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Designer Genes, Designer Drugs And Resources Designing “The New Biology”: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Fred Stoss

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

A seven-foot 1950s-style model of DNA hangs in my office, as a reminder of what we then knew about “The Molecule of Life.” We today marvel at how far we have come in our understanding of that molecule, its impact on the study of biology, and the new discoveries in “The New Biology” of the Post-Genomic Era. What resources, services, publications and training is required of science librarians to assist students, faculties, and staff. What are today’s driving forces directing “The Newest Biology?”

Isolation Of Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells For Fabrication Of Tissue-Engineered Vascular Grafts: Evaluation Of Two Methods, Paul S. Bagi

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Objective: Tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) are useful in the surgical treatment of congenital heart defects. The development of TEVGs requires seeding of scaffolds composed of biodegradable polymers with bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNCs). The most common method used to isolate BM-MNCs involves density centrifugation in Ficoll. This process requires an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) class 7 clean room, is labor intensive, time intensive, and susceptible to operator variability. A recently developed filtration-based method for BM-MNC isolation uses a closed, sterile, and disposable system that removes the need for a clean room, decreases processing time, and is operator-independent. This …

The Importance Of Context: An Exploration Of Factors Influencing The Adoption Of Student-Centered Teaching Among Chemistry, Biology, And Physics Faculty, Travis J. Lund, Marilyne Stains

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Publications

Background: Research at the secondary and postsecondary levels has clearly demonstrated the critical role that individual and contextual characteristics play in instructors’ decision to adopt educational innovations. Although recent research has shed light on factors influencing the teaching practices of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty, it is still not well understood how unique departmental environments impact faculty adoption of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) within the context of a single institution. In this study, we sought to characterize the communication channels utilized by STEM faculty, as well as the contextual and individual factors that influence the teaching practices …

Lifelines Winter 2015, Southern Adventist University

Lifelines - Biology Department Newsletter

The Winter 2015 issue of Lifelines features articles on student research at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, student missions to Peru over spring break, an alumni spotlight, and a pictorial directory of the 2015 biology and allied health graduates.

Coloring In Nature’S Lines: An Exploration Of Color Mechanisms And Color-Related Applications Of Photonic Crystals, Stephanie A. Tonnesen

Theses & ETDs

Photonic crystals are periodic structures with the ability to direct the flow of light. In the realm of photonics, materials science has progressed exponentially over the past few decades, and shows no signs of slowing. This progress is due to increased interest in biomimicry, and the development of improved nano-machinery capable of fabricating biomimetic structures. This thesis first presents an overview of color mechanisms in nature and continues to an introduction of photonic crystals. Examples of natural photonic crystals are provided alongside the artificial products which they inspired. The steady rise of photonic crystal development in color science has profound …

The Effect Of Sleep Deprivation On Memory, Brianna M. Brockell

Theses & ETDs

Sleep has always been known to be important to activities of daily function. It is also vital to maintain health and preserve cognition. Sleep serves to conserve energy, remove waste from the brain, aid in restoration processes, and benefit memory and cognition. Therefore, sleep deprivation is harmful to an individual, as well as society, since a sleep-deprived person would not function at an optimal level and pose a danger to others while driving, working, or performing other activities. Sleep benefits all aspects of memory, especially long-term memory. Slow-wave sleep has been shown to benefit implicit memory, and REM sleep affects …

Sensory Modality In Horticultural Therapy: A Study On Resting Heart Rate And Blood Pressure In Six Therapeutic Gardens, Michael J. Flowers

Theses & ETDs

This in-depth physiological study (N = 30) of the people-plant interaction aims to answer some questions and ask many more about the role that various stimuli play in horticultural therapy. Two butterfly gardens, two herb gardens and two water gardens were used in this study to investigate the proposed role of different sensory modalities. The butterfly gardens emphasize visual stimuli, while the herb gardens emphasize olfactory and mechanoreceptive stimuli and the water gardens emphasize auditory stimuli. A wooded area was used as a negative control, although it was found to have similar effects to the experimental gardens in some cases. …

Evaluating Targeted And Immunomodulatory Therapies For Melanoma In A Genetically Engineered Mouse Melanoma Model, Billy Lockhart

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Melanoma therapy has changed rapidly due to the emergence of new therapies: MAPK-pathway targeted drugs and immunomodulatory agents. Given the relative success of these new individual drugs, this work set out to evaluate and develop effective melanoma treatments using combination therapies in a preclinical mouse melanoma models. Therapies tested include BRAF kinase inhibition in combination with: immune checkpoint inhibitors anti-CTLA4, anti-PDL1, and with the topical TLR7/8 agonist imiquimod. Drugs efficacies were tested in established melanomas in a conditional inducible mouse melanoma model based on activation of Braf and beta catenin and loss of Pten. 
BRAF inhibition in combination with anti-CTLA-4/anti-PD-L1 …

Dividing Nature By The Joints, Chad Wiener

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Most scholars of Aristotle’s biology have accepted the view of D. M. Balme and Pierre Pellegrin that the History of Animals is devoid of any systematic classification of animals. I challenge this reading. I show that Aristotle can produce a taxonomy of animals kinds that are found in the essences of atomic species, or, to borrow from Plato, divide nature by the joints. I start from Aristotle’s positive views of division stated in APo. II.13–14 and how they imply a taxonomic order of a genus. I then develop my interpretation of how Aristotle can divide nature by the joints in …

Tp53 And Hras Influence On Hpv16 E7 Expression In Hpv16-Transformed Human Keratinocytes, Nella Christie Delva

Theses and Dissertations

Head and Neck Squamous Carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. HNSCC affects regions of the upper aerodigestive tract such as the lip, tongue, nasopharynx, oropharynx, larynx, and hypopharynx. About 25% of all HNSCC cases and up to 65% of Oropharyngeal Carcinoma (OPC) cases are positive for HPV DNA. African American patients, especially males, present primarily with HPV-negative HNSCC. HNSCC’s that are HPV-positive tend to be HPV-active at initial presentation: these cancers contain HPV DNA and express HPV RNA. However, recurring HPV-positive cancers of the head and neck are more often inactive: these tumors contain HPV DNA, …

Mechanisms Of Satiation In The Nudibranch Melibe Leonina, Colin Lee

Master's Theses and Capstones

In recent years, scientists have begun to study satiation as a means of understanding changes in motivational state. Satiated animals not only show a reduction in feeding behaviors, but also in locomotion, and even show changes in their responses to various stimuli. Therefore, satiation is a qualitative change in the behavioral state of an animal. Although the behavioral characteristics of satiation are well understood, as are the changes in hormone release following a meal, the neural correlates of satiation are less understood. In particular, few studies have attempted to determine how satiating signals reconfigure feeding neural networks. To begin to …

Full Issue: Volume 8, Number 2

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

No abstract provided.

Full Issue: Volume 9, Number 1

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Substrate Material On Marine Fouling Community Composition And Ascidian Larval Settlement, Anna Lindsey Chase

Master's Theses and Capstones

Driven by the rising global population and shoreline development, man-made marine structures are becoming ubiquitous in coastal areas. These alterations may have enormous ecological consequences, as anthropogenic structures provide novel habitat for marine organisms and often host communities that differ from those on natural substrates. These community differences are frequently driven by non-native species, which can be more prevalent on man-made marine structures than on adjacent natural surfaces. Although multiple factors, including light intensity, surface orientation, predation exposure, and habitat type, are known to contribute to these patterns, relatively few studies have directly examined the influence of substrate material on …

The Effects Of Temperature On Cyp19a1a, Foxl2, Dmrt1 And Amh Expression During Sex Differentiation In Summer Flounder (Paralichthys Dentatus), Catherine Curro Caruso

Master's Theses and Capstones

Female summer flounder grow considerably faster and larger than males, and a tremendous increase in performance can therefore be realized through production of monosex female populations. Rearing temperature has been shown to affect sex differentiation in other teleost species by influencing expression of genes encoding transcription factors, hormones or enzymes involved in endocrine function such as cyp19a1a, foxl2, dmrt1 and amh. These genes have been linked to female (cyp19a1a, foxl2) or male (dmrt1, amh) development, and exhibit sexually dimorphic expression in some species. In the present study, summer flounder (37 days post hatch; DPH) were raised at 13°C, 16°C or …

Antisense Regulation And Tissue-Specific Roles Of Peg3 In Lactation And Maternal Care, Wesley D. Frey

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Genomic imprinting is characterized by the restrictive expression of a gene from one of the two inherited parental alleles. Many of these genes have been implicated in neonatal growth and mammalian reproduction. The two studies discussed in this dissertation focus on the tissue-specific contributions of Paternally Expressed Gene 3 (Peg3) on lactation and maternal care as well as the regulation of this gene through an antisense RNA (APeg3). In the first study, a conditional knockout allele has been developed to further characterize these known functions of Peg3 in a tissue-specific manner. The mutant line was first crossed with germline Cre, …

Developing A Gene Editing System To Study Haplodiploidy In The Jewel Wasp, Nasonia Vitripennis, Emily A. Muller

Scripps Senior Theses

Hymenopteran insects, which include all ants, bees and wasps, reproduce through a poorly understood form of reproduction known as haplodiploidy. A promising experimental system for understanding this developmental process is the jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis. A critical aspect of using Nasonia as a model is establishing an effective means for editing specific genes of interest so that their functions can be studied through genetic means. For my thesis research, I performed a pilot study of the gene editing method known as CRISPR in Nasonia. I targeted the single heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) gene present in the Nasonia genome …

Electrical Resistivity Imaging For Long-Term Autonomous Monitoring Of Hydrocarbon Degradation: Lessons From The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Jeffrey W. Heenan, Lee D. Slater, Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis, Estella A. Atekwana, Babu Z. Fathepure, Sonal Dalvi, Cameron Ross, D. Dale Werkema, Eliot A. Atekwana

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Conceptual models for the geophysical responses associated with hydrocarbon degradation suggest that the long-term evolution of an oil plume will result in a more conductive anomaly than the initial contamination. In response to the Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, an autonomous resistivity monitoring system was deployed on Grand Terre, Louisiana, in an attempt to monitor natural degradation processes in hydrocarbon-impacted beach sediments of this island. A 48-electrode surface array with a 0.5-m spacing was installed to obtain twice-daily images of the resistivity structure of the shallow subsurface impacted by oil. Over the course …

Human Anatomy And Physiology Preparatory Course (1st Edition), Carlos Liachovitzky

Open Educational Resources

The overall purpose of this preparatory course textbook is to help students familiarize with some terms and some basic concepts they will find later in the Human Anatomy and Physiology I course.

The organization and functioning of the human organism generally is discussed in terms of different levels of increasing complexity, from the smallest building blocks to the entire body. This Anatomy and Physiology preparatory course covers the foundations on the chemical level, and a basic introduction to cellular level, organ level, and organ system levels. There is also an introduction to homeostasis at the beginning.

Is Polyvinylidene Diflouride (Pvdf) Film Biocompatible In The Murine Cochlea?, Robert Maxwell Jaggers

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film, a biomaterial that is an integral part of a Totally Implantable Sustainable Hearing Aide (TISHA) device, was examined to determine its biocompatibility within the murine cochlea. The biofilm was implanted in the ear using a round window cochleostomy in 7-9 week old male C57BL/6 mice. Three test groups containing seven mice each were implanted with PVDF film. Each mouse received a sham surgery on the non-implanted cochlea. Three test groups were examined at 48 hours, 3 weeks, and 3 months. At the end of this time the mouse was euthanized, the tissue containing the cochlea was …

Students' Attitudes Towards Socially--But Not Scientifically--Controversial Subjects: Evaluating Ways In Which These Attitudes May Be Shifted, Benjamin Elijah Carter

Dissertations - ALL

Chapter1: Numerous anti-science bills introduced into state legislatures reference the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific subjects, but the subjects they target, most commonly evolution and global climate change, are not topics of contention within the scientific community. This brief work provides a researched rebuttal to the notion that evolution and climate change have strengths and weaknesses of the form implied by anti-science legislation while providing examples of actual scientific disagreement about these subjects. The disagreement is not, of course, about whether or not evolution or climate change are factual occurrences, but rather over ideas such as the finer points of …

A Quantum Theory Of Consciousness May Require A Paradigm Shift In Biology, Maurice Goodman

Articles

It is often assumed that the known physical laws form a closed system and are complete. It is also assumed that biological theories require no additional principles that are fundamental other than those we already know. Assumptions such as these are acting as a barrier to progress in biological theories and an understanding of consciousness. This paper examines the unexplained inconsistencies among fundamental particles and forces and the fundamental gaps in our knowledge of biology and the cell in particular that may impact on such progress. Also, the laws of quantum mechanics are examined and found to be grossly incomplete. …

Bio-Enhanced Constructivism: Moral Facts For The Naturalistic But Morally Serious Philosopher, Jason Gardner

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTBio-Enhanced Constructivism: Moral Facts for the Naturalistic but Morally Serious PhilosopherbyJason GardnerDoctor of Philosophy in PhilosophyWashington University in St. Louis, 2014Professor Eric Brown, ChairThere is a tension between being both morally and naturalistically serious because it is doubtful that features philosophers have ascribed to moral facts in order to explain why we should take them seriously can be given a naturalistic accounting. Yet even serious naturalists who think the tension is real and troubling persist in trying to be serious moralists. I do not think they can do so on their own terms. Thus the purpose of this dissertation: to …

Biology And Control Of The Bed Bug Cimex Lectularius L., Kevin Hinson

All Dissertations

After vanishing from the public eye for more than 50 years, bed bugs have resurged to become one of the most widely discussed and heavily researched insect pests in the westernized world. Our inability to prevent and successfully treat infestations has been the driving force behind this wave of research. I addressed gaps in our understanding of bed bugs by examining behavioral and life history characteristics, as well as insecticide application responses. I showed that natural-based products are generally ineffective against bed bugs, particularly when used as a residual treatment. I also found that bed bugs may be killed through …

Sex-Specific Distributions Of Leopard Sharks (Triakis Semifasciata) In An Estuarine Environment, Andrea Lynn Launer

Master's Theses

Estuaries are used seasonally by many elasmobranchs for reproduction and as nurseries. The character, location, and availability of elasmobranch habitats in estuaries are often altered by anthropogenic activities and environmental changes. These habitat changes may have different effects on groups within a shark population because sex-specific segregations are common for many elasmobranchs. Leopard Sharks (Triakis semifasciata) are important estuarine predators in California and exhibit sexual segregations. Movements of 13 Leopard Sharks (male n=6, female n=7) tagged with coded acoustic transmitters were monitored from March 14, 2013 to March 9, 2014 using moored receivers in Elkhorn Slough, CA. Movement patterns were …

Gold & Blue, Fall 2014, St. Mary's University- San Antonio, Texas

Gold & Blue

This is the Fall 2014 edition of Gold & Blue which is St. Mary's University's official school publication.

The Ecology Of Infancy And Early Childhood In Rural Senegal; A Five Year Old Can Boot But Not Foot, An Exploration Of Where Biology Meets Culture, Heather Mills

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project explores the life stages of infancy and early childhood in the village of Ndiane in the Thies region of Senegal. I will discuss how biology meets culture to influence children, parenting styles, and expectations of the life stage. How does ecology, the interaction of physical, biological and cultural landscapes, characterize childhood and the intertwined belief systems that influence parenting? The information was gathered using a combination of participant observation and free list interviews.

A Collagen‐Glycosaminoglycan‐Fibrin Scaffold For Heart Valve Tissue Engineering Applications, Claire Brougham, Stefan Jockenhoevel, Thomas Flanagan, Fergal O'Brien

Conference Papers

The field of heart valve biology and tissue engineering a heart valve continue to expand. The presentatio ns at this meeting reflect the advances made in both areas due to the multi-disciplinary approach taken by many laboratories.

Christology, Theology, & Evolution In Celia Deane-Drummond's Christ And Evolution, Trevor Beach Sj

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

This paper explores the relationship between theology and biological understandings of evolution. This paper explores some of the major themes in theology as they relate to contemporary observation of the natural world in biology. By this paper, I hope to highlight kenosis and eschatology as two theological foci that can aid in the discussion between biological evolution and contemporary theology.

Wonders Of Wisconsin: A Study On Insect Macrophotography, Brenna L. Decker

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This past year I have been honing my skills as an entomologist and as a photographer. My solo exhibition “Wonders of Wisconsin: A Study on Insect Macrophotography” not only presents my personal progress, but also represents an overarching theme of a liberal arts education: connectivity. Everything we see or learn on campus and throughout life is connected. This audience-engaging exhibition has provided a visual for the connections between the fields of science and studio art, the art movements of New Objectivity and Relational Aesthetics, and between human and insect life.

The final exhibition opening on May 1^st at 5:30pm …