Life Sciences Commons^™

Voluntary Action And Conscious Intention, Jake Gavenas

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Traditional experimental methodology in neuroscience involves comparing responses to different stimuli to make inferences about the human brain. However, human volition entails making decisions and acting in a manner that is underdetermined by the external environment. Investigations of the neuronal basis of volition have led to new controversies regarding the existence of free will, and offer potential directions for medical treatments of disorders such as addiction, akinetic mutism, and locked-in syndrome. However, because volition experiments leave aspects of responses “up to” participants, neuroscientists must utilize computational techniques such as modeling, simulation, and advanced analyses to progress our understanding of human …

A Systems Genetics Approach To Drosophila Melanogaster Models Of Rare And Common Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Rebecca Macpherson

All Dissertations

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are a group of disorders resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure, presenting with neurodevelopmental and facial abnormalities of varying severity. SSRIDDs and CdLS are rare disorders of chromatin modification, resulting in patients with a wide range of craniofacial, digit and/or neurodevelopmental abnormalities. All of these disorders have a wide range of clinical phenotypes and disease severity, yet the role of potential genetic modifiers and gene-gene or gene-environment interactions in disease pathogenesis is largely unknown and cannot be studied in humans. Insufficient numbers of patients with a single rare disorder prevent investigation of genetic factors beyond the focal …

Perspectives On The Application Of Pharmacogenomics In Patient Care, Erika Meaddough

All Dissertations

Pharmacogenomics, the study of the genetic contribution to inter-individual differences in drug response, has great potential for realizing the goals of precision medicine: the right drug, for the right patient, at the right time. However, application in the clinical setting, through the use of pharmacogenetic testing, still has not gained widespread acceptance. This work describes multiple aspects of pharmacogenomics, which drive current research in this field.

Chapter I is an introduction to pharmacogenomics. Regulatory agencies and professional organizations across the globe provide information about gene-drug interactions that could lead to adverse drug reactions, and/or therapeutic failure. Risks for poor health …

Breeding Cotton For Determinate Growth Habit: Increasing Cotton Fiber Yield By Remobilization Of End-Of-Season Perennial Reserves, Salman Naveed

All Dissertations

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is a major export commodity for the U.S. Despite advances in plant breeding and management practices, the cotton yield gains in the U.S. have stagnated. Therefore, to increase cotton fiber yield, we undertook a novel approach by altering the growth habit of cotton from perennial to annual. In this effort, eight genotypes showing strong expression alleles for five floral induction and meristem identity genes were selected from 44 Upland cotton mini-core collection genotypes and genetically crossed in various combinations to stack the strong expression alleles in a genotype. These efforts have allowed us to develop high-yielding, …

Elucidating Mechanisms Of Rad51 Regulation During The Replication Stress Response, Alexandra Hawks

All Dissertations

The genome must be accurately and efficiently replicated each cell cycle to ensure there is not accumulation of mutations or structural rearrangements. When an active replication fork stalls, there are multiple DNA damage tolerance (DTT) pathways that can act to both protect integrity of DNA at the fork and restart replication. RAD51, a vital recombinase, works with HLTF, ZRANB3, and SMARCAL1 or FBH1 to regress stalled replication forks. RAD51 is loaded and stabilized onto the replication fork to protect the newly synthesized DNA from degradation. RAD51 is also active during the template switching DDT pathway. This pathway can be utilized …

Partitioning The Role Of Myocardial Steatosis On Left Ventricular Function, Andrew Oneglia

Kinesiology Dissertations - Archive

Preclinical studies have long suggested that excess lipid accumulation within cardiomyocytes (myocardial steatosis) leads to adverse cardiac remodeling and ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Whether myocardial steatosis negatively affects the human heart is less clear. Innovations in 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), introduced nearly 20 years ago, provide a method for in vivo quantification of myocardial triglyceride content that has been used to describe myocardial steatosis in obesity, type-2 diabetes, and across multiple disease states. However, most of this literature consists of cross-sectional observations. While these studies identify associations between myocardial steatosis and adverse remodeling and/or cardiac function, the presence …

Biodiversity In The Anthropocene, Understanding The Impacts Of Land-Use Change, And Species Interactions., Alexander H. Murray

Biology Dissertations - Archive

The extent of human influences on the environment and biodiversity has led to naming our current time period the Anthropocene. A primary way in which humans impact biodiversity is through habitat modification. Despite the knowledge that habitat modification is negative for many species, we still don’t understand why some species are able to persist despite habitat modification while others do not. In my first chapter I used a trait-based approach to understand what determines species’ sensitivity to habitat modification. Trait-based approaches from different regions often disagree on the importance of the same traits, and I thought climate and land use …

Determining How Anthropogenic Change Filters Biological Communities And How Species Modify Their Traits In Response To Urbanization, Kristopher Warren Row

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Humans are significantly altering the environment at an alarming pace, leading to a reduction in species diversity. This transformation has created modified habitats where some species struggle to survive, while a few others not only manage to survive but thrive. One of the most drastic forms of habitat modification is urbanization, which is spreading worldwide and contributing to the decline of biodiversity. Urbanization has given rise to urban-tolerant species that differ ecologically from species that avoid urban areas across various niche dimensions. These urban-tolerant species must adapt to changes in food sources, microhabitat conditions, and alterations in physical habitat structures. …

Merging Clinical And Genomic Data In Patients With Acute Leukemia For Downstream Analysis, Amanda Bataycan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to integrate multiple sources of information from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to construct organized datasets that would enable downstream bioinformatics and statistical analyses of the patientsâ?? survival status and overall survival times in relation to their demographic, clinical, and genomic mutation profiles. With NIH Genomic Data Commons as the primary data resource and cBioPortal as the access portal, datasets on 149 and 603 unique patients with AML and ALL, respectively, were obtained. Python scripts were written to compile individual patientsâ?? single nucleotide variant (SNV) data files into …

The Effects Of Participation In Collegiate Football On The Time Management Behavior And Academic Performance Of College Students, Desiree' A. Johnson

McNair Scholars Research

The unique demands of balancing rigorous athletic commitments and academic responsibilities present a challenge for college football players. There were three purposes of this study. The first purpose of this study sought to determine if there is a relationship between time management behavior and academic performance among college students. The second purpose of this study was to determine whether participation in collegiate football affected the time management behavior of college students, and the third purpose of this study was to determine if participation in collegiate football affected the academic performance among college students. Participants in the study were a convenience …

Evidence Of Competitive Release Following Overstory Mortality In A Semi-Arid Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Corrie D. Gonzalez

Biology ETDs

Extreme temperatures and severe drought events have led to widespread tree mortality worldwide. In semi-arid regions of the Southwest United States, these events pose a significant threat to piñon-juniper (PJ) woodlands. We studied the effects of piñon and juniper mortality on the growth and physiology of existing saplings in PJ woodlands by analyzing water status, photosynthetic activity, and tissue chemistry to gain insights into these impacts. Juniper saplings exhibited improved water status and water use efficiency in response to overstory mortality, whereas piñon saplings did not. Additionally, both piñon and juniper saplings exhibited increased photosynthetic rates, increased photosynthetic capacity, and …

Mountain Lion Resource Selection In The California Central Coast: Modeling Habitat Suitability For A Large Carnivore In A Rapidly Changing Environment, Megan Elizabeth O'Connor

Master's Theses

Land use conversion toward agriculture such as orchards and vineyards can have severe negative impacts on habitat and wildlife, particularly large carnivores, globally through habitat fragmentation and loss. The mountain lion (Puma concolor) population in the California Central Coast is thought to provide “stepping-stone” connectivity between several severely genetically compromised coastal populations throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains and several mountain ranges in Southern California; however, the California Central Coast is one of the fastest-developing regions of California with little protection against future land use conversion. Conserving areas of and corridors between high-quality mountain lion habitat through conservation easements …

Fatty Acids And Parasitism: Towards A Better Understanding Of Lipid Metabolism In Trypanosoma Brucei, Joshua Saliutama

All Dissertations

Trypanosoma brucei is an extracellular eukaryotic parasite that causes sleeping sickness in humans and cattle. As an extracellular parasite, T. brucei relies on the host’s nutrients to satisfy its growth requirements. The parasite is unusual because it does not uptake most of the host’s lipid species. Instead, T. brucei prefers to perform de novo synthesis of most lipid species. One of the lipid species that T. brucei can both uptake and synthesize is fatty acids. In my thesis work, I investigated the dynamics of fatty acid uptake, metabolism, and utilization of T. brucei. My work starts by determining the …

The Functional Implications Of Anuran Metamorphosis For Survival, Locomotor Performance, And Limb Bone Mechanical Properties, Chase Kinsey

All Dissertations

Many organisms must contend with navigating their environments from birth. An organism could be classified as – and is often studied – in the context of locomotion through a single habitat type. However, many organisms must contend with a wide variety of environmental obstacles and substrates. What’s more, a large group of animals, Lissamphibia, do so while undergoing drastic transformation of their morphology and locomotor appendages. This transformation, term metamorphosis, typically coincides with a movement from water as a tadpole, to land as a frog or salamander. Many studies have associated this transitionary period with decreased locomotor performance and worse …

Evaluation Of Bone And Muscle Quality In Laying Hens Using Quantitative, Radiographic, Computed Tomographic, Biomechanical, And Tissue Level Measures, Cerano Harrison

All Dissertations

Bone quality is an important measure of welfare in laying hens for researchers, veterinarians, and commercial producers who bear the responsibility of providing them with care. Breeding practices that have resulted in high egg productivity of laying hen strains have resulted in an increased susceptibility to developing osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, a decrease in mineralized bone, is accompanied by increased bone fragility that can lead to potentially painful bone fractures that can inhibit some aspects of the birds natural living, respiration and flight being two examples. Current methods of examining laying hen bone quality involve the implementation of diagnostic imaging and biomechanical …

Biology And Herbicide Resistance Characteristics Of Various Annual Bluegrass (Poa Annua L.) Biotypes From Across The United States, Jacob William Taylor

All Dissertations

Annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) is one of the most problematic winter annual weeds in managed turfgrass systems, having rapidly adapted to different climates and management practices. Characteristics such as prolific seedhead production, clumped bunch-type growth habit, and lack of stress tolerance negatively impact turfgrass quality. Achieving adequate control can be difficult because annual bluegrass exhibits high levels of genetic diversity, the ability to germinate year-round, and has a high tendency for evolving herbicide resistance, currently resistant to at least nine different herbicide sites of action. Current management programs rely heavily on herbicides for control; however, frequent use without implementing …

Effect Of Authentic Kefir And Nigella Sativa On Broilers Challenged By Coccidia And Clostridium Perfringens, Julian E. Nixon

All Dissertations

Black seed oil concentrations of 0%, 0.1%, 1% and 5% were added to milk inoculated with kefir grains and incubated at 25°C for 22 h. The pH and microbial count indicated 1% black seed oil caused low inhibition (P > 0.05) of fermentation, but 5% black seed oil caused significant inhibition of the kefir microorganisms (P < 0.05).

Cobb 500 male chicks (n = 256) were distributed in a randomized block design and received one of four treatments: CTRL1 (Non-medicated, no kefir, no Clostridium perfringens), CTRL2 (Non-medicated, no kefir, C. perfringens inoculated), CTRL3 (BMD medicated, no kefir, C. perfringens inoculated), KTRT (Non-medicated, …

Computational Analysis Of Antibody Binding Mechanisms To The Omicron Rbd Of Sars-Cov-2 Spike Protein: Identification Of Epitopes And Hotspots For Developing Effective Therapeutic Strategies, Mohammed Alshahrani

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

The advent of the Omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 has elicited apprehension regarding its potential influence on the effectiveness of current vaccines and antibody treatments. The present investigation involved the implementation of mutational scanning analyses to examine the impact of Omicron mutations on the binding affinity of four categories of antibodies that target the Omicron receptor binding domain (RBD) of the Spike protein. The study demonstrates that the Omicron variant harbors 23 unique mutations across the RBD regions I, II, III, and IV. Of these mutations, seven are shared between RBD regions I and II, while three are shared among RBD …

Mosaic Chromosomal Alterations Are Associated With Increased Lung Cancer Risk: Insight From The Integral-Ilcco Cohort Analysis, Chao Cheng, Wei Hong, Yafang Li, Xiangjun Xiao, James Mckay, Younghun Han, Jinyoung Byun, Bo Peng, Demetrios Albanes, Stephen Lam, Adonina Tardon, Chu Chen, Stig E Bojesen, Maria T Landi, Mattias Johansson, Angela Risch, Heike Bickeböller, H-Erich Wichmann, David C Christiani, Gad Rennert, Susanne Arnold, Gary Goodman, John K Field, Michael P A Davies, Sanjay S Shete, Loic Le Marchand, Geoffrey Liu, Rayjean J Hung, Angeline S Andrew, Lambertus A Kiemeney, Meng Zhu, Hongbing Shen, Shan Zienolddiny, Kjell Grankvist, Mikael Johansson, Angela Cox, Yun-Chul Hong, Jian-Min Yuan, Philip Lazarus, Matthew B Schabath, Melinda C Aldrich, Paul Brennan, Yong Li, Olga Gorlova, Ivan Gorlov, Christopher I Amos, Integral-Ilcco Lung Cancer Consortium

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

INTRODUCTION: Mosaic chromosomal alterations (mCAs) detected in white blood cells represent a type of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) that is understudied compared with CH-related somatic mutations. A few recent studies indicated their potential link with nonhematological cancers, especially lung cancer.

METHODS: In this study, we investigated the association between mCAs and lung cancer using the high-density genotyping data from the OncoArray study of INTEGRAL-ILCCO, the largest single genetic study of lung cancer with 18,221 lung cancer cases and 14,825 cancer-free controls.

RESULTS: We identified a comprehensive list of autosomal mCAs, ChrX mCAs, and mosaic ChrY (mChrY) losses from these samples. Autosomal …

Trophic Assessment Of The Invasive Hydrozoan Gonionemus Vertens Using Stable Isotope Analysis : You Are What You Eat, Diana Sisk-Gritz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Gonionemus vertens, commonly known as the clinging jellyfish, is a small hydrozoan known for their conflicts with humans due to their neurotoxins that can lead to paralysis. Native to the Pacific Ocean, it has now invaded numerous ecosystems in the coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, Europe, and the United States. In the United States, it has flourishing populations from New Jersey to Maine. However, many questions remain as to how it arrived and spread, but equally important is what impact this species may have in the invaded communities they now reside. Research suggests that G. vertens actively feeds on …

Assessing The General Public's View Of Direct-To-Consumer (Dtc) Genetic Testing And Their Interpretation Of Dtc Website Disclaimer Messages., Madison Ruehl, Shelly Hovick, Alisdair Philp, Kevin Sweet

Medical Education Articles

The general public continues to show increased interest and uptake of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing. We conducted an online survey (N = 405) to assess genetics knowledge, interest, and outcome expectancy of DTC genetic testing before and after exposure to a sample DTC disclaimer message. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the relationship between previous genetic knowledge, attitudes and self-reported systematic processing of a sample DTC disclaimer message, outcome expectancies, and interest to pursue DTC genetic testing. Increased genetic knowledge and more positive attitudes towards DTC genetic testing were associated with increased self-reported systematic processing of the DTC disclaimer message. …

Investigation Of Orthohantavirus Genetics In Rodent Reservoirs And Clinical Samples, Samuel Melvin Goodfellow

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Orthohantaviruses are negative-sense, single stranded RNA viruses with trisegmented genomes that can cause severe disease in humans and are carried by several host reservoirs throughout the world. In the United States, Sin Nombre orthohantavirus (SNV) is the primary cause of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) with a fatality rate of ~36% and the highest cases occuring in the southwest region. The primary SNV host reservoir is thought to be the western deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, however it has been shown that other rodents can carry different orthohantaviruses. We designed a pan-orthohantavirus detection tool to survey several small mammal populations throughout New …

Proceedings Of The 2023 Berry Summer Thesis Institute, University Of Dayton. University Honors Program

Proceedings of the Berry Summer Thesis Institute (2013-Present)

Thanks to a gift from the Berry Family Foundation and the Berry family, the University Honors Program launched the Berry Summer Thesis Institute in 2012. The institute introduces students in the University Honors Program to intensive research, scholarship opportunities and professional development. Each student pursues a 12-week summer thesis research project under the guidance of a UD faculty mentor. This contains the product of the students' research.

Contents:

• “How Porous Materials Affect the Boundary-Layer Transition of Hypersonic Flight Vehicles” (Megan C. Sieve)
• “Ultra-Stretchable, Self-Healing, DLP 3D-Printed Elastomers for Damage-Resistant Soft Robots: A Review” (Robert M. A. Drexler)
• “Extrapolation of Scalar …

How Does Increasing The Darkness Of A Plate Affect The Perception Of Both Bitter And Sweet Flavors?, Jessica Williams

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Extrinsic cues like plate color have been shown to effect taste perception. Previous studies conducted show a consensus that plate colors can modulate taste perception (Piqueras-Fizman et al., 2012, Stewart & Gross, 2013). No studies, however, have investigated varying color hues and their effect on taste perception. This study aims to determine whether the change in the black to white ratio of plate color can affect consumer perception of sweetness or bitterness.

We presented a group of volunteers two different brownies on plates varying from 100% white to 0% white in 25% increments. A 30:70 male to female gender ratio …

Development Of New Cotton Defoliation Sprayer Using Unmanned Ground Vehicle And Pulse Width Modulation Technology, Jyoti Neupane

All Theses

Chemical spraying is one of the most important and frequently performed intercultural agriculture operations. It is imperative to utilize appropriate spraying technology as a selection of ineffective one leads to waste of agrochemicals to the non‐target area. Several precision technologies have been developed in the past few decades, such as image processing based on real‐time variable‐rate chemical spraying systems, autonomous chemical sprayers using machine vision and nozzle control, and use of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is an important industrial crop. It is a perennial crop with indeterminate growth habit; however, in most parts of the …

Photodynamic Therapy To Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer In Vitro, Hunter S. Warren

All Theses

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most resilient form of breast cancer, being one of the leading causes of death for women and making up 7% of all cancer deaths. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) offers a minimally invasive solution to TNBC as a passive-targeting treatment that reduces the need for other well established yet harsh treatments that can be taxing on the patient. PDT involves the use of a high-energy red light on the area of a tumor injected with photosensitizers (PS) that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the tumor, triggering cell death. The PS tetra(hydroxyphenyl)chlorin (m-THPC) was used …

Study Of Morphological And Physiological Properties And Pollinators Of The Invasive Callery Pear, Prabina Sharma

All Theses

Callery pear is an invasive tree in 15 states of United States and is currently present in 37 states. Its management has challenged landowners and land managers. Despite being listed as a noxious weed in four states, its study is limited. The accurate estimation of Callery pear biomass will give a clearer picture of the level of invasion and help land managers develop different strategies to control its population. Similarly, identifying possible pollinators of Callery pear is essential to have some insights on pollinators associated with this tree. Hence, the objectives of this study are 1) to calculate total above-ground …

Effects Of Antagomir-22-3p On Muscle Size In Older Lambs Using Computed Tomography Imaging, Anna Brewer

All Theses

Background

Texel sheep are known for their double-muscling phenotype and extraordinary meat production (Miar et al., 2014). Satellite cells are essential for this desired muscle growth. MicroRNAs can silence target genes by binding to the target messenger RNA (mRNA) (Horak et alk., 2016). Antagomirs are miRNA inhibitors and are used for loss of function studies. MiR-22-3p is known for inhibiting skeletal muscle growth and directly targets HDAC4, TGFBR1, PAX7 mRNA expression. Computed Tomography (CT) imaging is now growing in popularity in the animal science field to record changes in muscle characteristics.

Materials and Methods

Texel x Suffolk lambs (n=4) were …

Utilizing The Land-Based Learning Model For The Clemson Agricultural Safety, Growing Safe Tigers Program, Maryann Lovern

All Theses

The Clemson Agricultural Safety, Growing Safe Tigers program was developed in 2019 with the goal of increasing the awareness of agricultural safety in South Carolina. By utilizing the land-based learning model, a need for agricultural safety education was identified through incident surveillance strategies. Agricultural incidents were quantified using AgInjuryNews.org and recommendations were made for the program to provide more tailored information to the four regions of South Carolina, based on the primary cause of incident for each region.

Educators’ understanding of place and interconnected systems was determined pertaining to agricultural safety to provide a baseline for how agricultural education teachers …

Heat Stress-Induced Lipid Alterations In Peanut, Walker Spivey

All Theses

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a globally important crop cultivated for human consumption and for the production of seed oil. As anthropogenic climate change continues to challenge global crop production with extreme environmental conditions such as high temperatures, the development of heat-tolerant varieties is crucial to meet peanut production demands. At the cellular level, one of the fundamental causes of yield loss at high temperatures (HT) is membrane damage. This work reports the investigations on a subset of a peanut recombinant inbred line population demonstrating that the membrane lipid remodeling occurring at HT is consistent with homeoviscous adaptation to …