Life Sciences Commons^™

Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad: How Slaughterhouse Safety Hasn’T Kept Up With The Times, Emily Ziemski

Capstones

From legal loopholes and outdated rules to undetectable infections and understaffing, the United States Department of Agriculture may not be doing all it can to make sure the American public’s health isn't at risk. As the people of the United States consume over 500 million pounds of beef a year, food safety policy and slaughterhouses are falling behind in proper procedural measurements in the beef industry.

emziemski.com/capstone

Effect Of Metal Ion Substitution On Electrochemical Properties Of Cobalt Oxide For Energy Applications, Dalal Alqahtani

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Metal oxides are being used for various applications, such as batteries, supercapacitors, and catalysts. This research is mainly to produce high-performance energy storage devices capable of working at high temperatures and causing no pollution in the environment. To this end, the effect of metal ion substitution on the electrochemical properties of Co₃O₄ for energy applications was studied. Different metal oxides, such as FeCo₂O₄, MnCo₂O₄, Co₃O₄, NiCo₂O₄, CuCo₂O_4, and ZnCo₂O₄, were synthesized using a hydrothermal …

Comparative Molecular Characterization Of Typical And Exceptional Responders In Glioblastoma, Kristin Wipfler

Theses & Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and the deadliest type of primary brain tumor, with a median survival time of only 15 months despite aggressive treatment. Although most patients have an extremely poor prognosis, a small number of patients survive far beyond the median survival time. Investigation of these “exceptional responders” has sparked a great deal of interest and is becoming an important focus in the field of cancer research. To investigate the molecular differences between typical and exceptional responders in GBM, comparative analyses of copy number, methylation, gene expression, miRNA expression, and protein expression data sets from The Cancer …

Novel Therapeutic Approaches For Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (Cln3), Megan Elizabeth Bosch

Theses & Dissertations

Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (JNCL) is a lysosomal storage disease caused by autosomal recessive mutations in CLN3. Neuronal loss is thought to occur via glutamate excitotoxicity; however, little is known about neuron-astrocyte glutamate regulation in JNCL. We discovered that Cln3^Δex7/8 astrocytes have significantly lower basal spontaneous Ca²⁺ oscillations and decreased responses to glutamate, indicating a disrupted signaling network. Cln3^Δex7/8 astrocytes also displayed significantly lower basal mitochondrial respiration and ATP production, suggesting impaired metabolic functions. Concurrent with diminished astrocyte metabolism and Ca²⁺ signaling, Cln3^Δex7/8 neurons were hyper-responsive to glutamate stimulation. These studies suggest that CLN3 …

Organizational Effects Of Defeminizing Toxicants: Lessons Learned From An Environmental Sentinel Organism, The Fathead Minnow., Jonathan Ali

Theses & Dissertations

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are chemicals that interfere with hormone function and are increasingly detected in aquatic environments, where they elicit adverse effects from exposed organisms. The toxicological effects of EDCs can be described as either activational (reversible) or organizational (irreversible), where the latter are associated with adverse outcomes in reproductive performance of adult fish. However, few studies have investigated the organizational impacts of anti-estrogenic or “defeminizing” EDCs, e.g. agrichemicals or pharmacological agents, in an environmentally-relevant or “sentinel” species. The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of early-life EDC-initiated changes in estrogenic gene expression on organizational effects …

Evaluation Of Aminopyrazole Analogs As Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors For Colorectal Cancer Therapy, Caroline Robb

Theses & Dissertations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths in the United States. Currently, there are limited therapeutic options for CRC patients, none of which focus on the cell signaling mechanisms controlled by members of the cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) family. CDK5 has been implicated in a variety of cancers, and most recently as a tumor promoter in CRC.

As such, we evaluated a compound developed by Pfizer, CP-668863 (a.k.a. 20-223), that inhibits CDK5 in neurodegenerative disorders. In our CRC xenograft model, 20-223 reduced tumor growth and tumor weight, indicating its value as a potential anti-CRC …

Effects Of Gm-Csf On Dendritic Cells And Regulatory T Cells In Parkinson’S Disease Patients And Models Of Parkinson’S Disease, Charles Schutt

Theses & Dissertations

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder. Pathologically, loss of nigrostriatal neurons and dopamine released by these neurons are responsible for PD motor symptoms. During PD, activation of resident microglia and infiltrating lymphocytes leads to progressive neuroinflammation and reduction in the number and function of regulatory immune cells. Neuroinflammation contributes to progressive neurodegeneration and declining motor function. Reducing neuroinflammation is the target for novel PD therapeutics. Our goal is to increase the number and function of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in PD patients to decrease neuroinflammation and reduce PD symptoms. One potential therapy is granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating …

Influenza A Virus Genomic Reassortment And Packaging, Graham Devin Williams

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Influenza A viruses (IAV) are a major human and environmental pathogen. IAV successfully infects a diverse host range and adaptation of new viral strains to humans may cause pandemic events with high morbidity and mortality. As a member of the Orthomyxoviridae family, IAV inherently possesses a segmented genome, which enables a process of segment transmission between viruses following cellular co-infection, a process termed reassortment. The high rate of IAV mutation and continued co-circulation of diverse viral strains in divergent host species leads to the persistent prospect for emergence of new IAV with pandemic potential. Therefore, it is of great importance …

Mechanism Of Gene Regulation By Coding Polya Tracks, Laura Lea Arthur

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Regulation of gene expression is essential for cellular development and survival. The great variety and complexity of regulatory mechanisms underscores this fact. Messenger RNA stability and translational efficiency are often key determinants of gene expression. mRNA surveillance pathways, discovered for their role in degradation of aberrant mRNA, are now known to be instrumental in the regulation of physiologically correct mRNA stability. Thus, the study of cis elements in a transcript that can induce mRNA surveillance pathways has become an area of particular interest.Here I report on the mechanism of gene regulation by coding polyA tracks, defined as a sequence of …

The Regulation Of Extracellular Amyloid-Β Levels By Ionotropic Glutamatergic Transmission In An Alzheimer’S Disease Mouse Model, Jane Cecelia Hettinger

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Brain extracellular concentration of the peptide amyloid-β (Aβ) is a major contributor to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis. High Aβ levels in the extracellular space precipitate aggregation of the peptide into soluble and insoluble toxic species. This process begins decades before cognitive impairment and triggers the cascade of pathology that eventually leads to AD. Synaptic activity is key to the regulation of extracellular Aβ levels. Presynaptic activity drives the production of Aβ, while postsynaptic receptor activation exhibits more nuanced regulation. For example, high levels of NMDA receptor (NMDA-R) activation have been shown to decrease Aβ production through the extracellular signal-regulated kinase …

Bridging The Translational Gap Between Rodent And Human Pain Research, Tayler Diane Sheahan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The treatment of chronic pain is an immense clinical and societal burden rooted in the ineffectiveness and adverse side effects of existing analgesics. Extensive efforts have been directed towards the development of novel pain therapies with maximal efficacy and minimal unwanted effects; however, putative therapeutic targets identified in preclinical rodent models rarely translate in clinical trials. The poor translational record of basic pain research findings has been attributed, in part, to the use of suboptimal rodent pain models and behavioral endpoints used to assess putative analgesics, as well as differences in the pharmacological profiles of rodents and humans. The work …

Regulation Of Early Zebrafish Embryogenesis By Calcium Signaling And Dachsous1b Cadherin, Jiakun Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Early animal embryogenesis entails a dynamic combination of embryonic cleavages, axial patterning, and gastrulation movements to shape a basic body plan. The underlying molecular signaling responsible for regulating this process remains poorly understood. In this thesis work, I first review recent progress in understanding of gastrulation movements in various model organisms brought by advances in imaging techniques. The externally developing and optically translucent zebrafish embryo is an ideal model organism to study vertebrate embryonic development by in vivo imaging. The objective of my thesis research is to leverage experimental advantages in the zebrafish model to uncover novel regulators and elucidate …

Analysis Of Argonaute-Small Rna-Transcription Factor Circuits Controlling Leaf Development, John Steen Hoyer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Experimental studies of plant development have yielded many insights into gene regulation, revealing interactions between core transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory pathways present in all land plants. This work describes a direct connection between the three main small RNA-transcription factor circuits controlling leaf shape dynamics in the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We used a high-throughput yeast 1-hybrid platform to identify factors directly binding the promoter of the highly specialized ARGONAUTE7 silencing factor. Two groups of developmentally significant microRNA-targeted transcription factors were the clearest hits from these screens, but transgenic complementation analysis indicated that their binding sites make only a small contribution …

Soft Foam Robot With Caterpillar-Inspired Gait Regimes For Terrestrial Locomotion, Cassandra M. Donatelli, Zachary T. Serlin, Piers Echols-Jones, Anthony E. Scibelli, Alexandra Cohen, Jeanne-Marie Musca, Shane Rozen-Levy, David Buckingham, Robert White, Barry A. Trimmer

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Caterpillars are the soft bodied larvae of lepidopteran insects. They have evolved to occupy an extremely diverse range of natural environments and to locomote in complex three-dimensional structures without articulated joint or hydrostatic control. These animals make excellent bio-inspiration for the field of soft robotics because of their diversity and adaptability. In this paper, we present SquMA Bot, a caterpillar-inspired soft robot. The robot's body is primarily composed of a soft viscoelastic foam, and it is actuated using a motor-tendon system. SquMA Bot is able to mimic the inching gait of a caterpillar and can use its flexible body to …

Respons Pertumbuhan Dan Hasil Tanaman Hanjeli Batu (Coix Lacryma-Jobi L.) Akibat Pupuk Silika Cair Dan Paclobutrazol, Tati Nurmala, Agus Wahyudin, Ruminta

Jurnal Kultivasi

Hanjeli batu (Coix lacryma-jobi L.) merupakan salahsatu tanaman pangan alternatif yang memiliki banyak manfaat. Permasalahan utama tanaman ini adalah rendahnya produksi yang disebabkan oleh kurangnya ketersediaan unsur hara dan tinggi tanaman yang terlalu tinggi. Oleh karena itu dilakukan suatu upaya untuk meningkatkan pertumbuhan dan hasil hanjeli batu dengan pupuk silika cair dan paclobutrazol. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui interaksi konsentrasi pupuk silika cair dan konsentrasi paclobutrazol yang memberikan pengaruh terbaik untuk pertumbuhan dan hasil tanaman hanjeli batu (Coix lacryma-jobi L.).Percobaan dilaksanakan di Desa Pasigaran, Kecamatan Tanjungsari, Kabupaten Sumedang, pada November 2016 sampai Mei 2017. Percobaan menggunakan Rancangan Acak Kelompok (RAK) …

Aplikasi Chitosan Untuk Meningkatkan Hasil Benih Kentang G0 (Solanum Tuberosum L.) Kultivar Granola Pada Berbagai Jenis Media Tanam, Anne Nuraini, Jajang Sauman Hamdani, Erni Suminar, Dian Ardiansyah

Jurnal Kultivasi

Salah satu kendala dalam produksi kentang di Indonesia adalah rendahnya mutu benih yang digunakan. Untuk mengatasi hal tersebut penyediaan benih kentang dilakukan dengan kultur jaringan, dengan menghasilkan benih Go. Percobaan ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efek aplikasi chitosan terhadap hasil benih kentang G0 kultivar Granola pada berbagain jenis media tanam. Percobaan dilaksanakan dari Februari 2012 sampai Mei 2012 di screen house Kebun Percobaan Ciparanje Faperta UNPAD, Jatinangor, dengan ketinggian tempat ±750 m dpl. Percobaan memakai Rancangan Petak Terbagi dengan tiga ulangan. Petak utama adalah komposisi media tanam terdiri dari empat taraf, yaitu tanah + sekam, tanah + sekam + pupuk kotoran …

Respons Konduktansi Stomata Beberapa Genotipe Tebu Sebagai Parameter Toleransi Terhadap Stress Abiotik, Mochamad Arief Soleh, Ranu Manggala, Yudithia Maxiselly, Mira Ariyanti, Intan Ratna Dewi Anjarsari

Jurnal Kultivasi

Peningkatan produksi tebu saat ini akan terhambat dengan adanya fenomena pemanasan global yang disertai dengan perubahan iklim hingga mempengaruhi sebaran air hujan. Akibatnya musim hujan sering terjadi secara sporadis dan kurang dapat diprediksi. Di sisi lain kondisi lahan kebanjiran akibat genangan air berpotensi menyebabkan stress abiotik pada tanaman tebu yang secara langsung berpengaruh terhadap produktivitas tanaman. Salahsatu sifat fisiologis yang berkaitan erat dengan ketahanan stress abiotik adalah respons konduktansi stomata (gs) sebagai representatif proses metabolisme tanaman berupa fotosintesis. Beberapa varietas tebu ditanam dalam kondisi genangan air memperlihatkan perbedaan nilai gs dari 240 mmol H2O·m-2·s-1 untuk Kidang Kencana (KK) sebagai varietas …

Respon Pertumbuhan Dan Hasil Panen Rebung Periode Pertama Lima Kultivar Asparagus Pada Berbagai Konsentrasi Larutan Garam, Zalora Sanchenia, Tino Mutiarawati Onggo, Wawan Sutari

Jurnal Kultivasi

Rebung asparagus (Asparagus officionalis L.) termasuk salah satu sayuran yang bernilai ekonomi tinggi di dunia juga di Indonesia. Kultivar asparagus yang ditanam di Indonesia umumnya merupakan kultivar introduksi dari daerah subtropis, sehingga pertumbuhan dan produksinya di Indonesia kurang optimal. Indonesia memiliki suhu dan kelembaban yang cukup tinggi sehingga dapat menyebabkan serangan berbagai penyakit pada tanaman asparagus. Aplikasi larutan garam pada media tanam mampu mengendalikan penyakit akar sehingga asparagus akan tumbuh dengan baik. Percobaan bertujuan mengetahui pengaruh konsentrasi larutan garam dan kultivar asparagus yang cocok untuk dataran medium Jatinangor supaya diperoleh pertumbuhan dan hasil rebung asparagus yang baik. Percobaan dilaksanakan di …

Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: Impact On Oxidative Stress, Antioxidant Responses And Vascular Function, Kayla R. Zehr

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading global cause of death, and cigarette smoking (CS) is a major risk factor for CVD. Although there are smoking cessation programs that include a combination of pharmacological and behavior treatments, failure to curb behavioral habits and pharmacological addiction leads to low cessation success rates. Thus, developing a treatment to decrease CVD risk is critical. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) decrease oxidative stress and have been shown to restore endothelial function, an indicator of CV health, in cigarette smokers. Metabolites of n-3 PUFAs have been shown to have CV-protective effects, but the mechanism by …

Optimizing Transposon Mutagenesis In Vibrio Strains To Identify Genes Involved In Antibiotic Production, Mahnur Khan

Honors Projects

Based on previous studies that have shown the competitive nature of non-pathogenic environmental strains of Vibrio, we hypothesize that environmentally derived bacteria can inhibit Vibrio pathogens, and possibly be a source of novel antibiotics. A previous experiment performed in the lab tested environmental Vibrio strains from various habitats against the pathogenic strains, Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Of the 3,456 strains collected, members of the Wildschutte lab identified 102 environmental strains of Vibrio that inhibited the growth of both pathogens. The data suggests that environmental Vibrio strains directly inhibit the growth of related pathogens. Our project involves the …

The Use Of An Anthrone Reagent To Detect Sugar Meals And Their Persistence In The Mosquito Aedes Triseriatus (Diptera: Culicidae), Stephen M. Smith, Richard M. Kurtz

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Adults of Aedes triseriatus were fed water, blood, and 10% pure and mixed solutions of glucose, fructose and sucrose. Adults were tested for fructose by the cold-anthrone test 0, 1, 4, 12, and 24 h after feeding. Water-fed males and females and blood-fed females were anthrone negative. Glucose-fed males were anthrone negative but some glucose-fed females were weakly anthrone positive immediately after feeding. Many adults fed a mixture of glucose, fructose and sucrose were anthrone negative 12 h after feeding and all were anthrone negative after 24 h. The interpretation of negatives in the anthrone test is discussed with respect …

Phenology And Trap Selection Of Three Species Of Hylaeus (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) In Upper Michigan, Virginia L. Scott

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Hylaeus basalis, H. ellipticus and H. verticalis nested in wooden traps during a two-year study in Upper Michigan. Bees were given a choice of traps with varying bore diameters, heights, and entrance orientations. Nests were completed between 1 July and 15 September. These three Hylaeus species partitioned available nest site resources (traps) based on diameter and height. H. ellipticus selected traps with smaller bore diameters than did the other two species which selected traps of the same bore diameters. H. verticalis nested in traps at higher locations than H. basalis which limited its nesting to only the two lowest heights …

Abundance And Seasonal Activity Of Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) In A Raspberry Plantation And Adjacent Sites In Southern Quebec (Canada)., Claire Levesque, Gilles-Yvon Levesque

The Great Lakes Entomologist

In a raspberry plantation and adjacent sites in southern Quebec, we collected weevils with unbaited pitfall traps and flight interception traps from early May througb late October in 1987-1989. We captured a total of 1592 weevils representing 65 species, including at least 21 Holarctic or introduced species in North America. In and around the raspberry plantation, the commonest species collected by the two methods were the short-nosed weevils of subfamilies Otiorhynchinae and Thylacitinae, mainly generalist species with root-feeding larvae. Ceutorhynchinae and Tychiinae species were also abundant in flight traps near the raspberry plantation, whereas Hylobius congener was the most abundant …

A Laboratory Infection Of Alfalfa Weevil, Hypera Postica (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Larvae With The Fungal Pathogen Zoophthora Phytonomi (Zygomycetes: Entomophthoraceae), S. J. Roberts, J. V. Maddox, E. J. Armbrust

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Larvae of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica, were infected by an in vitro colony of Zoophthora phytonomi. Two spore types (infective conidia, and resting spores) were produced from infection trials. The spore type produced may be influenced by the physiological state of the larvae. Trials using field collected larvae which would produce diapausing adults formed both conidia and resting spores. Trials using larvae from a nondiapausing colony, however, formed only resting spores.

Natural Enemies Of Alfalfa Weevil, Hypera Postica (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), In Minnesota, Kathy L. Flanders, Edward B. Radcliffe, Craig A. Krueger

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica, is present throughout Minnesota. How- ever, economically damaging populations seldom occur, due to a combination of natural enemies and adverse climatic conditions. Five natural enemies of alfalfa weevil were found in Minnesota. Microctonus aethiopoides (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a parasitoid of adults, was recovered from 43 of 65 counties surveyed during 1984 and 1985. Tetrastichus incertus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and Bathyplectes curculionis (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), para­sitoids of larvae, were each recovered from 13 of 15 counties surveyed during 1991-1993. Bathyplectes anurus, another parasitoid of larvae, was recovered from one county In 1991, four counties in 1992, and six …

Agonopterix Alstroemeriana (Oecophoridae) And Other Lepidopteran Associates Of Poison Hemlock (Conium Maculatum) In East Central Illinois, May R. Berenbaum, Terry L. Harrison

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) (Apiaceae), a noxious Eurasian weed extensively naturalized throughout North America, is characteristically attacked by few insects. Over the past two decades, an introduced oecophorid caterpillar, Agonopterix alstroemeriana, has been reported infesting poison hemlock, its sole host in its area of indigeneity, in parts of the northeastern and western United States. We report for the first time evidence of established midwestern populations of this species. We also report poison hemlock as a host plant for the polyphagous lepidopterans Eupithecia miserulata, Trichoplusia ni, and Spilosoma virginica.

Field Recognition Of Adult Acentrella And Heterocloeon (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae), R. D. Waltz

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The highly developed anterior process of the mesothorax, is described as a useful field character for identifying adults of Acentrella and Heterocloeon in the Nearctic. This presumed adult synapomorphy suggests a sister relation- ship of the two genera.

Significant Range Extension Of Leptotes Marina (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) Into New York State, Wayne K. Gall, Robert F. Andrle

The Great Lakes Entomologist

(excerpt)

The Marine Blue, Leptotes marina (Reakirt) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), is resident from the southwestern United States south through Mexico to Guatemala, with strays reported no further northeast than extreme northwestern Indiana and extreme south-central Ohio (Opler and Krizek 1984, Scott 1986, Shull 1987, Opler and Maliku 11992, Parshall 1993). Although L. marina may be easily overlooked in the field (Iftner, Shuey and Calhoun 1992), the paucity of published records, e.g., two in Illinois (Irwin and Downey 1973), one in Indiana (Shull 1987), and one in Ohio (Parshall 1993), may truly reflect the rarity of strays in the northeastern portion of …

The Development Of A Sex Pheromone Lure For The American Plum Borer, Euzophera Semifuneralis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), A Major Pest Of Cherry In Michigan., D. J. Biddinger, W. Roelofs, A. J. Howitt

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Pheromone components of the American plum borer, Euzophera semifuneralis, were defined by use of the electroantennogram screening technique and capillary gas chromatographic retention times of sex pheromone gland constituents. Field studies showed that greatest attraction was achieved with a 1 mg load rate of a 4-component blend in a rubber septum. This blend consisted of a 2:1 ratio of Z,E-9,12-14:ALD and Z9-14:ALD and an equal amount of the corresponding alcohols in a 2:1 ratio, respectively. Commercial lures were used to compare the flight patterns of the American plum borer, peachtree borer (Synanthedon exitiosa), and lesser peachtree borer (Synanthedon …

Checklist Of The Ants Of Michigan (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), George C. Wheeler, Jeanette N. Wheeler, Paul B. Kannowski

The Great Lakes Entomologist

A total of 113 species of ants is recorded by county from the state of Michigan. The list is based upon literature records and specimens in the authors' collections and those of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology and the Michigan State University Department of Entomology. The list includes 3 species in Ponerinae, 44 in Myrnucinae, 6 in Dolichoderinae, and 60 in Formicinae. Ten species represent new state records. Five distribution pat- terns are evident: statewide (39 species), southern counties only (5), southern 3/4th of Lower Peninsula (10), Lower Peninsula (17), and Upper Peninsula (2). Forty species have been …