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Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - March 17, 2024, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the March 17, 2024 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine’s newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include

• It's a match! Class of 2024 celebrate residency placements
• Meet a Med Student: Emily Hartsell
• Internal medicine residents hone nonverbal skills with unlikely subjects
• USA Research Mixer set for April 3

Investigating The Accuracy And Comparability Of Various Lime Prediction Methods For Irish Grassland Mineral Soils, F. Mackessy, E. Mccarthy, E. Broderick, B. O'Donnell, Patrick Quille

Publications

Soil pH is a foundational element of agronomy, profoundly influencing biological, chemical and physical soil processes. Adjusting soil pH is a paramount factor for enhancing soil health and productivity with far-reaching environmental benefits. Over time soil naturally tends towards acidity, a process expedited by intensive agriculture practices. To determine the extent of necessary pH corrections, precise soil pH testing is imperative. Various methods including buffer systems, titrations, lime incubations and algorithms considering soil texture are used to assess a soil's lime requirement and each method carries distinct advantages and disadvantages. The Shoemaker–McLean–Pratt (SMP) buffer method is extensively used in Ireland …

Restoration Of Herbivory On Caribbean Coral Reefs: Are Fishes, Urchins, Or Crabs The Solution?, Mark J. Butler, Alain Duran, Colette J. Feehan, Alastair R. Harborne, Alwin Hylkema, Joshua T. Patterson, William C. Sharp, Angelo Jason Spadaro, Tom Wijers, Stacey M. Williams

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

That coral reefs are in decline worldwide, particularly in the Caribbean, will come as no surprise. This decades-long decline has reached a potential tipping point as the weight of the effects of climate change have come decidedly to bear on the planet’s most diverse marine ecosystem. Whether coral reefs can persist without restorative intervention is debatable, which has prompted a surge in coral reef restoration projects focusing primarily on the cultivation and transplantation of coral fragments onto degraded reefs. But that widespread approach does little to address the underlying causes of coral loss, one of which is the proliferation of …

25 Conference Program - Single-Use Technologies Vii: Revolutionizing Manufacturing For Tomorrow’S Medicines, Andrea Rayat, Nelly Montenay, Katharina Neutsch

Single Use Technologies VII: Revolutionizing Manufacturing for Tomorrow’s Medicines

No abstract provided.

A Representative Clinical Course Of Progression, With Molecular Insights, Of Hormone Receptor-Positive, Her2-Negative Bone Metastatic Breast Cancer, Elizabeth Magno, Karen M. Bussard

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Despite treatment advances, breast cancer remains a leading cause of death of women in the United States, mostly due to metastatic disease. Bone is a preferential site for breast cancer metastasis, and most metastatic breast cancer patients experience bone involvement at the time of death. The majority of patients with bone metastatic breast cancer are first diagnosed with and treated for early-stage disease, and from development of early-stage breast cancer to the recurrence of cancer in the bones, up to 30 years may elapse. Throughout this timeframe, a typical patient undergoes many treatments that have effects on the bone microenvironment. …

Sortase-Encoding Genes, Srta And Srtc, Mediate Enterococcus Faecalis Og1rf Persistence In The Helicoverpa Zea Gastrointestinal Tract, Jerreme J. Jackson, Samantha Heyer, Geneva Bell

Faculty Publications

Enterococcus faecalis is a commensal and opportunistic pathogen in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of mammals and insects. To investigate mechanisms of bacterial persistence in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), we developed a non-destructive sampling model using Helicoverpa zea, a destructive agricultural pest, as host to study the role of bacterial sortase enzymes in mitigating persistence in the gastrointestinal tract. E. faecalis OG1RF ΔsrtA and E. faecalis OG1RF ΔsrtC, isogenic E. faecalis OG1RF sortase mutants grew similarly under planktonic growth conditions relative to a streptomycin-resistant E. faecalis OG1RFS WT in vitro but displayed impaired biofilm formation under, both, physiological and alkaline conditions. …

Multi-Decadal Coastal Acidification In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Driven By Climate Change And Eutrophication, Zong Pei Jiang, Cao Qin, Yiwen Pan, Chengfeng Le, Nancy Rabalais, Robert Eugene Turner, Katja Fennel, Kui Wang, Wei Jun Cai

Faculty Publications

Coastal waters often experience enhanced ocean acidification due to the combined effects of climate change and regional biological and anthropogenic activities. Through reconstructing summertime bottom pH in the northern Gulf of Mexico from 1986 to 2019, we demonstrated that eutrophication-fueled respiration dominated bottom pH changes on intra-seasonal and interannual timescales, resulting in recurring acidification coinciding with hypoxia. However, the multi-decadal acidification trend was principally driven by rising atmospheric CO2 and ocean warming, with more acidified and less buffered hypoxic waters exhibiting a higher rate of pH decline (− 0.0023 yr^{− 1}) compared to non-hypoxic waters (− 0.0014 yr …

“Creating And Maintaining Black Life-Worlds”: The Black Aesthetics Of Bernardine Evaristo’S Blonde Roots And Girl, Woman, Other, Sharanya Dg

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Black Aesthetics is the philosophical inquiry into the objects and practices of expressions coming from people who have been racialized as black. These expressive practices then lend to the creation of the life-worlds of people subjected to racist discourses. One such author in the contemporary English society, Bernadine Evaristo, responds to anti-black racist discourses by exploring the cultural plurality of British black life-worlds. This paper is a textual and formal analysis of two experimental novels of Evaristo to study how they distinctly present the quotidian lives of various characters in their racialised bodies to reflect on the sociocultural and political …

Demand-Side Disarmament: Or How I Learned To Deter The Bomb, James J. Bernstein

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Long Noncoding Rna Malat1 Protects Against Osteoporosis And Bone Metastasis, Yang Zhao, Jingyuan Ning, Hongqi Teng, Yalan Deng, Marisela Sheldon, Lei Shi, Consuelo Martinez, Jie Zhang, Annie Tian, Yutong Sun, Shinichi Nakagawa, Fan Yao, Hai Wang, Li Ma

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

MALAT1, one of the few highly conserved nuclear long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), is abundantly expressed in normal tissues. Previously, targeted inactivation and genetic rescue experiments identified MALAT1 as a suppressor of breast cancer lung metastasis. On the other hand, Malat1-knockout mice are viable and develop normally. On a quest to discover the fundamental roles of MALAT1 in physiological and pathological processes, we find that this lncRNA is downregulated during osteoclastogenesis in humans and mice. Remarkably, Malat1 deficiency in mice promotes osteoporosis and bone metastasis of melanoma and mammary tumor cells, which can be rescued by genetic add-back of Malat1. Mechanistically, …

Lifestyle And Demographic Associations With 47 Inflammatory And Vascular Stress Biomarkers In 9876 Blood Donors, Bertram Kjerulff, Joseph Dowsett, Rikke Louise Jacobsen, Josephine Gladov, Margit Hørup Larsen, Agnete Troen Lundgaard, Karina Banasik, David Westergaard, Susan Mikkelsen, Khoa Manh Dinh, Lotte Hindhede, Kathrine Agergård Kaspersen, Michael Schwinn, Anders Juul, Betina Poulsen, Birgitte Lindegaard, Carsten Bøcker Pedersen, Clive Eric Sabel, Henning Bundgaard, Henriette Svarre Nielsen, Janne Amstrup Møller, Jens Kjærgaard Boldsen, Kristoffer Sølvsten Burgdorf, Lars Vedel Kessing, Linda Jenny Handgaard, Lise Wegner Thørner, Maria Didriksen, Mette Nyegaard, Niels Grarup, Niels Ødum

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Background The emerging use of biomarkers in research and tailored care introduces a need for information about the association between biomarkers and basic demographics and lifestyle factors revealing expectable concentrations in healthy individuals while considering general demographic differences. Methods A selection of 47 biomarkers, including markers of inflammation and vascular stress, were measured in plasma samples from 9876 Danish Blood Donor Study participants. Using regression models, we examined the association between biomarkers and sex, age, Body Mass Index (BMI), and smoking. Results Here we show that concentrations of inflammation and vascular stress biomarkers generally increase with higher age, BMI, and …

Domain-Specific Self-Efficacy And Gender Typicality In Preadolescent Children, Brandy Whitford, Patrick J. Cooper

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Brachiacantha Dejean, 1837 (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) Of Central America, Jorge Ismael Nestor-Arriola, Víctor Hugo Toledo-Hernández, Ángel Solís, Guillermo González, Jaroslav Větrovec

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

A revision of the Central American species of the genus Brachiacantha was undertaken to update the knowledge of the Central American species of the genus. Material of several collections was reviewed, using original descriptions and keys, and comparing with the type material. Twenty-five species of the genus Brachiacantha were found in Central American material, including nine new species: B. nubes Nestor-Arriola, Toledo-Hernández and Solís, sp. nov., B. dentata Nestor-Arriola, Toledo-Hernández and Solís, sp. nov., B. isthmena Nestor-Arriola, Toledo-Hernández and Solís, sp. nov., B. aurantiapleura Nestor-Arriola, Solís and Toledo-Hernández, sp. nov., B. invertita Nestor-Arriola, Toledo-Hernández and Solís, sp. nov., B. papiliona …

Sequence-Structure-Function Characterization Of The Emerging Tetracycline Destructase Family Of Antibiotic Resistance Enzymes, Kevin S Blake, Hirdesh Kumar, Anisha Loganathan, Emily E Williford, Luke Diorio-Toth, Yao-Peng Xue, Wai Kwan Tang, Tayte P Campbell, David D Chong, Steven Angtuaco, Timothy A Wencewicz, Niraj H Tolia, Gautam Dantas

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Tetracycline destructases (TDases) are flavin monooxygenases which can confer resistance to all generations of tetracycline antibiotics. The recent increase in the number and diversity of reported TDase sequences enables a deep investigation of the TDase sequence-structure-function landscape. Here, we evaluate the sequence determinants of TDase function through two complementary approaches: (1) constructing profile hidden Markov models to predict new TDases, and (2) using multiple sequence alignments to identify conserved positions important to protein function. Using the HMM-based approach we screened 50 high-scoring candidate sequences in Escherichia coli, leading to the discovery of 13 new TDases. The X-ray crystal structures of …

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Bennett, Florida Explored: The Philadelphia Connection in Bartram's Tracks. by Jane H. Plummer; Kushlan, Seeking the American Tropics: South Horida's Early Naturalists. by Roger Chapman; Cecere, March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776, by David Head; Denham and Honeycutt, eds., The Letters of George Long Broum: A Yankee Merchant on Rorida's Antebellum Frontier. by Mark R. Cheathem; Levin, Searching for Black Confederares: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth. by Joshua Butler; Castillo, Working In the Magic City: Moral Economy in Early Twentieth-Century Miami. By Martin T. Olliff; Mormino, Millard Fillmore Caldwell: Governing on the Wrong Side …

"The Nature Of Their Country": Florida's Environment And Military Learning The Second Seminole War, 1835-1842, Jacob Hagstrom

Florida Historical Quarterly

In the summer of 1839, after four years of inconclusive military campaigns, the army's adjutant in Washington asked Zachary Taylor why his troops had not yet removed all of the Seminoles from Florida. One of Taylor's opponents, Coacoochee, turned to nature as well to explain his ultimate failure to remain in Florida. Coacoochee's followers were among the last of about four thousand Seminoles to depart the peninsula for Indian Country in the west. The Indigenous resistance leader, sometimes known as Wild Cat, explained the reason for his surrender with reference to the densely wooded "hammocks" that dotted the Florida landscape. …

Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 100, No. 3, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

Volume 7, 2023-2024

Challenges To Reindeer, Reciprocity, And Indigenous Sami Sovereignty Amidst The Impact Of Green Energy Developments, Lisa Heikka-Huber

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

The Indigenous people of Europe known as the Sami, (also spelled Saami) many of whom live throughout the world, have continued to maintain active nomadic communities today as their ancestors did. A wide spanning region of Northern Europe’s Arctic Zone or Sampi often referred to as Fennoscandia, encompasses four countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula (Roland & Löffler, 2012). The nomadic Sami people follow the migration pathways of their reindeer herds through the wilderness bi-annually. This paper will discuss many perspectives, including the battle Sami people and other Indigenous communities have endured while combating green energy development from …

Novel Microbiological Medium Developed For The Isolation Of Bacteria Associated With Estuarine Anemones, Parker K. Lund, Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

Out of the nearly one trillion species of microbiota estimated to inhabit Earth only ten thousand have been cultured in the laboratory. Culturing continues to play a vital role in determining the physiology and ecologic function of individual bacteria in microbial communities and for microbes associated with host organisms one of the major challenges is developing microbiological media that mimics the bacteria’s natural environment enough to promote growth. Here, we target bacteria associated with the estuary anemones Diadumene lineata and Metridium senile by developing a novel medium that uses anemone tissue as the sole source of nutrients. We further measured …

Two Drawings, Jona L. Pedersen

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Day After, Autumn Thompson

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

Two Poems, Jona L. Pedersen

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

An Acute Herb-Drug Interaction Of Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex With Methotrexate Via Inhibiting Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 2, Chung-Ping Yu, Pei-Ying Li, Szu-Yu Chen, Shiuan-Pey Lin, Ying-Chen Chen, Lu-Ching Ho, Yow-Wen Hsieh, Yu-Chi Hou

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex (MOC), an herbal drug, contains polyphenolic lignans mainly magnolol (MN) and honokiol (HK). Methotrexate (MTX), a critical drug for cancers and autoimmune deseases, is a substrate of multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP). This study investigated the effect of coadministration of MOC on the pharmacokinetics of MTX and relevant mechanisms. Sprague-Dawley rats were orally administered MTX alone and with single dose (2.0 and 4.0 g/kg) and repeated seven doses of MOC (2.0 g/kg thrice daily for 2 days, the 7th dose given at 0.5 h before MTX). The serum concentrations of MTX …

An Auxiliary Strategy Of Partial Least Squares Regression In Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Studies: A Case Of Application Of Guhong Injection In Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Rats, Hai-Yang Chen, Chang Li, Chong-Yu Shao, Yu-Jia Wu, Hai-Tong Wan, Yu He

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Guhong injection (GHI) has been applied in the therapy of cardio-cerebrovascular disease in clinic, but there is no report about the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) research on GHI treating myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R) injury in rats. In this study, eight compounds of GHI in plasma, including N-acetyl-L-glutamine (NAG), chlorogenic acid (CGA), hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA), p-coumaric acid (pCA), rutin, hyperoside, kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside, and kaempferol-3-O-glucoside, were quantified by LC-MS/MS. We discovered that the values of t_1/2β, k₁₂, V₂, and CL₂ were larger than those of t_1/2α, k₂₁, V₁, and …

Ionizable Copolymer Functionalized Magnetic Nanocomposite As An Adsorbent For Boosting The Extraction Selectivity Of Aristolochic Acids, Qi-Yue Xie, Yang Chen, Chang-Jun Li, Jia-Bin Zhang, Xiu-Jun Cao, Jun Lu

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN) has drawn increasing public attention. Organic anion transporters (OATs) are considered to be responsible for mediating nephrotoxicity of aristolochic acids (AAs), as AAs are typical OAT1 substrates that exhibit anionic properties and contain one hydrophobic domain. Inspired by the OAT1 three-dimensional structure or substrate/protein interactions involved in transport, we designed a magnetic polymeric hybrid, mimicking the effect of basic and aromatic residues of OAT1, for efficient enriching aristolochic acid I (AA I) and aristolochic acid II (AA II) in Traditional Chinese patent medicines (TCPM). N, N-dimethylaminopropyl acrylamide (DMAPAm) was used as a cationic monomer and copolymerized …

Effect Of Indian Gooseberry Extract On Improving Methylglyoxal-Associated Leptin Resistance In Peripheral Tissues Of High-Fat Diet-Fed Rats, Sheng-Yi Chen, Yue-Ning Huang, Jer-An Lin, Gow-Chin Yen

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Increased leptin resistance and methylglyoxal (MG) levels are observed in obese patients. However, whether MG deposits contribute to leptin resistance, oxidative stress, and inflammation in peripheral tissues remains unclear. In addition, the edible fruit of Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica L.) contains abundant bioactive components such asvitamin C, β-glucogallin (β-glu), gallic acid (GA), and ellagic acid (EA). Water extract of Indian gooseberry fruit (WEIG) and GA has been shown to improve cognitive decline by suppressing brain MG-induced insulin resistance in rats administered a high-fat diet (HFD). Accordingly, this study investigated the functions of WEIG and GA in inhibiting MG-induced leptin …

Pomelo (Citrus Grandis (L.) Osbeck) Sponge Layers As A Potential Source Of Soluble Dietary Fiber: Evaluation Of Its Physicochemical, Structural And Functional Properties, Xiaowei Chen, Jiajia Chen, Jian Peng, Yuanshan Yu, Jijun Wu, Jing Wen, Zhiying Kang, Yanhui Wang, Yujuan Xu, Lu Li

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Pomelo sponge layer (PSL) had been considered as a potential source of soluble dietary fiber (SDF), while they were mostly disposed of as waste. To promote high-value utilization of pomelo wastes, this study extracted SDF from PSL of six varieties of pomelo, and their physicochemical, structural and functional properties were investigated. Results indicated that all PSL-SDFs showed good physicochemical and functional properties. Among them, PSL-SDF from grapefruit (GRSDF) showed better water holding capacity and swelling capacity, whereas Shatian pomelo PSL-SDF and Guanxi pomelo PSL-SDF had the highest thermal stability and oil holding capacity, respectively. Furthermore, compared with other PSL-SDFs, GRSDF …

Trans-2-Nonadecyl-4-(Hydroxymethyl)-1,3-Dioxolane (Tnhd) Purified From Freshwater Clams Markedly Alleviates Dimethylnitrosamine-Induced Hepatic Fibrosis, Ya-Ru Kuo, Chen-Yu Tsai, Wei-Sheng Lin, Chi-I Chang, Ching-Shu Lai, Min-Hsiung Pan

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Liver fibrosis occurs due to injury or inflammation, which results in the excessive production of collagen and the formation of fibrotic scar tissue that impairs liver function. Despite the limited treatment options available, freshwater clams may hold promise in the treatment of liver fibrosis. In this study, we demonstrated the effects of ethanol extract of freshwater clam (FCE), ethyl acetate extract of FCE (EA-FCE), and trans-2-nonadecyl-4-(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-dioxolane (TNHD) on liver fibrosis induced by dimethylnitrosamine (DMN). Administration of FCE and TNHD alleviated liver injury, including tissue damage, necrosis, inflammation scores, fibrosis scores, serum enzymes, and triglyceride levels. Furthermore, we analyzed the expression …

Bioaccumulation Influences Of Some Heavy Metals On Growth Performance Of Solea Solea Fish In Lake Qaroun, Egypt, Tarek M. Hamad, Khalid H. Zaghloul, Ahmed E. Alprol

Blue Economy

The present research examined the levels of lead, cadmium, copper and zinc in water, sediments, and some vital organs of Solea solea fish from Lake Qaroun, Egypt, such as liver, gills, kidney, muscle and end of the alimentary. The contamination factor (CF) values of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn are low contamination which CF ˂ 1. According to the results, fish hunted from the eastern and southeast areas of the lake had the highest concentrations of the various heavy metals in the following order: The current findings make it evident that zinc accumulated in the studied organs in the following …