Life Sciences Commons^™

Induction And Suppression Of Gene Silencing In Plants By Nonviral Microbes, Eric Parperides, Kaoutar El Mounadi, Hernan Garcia Ruiz

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Gene silencing is a conserved mechanism in eukaryotes that dynamically regulates gene expression. In plants, gene silencing is critical for development and for maintenance of genome integrity. Additionally, it is a critical component of antiviral defence in plants, nematodes, insects, and fungi. To overcome gene silencing, viruses encode effectors that suppress gene silencing. A growing body of evidence shows that gene silencing and suppression of silencing are also used by plants during their interaction with nonviral pathogens such as fungi, oomycetes, and bacteria. Plant–pathogen interactions involve trans-kingdom movement of small RNAs into the pathogens to alter the function of genes …

The Effectiveness Of Eye-Hand Coordination Training In Virtual Reality, Kelley Burger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Virtual environments (VE) and virtual reality (VR) through head-mounted displays (HMD) have been used to test and train eye-hand coordination skills in a way that is more immersive than traditional 2D video training. As this technology continues to evolve, researchers have sought to determine the degree to which these new technologies can augment training. This research attempts to expand the literature on sport skill training in VE and VR to elucidate the training protocols that support learning. The first study was designed to determine how a single session of occlusion training would affect football catching skills in VR. While adding …

Tet2 Truncating Mutations Predict A Worse Outcome In Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasm, Hannah Beird, C Cameron Yin, Joseph D Khoury, Sherry Pierce, Hussein A Abbas, Li Zhao, Anna Skwarska, Muzaffar Qazilbash, Marina Konopleva, P Andrew Futreal, Naveen Pemmaraju

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Pathogenicity Of Multiple Providencia Species (Enterobacteriales: Morganellaceae) To The Mass-Reared Mexican Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae), Bacilio Salas, Hugh E. Conway, Don C. Vacek, Christopher Vitek, Erin Schuenzel

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Mexican fruit fly (Anastrepha ludens (Loew)) (Diptera: Tephritidae) represents a major threat to fruit production in the Western Hemisphere. Sterile insect technique is used to suppress and eradicate wild populations. Success of this control method necessitates weekly production of hundreds of millions of flies, their sterilization by irradiation, and their aerial release. Diet needed to produce large fly numbers are conducive to the spread of bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria were isolated from 3 rearing facilities and from multiple sources: eggs, larvae, pupae and spent diet, and were found to include some isolates identified to the genus Providencia (Enterobacteriales: Morganellaceae). We …

Sequential Absorption Of Two Photons Creates A Bistable Form Of Rubyacr Responsible For Its Strong Desensitization, Oleg A Sineshchekov, Elena G Govorunova, Hai Li, Yumei Wang, John L Spudich

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Channelrhodopsins with red-shifted absorption, rare in nature, are highly desired for optogenetics because light of longer wavelengths more deeply penetrates biological tissue. RubyACRs (Anion ChannelRhodopsins), a group of four closely related anion-conducting channelrhodopsins from thraustochytrid protists, are the most red-shifted channelrhodopsins known with absorption maxima up to 610 nm. Their photocurrents are large, as is typical of blue- and green-absorbing ACRs, but they rapidly decrease during continuous illumination (desensitization) and extremely slowly recover in the dark. Here, we show that long-lasting desensitization of RubyACRs results from photochemistry not observed in any previously studied channelrhodopsins. Absorption of a second photon by …

Publisher Correction: A Randomized Pilot Study Of Oncology Massage To Treat Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy, Gabriel Lopez, Cathy Eng, Michael Overman, David Ramirez, Wenli Liu, Curtiss Beinhorn, Pamela Sumler, Sarah Prinsloo, Yisheng Li, Minxing Chen, Eduardo Bruera, Lorenzo Cohen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Cellular And Molecular Mechanisms Of Liver Fibrosis In Patients With Nafld, Jessica I Sanchez, Edwin R Parra, Jingjing Jiao, Luisa M Solis Soto, Debora A Ledesma, Omar A Saldarriaga, Heather L Stevenson, Laura Beretta

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The expression of immune- and cancer-related genes was measured in liver biopsies from 107 NAFLD patients. The strongest difference in overall gene expression was between liver fibrosis stages F3 and F4, with 162 cirrhosis-associated genes identified. Strong correlations with fibrosis progression from F1 to F4 were observed for 91 genes, including CCL21, CCL2, CXCL6, and CCL19. In addition, the expression of 21 genes was associated with fast progression to F3/F4 in an independent group of eight NAFLD patients. These included the four chemokines, SPP1, HAMP, CXCL2, and IL-8. A six-gene signature including SOX9, THY-1, and CD3D had the highest performance …

A Phase 2 Study Of Nivolumab Combined With Ibrutinib In Patients With Diffuse Large B-Cell Richter Transformation Of Cll, Nitin Jain, Jayastu Senapati, Beenu Thakral, Alessandra Ferrajoli, Philip Thompson, Jan Burger, Sreyashi Basu, Tapan Kadia, Naval Daver, Gautam Borthakur, Marina Konopleva, Naveen Pemmaraju, Erin Parry, Catherine J Wu, Joseph Khoury, Carlos Bueso-Ramos, Naveen Garg, Xuemei Wang, Wanda Lopez, Ana Ayala, Susan O'Brien, Hagop Kantarjian, Michael Keating, James Allison, Padmanee Sharma, William Wierda

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Richter transformation (RT) is a rare complication of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that has dismal outcomes. Upregulation of PD-1/PD-L1 drives immunological evasion in patients with RT. We hypothesized that combining nivolumab, a PD-1 blocking antibody, with the BTK inhibitor (BTKi) ibrutinib could potentiate tumor-cell killing. We conducted an investigator-initiated phase 2 clinical trial to assess the efficacy of combined nivolumab and ibrutinib in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) RT and CLL. Patients included were ≥18 years of age with adequate hepatic and renal function. Patients received nivolumab every 2 weeks of a 4-week cycle for a maximum of …

Smarcb1 Regulates The Hypoxic Stress Response In Sickle Cell Trait, Melinda Soeung, Luigi Perelli, Ziheng Chen, Eleonora Dondossola, I-Lin Ho, Federica Carbone, Li Zhang, Hania Khan, Courtney N Le, Cihui Zhu, Michael D Peoples, Ningping Feng, Shan Jiang, Niki Millward Zacharias, Rosalba Minelli, Daniel D Shapiro, Angela K Deem, Sisi Gao, Emily H Cheng, Donatella Lucchetti, Cheryl L Walker, Alessandro Carugo, Virginia Giuliani, Timothy P Heffernan, Andrea Viale, Nizar M Tannir, Giulio F Draetta, Pavlos Msaouel, Giannicola Genovese

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) is an aggressive kidney cancer that almost exclusively develops in individuals with sickle cell trait (SCT) and is always characterized by loss of the tumor suppressor SMARCB1. Because renal ischemia induced by red blood cell sickling exacerbates chronic renal medullary hypoxia in vivo, we investigated whether the loss of SMARCB1 confers a survival advantage under the setting of SCT. Hypoxic stress, which naturally occurs within the renal medulla, is elevated under the setting of SCT. Our findings showed that hypoxia-induced SMARCB1 degradation protected renal cells from hypoxic stress. SMARCB1 wild-type renal tumors exhibited lower levels …

A Study On Image Processing Techniques And Deep Learning Techniques For Insect Identification, Vinita Abhishek Gupta, M.V. Padmavati, Ravi R. Saxena, Pawan Kumar Patnaik, Raunak Kumar Tamrakar

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Automatic identification of insects and diseases has attracted researchers for the last few years. Researchers have suggested several algorithms to get around the problems of manually identifying insects and pests. Image processing techniques and deep convolution neural networks can overcome the challenges of manual insect identification and classification. This work focused on optimizing and assessing deep convolutional neural networks for insect identification. AlexNet, MobileNetv2, ResNet-50, ResNet-101, GoogleNet, InceptionV3, SqueezeNet, ShuffleNet, DenseNet201, VGG-16 and VGG-19 are the architectures evaluated on three different datasets. In our experiments, DenseNet 201 performed well with the highest test accuracy. Regarding training time, AlexNet performed well, …

Androctonus Kunti Sp. N. From Iğdır Province, Turkey (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Ersen A. Yağmur

Euscorpius

A new species Androctonus kunti sp. n. is described and illustrated from Iğdır Province of Turkey. This population was first recorded by Birula (1896) as A. crassicauda (Olivier, 1807). A. kunti sp. n. is compared with A. crassicauda as well as A. turkiyensis Yağmur, 2021, which was recently described from Turkey

Validation Of Monitoring Septic Thymus Involution In Mice Using Ultrasound., Jianyao Xue, Xiang-An Li

Journal of Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences

Sepsis is a dangerous condition commonly seen in the intensive care unit (ICU) of hospitals. It causes the thymus, a crucial immune organ, to shrink. This process is known as thymus involution. Although thymus involution is a natural process that occurs as we age, it is accelerated during sepsis. This process is associated with poor outcomes in septic patients, yet it had never been studied using ultrasonography in a septic mouse model. Researchers from the University of Kentucky have validated a non-invasive ultrasound imaging approach to monitor septic thymus involution in a cecum ligation and puncture (CLP) sepsis mouse model. …

Gpr75 Deficiency Attenuates High Fat Diet-Driven Obesity And Glucose Intolerance, Sakib Hossain

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

Recently, a collaboration between Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and the Schwartzman-Garcia labs at New York Medical College published an exome sequencing study of individuals across the United Kingdom, United States, and Mexico which concluded that individuals possessing non-functioning, truncated mutations to the orphan g protein coupled receptor (GPCR), GPR75, had lower BMI and 54% reduced likelihood of obesity. The present study was undertaken to fully characterize the metabolic phenotype of Gpr75 deficient mice when fed a high fat diet (HFD) and explore potential mechanisms by which GPR75 activation links to increased adiposity and decreased glucose tolerance. After 14 weeks of HFD-feeding we …

Impact Of Shade In Beef Feedyards On Performance, Ear Temperature, And Heat Stress Measures, Thomas M. Winders, Brett A. Melton, Boyd M. Boyd, Casey N. Macken, J. C. Macdonald, Galen E. Erickson

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

A 2-yr study (year 1: March to September 2017; year 2: February to August 2018) was conducted using crossbred steers (year 1: n = 1677; initial body weight [BW] = 372 kg, SD = 47; year 2: n = 1713; initial BW = 379 kg, SD = 10) in a commercial feedyard study in Eastern NE to determine the effects of shade on cattle performance, ear temperature, and cattle activity. Two treatments were evaluated using a randomized complete block design (n = 5 blocks based on arrival). Treatments were assigned randomly to pens and consisted of five pens without …

Practical Solutions To The Invasion Of Lionfish In Utila, Honduras: Science, Education, Food, And Jewelry, Carolyn Corley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Lionfish (Pterois sp.) are invasive species capable of devastating coral reef ecosystems due to their lack of predators, large appetites, generalist diet, high fecundity, and rapid spawning rates. As lionfish have expanded their distribution across the Caribbean, many conservation groups have taken it upon themselves to systematically remove these predators from environments where they are threatening native species. However, few have involved the community the way I observed while interning with the Whale Shark and Oceanic Research Center in Utila, Honduras. Protecting coral reefs is extremely important, especially in small communities like Utila, where the majority of people’s …

Comparative Analysis Between Physical Activity Affect And Discrete Emotions In College Students, Kelly L. Simonton, Timothy M. Dasinger, Alex C. Garn

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate empirical distinctness and overlap between physical activity (PA) affect and emotions as well as potential unique relationships with PA beliefs and behaviors. Specifically, researchers wanted to explore the level of shared variance amongst discrete emotions and affect, which in effect tested the jingle-jangle fallacy that can be present in psychometric evaluation of related constructs.

Participants: College students (N=519; Mage= 20.47) enrolled in PA courses at two universities in the Southeastern United States completed questionnaires concerning their PA related emotions, affect, self-efficacy, and self-reported PA.

Methods: …

The Deleted In Oral Cancer (Doc1 Aka Cdk2ap1) Tumor Suppressor Gene Is Downregulated In Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma By Multiple Micrornas, Roberto Stabile, Mario Román Cabezas, Mathijs P Verhagen, Francesco A Tucci, Thierry P P Van Den Bosch, Maria J De Herdt, Berdine Van Der Steen, Alex L Nigg, Meng Chen, Cristina Ivan, Masayoshi Shimizu, Senada Koljenović, Jose A Hardillo, C Peter Verrijzer, Robert J Baatenburg De Jong, George A Calin, Riccardo Fodde

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cyclin-dependent kinase 2-associated protein 1 (CDK2AP1; also known as deleted in oral cancer or DOC1) is a tumor suppressor gene known to play functional roles in both cell cycle regulation and in the epigenetic control of embryonic stem cell differentiation, the latter as a core subunit of the nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylation (NuRD) complex. In the vast majority of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC), expression of the CDK2AP1 protein is reduced or lost. Notwithstanding the latter (and the DOC1 acronym), mutations or deletions in its coding sequence are extremely rare. Accordingly, CDK2AP1 protein-deficient oral cancer cell lines express as …

Creeper Legume, In Conjunction With Biochar, Is A Potential Tool To Minimize Soil Erosion, Sujani De Silva, Priyantha Indralal Yapa, Kushani Mahatantila, Saurav Das, Bijesh Maharjan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Accelerated soil erosion and landslides are destructive consequences of road development and intensive agriculture in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. Properly designed vegetation covers can play a vital role in erosion control. Identifying a plant that can adapt to eroded land with a low-nutrient supply is critical for natural erosion management. A perennial creeper legume, Vigna marina, adaptable for marginal lands and used to control soil erosion in Australia, was introduced to Sri Lanka via the 2004 tsunami. The objective of this study was to assess V. marina under five different soil substrates, including a reference treatment (RT) …

Associative Learning: Unmet Criterion For Plant Sentience, Luigi Baciadonna, Catherine Macri, Martin Giurfa

Animal Sentience

In a thought-provoking target article, Segundo-Ortin & Calvo (S&C) discuss the possibility that plants are sentient, focusing on a series of capacities normally attributed only to human and nonhuman animals. S&C propose learning as a marker for sentience. We review studies reporting associative learning in plants and find that they either lack essential controls or fail to produce replicable results. The capacity to learn has not yet been demonstrated in plants, so it cannot be used to support the hypothesis that plants are sentient. Further studies are needed. But agnosticism about sentience should not deter us from investigating unexpected new …

Feral Swine As Indirect Indicators Of Environmental Anthrax Contamination And Potential Mechanical Vectors Of Infectious Spores, Rachel M. Maison, Maggie R. Priore, Vienna R. Brown, Michael Bodenchuk, Bradley R. Borlee, Richard Bowen, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

U.S. government work

Does Caffeine Consumption Affect Work Performance Across Different Job Types?, Bryan Js Goh, Joshua Tan, Cleavon Chong, Sean Ker

Introduction to Research Methods RSCH 202

We propose executing a panel series case study for a large organization in Singapore over a year to examine how caffeine impacts work performance across different job types. Our research question is how does caffeine affect work performance under different conditions due to work type differences. Our dependent variable would be work performance as measured by employees’ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We propose to gather data for two of our important independent variables: caffeine use through a recorded pantry system and average sleep hours from a survey. We will analyze the data by using two-factor ANOVA with replication to find …

Design, Synthesis, And Antiproliferative Activity Of Benzopyran-4-One-Isoxazole Hybrid Compounds, Shilpi Gupta, Shang Eun Park, Saghar Mozaffari, Bishoy El-Aarag, Keykavous Parang, Rakesh Kumar Tiwari

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The biological significance of benzopyran-4-ones as cytotoxic agents against multi-drug resistant cancer cell lines and isoxazoles as anti-inflammatory agents in cellular assays prompted us to design and synthesize their hybrid compounds and explore their antiproliferative activity against a panel of six cancer cell lines and two normal cell lines. Compounds 5a–d displayed significant antiproliferative activities against all the cancer cell lines tested, and IC₅₀ values were in the range of 5.2–22.2 μM against MDA-MB-231 cancer cells, while they were minimally cytotoxic to the HEK-293 and LLC-PK1 normal cell lines. The IC₅₀ values of 5a–d …

Assessing The Release Of Microplastics And Nanoplastics From Plastic Containers And Reusable Food Pouches: Implications For Human Health, Kazi Albab Hussain, Svetlana Romanova, Ilhami Okur, Dong Zhang, Jesse Kuebler, Xi Huang, Bing Wang, Lucia Fernandez-Ballester, Yongfeng Lu, Mathias Schubert, Yusong Li

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This study investigated the release of microplastics and nanoplastics from plastic containers and reusable food pouches under different usage scenarios, using DI water and 3% acetic acid as food simulants for aqueous foods and acidic foods. The results indicated that microwave heating caused the highest release of microplastics and nanoplastics into food compared to other usage scenarios, such as refrigeration or room-temperature storage. It was found that some containers could release as many as 4.22 million microplastic and 2.11 billion nanoplastic particles from only one square centimeter of plastic area within 3 min of microwave heating. Refrigeration and room-temperature storage …

Creating An Emulsion From Onions, Roisin Burke

Articles

No abstract provided.

Does Artificial Lighting Cause Sea Turtle Hatchling Disorientations?, Kate Hickey

Biology Student Scholarship

Sea turtle hatchlings run into obstacles from the minute they emerge from their shell. They have a 1 in 1,000 survival rate and new obstacles are on the horizon. Coastal development is increasing and is not planning on slowing down. It supports and funds tourism, but has some negative implications on the wildlife that uses this area, like sea turtles. A particular problem with development is the artificial lighting it emits which is effecting sea turtles nesting. When the hatchlings emerge from the nest, they use the horizon and moon to guide them in the direction of the sea. The …

Identifying The Temporal N-Linked Glycosylation Changes During Liver Disease Progression: From Liver Injury To End-Stage Liver Disease, Shaaron Ochoa-Rios

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

The high mortality rates of liver diseases and primary liver cancers can be attributed to the lack of screening and diagnostic strategies currently available for early detection. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an early stage of liver disease known to progress to a variety of pre-malignant and malignant conditions, like advanced fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Based on the wide variety of diseases that NAFLD can progress to, strategies to understand and detect the progression of NAFLD are of great value. Core fucosylation of N-linked glycans has been demonstrated to be useful for the clinical diagnosis …

Creating Project Contrast: A Video Game Exploring Consciousness And Qualia, Pierce Papke

Honors Projects

Project Contrast is a video game that explores how the unique traits inherent to video games might engage reflective player responses to qualitative experience. Project Contrast does this through suspension of disbelief, avatar projection, presence, player agency in storytelling, visual perception, functional gameplay, and art. Considering the difficulty in researching qualitative experience due to its subjectivity and circular explanations, I created Project Contrast not to analyze qualia, though that was my original hope. I instead created Project Contrast as an avenue for player self-reflection and learning about qualitative experience. While video games might be just code and art on a …

Examining The Use Of Expressive Arts Therapies In Neurorehabilitation Treatment Planning, Rebecca J. Horner

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Those undergoing neurorehabilitation after stroke and traumatic brain injury report a diminished sense of overall wellness. This paper examines the conceivable benefits of introducing expressive arts therapies, which is the therapeutic use and combination of the visual arts, movement, drama, music, writing and other intermodal creative processes, into physical therapy and neurorehabilitation treatment planning. Expressive arts therapies have the capacity to engage with an individual’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual states concurrently. They simultaneously offer the ability to promote an increased sense of well-being, address mind-body disconnects, and process trauma non-verbally.

The sections of this narrative literature review focus on …

The Role Of Complement In Stroke And Traumatic Brain Injury, Christine Couch

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Brain and neural injury are a non-specific disease category that includes traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke. Both TBI and stroke are common, costly, and leading causes of severe disability in adults. Both stroke and TBI are responsible for substantial disability in working age adults, with stroke being the second leading cause of death worldwide [1] and TBI a major cause of disability in people younger than their 40's [2]. The immune response after brain injury is multifactorial and involves both local and systemic events at the cellular and molecular level. The complement system is a component of both the …

The Effects Of Urban Landscape, Soundscape, And Light Pollution On Avian Diversity And Nesting In South San Antonio, Texas, Alfredo Llamas

Masters Theses (Archived)

As critical habitat continues to dwindle due to the expansion of urbanization, alternative habitat in urban ecosystems becomes a necessary natural resource for the survival of birds. In the last decade, local San Antonio environmental authorities have focused their efforts on restoring the San Antonio Mission Reach. Ecological revitalization of the San Antonio Mission Reach could increase avian, and flora biodiversity with ongoing restoration, yet how birds use restored habitat has not been assessed. Additionally, south of the Reach, two more peri-urban sites have great potential to be high quality habitat for birds but have not been surveyed for nesting …