Life Sciences Commons^™

Spatial Variation In The Chemical Composition Of Natal Otholiths From A Reef Fish In The Galápagos Islands, Benjamin I. Ruttenberg, Robert R. Warner

Biological Sciences

Over the past decade, researchers have used variation in the chemical composition of fish otoliths (earstones) to address a number of ecological questions, such as stock assessment and assessing rates of movement of individuals among habitats or life-history stages. However, these methods have yet to be applied successfully to the study of larval connectivity, a major unanswered question in marine ecology. Accomplishing this task requires a reference collection of pre-pelagic natal otoliths and accurate measurement of the chemical signatures of otoliths cores of recruits. We analyzed the chemical composition of natal otoliths from near-term benthic eggs of a damselfish (Stegastes …

The Health And Nutrition Of Migrant Farm Workers In South Carolina, Abel Caballero

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Migrant farm workers--a high percentage of which are Hispanic--are an extremely disadvantaged population that experiences several barriers, including language, nutrition, transportation, and access to health services. This population also suffers from numerous diseases (obesity, diabetes, and heart disease) and experiences various hazards associated with risky work, such as pesticide exposure. This study included data collection on basic health and nutrition barriers to identify areas where programs and policies can be modified to better serve migrant farm workers. In addition, data was examined to determine the effect of all-inclusive educational intervention on nutrition, dental, fitness, and food safety issues by …

High Sensitivity Rna Pseudoknot Prediction, Xiaolu Huang, Hesham Ali

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Most ab initio pseudoknot predicting methods provide very few folding scenarios for a given RNA sequence and have low sensitivities. RNA researchers, in many cases, would rather sacrifice the specificity for a much higher sensitivity for pseudoknot detection. In this study, we introduce the Pseudoknot Local Motif Model and Dynamic Partner Sequence Stacking (PLMM_DPSS) algorithm which predicts all PLM model pseudoknots within an RNA sequence in a neighboring-region-interferencefree fashion. The PLM model is derived from the existing Pseudobase entries. The innovative DPSS approach calculates the optimally lowest stacking energy between two partner sequences. Combined with the Mfold, PLMM_DPSS can also …

Caenorhabditis Briggsae Methods, Scott Everet Baird, Helen M. Chamberlin

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Caenorhabditis briggsae is being developed in parallel to C. elegans as a model system, primarily for the study of evolution. Like C. elegans, C. briggsae is a protandrous hermaphrodite and like C. elegans, its genome has been sequenced. From this point, these two model systems diverge. The development, behavior, and physiology of C. elegans have been characterized through tens of thousands of genetic and molecular studies. Genetic and molecular characterizations of C. briggsae are relatively few. Experimental resources in C. elegans include a high density recombination map that is well integrated with the genome sequence. The C. briggsae …

Aged Rats: Sex Differences And Responses To Chronic Stress, Rachel E. Bowman, Neil J. Maclusky, Samantha Diaz-Weinstein, Mark C. Zrull, Victoria N. Luine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Cognitive, as well as physiological, sex differences exist in young adult rats under both basal conditions and following chronic stress; however, few studies have examined whether sex differences remain in aged subjects and whether responses to stress are altered. We compared aged male and female Fischer 344 rats (21.5 months at testing) without stress and when given 21 days of restraint for 6 h/day on locomotion, anxiety-related behaviors, object recognition (non-spatial memory), object placement (spatial memory), body weight and serum steroid hormone levels. Control (unstressed) females had lower levels of estradiol and testosterone and higher corticosterone than males, and stress …

Computational Promoter Analysis Of Mouse, Rat, And Human Antimicrobial Peptide-Coding Genes, Chin-Yo Lin, Manisha Brahmachary, Christian Schonbach, Liang Yang, Enli Huang, Sin Lam Tan, Rajesh Chowdhary, S. P. T. Krishnan, David A. Hume, Chikatoshi Kai, Jun Kawai, Piero Carninci, Yoshihide Hayashizaki, Vladimir B. Bajic

Faculty Publications

Mammalian antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are effectors of the innate immune response. A multitude of signals coming from pathways of mammalian pathogen/pattern recognition receptors and other proteins affect the expression of AMP-coding genes (AMPcgs). For many AMPcgs the promoter elements and transcription factors that control their tissue cell-specific expression have yet to be fully identified and characterized. Results- Based upon the RIKEN full-length cDNA and public sequence data derived from human, mouse and rat, we identified 178 candidate AMP transcripts derived from 61 genes belonging to 29 AMP families. However, only for 31 mouse genes belonging to 22 AMP families we …

Advancing The Methodology For Cyclopenta[C]Thiophene Sythesis: A Step Toward Anit-Leukemia Agents And Improved Semiconductiors, Riley Jones

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Metal n5-cyclopenta[c]thienyl complexes are of significant interest in both catalysis and materials chemistry. These relatives of the low-band-gap polymer polybenzo[2,3-c]thiophene show great promise as environmentally stable conductive polymers and as energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) due to their unique electronic properties. Recently, studies have shown that cyclopenta[c]thiophene molecules are effective as photodynamic anticancer agents which are particularly aggressive toward leukemia cells. The current method of synthesizing these compounds is lengthy, costly, and has a very low yield. Our group has developed a novel one-step method to produce precursors of these compounds. This procedure increases product yields, eliminates the use of toxic …

Preliminary Screening Of Soil Actinomycetes For Anti-Tyrosinase Activity, Te-Sheng Chang, Min Tseng

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

A bacterial strain TI-B10 was isolated from forest soil in Taiwan. The strain showed 46 U/ml of anti-tyrosinase activity. On the basis of the typical colony appearance and 16S rRNA gene sequences analysis, the strain TI-B10 belonged to the genus Streptomyces. The antityrosinase activity of the strain could be improved to 73 U/ml under optimal cultural conditions at pH 8.0 and 30°C in the YMG medium.

West River Ag Center Crops And Soils Research Annual Progress Report, 2006, Agricultural Experiment Station

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This is the 2006 progress report of the West River Crops and Soils Research Projects, South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. This document includes reports on: weather and climate, wheat and grain variety trials, management and tillage, and weed and pest control.

Central Crops And Soils Research Station Highmore, South Dakota: Annual Progress Report, 2006, Agricultural Experiment Station, Plant Science Department

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This is the 2006 progress report for the Central Crops and Soils Research Station at Highmore, South Dakota State College. This document represents the research conducted at the Station during the 2006 crop season including: temperature and precipitation data, evaluation of native and naturalized grasses for reduced-input turf in the Northern Plains, 2006 NTEP tall fescue ancillary trial for drought tolerance, field evaluations of woody plant materials, alfalfa production, optimal management of drought -tolerant legumes and warm season annual grasses, winter wheat breeding, evaluation of sunflower germplasm for resistance to the red sunflower seed weevil, weed control, fertilizer influence on …

Sisters In Science: Conversations With Black Women Scientists On Race, Gender, And Their Passion For Science, Diann Jordan

Purdue University Press Books

Author Diann Jordan took a journey to find out what inspired and daunted black women in their desire to become scientists in America. Letting 18 prominent black women scientists talk for themselves, Sisters in Science becomes an oral history stretching across decades and disciplines and desires. From Yvonne Clark, the first black woman to be awarded a B.S. in mechanical engineering to Georgia Dunston, a microbiologist who is researching the genetic code for her race, to Shirley Jackson, whose aspiration led to the presidency of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Jordan has created a significant record of women who persevered to become …

World Revision Of The Genus Triaenodes (Trichoptera: Leptoceridae), Junmi Hur

All Dissertations

One genus, Triaenodes of the long-horned caddisfly family Leptoceridae includes approximately 245 species globally and is cosmopolitan in distribution, occurring in all major faunal regions. The species of the genus, along with other species of caddisflies, are especially sensitive to pollution and are used by developed countries to monitor water quality.
Two hundred twenty-one species are reviewed and an additional 9 species are new to science. Twenty-six species groups are recognized in these subgenera of Triaenodes. The genus Triaenodes is divided here into seven monophyletic subgenera. The subgenus Ylodes Milne, 1934, has 15 species distributed in the Australasian, East …

Secis Elements In The Coding Regions Of Selenoprotein Transcripts Are Functional In Higher Eukaryotes, Heiko Mix, Alexey V. Lobanov, Vadim Gladyshev

Vadim Gladyshev Publications

Expression of selenocysteine (Sec)-containing proteins requires the presence of a cis-acting mRNA structure, called selenocysteine insertion sequence (SECIS) element. In bacteria, this structure is located in the coding region immediately downstream of the Sec-encoding UGA codon, whereas in eukaryotes a completely different SECIS element has evolved in the 3’-untranslated region. Here, we report that SECIS elements in the coding regions of selenoprotein mRNAs support Sec insertion in higher eukaryotes. Comprehensive computational analysis of all available viral genomes revealed a SECIS element within the ORF of a naturally occurring selenoprotein homolog of glutathione peroxidase 4 in fowlpox virus. The fowlpox …

Pro-Inflammatory Properties Of Flavobacterium Columnare Cells And Products On Channel Catfish (Ictalurus Punctatus) Neutrophils, Shannon Billings

All Theses

Flavobacterium columnare and Edwardsiella ictaluri are the leading causes for losses in the aquaculture industry. The losses from the diseases caused by these pathogens total $2.5 million for catfish and $100 million for total aquaculture. F. columnare's infection rates and stressors associated with outbreaks have been well-characterized, but the specific inflammatory responses of catfish neutrophils to the bacteria have not been studied. The objective, therefore, was to investigate the pro-inflammatory effects of the outer membrane proteins, extracellular products, and whole live bacteria, heat-killed (HK), and formalin-killed (FK) F. columnare and E. ictaluri to determine the effects on channel catfish phagocyte …

The Effects Of Suspended Sediment On The Aquatic Organisms Daphnia Magna And Pimephales Promelas, Neil Capper

All Theses

Land use change results in significant amounts of soil migrating into aquatic streams during storm events. This suspended sediment, even in the absence of adsorbed contaminants, may be a significant stressor to aquatic organisms. The data on ecological effects of suspended sediment has mainly focused on salmonids or ecosystem level consequences such as habitat alteration. Few studies have quantified physiologic effects of suspended solids on water column organisms. The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of suspended clay on Daphnia magna and Pimephales promelas. Results of 7 d toxicity tests with D. magna in natural and …

Comparison Of Bioactivities And Composition Of Curcumin-Free Turmeric (Curcuma Longa L.) Oils From Different Sources, Yongxiang Yu

All Theses

Composition, antioxidant capacities and cell inhibition properties of curcumin-free turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) oils from different sources were evaluated by chromatographic method, two different in vitro antioxidative activity assays (DPPH* free radical scavenging assay and reducing power assay) and two different cancer cell lines (Caco-2 and MCF-7). Turmeric oil A (TOA) contains zingiberene, turmerone, and ar-turmerone, while turmeric oil B (TOB) contains 1-phellandrene and α-terpinolene as the major compounds. The antioxidant tests showed that both turmeric oils possessed strong free radical scavenging activities and high reducing powers compared with standard antioxidants such as BHT and commercial rosemary oil (RO). …

Revision Of The Males Of The Hydrospyche Scalaris Group In North America (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae), James Korecki

All Theses

The genus Hydrospsyche Pictet sensu stricto in North America is divided into three species groups, the Hydrospyche cuanis Ross Group Ross, the Hydropsyche depravata Hagen Group Ross, and the Hydropsyche scalaris Hagen Group Banks. Thirty-one of thirty-six described species are recognized in the Hydropsyche scalaris Group. Examination of adult males resulted in 5 junior subjective synonyms and one possible new species based on a single exemplar from Sevier County, Utah. Hydropsyche bidens Ross 1938, H. orris Ross 1938, and H. alvata Denning 1949 are junior synonyms of Hydropsyche incommoda Hagen 1861. Hydrospyche rossi Flint, Voshell and Parker, 1979 and H. …

Amyloid-Β-Induced Pathological Behaviors Are Suppressed By Ginkgo Biloba Extract Egb 761 And Ginkgolides In Transgenic Caenorhabditis Elegans, Yanjue Wu, Zhixin Wu, Peter Butko, Yves Christen, Mary P. Lambert, William L. Klein, Christopher D. Link, Yuan Luo

Faculty Publications

Amyloid-β (Aβ) toxicity has been postulated to initiate synaptic loss and subsequent neuronal degeneration seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We previously demonstrated that the standardized Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761, commonly used to enhance memory and by AD patients for dementia, inhibits Aβ-induced apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we use EGb 761 and its single constituents to associate Aβ species with Aβ-induced pathological behaviors in a model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. We report that EGb 761 and one of its components, ginkgolide A, alleviates Aβ-induced pathological behaviors, including paralysis, and reduces chemotaxis behavior and 5-HT hypersensitivity in a transgenic …

Host Shift To Peas In The Diamondback Moth Plutella Xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) And Response Of Its Parasitoid Diadegma Mollipla (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), A. Rossbach, B. Löhr, S. Vidal

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Host shifts in herbivorous insects are thought to sometimes provide enemy-free space on the novel host plant. A population of the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus), an oligophagous pest on crucifers, recently shifted to sugar snap- and snowpeas (Pisum sativum) in Kenya, resulting in heavy damage to these crops. The impact of this host shift on the interaction with Diadegma mollipla (Holmgren), one of the most frequent parasitoid species attacking P. xylostella in this area, was investigated. Parasitism rates and development of two strains of D. mollipla, one reared from a cabbage-feeding strain of P. xylostella and the second from …

Checklist And Atlas Of The Vascular Flora Of West Virginia, Donna I. Ford-Werntz, Paul J. Harmon, William Grafton

WV Flora Datasets

No abstract provided.

Modified Soy Products And Methods For Reducing Odor And Improving Flavor Of Soy Products, William L. Boatright

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Patents

A method for reducing odor in soy products and compositions containing soy products by adding or admixing a compound having one or more disulfide bonds to the soy product or composition. The disulfide compound includes a peptide containing at least cystine residue, a peptide or polypeptide containing at least one disulfide bond, L-cystine, D-cystine, DL-cystine and any combination thereof.

Development Of Computations In Bioscience And Bioinformatics And Its Application: Review Of The Symposium Of Computations In Bioinformatics And Bioscience (Scbb06), Youping Deng, Jun Ni, Chaoyang Zhang

Faculty Publications

The first symposium of computations in bioinformatics and bioscience (SCBB06) was held in Hangzhou, China on June 21-22, 2006. Twenty-six peer-reviewed papers were selected for publication in this special issue of BMC Bioinformatics. These papers cover a broad range of topics including bioinformatics theories, algorithms, applications and tool development. The main technical topics contain gene expression analysis, sequence analysis, genome analysis, phylogenetic analysis, gene function prediction, molecular interaction and system biology, genetics and population study, immune strategy, protein structure prediction and proteomics.

Svm Classifier: A Comprehensive Java Interface For Support Vector Machine Classification Of Microarray Data, Mehdi Pirooznia, Youping Deng

Faculty Publications

Motivation

Graphical user interface (GUI) software promotes novelty by allowing users to extend the functionality. SVM Classifier is a cross-platform graphical application that handles very large datasets well. The purpose of this study is to create a GUI application that allows SVM users to perform SVM training, classification and prediction.

Results

The GUI provides user-friendly access to state-of-the-art SVM methods embodied in the LIBSVM implementation of Support Vector Machine. We implemented the java interface using standard swing libraries.

We used a sample data from a breast cancer study for testing classification accuracy. We achieved 100% accuracy in classification among the …

Child Feeding Practices And Nutrition Education Needs Of The Latino Population In South Carolina, Claire Kirkpatrick

All Theses

The Latino population in South Carolina is rapidly growing. Much of this population is low-income and many have a low level of education. Latinos have a greater incidence of obesity and the resulting diseases than other ethnicities and Latino children are no exception. It is important to provide nutrition education to caregivers so that child overweight and obesity can be prevented in this population. In order to provide effective nutrition education it is essential to know what behaviors need to be targeted. This study used qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the child feeding practices used by this population to …

Heat Inactivation Of Thermo-Resistant Bacteria Isolated From Poultry Offal, Lina Ramirez-Lopez

All Theses

ABSTRACT The presence of thermo-resistant bacteria in products from the rendering industry is a concern in the United States because only about 80% of the rendering industries use thermal processing to eliminate bacteria. The objective of this study was to determine the thermal inactivation characteristics of thermo-resistant bacteria from raw rendering materials. Ground beef with 21% protein, 19% fat, and 60% moisture was used as a model media to simulate raw rendering material. Raw animal co-products were heated at 91, 95, 96¡C for 90 min, then surviving bacteria were recovered. These heat resistant isolates were inoculated into meat samples then …

Genomeblast: A Web Tool For Small Genome Comparison, Guoqing Lu, Liying Jiang, Resa M. K. Helikar, Thaine W. Rowley, Luwen Zhang, Xianfeng Chen, Etsuko N. Moriyama

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Background: Comparative genomics has become an essential approach for identifying homologous gene candidates and their functions, and for studying genome evolution. There are many tools available for genome comparisons. Unfortunately, most of them are not applicable for the identification of unique genes and the inference of phylogenetic relationships in a given set of genomes.

Results: GenomeBlast is a Web tool developed for comparative analysis of multiple small genomes. A new parameter called "coverage" was introduced and used along with sequence identity to evaluate global similarity between genes. With GenomeBlast, the following results can be obtained: (1) unique genes in each …

Glycosylation Regulates Turnover Of Cyclooxygenase-2., Mary B. Sevigny, Chai-Fei Li, Monika Alas, Millie Hughes-Fulford

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the prostanoid biosynthesis pathway, converting arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H(2). COX-2 exists as 72 and 74kDa glycoforms, the latter resulting from an additional oligosaccharide chain at residue Asn(580). In this study, Asn(580) was mutated to determine the biological significance of this variable glycosylation. COS-1 cells transfected with the mutant gene were unable to express the 74kDa glycoform and were found to accumulate more COX-2 protein and have five times greater COX-2 activity than cells expressing both glycoforms. Thus, COX-2 turnover appears to depend upon glycosylation of the 72kDa glycoform.

Survival, Nesting Success, And Habitat Selection Of Wild Turkey Populations In The Upper Coastal Plain Of South Carolina, William Moore

All Dissertations

Survival, nesting success, and habitat selection of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) populations in South Carolina were evaluated. The study was conducted on the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in the Upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Portions of the study were conducted on Crackerneck Wildlife Management Area and Ecological Reserve (CWMA) on the western portion of SRS. During January through March of 1998 - 2000, 37 hens and 47 gobblers were captured on SRS, and 19 gobblers were captured on CWMA and fitted with radio transmitters. Survival rates between hunted and unhunted wild turkey gobblers were compared to …

Application Of Nanotechnology To Pathogen Detection And Inactivation, Hua Yang

All Dissertations

Listeria monocytogenes is a psychrotrophic, gram-positive pathogen frequently involved in outbreaks of food-borne disease in which milk, cheese, meat, and vegetables represent the incriminated foodstuffs. L. monocytogenes biofilms formed on food contact surfaces and processing environments are the major sources of contamination to ready-to-eat food products. Nanotechnology as an emerging new technology has many biological applications. The objectives of this study were to apply immunonanoparticles, carboxyl modified nanoparticles covalently bound with anti-L. monocytogenes, for L. monocytogenes detection and inactivation. Immunonanopaticles and fluorescent immunonanoparticles were applied to indirect fluorescent immunoassay and direct fluorescent immunoassay, respectively, for sensitive detection of L. monocytogenes …

Functional Association Between Three Archaeal Aminoacyl-Trna Synthetases, Mette Praetorius-Ibba, Corinne D. Hausmann, Molly Paras, Theresa E. Rogers, Michael Ibba

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) are responsible for attaching amino acids to their cognate tRNAs during protein synthesis. In eukaryotes aaRSs are commonly found in multi-enzyme complexes, although the role of these complexes is still not completely clear. Associations between aaRSs have also been reported in archaea, including a complex between prolyl-(ProRS) and leucyl-tRNA synthetases (LeuRS) in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus that enhances tRNA^Pro aminoacylation. Yeast two-hybrid screens suggested that lysyl-tRNA synthetase (LysRS) also associates with LeuRS in M. thermautotrophicus. Co-purification experiments confirmed that LeuRS, LysRS, and ProRS associate in cell-free extracts. LeuRS bound LysRS and ProRS with a comparable K_{D …}