of Latent Hiv-1, Amy S. Huang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Structure And Mechanism Of Pcat1, A Polypeptide Processing And Secretion Transporter, Virapat Kieuvongngam

Student Theses and Dissertations

Reproductive Resilience Of Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes, Krithika Venkataraman

Student Theses and Dissertations

Modulation Of Prefrontal Cortex Activity And Sociability By Local Interneurons Expressing Corticotropi-Releasing Hormone, Michael Riad

Student Theses and Dissertations

Transcriptomic And Proteomic Studies Of Intercellular Communication Between Melanocytes And Keratinocytes In Human Skin, Gabriella Stephanne Spitz-Becker

Student Theses and Dissertations

Characterization Of A Novel Sensing Mechanism Governing Antigenic Variation In P. Falciparum, Victoria M. Schneider

Student Theses and Dissertations

New Roles For The Integrated Stress Response In Cancer And Proteostasis, Brian Hurwitz

Student Theses and Dissertations

Uncovering Regulators Of Whole-Body Metabolism By Chemoproteomic Profiling Of The Adipocyte Secretome, Chan Hee J. Choi

Student Theses and Dissertations

Multi-Modal Regualtion Of Actin Networks, Lin Mei

Student Theses and Dissertations

Biased Constitutive Activity In The Uveal Melanoma Oncogene Cysltr2 Is Unique In Cysltr2 Germline And Pan-Cancer Human Variome, Mizuho Horioka-Duplix

Student Theses and Dissertations

Dna Methylation And Dna Methyltransferases In The Clonal Raider Ant, Ooceraea Biroi, Ivasyk Iryna

Student Theses and Dissertations

Intestinal Cd4+T Cell Responses To Food, Ainsley Lockhart

Student Theses and Dissertations

Mechanistic Understanding Of The Role Of Trf1 In Telomere Replication, Zhe Yang

Student Theses and Dissertations

Tumor Suppression By A Trna Synthetase, Maria Passarelli

Student Theses and Dissertations

Ras Drives Malignancy Through Stem Cell Crosstalk With The Microenvironment, Shaopeng Yuan

Student Theses and Dissertations

Restriction-Modification And Crispr-Cas Systems: Cooperation Between Innate And Adaptive Immunity In Prokaryotes, Pascal Maguin

Student Theses and Dissertations

Novel Optical Tools To Investigate Presenilin Control Of Neurotransmission, Ryan J. Farrell

Student Theses and Dissertations

Structural Studies Of The Nucleolar Stages Of Ribosome Biogenesis In Yeast, Linamarie Miller

Student Theses and Dissertations

Sign-Inverting Vectors Underlie A Coordinate Transformation In The Drosophila Central Brain, Itzel Gonzalez Ishida

Student Theses and Dissertations

Songbird Brain Organization And Its Molecular Convergence With Humans For Vocal Imitation Learning, Gregory Gedman

Student Theses and Dissertations

Human Antibody Response To Flaviviruses And Sars-Coronavirus-2, Marianna Elizabeth Agudelo

Student Theses and Dissertations

Building An Allocentric Traveling-Direction Signal Via Vector Computation, Cheng Lyu

Student Theses and Dissertations

Peptidergic Signaling Controls The Dynamics Of Sickness Behavior In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Javier Marquina-Solis

Student Theses and Dissertations

A Developmental Pathway For Epithelial-To-Motoneuron Transformation In C. Elegans, Alina Rashid

Student Theses and Dissertations

Palbociclib Suppresses The Cancer Stem Cell Properties And Cell Proliferation Through Increased Levels Of Mir-506 Or Mir-150 In Panc-1 And Miapaca-2 Cells, Özge Rencüzoğullari, Eli̇f Damla Arisan

Turkish Journal of Biology