Digital Commons Network^™

Jóvenes Feministas En Yucatán: Estudio De Caso, Natalia Tenorio, Sonia Cruz, Esperanza Basurto, Anel Bobadilla, Paulina Márquez, Ricardo Regules

Adolescents and Young People

En el marco del Proyecto de Investigación Acción Participativa de Juventudes Feministas en México y Kenia, llevamos a cabo un estudio de caso en el Estado de Yucatán. El objetivo ha sido entender las particularidades que la organización de las jóvenes tiene en este Estado.

Para ello, llevamos a cabo entrevistas a profundidad y reuniones con organizaciones feministas, instituciones públicas y organizaciones de la sociedad civil trabajando en Mérida, tal y como se recoge en la nota final metodológica. Las citas textuales que aparecen a continuación son todas de distintas participantes de los grupos focales realizados de manera presencial y …

Chapter 3: The Freezing Spell, Garon C. Smith

G. Wiz’s Book of Spells

The Freezing Spell is a fun one to pass off as a wizarding feat. A supersaturated solution of sodium acetate trihydrate is nucleated with seed crystals that the demonstrator has cleverly hidden on the tip of his/her middle finger. When the fingers are snapped over the open throat of the flask that holds the solution, a snowy hemisphere of crystallization grows over the next 10 seconds. The flask can then be inverted to show that it is now solid. The flask has also gone from room temperature to a nice handwarmer temperature of about 120^oF due to the …

Adapting To Inflationary Pressures: Household Coping Strategies In Urban Egypt (2016– 2025), Mohamed Mohamed Ashraf Kamal

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, Egypt has faced persistent economic challenges including repeated currency devaluations, high inflation rates, subsidy reforms such as the gradual reduction of food and energy subsidies, and the ripple effects of global crises that have significantly impacted household well-being, especially in urban areas. These pressures have eroded purchasing power and heightened food insecurity, especially among low- and middle-income families. Although substantial attention has been paid to macroeconomic indicators, there remains a critical gap in understanding how households adapt on a daily basis to manage financial stress and sustain their livelihoods. This inquiry is especially timely, as household …

Life In The Kingdom: Reimagining Theological Education For A Post-Secular Global Age, Jose Philip

Great Commission Research Journal

Theological education faces a profound crisis, shaped by globalization, secularization, and an epistemological fracture that prioritizes intellectual mastery over spiritual formation. Many seminaries fail to cultivate graduates who are spiritually grounded and missionally engaged due to models rooted in Enlightenment rationalism and managerial pragmatism. This paper advocates for reimagining theological education as a Kingdom-centered vocation, emphasizing transformative participation in the life of God. The paper calls for a shift from content delivery to character formation, centering theological education on faithful, embodied witness to God's mission in a complex world.

Viewsrd: 3d Visual Grounding Via Structured Multi-View Decomposition, Ronggang Huang, Haoxin Yang, Yan Cai, Xuemiao Xu, Huaidong Zhang, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

3Dvisual grounding aims to identify and localize objects in a 3Dspacebasedontextualdescriptions. However, existing methods struggle with disentangling targets from anchors in complex multi-anchor queries and resolving inconsisten cies in spatial descriptions caused by perspective variations. To tackle these challenges, we propose ViewSRD, a frame work that formulates 3D visual grounding as a structured multi-view decomposition process. First, the Simple Rela tion Decoupling (SRD) module restructures complex multi anchor queries into a set of targeted single-anchor state ments, generating a structured set of perspective-aware de scriptions that clarify positional relationships. These de composed representations serve as the foundation for the Multi-view …

Fatal Cases Of Poisoning Diagnosed In Medicolegal Directorate Of Baghdad, Ahmed Ghadhban, Nabeel Hashim

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Abstract: Background: Poisoning is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Providing accurate statistical data is essential to understand the different aspects of poisoning cases for the seek of diagnosis particularly at the medicolegal side, and also for the seek of better management. Objective: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics, and the postmortem findings of fatal poisoning cases referred to the medicolegal directorate of Baghdad. To identify the most common toxic agents, and the manner of death, in addition to demonstrate the demographic factors for the purpose of prevention and management.Materials and Methods: Retrospective study analyzing autopsy records …

Multilateral Organizations And Health Emergency Management During Crisis: The Case Study Of The World Health Organization During Covid-19 Pandemic, Aya Helmy Hamada

Theses and Dissertations

Multilateral organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), play a key role in managing health emergencies during crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO achieved significant progress by supporting countries with technical assistance, guidelines, and essential resources. As well as providing technical guidance, sharing information, and coordinating among member states. This experience highlighted the importance of WHO in tackling global public health problems and showed how multilateral collaboration can help address complex challenges. Moreover, risk and crisis communication proved to be a critical part of WHO’s response, ensuring that clear and timely information reached the public and stakeholders. Despite these …

Emoshortcuts: Emotionally Expressive Body Augmentation For Social Mixed Reality Avatars, Hyuna Seo, Youngki Lee, Rajesh Krishna Balan, Thivya Kandappu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present EmoShortcuts1, a novel social Mixed Reality (MR) framework that enhances emotional expression by dynamically augmenting avatar body gestures to reflect users’ emotional states. While social MR enables immersive remote interactions through avatars, conveying emotions remains challenging due to limitations in head-mounted display (HMD) tracking (e.g., missing lower-body movements, such as stomping or defensive postures), and users’ tendency to deprioritize nonverbal expressions during multitasking. EmoShortcuts addresses these challenges by introducing an augmentation framework that generates expressive body gestures even when users’ physical movements are restricted. We conducted a formative study with 12 participants to identify key challenges in emotional …

Art4math: Handwritten Mathematical Expression Recognition Via Multimodal Sketch Grounding, Yang Zhou, Jin Wang, Yuxiao Zhang, Kaixiang Huang, Guodong Lu, Jingru Yang, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Handwritten Mathematical Expression Recognition (HMER) remains a challenging task due to the structural complexity of mathematical notation and the ambiguity of handwritten symbols-e.g., ''ρ'' vs. ''p'' or ''B'' vs. ''β''. While stroke-based models offer disambiguation via temporal cues, most existing methods are constrained by coarse modality fusion and a lack of fine-grained cross-modal alignment, further hindered by limited annotated data. We introduce Art for Math (Art4Math), a novel framework that leverages the structural richness of human sketches to enhance HMER through fine-grained, modality-aware learning. Art4Math follows a two-stage training paradigm: Art Grounding (A-Grd) and Math Decoding (M-Dec). In A-Grd, the …

Dean's Update, October 2025, Neil W. Schluger

SOM Dean's Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Better Digital Contracts With Prosocial Friction-In-Design, Brett Frischmann, Moshe Y. Vardi

Faculty Publications

Contract law is supposed to enable people to reach genuine agreements and cooperate. If this ideal was ever a reality, the rise of mass market contracts and boil­erplate rendered it pure fiction. Modern consumer contracts are incomprehensible to most people. No one reads them anyway.

Digital contracting involves design features that amplify traditional boilerplate harms and create others. For example, digital contracting is too cheap; low marginal costs lead to overexpansion in scale and scope. To make matters worse, the loss of autonomy from repeat engagement with digital contracting systems is pernicious. People become increasingly predictable and programmable as digital …

Peritoneal Immunosurgery: Immunotherapy Augmented Surgery For The Treatment Of Peritoneal Cancers, Ada I Ozcan, Arianexys Aquino López, Mary K Mckenna, Malcolm K Brenner, Alastair M Thompson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Peritoneal malignancy often indicates disruptions in multiple physiological systems resulting from widespread cancer. The heterogenous origin and dynamic nature of peritoneal cancer make it difficult to treat with standard approaches that fit into guidelines. We describe how successful treatment should address the underlying pathology, the systemic response to surgical treatments and target the immune perturbations that facilitate the establishment and propagation of this multifaceted disease.

Picalm Alzheimer’S Risk Allele Causes Aberrant Lipid Droplets In Microglia, Alena Kozlova, Siwei Zhang, Ari Sudwarts, Hanwen Zhang, Stanislau Smirnou, Seul Kee Byeon, Christina Thapa, Xiaotong Sun, Kimberley Stephenson, Xiaojie Zhao, Brendan Jamison, Moorthi Ponnusamy, Xin He, Julie A Schneider, Akhilesh Pandey, David A Bennett, Zhiping P Pang, Alan R Sanders, Hugo J Bellen, Gopal Thinakaran, Jubao Duan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Despite genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) having identified many genetic risk loci1–3, the underlying disease mechanisms remain largely unclear. Determining causal disease variants and their LOAD-relevant cellular phenotypes has been a challenge. Here, using our approach for identifying functional GWAS risk variants showing allele-specific open chromatin, we systematically identified putative causal LOAD-risk variants in human induced pluripotent stem (iPS)-cell-derived neurons, astrocytes and microglia, and linked a PICALM LOAD-risk allele to a microglial-specific role of PICALM in lipid droplet (LD) accumulation. Allele-specific open-chromatin mapping revealed functional risk variants for 26 LOAD-risk loci, mostly …

Prostaglandin E2 As A Mechanistic Biomarker Of Chronic Pancreatitis, Jami L Saloman, Bahiyyah Jefferson, Samuel Han, William E Fisher, Evan L Fogel, Phil A Hart, Liang Li, Walter G Park, Santhi Swaroop Vege, Dhiraj Yadav, Mark D Topazian, Darwin L Conwell

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Introduction: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a disease associated with chronic inflammation, fibrosis, and pain. There is a lack of tools available that facilitate early diagnosis, when intervention could prevent irreversible damage. Pilot data suggested prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) as a candidate biomarker for early CP. PGE2 activates signaling pathways that promote inflammation, pain, and fibrosis.

Methods: We assessed PGE2, metabolites, and downstream targets in pancreatic fluid collected endoscopically 0-10 (n = 110) and 10-20 (n = 111) minutes after intravenous secretin administration. PGE2 and metabolites were measured in plasma (n = 75) and urine (n = 71) from the same subjects. …

Repeated Withdrawal Of A Glpr Agonist Induces Hyperleptinemia And Deteriorates Metabolic Health In Obese Aging Um-Het3 Mice, Nisi Jiang, Jiyuan Yin, Noah Lawrence, Jieyi Meng, Laurence T Maeyens, Ziying Xu, Xin Li, Mbolle Ekane, Ariana Chaudhary, Pengju Cao, Guannan Li, Carolina Solis-Herrera, Yi Zhu, Shangang Zhao

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

GLP-1-based therapy is highly effective in combating aging-associated metabolic diseases. However, the metabolic effects of frequent withdrawal from this therapy in aged, obese mice have not been previously studied. In this study, aged obese UM-HET3 mice were assigned to three groups: Group 1 received no liraglutide treatment (Lira OFF); Group 2 underwent 3 cycles of treatment followed by withdrawal (Lira ON/OFF); and Group 3 remained on continuous treatment (Lira ON). As expected, mice in Group 3 showed reduced body weight and food intake, along with improved metabolic health. In contrast, mice in Group 2 developed hyperleptinemia and visceral fat expansion, …

Predictive Gene Expression Signatures For Alzheimer's Disease Using Post-Mortem Brain Tissue, Ashley Duche, Oliver Tan, Andrius Baskys, Rachita K. Sumbria, Moom R. Roosan

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques and tau protein aggregates in the brain. These pathological features manifest in specific regions, but mechanisms rendering some areas more susceptible to early AD-related changes remain poorly understood. To address this, we developed predictive gene expression signatures to explore molecular mechanisms underlying regional vulnerability to AD pathology.

Methods: Post-mortem brain tissues from participants of the Religious Orders Study and Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP), Mayo Clinic, and Mount Sinai Brain Bank (MSBB) were used to derive gene expression signatures from six brain regions affected at varying …

Endoglin-Directed Car T Cells Comprehensively Target Tumors In Advanced Sarcomas, Harrison R Berger, Malina Maharana, Jeneffer Mirabal, Lyazat Kurenbekova, Alberto Delaidelli, Atreyi Dasgupta, Ahmed Z Gad, Mohamed F Sheha, Sybrina S Kerr, Ada I Ozcan, Jessica S Morris, Angela M Major, M John Hicks, Mary K Mckenna, Ben K Seon, Matthew L Baker, Poul H Sorensen, Meenakshi Hegde, Jason T Yustein, Nabil Ahmed, Sujith K Joseph

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

There are limited therapeutic options for patients with advanced sarcomas, which leads to dismal outcomes for children and adults. Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells hold promise for treating advanced sarcomas, this approach is constrained by a paucity of effective targets. Our previous clinical study identified endoglin (ENG/CD105), a TGFβ coreceptor, as a target of the endogenous immune response in a patient with sarcoma who exhibited an exceptional response to HER2-targeted CAR T-cell therapy. ENG is expressed on various sarcomas, cancer-associated fibroblasts, and neoangiogenic vessels and therefore offers comprehensive tumor targeting. Furthermore, ENG knockout in sarcoma cells reduces their …

Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibition Sensitizes Group 3 Medulloblastoma To Radiotherapy, Cory M Richman, Alexandra Rasnitsyn, Borja L Holgado, Maria Vladoiu, Namal Abeysundara, Sandra Majo, Sara Chabi, Lucie J Taunay, Hiromichi Suzuki, Ichiyo Shibahara, Joonas Haapasalo, Jonelle G Pallotta, Tajana Douglas, Kaitlin Kharas, Kyle Juraschka, Oliver Ocsenas, Sachin A Kumar, Kristiina Nordfors, Ana Guerreiro Stücklin, Raul A Suarez, Jiao Zhang, Xiaochong Wu, Craig Daniels, Livia Garzia, Jüri Reimand, Olivier Saulnier, Thomas E Merchant, Celio Pouponnot, David R Raleigh, Michael D Taylor, Pasqualino De Antonellis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Group 3 (G3) medulloblastoma constitutes the most aggressive molecular subgroup, and nearly all patients present with metastases upon recurrence. Treatment for newly diagnosed medulloblastoma relies on a combination of maximal safe surgical resection, followed by chemotherapy and ionizing radiation, and no therapies have been shown to confer a survival benefit at the time of recurrence. Given the limited therapeutic options available for patients with medulloblastoma, especially at recurrence, and the incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying resistance to treatment, we sought to uncover actionable targets and biomarkers that could help refine patient selection and treatment of newly diagnosed medulloblastoma …

Corneal Sensory Nerve Regulation Of Tear Production Through Stimulation Of Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 8 (Trpm8) Channel: A Potential New Approach For Treating Dry Eye Disease, Juana Gallar, Stephen Pflugfelder, Anat Galor, Preeya K Gupta, Pedram Hamrah

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The lacrimal functional unit (LFU) tightly controls the secretion of all tear components, thus playing a critical role in maintaining ocular surface homeostasis. Forming an exquisitely sensitive neural network across the ocular surface, corneal sensory nerves detect environmental stimuli (e.g., temperature, chemicals, and mechanical pressure) through transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels. Among these, TRP melastatin 8 (TRPM8) is a key regulator of basal tear production. Stimulated by the small temperature reductions and tear film osmolarity increases that arise due to evaporative cooling, TRPM8 activates the LFU, leading to increased basal tear production. Here, we focus on reviewing the topical …

Aging Affects Lipid Homeostasis In Lacrimal Glands By Upregulating Lipogenesis And Changing Its Specificity, Seher Yuksel, Prashant Kumar, Sydney E Krenz, Kaitlin K Scholand, Zhiyuan Yu, Anastasiia Ivanova, Helen P Makarenkova, Sarah F Hamm-Alvarez, Igor A Butovich, Cintia S De Paiva

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Purpose: The lacrimal gland (LG) develops age-related alterations. This study investigated the lipid content of the accumulated secretions within the murine aged LG.

Methods: C57BL/6J animals of different ages (3 months, 12 months, and 20-26 months) were used. Published data of bulk RNA sequencing of aged LGs were used to investigate lipid pathways. Exorbital LGs were excised for histology or PCR. Histologic sections were stained with standard histochemical stains or immunostained using anti-adiponectin, anti-perilipin 2 antibodies, and BODIPY dye. LG lipidomes were investigated using unbiased, untargeted high-resolution liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), and the data were processed using unbiased, untargeted principal …

Phosphorylation At Serine 214 Correlates With Tau Seeding Activity In An Age-Dependent Manner In Two Mouse Models For Tauopathies And Is Required For Tau Transsynaptic Propagation, Pablo Martinez, Nur Jury-Garfe, Henika Patel, Yanwen You, Abigail Perkins, Yingjian You, Audrey Lee-Gosselin, Ruben Vidal, Cristian A Lasagna-Reeves

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background

Tau aggregation and propagation are hallmark features of Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies. The molecular identity and post-translational modifications that contribute to tau seeding activity remain incompletely understood.

Objective

To characterize the temporal dynamics of tau seeding activity and identify specific phosphorylated tau species associated with tau propagation in vivo.

Methods

We profiled tau seeding activity using a FRET-based biosensor cell line and correlated it with the abundance of phospho- and conformational tau species in two transgenic mouse models of tauopathy (P301S-1N4R and P301S-0N4R). Immunohistochemistry and subcellular fractionation were used to examine the spatial distribution of tau species. Functional …

Systematic Targeting Of Gd2-Positive Neuroblastoma Tumors With A Photooncolytic Phage Nanovector Platform, Suleman Khan Zadran, Nicola Facchinello, Piergiuseppe De Rosa, Roberto Saporetti, Paolo Emidio Costantini, Luca Ulfo, Michela Nigro, Annapaola Petrosino, Lucia Pappagallo, Sara Aloisi, Giorgio Milazzo, Zainul Abe Din, Alberto Rigamonti, Leonardo Flora, Martina Santulli, Leonardo Cimadom, Giampaolo Zuccheri, Mattia Zangoli, Manuele Di Sante, Matteo Di Giosia, Francesca Di Maria, Roberto Bernardoni, Eveline Barbieri, Matteo Calvaresi, Alberto Danielli, Giovanni Perini

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Disialoganglioside-GD2 is a key molecular target for Neuroblastoma (NB) immunotherapy based on the employment of GD2-targeting antibodies. However, about 50% of treated patients can experience tumor relapse due to limited immune-mediated cytotoxicity and poor antibody penetration into tumors. To address this problem, a tumor-penetrating photo-oncolytic phage nanovector platform is genetically and chemically developed that selectively targets GD2-expressing NB cells. The phage bioconjugates, functionalized with different photosensitizers, result in specific and selective oncolysis of GD2-positive NB cells upon light irradiation, without affecting GD2-negative ones. The photo-oncolytic phage vectors are shown to deeply penetrate into GD2-positive tumor spheroids in vitro, and to …

Exploring The Transformative Effects Of Calorie Restriction On The Lacrimal Gland In Adult Mice, Olivier Mauduit, Prashant Kumar, Kaitlin K Scholand, Emre Aksan, Laura Schaefer, Anmar Abu-Romman, Vanessa Delcroix, Zhiyuan Yu, Aude I Sindikubwabo, Ron Korstanje, Helen P Makarenkova, Cintia S De Paiva

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Advanced age is one of the most recognizable risk factors for dry eye. Dry eye disease affects millions worldwide and can result from age-related lacrimal gland dysfunction, which correlates with a decline in lacrimal gland secretory cell function and chronic inflammation. This study investigated the potential of calorie restriction to maintain lacrimal gland and ocular surface health. Adult female C57BL/6 J mice were subjected to a 40% calorie restriction for 4 months, starting at 6-7 months and continuing until 10-11 months. These mice were compared to controls fed ad libitum. Bulk RNA sequencing of lacrimal glands, conjunctiva, and cornea subjected …

Nrf2 Hyperactivation As A Driver Of Radiotherapy Resistance And Suppressed Antitumor Immunity In Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Rutulkumar Patel, Kalil Saab, Lixia Luo, Yan Ma, Rashid Abdullah Osman, Nerissa T Williams, Jeffrey Everitt, Maciej J Zelazowski, Patricia Castro, William K Decker, William H Hudson, Jeffrey N Myers, Vlad C Sandulache, Mitchell J Frederick, Yvonne M Mowery, David G Kirsch

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Purpose: Alterations in the KEAP1/NFE2L2 (NRF2)/CUL3 pathway occur in ∼20% of human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) and are associated with resistance to standard-of-care therapy. However, this pathway's role in radiotherapy resistance in HNSCC has not been well studied.

Experimental design: We generated genetically engineered mouse models and developed primary murine cancer cell lines harboring mutations commonly observed in human HNSCC, including inducible activation of PIK3CA and deletion of Trp53, with or without Keap1 loss. Primary tumors were initiated via 4-hydroxytamoxifen injection ± the tobacco carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BAP) into the oral buccal mucosa. Tumors were analyzed by Western …

Transcript Diversity In Aging: Cryptic Transcription And Splicing, Brenna S Mccauley, Nicholas Nikoloutsos, Weiwei Dang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Increased transcript diversity, which is caused in part by alternative splicing and cryptic transcription, is an underappreciated aspect of age-associated transcriptome remodeling. Recent work has revealed that structurally novel transcripts increase during aging in many tissues. Genes with cryptic and alternatively spliced transcripts with age are enriched for functional categories relevant to tissue function and aging, and have been implicated in cognitive decline, decreased muscle strength, reduced oocyte quality, immune aging, altered stem cell properties, and senescence. Indeed, there is emerging evidence that alternatively spliced transcripts and elevated cryptic transcription directly contribute to aging phenotypes in multiple tissues. The full …

Dominant Negative Atp5f1a Variants Disrupt Oxidative Phosphorylation Causing Neurological Disorders, Sara M Fielder, Marisa W Friederich, Daniella H Hock, Jessie R Zhang, Liana M Valin, Jill A Rosenfeld, Kevin T A Booth, Natasha J Brown, Rocio Rius, Tanavi Sharma, Liana N Semcesen, Kim C Worley, Lindsay C Burrage, Kayla Treat, Tara Samson, Sarah Govert, Sara Dacunha, Weimin Yuan, Jian Chen, Jacob Lesinski, Hieu Hoang, Stephanie A Morrison, Farah A Ladha, Roxanne A Van Hove, Cole R Michel, Richard Reisdorph, Eric Tycksen, Dustin Baldridge, Gary A Silverman, Claudia Soler-Alfonso, Erin Conboy, Francesco Vetrini, Lisa Emrick, William J Craigen, Undiagnosed Diseases Network, Stephen M Sykes, David A Stroud, Johan L K Van Hove, Tim Schedl, Stephen C Pak

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

ATP5F1A encodes the α-subunit of complex V of the respiratory chain, which is responsible for mitochondrial ATP synthesis. We describe 6 probands with heterozygous de novo missense ATP5F1A variants that presented with developmental delay, intellectual disability, and movement disorders. All variants were located at the contact points between the α- and β-subunits. Functional studies in C. elegans revealed that the variants were damaging via a dominant negative genetic mechanism. Biochemical and proteomics studies of proband-derived cells showed a marked reduction in complex V abundance and activity. Mitochondrial physiology studies revealed increased oxygen consumption, yet decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP …

Minors Or Miners? Analyzing Compensation Of User-Generated Content Under The Fair Labor Standards Act, J. Clayton Eaton

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Roblox is an online platform where users, many of whom are under the age of eighteen, create games, virtual experiences, and digital assets that generate significant revenue for Roblox Corporation, the owner of Roblox. These young content creators are compensated primarily through platform-specific virtual currency, which can be difficult to convert into real-world money due to the high thresholds for conversion and the unfavorable exchange rates. Even though these systems resemble labor relationships, existing legal frameworks and government actions do little to address the creators’ rights to fair compensation. This regulatory gap has allowed platforms like Roblox to operate under …

Liver-Specific Expression Of Hiv-1 Viral Protein R Causes Hepatic Steatosis And Glucose Intolerance In Male Mice, Neeti Agarwal, Pradip Saha, Claudia E Ramirez Bustamante, Sean M Hartig, Mark A Herman, Ashok Balasubramanyam, Jordan E Lake

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is increasingly recognized in people with HIV (PWH), with both HIV and antiretroviral therapy contributing to liver damage and glucose intolerance. However, the role of viral proteins derived from reservoirs in this process remains unclear.

Methods: Adeno-associated virus (AAV) constructs encoding a control protein or HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr) driven by the thyroxine-binding globulin promoter were administered to male mice (n = 5 per group) fed regular chow or a high-fat diet (HFD). Young adult mice underwent intraperitoneal glucose tolerance testing and magnetic resonance imaging, followed by euthanasia. Liver and adipose tissues …

Hyaluronidase-1 Mediates Postprandial Suppression Of Hepatic Gluconeogenesis, Xi Chen, Sophie Dogné, Yanru Deng, Huiqiao Li, Jieyi Meng, Charlise Giang, Jan-Bernd Funcke, Leon G Straub, Michelle Dias, Sundararajah Thevananther, Qiang Tong, Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, Chandra Shekar R Ambati, Yu'e Liu, Nagireddy Putluri, Xia Gao, Miao-Hsueh Chen, Dongyin Guan, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Shangang Zhao, Nathalie Caron, Yi Zhu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Hepatic gluconeogenesis is a critical process that generates glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors during fasting to support vital organs like the brain and red blood cells. Postprandially, this process is rapidly suppressed to allow for glucose storage as glycogen and lipids in the liver. Failure to suppress gluconeogenesis after meals leads to elevated postprandial glucose levels, a key feature of type 2 diabetes. This dynamic switch is regulated by insulin and glucagon, but insulin resistance impairs this regulation. In this study, we identified a novel mechanism involving postprandial circulating hyaluronan (HA) and lysosomal hyaluronidase-1 (HYAL1) that suppresses hepatic gluconeogenesis by rewiring …

Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Microrna-7-5p Expression And Biological Significance In Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Rikki A.M. Brown, Michael Phillips, Andrew J. Woo, Omar Kujan, Stephanie Flukes, Louise N. Winteringham, Larissa C. Dymond, Fiona Wheeler, Brianna Pollock, Dianne J. Beveridge, Elena Denisenko, Peter J. Leedman

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a prevalent malignancy with poor clinical outcomes. microRNA-7-5p (miR-7-5p) has been described as both a tumour suppressor and an oncomiR depending on the tissue context, but its role in HNSCC remains unclear. This study aimed to clarify the clinical significance and biological function of miR-7-5p in HNSCC by integrating data from multiple sources. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify studies analysing miRNA expression in human head and neck tissues. A meta-analysis of individual patient data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ArrayExpress, and The Cancer Genome Atlas …