Life Sciences Commons^™

Thyroid Hemiagenesis Associated With Oncocytic Type Follicular Adenoma With Kras Mutation - A Case Report, Sam Joseph, Zhiwei Zhang, Donald Eagerton, Rana Hoda

South Atlantic Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

A Bayesian Approach To The Analysis Of Dose-Response Data: Estimating Natural Survivorship Without Abbott’S Correction And Inclusion Of Overdispersion Estimates, Michael A. Caprio, Jose B. Malaquias, Dominic Reisig

CALS Publications

We assessed the utility of a Bayesian analysis of dose-mortality curves using probit analysis. A Bayesian equivalent of a conventional single population probit analysis using Abbott’s correction demonstrated the ability of the Bayesian model to recover parameters from generative data. We then developed a model that removed Abbott’s correction and estimated natural survivorship as part of the overall model fitting process. Based on WAIC (information content) scores, this model was selected over the model using Abbott’s corrected data in 196 out of 200 randomly generated datasets. This suggests that considerable information on control survivorship exists in the response to treated …

Invasion Ecology Of Alternanthera Philoxeroides, Cyperus Blepharoleptos, Panicum Repens, And Triadica Sebifera, Samuel A. Schmid, Adrián Lázaro-Lobo, Cory M. Shoemaker, Andrew Sample, Mackenzie Cade, Gary N. Ervin, Gray Turnage

GRI Publications

Several invasion ecology hypotheses explain patterns of invasion, but these effects are often complex and multifaceted. Within the study of aquatic invasive species, small aquatic ecosystems are often neglected, despite them representing most global freshwater bodies. This study uses community composition and environmental and geographic factors to explain the occurrence of invasive species in small lakes in the southeastern United States. Specifically, this study predicted that several ecosystem factors would predict the probability of occurrence of invasive species of the lakes studied. Four of the most common invasive species were selected as the focus of this study: Alternanthera philoxeroides, Cyperus …

Honey Bee Image Dataset For Machine Learning And Computer Vision Model Building, Piyush Chaudhary, Connor Foley, Sathishkumar Samiappan, Leon Kohler, Volkan Senyurek, Dawson Boes, Priyadarshini Chakrabarti

GRI Publications

The dataset consists of 4,590 frames distributed across 15 different video recordings representing diverse lighting and seasonal conditions of honey bee activity. These frames were labeled in three classes: non pollen carrying worker honey bees, pollen carrying worker honey bees, and drone bees. The frames were extracted from videos captured using GoPro Hero 9 and Hero 11 cameras in a research apiary at Mississippi State University. The video recording process was accompanied with data collection of environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed, solar radiation and other weather conditions. It provides contextual information related to bee behavior …

Short-Term Impacts Of Biochar And Mycorrhizal Inoculation For Pinus Echinata Reforestation On Strip-Mined Soils, Casey Iwamoto, Courtney Siegert, Joshua J. Granger, Adam Polinko, Krishna P. Poudel, Zachary Freedman

FWRC Publications

Coal strip mining has left widespread degraded soils throughout the southeastern US. These soils tend to have low pH, high bulk density, impacted hydrologic processes, and an accumulation of heavy metals that limit revegetation efforts. Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) is an ideal species for these reforestation efforts as it can tolerate the poor conditions on post-mined sites and has the largest native pine range in the southeastern US, overlapping with many post-mined areas. However, limited empirical field studies have been conducted on the success of soil amendments for soil physical, chemical, biological properties and tree growth. To fill …

Effects Of Dietary Rumen-Protected Choline Supplementation To Periparturient Dairy Cattle On Inflammation And Metabolism In Mammary And Liver Tissue During An Intramammary Lipopolysaccharide Challenge, Turner H. Swartz, Barry Bradford, Laman Mamedova, Kari Estes

Dairy Science and Food Science Faculty Publications: 2022 to Present

The objective of this experiment was to examine the effects of supplementation and dose of rumenprotected choline (RPC) on markers of inflammation and metabolism in liver and mammary tissue during an intramammary lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. Parous Holstein cows were blocked by calving month and randomly assigned within block to receive 45 g/d of RPC (20.4 g/d of choline ions; CHOL45), 30 g/d of RPC (13.6 g/d of choline ions; CHOL30), or no RPC (CON) as a top-dress starting 24 d before expected calving until 21 d postpartum. Cows were alternately assigned within treatment group to either receive an intramammary LPS …

Translation Of: Trembley À Réaumur, Abraham Trembley, Morgan Mclaughlin

Biology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

While examining a jar filled with aquatic plants and animals, Abraham Trembley, a young tutor working for Count William Bentinck in the Netherlands, noticed tiny, green, tube-shaped organisms attached to aquatic plants. Uncertain whether they were plants or animals, he devised a brilliant series of experiments to understand their biology. He observed them contract when disturbed and take steps towards a light, gathering in front of a chevron-shaped opening in a piece of cardboard. Nearly convinced they were animals, he cut one in half expecting to see it die. Instead, it regenerated two perfectly formed bodies from the severed halves. …

Coleoptera Of Brazil: What We Knew Then And What We Know Now. Insights From The Catálogo Taxonômico Da Fauna Do Brasil, Edilson Caron, Marcela L. Monné, Geoffrey Morse, Et Al.

Biology: Faculty Scholarship

In 2000, Cleide Costa published a paper presenting the state of knowledge of the Neotropical Coleopte ra, with a focus on the Brazilian fauna. Twenty-four years later, thanks to the development of the Coleoptera section of the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna (CTFB - Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil) through the collaboration of 100 coleopterists from all over the globe, we can build on Costa’s work and present an updated overview of the state of knowledge of the beetles from Brazil. There are currently 35,699 species in 4,958 genera and 116 families known to occur in the country, …

An Overview Of The Brazilian Chrysomelidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): The Most Species-Rich Beetle Family In Brazil, Adelita M. Linzmeier, Luciano De A. Moura, Cibele S. Ribeiro-Costa, Daiara Manfio, Federico Agrain, Maria L. Chamorro, Geoffrey Morse, Renato Regalin, Lukáš Sekerka

Biology: Faculty Scholarship

The leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) are one of the most species-rich family of herbivorous beetles with about 45,000 species worldwide. Based on the contributions of chrysomelidologists to the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna - CTFB, the family comprises 6,079 species in 562 genera of which 951 species are endemic to Brazil, standing out as the most diverse, representing 4.8% of the Brazilian fauna and 17.1% of the beetle species. Chrysomelidae has twelve subfamilies with nine reported to Brazil: Galerucinae, the richest with 1,916 species in 202 genera, followed by Cassidinae, Eumolpinae, Cryptocephalinae, Chrysomelinae, Bruchinae, Criocerinae, Lamprosomatinae and Sagrinae - this …

How Does A Global Climate Cycle Affect The Reproductive Output Of A Neotropical Migratory Bird?, Abby K. Bressette, Emma Cummings, Daniel Albrecht-Mallinger, Lesley Bulluck

UROP Posters

El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) causes regional changes in climate and has been found to have varying effects on the survival, fecundity, and recruitment of migratory songbirds. This study seeks to better understand the effect of ENSO on the fecundity of Virginia-breeding Prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea; PROW), a neotropical migratory songbird. PROW breed in the Eastern United States and spend the non-breeding season primarily in Panama and Colombia. Ongoing research in Virginia has found a positive relationship between spring precipitation and predicted number of PROW fledgelings during La Niña, but the opposite during El Niño. To better understand this relationship, we …

Carry-Over Effects Of Climate On Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria Citrea) Feather Quality, Alyssa N. Spasic, Dan Albrecht-Mallinger, Lesley Bulluck

UROP Posters

Avian species have inspired numerous studies on ornamentation, exploring its role in intra- and intersexual selection as a marker for individual quality. Male birds have been the focus of most of these studies while females, which can also display ornamentation, have been studied less. Coloration achieved through molt, particularly carotenoid-based pigments, requires energy derived from food resources. As climate affects insect abundance, there may be a link between climate conditions during molt and feather quality the following season. We assessed the relationship between temperature and precipitation during molt and female Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) breast and crown feather reflectance metrics …

A Comparison Of Three Dna Extraction Methods On 45-Year-Old Pupae Cases, Ananya Udyaver, Casey Flint, Jeffery Tomberlin, Baneshwar Singh

UROP Posters

Blow flies are the primary colonizers of human cadavers. In many death investigations, insect evidence can help in prediction of minimum post-mortem interval (PMImin) but to do that, the first step is to identify collected insect evidence. For immature stages, morphological keys are either limited or incomplete and hence DNA based identification is used. For DNA based ID, DNA extraction is the first and the most important step, especially when collected evidence is highly degraded. The main aim of this study was to compare three DNA extraction methods (QIAgen Blood and Tissue Kit, organic, and QIAgen DNA Investigator Kit) to …

A Rainy Day For Cancer: The Characterization And Utilization Of The Long Non-Coding Rna Lnc-Rainy In The Radiation Response Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Emily S. Rice

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Lung Cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. While important improvements have been made to the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), treatment resistance is a critical issue facing the majority of patients. Previously, our lab identified a group of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) known as linc-SPRY3 RNAs, expressed on the Y-chromosome, that play a role in radiation sensitivity by decreasing tumor burden in vitro and in vivo after radiation. Through molecular cloning methods and further functional characterization, here we present evidence that the linc-SPRY3 RNAs were originally mischaracterized as individual linc-RNAs but are in fact parts …

Immunomodulation In Osteosarcoma: From Therapy To Diagnostics, Ryan Austin Lacinski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a rare pediatric bone malignancy. Those who develop advanced disease, often in the form of metastasis to the lung, experience poor five-year survival rates near approximately 25%. Considering minimal-to-no therapeutic breakthroughs have occurred for treatment of this disease since the 1980s, efforts to develop new therapeutics are underway. The goal of this dissertation was to initiate the preclinical efforts necessary to reinvigorate the use of immunostimulatory cytokine therapy for the treatment of OS and other solid tumors. This effort would not only include the development of the immunotherapeutic known as IL12ns, but also the clinical diagnostic tools …

Climate Change And Coastal Development Impacts On Oyster Abundances In Mosquito Lagoon, Fl, Emily Suchonic

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Live eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs have declined by 62.6% in Mosquito Lagoon (ML) along the eastern Florida coast since 1943. While this species creates reefs by successive generations of oysters recruiting to conspecific shells, C. virginica can also attach to non-reef substrates including mangrove roots and armoring (e.g., seawalls), which may help counteract reef habitat loss. In recent decades, warmer winters have enabled red (Rhizophora mangle) and black (Avicennia germinans) mangrove expansion in subtropical salt marshes and temperate estuaries where oyster reefs occur. Additionally, 11.8% of ML's shorelines have been armored as of …

Examining Changes In Pain Sensitivity Following 8 Minutes Of Cycling At Varying Exercise Intensities, Brandi B. Antonio

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study assessed the effect of an eight-minute cycling intervention using varying intensities on exercise-induced hypoalgesia (EIH). Generally, current research examines EIH using protocols that last for more than 10 minutes and reach 75% of an individual's VO2 peak. The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of varying intensities on pressure pain threshold (PPT) and heat pain threshold (HPT) at the thigh and forearm, tested pre- and post-cycling intervention.

Healthy male participants (n=16) performed a graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer to establish their peak power output (PPO). In subsequent visits, participants completed five different …

Uracil Landscape Of Mouse B Cell Genome Undergoing Class-Switch Recombination, Fathima Rukshana Mohamad Ramshan

Wayne State University Dissertations

Activation-induced cytosine deaminase (AID) is required for both somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) within mammalian antibody genes. Uracils created by AID in the Ig loci are recognized and processed by base-excision and mismatch repair pathways leading to antibody diversification. This involves a hypermutation process restricted to the V(D)J segments of the immunoglobulin genes, SHM, and an error-prone end-joining process that causes isotype switching, CSR, but the molecular details of these processes have remained obscure for the past 20+ years. Most studies of SHM and CSR have used AID-promoted mutations as a proxy for the uracils, but their …

Dietary Folate Regulates Organismal Growth And Longevity, Aiman Shahab

Wayne State University Dissertations

Folate (Vitamin B9) is an essential cofactor in one-carbon transfer reactions. It is involved in multiple critical processes including DNA synthesis, DNA methylation, protein synthesis and antioxidant defense mechanisms. Inadequate intake and availability of folate is a known risk factor for several diseases. The effect of folate deficiency in causing adverse health outcome is well documented. Recently, excess folate exposure has been associated with deleterious effects on health in humans and animal models. However, the underlying mechanisms involved in mediating such effects are poorly understood, requiring extensive investigations. This work was conducted to understand the effect of excess folate on …

Paralog Switching Facilitates Diadromy: Ontogenetic, Microevolutionary And Macroevolutionary Evidence, Rebecca S. Colby, Stephen D. Mccormick, Jonathan P. Velotta, Elizabeth Jockusch, Eric T. Schultz

EEB Articles

Euryhalinity is present in diverse aquatic taxa and requires flexible osmoregulation to field the challenges posed by differing salinities. Na+, K+-ATPase (NKA) is a ubiquitous ion pump in the gills of fishes and, for some species, paralogs of the catalytic -subunit (NKA 1a and NKA 1b) exhibit reciprocal expression between fresh- and seawater, termed paralog-switching. We investigated the expression and evolution of NKA paralogs in Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), a euryhaline and migratory fish. Comparisons between landlocked and diadromous life history forms and migrant and pre-migrant ontogenetic stages were used to study shifts in NKA paralog expression related to freshwater or …

Behavioral Responses To Chronic And Acute Stressors In Prairie Voles, Yessenia Chavez

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Social isolation has several psychological and physiological consequences including anxiety and depressive-like behaviors, rapid heart rate (HR), and elevated blood pressure. Social isolation also combines with acute environmental stress to influence emotions and behaviors. The present study evaluated behavioral responses to a combination of long-term social stress and acute stress in the prairie vole rodent model, and whether an environmental treatment could protect against anxiety-related consequences of acute and social stress. Prairie voles engage in social behaviors translational to humans, including monogamous relationships, and provide a valuable model for investigating the interactions of social stress and acute environmental stress. In …

Investigating The Effect Of Antibody-Mediated Feedback On Ongoing Germinal Center Responses, Alexandru Barbulescu

Student Theses and Dissertations

Antibodies play a crucial role in protection against a wide range of pathogens. As such, the goal of most vaccinations is to induce immune memory in the form of long-lasting, high-affinity serum antibody titers, which requires the participation of B cells in the germinal center (GC) response. It is well-established that pre-existing antibodies can influence the outcome of future humoral responses; however, whether antibody from an ongoing response can feedback onto contemporaneous GCs to influence B cell clonal selection and affinity maturation in real-time remains poorly understood. Here we present a genetic mouse tool to interrogate the effect of antibody-mediated …

New Insights Into The Evolution Of Learned Vocalization From The Australian Zebra Finch, Taeniopygia Castanotis, Matthew Henry Davenport

Student Theses and Dissertations

The common goal of my thesis is to understand the causative events in evolution that produced a clade of song learning birds from non-song learning ancestors.This information is important for shedding light on the evolution of spoken language in our own human lineage, where evolutionary analyses are technically limited. The most recent common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was presumably a vocal non-learning African ape, alive ~6 mya. At some point between this ancestor and the emergence of modern humans 0.5 mya we evolved more dexterous hand control, bipedalism, light colored eyes, larger brains, less hair, weaker muscles, higher intelligence, …

Breaking Down Microtubule Formation: Characterizing The Biochemical And Cellular Functions Of The Γ-Tubulin Ring Complex, Adi Y. Berman

Student Theses and Dissertations

The γ-Tubulin ring complex (γ-TuRC) is an essential regulator of the microtubule cytoskeleton. It is composed of>30 individual proteins that include the major component, γ-tubulin, as well as γ-tubulin complex proteins 2-6 (GCP2-6), mitotic-spindle organizing proteins associated with a ring of γ-tubulin proteins 1 and 2 (MOZART, or MZT1 and MZT2), and an actin molecule. This ~2.2MDa assembly regulates microtubule dynamics by facilitating the nucleation of new microtubules, modulating microtubule minus-end dynamics by acting as a minus-end cap, and anchoring microtubules to specify their cellular localization. These three major activities of the γ-TuRC, nucleation, capping, and anchoring, contribute to …

Vulnerability To G - Quadruplexes In Brca2 - Null Medulloblastoma: A Protective Role For The Pif1 Helicase, Danielle L. Keahi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The reasons why cancer arises in children are not fully understood. Children with biallelic mutations in the essential DNA repair factor BRCA2 are highly predisposed to develop the most common pediatric brain cancer medulloblastoma (MB) before three years of age. Medulloblastoma is often the first malignancy in these children who have a high likelihood of developing several other cancers in their lifetime. MBs have a complex mutational landscape characterized by chromothripsis in p53-deficient tumors and a high level of somatic mutation in many other cases.We utilized a mouse model of spontaneous medulloblastoma development driven by BRCA2 loss in the central …

On The Second Telomere Maintenance Machine: Structure, Recruitment, And Regulation Of The Cst–Polα/Primase C-Strand Fill-In Complex, Sarah Wang Cai

Student Theses and Dissertations

Telomeres are the terminal nucleo protein components of eukaryotic chromosomes that safeguard genome integrity. Human telomeric DNA consists of double-stranded (ds) 5'-TTAGGG-3' repeats terminating in a 3' single-stranded (ss) overhang of the G-rich strand.The sequence and structure of the telomeric DNA is recognized and bound by the six-subunit shelterin complex, which plays critical roles in telomere protection and maintenance. First, shelterin protects the genome by repressing aberrant activation of the DNA damage response at telomeres, which resemble broken DNA ends. Second, due to their location at the end of the chromosome, telomeres present a unique challenge to the canonical DNA …

Using Small Molecule Tools To Study Atpase Mechanoenzymes, Natalie Jones

Student Theses and Dissertations

The dysregulation of AAA (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) mechanoenzymes has been linked to diseases, and chemical inhibitors and activators can be powerful tools to probe mechanisms and test therapeutic hypotheses. However,the structural conservation across the AAA protein family makes designing selective chemical inhibitors challenging. Additionally, unlike chemical inhibitors that can stabilizea single conformational state of an enzyme, activator binding must be permissive to different conformational states needed for enzyme function, and we do not know how AAA proteins can be activated by small molecules. My thesis work covers the development of a chemical genetics approach to inhibit AAA …

Structual Visualization Of Cytoskeletal Force Tranduction, Ayala Carl

Student Theses and Dissertations

Cells adhere to their surroundings, mechanically interfacing their intracellular actin cytoskeletons with their local extracellular environments. This enables contractile forces generated by myosin motors to mediate transduction of mechanical cues into biochemical signaling pathways by unclear mechanisms. In this thesis, I show that myosin forces elicit conformational transitions in actin filaments (F-actin) that modulate interactions between F-actin and the force-activated cell adhesion protein α-catenin.In vitro reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy reveal myosin force-evoked superhelical F-actin spirals. Three-dimensional reconstruction and variability analysis uncover extensive asymmetric remodeling of F-actin's helical lattice. This is recognized by α-catenin, which cooperatively binds along individual strands, preferentially …

A Platform For Analyzing Force Sensitivity And Multivalency In Actin Networks, Joseph Theo Levin

Student Theses and Dissertations

The physical structure and dynamics of cells are supported by micron-scale actin networks with diverse geometries, protein compositions, and mechanical properties. These networks are composed of actin filaments and numerous actin binding proteins (ABPs), many of which engage multiple filaments simultaneously to crosslink them into specific functional architectures. Mechanical force has been shown to modulate the interactions between several ABPs and individual actin filaments, but it is unclear how this phenomenon contributes to the emergent force-responsive functional dynamics of actin networks. In this thesis, I first present our work engineering filament linker complexes and combining them with photo-micropatterning of myosin …

Elucidating The Role Of Phospholipid Scramblase 1 In Antiviral Innate Immunity, Gabrielle Paniccia

Student Theses and Dissertations

Hosts possess an array of defenses against pathogens, some of which form a baseline protective barrier against infection. This baseline resistance, or intrinsic immunity, is the first layer of cellular defense that a virus must evade or antagonize in order to infect a cell. Intrinsic immunity also forms an important barrier against zoonosis—the transmission of a virus to new species outside its normal host range. Understanding these intrinsic restriction factors and their mechanisms of action can help us understand how pathogens evolve to circumvent or oppose these factors, and identify those pathogens that might be poised to infect new species.In …

Revealing Smc5/6'S Dynamic Behavior On Diverse Dna Topologies Through Single-Molecule Methods, Jeremy Tzu-Huai Chang

Student Theses and Dissertations

The structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) protein complexes serve as critical molecular motors for maintaining genome stability and ensuring faithful genome propagation. As one of the three eukaryotic SMC complexes, the Smc5/6 complex maintains chromosomal stability by coordinating DNA repair processes, promoting successful genome duplication, and silencing viral extrachromosomal DNA. Although these main functionalities have been identified, there is little understanding of how Smc5/6 operates as a versatile molecular machine capable of undertaking different functionalities. And despite being intimately involved with DNA processing reactions, little is known about Smc5/6's dynamic behavior on various DNA substrates, including double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), stretches …