Life Sciences Commons^™

Correlation Between The Functional Movement Screen And Hip Mobility In Ncaa Division Ii Athletes, Matt T. Jenkins, Robert Gustitus, Mike Iosia, Taz Kicklighter, Yuichi Sasaki

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(4): 541-549, 2017. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a series of seven exercises designed to assess athletes prior to competitive training to determine dysfunctional movement patterns. The exercises include the deep squat (DS), hurdle step (HS), inline lunge (IL), shoulder mobility (SM), active straight leg raise (ASL), pushup (PU), and rotary stability (RS), all of which comprise the composite score (FMS CS). The purpose of this study was to determine correlations between the FMS screens and hip mobility. The specific hip range-of-motion exercises used were bilateral internal/external rotation (IRR, IRL ERL, ERR), and flexion/extension …

Cortisol And Alpha-Amylase Changes During An Ultra-Running Event, Whitney P. Deneen, Alexis Jones

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(4): 531-540, 2017. Elevated stress hormone concentrations can positively affect an athlete’s overall performance during a competition, and in many cases, are necessary to be able to perform exercise. During extreme exercise, the body’s ability to utilize energy efficiently can affect an athlete’s performance. Elevated hormonal concentrations can have many benefits in regards to an athlete’s overall performance during a competition. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of long distance running, such as seen during an ultra-running event (distances beyond 26.2 miles), on the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis production …

Sleep-Hygiene Education Improves Sleep Indices In Elite Female Athletes, Shannon O'Donnell, Matthew W. Driller

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(4): 522-530, 2017. The importance of sleep in providing psychophysiological recovery in elite athletes is often overlooked. In other populations (eg shift workers and adolescent students), sleep hygiene education may serve to acutely improve sleep indices. However, this is yet to be examined in an elite athlete setting. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of a sleep hygiene education session on sleep indices in elite athletes. The study involved 26 elite female netball athletes performing one week of baseline sleep monitoring (PRE), followed by a sleep hygiene education …

Differences Between The Grab Start And Track Start In Collegiate Swimmers, Alexander S. Dassoff, Naomi R. Forward, Charlie P. Katica

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(4): 515-521, 2017. The purpose of this investigation was to determine which foot stance, the track start (TS) or the grab start (GS), is most beneficial for competitive swimmers. Seven male and eight female collegiate swimmers participated in this study. The average participant age was 20.1 ± 1.13 years while the average years of competitive swimming experience was 10.8 ± 3.36 years. Participants performed three TS and three GS stances consecutively. Distance markers were placed on the side of the pool to determine where each swimmer entered the water. Video analysis was used to determine …

Effects Of Nasal Or Oral Breathing On Anaerobic Power Output And Metabolic Responses, Christine Recinto, Theodore Efthemeou, P. Tony Boffelli, James W. Navalta

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(4): 506-514, 2017. Nasal and oral exclusive breathing modes have benefits and drawbacks during submaximal exercise. It is unknown whether these responses would extend to anaerobic work performed at high intensity. Nine individuals (males N = 7, females N = 2) performed a standard Wingate Anaerobic cycle test on a cycle ergometer under nose (N) and mouth (M) only respiratory conditions, performed in a counterbalanced order. A 2 (condition: nose, mouth) x 6 (time: 0-5 sec, 5-10 sec, 10-15 sec, 15-20 sec, 20-25 sec, 25-30 sec) repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze the data …

Rollers Versus Trainers: 10-Km Time Trial, Wayland Tseh, Tate Devlin, Taylor Milleson, T V. Barreira

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(1): 497-505, 2017. The primary aim of this investigation was to determine which cycling training device, Rollers or Trainers, was most effective in improving 10-km time trial. Eight male and 6 female volunteers (N = 14; age = 23.6 ± 4.6 yrs; height = 172.7 ± 9.9 cm; body mass = 68.4 ± 10.4 kg; % body fat = 16.9 ± 7.7; VO_2max = 61.0 ± 9.4 ml∙kg^-1∙min^-1) provided informed consent prior to participation. Participants performed a10-km time trial at baseline and were then randomly assigned into one of three …

Physical Activity And Physical Fitness In Pediatric Obesity: What Are The First Steps For Clinicians? Expert Conclusion From The 2016 Ecog Workshop, Grace O´Malley, Susanne Ring-Dimitriou, Paulina Nowicka, Andrea Vania, Marie-Laure Frelut, Nathalie Farpour-Lambert, Daniel Weghuber, David Thivel

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(4): 487-496, 2017. One of the main European Childhood Obesity Group mission is to assist healthcare workers in delivering evidence-based assessment and treatment of childhood obesity. Every year the ECOG annual work shop includes working groups whose objective is to highlight the major concerns faced by clinicians and practitioners who work in the field of pediatric obesity. This year, a working group was devoted to the assessment of physical activity and physical fitness in this population. The present commentary attempts to summarize the main themes identified by practitioners during these workshops in order to provide …

Deer Droppings As A Diverse Invertebrate Habitat, Allison Furr, Dr. Kevin Geedey

Celebration of Learning

This project was performed at Augustana's Green Wing Environmental Laboratory and studied the richness and diversity of soil invertebrates in two conditions, deer poop enriched and surrounding soil. Soil invertebrates play an important role in soil quality which greatly affects ecosystems. The hypothesis of this study was that the diversity and richness would be the higher in the poop enriched soil samples. Soil samples were collected, Burlese funnels were used to collect the invertebrates, the invertebrates were examined under the microscope, and were assigned to taxa. The number of taxa (richness) and the number of individuals in each taxa (Simpson's …

Combined Consumption Of Alcohol And A High-Fat Diet: Effects On Behavior And Health In Male And Female C57b1/6j Mice, Rachel Gelineau

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Poor diets and alcohol are known to affect both behavior and overall health. Each by itself can produce an increase in anxiety and can affect insulin and leptin, important indicators of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. This project investigated how combined high-fat diet and access to alcohol affected feeding and drinking behaviors, anxiety-like behaviors, glucose tolerance, and leptin and insulin levels in C57BL/6J male and female mice. Mice were separated into three food groups: high-fat diet, low-fat diet, and regular chow and each group was paired with either water or forced 10%-alcohol. Weekly body weight, and food and drink intake measurements …

Beyond 3 Au From The Sun: The Hypervolatiles Ch4, C2h6, And Co In The Distant Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen), Boncho Bonev, Geronimo Villanueva, Michael Disanti, Hermann Boehnhardt, Manuela Lippi, Erika Gibb, Lucas Paganini, Michael Mumma

Physics Faculty Works

Comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) remained outside a heliocentric distance (R h) of 3.1 au throughout its apparition, but it presented an exceptional opportunity to directly sense a suite of molecules released from its nucleus. The Cryogenic Infrared Echelle Spectrograph at ESO-VLT detected infrared emissions from the three "hypervolatiles" (CO, CH4, and C2H6) that have the lowest sublimation temperatures among species that are commonly studied in comets by remote sensing. Even at R h = 3.25 au, the production rate of each molecule exceeded those measured for the same species in a number of other comets, although these comets were observed …

Analysis Of “No Net Loss” Wetland Mitigation Policy, Kristina Erickson

Honors Capstones

Wetlands in the United States have long been destroyed and degraded to make way for anthropogenic development. In recent history, efforts have been made to slow this degradation. The “no net loss” wetland mitigation policy has been in effect since 1991 and seeks to balance the needs of both industry and the environment. However, this policy is flawed. The regulatory process favors the interests of industry and the United States continues to lose wetlands and and their important functions. Therefore, the examination of the current policy is key to prevent future loss of wetland functions.

Chromatin-Modifying Agents Convert Fibroblasts To Oct4+ And Vegfr-2+ Capillary Tube-Forming Cells, Anita Wary, Neil Wary '18, Jugajyoti Baruah, Victoria Mastej, Kishore K. Wary

Student Publications & Research

Rationale
The human epigenome is plastic. The goal of this study was to address if fibroblast cells can be epigenetically modified to promote neovessel formation.

Methods and results
Here, we used highly abundant human adult dermal fibroblast cells (hADFCs) that were treated with the chromatin-modifying agents 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine and trichostatin A, and subsequently subjected to differentiation by activating Wnt signaling. Our results show that these epigenetically modified hADFCs increasingly expressed β-catenin, pluripotency factor octamer-binding transcription factor-4 (OCT4, also known as POU5F1), and endothelial cell (EC) marker called vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2, also known as Fetal Liver Kinase-1). In microscopic …

Roe, Edd (Fa 1027), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1027. Student folk studies project titled: “Fishing,” which includes interviews and survey sheets about fishing in the Pennyroyal Region of Kentucky. Sheets may include information about a fish, bait, joke, belief, informant’s name, and motif index number.

The Effects Of Urbanization On Nitrogen Processing In Urban Streams, Peter Francissen, Dr. Kevin Geedey, Dr. Michael Reisner

Celebration of Learning

Urban stream syndrome is described as the deterioration of stream health in an urbanized watershed and is associated with the loss of ecosystem services, which in turn degrades downstream environments. One key symptom of the urban stream syndrome is reduced processing of inorganic nitrogen. Previous research suggests that as urbanization increases and water quality decreases, the uptake length (Sw) of inorganic N increases. This indicates that the stream is increasing the export of N downstream compared to in situ incorporation of N into the ecosystem. We measured uptake length (Sw) of NO3, using a pulse addition method, along 9 different …

Identifying Novel Cognitive Therapy Targets: Expression Of Nachr Mrna In Rat Hippocampal Interneurons, Spencer Thompson, Maxwell Wright, Taylor Grant, Brady Vance, Nicholas Ahern, Jeffrey Ogden, Romaine Drecketts, David Pugh, Zach Fisher, Sara Werner, Jaron Fowlers, Bradley Klienstuber, Richard Burgon, Ashley Sego, Doris Jackson, Sterling N. Sudweeks

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

We quantified mRNA subunit expression in the CA1 rat hippocampus. The a3 and B2 nAChR subunits are the highest expressed mRNA subunits while the a4 is the least. Current nAChR targeted cognitive therapies focus on the a4B2 and a7 nAChRs. These results provide a new avenue in cognitive therapies by targeting a3 containing nAChRs.

Reliability Of Center Of Pressure Measures For Assessing The Development Of Sitting Postural Control Through The Stages Of Sitting, Jordan Wickstrom, Nicholas Stergiou, Anastasia Kyvelidou

Journal Articles

Cerebral palsy (CP) impairs an individual’s ability to move and control one’s posture. Unfortunately, the signs and symptoms of CP may not be apparent before age two. Evaluating sitting posture is a potential way to assess the developing mechanisms that contribute to CP. The purpose of this project was to determine the reliability of linear and nonlinear measures, including inter- and intrastage reliability, when used to analyze the center of pressure (COP) time series during the stages of sitting development in children with typical development (TD) and with/at-risk for cerebral palsy (CP). We hypothesized that nonlinear tools would be more …

Using Enzyme-Based Biosensors To Measure Tonic And Phasic Glutamate In Alzheimer's Mouse Models, Holly C. Hunsberger, Sharay E. Setti, Ryan T. Heslin, Jorge E. Quintero, Greg A. Gerhardt, Miranda N. Reed

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Neurotransmitter disruption is often a key component of diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), playing a role in the pathology underlying Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, and anxiety. Traditionally, microdialysis has been the most common (lauded) technique to examine neurotransmitter changes that occur in these disorders. But because microdialysis has the ability to measure slow 1-20 minute changes across large areas of tissue, it has the disadvantage of invasiveness, potentially destroying intrinsic connections within the brain and a slow sampling capability. A relatively newer technique, the microelectrode array (MEA), has numerous advantages for measuring specific neurotransmitter changes within discrete …

From Sexless To Sexy: Why It Is Time For Human Genetics To Consider And Report Analyses Of Sex, Matthew S. Powers, Phillip H. Smith, Sherry A. Mckee, Marissa A. Ehringer

Publications and Research

Science has come a long way with regard to the consideration of sex differences in clinical and preclinical research, but one field remains behind the curve: human statistical genetics. The goal of this commentary is to raise awareness and discussion about how to best consider and evaluate possible sex effects in the context of large-scale human genetic studies. Over the course of this commentary, we reinforce the importance of interpreting genetic results in the context of biological sex, establish evidence that sex differences are not being considered in human statistical genetics, and discuss how best to conduct and report such …

Women In Agriculture: The Heart Of The Farm, Cheryl Griffith

Cornhusker Economics

Women in Agriculture: The Heart of the Farm was the theme of the 32^nd Nebraska Women in Agriculture (WIA) Conference, February 23-24, 2017 in Kearney. This annual conference is hosted by the Department of Agricultural Economics, Nebraska Extension and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR). The Nebraska WIA program is committed to providing opportunities for all Nebraskans to develop risk management skills by providing tools for sound business decisions in every facet of agriculture through leadership, advocacy, and networking avenues.

Females Are The Brighter Sex: Differences In External Fluorescence Across Sexes And Life Stages Of A Crab Spider, Erin E. Brandt, Susan E. Masta

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fluorescence is increasingly recognized to be widespread in nature. In particular, some arachnids fluoresce externally, and in spiders the hemolymph fluoresces. In this study, we examined the external fluorescence and the fluorophores of different sexes and life stages of the crab spider Misumena vatia (Clerk 1757), a sit-and-wait predator that feeds on insects as they visit flowers. We designed novel instrumentation to measure external fluorescence in whole specimens. We found that although males and females possess internal fluorophores with similar properties, the external expression of fluorescence varies across sexes and life stages. Spiders fluoresce brightly as immatures. Females maintain their …

Expanding Access To Biodiversity Literature, Patrick Randall

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature (EABL) is an IMLS-funded grant designed to enhance the collection of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a digital library providing open access to over 50 million pages of legacy biodiversity literature.

BHL's collection is built on the digitized holdings of its member libraries, typically large research universities, natural history museums, and other well-funded organizations. EABL, however, solicits content outside the BHL consortium; small organizations that often lack the resources for cataloging and digitization nevertheless have valuable and unique literature to contribute. This has created new challenges for BHL workflows, as well as opportunities for novel …

Mri Applications In Tissue Engineering, Shadi Othman

Science Seminar Series

Shadi Othman of the School of Engineering and Computer Science Bioengineering Program, will speak on his research on MRI applications in tissue engineering.

Transciptome Analysis Illuminates The Nature Of The Intracellular Interaction In A Vertebrate-Algal Symbiosis, John A. Burns, Huanjia Zhang, Elizabeth M. Hill, Eunsoo Kim, Ryan R. Kerney

Biology Faculty Publications

During embryonic development, cells of the green alga Oophila amblystomatis enter cells of the salamander Ambystoma maculatum forming an endosymbiosis. Here, using de novo dual-RNA seq, we compared the host salamander cells that harbored intracellular algae to those without algae and the algae inside the animal cells to those in the egg capsule. This two-by-two-way analysis revealed that intracellular algae exhibit hallmarks of cellular stress and undergo a striking metabolic shift from oxidative metabolism to fermentation. Culturing experiments with the alga showed that host glutamine may be utilized by the algal endosymbiont as a primary nitrogen source. Transcriptional changes in …

Safety And Immunogenicity Of The Na-Gst-1 Hookworm Vaccine In Brazilian And American Adults., David J Diemert, Janaína Freire, Vanderson Valente, Carlos Geraldo Fraga, Frederico Talles, Shannon Grahek, Doreen Campbell, Amar Jariwala, Maria Victoria Periago, Martin Enk, Maria Flávia Gazzinelli, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Robert Hamilton, Jill Brelsford, Anna Yakovleva, Guangzhao Li, Jin Peng, Rodrigo Correa-Oliveira, Peter Hotez, Jeffrey Bethony

Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine Faculty Publications

Necator americanus Glutathione-S-Transferase-1 (Na-GST-1) plays a role in the digestion of host hemoglobin by adult N. americanus hookworms. Vaccination of laboratory animals with recombinant Na-GST-1 is associated with significant protection from challenge infection. Recombinant Na-GST-1 was expressed in Pichia pastoris and adsorbed to aluminum hydroxide adjuvant (Alhydrogel) according to current Good Manufacturing Practice. Two Phase 1 trials were conducted in 142 healthy adult volunteers in the United States and Brazil, first in hookworm-naïve individuals and then in residents of a N. americanus endemic area in Brazil. Volunteers received one of three doses of recombinant …

The Role Of Sr-B1 In Lipid Metabolism And Inflammation In 3t3-L1 Adipocytes, Christina Jiang

University Scholar Projects

Obesity is associated with a number of complications that may increase the risk for chronic disease, including inflammation and dysfunctional high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. Scavenger receptor class B member 1 (SR-B1) is an HDL receptor found in the cell plasma membrane involved in cholesterol exchange and the initiation of intracellular signaling cascades. During the process of adipocyte (fat cell) formation (adipogenesis), there is a delicate balance of transcriptional programs that affect cholesterol transport and facilitate lipid accumulation. Mice fed a high fat diet have increased SR-B1 mRNA expression in adipose tissue depots. Furthermore, SR-B1 mRNA expression was significantly increased in …

Genetic Metabolic Complementation Establishes A Requirement For Gdp-Fucose In Leishmania, Hongjie Guo, Natalia M. Novozhilova, Giulia Bandini, Salvatore J. Turco, Michael A. L. Ferguson, Stephen M. Beverley

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

To survive in its sand fly vector, the trypanosomatid protozoan parasite Leishmania first attaches to the midgut to avoid excretion, but eventually it must detach for transmission by the next bite. In Leishmania major strain Friedlin, this is controlled by modifications of the stage-specific adhesin lipophosphoglycan (LPG). During differentiation to infective metacyclics, d-arabinopyranose (d-Arap) caps the LPG side-chain galactose residues, blocking interaction with the midgut lectin PpGalec, thereby leading to parasite detachment and transmission. Previously, we characterized two closely related L. major genes (FKP40 and AFKP80) encoding bifunctional proteins with kinase/pyrophosphorylase activities required for salvage and …

Crude Oil Impairs Immune Function And Increases Susceptibility To Pathogenic Bacteria In Southern Flounder, Keith M. Bayha, Natalie Ortell, Caitlin Ryan, Kimberly J. Griffitt, Michelle Krasnec, Johnny Sena, Thiruvangan Ramaraj, Ryan Takeshita, Gregory D. Mayer, Faye Schilkey, Robert J. Griffitt

Faculty Publications

Exposure to crude oil or its individual constituents can have detrimental impacts on fish species, including impairment of the immune response. Increased observations of skin lesions in northern Gulf of Mexico fish during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill indicated the possibility of oil-induced immunocompromisation resulting in bacterial or viral infection. This study used a full factorial design of oil exposure and bacterial challenge to examine how oil exposure impairs southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) immune function and increases susceptibility to the bacteria Vibrio anguillarum, a causative agent of vibriosis. Fish exposed to oil prior to bacterial challenge …

Ancient Bacteria–Amoeba Relationships And Pathogenic Animal Bacteria, Joan E. Strassmann, Longfei Shu

Biology Faculty Research

Long before bacteria infected humans, they infected amoebas, which remain a potentially important reservoir for human disease. Diverse soil amoebas including Dictyostelium and Acanthamoeba can host intracellular bacteria. Though the internal environment of free-living amoebas is similar in many ways to that of mammalian macrophages, they differ in a number of important ways, including temperature. A new study in PLOS Biology by Taylor-Mulneix et al. demonstrates that Bordetella bronchiseptica has two different gene suites that are activated depending on whether the bacterium finds itself in a hot mammalian or cool amoeba host environment. This study specifically shows that B. …

Comparison Of The Regulatory Dynamics Of Related Small Gene Regulatory Networks That Control The Response To Cold Shock In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Natalie Williams

Honors Thesis

The Dahlquist Lab investigates the global, transcriptional response of Sacchromyces cerevisiae, baker’s yeast, to the environmental stress of cold shock, using DNA microarrays for the wild type strain and strains deleted for a particular regulatory transcription factor. Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) consist of transcription factors (TF), genes, and the regulatory connections between them that control the resulting mRNA and protein expression levels. We use mathematical modeling to determine the dynamics of the GRN controlling the cold shock response to determine the relative influence of each transcription factor in the network. A family of GRNs has been derived from the …

Development Of A Core Clostridium Thermocellum Kinetic Metabolic Model Consistent With Multiple Genetic Perturbations, Satyakam Dash, Ali Khodayari, Jilai Zhou, Evert K. Holwerda, Daniel Olson, Lee Lynd, Costas Maranas

Dartmouth Scholarship

Clostridium thermocellum is a Gram-positive anaerobe with the ability to hydrolyze and metabolize cellulose into biofuels such as ethanol, making it an attractive candidate for consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). At present, metabolic engineering in C. thermocellum is hindered due to the incomplete description of its metabolic repertoire and regulation within a predictive metabolic model. Genome-scale metabolic (GSM) models augmented with kinetic models of metabolism have been shown to be effective at recapitulating perturbed metabolic phenotypes.

In this effort, we first update a second-generation genome-scale metabolic model (iCth446) for C. thermocellum by correcting cofactor dependencies, restoring elemental and charge balances, …