Life Sciences Commons^™

Exploration Of Spider Silk Assembly, Natalie Naseib, Joshua Navarro, Nadia Duong, Seohyun Lee, Daniel Kim, Danbir Somal, Sevak Manucharyan, Josephine Kim, Seha Park, Alice Lan, Karen Kwong, Mason Tri

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Study Of The Assembly Trigger For Spider Silk Proteins, Katina Zhu, Amanda Lee, Megan Lau, Sungkyung Lee, Kaden Chen, Katherine Yoo, David Eum, Daniel Eum, Austin Cho, Jiho Choi

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Prevalence Of Dog Heartworm (Dirofilaria Immitis) Infection In Invasive Aedes Aegypti And Aedes Albopictus Mosquitoes In Southern California, Irene Hui Ying Lee, Donghwi Kim, Romina Lee

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Eardrum Tuning Of The Túngara Frog, Robert A. Wong, Mary Paduano, Justine Tang, Betty Lee, Trisha Vo, Mark Morozumi, Marcos Gridi-Papp

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Variability Of Color Patterns In The Ventral Skin Of The Túngara Frog, Emily Yuxin Sun

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

The Vocal Response Of The Male Túngara Frog As A Function Of Stimulus Intensity, Kristine Sheu, Marcos Gridi-Papp

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Age And Size On The Mating Call Of Male Túngara Frogs, Sonia Mathur, Dr. Marcos Gridi-Papp

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Changes In Call Rate In Response To Competition In Male Túngara Frogs, Alison S. Kim, Marcos Gridi-Papp

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Case Study: Modeling A Grain Bin For Safe Entry Retrofit, Michael Dyer, Serap Gorucu, Randall Bock, Roderick Thomas, Jude Liu, Linda Fetzer

Office of Research Faculty and Staff Publications

All new grain bins produced after 2018 are recommended to have anchor points capable of handling a 2000 lb loading for attachment of bin entry lifeline systems. This study aims to assess the feasibility of a safe entry anchor point retrofit by using finite element analysis (FEA). We used a grain bin owned by Penn State for 3D FEA modeling in SolidWorks. To validate the model results from the FEA model, first strain and then deflection measurements were conducted on the grain. Strain gauges were applied to the grain bin in five locations and strain values were obtained after applying …

Selenium Removal By Sediments And Plants At The Constructed Pariette Wetlands, Utah (Usa), Colleen P. Jones, Michael Amacher, Paul R. Grossl, Astrid R. Jacobson

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Selenium (Se) contamination of public lands and water is a result of irrigated agriculture and mining activities in areas rich in Se geologic deposits. Pariette Draw is part of the northern Colorado Plateau and is an area of concern for Se contamination in the Pariette Wetlands. Pariette Wetlands, a wetland built in the 1970s to provide wildlife habitat, is distinguished by its arid climate and a short growing season of hot dry summers followed by cold winters with several months below freezing. An understanding of how Se is mobilized and removed within the wetland will provide management strategies that minimize …

Mechanical Properties And Morphological Alterations In Fiber-Based Scaffolds Affecting Tissue Engineering Outcomes, James Dolgin, Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao, Stephen Farias, Carl G. Simon, Smitha Rao

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Electrospinning is a versatile tool used to produce highly customizable nonwoven nanofiber mats of various fiber diameters, pore sizes, and alignment. It is possible to create electrospun mats from synthetic polymers, biobased polymers, and combinations thereof. The post-processing of the end products can occur in many ways, such as cross-linking, enzyme linking, and thermal curing, to achieve enhanced chemical and physical properties. Such multi-factor tunability is very promising in applications such as tissue engineering, 3D organs/organoids, and cell differentiation. While the established methods involve the use of soluble small molecules, growth factors, stereolithography, and micro-patterning, electrospinning involves an inexpensive, labor …

Gonads Without Glp-1: Silencing Glp-1 In The Male Somatic Gonad In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Matthew Titus

Undergraduate Theses

In C. elegans, the gene glp-1 encodes for a Notch receptor called GLP-1, one of two found in C. elegans’ genome. The gene has been previously implicated in the development of the hermaphroditic germline as well as playing a role in the mitosis/meiosis decision. Genetic screening has further identified it as potentially playing a role in the development of the male somatic gonad, making it an ideal candidate for a reverse genetic. We did this by silencing glp-1 and observing if any alterations to the gonad’s phenotype occur.

Normally this could be done by performing a gene knockout. …

Genetic Loci Of Beta-Aminoisobutyric Acid Are Associated With Aging-Related Mild Cognitive Impairment, Einat Granot-Hershkovitz, Brian Spitzer, Yunju Yang, Wassim Tarraf, Bing Yu, Eric Boerwinkle, Myriam Fornage, Thomas H Mosley, Charles Decarli, Bruce S Kristal, Hector M González, Tamar Sofer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We studied the genetic associations of a previously developed Metabolomic Risk Score (MRS) for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and beta-aminoisobutyric acid metabolite (BAIBA)-the metabolite highlighted by results from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of the MCI-MRS, and assessed their association with MCI in datasets of diverse race/ethnicities. We first performed a GWAS for the MCI-MRS and BAIBA, in Hispanic/Latino adults (n = 3890) from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). We identified ten independent genome-wide significant (p value <5 × 10-8) variants associated with MCI-MRS or BAIBA. Variants associated with the MCI-MRS are located in the Alanine-Glyoxylate Aminotransferase 2 (AGXT2 gene), which is known to be associated with BAIBA metabolism. Variants associated with BAIBA are located in the AGXT2 gene and in the SLC6A13 gene. Next, we tested the variants' association with MCI in independent datasets of n = 3178 HCHS/SOL older individuals, n = 3775 European Americans, and n = 1032 African Americans from the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) study. Variants were considered associated with MCI if their p value <0.05 in the meta-analysis of the three datasets and their direction of association was consistent with expectation. Rs16899972 and rs37369 from the AGXT2 region were associated with MCI. Mediation analysis supported the mediation effect of BAIBA between the two genetic variants and MCI (p value = 0.004 for causal mediated effect). In summary, genetic variants in the AGXT2 region are associated with MCI in Hispanic/Latino, African, and European American populations in the USA, and their effect is likely mediated by changes in BAIBA levels.

Specific Causes Of Excess Late Mortality And Association With Modifiable Risk Factors Among Survivors Of Childhood Cancer: A Report From The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Cohort, Stephanie B Dixon, Qi Liu, Eric J Chow, Kevin C Oeffinger, Paul C Nathan, Rebecca M Howell, Wendy M Leisenring, Matthew J Ehrhardt, Kirsten K Ness, Kevin R Krull, Ann C Mertens, Melissa M Hudson, Leslie L Robison, Yutaka Yasui, Gregory T Armstrong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: 5-year survival after childhood cancer does not fully describe life-years lost due to childhood cancer because there are a large number of deaths occurring beyond 5-years (late mortality) related to cancer and cancer treatment. Specific causes of health-related (non-recurrence, non-external) late mortality and risk reduction through modifiable lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors are not well described. Through using a well-characterised cohort of 5-year survivors of the most common childhood cancers, we evaluated specific health-related causes of late mortality and excess deaths compared with the general US population and identified targets to reduce future risk.

Methods: In this multi-institutional, hospital-based, …

Sensing Is A Far Cry From Sentience, Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio

Animal Sentience

The hypothesis that plants might be sentient confuses the notion of sentience (or consciousness) with that of sensing. Sentience/consciousness implies feeling, experience, and subjectivity. Sensing does not. Plants can sense/detect and even respond appropriately in the absence of any sentience/consciousness.

What If Plants Compute?, Jordi Vallverdú

Animal Sentience

The unexpended cognitive capacities of plants suggest the possibility of combining them with advances in computation. It is important to explore such a new field of research despite the incompleteness of the empirical support for it.

Toward A Neural Semantic Parsing System For Ehr Question Answering, Sarvesh Soni, Kirk Roberts

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Clinical semantic parsing (SP) is an important step toward identifying the exact information need (as a machine-understandable logical form) from a natural language query aimed at retrieving information from electronic health records (EHRs). Current approaches to clinical SP are largely based on traditional machine learning and require hand-building a lexicon. The recent advancements in neural SP show a promise for building a robust and flexible semantic parser without much human effort. Thus, in this paper, we aim to systematically assess the performance of two such neural SP models for EHR question answering (QA). We found that the performance of these …

Anti-Factor Xa Level Monitoring For Enoxaparin Prophylaxis And Treatment In High-Risk Patient Groups, Lucie Sikes, Kipson Charles, Abigail Antigua, Rima Patel, Selina Imboywa, Pheba Cherian

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Monitoring anti-factor Xa levels is a controversial topic in the inpatient setting due to resource utilization and unclear conditional guideline recommendations regarding this practice. Enoxaparin dosing in certain high-risk patient populations such as those with low body weight, obesity, renal insufficiency, and pregnancy has not been determined. The objective of this review was to assess the safety and efficacy of enoxaparin monitoring via anti-factor Xa levels in high-risk patient populations.

The PubMed database was searched for articles related to low-molecular-weight heparin monitoring. Randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses that evaluated the safety and efficacy of enoxaparin prophylaxis and treatment in patients …

Anthelmintic Resistance And The Use Of Diatomaceous Earth As An Alternative Anthelmintic In E. Caballus, Brandy Spoor

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Nutrition On The Mental And Physical Health Of Young Adults, Dareena El-Far

WRIT: Journal of First-Year Writing

Upon close examination by nutritional professionals, concern has arisen regarding the typical contents of a young adult diet. In terms of the rate at which young adults choose to consume nutritionally-dense food items, the rate at which nutrition-deficient junk food items are chosen over the former is significantly higher. Among further examinations of this issue by researchers, it has become evident that the nutritional decisions made by young adults are increasingly associated with several social, commercial, mental, educational, and economic influences. As a consequence of these factors, research has uncovered a connection between the consumption of a poor diet and …

Cvam: Cna Profile Inference Of The Spatial Transcriptome Based On The Vgae And Hmm, Jian Ma, Jingjing Guo, Zhiwei Fan, Weiling Zhao, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Tumors are often polyclonal due to copy number alteration (CNA) events. Through the CNA profile, we can understand the tumor heterogeneity and consistency. CNA information is usually obtained through DNA sequencing. However, many existing studies have shown a positive correlation between the gene expression and gene copy number identified from DNA sequencing. With the development of spatial transcriptome technologies, it is urgent to develop new tools to identify genomic variation from the spatial transcriptome. Therefore, in this study, we developed CVAM, a tool to infer the CNA profile from spatial transcriptome data. Compared with existing tools, CVAM integrates the spatial …

Alcohol And Our Health, Nicholas Zotos

D.U.Quark

No abstract provided.

Riodinid Butterfly Fauna (Lepidoptera) Of The Cosñipata Region, Peru: Annotated Checklist, Community Structure, And Contrast With Lycaenidae, Gerardo Lamas, Jon D. Turner, Michael L. Mcinnis, Robert K. Robbins

Insecta Mundi

A team of experienced lepidopterists sampled the butterfly fauna of Peru’s Cosñipata Region from 400 to 4,000 m elevation for more than a decade (7,440 field person-hours) and supplemented this sam­ple with data from museum specimens and the scientific literature. An annotated checklist of Cosñipata Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) documents 398 species, which represents 29% of the world Rio­dinidae fauna. For each, it lists sample abundance, adult behavior, elevation, and temporal distribution. In the fieldwork sample, 75 species (20.9%) were sampled once and 39 (9.8%) were not encountered (collected or imaged by others). A riodinid species of median abundance was sampled …

Evaluation Of North American Spider Wasp (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) Common Names, Frank E. Kurczewski, Rick C. West

Insecta Mundi

The use of common names for species and subspecies of North American spider wasps (Hymenop­tera: Pompilidae) presents a variety of questions for pompilid specialists as most pompilid taxa are difficult to identify, even under the microscope. Some common names currently being used for spider wasp species are acceptable while others are misleading, unfit and unacceptable. Opinions on the relative value of common names for spider wasps from current Pompilidae researchers are given in the Introduction. Eleven inappro­priate common names for North American Pompilidae species and subspecies are identified and discussed in the Results.

The use of common names for fish, …

A New Synonym Of Acmaeodera Opacula Leconte, 1858 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) And Lectotype Designations For Acmaeodera Amabilis Horn, 1878 And, Jason A. Hansen, Richard L. Westcott

Insecta Mundi

Lectotypes are designated for Acmaeodera amabilis Horn, 1878 and Acmaeodera disjuncta Fall, 1899 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). The defining characters of Acmaeodera opacula LeConte, 1858 are compared with those of A. disjuncta Fall, 1899, as well as habitat and host plant. Acmaeodera disjuncta is synonymized with A. opacula. The distinguishing characters of congeners whose general appearance at times can resemble A. opacula are discussed, and a new state record for Mexico is provided for A. opacula.

Acmaeodera Eschscholtz, 1829 is a large and taxonomically difficult genus. For example, there are over 300 spe­cies known from the United States …

Taxonomic Notes On The Ototretinae, Photurinae, And Psilocladinae (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), Oliver Keller, Kevin R. Hinson

Insecta Mundi

We propose several nomenclatural changes for taxa in the lampyrid subfamilies Ototretinae, Pho­turinae, and Psilocladinae (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Evidence for the correct year of description of Drilaster albicornis lateobscura (Pic, 1921) is presented. Spellings are corrected for Drilaster debilis holzi (Pic, 1914), Drilaster impustulata fukienensis (Pic, 1955), Drilaster moutoni (Pic, 1911), Drilaster pendleburyi (Pic, 1943) and Pyrogaster lunifera (Eschscholtz, 1822). We also explain the validity of the name Photuris flavicollis Fall, 1927. Fifty-eight taxa described as variations or aberrations in the subfamilies Ototretinae, Photurinae, and Psilocladinae by Delkeskamp (1977), McDermott (1966), Wittmer (1944), and Pic (1924c), are evaluated, with their availability …

Ramsay Hunt Syndrome With Oral Findings: A Rare Case, İlknur Eninanç, Büşra Şahin

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Ramsay Hunt syndrome (RHS) is a disease that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus and is characterized by severe ear pain, auricular vesicular eruptions, and peripheral facial paralysis.

Objective: The aim of this case report is to provide information about the clinical findings and treatment process of RHS, which is a rare case and may have oral findings and stress the importance of early diagnosis.

Case Report: A 60-year-old male patient had previously consulted an otolaryngologist and a family physician with complaints of vesicular eruptions in the right ear auricle and on the mandible. The patient in whom a diagnosis …

Towards A Globalised Vision Of Aquatic Competence, Rita F. Pinto, Juan Antonio Moreno Murcia

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Human interaction with the aquatic environment has always taken different forms to meet the needs of pleasure, survival, therapy or performance. The diversity of existing aquatic spaces presents itself as a challenge, due to their variety, dynamism, unpredictability and unrepeatable conditions. These factors potentiate an infinite number of possibilities for human response in interaction with the aquatic environment, with aquatic competence being the one that will be able to sustain all types of interaction. Thus, the aim of the proposal has been to present a new approach to the contextualisation of aquatic competence. After a literature review on the concept …

Revisiting The Metaphorical Concept Of “No Strokes First - All Strokes First”: Part One - Beginning Strokes, Robert Keig Stallman Ph.D., Alex Mwaipasi, Ebbe Laakso Horneman, Nils Olof Vikander, Bente Wäinösdatter Horneman Laakso, Haakon-Paavo Laakso Nysted, Toni Ongala

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The aim of this article is to address the familiar question “Which swimming stroke should be taught first?” The discussion is usually focused on breaststroke versus crawl. Provoked by these naïve discussions of which stroke should be taught first (as if stroking equals swimming, which it emphatically does NOT), the question was answered metaphorically in an earlier article “No Stroke First – All Strokes First” (Stallman, 2008a). Here in Part I we identify and describe six strokes, all of which might be a candidate for any learners ‘very first’ stroke. We describe them as beginning strokes. Having identified and learned …

Comparison Of Maturation Stages Of Natural Killer Cell Differentiation Culture From Cultured And Freshly Isolated Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Samuel Febrian Wijaya, Retno Lestari, Inna Rahmawati, Imelda Rosalyn Sianipar, Robby Nuraditya, Iqbal Fasha, Gita Pratama, Radiana Dhewayani Antarianto

Makara Journal of Health Research

Background: Natural killer (NK) cells originate from the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the common lymphoid progenitor pathway, and HSCs can be obtained from umbilical cord blood (UCB). Comparative studies of NK cell differentiation between cultured and freshly isolated HSCs are important in the development of NK cell therapy for cancer. This study aimed to compare the maturation stages of NK cell differentiation between cultured and newly isolated HSC samples using interleukin-2 in the absence of feeder cells.

Methods: Differentiation cultures were divided into two groups according to HSC source. Giemsa staining and flow cytometry were …