Digital Commons Network^™

Ubiquitylation Of Unphosphorylated C-Myc By Novel E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Scffbxl8, Sagar Bajpai

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Overexpression of c-myc via increased transcription or decreased protein degradation is common to many cancer etiologies. C-myc protein degradation is mediated by ubiquitin-dependent degradation and this ubiquitylation is regulated by several E3 ligases. The primary regulator is Fbxw7 which binds to a phospho-degron within c-myc. Here, we identify a new E3 ligase for c-myc, Fbxl8 (F-box and Leucine Rich Repeat Protein 8), as an adaptor component of the SCF (Skp1-Cullin1-F-box protein) ubiquitin ligase complex, for selective c-myc degradation. SCFFbxl8 binds and ubiquitylates c-myc, independent of phosphorylation revealing that it regulates a pool of c-myc distinct from SCFFbxw7. Reduction of Fbxl8 …

Protecting Children In The Age Of End-To-End Encryption, Laura Draper

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Teacher Perceptions Of Technology-Enhanced, Collaborative, Project-Based Learning On Students In Mixed-Ability Classrooms, Amy Lauren Pierson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The skill of collaboration is fundamental for every student as a future participant of a global society. Students with learning disabilities feel excluded amongst peers in a traditional classroom setting, specifically elementary students with learning disabilities in the area of collaboration. The overall purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore elementary teacher perceptions of how students in mixed-ability classrooms collaborate using technology in a project-based learning (PBL) environment. Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory informed this study by providing a framework for learning in social groups, specifically collaborative learning practices in a PBL environment. The research question in this study …

Correlation Of Meaning Making And Complex Trauma In Women Trafficked For Sex, Brenda Louise Tracey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe trafficking of women and girls into the sex industry is one of the world’s fastest growing crimes against humanity. The psychological impact of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation on survivors has not been widely studied, creating a gap in the literature that merits further research to understand the processes of survivor rehabilitation and community. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between complex posttraumatic stress disorder and having purpose in life among U.S. female citizens who were trafficked into the sex industry. Frankl’s theory of finding meaning was paired with Park’s theory of …

Social Competencies And Social Skills Of Adolescent Females With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Mary Kniola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent disorders diagnosed in children and adolescents in the United States, many of whom experience peer rejection and are at risk for subsequent employment difficulties, depression and anxiety, school failure, and substance abuse. The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in the social skills and social competence of females with and without ADHD in 6th and 12th grades. The theoretical foundation for this study was Barkley’s theory of ADHD. Facebook, Qualtrics, and Prolific were used to recruit 80 parents, who were placed into four groups based on the …

The Factors Urban African American Men Perceive As Preventing Early Prostate Cancer Screening, Joel Mongo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prostatic carcinoma, or prostate cancer, is the leading cause of death among adult males in the United States. The highest rate of prostate cancer is found in males of African American ethnicity, as males within this cohort are 50% more likely to develop prostate cancer than other ethnicities. African Americans men are 1.6 times more likely to develop prostate cancer and 2.4 times more likely to die from it than Caucasians. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of urban African American men about factors that prevent them from seeking and receiving prostate cancer screening, and …

Health Department Prevention/Education Plans And Perceived Risks Of Zika Infection, Lacey Jacques

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractZika virus is an infectious disease caused by the bite of an infected mosquito that has been linked to increased rates of microcephaly and other devastating birth defects. The existing body of knowledge has focused on the individual-level factors that influence a person’s decisions about prevention activities and risk perceptions related to Zika virus. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between state-level plans for prevention and education and individual-level risk perceptions. Rosenstock’s health belief model lays a foundation for why individuals make the health decisions they do and helps explain how these can be influenced for …

The Relationship Between Types Of Workplace Trauma Exposure, Burnout, And Ptsd In Mental Health Workers, Armando Dominguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Work-related traumatic exposure has been studied but has not been concisely defined in the widest range of research studying trauma exposure. Specifically, it is not known from previous research whether direct, indirect, and vicarious trauma exposure predict burnout and PTSD in acute care mental health care workers. The emotional processing theory was used as theoretical foundation informing this study as the habituation of response to stress and trauma has been shown to occur incidentally and cumulatively; the theory supports the concept of dichotomous and continuous type of trauma exposure over time. The purpose of this study was to use a …

Culturally Responsive Teaching With High School Teachers, Mahdee H. Muhammad

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite incorporating the culturally responsive teaching (CRT) method into the culturally diverse classroom, teachers struggle to implement the CRT method. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of high school teachers about the effectiveness of using the CRT method to support the learning needs of their culturally diverse high school students in Midwest U.S. schools. The study sample was 12 high school teachers with 2 or more years of teaching experience who used CRT to teach a diverse class. Sixteen interview questions were used to collect the data with the participants through Zoom interviews that …

Successful Information Technology Project Process Management Best Practices, Jude Oderaa Orazulike

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Globally, most information technology projects (ITPs) are reported as unsuccessful. Poor project management practices have consistently been identified as the leading cause of ITP failures. However, ITP practitioners manage project processes in diverse ways without clear guiding principles in terms of what does or does not work in practice for success. Process management practices in projects were explored in this grounded theory qualitative study from a systems theory perspective. The purpose was to understand from project practitioners' experiences what guiding principles potentially influenced ITPs to success. These experiences were then analyzed to develop a theory describing how to best use …

Lived Experiences Of Support Among Parents Of Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Laxmi Seth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractReceiving a cancer diagnosis for one’s child is a traumatic experience for any parent. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent form of leukemia in children. Treatment-related issues can negatively affect quality of life and cause long-term emotional, social, and financial stress for the parents. The world faced the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While professional support was available for the parents caring for their children undergoing ALL treatment during the pandemic, how these parents experienced support, including through social media, was unknown. Investigating parents’ lived experiences of support, including social media support, during COVID-19 pandemic, was the focus of …

The Invasion Of Ukraine: A Gross Violation Of International Law, Claudio Grossman

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Filling The Protection Gaps For Climate Change And Disaster-Induced Migrants, Kimberly A. Erickson

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Pulse 007

Pulse Magazine Archive

No abstract provided.

A Refugee Resource Guide 2022, Kerri Ullucci

Education Faculty Publications

Rhode Island has long hosted refugees from around the world. Schools in RI, particularly those in Providence, currently enroll hundreds of refugee youth. After spending a semester conducting research and teaching in a school that serves refugee youth, it became clear that explicit teacher training about this population rarely occurs. This guide seeks to provide resources in which to address this need.

At Roger Williams University, I teach courses in our Education programs about race, class, and culture. My professional research centers on the same topics. While on sabbatical, I created several documents for the principal I worked with, to …

The Havoc Death Wreaks: Civil Rights Challenges To Capital Punishment, Bailey D. Barnes

Faculty Publications

Following a per curium opinion that banned the imposition of capital punishment because it violated the Eighth Amendment, as made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall offered a unique criticism of capital punishment. Justice Marshall, an iconic civil rights litigator prior to his confirmation to the Court, stated, "[T]he death penalty wreaks havoc with our entire criminal justice system." Similarly, sometime in the late 1950s, Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson reportedly said that capital punishment "completely bitches up the criminal law." In essence, both Justices were asserting that the death penalty …

Solving The Procedural Puzzles Of The Texas Heartbeat Act And Its Imitators: The Limits And Opportunities For Offensive Litigation, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

Texas' Fetal Heartbeat Act, enacted in 2021 as Senate Bill 8, prohibits abortions following detection of a fetal heartbeat, a constitutionally invalid ban under current Supreme Court precedent. But the method of enforcement in the Texas law is unique—it prohibits enforcement by government officials in favor of private civil actions brought by “any person,” regardless of injury. Texas sought to burden reproductive-health providers and rights advocates with costly litigation and potentially crippling liability.

In a series of articles, we explore how SB8's exclusive reliance on private enforcement creates procedural and jurisdictional hurdles to challenging the law's constitutional validity and obtaining …

Temperature Management During Cytoreductive Surgery With Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy, Maria F. Ramirez, Juan Jose Guerra-Londono, Pascal Owusu-Agyemang, Keith Fournier, Carlos E. Guerra-Londono

Anesthesiology Articles

In addition to attaining complete or near complete cytoreduction, the instillation of select heated chemotherapeutic agents into the abdominal cavity has offered a chance for cure or longer survival inpatients with peritoneal surface malignancies. While the heating of chemotherapeutic agents enhances cytotoxicity, the resulting systemic hyperthermia has been associated with an increased risk of severe hyperthermia and its associated complications. Factors that have been associated with an increased risk of severe hyperthermia include intraoperative blood transfusions and longer perfusion duration. However, the development of severe hyperthermia still remains largely unpredictable. Thus, at several institutions, cooling protocols are employed during cytoreductive …

Solving The Procedural Puzzles Of Texas’ Fetal-Heartbeat Law And Its Imitators: The Potential For Defensive Litigation, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

Texas' Fetal Heartbeat Act, enacted in 2021 as Senate Bill 8, prohibits abortions following detection of a fetal heartbeat, a constitutionally invalid ban under current Supreme Court precedent. But the method of enforcement in the Texas law is unique—it prohibits enforcement by government officials in favor of private civil actions brought by “any person,” regardless of injury. Texas sought to burden reproductive-health providers and rights advocates with costly litigation and potentially crippling liability.

In a series of articles, we explore how SB8's exclusive reliance on private enforcement creates procedural and jurisdictional hurdles to challenging the law's constitutional validity and obtaining …

A Serotonin-Mediated Aversive Mechanism Influences Individually Variable Resilience Toacquire And Relapse To Cocaine-Seeking, Ying S. Chao

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Although cocaine and other psychostimulants are highly rewarding, they also produce aversive effects that influence drug-seeking, and that are stronger in some individuals than others for poorly understood reasons. We now find in rats that cocaine depolarizes neurons of the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg), a major GABAergic afferent to midbrain dopamine neurons, and a driver of punishment learning. This activation is mediated by post-synaptic serotonin 2C receptors, and is particularly strong in subsets of animals having heightened aversive responses to cocaine, among whom it slows the initial acquisition of cocaine self-administration and reduced cue-induced relapse for cocaine after extinction. These …

Crispr-Krispr: A Method To Identify On-Target And Random Insertion Of Donor Dnas And Their Characterization In Knock-In Mice, Masayuki Tanaka, Keiko Yokoyama, Hideki Hayashi, Sanae Isaki, Kanae Kitatani, Ting Wang, Hisako Kawata, Hideyuki Matsuzawa, Channabasavaiah B. Gurumurthy, Hiromi Miura, Masato Ohtsuka

Journal Articles: Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience

CRISPR tools can generate knockout and knock-in animal models easily, but the models can contain off-target genomic lesions or random insertions of donor DNAs. Simpler methods to identify off-target lesions and random insertions, using tail or earpiece DNA, are unavailable. We develop CRISPR-KRISPR (CRISPR-Knock-ins and Random Inserts Searching PRotocol), a method to identify both off-target lesions and random insertions. CRISPR-KRISPR uses as little as 3.4 μg of genomic DNA; thus, it can be easily incorporated as an additional step to genotype founder animals for further breeding.

Ecdysoneless Overexpression Drives Mammary Tumorigenesis Through Upregulation Of C-Myc And Glucose Metabolism, Bhopal C. Mohapatra, Sameer Mirza, Aditya Bele, Channabasavaiah B. Gurumurthy, Mohsin Raza, Irfana Saleem, Matthew D. Storck, Aniruddha Sarkar, Sai Sundeep Kollala, Surendra K. Shukla, Siddesh Southekal, Kay-Uwe Wagner, Fang Qiu, Subodh M. Lele, Mansour A. Alsaleem, Emad A. Rakha, Chittibabu Guda, Pankaj K. Singh, Robert D. Cardiff, Hamid Band, Vimla Band

Journal Articles: Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience

Ecdysoneless (ECD) protein is essential for embryogenesis, cell-cycle progression, and cellular stress mitigation with an emerging role in mRNA biogenesis. We have previously shown that ECD protein as well as its mRNA are overexpressed in breast cancer and ECD overexpression predicts shorter survival in patients with breast cancer. However, the genetic evidence for an oncogenic role of ECD has not been established. Here, we generated transgenic mice with mammary epithelium-targeted overexpression of an inducible human ECD transgene (ECDTg). Significantly, ECDTg mice develop mammary hyperplasia, preneoplastic lesions, and heterogeneous tumors with occasional lung metastasis. ECDTg tumors exhibit epithelial to mesenchymal transition …

Biofilms: Formation, Research Models, Potential Targets, And Methods For Prevention And Treatment, Yajuan Su, Jaime T. Yrastorza, Mitchell Matis, Jenna Cusick, Siwei Zhao, Guangshun Wang, Jingwei Xie

Journal Articles: Pathology and Microbiology

Due to the continuous rise in biofilm-related infections, biofilms seriously threaten human health. The formation of biofilms makes conventional antibiotics ineffective and dampens immune clearance. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms of biofilm formation and develop novel strategies to treat biofilms more effectively. This review article begins with an introduction to biofilm formation in various clinical scenarios and their corresponding therapy. Established biofilm models used in research are then summarized. The potential targets which may assist in the development of new strategies for combating biofilms are further discussed. The novel technologies developed recently for the prevention and treatment …

Methamphetamine Induces The Release Of Proadhesive Extracellular Vesicles And Promotes Syncytia Formation: A Potential Role In Hiv-1 Neuropathogenesis, Subhash Chand, Catherine Demarino, Austin Gowen, Maria Cowen, Sarah Al-Sharif, Fatah Kashanchi, Sowmya V. Yelamanchili

Journal Articles: Anesthesiology

Despite the success of combinational antiretroviral therapy (cART), the high pervasiveness of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV)-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) poses a significant challenge for society. Methamphetamine (meth) and related amphetamine compounds, which are potent psychostimulants, are among the most commonly used illicit drugs. Intriguingly, HIV-infected individuals who are meth users have a comparatively higher rate of neuropsychological impairment and exhibit a higher viral load in the brain than infected individuals who do not abuse meth. Effectively, all cell types secrete nano-sized lipid membrane vesicles, referred to as extracellular vesicles (EVs) that can function as intercellular communication to modulate the physiology …

Distinct Synaptic Vesicle Proteomic Signatures Associated With Pre- And Post-Natal Oxycodone-Exposure, Katherine E. Odegaard, Gabriel Gallegos, Sneh Koul, Victoria L. Schaal, Neetha N. Vellichirammal, Chittibabu Guda, Andrea P. Dutoit, Steven J. Lisco, Sowmya V. Yelamanchili, Gurudutt Pendyala

Journal Articles: Anesthesiology

The current opioid crisis, which has ravaged all segments of society, continues to pose a rising public health concern. Importantly, dependency on prescription opioids such as oxycodone (oxy) during and after pregnancy can significantly impact the overall brain development of the exposed offspring, especially at the synapse. A significant knowledge gap that remains is identifying distinct synaptic signatures associated with these exposed offspring. Accordingly, the overall goal of this current study was to identify distinct synaptic vesicle (SV) proteins as signatures for offspring exposed to oxy in utero (IUO) and postnatally (PNO). Using a preclinical animal model that imitates oxycodone …

Differential Methylation Patterns In Lean And Obese Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Emma Hymel, Kurt W. Fisher, Evi A. Farazi

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease affects about 24% of the world's population and may progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). While more common in those that are obese, NASH-HCC can develop in lean individuals. The mechanisms by which HCC develops and the role of epigenetic changes in the context of obesity and normal weight are not well understood.

METHODS: In this study, we used previously generated mouse models of lean and obese HCC using a choline deficient/high trans-fat/fructose/cholesterol diet and a choline supplemented/high trans-fat/fructose/cholesterol diet, respectively, to evaluate methylation differences in HCC progression in lean versus …

Lecturas Contra Un Mundo Corrupto: La Buena Lectura (1879-1882), Andrea Castro

Decimonónica

En el poema “La estrella y la tempestad,” firmado por C. y V, acudimos a un diálogo entre una niña y su madre en un paisaje que—si bien invita a una lectura alegórica—la madre y la niña experimentan en sus cuerpos.¹ La tempestad despierta en ellas sentimientos de confusión, miedo, misterio y estremecimiento. Así, la fuerza de la naturaleza evoca el sentimiento de lo sublime, sentimiento que hacia el final del poema será contenido por el espacio de la casa, construido a través de ruidos y sentimientos familiares.²

El Príncipe Entre Los Leones: El Acontecimiento Darío En La Poesía Colombiana, David Ramírez

Decimonónica

Si Colombia fuera un animal, sería un león. Al menos eso pensaba Rubén Darío, para quien el león encarnaba el rasgo más característico de lo colombiano: la combinación de violencia y refinamiento, inteligencia y conservadurismo. La referencia más conocida a este respecto es el verso inicial de su soneto “Colombia,” uno de los poemas más declamados en la historia de ese país. “Colombia es una tierra de leones,” dice allí con grandilocuencia el poeta nicaragüense (Poesías completas 726). Variaciones de este verso, o incluso su repetición, son frecuentes siempre que escribe sobre autores, políticos o temas colombianos. “Cave …

Juan De La Rosa O El Mestizo Huérfano Hispanizado Como Fachada De Modernidad, Mercedes Mayna-Medrano

Decimonónica

En el siglo XIX, surge el tropo del mestizo huérfano.¹ Esta figura condensa los deseos de las élites criollas y su intento por “resolver” el llamado problema indígena, especialmente en una Bolivia derrotada por Chile después de la Guerra del Pacífico (1879-1883).² El presente artículo tiene como objetivo central analizar la canónica novela fundacional boliviana Juan de la Rosa. Memorias del último soldado de la independencia (1885) del cochabambino Nataniel Aguirre. Mi hipótesis es que, a través del uso del modo expresivo melodramático, el autor pretende borrar la herencia indígena en los mestizos cochabambinos. Pero, a la …

Emotional Distress Recovery For Mishandling Of Human Remains: A Fifty State Survey, Christopher Ogolla

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.