Digital Commons Network^™

The Somewhat True Adventures Of Sammy Shine, Tessa Mcmillan

Children's Book and Media Review

Jimmy has built a flight-ready, small aircraft, and he’s itching for a test pilot. So, he steals Hanks’ pet mouse, Sammy Shine. But the launch goes awry when Jimmy accidentally destroys the plane’s remote. Sammy takes over the controls, but he eventually crashes inside the wild Great Woods. Once there, Sammy meets a mouse clan and their friendly leader, Osmund. Osmund believes Sammy is magical because of his airplane, but warns that Mustela, the evil weasel, will want it to take over the woods. When Sammy’s aircraft disappears and Mustela isn’t to blame, Sammy searches for Goggles, an old and …

No Better Friend: A Man, A Dog, And Their Incredible True Story Of Friendship And Survival In World War Ii (Young Readers Edition), Liz Kazandzhy

Children's Book and Media Review

World War II began in the Pacific as a result of Japan’s imperialist desire to conquer its surrounding nations. In 1942, after sweeping through Siam and Malaya, Japanese forces unexpectedly overtook Britain-occupied Singapore. It was at this point that the stories of Frank Williams, a radarman in Britain’s Royal Air Force, and Judy, a loyal and talented pointer, began to collide. Having both been on ships that were attacked by the Japanese, they found themselves stranded for a time until finding a way to journey across the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the city of Padang. Unfortunately for them, Padang …

The Jungle Book, Whitney Troxel

Children's Book and Media Review

Discovered as a small child in the jungle, Mowgli was raised by a pack of wolves. However, when Shere Khan, a tiger, learns of his presence in the jungle, he threatens not only to kill Mowgli but anyone else who tries to protect him. Bagheera, a black panther, volunteers to take Mowgli to the man village in order to protect him and the wolf pack. Angry that Mowgli escaped, Shere Khan kills Akela, the leader of the wolves, in order to bring Mowgli back. Mowgli meets Baloo, a loveable but lazy bear, on his way to the village. Desperate to …

I Get Dressed, Cynthia Phillips

Children's Book and Media Review

A fox in a dress, a rabbit in shoes and a turtle in a top hat are just a few of the fun characters you will encounter in this board book. The animals from the book My Mother Goose by David McPhail make an appearance wearing various everyday clothing items. The illustrations are sketch like in pastel with plain backgrounds. Each of the 11 pages introduce a simple wardrobe vocabulary word for small readers.

P70s6k1 (S6k1)-Mediated Phosphorylation Regulates Phosphatidylinositol 4-Phosphate 5-Kinase Type I Γ Degradation And Cell Invasion, Naser Jafari, Qiaodan Zheng, Liqing Li, Wei Li, Lei Qi, Jianyong Xiao, Tianyan Gao, Cai Huang

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate 5-kinase type I γ (PIPKIγ90) ubiquitination and subsequent degradation regulate focal adhesion assembly, cell migration, and invasion. However, it is unknown how upstream signals control PIPKIγ90 ubiquitination or degradation. Here we show that p70S6K1 (S6K1), a downstream target of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), phosphorylates PIPKIγ90 at Thr-553 and Ser-555 and that S6K1-mediated PIPKIγ90 phosphorylation is essential for cell migration and invasion. Moreover, PIPKIγ90 phosphorylation is required for the development of focal adhesions and invadopodia, key machineries for cell migration and invasion. Surprisingly, substitution of Thr-553 and Ser-555 …

Tiny Rabbit's Big Wish, Ariel Woodbury

Children's Book and Media Review

Tiny Rabbit wants to be big! He wishes that he will grow to have "legs as tall as trees" and a tail as big as a mountain. He wishes and wishes to be big! But tiny rabbit only grows a little bit. Then tiny rabbit wishes to be strong as a gorilla. But he is still just a tiny rabbit. Tiny rabbit doesn't get very much bigger, stronger or taller, but his ears grow a lot. They let him hear all sorts of sounds and other animals. He learns to appreciate the benefits of being small, like being able to …

Have You Heard The Nesting Bird?, Ariel Woodbury

Children's Book and Media Review

As two children are outside they hear the calls of many different birds. But one bird is silent. The nesting bird isn't singing or moving around. Then, the eggs begin to hatch and baby robins are born.

Arctic Animals: Reindeer, Aylea Stephens

Children's Book and Media Review

In this book of facts and photographs, basic information is presented so that readers can learn about reindeer. Also known as caribou, these animals live in the arctic. The book discusses how reindeer find their food, the type of climate they live in, their herds, mating season, how they stay warm in the winter, what kinds of foods they eat, and how the reindeer calves grow and develop. At the back of the book, there is a science lab for children to discover how reindeer hooves help the animals to walk in soft, deep snow and definitions of some of …

The Skp1 Homologs Skr-1/2 Are Required For The Caenorhabditis Elegans Skn-1 Antioxidant/Detoxification Response Independently Of P38 Mapk., Cheng-Wei Wu, Andrew Deonarine, Aaron Przybysz, Kevin Strange, Keith P. Chloe

Molecular Biosciences Faculty Publications

SKN-1/Nrf are the primary antioxidant/detoxification response transcription factors in animals and they promote health and longevity in many contexts. SKN-1/Nrf are activated by a remarkably broad-range of natural and synthetic compounds and physiological conditions. Defining the signaling mechanisms that regulate SKN-1/Nrf activation provides insights into how cells coordinate responses to stress. Nrf2 in mammals is regulated in part by the redox sensor repressor protein named Keap1. In C. elegans, the p38 MAPK cascade in the intestine activates SKN-1 during oxidative stress by promoting its nuclear accumulation. Interestingly, we find variation in the kinetics of p38 MAPK activation and tissues with …

Plant Expression Of Cocaine Hydrolase-Fc Fusion Protein For Treatment Of Cocaine Abuse, Guojun Wang, Ting Zhang, Haifeng Huang, Shurong Hou, Xiabin Chen, Fang Zheng, Chang-Guo Zhan

Molecular Modeling and Biopharmaceutical Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: A recently reported cocaine hydrolase (CocH3) fused with fragment crystallizable (Fc) region of human immunoglobulin G1, denoted as CocH3-Fc, is known as a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of cocaine overdose and addiction. A challenge for practical therapeutic use of this enzyme exists in the large-scale protein production and, therefore, it is interesting to identify a low-cost and feasible, sustainable source of CocH3-Fc production.

RESULTS: CocH3-Fc was transiently expressed in plant Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. The plant-expressed protein, denoted as pCocH3-Fc, was as active as that expressed in mammalian cells both in vitro and in vivo. However, compared to …

Pleckstrin Homology (Ph) Domain Leucine-Rich Repeat Protein Phosphatase Controls Cell Polarity By Negatively Regulating The Activity Of Atypical Protein Kinase C, Xiaopeng Xiong, Xin Li, Yang-An Wen, Tianyan Gao

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

The proper establishment of epithelial polarity allows cells to sense and respond to signals that arise from the microenvironment in a spatiotemporally controlled manner. Atypical PKCs (aPKCs) are implicated as key regulators of epithelial polarity. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the negative regulation of aPKCs remains largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that PH domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase (PHLPP), a novel family of Ser/Thr protein phosphatases, plays an important role in regulating epithelial polarity by controlling the phosphorylation of both aPKC isoforms. Altered expression of PHLPP1 or PHLPP2 disrupted polarization of Caco2 cells grown in 3D cell cultures …

Optical Tracer Size Differences Allow Quantitation Of Active Pumping Rate Versus Stokes–Einstein Diffusion In Lymphatic Transport, Alisha V. Dsouza, Kayla Marra, Jason R. Gunn, Kimberley S. Samkoe, Brian W. Pogue

Dartmouth Scholarship

Lymphatic uptake of interstitially administered agents occurs by passive convective–diffusive inflow driven by interstitial concentration and pressure, while the downstream lymphatic transport is facilitated by active propulsive contractions of lymphatic vessel walls. Near-infrared fluorescence imaging in mice was used to measure these central components of lymphatic transport for the first time, using two different-sized molecules––methylene blue (MB) and fluorescence-labeled antibody immunoglobulin G (IgG)-IRDye 680RD. This work confirms the hypothesis that lymphatic passive inflow and active propulsion rates can be separated based upon the relative differences in Stokes–Einstein diffusion coefficient. This coefficient specifically affects the passive-diffusive uptake when the interstitial volume …

A Moveable Beast: Subjective Influence Of Human-Animal Relationships On Risk Perception, And Risk Behaviour During Bushfire Threat, Joshua L. Trigg, Kirrilly Thompson, Bradley Smith, Pauleen Bennett

The Qualitative Report

This article examines how human-animal connections influence risk perception and behaviour in companion animal guardians exposed to bushfire threat in Australia. Although the objective role of psychological bonds with companion animals is well accepted by researchers, subjective interpretations of these bonds by animal guardians are relatively underexamined in this context. We argue that the ways in which connections with pets and other animals are represented influences different forms of safety-risk perception and behaviour when managing animals’ safety in the face of disaster threat. Thematic analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews with South Australian residents in bushfire-affected areas supported the role of …

Quantifying And Comparing The Pattern Of Thalamic And Cortical Projections To The Posterior Auditory Field In Hearing And Deaf Cats., Blake E Butler, Nicole Chabot, Stephen G Lomber

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Following sensory loss, compensatory crossmodal reorganization occurs such that the remaining modalities are functionally enhanced. For example, behavioral evidence suggests that peripheral visual localization is better in deaf than in normal hearing animals, and that this enhancement is mediated by recruitment of the posterior auditory field (PAF), an area that is typically involved in localization of sounds in normal hearing animals. To characterize the anatomical changes that underlie this phenomenon, we identified the thalamic and cortical projections to the PAF in hearing cats and those with early- and late-onset deafness. The retrograde tracer biotinylated dextran amine was deposited in the …

Hearing In The Juvenile Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia Mydas): A Comparison Of Underwater And Aerial Hearing Using Auditory Evoked Potentials, Wendy E D Piniak, David A Mann, Craig A Harms, T Todd Jones, Scott A Eckert

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Sea turtles spend much of their life in aquatic environments, but critical portions of their life cycle, such as nesting and hatching, occur in terrestrial environments, suggesting that it may be important for them to detect sounds in both air and water. In this study we compared underwater and aerial hearing sensitivities in five juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) by measuring auditory evoked potential responses to tone pip stimuli. Green sea turtles detected acoustic stimuli in both media, responding to underwater stimuli between 50 and 1600 Hz and aerial stimuli between 50 and 800 Hz, with maximum sensitivity between …

Identification Of Early Gene Expression Changes In Primary Cultured Neurons Treated With Topoisomerase I Poisons., Sharyn L. Rossi, Casey J. Lumpkin, Ashlee W. Harris, Jennifer Holbrook, Cinsley Gentillon, Suzanne M. Mccahan, Wenlan Wang, Matthew E.R. Butchbach

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

Topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) poisons like camptothecin (CPT) are currently used in cancer chemotherapy but these compounds can have damaging, off-target effects on neurons leading to cognitive, sensory and motor deficits. To understand the molecular basis for the enhanced sensitivity of neurons to CPT, we examined the effects of compounds that inhibit TOP1-CPT, actinomycin D (ActD) and β-lapachone (β-Lap)-on primary cultured rat motor (MN) and cortical (CN) neurons as well as fibroblasts. Neuronal cells expressed higher levels of Top1 mRNA than fibroblasts but transcript levels are reduced in all cell types after treatment with CPT. Microarray analysis was performed to identify …

Whose Shoe?, Sydnee Burr

Children's Book and Media Review

When a helpful mouse finds a lost shoe, he desperately tries to locate its owner. Walking all over the wild neighborhood, Mouse asks his neighbors if the precarious shoe belongs to them. The various animals give their reasons why that big blue shoe could not possibly be theirs, and the mouse continues onward until the owner is found.

What This Story Needs Is A Pig In A Wig, Ariel Woodbury

Children's Book and Media Review

This cute children's book starts with a pig in a wig on a boat, but more and more animals get on the boat until the boat is too crowded for pig! Pig exclaims, "It's getting crowded in here...off of this boat before we all sink!" The animals leave the boat one by one until pig is all alone in the boat. Pig realizes that the boat was more fun when she was sharing it with all of her friends. Pig admits she made a mistake and calls to her friends to swim back to the boat to play. The boat …

Thanksgiving Day Thanks, Aylea Stephens

Children's Book and Media Review

Thanksgiving is coming, and Sam’s class couldn’t be more excited. Everyone knows of one special thing that they are grateful for, but Sam isn’t sure what his special thing is. Sam’s teacher, Mrs. Wright, wants everyone to write down something they are really grateful for while the class works on Thanksgiving projects like a pumpkin pie making contest, making place mats, and helping with a food drive. Sam is able to think of a great project: balloons just like the Thanksgiving parade on TV! Lots of wind might ruin Sam’s special project, but he is finally able to come up …

Lots Of Lambs, Liz Kazandzhy

Children's Book and Media Review

This book shows you lambs in all kinds of conditions, with all sorts of personalities, and engaged in all types of activities! Whether they’re happy or grumpy, sitting or standing, on the phone or all alone, these lambs are irresistibly cute and entertaining. This is a book without a plot but with lots of great words and a lot of fun to be had.

If You Plant A Seed, Ariel Woodbury

Children's Book and Media Review

A rabbit and a mouse plant carrot seeds, tomato seeds, and cabbage seeds, but when the plants have grown the birds want some too! They learn that if they plant a seed of selfishness that it will grow and make them unhappy, but if they plant a seed of kindness that will grow into something sweet. When they decide to share with the birds, they all begin to help each other and the garden grows to be very large and fruitful.

Bear Says Thanks, Liz Kazandzhy

Children's Book and Media Review

Bear wants to make a feast for his friends, but when he discovers that his cupboards are bare, he doesn’t know what to do. But soon Mouse stops by with a tasty little treat, followed by Hare with muffins, Badger with fish, and all the rest of Bear’s pals with other platters of scrumptious food. Bear says “Thanks!” every time but then gets disappointed that he has nothing to share with them in return. But the other animals aren’t worried about it—they’re just grateful that he’s their friend. The group settles down to a delicious feast and enjoy friendly conversations …

Baby Bear, Liz Kazandzhy

Children's Book and Media Review

When Baby Bear loses his way in the forest, he begins asking the other forest creatures if they can help him get home. One by one, they share advice on what they do when they get lost, and each bit of advice seems to lead to Baby Bear meeting another animal who then helps him further along. After chatting with a large mountain lion, a busy frog, a pair of squirrels, a wise moose, a friendly ram, and a loving owl, Baby Bear finds a salmon who finally leads him home.

Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Activation Of Egfr As A Novel Target For Meningitic Escherichia Coli Penetration Of The Blood-Brain Barrier, Xiangru Wang, Ravi Maruvada, Andrew J. Morris, Jun O. Liu, Michael J. Wolfgang, Dong Jae Baek, Robert Bittman, Kwang Sik Kim

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Central nervous system (CNS) infection continues to be an important cause of mortality and morbidity, necessitating new approaches for investigating its pathogenesis, prevention and therapy. Escherichia coli is the most common Gram-negative bacillary organism causing meningitis, which develops following penetration of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). By chemical library screening, we identified epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) as a contributor to E. coli invasion of the BBB in vitro. Here, we obtained the direct evidence that CNS-infecting E. coli exploited sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) for EGFR activation in penetration of the BBB in vitro and in vivo. We …

Tumor Vessel Normalization After Aerobic Exercise Enhances Chemotherapeutic Efficacy., Keri L Schadler, Nicholas J Thomas, Peter Galie, Dong Ha Bhang, Kerry C Roby, Prince Addai, Jacob E Till, Kathleen Sturgeon, Alexander Zaslavsky, Christopher S Chen, Sandra Ryeom

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Targeted therapies aimed at tumor vasculature are utilized in combination with chemotherapy to improve drug delivery and efficacy after tumor vascular normalization. Tumor vessels are highly disorganized with disrupted blood flow impeding drug delivery to cancer cells. Although pharmacologic anti-angiogenic therapy can remodel and normalize tumor vessels, there is a limited window of efficacy and these drugs are associated with severe side effects necessitating alternatives for vascular normalization. Recently, moderate aerobic exercise has been shown to induce vascular normalization in mouse models. Here, we provide a mechanistic explanation for the tumor vascular normalization induced by exercise. Shear stress, the mechanical …

Beryllium Nitrate Inhibits Fibroblast Migration To Disrupt Epimorphic Regeneration, Adam B. Cook, Ashley W. Seifert

Biology Faculty Publications

Epimorphic regeneration proceeds with or without formation of a blastema, as observed for the limb and skin, respectively. Inhibition of epimorphic regeneration provides a means to interrogate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate it. In this study, we show that exposing amputated limbs to beryllium nitrate disrupts blastema formation and causes severe patterning defects in limb regeneration. In contrast, exposing full-thickness skin wounds to beryllium only causes a delay in skin regeneration. By transplanting full-thickness skin from ubiquitous GFP-expressing axolotls to wild-type hosts, we demonstrate that beryllium inhibits fibroblast migration during limb and skin regeneration in vivo. Moreover, …

Tgf-Β Signaling: New Insights Into Aortic Aneurysms, Sean E. Thatcher

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Chemical Activation Of A Food Deprivation Signal Extends Lifespan., Mark Lucanic, Theo Garrett, Ivan Yu, Fernando Calahorro, Azar Asadi Shahmirzadi, Aaron Miller, Matthew S Gill, Robert E. Hughes, Lindy Holden-Dye, Gordon J. Lithgow

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Student Professional Publications

Model organisms subject to dietary restriction (DR) generally live longer. Accompanying this lifespan extension are improvements in overall health, based on multiple metrics. This indicates that pharmacological treatments that mimic the effects of DR could improve health in humans. To find new chemical structures that extend lifespan, we screened 30 000 synthetic, diverse drug-like chemicals in Caenorhabditis elegans and identified several structurally related compounds that acted through DR mechanisms. The most potent of these NP1 impinges upon a food perception pathway by promoting glutamate signaling in the pharynx. This results in the overriding of a GPCR pathway involved in the …

Change In Regulation Is Necessary For Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes, Insung Hwang

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Millions of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes could soon be released in Key West, Florida as an effort to eradicate wild mosquitoes that are transmitters of diseases such as malaria, dengue, and chikungunya. Both international and domestic regulations fail to provide effective regulatory schemes that can facilitate the application of this technology while ensuring all safety and environmental aspects are properly addressed. The Food and Drug Administration’s assertion of jurisdiction is based on its assessment that the GE mosquitoes are “animal drugs” under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. This is especially troublesome because the end goal of using these …

Talin2-Mediated Traction Force Drives Matrix Degradation And Cell Invasion, Lei Qi, Naser Jafari, Xiang Li, Zaozao Chen, Liqing Li, Vesa P. Hytönen, Benjamin T. Goult, Chang-Guo Zhan, Cai Huang

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Talin binds to β-integrin tails to activate integrins, regulating cell migration, invasion and metastasis. There are two talin genes, TLN1 and TLN2, encoding talin1 and talin2, respectively. Talin1 regulates focal adhesion dynamics, cell migration and invasion, whereas the biological function of talin2 is not clear and, indeed, talin2 has been presumed to function redundantly with talin1. Here, we show that talin2 has a much stronger binding to β-integrin tails than talin1. Replacement of talin2 Ser339 with Cys significantly decreased its binding to β1-integrin tails to a level comparable to that of talin1. Talin2 localizes at invadopodia and is indispensable …