Digital Commons Network^™

Redundancy And Developmental Coordination In Myxococcus Xanthus: Insights From The Phenome, Jessica A. Comstock

Dissertations - ALL

Genotype-to-phenotype mapping can typically involve disrupting the function of a gene and observing the impact of mutation on phenotype. While this can be a powerful tool for uncovering gene function, complicating factors such as influences between genes and the environment, epistatic interactions with other genes, and genetic redundancy could all potentially mask the phenotype of a mutation such that functional inferences cannot be made. On the level of the single gene, this may not be particularly informative, but it is possible that studying phenotype in this way at a genome scale might allow for the observation of patterns between genes …

Leveraging Isocyanate Chemistry For Low Cost And Highly Functional Hydrogels, Henry Beaman

Dissertations - ALL

The development of novel biomaterials is an important step in providing higher quality products for wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. Progress is consistently being made in the development of new polymers, yet new polymer systems are often expensive and/or involve complex multistep synthesis methods. These limitations could hinder the translation and scalability of functionalized materials. To address the issues of complex synthesis and high cost, we have devised strategies for polymeric modification using isocyanate chemistry. Isocyanates are used in the manufacturing of polyurethanes. Isocyanates are highly reactive with common functional groups, such as amines, hydroxyls, and carboxylic acids. …

Bleeding Red: The Relationship Between Feminism, Brand Activism Skepticism, And Attitudes About Menstrual-Realistic Advertisements, Adriana S. Mucedola

Dissertations - ALL

Beginning in the early 2000s, menstrual product advertisers in the U.S. and other developed countries began to use red liquid in their advertising to represent period blood rather than the blue liquid used in the past, which is often criticized because it portrays stigmatizing representations of menstruation. These more “menstrual-realistic” advertisements instead communicate that bleeding is normal and arguably help correct past wrongdoings relating to the tainted history of stigmatizing menstrual product ads. This imagery has garnered mixed reactions from the public, including praise, disgust, and skepticism. Extant research demonstrates that consumers prefer media that align with their preexisting beliefs; …

Investigating The Role Of The Transcriptional Coregulator Cited2 In Regulating Intermediate Progenitor Proliferation And Modulating Behavior, Nikolaus R. Wagner

Dissertations - ALL

The mammalian neocortex develops from a thin layer of neuroepithelial cells into a robust mosaic of differentiated neurons organized into distinct layers and functional areas. This process requires a complex choreography of transcription factors and epigenetic regulators to be spatially and temporally activated in a precise manner. Disruptions in any aspect of this delicate process may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, or intellectual disability. One such transcriptional coregulator that is a crucial regulator of neocortical development is Cited2. Previous work demonstrated that forebrain-specific Cited2 loss-of-function causes a reduction in neocortical progenitor proliferation which leads to reduced …

Molecular Mechanisms That Regulate Centrosome Movement During Tissue Morphogenesis, Nikhila Krishnan

Dissertations - ALL

Coordination of cell division, cellular epithelialization and ciliogenesis is necessary for tissue development in vivo. We argue that the process of epithelialization and ciliogenesis requires positioning the centrosomes to specific cellular locales. We identified that the centrosome can be repositioned to these locales in a Rab11-dependent manner towards the cytokinetic bridge during abscission and to the apical membrane for cilia formation. Rab11 is an essential GTPase that is involved in regulating abscission, cleavage of the cytokinetic bridge and cilia formation. Here we identified the role of Rab11 endosomes in regulating centrosome positioning during these processes in vivo. To study the …

Novel Epidemics: Contagion And Metaphor In Us Literature, Maxwell Clement Cassity

Dissertations - ALL

Metaphors of epidemic and contagion have played a powerful role in shaping American identity by using disease to symbolically mark out certain raced and classed populations as outsiders to the social body. In the twentieth century, epidemics and epidemiological reading came to dominate not only the fields of science, but also literary and cultural production and its critical lenses. “Novel Epidemics” examines how American novelists William Faulkner, Ishmael Reed, and Helena María Viramontes used epidemic as a fictional framework for examining and critiquing the ways that the US social body was imagined, constructed, and reinforced through an epidemiological lens. Using …

Targeted Mesenchymal Stem Cell Differentiation From Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells For Therapeutic Application, Tackla Winston

Dissertations - ALL

Over the past decade, mesenchymal stem cells have increasingly gained interest as a cell source for the treatment of a variety of diseases. This is because they play several roles in tissue homeostasis and regeneration, such as altering the immune response to limit inflammation, aiding tissue repair through the release of various proteins, cytokines and growth factors, or differentiating into functional cells in specific tissues. The interest in MSCs for biomanufacturing applications has resulted in the development of various protocols to differentiate them from pluripotent sources. These protocols, however, fail to account for the differences that exist between MSCs from …

Assembling Enslaved Lives: Labor, Consumption, And Landscapes In The Northern Shenandoah Valley, Matthew Clark Greer

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation is a study of the lives of some of the people enslaved on rural plantations and farmsteads in the northern Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. Scholars did not widely acknowledge the presence of slavery in the Valley before the 1990s, and this is the first work to provide an in-depth view of the lives of enslaved Shenandoahans before 1860. Specifically, this project answers two questions: what was life like for enslaved people in the Shenandoah Valley, and how did they shape the region's political economies. Data for this project comes from archaeological excavations at the main enslaved quartering …

Freyre’S Plantation Playground: The Changing Landscape Of The Sugar Plantation Monjope, Catherine Elizabeth Lavoy

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates the changing landscape of the sugar plantation Monjope in Pernambuco, Brazil from the mid-seventeenth to the end of the twentieth century. I examine this plantation’s changing landscape as part of a number of larger social, economic and environmental forces; in particular the development of racially based labor. Established in the sixteenth century, Monjope was one of the many Brazilian sugar plantations that relied on African slavery for labor until the end of the nineteenth century. I argue the plantation’s built environment in conjunction with the larger plantation landscape was part of a global trend of controlling labor …

The Dacine Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacini) Of Oceania, Luc Leblanc

Insecta Mundi

A key, an annotated checklist with detailed distribution, biological and host information, and color photographic plates are provided for the 91 species of dacine fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacini) known to occur in Oceania. Dacus virgatus Coquillett, previously a synonym of Bactrocera psidii (Froggatt), is in­stead considered a junior synonym of B. facialis (Coquillett). The species originally described in 1971 as Dacus (Asiadacus) perpusillus Drew, later reassigned as Bactrocera (Sinodacus) perpusilla (Drew) and in re­cent years as Zeugodacus (Sinodacus) perpusillus (Drew) actually belongs to genus Dacus, and is transferred back to Dacus, …

Pancancer Analysis Of A Potential Gene Mutation Model In The Prediction Of Immunotherapy Outcomes, Lishan Yu, Caifeng Gong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) represents a promising treatment for cancer, but predictive biomarkers are needed. We aimed to develop a cost-effective signature to predict immunotherapy benefits across cancers.

Methods: We proposed a study framework to construct the signature. Specifically, we built a multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model with LASSO using 80% of an ICB-treated cohort (n = 1661) from MSKCC. The desired signature named SIGP was the risk score of the model and was validated in the remaining 20% of patients and an external ICB-treated cohort (n = 249) from DFCI.

Results: SIGP was based on …

Investigating The Effects Of Cell Signaling Mutants And Inhibitors On Chemokinesis In Dictyostelium Discoideum., James Rybczyk

Honors Scholar Theses

Chemokinesis is the augmentation of cellular motility in response to chemical stimuli. While it is known that chemical factors induce changes in the behavior of a cell with regards to motility, the mechanism by which this process occurs is poorly understood. The aim of this project is to identify potential proteins within the signaling pathways that integrate the message brought on by chemical ligands and consequently lead to changes in cellular motility. In order to accomplish this goal, various gene knockout mutants of the amoeboid species Dictyostelium discoideum are compared to an axenic wild-type strain (AX2) based on their relative …

Exploring The Roles Of Organic Matter Source And Transformation For Photochemical Characterization Of New York Lake Waters, Joseph Wasswa

Dissertations - ALL

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a critical component of aquatic systems that serves many purposes. Among them is the production of reactive intermediates (RIs) when irradiated with sunlight. Examples of RIs produced include the excited triplet states of dissolved organic matter (3DOM*), singlet oxygen (1O2), and hydroxyl radicals (•OH), all of which contribute to the degradation or inactivation of chemical or microbiological contaminants. It is therefore critical to understand how the sources and transformations of DOM may affect the production of RIs in sunlit aquatic systems.

The Adirondack Mountain region of New York, a historical hotspot for atmospheric sulfur and …

Practicing Food Solidarity: Garden Biodiversity, Culturally Important Foods, And Diets Of Immigrant Farmworker Communities Accessing Emergency Food Pantries, Rebecca Leigh Garofano

Theses - ALL

No abstract provided.

Nla28 Activator Modulates Σ54-Dependent Gene Regulation In Myxococcus Xanthus, Muqing Ma

Dissertations - ALL

The complex life cycle of Myxococcus xanthus makes it a model organism for studying multicellular developmental processes in bacteria. In response to environmental changes, M. xanthus cells collectively and dramatically adjust their morphology, physiological functions, and biosynthesis. Particularly, M. xanthus copes with starvation by producing fruiting bodies filled with dormant and stress-resistant spores. During secondary metabolism, it synthesizes polyketide (PK) and non-ribosomal peptide (NRP) natural products that are crucial sources of antibiotics. Bacteria including M. xanthus, require the alternative σ54 regulatory system to initiate the transcription of necessary genes for settling stress and completing developmental process. This dissertation introduces in …

Bone Marrow Endothelial Cells Increase Prostate Cancer Cell Apoptosis In 3d Triculture Model Of Reactive Stroma, Lindsey K Sablatura, Tristen V Tellman, Aemin Kim, Mary C Farach-Carson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The bone marrow tumor microenvironment (BMTE) is a complex network of cells, extracellular matrix, and sequestered signaling factors that initially act as a hostile environment for disseminating tumor cells (DTCs) from the cancerous prostate. Three-dimensional (3D) culture systems offer an opportunity to better model these complex interactions in reactive stroma, providing contextual behaviors for cancer cells, stromal cells, and endothelial cells. Using a new system designed for the triculture of osteoblastic prostate cancer (PCa) cells, stromal cells, and microvascular endothelial cells, we uncovered a context-specific pro-apoptotic effect of endothelial cells of the bone marrow different from those derived from the …

Analysis And Visualization Of Molecular Docking 2hi4 Protein, Innas Widiasti

Indonesian Journal of Medical Chemistry and Bioinformatics

The crystal structure of the human microsomal complex P450 1A2 with alpha-naphthoflavone, a cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme is particularly important, as it is abundant in the human liver and alters a more diverse xenobiotic array than any other group of metabolic enzymes. CYP1A2 is abundantly found in the liver and involved in the metabolism of about 10% of clinically used drugs metabolized by CYP enzymes. The current drug discovery and development mostly uses high-throughput screening (HTS). However, this regular method is time-consuming and costly. To address the issue, an advanced drug discovery and development method namely chemical compound database screening …

August 26, 2022 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Engineering Temporal And Spatial Complexity In Biomaterial Scaffolds For Cardiac Disease Modeling And Mechanobiology, Chenyan Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Temporal and spatial mechanical cues play an important role in heart development, function, and disease manifestation. A deeper understanding of cardiac mechanobiology is especially important for fundamental biology and clinical diagnosis or heart disease treatment. Currently, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are widely used to build human cell or tissue models, but culturing them in a petri dish fail to recapitulate the mechanical complexity in the native heart. To create a mechanical environment with better pathophysiological relevance, biomaterial scaffolds are usually employed to mimic the mechanical cues originated from extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. The goal of this dissertation is …

Protection Against Contagion In Complex Networks, Pegah Hozhabrierdi

Dissertations - ALL

In real-world complex networks, harmful spreads, commonly known as contagions, are common and can potentially lead to catastrophic events if uncontrolled. Some examples include pandemics, network attacks on crucial infrastructure systems, and the propagation of misinformation or radical ideas. Thus, it is critical to study the protective measures that inhibit or eliminate contagion in these networks. This is known as the network protection problem.

The network protection problem investigates the most efficient graph manipulations (e.g., node and/or edge removal or addition) to protect a certain set of nodes known as critical nodes. There are two types of critical nodes: (1) …

Cultural Transmission Vectors Of Essential Knowledge And Skills Among Tsimane Forager-Farmers, Eric Schniter, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Humans transmit cultural information to others in a variety of ways that can affect productivity, cultural success, and ultimately fitness. Not all potential transmitters are expected to be equally preferred by learners or equally willing to influence their culture acquisition. Across socioeconomic opportunities and ages in the human life course, costs and benefits to both learners and potential transmitters are expected to vary, affecting rates of culture transmission from different vectors. Here we examine reported patterns of culture transmission contributing to 92 essential skills among a sample of 421 Tsimane forager-farmers native to Bolivia. Consistent with the expectation that the …

Vista: August 26, 2022, University Of San Diego

USD Vista (1965-)

No abstract provided.

Efficacy And Safety Of Sintilimab Plus Xelox As A Neoadjuvant Regimen In Patients With Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Single-Arm, Open-Label, Phase Ii Trial, Honghai Guo, Ping'an Ding, Chenyu Sun, Peigang Yang, Yuan Tian, Yang Liu, Scott Lowe, Rachel Bentley, Yaru Li, Zhidong Zhang, Dong Wang, Yong Li, Qun Zhao

Student Publications

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapies have been widely recommended in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC). However, the evidence of combining neoadjuvant chemotherapy with anti-programmed death 1 (anti-PD-1) antibody therapy for patients with LAGC is lacking. Thus, we conducted a single-arm phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the anti-PD-1 antibody sintilimab plus XELOX regimen (capecitabine plus oxaliplatin) in patients with LAGC.

Methods: Patients with LAGC (cT3-4 N+ M0, CY0, P0) were enrolled and received four preoperative cycles of sintilimab (200 mg, IV, Q21d) plus XELOX (oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2, IV, d1 with capecitabine 1,000 mg/m2, bid, d1-d14, Q21d) …

Neurogenetic And Epigenetic Aspects Of Cannabinoids, Catherine A Dennen, Kenneth Blum, Abdalla Bowirrat, Jag Khalsa, Panayotis K Thanos, David Baron, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, Ashim Gupta, Eric R Braverman, Mark S Gold

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Cannabis is one of the most commonly used and abused illicit drugs in the world today. The United States (US) currently has the highest annual prevalence rate of cannabis consumption in the world, 17.9% in individuals aged 12 or older, and it is on the rise. With increasing cannabis use comes the potential for an increase in abuse, and according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), approximately 5.1% of Americans had Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) in 2020. Research has shown that genetics and epigenetics play a significant role in cannabis use and CUD. In fact, approximately …

Statistical Validation Of Risk Alleles In Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (Gars) Test: Early Identification Of Risk For Alcohol Use Disorder (Aud) In 74,566 Case-Control Subjects, Kenneth Blum, Mark S Gold, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Since 1990, when our laboratory published the association of the DRD2 Taq A1 allele and severe alcoholism in

Cancer-Driving Mutations Are Enriched In Genic Regions Intolerant To Germline Variation, Dimitrios Vitsios, Ryan S Dhindsa, Dorota Matelska, Jonathan Mitchell, Xuequing Zou, Joshua Armenia, Fengyuan Hu, Quanli Wang, Ben Sidders, Andrew R Harper, Slavé Petrovski

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Large reference datasets of protein-coding variation in human populations have allowed us to determine which genes and genic subregions are intolerant to germline genetic variation. There is also a growing number of genes implicated in severe Mendelian diseases that overlap with genes implicated in cancer. We hypothesized that cancer-driving mutations might be enriched in genic subregions that are depleted of germline variation relative to somatic variation. We introduce a new metric, OncMTR (oncology missense tolerance ratio), which uses 125,748 exomes in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) to identify these genic subregions. We demonstrate that OncMTR can significantly predict driver mutations …

Rna Binding Protein Rbm46 Regulates Mitotic-To-Meiotic Transition In Spermatogenesis, Baomei Qian, Yang Li, Ruoyu Yan, Shenglin Han, Zhiwen Bu, Jie Gong, Bangjin Zheng, Zihan Yuan, Sen Ren, Qing He, Jinwen Zhang, Chen Xu, Ruilin Wang, Zheng Sun, Mingyan Lin, Jian Zhou, Lan Ye

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Meiosis entry during spermatogenesis requires reprogramming from mitotic to meiotic gene expression profiles. Transcriptional regulation has been extensively studied in meiosis entry, but gain of function for master transcription factors is insufficient to down-regulate mitotic genes. RNA helicase YTHDC2 and its partner MEIOC emerge as essential posttranscriptional regulators of meiotic entry. However, it is unclear what governs the RNA binding specificity of YTHDC2/MEIOC. Here, we identified RNA binding protein RBM46 as a component of the YTHDC2/MEIOC complex. Testis-specific Rbm46 knockout in mice causes infertility with defective mitotic-to-meiotic transition, phenocopying global Ythdc2 or Meioc knockout. RBM46 binds to 3′ UTR of …

Towards More Inclusive Electronic Tutoring: Tutors’ Experiences Of Using A Data-Free Mobile Instant Messenger In A First-Year Accounting Class, Fazlyn Petersen, Ronald Arendse

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

The use of data-intensive synchronous tutoring options, such as Zoom, can be exclusionary in South Africa where there is limited access to the internet in homes. The literature indicates the following challenges for electronic tutoring in South Africa: a lack of devices, high data costs, network connectivity issues, inadequate digital skills and competencies. To address the challenge of high data costs, a South African data-free mobile instant messenger was tested for electronic tutoring. The research model used the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Framework (TPACK) as the theoretical basis. This research used a case study in a large, first-year accounting course …

Characterization Of End-Users’ Engagement And Interaction Experience With Social Media Technologies, Yemisi Oyedele, Darelle Van Greunen

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

People, particularly digital citizens, gain more technological experiences from their frequent usage of social media technologies. Their experience as end-users occurs before, during, and after their engagement and interaction with the technologies and is popularly described using behaviour-related definitions. However, an end-user's experience with technologies goes beyond the 'click-and-type" definition. This prompts the question, "what are the user experience elements that define and characterise end-users' engagement and interaction with social media technologies?". Using a case study-based approach, end-users' engagement and interaction with social media technologies were identified. The study's findings indicated that several user experience elements were characterised by emotions, …

Early Eruption Of All Permanent Teeth, Including The Upper Canines, In A Nine-Year-Old Child Who Was Born Prematurely; Case Report, Bassam Ali Al-Turaihi, Israa Hussein Ali

Maaen Journal for Medical Sciences

The world health organization (WHO) define the premature birth as a birth occur before 37 weeks of gestation or if the birth weight is below 2500 g. Our case subjected for both criteria of the preterm definition. ((1)) ((2)) The case was born before 31st week with 1300 g birth weight with stormy beginning of life in the first three months in the hospital according to the history taken from general practitioner (GP) for that reason their parents tack care about his general health and specifically oral health and development. Throughout his life he developed healthy with no medical problem. …