Digital Commons Network^™

College Faculty In The News: Aug. 10, 2022, University Of Dayton

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

News agencies across the region, the nation and throughout the world often reach out to our faculty experts for their perspectives on today's issues.

A Genome-Wide Screen Identifies Pdpk1 As A Target To Enhance The Efficacy Of Mek1/2 Inhibitors, Weijia Cai, Nicole A. Wilski, Timothy J. Purwin, Megane Vernon, Manoela Tiago, Andrew E. Aplin

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Melanomas frequently harbor activating NRAS mutations. However, limited advance has been made in developing targeted therapy options for NRAS mutant melanoma patients. MEK inhibitors (MEKi) show modest efficacy in the clinic and their actions need to be optimized. In this study, we performed a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9-based screen and demonstrated that loss of Phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDPK1) enhances the efficacy of MEKi. The synergistic effects of PDPK1 loss and MEKi was validated in NRAS mutant melanoma cell lines using pharmacological and molecular approaches. Combined PDPK1 inhibitors (PDPK1i) with MEKi suppressed NRAS mutant xenograft growth and induced gasdermin E-associated pyroptosis. In an immune-competent …

A Computational Approach To Ricardo’S And Marx’S Business Cycle Models, Hee-Young Shin

Economics Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to reconstruct both Ricardo's and Marx's nonlinear dynamic models of business cycle, utilizing computational power of Wolfram Mathematica. The paper aims to replicate Ricardo's and Marx's business cycle models and attempts to extend their original ideas to account for some new stylized facts of contemporary capitalist market economies such as financialization and increasing rentiers' income and corporate offshoring phenomenon.

Subtype-Selective Positive Modulation Of KCa2.3 Channels Increases Cilia Length, Young-Woo Nam, Rajasekharreddy Pala, Naglaa Salem El-Sayed, Denisse Laren-Henriquez, Farideh Amirrad, Grace Yang, Mohammad Asikur Rahman, Razan Orfali, Myles Downey, Keykavous Parang, Surya M. Nauli, Miao Zhang

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Small-conductance Ca²⁺-activated potassium (K_Ca2.x) channels are gated exclusively by intracellular Ca²⁺. The activation of K_Ca2.3 channels induces hyperpolarization, which augments Ca²⁺ signaling in endothelial cells. Cilia are specialized Ca²⁺ signaling compartments. Here, we identified compound 4 that potentiates human K_Ca2.3 channels selectively. The subtype selectivity of compound 4 for human K_Ca2.3 over rat K_Ca2.2a channels relies on an isoleucine residue in the HA/HB helices. Positive modulation of K_Ca2.3 channels by compound 4 increased flow-induced Ca²⁺ signaling and cilia length, while negative …

The Current - Volume 33, Orientation Issue, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Anticancer Evaluation Of Novel Pyrazolo[1,5-A]Pyrimidines: Discovery Of A Novel Lead Compound With Selective Activities Against Vps34 And Jak1-Jh2 Pseudokinase, Reuben Dass

Theses and Dissertations

A library of 25 novel 3,6-disubstituted and 3-substituted pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines were synthesized using a microwave chemical reactor in 3 steps with a total reaction time of 1 hour. The products were obtained in good to excellent yields (20-93%, ave. = 62%). The synthesis began with the reaction of aryl acetonitriles with dimethylformamide-dimethylacetal (120C, 20 min), followed by treatment of the resulting 2-arylacrylonitrile with H2NNH2 • HBr (120C, 20 min). The intermediate 4-arylpyrazol-5-amine obtained was finally reacted with either 2-aryl-substituted malondialdehydes or 1,1,3,3-tetramethoxypropane (120C, 20 min) to give the final products. The products were either collected directly on a Buchner funnel or …

Esophageal Carcinoma And Associated Risk Factors: A Case-Control Study In Two Tertiary Care Hospitals Of Kabul, Afghanistan, Ramin Saadaat, Jamshid Abdul-Ghafar, Ahmed Maseh Haidary, Nooria Atta, Tazeen Saeed Ali

Community Health Sciences

Purpose: Esophageal cancer (EC) is the most common cancer among males in Afghanistan, thus we aimed to conduct a case-control study to determine the associated risk factors with EC in two tertiary care hospitals of Kabul, Afghanistan.
Patients and methods: We enrolled 132 EC cases and 132 controls and used conditional logistic regression to estimate the odds ratio (OR) with consideration of 95% confidence interval (CI).
Results: The results of our study revealed that esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) was the predominant type of EC constituting 75.8% of the cases. The results of the multivariate logistic analysis showed that males …

Early Miocene Redwood Fossils From Inner Mongolia: Co2 Reconstructions And Paleoclimate Effects Of A Low Mongolian Plateau, Jia-Qi Liang, Qin Leng, Liang Xiao, Daianne F. Hofig, Dana L. Royer, Yi Ge Zhang, Hong Yang

Science and Technology Department Faculty Journal Articles

The early Miocene (~16–23 Ma) marks a critical transition in the Earth climate history from an Oligocene (~23–34 Ma) cooling trend towards the well-documented warm middle Miocene Climate Optimum at ~ 15 Ma. In eastern Asia, this transition links changes of key topographic features, such as the Tibetan plateau and the Mongolian plateau, and their impact on the reorganization of climate systems, such as the Eastern Asian summer monsoon. Yet the dynamics of the interplay among these factors remain poorly understood, precluding our understanding of future climate changes. Global temperatures during the early Miocene were warmer than the present day …

Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach Update, August 10, 2022, Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Social Equity Is Key To Sustainable Ocean Governance, Katherine M. Crosman, Edward H. Allison, Yoshitaka Ota, Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor, Gerald G. Singh, Wilf Swartz, Megan Bailey, Kate M. Barclay, Grant Blume, Mathieu Colléter, Michael Fabinyi, Elaine M. Faustman, Russell Fielding

Anthropology and Geography

Calls to address social equity in ocean governance are expanding. Yet ‘equity’ is seldom clearly defined. Here we present a framework to support contextually-informed assessment of equity in ocean governance. Guiding questions include: (1) Where and (2) Why is equity being examined? (3) Equity for or amongst Whom? (4) What is being distributed? (5) When is equity considered? And (6) How do governance structures impact equity? The framework supports consistent operationalization of equity, challenges oversimplification, and allows evaluation of progress. It is a step toward securing the equitable ocean governance already reflected in national and international commitments.

Please view the …

Robust Self-Training Strategy For Various Molecular Biology Prediction Tasks∗, Hehuan Ma, Feng Jiang, Yu Rong, Yuzhi Guo, Junzhou Huang

Association of Computing Machinery Open Access Agreement Publications-Archive

Molecular biology prediction tasks suffer the limited labeled data problem since it normally demands a series of professional experiments to label the target molecule. Self-training is one of the semi-supervised learning paradigms that utilizes both labeled and unlabeled data. It trains a teacher model on labeled data, and uses it to generate pseudo labels for unlabeled data. The labeled and pseudo-labeled data are then combined to train a student model. However, the pseudo labels generated from the teacher model are not sufficiently accurate. Thus, we propose a robust self-training strategy by exploring robust loss function to handle such noisy labels, …

Improved Building-Specific Flood Risk Assessment And Implications Of Depth-Damage Function Selection, Ehab Gnan, Carol J. Friedland, Md Adilur Rahim, Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, Robert V. Rohli, Fatemeh Orooji, Arash Taghinezhad, Jasmin Mcelwee

Faculty Publications

Average annual loss (AAL) is traditionally used as the basis of assessing flood risk and evaluating risk mitigation measures. This research presents an improved implementation to estimate building-specific AAL, with the flood hazard of a building represented by the Gumbel extreme value distribution. AAL is then calculated by integrating the area under the overall loss-exceedance probability curve using trapezoidal Riemann sums. This implementation is compared with existing AAL estimations from flood risk assessment. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine the variability in AAL results based on depth-damage function (DDF) choice. To demonstrate the methodology, a one-story single-family residence is …

Indigenous Science Network Bulletin - August 2022

Indigenous Science Network

Jesse King, a science teacher, curriculum writer and First Nations editor explores the theme of National Science Week – glass – and how it relates to culture. Shalini Dhyani, regional agent for the First Nations peoples of Asia writes regarding a project in the Himalayas using Indigenous knowledge of the environment.

Nuclear And Metabolic Quantification For Enhanced Ductal Carcinoma In Situ Risk Stratification, Nicholas J. Lovick, Heather Jensen Smith, David G. Wagner, Daphne Ly

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is currently considered an early and localized form of ductal breast cancer stemming from the epithelial ductal cells. These lesions are largely heterogenous, categorized by their morphologies, amount of necrosis, and stromal changes. Even though 10-year mortality rate for DCIS is 1-2.6% while that of early invasive breast cancer is 7-10%. Yet, current recommended treatment for DCIS is breast-conserving surgery and radiation or mastectomy – the same treatment regimen recommended for early invasive breast cancer. This assumes that all DCIS will progress to invasive breast cancer if left untreated. However, mounting evidence indicates that a …

Quantifying Serum Mirna Using Dna-Gold Nanoparticles: A Modern Approach To Diagnosing Pancreatic Cancer, Matthew Salfity, Prakash Kshirsagar Dr., Maneesh Jain Dr., Surinder K. Batra Dr.

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Pancreatic Cancer (PC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in America with nearly 50,000 deaths annually. Furthermore, PC’s low 5-year survival rate, 11% overall, is highly dependent on the stage during which it is diagnosed and treated. When confined to the pancreas, the 5-year survival rate has been shown to reach as high as 42%, a nearly four-fold increase. Due to significant mortality differences dependent on PC stage, there is an utmost clinical need to diagnose PC as early as possible to maximize the chance of favorable patient outcomes. Most PC diagnostic methods currently involve imaging techniques including …

Optimization Of Tick Attachment And Detection Of B. Burgdorferi Transmission Into In Vitro Generated Skin Rafts, Carley M. Conover, Amanda J. Brinkworth

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Borrelia burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi) is a Lyme Disease causing pathogen that is transmitted via tick-bite by blacklegged (deer) ticks (Ixodes scapularis). These ticks tend choose hosts such as rabbits and mice to feed on, sometimes transmitting harmful pathogens to these animals such as B. burgdorferi, which cycles between rodents and large animals to complete its enzootic cycle. Humans are accidental dead-end hosts for B. burgdorferi. Those infected with B. burgdorferi can develop Lyme Disease, which includes symptoms such as neurological, cardiac, and joint-related complications which are exacerbated by increased feeding time on the host1. Due to the many negative affects …

Mitochondrial Fusion Promotes Steroidogenesis In Ma10 Leydig Cells, Kimber J. Sprout, Michele R. Plewes, John S. Davis

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Infertility affects 1 out of every 6 couples, worldwide, with male infertility playing a primary factor in a third of all cases. Dysregulation of sex hormones is a major cause of infertility. Male hypogonadism is a condition in which the testis does not produce adequate concentrations of testosterone. Males suffering from hypogonadism can be born with the condition or develop it later in life, often from acute injury or infection. Male hypogonadism is treated with testosterone replacement to return testosterone levels to normal. However, one side effect of testosterone treatment is infertility. Understanding mechanisms that regulate the synthesis of sex …

Bob Scheloske, Oral History Interview, 2022, Matt Jones

Oral Histories

Bob Scheloske was an active member of the Arm of Honor Fraternity from 1965 until 1969. In this interview, Scheloske details his upbringing in Cleveland, OH., his introduction to fraternity life at EMU, the ties between Arm of Honor and Alpha Z, the reign of terror by John Norman Collins, baseball coach Ron Oestrike, Arm of Honor brother Jim Zolkowski, and the relationship with rival fraternities. Scheloski also details the economic origins of the Arms, and the larger than life names that abound in the frat history like Elton Rynearson, Lloyd Olds, and Benjamin D'Ooge. He also speaks of the …

Regulation Of T Cell Activation By The Cd5 Co-Receptor And Altered Peptides, Characterization Of Thymidine Kinase-Specific Antibodies, And Integrating Genomics Education In Society, Kiara Vaden Whitley

Theses and Dissertations

Helper T cells (Th) are a vital component of the immune system responsible for directing other immune cells to eliminate pathogens and cancer. Specifically, Th cells facilitate B cell and cytotoxic T cell (Tc) activation and recruitment and enhance their function against cancer and infectious diseases. Th cells are a valuable resource for improving Tc responses in cancer treatment and have become a focus of immunotherapeutic research. While it is increasingly clear that helper T cells serve an important role, the details about which entities produce an effective Th cell response remain unclear. CD5 is a T cell co-receptor that …

Buoe And Tbhq Reduces Growth And Viability Of Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer, Jack Mcevoy, Elizabeth A. Kosmacek, Arpita Chatterjee, Molly Myers, Ariel Moats, Joshua Mcdowell, Rebecca E. Oberley-Deegan

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. 10-20% of prostate cancer patients develop castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) The median survival for CRPC patients is 14 months following diagnosis1. CRPC can spread to local tissues like the bladder, lymph nodes, and rectum but will also reach bone through distant metastasis. The metastasis of CRPC proves difficult for clinicians to treat. Redox active compounds can reduce growth and induce death of cancerous cells by the creation of ROS, which cannot be broken down by cancerous cells. This allows treatments like radiation and chemotherapy to be more effective …

Nerve Growth Factor Receptor Kinase Inhibitor Ag-879 Decreases Cell Viability In Glioblastoma Cell Lines, Blake M. Kidder, Raghupathy Vengoji Ph.D., Poonam Yadav, Surinder K. Batra Ph.D., Nicole Shonka Md

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Glioblastoma (GBM), a grade IV astrocytoma, is the most aggressive primary brain tumor and the mean adult survival time is a mere 14.6 months. Current treatment options include gross tumor resection, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy. Temozolomide is the standard drug utilized for chemotherapy, but it has a limited effectiveness, as patients commonly develop resistance after two and a half months. With no significant cures or treatments, it is pertinent to explore alternative avenues for disease mitigation. One possible pathway lies in the expression of Nerve Growth Factor Receptor (NGFR). Normally, NGFR is responsible for the differentiation of neurons, and it …

Effect Of Muc16 Blockade Using The Humanized Ar9.6 Antibody In Patient Derived Organoid Models Of Pdac, Jordan N. Muirhead, Satish Sagar, Christabelle Rajesh, Adrian Black, Prakash Radhakrishnan

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) represents nearly 90% of all pancreatic cancer cases. 49,830 of the 62,210 patients diagnosed in 2022 are estimated to succumb to the malignancy. Early diagnosis of the disease is uncommon as most patients present with symptoms when the cancer is late-stage and metastatic. This decreases the likelihood of successful surgical resection and increases the dependency on standard of care chemotherapy leads to which is met with therapeutic resistance, demonstrated by the 5-year post-diagnosis survival rate of a mere 11.5%. Mucin-16, a heavy glycosylated transmembrane protein is overexpressed in more than 65% PDAC cases. AR9.6 is an …

Thermodynamic Contributions Of Deoxyuridine Loops To The Folding Of Dna Straight Hairpin Loops With D(Gcgc/Gcgc) Stems, Benjamin G. Dodson, Luis Marky

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The global stability of DNA molecules depends on base stacking, base-pairing, ionic and hydration contributions. To understand the mechanisms that govern the many biological roles of nucleic acids, it is essential to have a complete physical description of the folding of nucleic acids, including ion and water binding. We used a combination of temperature-dependent UV spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry to investigate the effect of the loop length on the unfolding thermodynamics of a set of DNA stem-loop motifs with the following sequence: d(5’-GCGCUnGCGC), where n = 3, 5, 7, and 9.

The folding of each hairpin loop resulted in …

The Effects Of Age And Alcohol On Lipid Metabolism In The Liver, Jessica S. Yoon, Sundararajan Mahalingam, Jacy L. Kubik, Ramesh Bellamkonda, Carol A. Casey, Kusum K. Kharbanda, Karuna Rasineni

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Background: Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) encompasses the liver manifestation of chronic alcohol abuse, characterized by different stages of liver damage that progresses from fat accumulation to steatohepatitis, fibrosis and eventually cirrhosis. The severity of liver damage is influenced by age, which is also a predictor for ALD-related mortality. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate how aging and alcohol affect lipid metabolism in the liver. Methods: Rats aged 4 months, 8 months, 12 months, and 22 months-old were pair-fed Lieber-DeCarli control or ethanol diet for 6 weeks. Serum and liver were collected for analyses when rats were euthanized. …

Spatial Variation Of False Map Turtle (Graptemys Pseudogeographica) Bacterial Microbiota In The Lower Missouri River, United States, Joseph D. Madison, Madeline M. Butterfield, Drew R. Davis, Jacob L. Kerby

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Turtle populations around the world are continually confronted with changing environments that affect their ecology and conservation status. Among freshwater turtles, population dynamics are thought to be mediated by complex yet often cryptic causes. One recent direction of focus in addressing these causes is the turtle-associated microbiota. In turtles, the gut- associated microbiota is of exceptional interest due to its continual association with host species under changing conditions. Diet-based fluctuations and changes in microbial diversity may correspond to varying external environments at both the individual and population level. Environmental responses are of particular interest due to the anthropogenic changes that …

The Intersectionality Of Stuttering And Aging, Mary Elizabeth Herring

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between stuttering and aging so that speech-language pathologists can be informed about the intersectionality of these identities.

Three adult men who stutter, all over the age of 65, were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed with in-vivo coding to find codes and themes between participants. From the interviews, 20 categories were identified. These categories were then funneled into four overarching themes: 1) Personal factors impacted by stuttering, 2) Stuttering perspectives across the lifespan, 3) Stuttering therapy experiences, and 4) Covert stuttering.

This study shows that attitudes, perspectives, and experiences …

Impact Of Parental Substance Misuse On Attachment In Young Adults: A Qualitative Approach, Susan E. Hardman

Dissertations, 2020-current

This study examined the impact of parental substance misuse on young adult development and relationships by interviewing young adults about their experience being raised by a parent who misused substances. A qualitative design based on constructivist grounded theory and informed by constructs from attachment theory was used. Participants consisted of 10 young adults, ages 18-26, who endorsed being raised by a parent who misused substances. The interview questions developed for the study were informed by a measure of adult attachment. Analysis of the data included identification of emergent categories/themes as well as a priori constructs from attachment theory (safe haven, …

Variation In Response To Pharmacological Intervention With Risperidone And The Role Of Adjuvant Medications In The Treatment Of Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Sharanabasayyaswamy Hiremath, Srinivas L. Devendrappa

Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy Research

Non-genetic traits as predictors of variation in response to pharmacological interventions in ASD need to be identified for better management. This review aims to identify these non-genetic traits and the role of adjuvant medications in ASD. Electronic database searches in PUBMED and Cochrane libraries were conducted using MeSH search terms "Autism" and "Risperidone." Randomized or cross-over trials comparing the efficacy of ‘risperidone plus placebo’ vs. ‘risperidone plus adjuvant medications’ using Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community Version (ABC-CV) scores in ASD patients of any age group were included in the analysis. The quantity of reduced irritability (ABC-I) sub-score was the primary outcome measure …

China’S Rise And Technology Denials : A Study Of Variations In Allies’ Cooperation With The United States, Cheuk Ling Pong

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

US and its allies worked closely to deny the USSR’s access to advanced technologies during the Cold War. In addition to multilateral mechanisms such as CoCom, they also took similar unilateral measures despite disputes between them. Yet, compared to the US-Soviet strategic rivalry, US-allies cooperation over technology denials against China is much less coordinated. Allies have not only taken different unilateral policies but also shown major disputes with the US. Allies’ unsynchronized and inconsistent unilateral technology transfer policies and the absence of multilateral institutions similar to the CoCom demonstrate the looseness in current US cooperation with allies in the China …

The Immune Response To Airway Mycosis, Wei Ruan, Xinxin Ma, In Hyuk Bang, Yafen Liang, Jochen Daniel Muehlschlegel, Kuang-Lei Tsai, Tingting W Mills, Xiaoyi Yuan, Holger K Eltzschig

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite increasing availability and more successful interventional approaches to restore coronary reperfusion, myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury is a substantial cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. During myocardial ischemia, the myocardium becomes profoundly hypoxic, thus causing stabilization of hypoxia-inducible transcription factors (HIF). Stabilization of HIF leads to a transcriptional program that promotes adaptation to hypoxia and cellular survival. Transcriptional consequences of HIF stabilization include increases in extracellular production and signaling effects of adenosine. Extracellular adenosine functions as a signaling molecule via the activation of adenosine receptors. Several studies implicated adenosine signaling in cardioprotection, particularly through the activation of the Adora2a and Adora2b …