Life Sciences Commons^™

A Case Study: Observations Of Behaviors & Vocalizations In A Captive Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) During Quarantine, Alexandra L. Dilley

Theses and Dissertations

Bozie, an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), was relocated from the Baton Rouge Zoo to Smithsonian’s National Zoo. During a requisite 29-day quarantine period, I recorded Bozie’s stress-related behaviors and the vocalizations she produced when she was alone and with her keepers in free and protected contact.

Investigating The Nest Sanitation Hypothesis In A Rejecter Species: Is Sanitation A Proximate Link, Pre-Adaptation, Or By-Product Of Egg Ejection?, Alec B. Luro

Theses and Dissertations

Nest sanitation, a behavior similar in motor pattern to egg ejection, has been proposed repeatedly as a potential pre-adaptation to foreign egg ejection in avian brood parasites hosts. We found no support for the sanitation hypothesis--therefore we suggest egg ejection may have evolved independently of sanitation.

Evaluating Infection Prevention Strategies In Out-Patient Dialysis Units Using Agent-Based Modeling, Joanna R. Wares, Barry Lawson, Douglas Shemin, Erika D'Agata

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

Patients receiving chronic hemodialysis (CHD) are among the most vulnerable to infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO), which are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Current guidelines to reduce transmission of MDRO in the out-patient dialysis unit are targeted at patients considered to be high-risk for transmitting these organisms: those with infected skin wounds not contained by a dressing, or those with fecal incontinence or uncontrolled diarrhea. Here, we hypothesize that targeting patients receiving antimicrobial treatment would more effectively reduce transmission and acquisition of MDRO. We also hypothesize that environmental contamination plays a role in the dissemination of …

Thrombospondin 1 Deficiency Ameliorates The Development Of Adriamycin-Induced Proteinuric Kidney Disease, Hasiyeti Maimaitiyiming, Qi Zhou, Shuxia Wang

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Accumulating evidence suggests that thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) is an important player in diabetic nephropathy. However, the role of TSP1 in podocyte injury and the development of non-diabetic proteinuric kidney disease is largely unknown. In the current study, by using a well-established podocyte injury model (adriamycin-induced nephropathy mouse model), we examined the contribution of TSP1 to the development of proteinuric kidney disease. We found that TSP1 was up-regulated in the glomeruli, notably in podocytes, in adriamycin injected mice before the onset of proteinuria. ADR treatment also stimulated TSP1 expression in cultured human podocytes in vitro. Moreover, increased TSP1 mediated ADR-induced …

Ubr3, A Novel Modulator Of Hh Signaling Affects The Degradation Of Costal-2 And Kif7 Through Poly-Ubiquitination, Tongchao Li, Junkai Fan, Bernardo Blanco-Sánchez, Nikolaos Giagtzoglou, Guang Lin, Shinya Yamamoto, Manish Jaiswal, Kuchuan Chen, Jie Zhang, Wei Wei, Michael T. Lewis, Andrew K. Groves, Monte Westerfield, Jianhang Jia, Hugo J. Bellen

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling regulates multiple aspects of metazoan development and tissue homeostasis, and is constitutively active in numerous cancers. We identified Ubr3, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, as a novel, positive regulator of Hh signaling in Drosophila and vertebrates. Hh signaling regulates the Ubr3-mediated poly-ubiquitination and degradation of Cos2, a central component of Hh signaling. In developing Drosophila eye discs, loss of ubr3 leads to a delayed differentiation of photoreceptors and a reduction in Hh signaling. In zebrafish, loss of Ubr3 causes a decrease in Shh signaling in the developing eyes, somites, and sensory neurons. However, not all tissues that require …

Teaching Science, Technology, Engineering And Mathematics Through Agriculture, Food And Natural Resources, Neil Knobloch, Hui-Hui Wang

Purdue P-12 Networking Summit & Poster Session

Teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics through Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

New Curriculum: Soil & Water Science And Weather & Climate Science, Natalie Carroll

Purdue P-12 Networking Summit & Poster Session

Natalie will present an overview the content of two new (2015) curricula designed for youth in grades 3 through 12. Soil and Water Science; Weather and Climate Science. Three booklets are included in each curriculum. Level 1, for youth in grades 3-5, introduces basic terms and concepts. Level 2 activities, for youth in grades 6-8, help youth put the basic concepts into action to understand more advanced concepts and interactions. Level 3 manuals delve more deeply into important concepts and helps prepare youth to be well informed and for advanced studies at college or university.

• Level 3 Soil & Water …

Water Quality And Fecal Coliform Levels In Georgia Oxbow Lakes Relative To Connectivity With The Savannah River, Carly B. Williams, John E. Weinstein, Claudia L. Rocha

Georgia Journal of Science

The state of Georgia has many bodies of water that provide important wildlife habitats as well as recreational opportunities. The objective of the current study was to investigate water quality and fecal coliform levels in oxbow lakes relative to their connectivity to the Savannah River. For most water quality parameters, no differences were observed between the Savannah River and the oxbow lakes. However, pH and turbidity values were lower in the oxbow lakes (both connected and disconnected) relative to the Savannah River. Fecal coliform values between connected oxbow lakes and the Savannah River were similar to each other and significantly …

Hands Of The Future, Inc; Junior Nature Club; Living Schoolyards, Zonda K. Bryant

Purdue P-12 Networking Summit & Poster Session

Programs to connect children to nature

Life In The Underworld: Anchialine Cave Biology In The Era Of Speleogenomics, Jorge L. Pérez-Moreno, Thomas M. Iliffe, Heather D. Bracken-Grissom

International Journal of Speleology

Anchialine caves contain haline bodies of water with underground connections to the ocean and limited exposure to open air. Despite being found on islands and peninsular coastlines around the world, the isolation of anchialine systems has facilitated the evolution of high levels of endemism among their inhabitants. The unique characteristics of anchialine caves and of their predominantly crustacean biodiversity nominate them as particularly interesting study subjects for evolutionary biology. However, there is presently a distinct scarcity of modern molecular methods being employed in the study of anchialine cave ecosystems. The use of current and emerging molecular techniques, e.g., next-generation sequencing …

Dawn Or Doom: The Risks And Rewards Of Emerging Technologies, Diana Hancock, Steve Tally, Gerry Mccartney, Michele Arthur

Purdue P-12 Networking Summit & Poster Session

Dawn or Doom is a free and open to the public conference at Purdue where we focus on benefits and risks surrounding some of the technologies that are both the most disruptive to current practices and being adopted the fastest. A collection of Purdue faculty experts and some outside speakers showcase their many perspectives related to this technology explosion, explore conditions that will foster innovation and investment into the next generation, and address the big-picture issues where both optimism and pessimism are warranted.

Antioxidant And Hepatoprotective Effects Of Procyanidins Fromwild Grape (Vitis Amurensis) Seeds In Ethanol-Induced Cells And Rats, Min Ji Bak, Van-Long Truong, Se-Yeon Ko, Xuan Ngan Giang Nguyen, Pajaree Ingkasupart, Mira Jun, Jin Young Shin, Woo-Sik Jeong

Publications and Research

In the present study, we characterized the antioxidant and hepatoprotective mechanisms underlying of wild grape seed procyanidins (WGP) against oxidative stress damage in ethanol-treated HepG2 cell and Sprague-Dawley (SD)-rat models. In HepG2 cells, WGP not only diminished the ethanol (EtOH, 100 mM)-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) expression, but also renovated both the activity and expression of antioxidant enzymes including catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase. Additionally, to investigate the hepatoprotective effect of WGP, rats were orally administered 10 or 50 mg/kg WGP once daily for seven days prior to the single oral administration of …

Npas1+ Pallidal Neurons Target Striatal Projection Neurons, Savio Chan, Kelly Glajch, Daniel Kelver, Daniel Hegeman, Qiaoling Cui, Harry Xenias, Elizabeth Augustine, Vivian Hernández, Neha Verma '17, Tina Huang, Minmin Luo, Nicholas Justice

Student Publications & Research

Compelling evidence demonstrates the external globus pallidus (GPe) plays a key role in processing sensorimotor information. An anatomical projection from the GPe to the dorsal striatum (dStr) has been described for decades. However, the cellular target and functional impact of this projection remain unknown. Using cell-specific transgenic mice, modern monosynaptic tracing techniques, and optogenetics-based mapping, we discovered that GPe neurons provide inhibitory inputs to direct- and indirect-pathway striatal projection neurons (SPNs). Our results indicate that the GPe input to SPNs arises primarily from Npas1- expressing neurons and is strengthened in a chronic Parkinson’s disease (PD) model. Alterations of the GPe-SPN …

A Multiple‐Scale Assessment Of Long‐Term Aspen Persistence And Elevational Range Shifts In The Colorado Front Range, Mario Bretfeld, Scott B. Franklin, Robert K. Peet

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen forests and woodlands are some of the most species‐rich forest communities in the northern hemisphere. Changing climate, altered disturbance regimes, land use, and increased herbivore pressure threaten these forests both in Eurasia and North America. In addition, rapid mortality dubbed “Sudden Aspen Decline” is a concern for aspen's long‐term presence in the western United States, especially Colorado and Utah. Yet it is still unclear whether aspen is persistent or declining at the landscape scale. We assessed aspen persistence at different spatial scales in the Colorado Front Range by resampling 89 plots containing aspen from among 305 vegetation plots sampled …

Longitudinal Changes In The Motor Learning- Related Brain Activation Response In Presymptomatic Huntington's Disease, Florian Holtbernd, Chris C. Tang, Andrew Feigin, Vijay Dhawan, Maria Felice Ghilardi, Jane S. Paulsen, Mark Guttman, David Eldelberg

Publications and Research

Neurocognitive decline, including deficits in motor learning, occurs in the presymptomatic phase of Huntington’s disease (HD) and precedes the onset of motor symptoms. Findings from recent neuroimaging studies have linked these deficits to alterations in fronto-striatal and fronto-parietal brain networks. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics of these networks when subjects approach phenoconversion. Here, 10 subjects with presymptomatic HD were scanned with 15O-labeled water at baseline and again 1.5 years later while performing a motor sequence learning task and a kinematically matched control task. Spatial covariance analysis was utilized to characterize patterns of change in learningrelated neural activation …

The Function Of Shoc2: A Scaffold And Beyond, Eun Ryoung Jang, Emilia Galperin

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) cascade regulates a myriad of functions in multicellular organisms. Scaffold proteins provide critical spatial and temporal control over the specificity of signaling. Shoc2 is a scaffold that accelerates activity of the ERK1/2 pathway. Loss of Shoc2 expression in mice results in embryonic lethality, thus highlighting the essential role of Shoc2 in embryogenesis. In agreement, patients carrying mutated Shoc2 suffer from a wide spectrum of developmental deficiencies. Efforts to understand the mechanisms by which Shoc2 controls ERK1/2 activity revealed the intricate machinery that governs the ability of Shoc2 to transduce signals of the ERK1/2 pathway. Understanding …

Flow-Dependent Myosin Recruitment During Drosophila Cellularization Requires Zygotic Dunk Activity, Bing He, Adam Martin, Eric Wieschaus

Dartmouth Scholarship

Actomyosin contractility underlies force generation in morphogenesis ranging from cytokinesis to epithelial extension or invagination. In Drosophila, the cleavage of the syncytial blastoderm is initiated by an actomyosin network at the base of membrane furrows that invaginate from the surface of the embryo. It remains unclear how this network forms and how it affects tissue mechanics. Here, we show that during Drosophila cleavage, myosin recruitment to the cleavage furrows proceeds in temporally distinct phases of tension-driven cortical flow and direct recruitment, regulated by different zygotic genes. We identify the gene dunk, which we show is transiently transcribed when cellularization starts …

Bone-Associated Gene Evolution And The Origin Of Flight In Birds, Joao P. Machado, Warren E. Johnson, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Guojie Zhang, Erich D. Jarvis, Stephen J. O'Brien, Agostinho Antunes

Biology Faculty Articles

Background

Bones have been subjected to considerable selective pressure throughout vertebrate evolution, such as occurred during the adaptations associated with the development of powered flight. Powered flight evolved independently in two extant clades of vertebrates, birds and bats. While this trait provided advantages such as in aerial foraging habits, escape from predators or long-distance travels, it also imposed great challenges, namely in the bone structure.

Results

We performed comparative genomic analyses of 89 bone-associated genes from 47 avian genomes (including 45 new), 39 mammalian, and 20 reptilian genomes, and demonstrate that birds, after correcting for multiple testing, have an almost …

Making Sense Of Self Harm, Sandra H. Sulzer

Kinesiology and Health Science Faculty Publications

In Making Sense of Self-harm: The Cultural Meaning and Social Context of Nonsuicidal Self-injury, Dr. Peter Steggals slowly and carefully circles around self-harm as a social construct. His book gathers up the underlying meanings and contradictions inherent in the practice and inspects them in turn. He makes a case that self-harm as we see it today in the form of skin cutting, picking, and other related phenomenon is unique to our time period and is not universally present across cultures— regardless of other mutilation, cutting, or piercing practices that may exist. And importantly, he starts by addressing our aversion to …

North Central Extension Risk Management Education Center, Christine Lockert, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

After peaking over $120 billion in 2013, U.S. net farm income fell to $56 billion in 2015 with projections of $54 billion for 2016, the lowest level since 2002 (USDA Economic Research Service). The large drop from 2013 to 2016 after nearly a decade of strong growth in agricultural income presents a substantial challenge to agricultural producers and an increased need to carefully manage risk on the farm or ranch.

Predicting Social Responsibility And Belonging In Urban After-School Physical Activity Programs With Underserved Children, Jeffry J. Martin, Brigid Byrd, Alex Garn, Nate Mccaughtry, Noel Kulik, Erin Centeio

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of this cross sectional study was to predict feelings of belonging and social responsibility based on the motivational climate perceptions and contingent self-worth of children participating in urban after-school physical activity programs. Three-hundred and four elementary school students from a major Midwestern city participated. Based on multiple regression analyses we predicted 39 % of the variance in feelings of belonging largely due to perceptions of leadership emotional support and task climate and 31 % of the variance in feelings of social responsibility largely due to perceptions of a caring climate. Our findings support the importance of after school …

Dibutyltin-Induced Alterations Of Interleukin 1beta Secretion From Human Immune Cells, Shyretha Brown, Shahin Tehrani, Margaret M. Whalen

Chemistry Faculty Research

Dibutyltin (DBT) is used to stabilize polyvinyl chloride plastics (including pipes that distribute drinking water) and as a de-worming agent in poultry. DBT is found in human blood, and DBT exposures alter the secretion of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interferon gamma from lymphocytes. Interleukin (IL)-1β is a proinflammatory cytokine that regulates cellular growth, tissue restoration and immune response regulation. IL-1β plays a role in increasing invasiveness of certain tumors. This study reveals that exposures to DBT (24 h, 48 h and 6 days) modify the secretion of IL-1β from increasingly reconstituted preparations of human immune cells (highly enriched human …

Review: Living In Obscurity: Danté Fenolio – Life In The Dark., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The reduction and/or disappearance of phenotypic features is a biological phenomenon that has intrigued humans ever since prehistoric times. The earliest known anthropological representation of a creature showing the loss of phenotypic features dates back to ca. 22,000 YBP (Upper Paleolithic). It is a carved drawing of a wingless cave cricket, Troglophilus sp., on a bison (Bison bonasus) bone found in the Grotte des Trois Frères (Three Brothers Cave) in the central Pyrénées, France. Since then, we have witnessed how the study of organisms living in lightless environments went through a number of scientific historical periods. First was the age …

Resilient Rivers Hpr 132g, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

U.S. Drought Monitor, May 17, 2016, David Simeral

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for May 17, 2016 (5/17/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Sipper Plankton And Marine Snow Abundance And Distribution Data For The Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico: June 2012 – August 2014, Kendra L. Daly

C-IMAGE data

This dataset contains seasonal and interannual marine snow, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and larval fish abundance and distributions collected from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico using the Shadowed Image Particle Profiling Evaluation Recorder (SIPPER). The purpose of the dataset is to assess the seasonal and interannual zooplankton abundance and distribution after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Tropical Trees As Islands: Diversity Accumulation Of Armored Scale Insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) On Trees As A Function Of Forest Age, Hannah Shapiro

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Armored scale insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) are some of the most invasive insects in the world. These cryptic plant parasites are most often encountered in managed agricultural ecosystems, but very little is known about their distribution, abundance, and diversity in tropical rainforest canopies, where they are likely to have their highest diversity. Because these ubiquitous insects are extreme generalists with undirected dispersal, their diversity (alpha and beta) accumulation can conceivably be modeled according to tenets derived from island biogeography theory. For example, one expectation is that older established trees should boast a higher species diversity and abundance than younger ones. Other …

Zooplankton Dry Weight Biomass Data For The Northeastern Gulf Of Mexico And West Florida Shelf: June 2012 – August 2014, Kendra L. Daly

C-IMAGE data

This dataset contains zooplankton dry weight biomass calculated from samples collected during RV Weatherbird II and RV Bellows cruises from June 2012 to August 2014. Zooplankton was collected using towed bongo nets from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and the west Florida shelf. The contents of the dataset are an assessment of the seasonal and interannual changes in zooplankton biomass after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Interaction Of Tau With The Rna-Binding Protein Tia1 Regulates Tau Pathophysiology And Toxicity, Tara Vanderweyde, Daniel J. Apicco, Katherine Youmans-Kidder, Peter E. A. Ash, Casey Cook, Edroaldo Lummertz Da Rocha, Karen Jansen-West, Alissa A. Frame, Allison Citro, John D. Leszyk, Pavel Ivanov, Jose F. Abisambra, Martin Steffen, Hu Li, Leonard Petrucelli, Benjamin Wolozin

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Dendritic mislocalization of microtubule associated protein tau is a hallmark of tauopathies, but the role of dendritic tau is unknown. We now report that tau interacts with the RNA-binding protein (RBP) TIA1 in brain tissue, and we present the brain-protein interactome network for TIA1. Analysis of the TIA1 interactome in brain tissue from wild-type (WT) and tau knockout mice demonstrates that tau is required for normal interactions of TIA1 with proteins linked to RNA metabolism, including ribosomal proteins and RBPs. Expression studies show that tau regulates the distribution of TIA1, and tau accelerates stress granule (SG) formation. Conversely, TIA1 knockdown …

Krüppel Homolog 1 And E93 Mediate Juvenile Hormone Regulation Of Metamorphosis In The Common Bed Bug, Cimex Lectularius, Hemant Gujar, Subba Reddy Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

The common bed bug is an obligate hematophagous parasite of humans. We studied the regulation of molting and metamorphosis in bed bugs with a goal to identify key players involved. qRT-PCR studies on the expression of genes known to be involved in molting and metamorphosis showed high levels of Krüppel homolog 1 [Kr-h1, a transcription factor that plays key roles in juvenile hormone (JH) action] mRNA in the penultimate nymphal stage (N4). However, low levels of Kr-h1 mRNA were detected in the fifth and last nymphal stage (N5). Knockdown of Kr-h1 in N4 resulted in a precocious development of adult …