Digital Commons Network^™

Investigation Of The Role For Methyl-Cpg Binding Protein 2 Variant Mbd2_V2 In Cancer Stem Cells And Obesity-Associated Cancers, Emily A. Teslow

Wayne State University Dissertations

Obesity is a risk factor for both TNBC and PCa, and pro-inflammatory features associated with obesity, including upregulated production of ROS, promote CSCs. Previously published work from the Bollig-Fischer laboratory established that TNBC CSCs could be inhibited by neutralizing ROS in culture with H2O2 targeted antioxidants. In this report, antioxidant treatment resulted in the downregulation of mRNA splicing variant MBD2_v2. MBD2_v2 was highly expressed in CSCs versus bulk TNBC cells and supported self-renewal in vitro. As obesity is coupled with increased ROS, we hypothesized that obesity could drive CSCs via MBD2_v2 expression. The work presented in this thesis addressed this …

Philosophy And Theology: Is Birth Ethically Relevant?, Christopher Kaczor

Philosophy Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Automatic 13C Chemical Shift Reference Correction Of Protein Nmr Spectral Data Using Data Mining And Bayesian Statistical Modeling, Xi Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a highly versatile analytical technique for studying molecular configuration, conformation, and dynamics, especially of biomacromolecules such as proteins. However, due to the intrinsic properties of NMR experiments, results from the NMR instruments require a refencing step before the down-the-line analysis. Poor chemical shift referencing, especially for ¹³C in protein Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) experiments, fundamentally limits and even prevents effective study of biomacromolecules via NMR. There is no available method that can rereference carbon chemical shifts from protein NMR without secondary experimental information such as structure or resonance assignment.

To solve this problem, we …

If A Virtual Tree Falls In A Simulated Forest, Is The Sound Restorative? An Examination Of The Role Of Level Of Immersion In The Restorative Capacity Of Virtual Nature Environments, Jessica Michaelis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stress and cognitive fatigue have become a pervasive problem, especially in Western society. Stress and cognitive fatigue can have deleterious effects not only on performance, but also on one's physical and mental health. This dissertation presents a study in which the aim is to investigate the effects of virtual nature on stress reduction and cognitive restoration. Specifically, this study assessed the effects of Immersion (Non-immersive, Semi-immersive, Fully-immersive) and Exploration (Passive vs Active) on stress reduction and cognitive restoration. Additionally, restoration from the most effective virtual nature environment was compared to that of taking an active coloring break. Eighty-three university students …

Development Of Novel Temperature Responsive Polymeric Sorbents And Their Applications In Water Remediation, Shuo Tang

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Water remediation utilizing sorption has found strong interest due to its inexpensiveness, universal nature and ease of operation. In particular, thermo-responsive sorbents consisting of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) offer significant potential as “smart” and advanced materials to remove multiple aqueous pollutants. NIPAAm exhibits excellent thermo-responsiveness, which senses the external temperature variation and changes its swelling and sorption behaviors in a sharp and rapid manner. At the beginning of this work, an extensive review of literature has been compiled to provide a summary of NIPAAm-based thermo-responsive sorbents in water/wastewater remediation applications.

Initially, we developed a novel approach to synthesize and characterize NIPAAm copolymeric …

Impact Of Environmental Exposures On Respiratory Health, Lawrence Rasmussen

All ETDs from UAB

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of COPD; similarly, individuals exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS) are also vulnerable to COPD and other airway diseases; however, distinct molecular mechanisms involved in SHS-induced lung effects that result in COPD are poorly understood. Mucociliary clearance (MCC) is a primary lung defense against inhaled particulate matter and pathogens. Thus, understanding how inhaled irritants such as SHS disrupt MCC will promote improved scientific understanding and better public health initiatives to prevent respiratory illnesses. Using a variety of in vitro …

Effects Of A Ketogenic Diet On Body Composition, Metabolic Health, And Quality Of Life In Ovarian And Endometrial Cancer Patients, Caroline Whitney Cohen

All ETDs from UAB

Ketogenic diets (KDs) have garnered considerable research attention in recent years, having been investigated as a therapy for neurologic, metabolic, and even dermatologic diseases. Recent research has also focused on KDs as a potential intervention for cancer, with preclinical studies demonstrating profound effects such as inhibiting tumor growth, enhancing the effects of radiation and chemotherapy, and prolonging survival. However, to date few studies have been conducted in cancer patients. In order to determine if KDs might augment existing cancer treatment protocols, additional research is needed. Accordingly, the objective of this project was to conduct the first randomized, controlled trial examining …

Postpartum Body Composition And Breast Milk Hormones, Camille Schneider

All ETDs from UAB

The prevalence of both adult and child obesity continues to rise. Children born to mothers with obesity have a greater risk for future obesity and chronic disease. There is an increasing body of literature suggesting that pregnancy and infancy are critical periods influencing the child’s risk for obesity. However, little is known about whether consumption of breast milk from an obese mother might influence the child’s metabolic programming and growth. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the association of maternal adiposity with insulin and leptin in breast milk and, in turn, whether breast milk insulin, leptin, and glucose …

Transparent Authentication Utilising Gait Recognition, Hind K Al-Obaidi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Securing smartphones has increasingly become inevitable due to their massive popularity and significant storage and access to sensitive information. The gatekeeper of securing the device is authenticating the user. Amongst the many solutions proposed, gait recognition has been suggested to provide a reliable yet non-intrusive authentication approach – enabling both security and usability. While several studies exploring mobile-based gait recognition have taken place, studies have been mainly preliminary, with various methodological restrictions that have limited the number of participants, samples, and type of features; in addition, prior studies have depended on limited datasets, actual controlled experimental environments, and many activities. …

1. The “New Person Contested”: Atheist Humanist Vs. Catholic Worldviews On Transhumanism, Irene J. Dabrowski, Anthony L. Haynor

Praxis Publications

No abstract provided.

Parkinson's Disease And The Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Michal Lubomski, Ai Huey Tan, Shen-Yang Lim, Andrew J. Holmes, Ryan L. Davis, Carolyn M. Sue

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Recently, there has been a surge in awareness of the gastrointestinal microbiome (GM) and its role in health and disease. Of particular note is an association between the GM and Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the realisation that the GM can act via a complex bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain. Compelling evidence suggests that a shift in GM composition may play an important role in the pathogenesis of PD by facilitating the characteristic ascending neurodegenerative spread of α-synuclein aggregates from the enteric nervous system to the brain. Here, we review evidence linking GM changes with PD, highlighting mechanisms …

When Empathy Only Goes So Far: Development Of A Trait Parochial Empathy Scale, Anna Maria C. Behler

Theses and Dissertations

Empathy, the ability to feel and/or understand another’s emotional state, plays a significant role in interpersonal interactions, mitigating hostility and enhancing affiliation and helping. However, empathy also biases interpersonal reactions. For example, at the group level empathy can become amplified towards members of their ingroup and blunted towards individuals in outgroups, a term called parochial empathy. Currently, no validated measures of parochial empathy at the dispositional level exist, and development of such a scale would be important to understanding the role of group-based emotions in prejudice and discrimination against outgroups. I conducted five studies to develop and validate a …

Pressure Versus Impulse Graph For Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury And Correlation To Observable Blast Injuries, Barbara Rutter

Doctoral Dissertations

"With the increased use of explosive devices in combat, blast induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) has become one of the signature wounds in current conflicts. Animal studies have been conducted to understand the mechanisms in the brain and a pressure versus time graph has been produced. However, the role of impulse in bTBIs has not been thoroughly investigated for animals or human beings.

This research proposes a new method of presenting bTBI data by using a pressure versus impulse (P-I) graph. P-I graphs have been found useful in presenting lung lethality regions and building damage thresholds. To present the animal …

Graduate Survey, 2018-2019, Hart Career Center, Illinois Wesleyan University

First Destination Survey

No abstract provided.

Bulletin Of Yale University School Of Nursing 2019-2020, Yale School Of Nursing

Yale School of Nursing Bulletins and Catalogues

Series 115, Number 15

September 5, 2019

Spheroid-3d And Monolayer-2d Intestinal Electrochemical Biosensor For Toxicity/Viability Testing: Applications In Drug Screening, Food Safety, And Environmental Pollutant Analysis, Evangelia Flampouri, Shahzad Imar, Kieran O'Connell, Baljit Singh

Articles

The rise of three-dimensional cell culture systems that provide in vivo-like environments for pharmaco-toxicological models has prompted the need for simple and robust viability assays suitable for complex cell architectural structures. This study addresses that challenge with the development of an in vitro enzyme based electrochemical sensor for viability/cytotoxicity assessment of two-dimensional (2D) monolayer and three-dimensional (3D) spheroid culture formats. The biosensor measures the cell viability/toxicity via electrochemical monitoring of the enzymatic activity of nonspecific esterases of viable cells, through the hydrolysis of 1-naphthyl acetate to 1-naphthol. The proposed sensor demonstrated strong correlation (r = 0.979) with viable …

The Influence Of Fatiguing Exercise On Power Output, Lena Kate Perry

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Physical fatigue impairs performance during high power, short duration activities. As technological developments permit new methods of measuring this effect, it is important to validate existing paradigms. The purpose was to determine if kinetic measurements from vertical jump (VJ) tests are influenced by fatigue based on explosive power outputs. A sample of athletes (9 men, 26 women) from a Division I NCAA sports program completed testing. To establish baseline VJ kinetics, athletes performed a controlled warm-up and then completed six jumps using Sparta Science technology, each separated by 15s rest. Sparta software computed three force outputs: Load, Explode and Drive. …

Apoptosis-Inducing Factor Mediates Metabolism And Oxidative Stress Signaling Through Functionally Uncoupled Mechanisms To The Benefit Of Tumorigenesis, Andrew Scott

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, arising when cells accumulate genomic mutations that render them incapable of controlling their own proliferation and survival. While substantial improvements in patient outcome have been achieved over the years, completely eliminating tumorigenic cells remains a significant challenge, and some cancer types (such as pancreatic cancer) have not shown meaningfully improved patient survival rates despite our advancements in understanding cancer cell biology and treatment. Genetic targeting approaches to the treatment of cancer have yielded some success, but have shown rather disappointing results overall. In contrast to the diversity of …

Comparing Blood Serum Values Of Vitamin D And Calcium In Division I Female Athletes, Adalie Lynn Schmidt

Health Nutrition and Exercise Science

The purpose was to compare blood serum levels of vitamin D and calcium to bone mineral density and previous fracture in Division I women’s basketball and soccer athletes. We recruited thirty athletes (19.53 ± 1.105 years); NCAA Division I soccer (n=21) and basketball (n=9). The calcium average was 9.61 ± .39 mg/dL for soccer and basketball was 10.01 ± 0.33 mg/dL. Vitamin D average for soccer was 44.48 ± 12.09 ng/DL and basketball 52.00 ± 17.44 ng/dL. Total bone mineral density measurements for the two groups did not differ at a statistically significant level (t[11.9] = 0.74, p = .472, …

Infographic: Stem And Medical Careers Related To Sports, Melanie Canfield, Leroy Long Iii

Publications

This infographic includes science, technology, engineering, math and medical (STEMM) careers related to sports. The targeted audience for the infographic is college counselors, professors, coaches and student-athletes who pursue STEMM degrees while playing a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport. The infographic may also be useful to K-12 students, parents, teachers and coaches. A job description, average salary, and undergraduate major are listed for a variety of careers such as data scientist, video game designer, sports engineer, sports economist, physical therapist, and mental health clinician.

The Experiences Of Counseling Graduate Students Who Participated In Professional Legislative Advocacy Training, Nakpangi Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Legislative advocacy efforts are increasingly becoming part of a counselor's professional identity, yet scholarly literature lacks studies about experiences of counseling students involved in legislative advocacy for the counseling profession. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the meaning counseling students ascribe to their involvement in legislative advocacy for the counseling profession. Astin's student involvement theory was the conceptual framework utilized to explore the lived experiences of counseling graduate students and recent graduates who participated in a 4-day long American Counseling Association Institute for Leadership Training on legislative advocacy and leadership or in professional legislative advocacy …

Engineering Stem Cell Cardiac Patch With Microvascular Features Representative Of Native Myocardium, Zichen Qian, Dhavan Sharma, Wenkai Jia, Daniel Radke, Timothy Kamp, Feng Zhao

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The natural myocardium is a highly aligned tissue with an oriented vasculature. Its characteristic cellular as well as nanoscale extracellular matrix (ECM) organization along with an oriented vascular network ensures appropriate blood supply and functional performance. Although significant efforts have been made to develop anisotropic cardiac structure, currently neither an ideal biomaterial nor an effective vascularization strategy to engineer oriented and high-density capillary-like microvessels has been achieved for clinical cardiovascular therapies. A naturally derived oriented ECM nanofibrous scaffold mimics the physiological structure and components of tissue ECM and guides neovascular network formation. The objective of this study was to create …

Non-Invasive Coronary Ct Angiography-Derived Fractional Flow Reserve: A Benchmark Study Comparing The Diagnostic Performance Of Four Different Computational Methodologies, Jason Matthew Carson, Sanjay Pant, Carl Roobottom, Robin Alcock, Blanco P Javier, Bulant C Alberto, Yuri Vassilevski, Sergey Simakov, Timur Gamilov, Roman Pryamonosov, Fuyou Liang, Xinyang Ge, Yue Liu, Perumal Nithiarasu

Peninsula Medical School

Non-invasive coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (cFFR) is an emergent approach to determine the functional relevance of obstructive coronary lesions. Its feasibility and diagnostic performance has been reported in several studies. It is unclear if differences in sensitivity and specificity between these studies are due to study design, population, or "computational methodology." We evaluate the diagnostic performance of four different computational workflows for the prediction of cFFR using a limited data set of 10 patients, three based on reduced-order modelling and one based on a 3D rigid-wall model. The results for three of these methodologies yield similar …

Perioperative Oxidative Stress: The Unseen Enemy, Jia L. Stevens, Martin Feelisch, Daniel S. Martin

Peninsula Medical School

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are essential for cellular signaling and physiological function. An imbalance between ROS production and antioxidant protection results in a state of oxidative stress (OS), which is associated with perturbations in reduction/oxidation (redox) regulation, cellular dysfunction, organ failure, and disease. The pathophysiology of OS is closely interlinked with inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and, in the case of surgery, ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Perioperative OS is a complex response that involves patient, surgical, and anesthetic factors. The magnitude of tissue injury inflicted by the surgery affects the degree of OS, and both duration and nature of the anesthetic procedure applied …

Heat Exposure And Adaptation Strategies Of Outdoor Informal Sector Workers In Urban Bulawayo - Zimbabwe, Bigboy Ngwenya

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Ambient temperatures have risen over the past few decades and are expected to increase even further due to climate change impacts. Extreme temperatures, accompanied by high humidity levels, will exacerbate occupational heat stress, heat related illnesses and mortality amongst vulnerable groups, particularly among outdoor workers in developing countries in the tropics. In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a large portion of the population work outdoors in the informal sector as street vendors (hawkers) due to a lack of employment opportunities. These hawkers spend long hours in the sun or under makeshift sheds with poorly developed adaptation strategies, and no access to cooling systems …

Construct Validity Of Creative Thinking Skills Instrument For Biology Student Teachers In The Subject Of Human Physiology, Andi Ulfa Tenri Pada, Siti Salina Mustakim, Bambang Subali

Jurnal Penelitian dan Evaluasi Pendidikan

This article discusses the construct validity of the creative thinking skill instrument supporting a conation idea aspect for biology student-teachers in the subject of Human Physiology. Two hundred and eighteen students participated in this study. Construct validity was obtained through Confirmatory Factor Analysis technique (CFA). Reliability was estimated by composite reliability. Findings show that the construct validity and the reliability of the instrument are high. A thorough discussion on the findings and future implications are provided towards the end of this paper.

The Impact Of A Training Curriculum For The Tolerance Of Using (Training Mask) In Some Functional Indicators For The 400 Meters And 800 Meters For The Junior Class, Tarek Ahmed Mirza

Modern Sport

The aim of the study is to prepare a training curriculum using a training mask, to identify the effect of the curriculum prepared in the special endurance and some functional indicators in the 400 m and 800 m range of beginners, as well as to identify the differences in the results of the post tests of the functional indicators between the 400 m and 800 m, The researcher used the experimental method in the comparison method for the two experimental groups to suit the nature of the research. The sample of the research was the Peshmerga Club of Athletics. The …

A Study Of Adiponectin/Leptin Ratio In Adult Males With Metabolic Syndrome, Ann Khazaal Yaseen, Yousra Ahmed Abdulateef

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome is a disorder of energy utilization and storage. It is a multi-component disease brought on by a combination of life style and environmental factors, with some populations exhibiting a genetic predisposition and type 2 diabetes. It is marked by abdominal obesity, elevated levels of triglyceride, low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels. Metabolic syndrome is a significant risk factor for the development of both type 2 diabetes and heart disease, also associated with fatty liver, and polycystic ovary syndrome. Recently two adipocytokines secreted from visceral adipose tissue leptin and adiponectin, …

New Age Visitors And The Tourism Industry, Peter Wiltshier

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This conceptual paper establishes a framework for socially constructed research activity to help gauge the intention of travellers in more-developed countries (MDC) of the wealthy and largely affluent North to undertake forms of continuing personal and professional development (CPD) through their travel experiences. Human physiological needs have in large already been achieved for many in more developed countries and exceeded in terms of nourishment and entertainment. Humans are social and societal creatures and in need of realisation of their spiritual, intellectual and societal choices and selections. New spiritual values are threatened by monetarism, by an ‘enveloping outside world’, as Giddens …

Using An In Vitro-In Vivo Correlation For The ‘Bioequivalence By Design’ Development Of An Immediate Release Carbamazepine Product, Douglas Steinbach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The quality of a drug product may be characterized by the consistency with which its indicated clinical effect, and safety profile, is experienced by the patient. The concept that such quality should be built into a product is at the core of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) quality by design (QbD) initiative. This vision for pharmaceutical product development emphasizes the risk-based identification of critical quality attributes (CQA) which summarize a product’s performance, the efficient refinement of critical product/process parameters (CPP) that can affect such attributes, and the systematic development of CPP limits, which assure appropriate performance of …