Life Sciences Commons^™

Reducing Short-Chain Pfas Levels In California Water Supplies, Manu Prabandham

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis proposes twelve specific policies based on precedents set by prior regulation of persistent organic pollutants (such as PCBs), the costs and benefits of short-chain PFAS, technologies available to remove and destroy short-chain PFAS, and the roles and limitations of California’s regulatory institutions. The twelve policies are chosen to be politically and financially feasible, effective at removing short-chain PFAS from water supplies, and equitable towards lower-income and minority Californians, who suffer the most from the consequences of PFAS and other environmental pollutants. The new definitions, education campaigns, studies, taxes, bans, standards, testing, and filtration systems proposed are intended to …

Using Virus Like Particle Conjugates Of Synthetic Targeting Compounds To Deliver Chemotherapeutic Drugs To Cancer Stem Cells, Austen W. Kerzee

Chemistry Theses

Cancer stem cells are a type of cell that have the properties of both cancer cells and stem cells. They can differentiate into other types of cancer cells, are resistant to conventional chemotherapeutics, and seem to contribute greatly to the metastasis and recurrence of cancer. Due to these properties, eliminating cancer stem cells would be greatly beneficial in the treatment of cancer. While there have been approved therapeutic methods for the removal of a few of the cancer stem cells types, treatment for most types of cancer stem cells are still in the experimental phase and have yet to be …

Forage Preference In Two Geographically Co-Occurring Fungus Gardening Ants (Formicidae): A Novel Dietary Dna Approach, Matthew Richards-Perhatch V

Biology Theses

Existing biological techniques, when applied in novel ways or to novel systems, can be used to overcome long-standing obstacles. Limitations resulting from traditional methods of forage material identification make resource partitioning impractical to study in non-leafcutting fungus gardening ants. This thesis explores the use of dietary DNA (dDNA) metabarcoding as a method of forage material identification in ant fungus gardens. We hypothesize that dDNA analysis will be sufficient to identify forage material in the gardens of co-occurring species Trachymyrmex septentrionalis and Mycetomoellerius turrifex. Furthermore, we hypothesize that T. septentrionalis and M. turrifex will forage on significantly different …

Lingnan Gardeners Newsletter (No. 69) = 彩園通訊 (第69期), Lingnan Gardeners, Centre For Cultural Research And Development, Lingnan University

Lingnan Gardeners Newsletter 嶺南彩園通訊

No abstract provided.

Sdgs And Circularity In Fashion Industry: Bruneian Perspective Based On Basic Values, Izzah Mohd Noor, Shahid Anjum

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

The fashion industry is facing significant textile waste, with millions of textiles ending up in landfills annually. Overconsumption of textiles and clothes due to fast fashion trends has negative environmental impacts. Transitioning to a circular economy is crucial for minimizing environmental impact and addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda. This study investigates the adoption of Circular Economy practices and SDGs awareness in second-hand clothing. Using IBM SPSS Statistics Software and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, the study models consumer behaviors, and attitudes by investigating the influence of four key components from Schwartz's theory of …

Factors Influencing Consumers' Intention To Use Over-The-Top (Ott) Services: A Study In Brunei Darussalam, Hjh Faralisa Hj Zulfikri, Heru Susanto

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

The market for over-the-top (OTT) services has witnessed significant growth and transformation, presenting new opportunities and challenges to service providers. This study aims to explore the factors that influence consumers' intention to use OTT services, focusing on the context of Brunei Darussalam. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a theoretical framework, this study investigates the impact of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, innovativeness, service quality, information seeking, and entertainment on consumers' intention to use OTT services. A quantitative research approach was adopted and data were collected through an online survey conducted among the general public in Brunei …

Corporate Influence At Public Universities: Upholding The Conventional Agricultural Paradigm, Michaela Jones

Pitzer Senior Theses

The agriculture sector is responsible for feeding the planet but faces many growing threats as climate change worsens. Conventional agriculture practices, which are widespread, are both contributing to climate change and likely to become less feasible in future years. Regenerative agriculture provides a possible path forward but is not widely studied at public and land grant universities where much agricultural research takes place, in part because of significant corporate influence at these schools. Corporate influence can take many forms, and can include research funding by individual companies or industry groups, philanthropic giving in the form of buildings, research centers, and …

Braking And Propulsion Phase Characteristics Of Traditional And Accentuated Eccentric Loaded Back Squats, Timothy J. Suchomel, Conor J. Cantwell, Brookelyn A. Campbell, Zach S. Schroeder, Lauren K. Marshall, Christopher Taber

Exercise Science Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in braking and propulsion force-time characteristics and barbell velocity between traditional (TRAD) and accentuated eccentric loaded (AEL) back squats using various load combinations. Sixteen resistance-trained men participated in four separate testing sessions which included a one repetition maximum (1RM) back squat during the first session and three squat testing sessions. During the squat testing sessions, participants either performed sets of three repetitions of TRAD back squats each with 50, 60, 70, and 80% 1RM or performed the same loads with the addition of weight releasers that increased the total eccentric …

Investigating Antimicrobial Producing Bacteria Within The Soil, Adam Zwawi

A with Honors Projects

Genetic sequencing techniques used to identify soil antibiotic bacteria

Mechanistic Insights Into Direct Interactions That Mediate The Activity Of Dot1l Complex In Mll-Rearranged Leukemia, Ali Cihan

Student Theses and Dissertations

Acute leukemia can arise from the translocation-mediated fusion of the N terminus of the Mixed Lineage Leukemia (MLL) protein to various partner proteins. Although more than 60 different translocation-based fusion proteins have been identified, fusion partners such as AF9, AF10, and ENL constitute the majority of the MLL-rearranged leukemia cases; additionally, these fusion partners are also a part of the DOT1L (disruptor of telomeric silencing 1-like) complex. Aberrant histone H3 Lysine 79 (H3K79) methylation catalyzed by DOT1L was shown to be crucial for the maintenance of MLL-rearranged leukemia. DOT1L is the only known H3K79 methyltransferase, and further, a DOT1L inhibitor …

Connecting Female Mating Decisions And Male Courtship Strategies In Drosophila, Rufei Li

Student Theses and Dissertations

In many species, males have evolved elaborate behavioral patterns to attract females or repel rival males. The neural mechanisms mediating these male behavioral traits and how females use them to guide their mating decisions remain elusive. In this thesis,I present our efforts to uncover the neural logic underlying mate selection in Drosophila melanogaster. Unlike males who display overt courtship behaviors in pursuit of a female mate, including chasing her and singing a courtship song to her, female behaviors during courtship are subtle, making it challenging to infer how a female's sexual receptivity fluctuates based on the male's performance.To gain insight …

Rna Therapeutics For Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Christoph Neumayer

Student Theses and Dissertations

Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FLC) is a rare liver cancer characterized by a recurrent fusion of the heat shock protein DNAJB1 and the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PRKACA). Due to limited efficacy of conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation my work explored new therapeutic options. As DNAJB1::PRKACA is known to initiate tumorigenesis, I reasoned that it would be an ideal target for a therapeutic. However, it was not known if FLC tumors are still dependent on DNAJB1::PRKACA or if cells achieved independence of the initial oncogene. To test if FLC is dependent on the oncokinase I screened short …

Urban Nature Indexes Tool Offers Comprehensive And Flexible Approach To Monitoring Urban Ecological Performance, Jennifer Rae Pierce, Laura Costadone, Lelani Mannetti, Joeri Morpurgo, Charlyn Elaine Green, Michael D. Halder, Pablo Arturo Lopez Guijosa, Abner L. Bogan, Russell Galt, Jonathan Hughes

ODU Articles

We present the Urban Nature Indexes (UNI), a comprehensive tool that measures urban ecological performance under one standard framework linked to global commitments. The UNI was developed by interdisciplinary experts and evaluated by practitioners from diverse cities to capture each city’s ecological footprint from local to global scale. The UNI comprises six themes (consumption drivers, human pressures, habitat status, species status, nature’s contributions to people, and governance responses) that encompass measurable impacts on climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem services, pollution, consumption, water management, and equity within one comprehensive system. Cities then adapt the UNI to their context and capacity by …

Acute Ingestion Of Dark Chocolate Fails To Affect Running Economy In Recreationally Trained Female Runners, Bianca De Lucia, Beau K. Greer, Christopher B. Taber

PTHMS Graduate Publications

Ingestion of dark chocolate (DC), a dietary source high in flavanols, may increase nitric oxide bioavailability. Elevating blood nitric oxide concentrations may augment metabolic efficiency by reducing the amount of oxygen or energy needed to perform a given task. Utilizing a crossover design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of acute ingestion of DC on running economy (RE). Nineteen recreationally trained females (age: 20±1 years) volunteered for this investigation, with 16 completing all procedures (n = 16). Two-hours before RE assessment, participants consumed either 42.5 g of DC or an isocaloric amount of white chocolate (WC) …

Effect Of Dietary Flavonoids On Growth In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Vivian Rivera

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Plant foods contain a diversity of biologically active compounds called phytochemicals, produced by plant species as secondary metabolites. A phytochemical group known as flavonoids has received much scientific attention in recent times with respect to their antioxidative and anti-inflammatory roles. This investigation examined how quercetin and naringenin, the most common dietary flavonoids, affect growth potential of yeast under optimal and stress conditions (temperature, glucose, and oxidative stress). Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model, a dose dependency effect of quercetin and naringenin was observed under optimal conditions when liquid cultures were treated with three different concentrations (75 μM, 150 μM, and …

Probing Ligands To Reaction Centers To Limit The Photocycle In Photosynthetic Bacterium Rubrivivax Gelatinosus, Mariann Kis, James L. Smart, Péter Maróti

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Light-induced electron flow between reaction center and cytochrome bc1 complexes is mediated by quinones and electron donors in purple photosynthetic bacteria. Upon high-intensity excitation, the contribution of the cytochrome bc1 complex is limited kinetically and the electron supply should be provided by the pool of reduced electron donors. The kinetic limitation of electron shuttle between reaction center and cytochrome bc1 complex and its consequences on the photocycle were studied by tracking the redox changes of the primary electron donor (BChl dimer) via absorption change and the opening of the closed reaction center via relaxation of the bacteriochlorophyll fluorescence in intact …

Chronic Kidney Disease Nutritional Management: Developing A Guideline, Benjamin L. Wallace

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

The global prevalence and incidence of those with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are unknown. Thirty-seven million adults are estimated to have CKD and need nutritional assessment, education, and management to prevent further kidney damage and mortality (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022; United States Renal Data System, 2022). Maintaining the nutritional requirements for CKD is listed as a global concern in the Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) Clinical Practice Guideline for Nutrition in CKD 2020 (Ikizler et al., 2020). After a review of more than 50 publications, five recommendations were developed and proposed. A team of multidisciplinary stakeholders, …

Implementation Of Prognosticator Algorithm For Initiation Of Serious Illness Discussions And Improving The Rate Of Palliative And Hospice Referrals, Joy Isebor

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Context: Early serious illness conversations related to end-of-life and goals of care with seriously ill patients have been associated with improving patients' outcomes and quality of care (Bernacki et al., 2015). However, initiating these serious illness discussions has been challenging in the home-based primary care setting.

Objectives: To train and support home-based primary care clinicians in integrating best practices in serious illness discussions and decision-making engagement among patients sixty-five and older with serious illnesses, optimize the alignment between patient goals and the medical care they receive, improving their quality of life and the rate of palliative care and hospice referrals. …

Language Models For Rare Disease Information Extraction: Empirical Insights And Model Comparisons, Shashank Gupta

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

End-to-end relation extraction (E2ERE) is a crucial task in natural language processing (NLP) that involves identifying and classifying semantic relationships between entities in text. This thesis compares three paradigms for end-to-end relation extraction (E2ERE) in biomedicine, focusing on rare diseases with discontinuous and nested entities. We evaluate Named Entity Recognition (NER) to Relation Extraction (RE) pipelines, sequence-to-sequence models, and generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models using the RareDis information extraction dataset. Our findings indicate that pipeline models are the most effective, followed closely by sequence-to-sequence models. GPT models, despite having eight times as many parameters, perform worse than sequence-to-sequence models and …

Functional Analyses Of The Polycomb-Group Genes In Sea Lamprey Embryos Undergoing Programmed Dna Loss, Cody Saraceno

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

During early embryonic development, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) undergoes programmatic elimination of DNA from somatic progenitor cells in a process termed programmed genome rearrangement (PGR). Eliminated DNA eventually becomes condensed into micronuclei, which are then physically degraded and permanently lost from the cell. Previous studies indicated that many of the genes eliminated during PGR have mammalian homologs that are bound by polycomb repressive complex (PRC) in embryonic stem cells. To test whether PRC components play a role in the faithful elimination of germline-specific sequences, we used a combination of CRISPR/Cas9 and lightsheet microscopy to investigate the impact …

Effects Of Neonatal Estradiol Treatment On Regulating Sexual Differentiation Of Daily Rhythms Underlying Diet-Induced Obesity In Female Mice, Samuel Nwadialo

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Sex differences of the brain and behavior often require the combination of organizational and activational effects of sex hormones. The activational effects of estrogens in adult female mice protect daily eating and activity rhythms from disruption by high-fat diet feeding and inhibit diet-induced obesity. However, male mice have disrupted eating rhythms when fed high-fat diet and this causes obesity. Treatment of adult male mice with estradiol does not protect rhythms from disruption by high-fat diet, as it does in females. In this study, we sought to determine whether the organizational effects of estradiol masculinize the daily eating and activity rhythms …

Investigations Across Biology And Education: Exploring The Gut Microbiome Of Freshwater Mussels And Understanding Undergraduate Biology Student Motivation, Mary Foley

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

A PhD aims to make a unique contribution to the current body of knowledge while developing as an independent researcher and critical thinker. This dissertation covers a wide range of topics, from microbiome analysis to biology education. Although there is no broad overarching research theme, all the chapters are connected by the process of scientific inquiry and by their contribution to the completion of a PhD.

Chapter One serves as a comprehensive literature review, delving into the standard methods of measuring the health of at-risk species. It describes direct measures of health (e.g., birth and death rates) crucial for predicting …

Estrogen Signaling Regulates The Sex Difference In Resynchronization To Abrupt Shifts Of The Light-Dark Cycle In A Mouse Model Of Jet Lag, Maria Venegas

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The circadian system coordinates 24-hour cycles of internal biological processes with the environmental light-dark cycle. Abrupt shifts in the timing of the light-dark cycle misalign internal circadian clocks with the environment and cause jet lag until resynchronization occurs. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying sex differences in jet lag in mice. Female mice resynchronized faster than male mice to 6-hour advances and delays of the light-dark cycle, which mimicked eastward and westward travel, respectively. Circulating estradiol was necessary for rapid resynchronization in female mice since ovariectomized females resynchronized slower than mice treated with estradiol. We …

All Eyes On The Spiny Mouse: An Investigation Into Acomys Dimidiatus As A Model For Retinal Biology And Regeneration, Jessica D. Bills

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The retina is a complex tissue with six types of neurons, supported by an intrinsic glia cell, that work in concert to input a visual stimulus and relay a visual message to the brain. Efficient communication between neurons is vital to this process and each neuron plays a significant role in vision. When retinal neurons degenerate, that visual signal is lost. Degenerative eye diseases affect the neurons of the retina in millions of people world-wide and can ultimately lead to blindness. While treatments are evolving, most are designed to prevent further damage; the field has yet to piece together how …

Effects Of Pancreatic Amylin On The Peripheral And Cns Immune Response In A Model Of Type-2 Diabetic Brain Injury, Edric Da'shon Winford

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

Type-2 diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic disorder that increases the risk for cerebrovascular disease and dementia and is associated with the progression of Alzheimer's Disease; however, the mechanisms responsible for T2D-associated dementia are still poorly understood. T2D leads to alterations of the innate and adaptive immune response that contribute to its progression, but how these cells contribute to cognitive decline during T2D is unknown. As there are no approved therapeutics for T2D that modulate the immune response, it is important that we investigate how peripheral immune cells contribute to cognitive decline during T2D. Amylin is an amyloidogenic hormone synthesized and …

Caenorhabditis Elegans Rapgef Promotes Synaptic Development Through A Small G Protein Signaling Cascade, Reagan Em Lamb

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

Synaptic dysfunction is a major contributor toward the development of many neurological disorders. For proper development, synapses require a series of signaling pathways to guide them, but not all the mechanisms underlying these processes are understood. Here, we used the neuromuscular junction of Caenorhabditis elegans as a model circuitry for examining underlying pathways that mediate proper development of synapses. We hypothesized that the C. elegans RapGEF2 and RapGEF6 orthologue, PXF-1, contributed toward development of cholinergic synapses at the neuromuscular junction. Using behavioral assays and fluorescence microscopy, we found that pxf-1 mutant animals had decreased neuromuscular junction function and decreased synaptic …

Contributions Of The Replication Initiator Protein Dnaa To Physiology And Virulence Of The Lyme Disease Spirochete, Andrew Krusenstjerna

Theses and Dissertations--Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiological agent of Lyme disease, is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the United States. The spirochetal population is naturally maintained by consistently cycling between Ixodid ticks and small vertebrates. To survive within these diverse niches, B. burgdorferi has evolved a unique physiology and regulatory network to sense and respond to environmental fluxes. Replication is a hallmark of the Lyme spirochete’s enzootic life cycle, specifically at the nymphal tick-to-vertebrate interface. The mechanisms and regulatory schema for the basic cellular processes in B. burgdorferi, or indeed any member of the phylum spirochaetota, are largely unknown. The central hypothesis …

Characterizing Age-Associated Cd19+ B Cells After Stroke In Aged Male And Female Mice Reveals Sex-Dependent Functional Recovery, Katie Colson

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

Age-Associated B cells (ABCs) are atypical memory B cells commonly expressing CD11b, CD11c, and T-bet. We hypothesized that aged female mice would have worse functional outcomes after stroke due to higher brain-localized ABCs. We identified 6 ABC subsets expressed in the brain, with higher levels in uninjured animals versus 3 weeks after stroke. Contradictory to my hypothesis, aged uninjured males with higher numbers of Classical ABCs (CD11bhighCXCR5+/CXCR5-) in the brain exhibited better motor function, though with limited differences by injury or sex for other classical ABC subsets. Rare CD11b+CXCR5+ populations from uninjured mice secreted more IFN-γ when exposed to TLR7/9 …

Genetic And Metabolic Factors Shaping Functional And Systemic Recovery Post-Spinal Cord Injury: A Focus On Apoe, Chase Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

There are currently approximately 300,000 individuals living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) in the United States with an additional 17,000 injuries occurring each year. Perhaps of equal importance the median age at which an SCI occurs within the population has steadily increased since the 1970s to the 2010s from 29 years to 43 years and is still on the rise. Women, historically underrepresented in biomedical research, have also seen a slight increase in SCI incidence. This increase in age of injury onset means that more people with an SCI will be impacted by genetic factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease …

Design Of Kappa Opioid Receptor Agonists For Potential Treatment Of Multiple Sclerosis, Lindsay Kornberger

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system characterized by demyelination and neuroinflammation. There is currently no cure for MS. There is a critically unmet need for the development of pharmacotherapies that can induce remyelination promoting both repair and recovery. The kappa opioid receptor (KOR) has been identified as a potential target for the development of remyelinating pharmacotherapies. KOR activation has been shown to promote functional recovery and remyelination preclinically. However, typical KOR agonists like U50,488 have limitations such as sedation and dysphoria limiting their use. This necessitates further development of new KOR agonists that maintain …