Digital Commons Network^™

Mitigation Of Salinity Stress In Carnation Plants Through Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles: Growth, Physiological, And Biochemical Responses, Adel A. Rezk, Ishtiaq Ahmad, Maryam, Muhammad Saleem, Othman Al-Dossary, Hossam S. El-Beltagi, Mohammed Aldaej, Bader Y. Alsubaie, Hati̇ce Gülen, Tarek Shalaby, Riaz Ahmad

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) growth and floral yield are severely reduced when grown in soils with excessive salinity. Mitigation of adverse effects from salinity-induced stress is necessary for sustainable carnation cultivation. Although various approaches have been developed, the use of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) to ameliorate these effects remains scarcely explored. The current study explored the potential of ZnO-NPs to alleviate salinity-induced stress by examining their effects on morphophysiological and biochemical traits. A controlled pot experiment was conducted using a factorial design with three concentrations of sodium chloride (0, 50, and 100 mM) and three of ZnO-NPs (0, 50, and …

Model Unification: A Systematic Approach For The Cluster Expansion, Kolten Barfuss

Theses and Dissertations

A systematic approach for model unification of cluster expansion models is developed and demonstrated. The method builds on previous work with the Manifold Boundary Approximation Method (MBAM) to identify supremal models. The work is motivated by the exercise of unifying cluster expansion models – characterized by Π matrices – for two binary alloys that share one atomic species to form a model for the ternary alloy. The result is the Supremal Π Algorithm, a systematic unification algorithm that relies on an MBAM-informed understanding of models and on the singular value decomposition. The algorithm yields ΠΛ, a Π matrix for the …

Deep Learning And Experimental Validation Of Brca1-Associated Protein-1 Missense Variant Pathogenicity In Uveal Melanoma, Nikhil Davé, David J. Taylor Gonzalez, Mak B. Djulbegovic, Linda A. Cernichiaro-Espinosa, Benjamin A. King, Carol L. Shields, Matthew W. Wilson

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

OBJECTIVE: To benchmark the pathogenicity predictions of AlphaMissense, a deep learning model, against high-throughput functional scores from saturation genome editing (SGE) for all experimentally tested BRCA1-associated protein-1 (BAP1) missense variants in uveal melanoma (UM).

DESIGN: Cross-sectional analytical study comparing computational predictions with experimentally derived functional classifications and clinical annotations.

SUBJECTS PARTICIPANTS AND/OR CONTROLS:  ClusteredAll 4619 BAP1 single amino acid substitutions profiled in a published Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-Cas9 SGE viability assay. No separate control cohort was required. Clinical Variant Database (ClinVar)-annotated variants within this set served as an independent reference.

METHODS: Saturation genome editing log₂-fitness …

Psychosocial Characteristics Of North American Male Cannibals, Sheila A. Murphy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Criminal cannibalism is a rare form of violent offending that remains understudied despite public attention. This gap limits understanding of the psychosocial characteristics and life experiences of individuals who engage in cannibalistic behavior. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore psychosocial characteristics within the life experiences of North American males who engaged in cannibalistic behavior and identify common themes. Grounded in social control theory and self-control theory, the study examined how weakened social bonds and diminished self-regulation may relate to extreme deviance. The guiding research question focused on identifying common psychosocial characteristics within this population. A descriptive phenomenological …

Shift Work And Shift Change And Police Officers’ Subjective Well-Being, Macey Silano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of police officers working second and third shifts and how these schedules impacted their subjective well-being, mental health, relationships, and life satisfaction. This study addressed an important research problem because limited research has examined how night shifts and shift changes impact police officers’ well-being. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how police officers experienced shift work and shift changes while working second and third shifts and how they made meaning of these experiences in relation to subjective well-being. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study was grounded in restorative rest and …

Using Geospatial Environmental And Income Variables As Predictors Of Diabetes In Appalachia, John Kunicki Huth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Diabetes remains disproportionately prevalent in Appalachia, and macroenvironmental contributors remain poorly understood. Guided by spatial epidemiology, this quantitative, cross-sectional ecological study examined whether county-level environmental factors including distance to mine, distance to landfill, distance to water, mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature, forest classification, distance to impervious surface, and median income were independently and collectively associated with diabetes cases per capita in West Virginia, used as a surrogate for Appalachia. Research questions addressed environmental predictors of diabetes cases per capita with and without controlling for median income. Publicly available county-level data from 53 West Virginia counties representing adults aged 20 …

Functional Requirement For Dicer Helicase Arginine Methylation In 26 G Sirna Biogenesis And Oocyte Meiotic Program, Nick Newkirk, Shin-Yu Chen, Tokiko Furuta, Kenneth A Trimmer, Leilei Shi, Sabrina Stratton, Hongyuan Li, Xiaodong Cheng, Mark T Bedford, Swathi Arur

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Spatiotemporal regulation of Dicer is essential for small RNA biogenesis and fertility, yet how its helicase domain is controlled remains unclear. Using Caenorhabditis elegans, we identify a regulatory role for the arginine-rich GRARR motif within helicase domain motif VI of DCR-1. Mutating conserved arginines in this sequence disrupts maternal 26 G endo-siRNA production, impairs oocyte meiosis I and II, and reduces fertility. Biochemically, an asymmetrically dimethylated DCR-1 GRA[R495*]R peptide enhances interaction with ERI-5, a tandem-Tudor protein in the ERIC complex, while loss of DCR-1(R495) diminishes this interaction in vivo. Genetically, eri-5 deletion phenocopies the dcr-1 R495K mutant, supporting a functional …

Impacts Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi And Novel Soil Amendments On Perennial Grass Establishment In Mineland Soils, Melissa M. Burrell

Theses and Dissertations

Establishing perennial vegetation on mine waste materials is one of the primary challenges in mine land reclamation. Waste rock and mine tailing substrates typically lack the physical structure, nutrient availability, and biological communities necessary to support plant establishment and long-term ecosystem recovery. As a result, revegetation efforts often experience poor seeding success and limited plant persistence despite intensive management efforts. These studies investigated two complementary strategies to improve perennial grass establishment in degraded mine substrates: restoring mycorrhizal associations and enhancing soil function through soil amendments. The first study examined the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in facilitating plant establishment …

Courts Deliver Two Trans Rights Victories — Sort Of — From Out West, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Journey Of Becoming: Risk And Self-Determination In The Story Of Self For Adults With Intellectual, Developmental, And Learning Disabilities A Phenomenological Case Study Employing Narrative Inquiry And Thematic Analysis, Christopher R. J. Worth

Dissertations

This phenomenological case study, employing narrative inquiry and thematic analysis, captured the first-person voice of emerging adults (ages 20–28) with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities to explore how experiences of risk and self-determination shaped their personal narratives, or story of self. Guided by Critical Disability Theory, Foucault’s concept of relational power, and Shogren’s Causal Agency Theory, the study challenged the systemic bubble-wrapping that denies this population the "dignity of risk" (Perske, 1972). Data were collected from six participants through semi-structured interviews, adapted photovoice submissions, and participant selfreflections. The findings revealed that the phenomenon of becoming, catalyzed by intellectual adaptive risk-taking, …

On The Transport Of Chloroplast Lipids, Cailin Smith

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Chloroplasts are green, photosynthetically active organelles ubiquitous to the plant kingdom. Owing to their cyanobacterial origin, chloroplasts consist of three membranes: the outer envelope, the inner envelope, and the thylakoid, the latter of which is the site of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. Not only do the lipids that make up these membranes delineate aqueous compartments, but they also respond dynamically to developmental and environmental cues, constitute the matrix that scaffolds protein machinery, and even serve as functional components of some proteinaceous complexes. However, while lipids are of vital importance to the structure and function of the chloroplast, the mechanisms …

Histopathology Image Classification Using Machine Learning, Mohammed H. Alali

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Histopathology image classification is a critical component of cancer diagnosis. However, the gigapixel scale of Whole-Slide Images (WSIs) and the high variability in tissue staining and scanner quality across medical centers present significant computational challenges. This dissertation proposes a comprehensive machine learning framework to address these challenges, bridging the gap between theoretical models and practical clinical deployment.

First, to manage the massive dimensionality and noise inherent in WSIs, this research develops a robust feature extraction methodology. The pipeline implements a stringent tile filtering technique to eliminate physical artifacts and resolve severe class imbalances. It integrates ConvNeXt alongside an attention-based pooling …

Awareness, Protest, And Action: Women Science-Fiction Writers As Writer Activists, Carolyn Nolte

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Following the end of World War II, science-fiction literature, which was mostly dominated by white male writers, experienced an increase in stories written by women writers. Of these postwar stories written by women, the three women writers in this dissertation imagined how their present-day experiences informed the future by exploring their concerns about humanity’s collective trajectory. By analyzing how their stories dramatize possible future social, psychological, biological, and environmental harms, this dissertation argues that these women writers’ works distinguish them as writer-activists, a concept I borrow from Rob Nixon’s work Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor.

I …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

No abstract provided.

Computational And Experimental Analysis Of Oleanolic Acid As An Allosteric Activator Of Sirt1, Emrah Sariyer, Eda Dokumacioğlu, Hati̇ce İskender

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a member of the sirtuin protein family and the biological effects of SIRT1 encompass various areas such as the ageing process, metabolism regulation, and cellular stress response. SIRT1 activators are compounds that enhance the activity of SIRT1 enzyme. These activators can be natural or synthetic compounds and have the potential to provide health benefits by augmenting the biological effects of SIRT1. Oleanolic acid (OA) is a triterpenoid compound that has antiinflammatory, antioxidant, and glucose and lipid metabolism-regulating properties naturally found in many plants. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of OA …

Investigation Of The Enzyme-Inhibitory, Antibacterial, And Anticancer Properties Of Metal Phthalocyanines, Meryem Topal, Fevzi̇ Topal, Firat Yilmaz, Esra Bulut Atalay, Ümi̇t Muhammet Koçyi̇ği̇t, Emre Güzel

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

In this study, the enzyme inhibitory, antibacterial, and anticancer activities of a phthalonitrile derivative and its metal phthalocyanines (Pcs; indium, zinc, copper, cobalt, and manganese; 1–6) were investigated. The cobalt and manganese Pcs were synthesized for the first time in this study. The inhibitory activities of the symmetric Pcs, which were expected to interact with acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) via their 4-(isopropylbenzyl)oxy substituents through host–guest interactions, were investigated. More selective inhibition of AChE than BChE was observed for these compounds. For AChE, CoPc was identified as the most potent inhibitor (IC50 = 14.81 nM), whereas for BChE, InPc was …

Nucleophilic Cyclization Of N-Propargylated Pyrazole-5-Carboxylates: Synthesis Of Pyrazolo[1,5-A]Pyrazin-4(5h)-One Derivatives, Meli̇k Firat Mengeş, Meltem Tan Uygun

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Cyclization reactions are among the most important and widely used methods for synthesizing biologically active fused heterocyclic compounds. In the present study, pyrazolopyrazinone derivatives (10a–i) were synthesized from N-propargylated pyrazoles via nucleophilic cyclization with hydrazine hydrate under a nitrogen atmosphere. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectral analyses confirmed that ring closure proceeded in a manner consistent with the formation of a six-membered pyrazinone moiety. In addition, the pyrazolotriazepinone derivative 15c was synthesized using an alternative approach. In this method, substitution with chloroacetone was first carried out, followed by ring closure with hydrazine hydrate, affording a seven-membered triazepinone system. Comparison of the …

Sensitive Stripping Voltammetric Determination Of An Anthracene–Isatin Schiff Base In Biological Samples, Gökçe Öztürk, İrem Gökgöz, Emi̇ne Arslan, Eli̇f Şi̇şman, İnci̇ Seli̇n Doğan, Di̇lek Kul, Fatma Ağin

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

​In the present study, the electrochemical behavior and quantitative determination of the Schiff base 3-[(anthracen-2-yl)imino]-5-nitro-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one (ANT) were investigated for the first time using voltammetric techniques at a glassy carbon electrode. The effects of solvent composition, pH, and scan rate on the redox behavior of ANT were systematically evaluated. The compound exhibited an irreversible oxidation process governed by adsorption-controlled kinetics. Quantitative analysis was conducted using differential pulse stripping voltammetry (AdS-DPV) and square-wave stripping voltammetry (AdS-SWV) under optimized conditions. Both methods exhibited linear responses over the concentration range of 0.2–8.0 μM, with limits of detection of 0.0366 μM and 0.0433 μM for …

Templating Effect Of Neutral Dithiane Ligands On The Self-Assembly Of Cationic Au(I)-Phosphine Units, Farzane Osanlou, Abdollah Neshat, Mohammad Reza Yousefshahi, Vaclav Eigner, Michal Dusek, Shahram Seidi

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

The interactions between the dinuclear Au(I) precursor (dppm)Au2Cl2 and neutral sulfur-containing dithianes (specifically 1,3- and 1,4-dithiane) were examined in the presence of NH₄PF₆. Although these sulfur-based ligands were initially employed to facilitate the formation of mixed phosphine/sulfur Au(I) complexes, single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the unexpected generation of multinuclear Au(I) assemblies exclusively coordinated by phosphine ligands. When 1,3-dithiane was present, a trinuclear Au(I) complex was isolated, characterized by a central four-coordinate Au(I) center exhibiting a distorted see-saw geometry, flanked by two terminal Au(I) centers with T-shaped coordination environments. Importantly, the dithiane ligand did not coordinate directly to the gold centers …

Vanadium’S Journey From Essential Trace Metal To Emerging Environmental Pollutant In The Anthropocene Era, Tanu Arora, Nivedita Agnihotri, Mohammad Azam

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Vanadium, previously considered a minor trace element, is gaining global environmental attention due to its expanding applications in metallurgy, energy storage, catalysis, and agriculture. With this rise in its industrial and technological uses, however, anthropogenic emissions of vanadium into the atmosphere, soils, and water bodies have also escalated. Unlike many heavy metals, vanadium exhibits complex redox behavior, primarily existing as V(IV) and V(V) species, which significantly impacts its environmental mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity. Vanadium exhibits complex behavior that necessitates an integrated research approach to better understand its various roles in scientific fields. This review summarizes the current knowledge on vanadium’s …

Construction And Characterization Of Novel Mycobacterium Tuberculosis-Derived Triple And Quadruple Knockout Vaccines Against Tuberculosis, Omar Garnica, Raja Veerapandian, Kishore Das, Abhishek Mishra, Varsha Rawat, Areanna Carmona, Vivek Chauhan, Rakesh Kumar, Jessica Chacon, Shrikanth S. Gadad, Subramanian Dhandayuthapani

School of Medicine Publications

Tuberculosis (TB) is a deadly disease that claims the lives of over a million people each year worldwide. The Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine has long been used to protect against TB, but it produces variable effects across different populations and fails to protect against adult pulmonary TB. Therefore, there is an urgent need for alternative vaccines that can offer better protection. We have developed a strategy for the rational deletion of virulence-related genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to create hyperattenuation that also enhances immunogenicity. Previously, we generated both single (∆fbpA) and double knockout (DKO) (∆fbpA-∆sapM) mutants of …

Opportunistic Breast Cancer Detection With Photon-Counting Ct: A Quantitative Pilot Study Of Reconstruction-Dependent Image Quality, Graham Hannon

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) has emerged as a promising imaging modality with improved spatial resolution and contrast capabilities compared to conventional energy-integrating detector systems. These advantages present an opportunity for opportunistic detection of breast cancer in routine thoracic CT scans that include breast tissue. In this pilot study, we evaluated the feasibility of opportunistic breast cancer detection using clinical PCCT data through quantitative image analysis. Two patients with confirmed breast malignancies and corresponding thoracic PCCT scans were retrospectively analyzed. Dedicated reconstructions were performed with varying convolution kernels, field-of-view sizes, and virtual monoenergetic spectra. Image quality was assessed using signal-to-noise ratio …

Piloting A Scalable Workflow To Identify Drivers Of Mammalian Aging Using C. Elegans, Ariella Lucia Coler-Reilly Colasanti

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The aging population in developed countries has prompted experts to warn of the impending “silver tsunami” of older adults poised to overload already strained healthcare systems. Advanced age is the primary risk factor for most chronic diseases, and the vast majority of the elderly population is diagnosed with at least one such condition, if not several. The field of geroscience has emerged to study the processes responsible for age-related decline and devise methods to reduce this burden. A major branch of geroscience is the genetics of aging, including examining gene expression changes over time as well as exploring how genetic …

Investigating The Intra-Host Relationships Of The Microbiota At Multiple Sites, Ariel Jose Hernandez-Leyva

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The human body hosts an abundance of microbial communities that, through complex and multi-faceted interactions, interface with host physiology and help govern health and disease. Many of these interactions are beneficial and help maintain host homeostasis or contribute to the metabolic capacity of the host. Some are detrimental, potentially inducing or further exacerbating disease. All are complicated by the vast diversity of microbes that comprise the microbiota at any given site. Identifying microbes or microbial functions that influence health and disease for study and potential use as biomarkers is tantalizing, though difficult. The vast diversity of potential community compositions, redundancy …

Reimagining Arabic As A Foreign Language Learning Through Place: Teachers’ And Students’ Perspectives On Pbl, Hebatalla Salem

Faculty Journal Articles

This one-cycle design-based research study aims to explore the perceptions of both teachers and students toward place-based learning. To achieve this, interviews were conducted with teachers, and questionnaires were administered to students who were directly engaged in place-based learning. The findings indicated positive outcomes, demonstrating that place-based learning offers multiple benefits, particularly in engaging learners in authentic experiences that enable them to apply what they learn in class within meaningful, community-based contexts. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on place-based learning by providing design principles that can support teachers in the design, development, and implementation of place-based learning …

Holding The Line: The Existential Threat To Dei Language And Values, Terrance Fitzsimmons, Larry Martinez, Jennifer Bishop, Darryl Rice, Florence Villesèche

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – This article critically analyses and critiques the operationalisation of the Trump administration’s anti- DEI policies on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States of America and beyond. It specifically examines the attempt to silence DEI scholarship and practice, assessing the broader implications for social justice and global progress towards equity. The article also positions these attacks as an existential threat to DEI scholarship, scholars and practitioners, with the potential to reverse progress made since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The article serves as a call to action, urging the …

The Impact Paradox: Mixed-Methods Evaluation Of National Institute Of Health And Care Research Funding For Intellectual Disability Research In The Uk, Rohit Shankar, Richard Laugharne, Sarah Lennard, Samuel Tromans, Nathan Goddard, Madeline Dale, Ruth Bishop, Nathan Johnson, Maxine Hough

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundPeople with intellectual disability experience substantialhealth inequities, including higher multimorbidity, increasedhealthcare utilisation and markedly reduced life expectancy.High-quality research is essential to address these disparities.The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)funded Research Delivery Network provides the infrastructure/expertise/support needed to deliver NIHR-funded studies, andsupports studies funded by a non-commercial/industry partner. However, the effectiveness of NIHR-funded studies versusthose supported in driving impactful intellectual disabilityresearch remains unclear.AimsTo evaluate and compare the outcomes of NIHR-funded andsupported intellectual disability research.MethodAll NIHR studies (funded/supported) relating to intellectualdisability (2010–2020) were identified through systematicregister searches. Primary outcomes included publicationrates and impact on local, national and international clinicalguidelines. …

Prodromal Lewy Body Disorder Features In Rem Sleep Behavior Disorder With Biomarker-Defined Synucleinopathy, Daniel Weintraub, Michele K York, Roseanne Dobkin, Anuprita R Nair, Ryan Kurth, David-Erick Lafontant, Chelsea Caspell-Garcia, Roy N Alcalay, Ethan G Brown, Lana M Chahine, Christopher Coffey, Tatiana Foroud, Douglas Galasko, Karl Kieburtz, Kenneth Marek, Kalpana Merchant, Brit Mollenhauer, Kathleen L Poston, Andrew Siderowf, Cristina Simonet, Tanya Simuni, Caroline M Tanner, Thomas F Tropea, Aleksandar Videnovic, Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: Isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) is a prodromal state for Lewy body disorders and exhibits biological heterogeneity that may influence clinical expression and progression. We examined clinical features in individuals with iRBD and biomarker-defined synucleinopathy.

Methods: Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) is a longitudinal, multi-center observational study. Participants included polysomnogram (PSG)-confirmed iRBD individuals who were cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) α-synuclein seed amplification assay positive with no clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies, along with robust healthy controls (HCs). Clinical and biological features of prodromal PD and DLB, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI), subthreshold …

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment Modifies The Effectiveness Of Catheter Ablation For Atrial Fibrillation: Post Hoc Analysis Of The Cabana Trial, Matthew W Segar, Kaleb D Lambeth, Brett Doliner, Joshua R Hirsch, Abdi Rasekh, Mehdi Razavi

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Rhesus Macaques With An Opa1 Mutation Demonstrate Features Of Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy, Tracy N Jaggers, Ana Ripolles-Garcia, Ala Moshiri, Brett D Story, Jun Wang, Rui Chen, Lucy G Moore, Leandro B C Teixeira, Jaeho Shim, Ana C Raposo, Maria Isabel Casanova, Sophie M Le, Sangwan Park, Laura J Young, Soohyun Kim, Karolina P Roszak, Vanessa Ureno, Paige M Karpinen, Nayeli Echeverria, Monica Ardon, Brian C Leonard, Marguerite Knipe, Eliza Bliss-Moreau, Brad Fortune, J Timothy Stout, Jeffrey Rogers, Nicholas Marsh-Armstrong, Sara M Thomasy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Autosomal dominant optic atrophy (ADOA) is an inherited optic neuropathy primarily caused by mutations in OPA1. We identified and defined a spontaneous nonhuman primate (NHP) model of ADOA using rhesus macaques heterozygous for a missense mutation (OPA1A8S). With ocular examinations, ophthalmic imaging, electroretinography, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we documented retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thinning, retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss and dysfunction, OPA1 mislocalization, and reduced axonal mitochondrial density in affected macaques. Our investigation revealed substantial phenotypic variability among affected macaques, shedding light on the pathogenesis of ADOA. The retinas were evaluated using techniques …