Life Sciences Commons^™

The Backyard Garden: Garlic Pests, Nick Volesky, Bridger Carey, Amelia Olds, Marion Murray

All Current Publications

The Backyard Garden is a series from Utah Pests, Utah State University Extension. This fact sheet explores the pests and diseases that affect garlic plants, covering severity, other hosts, general information, symptoms, and management.

Parp2 Promotes Break Induced Replication-Mediated Telomere Fragility In Response To Replication Stress, Daniela Muoio, Natalie Laspata, Rachel L Dannenberg, Caroline Curry, Simone Darkoa-Larbi, Mark Hedglin, Shikhar Uttam, Elise Fouquerel

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

PARP2 is a DNA-dependent ADP-ribosyl transferase (ARTs) enzyme with Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation activity that is triggered by DNA breaks. It plays a role in the Base Excision Repair pathway, where it has overlapping functions with PARP1. However, additional roles for PARP2 have emerged in the response of cells to replication stress. In this study, we demonstrate that PARP2 promotes replication stress-induced telomere fragility and prevents telomere loss following chronic induction of oxidative DNA lesions and BLM helicase depletion. Telomere fragility results from the activity of the break-induced replication pathway (BIR). During this process, PARP2 promotes DNA end resection, strand invasion and BIR-dependent …

Fruit And Vegetable Intake, Food Security, Barriers To Healthy Eating, And Empowerment Among Dietetic Interns And Physician Assistant Interns: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study, Alison Campbell, Maren Stirling, Natalie Keele, Alisse Larkin, Rachel Crandall, Aubree N. Wilcox, Meghan Adair, Cloie Malan, Jaidyn Thomson, Alexis Bennett, Heather Jensen, Hadyn Flygare, Lacie Peterson, Holly Hopkins, Nikki Kendrick, Maria Givler, Rebecca Charlton, Katie N. Kraus

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Students are required to complete supervised practice hours prior to becoming Registered Dietitians and Physician Assistants. Research suggests that environmental and social factors affect dietetic interns’ diets during their internship, although these factors have not been studied among physician assistant interns. This cross-sectional study utilized an online survey to compare dietetic interns’ (n = 81) and physician assistant interns’ (n = 79) fruit and vegetable intake, food security, barriers to healthy eating, and empowerment for making healthy dietary choices during an internship. Differences were assessed via independent t-tests and chi-square distributions. The significance was set at p …

Advancing Text Summarization And Classification: Deep Insights From Transformer-Based Statistical Learning, Kun Bu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a part of human's daily life nowadays. Machine Learning (ML) as one aspect from AI has been rapidly developing during the past two decades, especially from the statistical learning approaches, which emphasized the use of probability and statistics to model data, such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs) for classification and regression tasks to the ensemble learning techniques, such as Random Forest, Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), and stacking. Ensemble learning has evolved into a pivotal concept in contemporary machine learning, empowering practitioners to amalgamate multiple models to enhance generalization, accuracy, and robustness. As the field of machine …

Alterations In Serum Thiol-Disulfide Homeostasis And Ischemia-Modified Albumin Concentrations In Clinical Canine Parvoviral Enteritis, Yasi̇n Şenel, Osman Safa Terzi̇, Erdal Kara, Özcan Erel, Sali̇m Neşeli̇oğlu, Ebubeki̇r Ceylan

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Monitoring biomarkers related to inflammation and oxidative stress is critical in dogs because parvovirus causes both inflammatory and antioxidant alterations. The aim of this study was to investigate inflammatory and antioxidant changes caused by canine parvoviral enteritis to better understand the oxidative stress process related to this disease. Thus, the total thiol, native thiol, disulfide, and ischemia-modified albumin levels of Canine parvovirus infected symptomatic puppies and healthy puppies were examined. Using the results of complete blood counts, the blood serum thiol-disulfide homeostasis and ischemia modified albumin levels of the puppies with Canine parvoviral enteritis (n = 65) and the healthy …

Impact Of Fads Genotype On Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Content In Human Milk Extracellular Vesicles: A Genetic Association Study, John J. Miklavcic, Natalie Paterson, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Laura M. Glynn

Food Science Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Extracellular vesicles in human milk are critical in supporting newborn growth and development. Bioavailability of dietary extracellular vesicles may depend on the composition of membrane lipids. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the fatty acid desaturase gene cluster impact the content of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in human milk phospholipids. This study investigated the relation between variation in FADS1 and FADS2 with the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in extracellular vesicles from human milk.

Methods

Milk was obtained from a cohort of mothers (N = 70) at 2–4 weeks of lactation. SNPs in the FADS gene locus were determined using …

Bull Production: Breeding Soundness Exam And Expected Progeny Differences, Ethan Gilliam

All Current Publications

This fact sheet defines a breeding soundness exam (BSE) for a breeding bull and reviews the meaning of expected progeny differences (EPDs). Acronyms used and depended on by livestock producers are reviewed. Understanding the meaning of livestock acronyms is commonly overlooked. Highlights include how a producer makes financial decisions throughout the year in relation to their livestock.

Identification Of Colorectal Cancer Cell Stemness From Single-Cell Rna Sequencing, Kangyu Lin, Saikat Chowdhury, Mohammad A Zeineddine, Fadl A Zeineddine, Nicholas J Hornstein, Dipen M Maru, Jean-Nicolas Vauthey, George J Chang, Elena Bogatenkova, David Menter, Scott Kopetz, John Paul Shen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

UNLABELLED: Cancer stem cells (CSC) play a critical role in metastasis, relapse, and therapy resistance in colorectal cancer. While characterization of the normal lineage of cell development in the intestine has led to the identification of many genes involved in the induction and maintenance of pluripotency, recent studies suggest significant heterogeneity in CSC populations. Moreover, while many canonical colorectal cancer CSC marker genes have been identified, the ability to use these classical markers to annotate stemness at the single-cell level is limited. In this study, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing on a cohort of 6 primary colon, 9 liver metastatic …

Targeting Branched N-Glycans And Fucosylation Sensitizes Ovarian Tumors To Immune Checkpoint Blockade, Hao Nie, Pratima Saini, Taito Miyamoto, Liping Liao, Rafal J Zielinski, Wei Zhou, Brennah Murphy, Martina Towers, Tyler Yang, Yuan Qi, Toshitha Kannan, Andrew Kossenkov, Hiroaki Tateno, Daniel T Claiborne, Nan Zhang, Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Rugang Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Aberrant glycosylation is a crucial strategy employed by cancer cells to evade cellular immunity. However, it's unclear whether homologous recombination (HR) status-dependent glycosylation can be therapeutically explored. Here, we show that the inhibition of branched N-glycans sensitizes HR-proficient, but not HR-deficient, epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs) to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). In contrast to fucosylation whose inhibition sensitizes EOCs to anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy regardless of HR-status, we observe an enrichment of branched N-glycans on HR-proficient compared to HR-deficient EOCs. Mechanistically, BRCA1/2 transcriptionally promotes the expression of MGAT5, the enzyme responsible for catalyzing branched N-glycans. The branched N-glycans on HR-proficient tumors augment their …

Ai Is A Viable Alternative To High Throughput Screening: A 318-Target Study, The Atomwise Aims Program

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, …

Peritoneal Microenvironment Promotes Appendiceal Adenocarcinoma Growth: A Multi-Omics Approach Using Patient-Derived Xenografts, Vinay K Pattalachinti, Ichiaki Ito, Saikat Chowdhury, Abdelrahman Yousef, Yue Gu, Emma R Salle, Keith Fournier, Natalie W Fowlkes, John Paul Shen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Appendiceal adenocarcinoma (AA) is unique from other gastrointestinal malignancies in that it almost exclusively metastasizes to the peritoneal cavity. However, few studies have investigated the molecular interaction of the peritoneal microenvironment and AA. Here, we use a multi-omics approach with orthotopic and flank-implanted patient-derived xenografts (PDX) to study the effect of the peritoneal microenvironment on AA. AA tumors implanted in the peritoneal microenvironment tended to grow faster and displayed greater nuclear expression of Ki-67 relative to the same tumors implanted in the flank. Comparing the tumor-specific transcriptome (excluding stromal transcription), the peritoneal microenvironment relatively upregulated genes related to proliferation, including …

Antigen-Clustered Nanovaccine Achieves Long-Term Tumor Remission By Promoting B/Cd 4 T Cell Crosstalk, Chengyi Li, Ryan Clauson, Luke F Bugada, Fang Ke, Bing He, Hongwei Chen, Hongxiang Hu, Polina Chuikov, Brett Dallas Hill, Syed M Rizvi, Yudong Song, Kai Sun, Pasieka Axenov, Daniel Huynh, Xinyi Wang, Lana Garmire, Yu Leo Lei, Irina Grigorova, Fei Wen, Marilia Cascalho, Wei Gao, Duxin Sun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Current cancer vaccines using T cell epitopes activate antitumor T cell immunity through dendritic cell/macrophage-mediated antigen presentation, but they lack the ability to promote B/CD4 T cell crosstalk, limiting their anticancer efficacy. We developed antigen-clustered nanovaccine (ACNVax) to achieve long-term tumor remission by promoting B/CD4 T cell crosstalk. The topographic features of ACNVax were achieved using an iron nanoparticle core attached with an optimal number of gold nanoparticles, where the clusters of HER2 B/CD4 T cell epitopes were conjugated on the gold surface with an optimal intercluster distance of 5-10 nm. ACNVax effectively trafficked to lymph nodes and cross-linked with …

Neutrophil Elastase Remodels Mammary Tumors To Facilitate Lung Metastasis, Amriti R Lulla, Said Akli, Cansu Karakas, Joseph A Caruso, Lucas D Warma, Xiayu Rao, Kelly K Hunt, Stephanie S Watowich, Khandan Keyomarsi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Metastatic disease remains the leading cause of death due to cancer, yet the mechanism(s) of metastasis and its timely detection remain to be elucidated. Neutrophil elastase (NE), a serine protease secreted by neutrophils, is a crucial mediator of chronic inflammation and tumor progression. In this study, we used the PyMT model (NE+/+ and NE-/-) of breast cancer to interrogate the tumor-intrinsic and -extrinsic mechanisms by which NE can promote metastasis. Our results showed that genetic ablation of NE significantly reduced lung metastasis and improved metastasis-free survival. RNA-sequencing analysis of primary tumors indicated differential regulation of tumor-intrinsic actin cytoskeleton signaling pathways …

Author Correction: Automating Data Analysis For Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry Using Data-Independent Acquisition Methodology, Frantisek Filandr, Vladimir Sarpe, Shaunak Raval, D Alex Crowder, Morgan F Khan, Stephen Coales, Aleem Syed, John A Tainer, Susan P Lees-Miller, David C Schriemer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

The Backyard Garden: Sweet Corn Pests, Nick Volesky, Amelia Olds, Nick Sanchez, Marion Murray

All Current Publications

The Backyard Garden is a series from Utah Pests, Utah State University Extension. This fact sheet explores the pests that affect sweet corn, covering severity, other hosts, general information, symptoms, and management.

In Silico Identification Of Small Molecule Agonist Binding Sites On Kcc2, Kenyon Mitchell, Alfred Amendolara, Ruth Hunter, Jaden Miner, Andrew Payne

Annual Research Symposium

Purpose: Potassium-Chloride Cotransporter 2 (KCC2) is a neuronal membrane protein specific to the central nervous system. It is responsible for removing Cl- ions from the intracellular space, maintaining a normal Cl- gradient essential for proper function at inhibitory synapses. Dysregulation causes an upward shift in the Cl- reversal potential resulting in a hyperexcitable state of the postsynaptic neuron. Existing literature indicates that KCC2 may be involved in the addiction pathway of a variety of drugs of abuse, including opioids and alcohol. This makes KCC2 an attractive potential drug target when treating substance use disorders. A novel direct KCC2 agonist, VU0500469, …

An Interdisciplinary Experience, Reyna Vergara, Michael Dodson

OUR Assignment Repository

This proposal showcases the success of an interdisciplinary approach. It provides an overview of a project titled: "Cacao and Chocolate: A Powerful Legacy." It took place during Hispanic Heritage Month in 2023. The project aimed to explore the rich and multifaceted legacy of cacao and chocolate in Latin America, incorporating perspectives from various academic disciplines, including public history, chemistry, Spanish language, graphic design, culinary arts, and family science. The interdisciplinary nature of the project highlights the power of collaboration in research and education, serving as a model for integrating diverse fields of study.

The project was divided into two main …

Effects Of Sex, Cadmium, And High-Fat-Diet On Accumulation Of Essential Metals In Mouse Kidneys., Justin Y. Xu, Adam Gaweda, Michelle Barati, Michael Merchant, Jun Cai, Lu Cai, Madhavi Rane

Undergraduate Research Events

Effects of cadmium and obesity on accumulation of essential metals in mouse kidney were evaluated. Starting in utero and continuing until 24 weeks postweaning, male/female mice were exposed to cadmium (0, 0.5, or 5 ppm) and were fed on Normal Diet (ND)/High-Fat Diet (HFD) post weaning. ICP-MS analysis was performed to evaluate cadmium and essential metals absorbed in the kidneys of aforementioned mice. Metals data obtained was analyzed using MANOVA with multiple comparisons (Bonferroni correction with p

Peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography Is A Valid Imaging Technique For Tracking Changes In Skeletal Muscle Cross-Sectional Area, Bradley A. Ruple, Christopher G. Vann, Casey L. Sexton, Shelby C. Osburn, Morgan A. Smith, Joshua S. Godwin, Petey W. Mumford, Matt S. Stock, Michael D. Roberts, Kaelin C. Young

Faculty Scholarship

Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) has recently expanded to quantifying skeletal muscle, however its validity to determine muscle cross‐sectional area (mCSA) compared to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unknown. Eleven male participants (age: 22 ± 3 y) underwent pQCT and MRI dual‐leg mid‐thigh imaging before (PRE) and after (POST) 6 weeks of resistance training for quantification of mid‐thigh mCSA and change in mCSA. mCSA agreement at both time points and absolute change in mCSA across time was assessed using Bland‐ Altman plots for mean bias and 95% limits of agreement (LOA), as well as Lin's concordance correlation coefficients (CCC). Both …

Sustainable Living At Imsa, Vignesh Tiruvannamalai, Zuyu Liu

Goal 4: Intrapersonal Intelligence Narrative

Students will collect any recyclable materials they have discarded to create wing decorations in conjunction with everyone in the wing and learn about sustainability, including statistics and lifestyle guidance.

Monarch Science Observer, Volume 18, College Of Sciences, Old Dominion University

College of Sciences Newsletter

Spring 2024, issue of Monarch Science Observer, ODU Colleges of Sciences Newsletter.

How To Spark Bio Curiosity: An Innovative High School Biology Curriculum, Audrie Charles

Graduate Research Showcase

This project is a researched creative endeavor focused around the creation of an exemplary high school biology course. This presentation will showcase an original high school biology curriculum designed to ignite students’ innate curiosity and empower meaningful learning of core concepts like cell structure, genetics, evolution and ecology. Students revisit key ideas through a spiral curriculum that builds complexity, tackling open-ended problems and collaborating on hands-on inquiries like formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, collecting data and drawing evidence-based conclusions. Tangible projects allow students to demonstrate content knowledge in addition to critical thinking abilities like synthesizing concepts, evaluating claims and applying learning …

Quantifying Costs And Benefits Of Alternative Overwintering Strategies In A Southeastern Population Of Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Horridus), John Powers, Amber Stubbs, Alfred J. Mead, Dominic L. Desantis

Graduate Research Showcase

Temperate reptile populations are under strong selective pressure to minimize the costs of extreme winter temperatures. For high latitude and high elevation snake populations, this has often favored communal overwintering behavior, wherein large numbers of conspecifics aggregate at optimal sites given the limited availability of such features in the environment. Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) are distributed across a wide latitudinal gradient in North America, and therefore represent ideal models for exploring how variable winter selective regimes might favor different strategies. Here, we leverage a unique intermediate population of C. horridus from central Georgia, USA, that exhibits both communal …

Hedgehog Signaling And Congenital Disorders; The Case Of Anencephaly And Polydactyly, Joshua Towery

First-Year Research Immersion (FRI) Scholarship

The Hedgehog pathway is a fundamental signaling pathway in the human body; involved in carcinogenesis, stem cell maintenance, as well as limb patterning in embryonic development. Originally discovered in drosophila, their initial discovery, and subsequent analysis revealed many novel pieces of information about the mechanisms inside the human body, as many core components of the signaling pathway are carried over from fruit flies to humans. Because of the key roles hedgehog signaling plays in human development, dysfunction and mutations in the pathway can be detrimental. This review will focus on two congenital birth defects thought to be caused by hedgehog …

The Plant Disease Triangle Facing Climate Change: A Molecular Perspective, Charles Roussin-Léveillée, Christina A. M. Rossi, Christian Castroverde, Peter Moffett

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Socioecological Assessment Of Birds In Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve, Eli Taub

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Effective management of natural resources requires consideration of the environment through both a physical and a sociological lens. In this study, the birds in Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve were examined through both a biological mist-net survey and a socioecological series of interviews with people living in the surrounding villages. The mist-net survey compared the understory species in undisturbed and disturbed area of the forest, as well as analyzing birds caught for biologically meaningful information on subspecies and sexual dimorphism. While the mist-net survey was largely unsuccessful, highlighting the need for alternative bird capture methods in Ngezi, it found a decrease …

Festival Of Research Abstracts, Spring 2024, College Of Science And Mathematics, Wright State University

Festival of Research

The collection of abstracts accepted for the Spring 2024 Festival of Research hosted by the Wright State University College of Science and Mathematics.

White-Fronted Capuchins (Cebus Albifrons Aequatorialis) In La Hesperia Cloud Forest Reserve: A Study Of Aggressive Behaviors In Response To Human Presence, Marin Lynch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchin, Cebus albifrons aequatorialis, is a critically endangered primate species native to Ecuador and northern Peru. Their population consists of only a handful of surviving troops spread out across this region. One surviving population exists in La Hesperia Cloud Forest Reserve in Ecuador. This reserve serves as an education and volunteer site for dozens of international travelers every year. I studied the effect of the presence of humans and the lodging they have constructed. Specifically, I investigated the effect on behavior of the proximity of the troops alpha male to manmade structures in the reserve. I …

Climate Change: An Existential Threat To Humanity, Brayden Asher Roy

Honors Projects in Biological and Biomedical Sciences

According to President Joe Biden, "Climate change is an existential threat to humanity" (Biden, 2020), one that requires the fullest attention from leaders within the international community. Research into the impacts of anthropogenic behavior on the climate began as early as the 1870s. When the clean energy movement generated support in the 1980s, fossil fuel companies responded to protect their existing business model that a transition to renewable energy would dismantle. Within the United States, through the suppression of information and lobbying of politicians, fossil fuel companies turned the concept of climate change into a partisan issue. Based on scientific …

Ccrg Soil Report, Cassandra Demlow, Cherith Pickett, David Ogboro

Student Papers and Reports

The goal of this project is to measure the ionic composition of a variety of soil samples, primarily using the ion chromatography technique. We also compared the ionic composition of multiple layers of the same sample.