Life Sciences Commons^™

Cd4+ Regulatory And Effector/Memory T Cell Subsets Profile Motor Dysfunction In Parkinson’S Disease, Jessica A. Hutter Saunders, Katherine A. Estes, Lisa M. Kosloski, Heather E. Allen, Kathryn Dempsey Cooper, Diego R. Torres-Russotto, Jane L. Meza, Pamela M. Santamaria, John M. Bertoni, Daniel L. Murman, Hesham Ali, David G. Standaert, R. Lee Mosley, Howard E. Gendelman

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

Animal models and clinical studies have linked the innate and adaptive immune system to the pathology of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Despite such progress, the specific immune responses that influence disease progression have eluded investigators. Herein, we assessed relationships between T cell phenotype and function with PD progression. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from two separate cohorts, a discovery cohort and a validation cohort, totaling 113 PD patients and 96 age- and environment-matched caregivers were examined by flow cytometric analysis and T cell proliferation assays. Increased effector/memory T cells (Tem), defined as CD45RO+ and FAS+ CD4+ T cells and decreased CD31+ and α4β7+ …

External Work Is Deficient In Both Limbs Of Patients With Unilateral Pad, Shane R. Wurdeman, Sara A. Myers, Jason Johanning, Iraklis Pipinos, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

External work was utilized to measure differences between the unaffected and the affected limb in patients with unilateral peripheral arterial disease compared to healthy controls. Patients with unilateral peripheral arterial disease have shown deficits in peak joint powers during walking in the unaffected and affected legs. However, no research has detailed the amount of work that is being performed by each leg compared to healthy controls even though such an analysis would provide valuable information on the energy output from the affected and the unaffected legs. Two hypotheses were tested: a) the unaffected and affected leg would perform less work …

Sensitivity Of The Wolf’S And Rosenstein’S Algorithms To Evaluate Local Dynamic Stability From Small Gait Data Sets: Response To Commentaries By Bruijn Et Al., Fabien Cignetti, Leslie M. Decker, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Assessing gait stability using the Largest Lyapunov Exponent (λ₁) has become popular, especially because it may be a key measure in evaluating gait abnormalities in patient populations. However, clinical settings usually involve having small gait data sets and accurate determination of λ₁ estimates from such sets is difficult. In an effort to address this issue, Cignetti et al.2 recently identified that λ₁ estimates using the algorithm of Wolf et al.9 (W-algorithm) were more sensitive than those using the algorithm of Rosenstein et al.7 (R-algorithm) in order to capture age-related …

Peripheral Arterial Disease Affects The Frequency Response Of Ground Reaction Forces During Walking, Denise Mcgrath, Timothy N. Judkins, Iraklis Pipinos, Jason Johanning

Journal Articles

Background—Walking is problematic for patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency domain of the ground reaction forces during walking to further elucidate the ambulatory impairment of these patients.

Methods—Nineteen bilateral peripheral arterial disease patients and nineteen controls were included in this study. Subjects were matched for age and gait speed. Participants walked over a force plate sampling at 600Hz. PAD patients were tested before (pain-free condition) after the onset of claudication symptoms (pain). We calculated median frequency, frequency bandwidth, and frequency containing 99.5% of the signal for the vertical and …

Localizing Brain Regions Associated With Female Mate Preference Behavior In A Swordtail, Ryan Y. Wong, Mary E. Ramsey, Molly E. Cummings

Biology Faculty Publications

Female mate choice behavior is a critical component of sexual selection, yet identifying the neural basis of this behavior is largely unresolved. Previous studies have implicated sensory processing and hypothalamic brain regions during female mate choice and there is a conserved network of brain regions (Social Behavior Network, SBN) that underlies sexual behaviors. However, we are only beginning to understand the role this network has in pre-copulatory female mate choice. Using in situ hybridization, we identify brain regions associated with mate preference in female Xiphophorus nigrensis, a swordtail species with a female choice mating system. We measure gene expression in …

A Base Composition Analysis Of Natural Patterns For The Preprocessing Of Metagenome Sequences, Oliver Bonham-Carter, Hesham Ali, Dhundy Raj Bastola

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Background: On the pretext that sequence reads and contigs often exhibit the same kinds of base usage that is also observed in the sequences from which they are derived, we offer a base composition analysis tool. Our tool uses these natural patterns to determine relatedness across sequence data. We introduce spectrum sets (sets of motifs) which are permutations of bacterial restriction sites and the base composition analysis framework to measure their proportional content in sequence data. We suggest that this framework will increase the efficiency during the pre-processing stages of metagenome sequencing and assembly projects. Results: Our method is able …

Peripheral Arterial Disease Affects The Frequency Response Of Ground Reaction Forces During Walking, Denise Mcgrath, Timothy N. Judkins, Iraklis Pipinos, Jason M. Johanning, Sara A. Myers

Journal Articles

Background

Walking is problematic for patients with peripheral arterial disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency domain of the ground reaction forces during walking to further elucidate the ambulatory impairment of these patients.

Methods

Nineteen bilateral peripheral arterial disease patients and nineteen controls were included in this study. Subjects were matched for age and gait speed. Participants walked over a force plate sampling at 600 Hz. PAD patients were tested before (pain-free condition) after the onset of claudication symptoms (pain). We calculated median frequency, frequency bandwidth, and frequency containing 99.5% of the signal for the vertical …

Hamstring-Dominant Strategy Of The Bone–Patellar Tendon–Bone Graft Anterior Cruciate Ligament–Reconstructed Leg Versus Quadriceps-Dominant Strategy Of The Contralateral Intact Leg During High-Intensity Exercise In Male Athletes, Kostas Patras, Franceska Zampeli, Stavros Ristanis, Elias Tsepis, Giorgos Ziogas, Nikolaos Stergiou, Anastasios D. Georgoulis

Journal Articles

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction on the quadriceps-dominant strategy as a parameter associated with the neuromuscular control of the knee joint.

Methods

In this study 14 competitive soccer players who had undergone ACL reconstruction with bone–patellar tendon–bone autograft and 14 healthy competitive soccer players performed two 10-minute treadmill runs, 1 at moderate intensity and 1 at high intensity. Electromyographic recordings were acquired by use of a telemetric system at the third, fifth, seventh, and tenth minute of the runs from the vastus lateralis and the biceps femoris bilaterally. …

Measurement Invariance Of Self-Continuity Strategies: Comparisons Of Early Adolescents From Brazil, Canada And Colombia, Jonathan Santo, Josafa M. Da Cunha, Lina María Saldarriaga, Holly E. Recchia, Alexa Martin-Storey, Luz Stella-Lopez, Gina Carmago, William M. Bukowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Data from 655 early adolescents from three contexts (Curitiba, Brazil; Montreal, Canada and Barranquilla, Colombia) were used to test for measurement invariance in the constructs of essentialism and narrativism. These two different strategies have been proposed to explain the perceptions of stability of selfcontinuity over time. Essentialism predicates self-continuity on some fundamental, unchanging aspect of the self. In contrast, narrativism is an understanding of self-continuity as a result of one’s cumulative experiences and decisions. Previous research using interview methods have found that these two strategies are mutually exclusive expressions of self-continuity. The current study sought to test this conceptualization using …

Postural Control Strategy During Standing Is Altered In Patients With Multiple Sclerosis, Jessie M. Huisinga, Jenna M. Yentes, Mary Filipi, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Disturbances in balance are one of the first reported symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), yet limited research has been performed to classify the postural control deficits in this population. This study investigated the variability present in the sway patterns during quiet standing in patients with MS (PwMS) and healthy controls. Subjects were assessed (eyes open, closed) standing on a force platform. Variability of the sway patterns was quantified using a measure of amount of variability (root mean square; RMS) and two measures of temporal structure of variability (Lyapunov Exponent – LyE; Approximate Entropy – ApEn). RMS results revealed significantly higher …

Taking Balance Measurement Out Of The Laboratory And Into The Home: Discriminatory Capability Of Novel Centre Of Pressure Measurement In Fallers And Non-Fallers, Denise Mcgrath, Emer P. Doheny, Lorcan Walsh, David Mckeown, Clodagh Cunningham, Lisa Crosby, Rose Anne Kenny, Nikolaos Stergiou, Brian Caulfield, Barry R. Greene

Journal Articles

We investigated three methods for estimating centre of pressure excursions, as measured using a portable pressure sensor matrix, in order to deploy similar technology into the homes of older adults for longitudinal monitoring of postural control and falls risk. We explored the utility of these three methods as markers of falls risk in a cohort of 120 community dwelling older adults with and without a history of falls (65 fallers, 55 non-fallers). A number of standard quantitative balance parameters were derived using each centre of pressure estimation method. Rank sum tests were used to test for significant differences between fallers …

Path Integration: Effect Of Curved Path Complexity And Sensory System On Blindfolded Walking, Panagiotis Koutakis, Mukul Mukherjee, Srikant Vallabhajosula, David J. Blanke, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Path integration refers to the ability to integrate continuous information of the direction and distance traveled by the system relative to the origin. Previous studies have investigated path integration through blindfolded walking along simple paths such as straight line and triangles. However, limited knowledge exists regarding the role of path complexity in path integration. Moreover, little is known about how information from different sensory input systems (like vision and proprioception) contributes to accurate path integration. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how sensory information and curved path complexity affect path integration. Forty blindfolded participants had to accurately …

Α1-Adrenergic Responsiveness In Human Skeletal Muscle Feed Arteries: The Impact Of Reducing Extracellular Ph, S. J. Ives, R. H. I. Andtbacka, R. D. Noyes, R. Garrett Morgan, J. R. Gifford, Song-Young Park, J. David Symons, Russell S. Richardson

Health and Kinesiology Faculty Publications

• What is the central question of this study?

  In human arteries involved in the regulation of muscle blood flow, there is a lack of data about whether acidosis alters vascular sensitivity to vasoactive agents, as well as altering endothelium dependent vasorelaxation. Little is known about the interaction of metabolites and vascular function in human skeletal muscle feed arteries.

• •

  What is the main finding and its importance?

  Increasing acidosis attenuated the response and sensitivity of the arteries to phenylephrine; this effect was selective to the receptor over smooth muscle.

  Acidosis did not alter endothelium dependent vasorelaxation. Impaired vasoconstriction coupled with …

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Evolutionary History And Phylodynamics Of Influenza A And B Neuraminidase (Na) Genes Inferred From Large- Scale Sequence Analyses, Jianpeng Xu, C. Todd Davis, Mary C. Christman, Pierre Rivailler, Haizhen Zhong, Ruben O. Donis, Guoqing Lu

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Influenza neuraminidase (NA) is an important surface glycoprotein and plays a vital role in viral replication and drug development. The NA is found in influenza A and B viruses, with nine subtypes classified in influenza A. The complete knowledge of influenza NA evolutionary history and phylodynamics, although critical for the prevention and control of influenza epidemics and pandemics, remains lacking.

Methodology/Principal findings: Evolutionary and phylogenetic analyses of influenza NA sequences using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian MCMC methods demonstrated that the divergence of influenza viruses into types A and B occurred earlier than the divergence of influenza A …

Automated Identification Of Binding Sites Forphosphorylated Ligands In Protein Structures, Dario Ghersi, Roberto Sanchez

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

Phosphorylation is a crucial step in many cellular processes, ranging from metabolic reactions involved in energy transformation to signaling cascades. In many instances, protein domains specifically recognize the phosphogroup. Knowledge of the binding site provides insights into the interaction, and it can also be exploited for therapeutic purposes. Previous studies have shown that proteins interacting with phosphogroups are highly heterogeneous, and no single property can be used to reliably identify the binding site. Here we present an energy-based computational procedure that exploits the protein three-dimensional structure to identify binding sites involved in the recognition of phosphogroups. The procedure is validated …

Use Of Motor Abundance In Young And Older Adults During Dual-Task Treadmill Walking, Leslie M. Decker, Fabien Cignetti, Jane F. Potter, Stephanie A. Studenski, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Motor abundance allows individuals to perform any task reliably while being variable in movement's particulars. The study investigated age-related differences in this feature when young adults (YA) and older adults (OA) performed challenging tasks, namely treadmill walking alone and while performing a cognitive task. A goal function for treadmill walking was first defined, i.e., maintain constant speed at each step, which led to a goal equivalent manifold (GEM) containing all combinations of step time and step length that equally satisfied the function. Given the GEM, amounts of goal-equivalent and non-goal-equivalent variability were afterwards determined and used to define an index …

Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease Exhibit Reduced Joint Powers Compared To Velocity-Matched Controls, Shane R. Wurdeman, Panagiotis Koutakis, Sara A. Myers, Jason Johanning, Iraklis Pipinos, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Previous studies have shown major deficits in gait for individuals with peripheral arterial disease before and after the onset of pain. However, these studies did not have subjects ambulate at similar velocities and potential exists that the differences in joint powers may have been due to differences in walking velocity. The purpose of this study was to examine the joint moments and powers of peripheral arterial disease limbs for subjects walking at similar self-selected walking velocities as healthy controls prior to onset of any symptoms. Results revealed peripheral arterial disease patients have reduced peak hip power absorption in midstance ( …

Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease Exhibit Reduced Joint Powers Compared To Velocity-Matched Controls, Shane Wurdeman, Panagiotis Koutakis, Sara Myers, Jason Johanning, Iraklis Pipinos, Nicholas Stergiou

Journal Articles

Previous studies have shown major deficits in gait for individuals with peripheral arterial disease before and after the onset of pain. However, these studies did not have subjects ambulate at similar velocities and potential exists that the differences in joint powers may have been due to differences in walking velocity. The purpose of this study was to examine the joint moments and powers of peripheral arterial disease limbs for subjects walking at similar self-selected walking velocities as healthy controls prior to onset of any symptoms. Results revealed peripheral arterial disease patients have reduced peak hip power absorption in midstance ( …

Persons With Multiple Sclerosis Show Altered Joint Kinetics During Walking After Participating In Elliptical Exercise, Jessie M. Huisinga, Kendra K. Schmid, Mary Filipi, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience abnormal gait patterns and reduced physical activity. The purpose of this study was to determine if an elliptical exercise intervention for patients with MS would change joint kinetics during gait toward healthy control values. Gait analysis was performed on patients with MS (n = 24) before and after completion of 15 sessions of supervised exercise. Joint torques and powers were calculated, while also using walking velocity as a covariate, to determine the effects of elliptical exercise on lower extremity joint kinetics during gait. Results show that elliptical exercise significantly altered joint torques at the …

Yoga Training Improves Metabolic Parameters In Obese Boys, Dae Yun Seo, Sungryul Lee, Arturo Figueroa, Hyoung Kyu Kim, Yeong Ho Baek, Yi Sub Kwak, Nari Kim, Tae Hoon Choi, Byoung Doo Rhee, Kyung-Soo Kim, Byung Joo Park, Song-Young Park, Jin Han

Health and Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Yoga has been known to have stimulatory or inhibitory effects on the metabolic parameters and to be uncomplicated therapy for obesity. The purpose of the present study was to test the effect of an 8-week of yoga-asana training on body composition, lipid profile, and insulin resistance (IR) in obese adolescent boys. Twenty volunteers with body mass index (BMI) greater than the 95th percentile were randomly assigned to yoga (age 14.7±0.5 years, n=10) and control groups (age 14.6±1.0 years, n=10). The yoga group performed exercises three times per week at 40~60% of heart-rate reserve (HRR) for 8 weeks. IR was determined …

Human Skeletal Muscle Feed Arteries: Evidence Of Regulatory Potential, S. J. Ives, R. H. I. Andtbacka, Song-Young Park, A. J. Donato, J. R. Gifford, R. D. Noyes, L. A. Lesniewski, R. S. Richardson

Health and Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Aim

Recently, it has been recognized that human skeletal muscle feed arteries can be harvested during exploratory surgery for melanoma. This approach provides vessels for in vitro study from a wide spectrum of relatively healthy humans. Although, the regulatory role of skeletal muscle feed arteries in rodent models has been documented, whether such vessels in humans possess this functionality is unknown.

Methods

Therefore, skeletal muscle feed arteries (~950 μm OD) from 10 humans (48 ± 4, 27–64 years) were studied using pressure myography. Vessel function was assessed using potassium chloride (KCl), phenylephrine (PE), acetylcholine (ACh) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) concentration–response …

Relative Roughness: An Index For Testing The Suitability Of The Monofractal Model, Vivien Marmelat, Kjerstin Torre, Didier Delignières

Journal Articles

Fractal analyses have become very popular and have been applied on a wide variety of empirical time series. The application of these methods supposes that the monofractal framework can offer a suitable model for the analyzed series. However, this model takes into account a quite specific kind of fluctuations, and we consider that fractal analyses have been often applied to series that were completely outside of its relevance. The problem is that fractal methods can be applied to all types of series, and they always give a result, that one can then erroneously interpret in the context of the monofractal …

Human Breast Milk And Antiretrovirals Dramatically Reduce Oral Hiv-1 Transmission In Blt Humanized Mice, Angela Wahl, Michael D. Swanson, Tomonori Nochi, Rikke Olesen, Paul W. Denton, Morgan Chateau, J. Victor Garcia

Biology Faculty Publications

Currently, over 15% of new HIV infections occur in children. Breastfeeding is a major contributor to HIV infections in infants. This represents a major paradox in the field because in vitro, breast milk has been shown to have a strong inhibitory effect on HIV infectivity. However, this inhibitory effect has never been demonstrated in vivo. Here, we address this important paradox using the first humanized mouse model of oral HIV transmission. We established that reconstitution of the oral cavity and upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract of humanized bone marrow/liver/thymus (BLT) mice with human leukocytes, including the human cell types important for …

Pharmacological Treatment Of Intermittent Claudication Does Not Have A Significant Effect On Gait Impairments During Claudication Pain, Jenna M. Yentes, Jessie M. Huisinga, Sara A. Myers, Iraklis Pipinos, Jason Johanning, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a manifestation of atherosclerosis resulting in intermittent claudication (IC) or leg pain during physical activity. Two drugs (cilostazol and pentoxifylline) are approved for treatment of IC. Our previous work has reported no significant differences in gait biomechanics before and after drug interventions when PAD patients walked without pain. However, it is possible that the drugs are more efficacious during gait with pain. Our aim was to use advanced biomechanical analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of these drugs while walking with pain. Initial and absolute claudication distances, joint kinematics, torques, powers, and gait velocity during the …

Sensitivity Of The Wolf’S And Rostein’S Algorithms To Evaluate Local Dynamic Stability From Small Gait Data Sets, Fabien Cignetti, Leslie M. Decker, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

The Wolf’s (W-algorithm) and Rosenstein’s (R-algorithm) algorithms have been used to quantify local dynamic stability (largest Lyapunov exponent, λ ₁) in gait, with prevalence of the latter one that is considered more suitable for small data sets. However, such a claim has never been investigated. To address it, the λ ₁ of the Lorenz attractor was estimated using small data sets and varied delays and embedding dimensions. Overall, the λ ₁ estimates from the R-algorithm got closer to the theoretical exponent than those from the W-algorithm. The W-algorithm also overestimated λ _{1 …}

Identifying Context-Specific Gene Profiles Of Social, Reproductive And Mate Preference Behavior In A Fish Species With Female Mate Choice, Mary E. Ramsey, Tara L. Maginnis, Ryan Y. Wong, Chad Brock, Molly E. Cummings

Biology Faculty Publications

Sensory and social inputs interact with underlying gene suites to coordinate social behavior. Here we use a naturally complex system in sexual selection studies, the swordtail, to explore how genes associated with mate preference, receptivity, and social affiliation interact in the female brain under specific social conditions. We focused on 11genes associated with mate preference in this species (neuroserpin, neuroligin-3, NMDA receptor, tPA, stathmin-2, β-1 adrenergic receptor) or with female sociosexual behaviors in other taxa (vasotocin, isotocin, brain aromatase,α-1 adrenergic receptor, tyrosinehydroxylase). We exposed females to four social conditions, including pairings of differing mate choice complexity (large males, large/ small …

Gait Variability Measures Reveal Differences Between Multiple Sclerosis Patients And Healthy Controls, Jeffrey P. Kaipust, Jessie M. Huisinga, Mary Filipi, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in gait variability between patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls during walking at a self-selected pace. Methods: Kinematics were collected during three minutes of treadmill walking for 10 patients with MS and 10 healthy controls. The Coefficient of Variation (CoV), the Approximate Entropy (ApEn) and the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) were used to investigate the fluctuations present in stride length and step width from continuous strides. Results: ApEn revealed that patients with MS had significantly lower values than healthy controls for stride length (p < .001) and step width (p < .001). Conclusions: ApEn results revealed that the natural fluctuations present during gait in the stride length and step width time series are more regular and repeatable in patients with MS. These changes implied that patients with MS may exhibit reduced capacity to adapt and respond to perturbations during gait.

Targeted Disruption Of Toxoplasma Gondii Serine Protease Inhibitor 1 Increases Bradyzoite Cyst Formation In Vitro And Parasite Tissue Burden In Mice, Viviana Pszenny, Paul H. Davis, Xing W. Zhou, Christopher A. Hunter, Vern B. Carruthers, David S. Roos

Biology Faculty Publications

As an intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii is likely to exploit proteases for host cell invasion, acquisition of nutrients, avoidance of host protective responses, escape from the parasitophorous vacuole, differentiation, and other activities. T. gondii serine protease inhibitor 1 (TgPI1) is the most abundantly expressed protease inhibitor in parasite tachyzoites. We show here that alternative splicing produces two TgPI1 isoforms, both of which are secreted via dense granules into the parasitophorous vacuole shortly after invasion, become progressively more abundant over the course of the infectious cycle, and can be detected in the infected host cell cytoplasm. To …

Whole-Body Vibration Training Reduces Arterial Stiffness, Blood Pressure And Sympathovagal Balance In Young Overweight/Obese Women, Arturo Figueroa, Ryan Gil, Alexei Wong, Shirin Hooshmand, Song-Young Park, Florence Vicil, Marcos A. Sanchez-Gonzalez

Health and Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Obesity is associated with early cardiovascular dysfunction and reduced muscle strength. Whole-body vibration (WBV) training may improve arterial function and muscle strength. The effects of WBV training on arterial stiffness (brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, baPWV), wave reflection (augmentation index, AIx), brachial systolic blood pressure (bSBP), aortic systolic blood pressure (aSBP), heart rate variability, and muscle strength (one-repetition maximum, 1RM) were examined in 10 young (21±2 year) overweight/obese women (body mass index, BMI=29.9±0.8 kg m–2). Participants were randomized to a 6-week WBV training or non-exercising control (CON) period in a crossover design. WBV training (3 days × week) consisted of static …

Wearing A Safety Harness During Treadmill Walking Influences Lower Extremity Kinematics Mainly Through Changes In Ankle Regularity And Local Stability, Leslie M. Decker, Fabien Cignetti, Nikolaos Stergiou

Journal Articles

Background: Wearing a harness during treadmill walking ensures the subject’s safety and is common practice in biomedical engineering research. However, the extent to which such practice influences gait is unknown. This study investigated harness-related changes in gait patterns, as evaluated from lower extremity kinematics during treadmill walking.

Findings: Healthy subjects (n = 10) walked on a treadmill at their preferred speed for 3 minutes with and without wearing a harness (LiteGait®, Mobility Research, Inc.). In the former condition, no weight support was provided to the subjects. Lower extremity kinematics was assessed in the sagittal plane from the mean (meanRoM), standard …