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Stable Isotope Analysis Of A Platecarpus Tympaniticus (Squamata, Mosasauridae) With Actinocamax Sternbergi (Mollsuca, Belemnoidea) Reveals Possible Endothermic Thermoregulation, Mitchell Lukens

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Mosasaurs, ancient marine reptiles, dominated the late Cretaceous oceans. However, their ecological success is a contentious topic. Were they ectothermic, like their modern relatives the varanid lizards? Or endothermic like extant marine mammals? Stable isotopes can reveal temperature and physiological variances within skeletons, but do not differentiate between body temperature and ambient environmental temperature. A rare mosasaur specimen from the Smoky Hill Chalk of a partial, articulated Platecarpus tympaniticus with stomach contents of belemnites provides a possible direct temperature contrast between predator and prey. The belemnites, related to modern coleoids, are identified as Actinocamax sternbergi. These animals possessed body …

Sustained Delivery Of Carbon Monoxide (Co) Via Organic Co Prodrugs: Pharmacokinetic Studies, Minjia Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbon monoxide (CO) is widely known as poisonous gas. Its role as a signaling molecule (gasotransmitter) with various therapeutic effects is less known. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in CO because of its demonstrated therapeutic effect in treating conditions such as inflammation, drug-induced toxicity, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and kidney injury, among others. In developing CO-based therapeutic agents, one key issue is the availability of pharmaceutically acceptable ways of delivering CO. During the past decade, there has been a large number of experiments in cell culture, animal models, and clinical trials using CO gas incubation/inhalation and heavy metal based …

Multivariate Statistical Modeling For Radio-Genomics Study, Tiantian Zeng

Theses and Dissertations--Statistics

Radiogenomics is a new direction in cancer research that focuses on the associations among radiomics, genomics and clinical outcome. Currently, the major challenge for Radiogenomics lies in the effective integration of genomics and imaging data for promising clinical outcome prediction. Herein, we propose a multivariate joint model that can integrate imaging and genomic data for better predicting the clinical outcome. Specifically, we jointly consider two multivariate group lasso models, one regresses imaging features on genomic features, and the other regresses patient’s clinical outcome on genomic features. An L1 penalty term is introduced for each variable, and weight in the penalty …

Development Of Zafirlukast Derivatives Active Against Porphyromonas Gingivalis, Kaitlind C. Howard

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

Periodontal diseases are inflammatory diseases that can lead to damage of the soft tissue and bone supporting the teeth. Gingivitis is the reversible early stage of gum disease, which consist of gums that bleed when brushing or flossing teeth. When left untreated, the preventable but irreversible late stage of periodontal disease, periodontitis, can lead teeth to loosen or even fall out. Oral bacterial species, such as the Gram-negative anaerobic pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis trigger these inflammatory diseases through oral dysbiosis. P. gingivalis is a keystone pathogen, meaning that the damage caused by P. gingivalis is not proportional to its abundance. Treatment …

Identifying Misconceptions About Evolution Relative To Science Curriculum Exposure At The Secondary Level, Rachel Carney

Graduate Research Papers

Evolution is the foundation of the biological sciences. Addressing misconceptions related to biological evolution ensures students have a solid understanding of evolution so that they can become scientifically literate members of society. While studies have identified misconceptions about evolution, there is much less research on the degree to which specific biology curricula address these misconceptions. The goal of this study is to determine how exposure to the SEPUP biology curriculum affects the misconceptions about evolutionary theory held by 10th grade students.

This study took place at a moderately-sized school located in the Midwest. Students respond with their agreeability to a …

W425-03c-23 - Student Organizations: Honor Societies: Beta Beta Beta, Student Organizations, Beta Beta Beta

University Archives Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

A Crew-Operated Data Recording System For Length-Based Stock Assessment Of Indonesia’S Deep Demersal Fisheries, Elle Wibisono, Peter Mous, Edwison Firmana, Austin T. Humphries

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Deep demersal fisheries in Indonesia yielded close to 90,000 metric tons of snapper and grouper in 2019, landed by a fleet of approximately 10,000 fishing boats. Prior to the present study, information on these multi-species, dispersed, small- to medium-scale fisheries was scarce, while reliable species-specific data on catch and effort were non-existent. This data-deficiency made stock assessments and design of harvest control rules impossible. We developed a new data collection method, the Crew Operated Data Recording System (CODRS), to collect verifiable species- and length-composition data from catches across all segments of the fleet. CODRS engaged crews of 579 fishing vessels …

The Columns, 1987 Spring

The Columns

Cover Story, "Tigers take Metro!"

MSU's Marvin Alexander (44) lofts an inside shot over Louisville's Mike Abram (34) as MSU teammate Rodney Douglas prepares to rebound in the Tigers' 75-52 victory in the 1987 Metro Conference Tournament championship game in Louisville in March. Over 18,000 watched as MSU, led by tournament Most Valuable Player Alexander, defeated the arch-rival Cardinals. Alexander and teammate Vincent Askew were both named to the All-Tournament team.

Also featured, "Executive Center Opens" by Laurie Finn

The newest building at Memphis State University - appearing from the outside as a large, four-story brick building and inside as …

Chemical Investigation Of Metabolites Produced By Marine Pseudoalteromonas Spp., Margaret Rosario

Open Access Dissertations

In natural environments, bacteria are surrounded by other organisms such as eukaryotic phytoplankton and other bacterial species. Specialized metabolites are encoded within bacterial genomes and are expected to play a large role in mediating interactions with other cells. Furthermore, chemical communication in bacterial communities is a key component to controlling group behaviors including virulence. Marine Pseudoalteromonas spp. Produce a plethora of specialized metabolites, suggesting a reliance on the biosynthesis, secretion, and response to chemical cues. This dissertation explores the prevalence and function of signaling molecules and specialized metabolites produced by two species of Pseudoalteromonas.

The first study, which is …

A Survey Of The Solitary Native Bees Of The Leach Botanical Garden, And Their Floral Associations, Joshua Page

Biology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Solitary native bees are known to be diverse, but are not well studied in Oregon. In order to identify the bee genera present in the Leach Botanical Garden, and their floral usage, a survey was conducted over 2020 and 2021. Biweekly sampling was used to collect bees on flowers, in order to obtain floral usage data. Bees were identified to genus with published taxonomic keys. In total, 19 genera of bees were found. Bee abundance fit a normal distribution, and peaked in July. Ceratina and Lasioglossum were a significant proportion of the population, and were present in the garden from …

Pleiotropic Effects Of Simvastatin And Losartan In Preclinical Models Of Post-Traumatic Elbow Contracture, Michael A David, Alex J Reiter, Chelsey L Dunham, Ryan M Castile, James A Abraham, Leanne E Iannucci, Ishani D Shah, Necat Havlioglu, Aaron M Chamberlain, Spencer P Lake

Open Access Publications

Elbow trauma can lead to post-traumatic joint contracture (PTJC), which is characterized by loss of motion associated with capsule/ligament fibrosis and cartilage damage. Unfortunately, current therapies are often unsuccessful or cause complications. This study aimed to determine the effects of prophylactically administered simvastatin (SV) and losartan (LS) in two preclinical models of elbow PTJC: an

Gene Vectors With Fluorescence Tracking Capabilities, Sophia Despina Angelopoulos

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on the optimization of benzothiazole-based chromophores to utilize them as fluorescent tags functionalized onto stimuli-responsive, or “smart,” polymers as non-viral gene delivery vectors for gene therapy applications. Blue-fluorescent emissive chromophores will allow tracking capabilities for the transfection pathway of the vector to be monitored as it delivers the DNA payload within intercellular space. The most appropriate chromophore must be covalently bound to a free amine within the vector, which is accomplished through NAS chemistry from fluorophenyl-benzothiazoles (F-BTZ-CBz) derivatives to amidated hyperbranched poly(ethyleneimine)(HPEI-IBAm0.61). HPEI is considered to be a synthetic polycation, which promotes tunable solubility through characteristics of …

Syntheses Of Indoles And Natural Indole Alkaloids From 2-Nitrostyrene Derivatives, S M Ashikur Rahman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A short and flexible synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted indoles employing a Barluenga-type palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of p-tosylhydrazones with 2-nitroarylhalides followed by a palladium-catalyzed, carbon monoxide-mediated reductive cyclization was developed. Significantly better overall yields were obtained performing the two-step reaction sequence in a one-pot reaction. Secondly, in order to facilitate biological studies of ergotryptamine, a recently isolated ergot alkaloid, it was selected as a target for synthesis. In an attempt to synthesize ergotryptamine, a palladium catalyzed Kosugi-Migita-Stille cross coupling, a Mizoroki-Heck reaction, and a carbon monoxide-mediated palladium-catalyzed reductive cyclization were utilized as the key steps. Using a similar synthetic approach, synthesis of …

Capture-Recapture Reveals Heterogeneity In Habitat-Specific Mongoose Densities And Spatiotemporal Variability In Trapping Success In St. Kitts, West Indies, Caroline C. Sauvé, Are R. Berentsen, Amy Gilbert, Anne Conan, Luis Cruz-Martinez, Patrick A. Leighton

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata) is a non-native invasive species across the Caribbean and a rabies reservoir on at least four islands in the region. Although previous studies reported mongoose density estimates in their non-native range, the variability in trapping designs, study seasonality, and analytical methods among studies precludes direct comparisons. This study is the first to report mongoose densities for the island of St. Kitts, West Indies. Our objective was to quantify mongoose densities across four habitats characteristic for the island. High capture and recapture rates in this study resulted in detailed estimates of spatial heterogeneity …

Development Of Novel Pyridazine Derivatives And Drug Delivery Systems Against Dengue, Janae A. Culmer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The lack of approved vaccines, medications and treatment regimens has significantly contributed to the rapid spread of mosquito-borne viruses such as Dengue and Zika virus. The complex immunopathology of these viruses presents limitations for the development and implementation of a definitive, safe and effective approach to combat infections.Previous research has demonstrated that vector control strategies such as the elimination of larval habitats, larviciding with insecticides, the use of biological agents and the application of adulticides have been unsuccessful in the reduction of viral transmission leading to the need for the continued development of antivirals. This research proposes an approach for …

Scaffolds From Medical Grade Chitosan: A Good Choice For 3d Cultivation Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Merve Çapkin Yurtsever, Özge Eki̇n Akdere, Menemşe Gümüşdereli̇oğlu

Turkish Journal of Biology

Chitosan has high biocompatibility, supports proliferation of many cells, and can be a good carrier for various growth factors. However, low attachment ratio and spheroid formation of several stem cell types on plain chitosan scaffolds/films is still a problem. In this study, it was aimed to obtain 3D scaffolds using medical grade chitosan (MC) with a high deacetylation degree (DD ≥ 92.6%) to overcome the spheroid formation of rat adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells (rAdMSCs) on control chitosan (C, DD = 75%-85%) scaffolds. Genipin was used as a biological chemical crosslinker, and glycerol phosphate salt was used both as …

Nutrition And Hookworm Infection: A Causal Analysis Of The Literature, Mengting Su

Public Health Theses

Hookworm infection is one of the neglected tropical diseases, particularly in low and middle-income countries, but we know relatively little about causal evidence related to malnutrition. This is mainly due to the relatively small research community compared to those investigating the impact of hookworm infection on host nutritional status and disease complications. Causal inference is critical in epidemiology and biomedical research because it can be a powerful tool in enlightening prevention efforts and developing etiology models. The application of causal criteria to address complex epidemiological research questions is indeed helpful in proposing more interventions to improve the health and well-being …

Role Of Sex In Rate Of Infant Vocalization And Canonical Babbling, Janine Peca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

A female language advantage has been widely reported, although it has not been consistently shown across the literature. Perhaps surprisingly, the possibility of sex differences in prelinguistic vocalizations in the first year has not been widely studied. A paper published in Current Biology in 2020 found that infant males produced a significantly larger number of speech-like vocalizations through 12 months of age than infant females based on human coding of randomly-selected samples from all-day recordings. The authors argued that their sampling method offered a maximally representative view of infant vocalization. The present study also investigated possible sex differences in the …

Mass Spectrometric Analysis Of Lignin Model Compounds: Fundamental Investigations Of Ionization And Supramolecular Interactions For Lignocellulosic Biomass Applications, Kimberly Dean

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Lignocellulosic biomass is pivotal for the development of renewable energy sources and materials essential to mitigate the exploitation of fossil fuels causing climate change and environmental pollution issues. The conversion of biomass into fuel requires the hydrolysis of cellulose and a biproduct of this process is the isolation of millions of tons of lignin as biorefinery waste. Lignin is a complex high molecular weight polymer whose structure remains undefined and critically limits potential industrial applications of lignocellulosic biomass. The advancement of analytical methods for structural elucidation of lignin and its ensemble of phenolic compounds is therefore essential to advance this …

Structural Basis Of Bacterial Flagellin For Naip5 Binding And Nlrc4 Inflammasome Activation And The Mechanism Of Flagellin Induced Release Of Cytokines In Vivo, Jian Cui

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

The bacterial flagellum is a whip-like structure that protrudes from the cell membrane and is one of the most complex and dynamic biological molecular machines that propels bacteria to swim toward beneficial environments and the sites of infection. It is composed of a basal body, a hook, and a long filament. The flagellar filament contains thousands of copies of the protein flagellin (FliC) monomer arranged helically and ending with a filament cap composed of oligomer protein FliD. The overall structure of the filament core is preserved across bacterial species, while the outer domains exhibit high variability, and in some cases …

A Hybrid Data And Hypothesis-Driven Model For Software Development In Support Of The Machine-Learning Paradigm, Anthony D. Bowman

All ETDs from UAB

istorically, research has often been conducted in a hypothesis-driven manner with software development methodologies created to support those efforts. However, in recent years data-driven approaches to research have seen a dramatic rise in prominence. While software development methodologies such as agile development, extreme programming, and the waterfall model have allowed developers to tackle increasingly complex problems, they were not designed to efficiently support data-driven approaches such as the machine learning paradigm. To address the need to support the different programmatic requirements of both classical, hypothesis-driven as well as data-driven development, novel development strategies are warranted. In this research, we adapted …

Design And Synthesis Of Curcumin Analogs For Anticancer Activity And Discovery Of Novel Hit Molecules Targeting Cxcr4., Maryam Sadat Hosseini Zare

Dissertations (2016-Present)

Curcumin as a natural compound is made of various components including protein, carbohydrate, and curcuminoid. Curcuminoid is made of curcumin, desmethoxycurcumin and bis desmethoxycurcumin. Curcumin is used for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disorders, but it has some therapeutic problems like poor bioavailability, poor efficacy, and chemical instability. To overcome these problems, the objective of this study is (1) synthesis of pyrazole curcumin analogs, (2) synthesis of triazole curcumin analogs, and (3) in-vitro study of the anticancer activity of these curcumin analogs on head & neck, breast, pancreatic and glioblastoma cancer cells. During this part of my Ph.D. project, …

A Personal History Of The Department Of Biology, Margaret L. May

VCU University History Books

Former faculty member Margaret May recounts the history and development of the Department of Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Comparative Analysis Of Gene Expression Patterns For Oral Epithelial Cell Functions In Periodontitis, Octavio A Gonzalez, Sreenatha Kirakodu, Linh M Nguyen, Luis Orraca, Michael J Novak, Janis Gonzalez-Martinez, Jeffrey L Ebersole

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The structure and function of epithelial cells are critical for the construction and maintenance of intact epithelial surfaces throughout the body. Beyond the mechanical barrier functions, epithelial cells have been identified as active participants in providing warning signals to the host immune and inflammatory cells and in communicating various detailed information on the noxious challenge to help drive specificity in the characteristics of the host response related to health or pathologic inflammation. Rhesus monkeys were used in these studies to evaluate the gingival transcriptome for naturally occurring disease samples (GeneChip® Rhesus Macaque Genome Array) or for ligature-induced disease (GeneChip® Rhesus …

An Interdisciplinary Assessment Of The Mud Crab Scylla Serrata As A Sustainable Livelihood Resource In Southwest India, Elina Apine

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Fishing and aquaculture are important income-generating activities for coastal communities in India. However, the challenges of climate change and overexploitation have prompted the exploration of new, alternative, sustainable, target species that previously have received little attention. This thesis considers the potential of the mud crab Scylla serrata as a sustainable livelihood resource for local communities in southwest India where currently crab fishing and, particularly, farming is less common compared to southeast India. As fisheries and aquaculture are inherently complex social-ecological systems affected both by biological and socio-economic factors, this thesis has taken an interdisciplinary approach to identify the main barriers …

A Core–Shell Au@Tio2 And Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Sensor For The Electroanalytical Determination Of H2o2 In Human Blood Serum And Saliva, Ayman Ali Saeed, Mohammed Nooredeen Abbas, Waheed Fathi El-Hawary, Yousry Moustafa Issa, Baljit Singh

Articles

A hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) sensor was developed based on core–shell gold@ titanium dioxide nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode (Au@TiO2/MWCNTs/GCE). Core–shell Au@TiO2 material was prepared and characterized using a scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Zeta-potential analyzer. The proposed sensor (Au@TiO2/MWCNTs/GCE) was investigated electrochemically using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The analytical performance of the sensor was evaluated towards H2O2 using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The proposed sensor exhibited excellent stability and sensitivity with a linear concentration …

Completing Single-Cell Dna Methylome Profiles Via Transfer Learning Together With Kl-Divergence, Sanjeeva Dodlapati, Zongliang Jiang, Jiangwen Sun

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The high level of sparsity in methylome profiles obtained using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing in the case of low biological material amount limits its value in the study of systems in which large samples are difficult to assemble, such as mammalian preimplantation embryonic development. The recently developed computational methods for addressing the sparsity by imputing missing have their limits when the required minimum data coverage or profiles of the same tissue in other modalities are not available. In this study, we explored the use of transfer learning together with Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence to train predictive models for completing methylome profiles with …

Morphological Description Of Laevicaulisstuhlmanni (Simroth, 1895) (Pulmonata, Veronicellidae) From Egypt, Reham Fathey Ali, David G Robinson, Fabio Liberto

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Terrestrial slugs and snails are increasingly becoming serious pests of agricultural, horticultural and ornamental plants in Egypt, resulting in major economic losses.

NEW INFORMATION: This paper provides a detailed morphological and anatomical description of the veronicellid slug Laevicaulisstuhlmanni (Simroth, 1895) that has been recently recorded from Egypt. This population from Egypt is compared with Laevicaulis populations recently reported and described from Libya as L.striatus (Simroth, 1896) and with available data in literature. Some notes and a distribution map of the veronicellids introduced in north-eastern Africa are provided.

Comparison Of M, Mm And Lts Estimators In Linear Regression In The Presence Of Outlier, Cem Tirink, Hasan Önder

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the performance of different estimators that will be used in regression analysis, which is one of the multivariate statistical methods in the presence of outliers in the data set. Sixth month live weight was estimated with various body measurements for Saanen kids taken from a private farm. In the data set, the use and performance of robust estimators were evaluated because the least squares method did not provide reliable results in the case of outliers. M (for Huber and Tukey bisquare) estimator, MM estimator and LTS estimator were used as robust used …

Determination Of Acrylamide Using The Immuno-Enzymatic Method In Commercial Dog And Cat Foods, Ni̇met Kiliç, Bi̇lal Cem Li̇man

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Pet animals raised by humans do not have the chance to choose their own food. Therefore, mistakes made by humans in feeding dogs and cats will adversely affect the health of the animal. There are applications at high temperatures at various stages during the production of dog and cat foods. It is predicted that acrylamide (AA) can be formed as a result of a possible Maillard reaction since the cat and dog foods contain starch in its structure. The aim of this study is to determine the AA residue immuno-enzymatically in dry cat and dog feeds from different companies available …