Digital Commons Network^™

Professional Development For Graduate School: Eportfolio And Networking, Wesley Lim

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The development of an ePortfolio offers a digital introduction during networking events in an increasingly technology-driven society. Throughout one semester in Biomedical Sciences Careers, MCB 3933, I developed an ePortfolio with components like a resume, personal statement, individual development plan, and elevator speech. In my ePortfolio, I had three areas of focus that showcased my highlights and skills in my undergraduate education: the academic skill sets I developed, my relevant research experiences, and my time as a teaching assistant for multiple courses.

As part of the course, students were required to contact at least four people in their desired field …

Project Nur: Illuminating Lives Through Islamic Society's Community Service In Central Florida, Adam Bawatneh

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

This poster presents an in-depth exploration of my service experience at the Islamic Society of Central Florida (ISCF), where I have been serving as the head chef for the Family Night event. It delves into the challenges and triumphs encountered during my service, particularly in light of the recent conflict in Palestine. The poster also reflects on the personal growth and leadership development I have experienced throughout this journey.

Ftd-Linked Cyld Mutation In Neuronal Autophagy And Synapse Remodeling, Courtney Conte

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Pilot-Scale Evaluation Of Sulfite-Activated Ferrate For Water Reuse Applications, Charles D. Spellman Jr., Joseph E. Goodwill

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Ferrate is a promising, “green” (i.e., iron-based) pre-oxidation technology in water treatment, but there has been limited research on its potential benefits in a water reuse (wastewater recycling) paradigm. Recent studies have shown ferrate treatment processes can be improved by activation, the addition of reductants (i.e., sulfite) to the reaction. Prior bench scale experimentation suggests sulfite-activated ferrate may be a feasible option for water reuse applications; however, extent questions need to be addressed. This study evaluated the viability of sulfite-activated ferrate in water reuse treatment through continuous-flow experiments using synthetic and field-collected secondary wastewater effluents. The effluents were processed through …

Publicizing Corporate Secrets, Christopher J. Morten

Faculty Articles

Federal regulatory agencies in the United States hold a treasure trove of valuable information essential to a functional society. Yet little of this immense and nominally “public” resource is accessible to the public. That worrying phenomenon is particularly true for the valuable information that agencies hold on powerful private actors. Corporations regularly shield vast swaths of the information they share with federal regulatory agencies from public view, claiming that the information contains legally protected trade secrets (or other proprietary “confidential commercial information”). Federal agencies themselves have largely acceded to these claims and even fueled them, by construing restrictively various doctrines …

Soybean Seed Enrichment With Cobalt And Molybdenum As An Alternative To Conventional Seed Treatment, Cassio Hamilton Abreu-Junior, Gabriel Asa Corrêa Gruberger, Paulo Henrique Silveira Cardoso, Paula Wellen Barbosa Gonçalves, Thiago Assis Rodrigues Nogueira, Gian Franco Capra, Arun Dilipkumar Jani

Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Biological nitrogen fixation in soybean is enhanced when seed is treated with cobalt (Co) and molybdenum (Mo) prior to planting. In this study, our objective was to verify if Co and Mo application during the reproductive phase of the crop increases seed Co and Mo concentration without adverse effects on seed quality. Two experiments were conducted. First, we investigated foliar and soil Co and Mo application under greenhouse conditions. Next, we validated the results obtained in the first study. The treatments for both experiments consisted of Co doses combined with Mo, and a control without Co and Mo application. The …

Budget For The Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2023, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Budget for the Fiscal Year

No abstract provided.

Annual Report, 2022-2023, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville. College Of Engineering

College of Engineering Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Bsa Agri Business, Econ And Finance 2023-24, Arkansas State University - Jonesboro

Bachelor of Science and Education

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Elevated Extracellular Dopamine On Astrocytes In The Nucleus Accumbens, Mengfan Xia

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences

Nucleus accumbens is involved in processing of motivational and affective behaviors and plays a significant role in development and maintenance of substance use. Released from the ventral tegmental area into the nucleus accumbens, the mesolimbic dopamine controls incentive salience and facilitates learning of reinforcement and reward-related motor functions. Recent studies reveal that, in the context of cocaine exposure, dopamine transmission in the ventromedial striatum is pivotal to the regulation of initial drug use. Astrocytes, a major subpopulation of the brain glial cells, are an active component of the so-called tripartite synapse and communicate with neurons through the release of transmitters …

Improving Voluntary Carbon Markets Through Standardization And Blockchain Technology, Nicholas P. Espenan

Wyoming Law Review

The impacts of climate change, if left unchecked, will result in significant economic and ecological harm globally. While reducing carbon emissions in a sustainable manner may mitigate these effects, a concerted effort is required from all nations. Carbon markets present an opportunity to address emissions while promoting economic growth and technological advancement in carbon sequestration initiatives. However, the current state of the global voluntary carbon market is fragmented, with little uniformity and lacking transparency, which can undermine its effectiveness. To address these challenges, an industry-wide carbon sequestration standard, supported by a transparent blockchain protocol, should be implemented to enhance the …

The Reversible Low-Temperature Instability Of Human Dj-1 Oxidative States, Tessa Andrews, Javier Seravallic, Robert Powers

Robert Powers Publications

DJ-1 is a homodimeric protein that is centrally involved in various human diseases including Parkinson disease (PD). DJ-1 protects against oxidative damage and mitochondrial dysfunction through a homeostatic control of reactive oxygen species (ROS). DJ-1 pathology results from a loss of function, where ROS readily oxidizes a highly conserved and functionally essential cysteine (C106). The over-oxidation of DJ-1 C106 leads to a dynamically destabilized and biologically inactivated protein. An analysis of the structural stability of DJ-1 as a function of oxidative state and temperature may provide further insights into the role the protein plays in PD progression. NMR spectroscopy, circular …

A Gain-Of-Function Role Of Apolipoprotein E2 In Melanoma Progression, Nneoma Adaku

Student Theses and Dissertations

Genetic polymorphism of the secreted lipid transporter apolipoprotein E (APOE) plays important roles in the development of atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. More recently, three common APOE alleles have been implicated as modulators of melanoma progression and survival. Melanoma patients born with a copy of the APOE4 allele exhibit improved disease survival and responses to immunotherapy. Conversely, APOE2 allele carriers experience substantially worsened survival outcomes compared to APOE4 carriers and APOE3 homozygotes. These survival differences are partly governed by effects on the immune system, as the APOE4 genotype augments anti-tumor immunity. However, APOE variants also exert direct suppressive effects on melanoma …

Anteromedial Thalamus Gates The Selection & Stabilization Of Long-Term Memories, Andrew Toader

Student Theses and Dissertations

The hippocampus is necessary for the initial encoding and recent storage of memories. Under the standard model of systems consolidation, it is thought that the memory trace eventually reorganizes from the hippocampus to a distributed cortical network, with the anterior cingulate cortex playing a central role in remote memory retrieval. However, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for coordinating this process. Additionally, the intermediate memory representations in the brain and the circuits that might gate and select memories for permanent storage remain unknown. To facilitate the longitudinal tracking of memory circuits in the brain, we first developed a novel …

Interrogation And Manipulation Of The Igg Fc Glycan, Aaron Keshav Gupta

Student Theses and Dissertations

Antibody signaling is a cardinal feature of successful adaptive immune responses. The magnitude and direction of this signaling is determined by the structure of a given antibody's fragment crystallizable (Fc) domain, which interfaces with cells of the immune system. Often considered a constant region, the immunoglobulin G (IgG) Fc protein backbone and conserved N-linked glycan combine to introduce structural diversity in IgG molecules that in turn, triggers divergent humoral responses. These N-glycans are variably constructed, ultimately leading to families of highly related, but non-equivalent glycoproteins known as glycoforms. Despite burgeoning interest in understanding the complexities of IgG Fc glycoforms and …

Rarely Acquired Type Ii-A Crispr-Cas Spacers Mediate Anti-Viral Immunity Through The Targeting Of A Non-Canonical Pam Sequence, Claire T. Kenney

Student Theses and Dissertations

Viruses that infect prokaryotes, called bacteriophages or phages, are thought to outnumber bacteria by a ratio of 10:1 and provide a constant threat to their hosts. In response, bacteria have evolved numerous defense mechanisms, attacking all major steps of the phage infection and replication cycle. In turn, phages have evolved their own counter defenses. One phage defense system, only recently characterized, has proved revolutionary for our understanding of prokaryote-phage dynamics and our ability to edit genomes of nearly any cell type. CRISPR-Cas (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and CRISPR-associated genes) functions as an adaptive immune system by identifying and …

On The Origins Of Genetic Novelty In Drosophila, Eric Bo Zheng

Student Theses and Dissertations

Evolution is at its heart the study of variation: which variants survive and even thrive across generations, and why? Behind this lies the fundamental question of the origins of novelty, for there cannot be variation without a source of new variants. Understanding how novelty emerges, then, is a crucial problem of basic relevance in evolutionary biology. In this thesis, I examine two aspects regarding the origins of novelty: first, how new proteins originate and subsequently evolve; second, how chromatin accessibility maintains evolutionary lability while remaining conserved across broad sequence divergence. The study of the origins of new genes has flourished …

Inter-Organellar Nucleic Acid Communication By A Mitochondrial Trna Regulates Nuclear Transcription, Christopher Rouya

Student Theses and Dissertations

Balancing metabolic demands with transcriptional output requires efficient communication between mitochondria and the nucleus. However, the mitochondrial factors that mediate signals to the nucleus remain poorly defined. In eukaryotes, the mitochondrial genome encodes transfer RNAs (mito-tRNAs) that function in mitochondrial-specific translation. Here, we report the detection of multiple mito-tRNAs within the nucleus of human cells. Focused studies of one such nuclear-transported mito-tRNA-asparagine (mito-tRNA-Asn) revealed that its cognate charging enzyme (NARS2) is also present in the nucleus. Nuclear localization of mito-tRNA-Asn and NARS2 was dependent on the VDAC1 mitochondrial channel and importin-α nuclear transport factor, respectively. Mito-tRNA-Asn promoted the interaction of …

Transgenic Tools In Ants And The Representation Of Alarm Pheromones In The Ant Antennial Lobe, Taylor Eco Hart

Student Theses and Dissertations

For decades, ants have served as major study species for ethologists, theorists, geneticists, and chemical ecologists, who have been drawn to understand how their unique features contribute to the evolution and maintenance of insect societies. These features, especially their extreme morphological plasticity, collective behavior, and complex chemical communication, together with their small sizes and relatively simple brains, make ants intriguing model systems for many topics in neurobiology. While many ant species possess brains no larger than the wellcharacterized vinegar fly, the primary olfactory processing centers (antennal lobes) contain an order of magnitude more functional units compared to the vinegar fly, …

Mechanical Manipulation Of Eukaryotic Chromatin By Dna-Binding Proteins, Tuan Nguyen

Student Theses and Dissertations

The eukaryotic genome is organized in many length scales, reflecting the intricacy associated with evolution of complex biological processes. This organization serves to exert spatiotemporal control of many DNA-transacting processes such as gene expression. Despite emerging progress, the biophysical mechanism underpinning eukaryotic genome organization remains an outstanding question in the field. In this thesis, I describe mechanistic insights on genome organization and its regulation through leveraging single-molecule biophysical techniques. In Chapter 2, I characterize the dynamic interplay of Sox2 and H1 DNA binding activity. Both families constitute large classes of chromatin and DNA binding proteins that have been historically thought …

Enrichment And Transcriptome Analysis Of Cd4+ T Cell Clones Harboring Intact Hiv-1 Proviruses, Georg Hartmut Johannes Weymar

Student Theses and Dissertations

More than 40 years after its onset, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) epidemic remains a major global health burden. HIV-1 is a retrovirus that infects and destroys predominantly CD4+ T cells. Since CD4+ T cells are crucial for the innate and adaptive immune system, their progressive loss in the course of HIV-1 infection leads to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Antiretroviral therapy can suppress the virus in people living with HIV and prevent progression to AIDS, but does not provide a cure. Therefore, lifelong antiretroviral therapy is necessary. The barrier to HIV-1 cure is the HIV-1 reservoir, …

Dissecting Host-Viral Interactons Through Focused Or Unbiased High-Throughput Genetic Approaches, Daniel Poston

Student Theses and Dissertations

In the world around us, viruses surround and vastly outnumber us. Indeed, there are roughly 1 sextillion—or one thousand million million million—times as many viral particles as humans on earth (1). While most of these viruses do not cause disease in humans, those that do present a grave and increasing threat to human health. Fundamental studies in host-viral interactions are thus critical to further our understanding of the parameters of viral infection and elucidate potential new treatments. Since, as obligate intracellular parasites, viruses rely on host resources at every step of the viral lifecycle, in-depth knowledge of how viruses hijack …

Structural And Functional Analysis Of Substrate Recognition And Inhibition Of The Multidrug Transporters Mrp1 And Mrp2, Harlan Linver Pietz

Student Theses and Dissertations

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial tumor of young children, and the five-year overall survival of children with high-risk disease is less than 50%. Overexpression of multidrug resistance protein 1 (MRP1), a plasma membrane ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter, is associated with high-risk neuroblastoma. While it is known that MRP1 transports multiple neuroblastoma chemotherapeutic agents out of the cell in a glutathione (GSH)-dependent manner, the mechanism of GSH-dependent MRP1 substrate transport has previously not been understood. Additionally, over the past three decades, multiple small-molecule inhibitors of MRP1 transport have also been identified, with the activity of several inhibitors also determined to …

Antibody-Effector Functions In Antiviral Response, Kevin Shuolong Kao

Student Theses and Dissertations

Antibodies are a fundamental component of the adaptive arm of the immune system. Interactions of the antibody's fragment crystallizable (Fc) domain with Fc receptors (FcR) on effector leukocytes is essential for proper immunological function and bridges the humoral with the cellular components of immunity. While the Fc domain of immunoglobulin G (IgG) has historically been considered to be relatively constant, recent studies have demonstrated that in conjunction with IgG subclasses, the single conserved N-linked glycan present on the CH2 domain imparts a considerable amount of heterogeneity in the molecule. Given the stepwise construction of this N-glycan structures, families of highly …

Structures, Functions, And Druggability Of The Sars-Cov-2 Replication–Transcription Complex, Brandon F. Malone

Student Theses and Dissertations

Since its emergence in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate communities worldwide. Despite the successes in both identifying new therapeutics and immunization strategies that have alleviated the toll on livelihoods, the threat of novel coronavirus (CoV) variants triggering future pandemics necessitates research into the lifecycle of the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, and more broadly related CoVs. An essential aspect of viral propagation is the replication process in which viral enzymes orchestrate the production of nascent viral RNA genomes. CoV RNA synthesis is mediated by the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) which requires a coterie of viral nucleic acid-metabolizing enzymes to …

Neotelomere Formation By Telomerase In Human Cells, Charles Gunnar Kinzig

Student Theses and Dissertations

Telomeres define and protect the ends of linear chromosomes. Genome stability requires that cells differentiate telomeres from DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which humans accomplish with the shelterin complex. The reverse transcriptase telomerase counteracts the shortening of telomeres that occurs with cell division due to incomplete DNA replication and nucleolytic resection. During human development, the expression of the reverse transcriptase component of telomerase (TERT) is restricted to the germ line and select stem cell pools, causing telomeres to shorten in most somatic cells. After a certain number of divisions, one or a few telomeres become too short to adequately suppress DNA …

Deep Molecular Characterization Of Human Cortical Cell-Types, Christina Pressl

Student Theses and Dissertations

Human cortical cytoarchitecture is as beautiful as it is complex. Harboring dozens of morphologically, functionally, and molecularly distinct cell-types, the neocortex is organized into cytoarchitectonically and functionally diverse regions. In concert, the diverse cell-types that are found within the diverse cortical regions build the center of all higher cognitive functions, including but not limited to sensory processing, instruction and execution of motor movements, abstract thinking, perception, as well as speech processing and production. Over the past decades, detailed knowledge on the molecular characteristics of cortical cell-types has been obtained from genetically engineered animal models. These deep insights into the molecular …

Life On A Ball: Multi-Week Tethered Behavior In Drosophila, Jazz Weisman

Student Theses and Dissertations

By studying head-fixed or rigidly tethered animals, neuroscientists have been able to make high-resolution neurophysiological and behavioral measurements during naturalistic tasks. Tethered paradigms have a particularly rich history in the study of insect behavior and in this thesis I describe technology that extends by one-hundred fold—from hours to weeks—the timescale over which individual Drosophila can be routinely studied while tethered in place. Specifically, I designed and constructed a new experimental rig that allows a rigidly tethered fly to live for at least two weeks within a virtual reality environment. The fly stands (and is free to walk) on an airsupported …

Bioorthogonal Tethering Of Drug Fragments To Engineered G Protein-Coupled Receptors, Jordan M. Mattheisen

Student Theses and Dissertations

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) modulate diverse cellular signaling pathways and are important drug targets. Despite the availability of high-resolution structures for nearly 100 discrete GPCRs in complex with various ligands, discovering allosteric drugs that can modulate receptor signaling remains challenging. In principle, allosteric ligands have certain advantages because they bind to pockets on the receptor that do not directly impact the orthosteric site for agonist ligands, but still tune downstream signaling pathways. But identifying and validating allosteric ligands remains difficult partly due to the dynamic nature of GPCRs in native membranes. Of the more than 3700 distinct FDA-approved drugs, there …

Development Of Improved Genetic Methods For Enterococcus Faecium, Victor Chen

Student Theses and Dissertations

Enterococcus faecium is a ubiquitous Gram-positive bacterium that has been recovered from the environment, food, and microbiota of mammals. Enterococcus faecium is widely recognized as an emerging public health threat with the rise of drug resistance and nosocomial infections. Antibiotic usage has afforded antibiotic-resistant and pathogenic isolates from livestock and humans. Nevertheless, commensal Enterococcus strains possess beneficial health functions in mammals to upregulate host immunity and prevent microbial infections. However, the dissection of E. faecium functions and mechanisms has been restricted by inefficient genetic methods. Current genetic engineering methods in E. faecium still require passive homologous recombination from plasmid DNA. …