Digital Commons Network^™

Sequence Learning In A 6-Ohda Mouse Model Of Parkinson’S Disease, Ani Gribbin

Neuroscience Honors Projects

Parkinson’s disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder originating in the dopaminergic cells of the basal ganglia, is characterized by severe motor impairments such as tremors, bradykinesia, and postural instability. However, non-motor symptoms impacting sensory systems and cognition are consistently pointed to as more greatly affecting quality of life for PD patients. Cognitive impairments in PD can include changes in reward processing, depression, apathy, and increases in risk-taking behavior. Additionally, learning and memory deficits are seen in PD, specifically in motor sequence learning. Often, the neural correlates of sequence learning impairments are traced to the substantia nigra. However, there is some evidence …

The Role Of Prevotella Species In Female Genital Tract Infections, Sheridan D. George, Olivia T. Van Gerwen, Chaoling Dong, Lúcia G. Sousa, Nuno Cerca, Jacob H. Elnaggar, Christopher M. Taylor, Christina A. Muzny

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Female genital tract infections (FGTIs) include vaginal infections (e.g., bacterial vaginosis [BV]), endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease [PID], and chorioamnionitis [amniotic fluid infection]. They commonly occur in women of reproductive age and are strongly associated with multiple adverse health outcomes including increased risk of HIV/sexually transmitted infection acquisition and transmission, infertility, and adverse birth outcomes such as preterm birth. These FGTIs are characterized by a disruption of the cervicovaginal microbiota which largely affects host immunity through the loss of protective, lactic acid-producing spp. and the overgrowth of facultative and strict anaerobic bacteria. species (spp.), anaerobic Gram-negative rods, are implicated in the …

Electrochemical Syntheses Of Aryl-Substituted Benzothiophenes And Phenanthrenes Using Benzenediazonium Salts As The Aryl Radical Precursors, Li-Yuan Lan, Yang-Ye Jiang, Raymond Daniel Little, Cheng-Chu Zeng

Journal of Electrochemistry

Aryl-substituted benzothiophene and phenanthrene are important structural units in medicinal chemistry and materials science. Although extensive effort has been devoted to prepare these compounds and a variety of approaches have been developed to construct the 2-substituted benzothiophene core structure, environmental-friendly and efficient synthetic means are still desired. Based on our previous electrochemical Minisci-type arylation reaction with aryl diazonium salt as the aryl precursor, as well as the work from König’s group, herein, we described the use of paired electrolysis to achieve 2-aryl benzothiophenes and 9-aryl phenanthrenes employing benzenediazonium salts as the aryl radical precursors. Initially, 2-methylthiobenzendiazonium salt 1a and 4-methylbenzene …

My Patient Or Law Enforcement, Who Gets First Say?, Hollis T. Redden

Arkansas Law Notes

Law enforcement is often left struggling with determining how to appropriately respond to nurses who refuse their request to collect a suspect’s blood when that patient is suspected of intoxicated driving and the officer has a valid search warrant. These scenarios trigger compliance issues including a patient’s right to privacy and consent, “particularly when a medical entity’s compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) provisions directly conflicts with law enforcement needs and goals.” Once a suspect becomes a patient, whose interest prevails? Is it healthcare providers’ interest in abiding by the rights, health, and safety …

Role Of Neurocellular Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Response In Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias Risk, Miriam Aceves, Jose C. Granados, Ana C. Leandro, Juan M. Peralta, David C. Glahn, Sarah Williams-Blangero, Joanne E. Curran, John Blangero, Satish Kumar

School of Medicine Publications

Currently, more than 55 million people around the world suffer from dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) accounts for nearly 60–70% of all those cases. The spread of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pathology and progressive neurodegeneration in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex is strongly correlated with cognitive decline in AD patients; however, the molecular underpinning of ADRD’s causality is still unclear. Studies of postmortem AD brains and animal models of AD suggest that elevated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress may have a role in ADRD pathology through altered neurocellular homeostasis in brain regions associated with learning and memory. To study …

How Different Forms Of Art And Entertainment Can Affect Our Mental Well-Being, Tucker Johnson

ENGL 1102 Showcase

The following paper is a complete anthology of our collective ideas. We wrote this paper from the prompt of entertainment and health. With this given prompt we divulged separate but similar ideas. Then with these ideas formulated our anthology which is the exploration of the impact of various artistic expressions and entertainment on our psychological health. This anthology shows the intersection between art, entertainment, and our mental health. We delve into how different art and entertainment mediums can influence our mental wellbeing. This exploration has been a great culmination of research and analysis. We used extensive research to shed light …

Sars-Cov-2 Omicron: Viral Evolution, Immune Evasion, And Alternative Durable Therapeutic Strategies, Hailong Guo, Sha Ha, Jason W Botten, Kai Xu, Ningyan Zhang, Zhiqiang An, William R Strohl, John W Shiver, Tong-Ming Fu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Since the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron virus has gained dominance worldwide, its continual evolution with unpredictable mutations and patterns has revoked all authorized immunotherapeutics. Rapid viral evolution has also necessitated several rounds of vaccine updates in order to provide adequate immune protection. It remains imperative to understand how Omicron evolves into different subvariants and causes immune escape as this could help reevaluate the current intervention strategies mostly implemented in the clinics as emergency measures to counter the pandemic and, importantly, develop new solutions. Here, we provide a review focusing on the major events of Omicron viral evolution, including the features of spike …

Sex-Related Differences In Reaction Time During Normobaric Hypoxic Hypoxia In Physically Active University Students, Danielle Passburg

Senior Honors Theses

Limited research has been completed on the sex-related differences in reaction time during hypoxic hypoxia. This is concerning due to the importance of reaction time during hypoxic hypoxia in aviation (particularly within the realm of military aviation). The purpose of this study was to examine the sex-related differences in reaction time during hypoxic hypoxia in university students. The study used a normobaric oxygen device to simulate hypoxic states and Delphi computer software to test reaction time. Subjects were physically active university students (10 females, 10 males). The results of the study showed no significant differences between sexes in reaction times …

A Comparison Of Synthetic Fungicide And Trichoderma Spp. Applications Against Clubroot Disease On Cabbage, Rasiska Tarigan, Rina Christina Hutabarat, Bina Karo, Perdinanta Sembiring, Delima Napitupulu, Supardi, Rudi Cahyo Wicaksono, Jamaluddin, Wiwin Setiawati, Ahsol Hasyim

Jurnal Kultivasi

Clubroot is one of the important diseases affecting members of the Cruciferae family. This disease is caused by soil-borne pathogen, called Plasmodiophora brassicae. The pathogen produces motile spores called zoospores. This pathogen results in a drop of cruciferous plant productivity. The objectives of this research were to identify specific Trichoderma species in three districts in Sumatra Utara and to evaluate the potency of T. harzianum (both local species from Berastagi and species developed by Indonesian Vegetable Research Institute (IVEGRI)) to control the disease and then comparing them with the application of synthetic fungicide. The research was conducted in a greenhouse …

Additional Cocopeat And Coconut Water Improves The Seedling Growth Of Robusta Coffee, Intan Ratna Dewi Anjarsari, Anita Febiola, Mira Ariyanti, Ifwarisan Defri

Jurnal Kultivasi

Robusta coffee production can be sucessed by using high-quality seedlings that have good growth performance. One of several keys to success in seedling production is the choosing best planting medium and providing exogenous growth regulators. These include using cocopeat planting media and giving coconut water. This research aims to determine whether using cocopeat planting media and providing coconut water can increase the growth of robusta coffee seedlings. The experiment used a randomized complete group design with six treatments and four replications; each experimental unit consisted of three robusta coffee seedlings. The six tested treatments were control (topsoil 100%); cocopeat 50% …

The Effect Of Fruit Maturation Stage On Seed Germination Of Iaa9-3 And Iaa9-5 Tomato Mutants, Elfa Muhammad Ihsan Al Aufa, Syariful Mubarok, Anne Nuraini, Rahmat Budiarto, Nurmalita Waluyo, Hiroshi Ezura

Jurnal Kultivasi

One of the internal factors that play an important role in seed quality is the level of the phytohormone auxin. Efforts to increase auxin in seeds include developing new varieties with increased indigenous auxin, such as those found in mutant tomatoes from Micro-Tom, namely iaa9-3 and iaa9-5. This research was conducted to determine the germination response of iaa9-3 and iaa9-5 mutant tomato seeds at different levels of the fruit maturation stage. The research was carried out at the Seed Technology Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Padjadjaran University, and the Seed Testing Laboratory of the Center for Standard Testing of Vegetable Plant …

Electrocatalytic Cyclopropanation Of Active Methylene Compounds, Liang-Hua Jie, Hai-Chao Xu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The development of novel strategies to access cyclopropanes has become increasingly important due to the vital role of these three-membered ring structures in synthetic intermediates, natural products, and pharmaceuticals. Herein, we present an electrocatalytic method for the synthesis of cyclopropanes through intermolecular dehydrogenative annulation of active methylene compounds and arylalkenes. This electrochemical process requires no chemical oxidants, allowing for a speedy access to various functionalized cyclopropanes from inexpensive and readily available materials.

Planting Of Stimulated Corn Seeds At Different Dates In Spring Seasons, M. M. Khudhair, J. H. Hamza, H. Z. Rihan

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

This study was aimed to investigate the appropriate planting date and tolerance to adverse growing conditions in the spring season through seeds stimulation technology. A field experiment was carried out in the spring seasons of 2022 and 2023 according to a randomized complete block design in a split-plot arrangement with four replications. The main factor is planting dates (February 15^th, March 1^st and 15^th, and April 1^st and 15^th). The secondary factor is seeds stimulation (potassium nitrate 6 mg L ^-1 + licorice extract 6 g L ^-1, as well as …

Aso Author Reflections: Outcomes Of Hepatic Artery-Based Therapies And Systemic Multiagent Chemotherapy In Unresectable Colorectal Liver Metastases: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Lee M. Ocuin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Direct Implantation Of Patient Brain Tumor Cells Into Matching Locations In Mouse Brains For Patient-Derived Orthotopic Xenograft Model Development, Lin Qi, Patricia Baxter, Mari Kogiso, Huiyuan Zhang, Frank K Braun, Holly Lindsay, Sibo Zhao, Sophie Xiao, Aalaa Sanad Abdallah, Milagros Suarez, Zilu Huang, Wan Yee Teo, Litian Yu, Xiumei Zhao, Zhigang Liu, Yulun Huang, Jack M Su, Tsz-Kwong Man, Ching C Lau, Laszlo Perlaky, Yuchen Du, Xiao-Nan Li

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Despite multimodality therapies, the prognosis of patients with malignant brain tumors remains extremely poor. One of the major obstacles that hinders development of effective therapies is the limited availability of clinically relevant and biologically accurate (CRBA) mouse models.

Methods: We have developed a freehand surgical technique that allows for rapid and safe injection of fresh human brain tumor specimens directly into the matching locations (cerebrum, cerebellum, or brainstem) in the brains of SCID mice.

Results: Using this technique, we successfully developed 188 PDOX models from 408 brain tumor patient samples (both high-and low-grade) with a success rate of 72.3% …

New Records Of Mesobuthus Mesopotamicus (Penther, 1912) In Iraq And Mesobuthus Faiki Sp. Nov. From Turkey (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Ersen A. Yağmur, František Kovařík, Victor Fet, Ridvan Kurt, Fenik S. Hussen, Azhar M. Al-Khazali, Hamid S. Kachel, Ali A. Al-Fanharawi

Euscorpius

New locality records for Mesobuthus mesopotamicus (Penther, 1912) are given from Iraq. The populations from southeastern Turkey, earlier identified as M. mesopotamicus by Kovařík et al. (2022), are examined and compared with the specimens from the area close to the type locality of M. mesopotamicus. These populations are described as a new species, Mesobuthus faiki sp. nov. Detailed illustrations of both species and a map are given.

An Examination Of The Eastern Nebraska And Western Iowa Flash Flood Event Of 6-7 August 1999, Catherine M. Zapotocny

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: Technical Reports and Related Materials

Flash flooding occurs each summer in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. While 10-inch rains are extraordinary, it is not uncommon to have at least one excessive rain event during the annual convective season. A significant flash flood occurred in east central Nebraska and western Iowa the night of August 6, 1999 into the morning of August 7, 1999. Antecedent hydrologic conditions limited the loss of life, however considerable property damage resulted as the heavy rain fell over the urbanized areas in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

Several flash flood ingredients came together over the area. These meteorological factors are typical …

Where To Test A Nuclear Bomb, Tyler Kliegl

The Purdue Historian

The United States detonated three underground nuclear bombs on a far-off Alaskan island called Amchitka in the 1960s and 70s. The goal is to understand what the motive of the United States in selecting Amchitka over the endless potential sites to test at were. What makes a place worthy in being tested on, or unworthy in being left alone. How does the United States deal with resistance from locals and other organizations, fighting to prevent their tests.

Asylum Architecture: The Brick-By-Brick Development Of Patient Treatment, Kris D. Sass

The Purdue Historian

The following research and analysis will investigate the intersection of architecture and treatment in asylums with a specific interest on the time period of the late 19^th century to mid-20^th century in the United States. Not only were specific environmental demands key to some treatment methodologies, such as rural environments to moral therapy, but the architecture of mental hospitals were integral parts of patient’s experiences. Here three specific hospital designs will be analyzed: the Kirkbride Plan, the Cottage Plan, and Kiyoshi Izumi’s Socio-Petal. The following analysis will be built on a series of blueprints, building notes, secondary histories, …

Spring Commencement, 2024, Marshall University

Marshall University Commencement

Program for the One Hundred Eighty-Seventh Commencement of Marshall University, Saturday, April 27, 2024 held at the Mountain Health Arena in Huntington, West Virginia.

The Purification And Thermal Stability Of The Peroxidase Enzyme In Cucurbita Moschata, Garen Hamner

Senior Honors Theses

Peroxidases are enzymes that catalyze the reduction of hydrogen peroxide to water while oxidizing organic substrates and are valuable in spheres like industrial and medical applications and histochemistry. Limitations still exist in the use of the well-studied horseradish peroxidase for certain activities due to limitations like poor thermal stability, thus the search for novel peroxidases that can overcome these limitations is an active area of research. Butternut squash peroxidase (Cucurbita moschata) (BSP) shows promise due to significant activity being found in the skin and apparent enhanced thermal stability, but an efficient purification scheme for it is lacking, as well as …

Efficient Gene Knockout And Genetic Interaction Screening Using The In4mer Crispr/Cas12a Multiplex Knockout Platform, Nazanin Esmaeili Anvar, Chenchu Lin, Xingdi Ma, Lori L Wilson, Ryan Steger, Annabel K Sangree, Medina Colic, Sidney H Wang, John G Doench, Traver Hart

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Genetic interactions mediate the emergence of phenotype from genotype, but technologies for combinatorial genetic perturbation in mammalian cells are challenging to scale. Here, we identify background-independent paralog synthetic lethals from previous CRISPR genetic interaction screens, and find that the Cas12a platform provides superior sensitivity and assay replicability. We develop the in4mer Cas12a platform that uses arrays of four independent guide RNAs targeting the same or different genes. We construct a genome-scale library, Inzolia, that is ~30% smaller than a typical CRISPR/Cas9 library while also targeting ~4000 paralog pairs. Screens in cancer cells demonstrate discrimination of core and context-dependent essential genes …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Silver(I) And Manganese(Ii) Complexes With Thione Imidazoles, Shannon Keyser, Audrey Lawrence, Jaime M. Murphy Ph.D.

Honors Theses

Coordination polymers are chemical complexes with versatile applications such as catalysts, electrical conduc-tors, non-linear optics, magnetics, chemical sensing, and molecular storage. The polymers are comprised of a repeating series of metal-ligand complexes, which form various structures in varying ratios depending on the metal and ligand used. Certain metal-ligand combinations have shown particular promise as potentially being polymers or, if not polymers, possessing other useful features such as electromagnetic conductivity. Complexes were synthesized using silver(I) and manganese(II) with the ligands methimazole, 2-mercaptoimidazole, and thiocarbanilide with counterions of either chloride or nitrate. These com-plexes were characterized using elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and …

Guidelines For Data Collection On Energy Performance Of Higher-Education Buildings In Egypt: A Case Study, Hesham Safwat, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim, Iman El-Mahallawi, Abdelwahab Hussein, Engy Elshazly, Ahmad Elshamy

Mechanical Engineering

Reliable energy analysis of buildings relies heavily on high-quality data leading to proper indicators. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of data quality in analyzing energy usage in residential and non-residential buildings in order to transform declarations to actions, optimise energy efficiency policies and monitor progress and failures in countries. Collected data must adhere to national and international standards for energy performance in buildings. This study aims to provide practical guidelines for effectively collecting and preparing data suitable for evaluating energy performance in Egyptian higher-education (HE) buildings. The guidelines are developed based on a comprehensive case study, considering data availability …

Utility Of Clinical Next Generation Sequencing Tests In Kit/Pdgfra/Sdh Wild-Type Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, Ryan A Denu, Cissimol P Joseph, Elizabeth S Urquiola, Precious S Byrd, Richard K Yang, Ravin Ratan, Maria Alejandra Zarzour, Anthony P Conley, Dejka M Araujo, Vinod Ravi, Elise F Nassif Haddad, Michael S Nakazawa, Shreyaskumar Patel, Wei-Lien Wang, Alexander J Lazar, Neeta Somaiah

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: The vast majority of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are driven by activating mutations in KIT, PDGFRA, or components of the succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) complex (SDHA, SDHB, SDHC, and SDHD genes). A small fraction of GISTs lack alterations in KIT, PDGFRA, and SDH. We aimed to further characterize the clinical and genomic characteristics of these so-called "triple-negative" GISTs.

Methods: We extracted clinical and genomic data from patients seen at MD Anderson Cancer Center with a diagnosis of GIST and available clinical next generation sequencing data to identify "triple-negative" patients.

Results: Of …

Examining The Effect Of Genes On Depression As Mediated By Smoking And Modified By Sex, Kirsten Voorhies, Julian Hecker, Sanghun Lee, Georg Hahn, Dmitry Prokopenko, Merry-Lynn Mcdonald, Alexander C Wu, Ann Wu, John E Hokanson, Michael H Cho, Christoph Lange, Karin F Hoth, Sharon M Lutz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Depression is heritable, differs by sex, and has environmental risk factors such as cigarette smoking. However, the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on depression through cigarette smoking and the role of sex is unclear. In order to examine the association of SNPs with depression and smoking in the UK Biobank with replication in the COPDGene study, we used counterfactual-based mediation analysis to test the indirect or mediated effect of SNPs on broad depression through the log of pack-years of cigarette smoking, adjusting for age, sex, current smoking status, and genetic ancestry (via principal components). In secondary analyses, we adjusted …

Histone Proteoform Analysis Reveals Epigenetic Changes In Adult Mouse Brown Adipose Tissue In Response To Cold Stress, Bethany C Taylor, Loic H Steinthal, Michelle Dias, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Scott A Ochsner, Gladys E Zapata, Nitesh R Mehta, Neil J Mckenna, Nicolas L Young, Alli M Nuotio-Antar

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Regulation of the thermogenic response by brown adipose tissue (BAT) is an important component of energy homeostasis with implications for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. Our preliminary analyses of RNA-Seq data uncovered many nodes representing epigenetic modifiers that are altered in BAT in response to chronic thermogenic activation. Thus, we hypothesized that chronic thermogenic activation broadly alters epigenetic modifications of DNA and histones in BAT.

RESULTS: Motivated to understand how BAT function is regulated epigenetically, we developed a novel method for the first-ever unbiased top-down proteomic quantitation of histone modifications in BAT and validated our results with a …

The Deep-Sea And The Complex Ethical Conundrum Of Mining The Seafloor, Aaron Martino

Academic Festival

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of The Role Of Deregulated Mir-654 And Mir-4454 In Melanoma Pathogenesis And Progress, Julianna Doucette, Jaclyn Doucette, Farah Mahmood

Academic Festival

Investigation of the role of deregulated miR-654 and miR-4454 in melanoma pathogenesis and progress.

Farah Mahmood, Jaclyn Doucette, Julianna Doucette, Sankhiros Babapoor, PhD.

The incidence of melanoma has continually increased mortality rates over the past decade in the United States. In 2013, it was estimated that 76,690 individuals (both male and female) were diagnosed with new cases of cutaneous melanoma, and out of those cases, 9,480 resulted in death. MicroRNA(miRNA)s are endogenous, 22 nucleotide non-coding small RNAs, which can regulate gene expression in animals and plants by complementary base-pairing to the mRNAs of target genes- which specifies mRNA cleavage or …

Breaking The Stigma And Raising Awareness: The Grisly Effects Developmental Trauma Has On Early Adulthood And How To Put A Stop To This Monstrosity, Grace Fleishman

Academic Festival

I lived a great childhood, and I mean really great. I had a seemingly stable home life and the world was full of colors and endless possibilities. Then suddenly, on my twentieth birthday, I found myself locked in a psych ward not wanting to be alive. Imagine growing up in a world full of colors. Everything is bright and happy and you live in a house full of love, safety, and security. Then, once you hit early adulthood, the world goes gray.

Sometimes, you cannot always describe why you feel a certain way or why things are the way that …