Digital Commons Network^™

A Cache Of Astragali From Tel Nagila, Lidar Sapir-Hen, Joe Uziel, Aren M. Maeir, David Ilan, Matthew Susnow

'Atiqot

This paper presents a cache of 31 astragali from the site of Tel Nagila, dating to the Middle Bronze Age. This is the earliest known cache of astragali from the Southern Levant outside tombs, and may be the forebearer of the later caches found in cultic contexts in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. This paper presents the context in which the cache was found, adjacent to a tower that functioned as part of the site’s fortifications; the social mechanisms behind the use of astragali; their deposition in a cache; and how the cache may have related to the function …

Instrumented Swim Test For Quantifying Motor Impairment In Rodents., Natasha C Hughes, Dale C Roberts, Basile Tarchini, Kathleen E Cullen

Faculty Research 2024

Swim tests are highly effective for identifying vestibular deficits in rodents by offering significant vestibular motor challenges with reduced proprioceptive input, unlike rotarod and balance beam tests. Traditional swim tests rely on subjective assessments, limiting objective quantification and reproducibility. We present a novel instrumented swim test using a miniature motion sensor with a 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope affixed to the rodent’s head. This setup robustly quantifies six-dimensional motion—three translational and three rotational axes—during swimming with high temporal resolution. We demonstrate the test’s capabilities by comparing head movements of Gpr156^-/- mutant mice, which have impaired otolith organ development, to …

Metabolic Scaling, Energy Allocation Tradeoffs, And The Evolution Of Humans’ Unique Metabolism, Andrew K. Yegian, Steven B. Heymsfield, Eric R. Castillo, Manfred J. Müller, Leanne M. Redman, Daniel E. Lieberman

Clinical Research Faculty Publications

All organisms use limited energy to grow, survive, and reproduce, necessitating energy allocation tradeoffs, but there is debate over how selection impacted metabolic budgets and tradeoffs in primates, including humans. Here, we develop a method to compare metabolic rates as quotients of observed relative to expected values for mammals corrected for size, body composition, environmental temperature, and phylogenetic relatedness. Contrary to previous analyses, these quotients reveal that nonhuman primates have total metabolic rates expected for similar-sized mammals in similar environments. In addition, data from several small-scale societies show that humans evolved exceptionally high resting, activity, and total metabolic rates apparently …

November 26, 2024 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Animal Science News (November 26, 2024), Department Of Animal Science

Animal Science Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Student Comprehension Of Biochemistry In A Flipped Classroom Format, Ed Harris, Evan A. Schroder, Teryn J. Berks

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Concept-heavy courses such as Biochemistry in life and physical science curricula are challenging for many college-aged students. It is easy for students to disengage in a lecture and not learn the subject matter while in class. To improve student learning and participation, we employed a flipped format for the first half of the course and compared learning outcomes and attitudes with the traditional lecture in the second half of the course. The experimental course was an upper-level biochemistry course taken primarily by juniors (49%), seniors (40%), and some graduate students (10%) at the college level. Our results indicate that lower-performing …

Antithrombotic Efficacy And Bleeding Risks Of Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia Treatments, Halina H.L. Leung, Zohra Ahmadi, Brendan Lee, John Casey, Sumita Ratnasingam, Steven E. Mckenzie, Jose Perdomo, Beng H. Chong

Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research

Current guidelines for treating vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) recommend nonheparin anticoagulants and IV immunoglobulin (IVIg). However, the efficacy of these treatments remains uncertain due to case studies involving small patient numbers, confounding factors (eg, concurrent treatments), and a lack of animal studies. A recent study proposed danaparoid and heparin as potential VITT therapies because of their ability to disrupt VITT IgG-platelet factor 4 (PF4) binding. Here, we examined the effects of various anticoagulants (including unfractionated [UF] heparin, danaparoid, bivalirudin, fondaparinux, and argatroban), IVIg, and the FcγRIIa receptor-blocking antibody, IV.3. Our investigation focused on VITT IgG-PF4 binding, platelet activation, thrombocytopenia, …

Sustainable Environmental Technologies: Recent Development, Opportunities, And Key Challenges, Prafulla Kumar Sahoo, Rupali Datta, Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, Dibyendu Sarkar

Michigan Tech Publications

No abstract provided.

Gut Microbiota Profiling In Injection Drug Users With And Without Hiv-1 Infection In Puerto Rico, Nirosh Aluthge, Seidu Adams, Carmen A. Davila, Nova R. Gocchi Carrasco, Kathy S. Chiou, Roberto Abadie, Sydney J. Bennett, Kirk Dombrowski, Angel M. Major, Aníbal Valentín-Acevedo, John T. West, Charles Wood, Samodha C. Fernando

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: The full extent of interactions between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, injection drug use, and the human microbiome is unclear. In this study, we examined the microbiomes of HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals, both drug-injecting and non-injecting, to identify bacterial community changes in response to HIV and drug use. We utilized a well-established cohort of people who inject drugs in Puerto Rico, a region with historically high levels of injection drug use and an HIV incidence rate disproportionately associated with drug use. METHODS: Using amplicon-based 16S rDNA sequencing, we identified amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) that demonstrated significant variations in the …

Association Between Various Types Of Corticosteroids And Mortality For Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia In Adults: A Systematic Review And Network Meta-Analysis, Peng Wang, Jun Wan, Qiaoyu You, Yuxin Zheng, Wenhao Xu, Jialing He, Liyuan Peng, Cuyubamba Dominguez Jorge Luis, Yuning Feng, Ping Xu, Xinrong Li, Weelic Chong, Yang Hai, Lu Jia, Fang Fang, Yu Zhang

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to conduct a systematic review and network meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of specific corticosteroids, including but not limited to hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone, prednisolone, and dexamethasone, in the treatment of severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP). Efficacy will be assessed using specific outcomes, such as 30-day mortality and the requirement for mechanical ventilation. Safety evaluations will include adverse events like gastrointestinal bleeding and healthcare-associated infections. The study seeks to address the gaps identified in the latest guidelines regarding the optimal use of different corticosteroid types and to provide recommendations for clinical practice.

DATA SOURCES: This study conducted …

Comparing Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines And Immune Checkpoint Therapy Unveils An Effective Vaccine And Anti-Trem2 Macrophage-Targeting Dual Therapy, Sunita Keshari, Alexander S Shavkunov, Qi Miao, Akata Saha, Tomoyuki Minowa, Martina Molgora, Charmelle D Williams, Mehdi Chaib, Anna M Highsmith, Josué E Pineda, Sayan Alekseev, Elise Alspach, Kenneth H Hu, Marco Colonna, Kristen E Pauken, Ken Chen, Matthew M Gubin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The goal of therapeutic cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) is to promote T cells with anti-tumor capabilities. Here, we compared mutant neoantigen (neoAg) peptide-based vaccines with ICT in preclinical models. NeoAg vaccines induce the most robust expansion of proliferating and stem-like PD-1+TCF-1+ neoAg-specific CD8 T cells in tumors. Anti-CTLA-4 and/or anti-PD-1 ICT promotes intratumoral TCF-1- neoAg-specific CD8 T cells, although their phenotype depends in part on the specific ICT used. Anti-CTLA-4 also prompts substantial changes to CD4 T cells, including induction of ICOS+Bhlhe40+ T helper 1 (Th1)-like cells. Although neoAg vaccines or ICTs expand iNOS+ macrophages, neoAg vaccines …

That's Life, John Menechino

Master's Projects

This capstone project is a collection of poetry, meant to showcase all of what I have learned about developing a strong writing collection during my time in the MAPW program. The collection covers a myriad of topics, but many of them detail the mundane things in life and the small joys they have. Some poems also detail heavy mental thoughts, and encourage self-reflection and deep thinking.

Cd4+ T Cells Drive Corneal Nerve Damage But Not Epitheliopathy In An Acute Aqueous-Deficient Dry Eye Model, Alexia Vereertbrugghen, Manuela Pizzano, Agostina Cernutto, Florencia Sabbione, Irene A Keitelman, Douglas Vera Aguilar, Ariel Podhorzer, Federico Fuentes, Celia Corral-Vázquez, Mauricio Guzmán, Mirta N Giordano, Analía Trevani, Cintia S De Paiva, Jeremías G Galletti

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Dry eye disease (DED) is characterized by a dysfunctional tear film in which the corneal epithelium and its abundant nerves are affected by ocular desiccation and inflammation. Although adaptive immunity and specifically CD4+ T cells play a role in DED pathogenesis, the exact contribution of these cells to corneal epithelial and neural damage remains undetermined. To address this, we explored the progression of a surgical DED model in wild-type (WT) and T cell-deficient mice. We observed that adaptive immune-deficient mice developed all aspects of DED comparably to WT mice except for the absence of functional and morphological corneal nerve changes, …

Spatial, Transcriptomic, And Epigenomic Analyses Link Dorsal Horn Neurons To Chronic Pain Genetic Predisposition, Cynthia M Arokiaraj, Alexander Chamessian, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Key mechanisms underlying chronic pain occur within the dorsal horn. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified genetic variants predisposed to chronic pain. However, most of these variants lie within regulatory non-coding regions that have not been linked to spinal cord biology. Here, we take a multi-species approach to determine whether chronic pain variants impact the regulatory genomics of dorsal horn neurons. First, we generate a large rhesus macaque single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) atlas and integrate it with available human and mouse datasets to produce a single unified, species-conserved atlas of neuron subtypes. Cellular-resolution spatial transcriptomics in mouse shows the precise …

Rsk1 Dependency In Flt3-Itd Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Tim Kong, Angelo B A Laranjeira, Christopher T Letson, Layow Yu, Fan He, Aarthi Jayanthan, Gerrit Los, Sandra E Dunn, Grant A Challen, Stephen T Oh

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Internal tandem duplications (ITD) in fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) represent the most common genetic alteration in de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here, we identify ribosomal protein s6 kinase a1 (RSK1) as a core dependency in FLT3-ITD AML and unveil the existence of crucial bi-directional regulation. RSK1 perturbation resulted in marked apoptosis and abrogated phosphorylation of FLT3 and associated downstream signaling cascades in FLT3-ITD AML cell lines. Using cycloheximide, MG-132, and ubiquitination assays, we further demonstrate mechanistically that RSK1 regulates FLT3-ITD activity, and protein stability through deubiqutinase USP1, which we identify as a second dependency. Importantly, multivariate analysis revealed …

Current Therapeutic Opportunities For Estrogen Receptor Mutant Breast Cancer, Murugesan Palaniappan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Estrogen receptor α (ERα) drives two out of three breast cancers and therefore ERα is a major therapeutic target for ER-positive breast cancer patients. Drugs that inhibit ERα activity or block estrogen synthesis in the body are currently being used in the clinic to treat ER-positive breast cancer and have been quite successful in controlling breast cancer progression for the majority of patients. However, ER-positive breast cancer often becomes resistant to these endocrine therapies, leading to endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancer, a very aggressive cancer that leads to death. Recent large-scale genomic studies have revealed a series of activating somatic mutations …

Comparing Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines And Immune Checkpoint Therapy Unveils An Effective Vaccine And Anti-Trem2 Macrophage-Targeting Dual Therapy, Sunita Keshari, Martina Molgora, Marco Colonna, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The goal of therapeutic cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) is to promote T cells with anti-tumor capabilities. Here, we compared mutant neoantigen (neoAg) peptide-based vaccines with ICT in preclinical models. NeoAg vaccines induce the most robust expansion of proliferating and stem-like PD-1

Prevalence And Economic Burden Of Osteoarthritis And Rheumatoid Arthritis In The Medically Underserved Rio Grande Valley: A Retrospective Longitudinal Analysis, John M. Gaddis, Elias Arellano, Ryan Bialaszewski, Dominic Chau-Zanetti, Tyler Torres, Elizabeth Bergman, Kelsey Baker, Bharathi Gadad

School of Medicine Publications

Introduction: Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, two of the most common forms of arthritis worldwide, are chronic diseases affecting the joints. The Rio Grande Valley is characterized by an abundance of health disparities, with previous studies showing increased rates of multiple diseases and disorders in this region. This study aimed to determine both the prevalence and the risk-adjusted average cost of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in the Rio Grande Valley and to compare them with the national average. We hypothesize that the prevalence and risk-adjusted average cost of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in the Rio Grande Valley will be greater than …

Protective Effect And Molecular Mechanisms Of Human Non-Neutralizing Cross-Reactive Spike Antibodies Elicited By Sars-Cov-2 Mrna Vaccination, Jordan J Clark, Ali H Ellebedy, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Neutralizing antibodies correlate with protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Recent studies, however, show that binding antibody titers, in the absence of robust neutralizing activity, also correlate with protection against disease progression. Non-neutralizing antibodies cannot directly protect against infection but may recruit effector cells and thus contribute to the clearance of infected cells. Additionally, they often bind conserved epitopes across multiple variants. Here, we characterize 42 human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-vaccinated individuals. Most of these antibodies exhibit no neutralizing activity in vitro, but several non-neutralizing antibodies provide protection against lethal challenge with SARS-CoV-2 …

Evaluation Of Opportunities For The Cultivation Of Heterotrophic Plant Root Organ Cultures As Food: Optimization Of Culture Conditions And Carbohydrate Sources, Fatima Mohammed Alkaabi

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

All agricultural plant production requires investment of water, energy, and land, especially in the Gulf Region, where environmental conditions are not ideally suitable for crop farming. Currently, less than 40 % of agricultural produce constitutes food, which greatly limits the overall feasibility of food production systems worldwide. Crop residues contribute more than half to global agricultural plant production, and food waste and biomass from public parks and gardens further add to the vast pool of non-edible plant material. Existing valorization strategies for such material cannot compensate for the enormous amounts of water, energy, land, and human resources invested in their …

Covid-19 Impacts On College Students’ Basic Needs Insecurity, Megan K. Schraedley Ph.D., Ashlie B. Delshad Ph.D.

Journal of Access, Retention, and Inclusion in Higher Education

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, data clearly documented that college students experience a higher rate of basic needs insecurity, including food insecurity, than the general US population. COVID-19 both expanded the rate of basic needs insecurity and decreased the range of resources students had access to. In this study, we examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on college student basic needs insecurity through a qualitative photovoice study. Our research draws upon Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth model and the concepts of navigational and social capital specifically. The findings indicate that students experienced heightened levels of basic needs insecurity during the …

Ethics And The Evolving Deployments Of Disciplinary Practices: A Foucauldian Analysis Of The Glamorization Of Bodies, Gerald Pio M. Franco

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

The paper discusses how individuals are constituted by disciplinary practices as presented in Michel Foucault’s two major works: Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction. The workings of power-knowledge gave rise to the penal apparatus and deployments of sexuality, which affected entire populations. But even as these disciplinary practices evolve and become seemingly more humane and liberating, they continue to produce docile and normalized subjects. One particular example of this process, discussed here in detail, is the transition from the figure of the hysterical woman to the modern glamorous (beautiful) woman. Such a transition extends …

Are Secular Politics Possible?, Gregory C. Melleuish, Susanna G. Rizzo

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Contemporary political analysis makes a distinction between politics that are secular in nature and politics that are religiously based. This article questions whether there is such a thing as secular politics. Firstly, it examines the roots of the secular/religious dichotomy in Western thought and concludes that it is the creation of particular intellectual developments in the West. And then it argues that modern politics is best viewed in terms of a number of “sacred projects” that are generated out of the supposedly secular nature of the modern West. There can be no real politics without such projects, only administration. Even …

Christianity's Paradox: Chesterton After Kierkegaard, Peter Murphy

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

A convert to Catholicism, G.K. Chesterton was a leading intellectual of the British Edwardian age and one of the important social and religious thinkers of the twentieth century. His trademark was paradox. He wrote in defense of the imagination and the corralling of opposites, oppositions, contradictions, and bountiful inconsistencies. The article explores Chesterton’s views on faith, religion, God, Christianity, Islam, modernity, change, and progress. It locates him in a philosophical stream that sees laughter and comedy as a religious disguise, paradox as a creative force, and the imagination as a necessary complement of reason. This is framed by a discussion …

Filomeno V. Aguilar, Jr., Migration Revolution: Philippine Nationhood And Class Relations In A Globalized Age, Anjeline De Dios

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Filomeno V. Aguilar, Jr., Migration Revolution: Philippine Nationhood and Class Relations in a Globalized Age

Paul Ricoeur's Anthropology Of Forgiveness, Guillermo R. Dionisio

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

In his philosophical anthropology Paul Ricoeur sees man’s innate goodness, despite his propensity for evil, ramifying into many capacities, among them, forgiveness. The capacity to forgive, for Ricoeur, lies between the paralysis of the power to act due to human fault, and the possible lifting of this incapacity through the separation of the offending agent from his or her evil deeds. But if forgiveness obtains in isolating offenders from their evil deeds, their self-understanding, sense of responsibility, and identity might become distorted and inaccurate, and would make us question whether forgiveness should be horizontal, that is, conditional; or vertical, that …

Reynaldo D. Raluto, Poverty And Ecology At The Crossroads: Towards An Ecological Theology Of Liberation In The Philippine Context, Mary Mee-Yin Yuen

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Reynaldo D. Raluto, Poverty and Ecology at the Crossroads: Towards an Ecological Theology of Liberation in the Philippine Context

The Practice Of Hermeneutics: The Legal Text And Beyond, George H. Taylor

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

This article attempts to show the continuing practical relevance of hermeneutics through the example of legal interpretation. The article begins with the very concrete nature of legal hermeneutics that forms everyday legal practice—the interrelation of meaning and application— and expands at a more theoretical to show how legal hermeneutics, and hermeneutics more generally, offers what Ricoeur calls an interpretive “choice in favor of meaning.” The choice in favor of meaning underscores the restorative character of hermeneutics that legal hermeneutics can epitomize. The article concludes with some of the challenges facing contemporary legal hermeneutics.

Exemplarity And The "Law Of Superabundance", Roger W. H. Savage

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Paul Ricoeur’s critique of social emancipatory projects that claim to be absolutely radical sets the stage for my investigation into the exemplary value of esteemed moral and political acts. Like works of art, such acts reform or revolutionize praxis through refashioning the world from within. By placing textual hermeneutics under the theme of the increase in being evinced by the work of art, Ricoeur’s analysis on the way that metaphor as a work in miniature iconically augments reality forges a link between the imagination’s productive power and the “law of superabundance.” This law inheres in the logic of hope. The …

The Utah Statesman, November 25, 2024, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.