Life Sciences Commons^™

The Regulation Of Autoimmunity Genes In Pancreatic Β-Cells By Nf-Κb, Thomas Malone Martin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease where the immune system targets the pancreatic islet beta-cells, which are responsible for insulin production and secretion, leading to a state of insulin insufficiency. Many of the molecular details of disease onset and progression remain poorly understood, including key aspects of cytokine signaling. Therefore, we have examined some of the consequences of inflammatory cytokine signaling as a critical module relevant to T1D. Using interleukin-1 (IL-1) signaling as a well-defined paradigm for inflammation, we investigated key components of this signaling pathway in pancreatic beta-cells. We identified ICAM-1, one of the proteins expressed in …

Inorganic Carbon Outwelling From A Mediterranean Seagrass Meadow Using Radium Isotopes, Claudia Majtényi-Hill, Gloria Reithmaier, Yvonne Y. Y. Yau, Oscar Serrano, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Isaac R. Santos

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrass meadows are ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems widely recognised for their potential role in climate change mitigation. Previous studies have focused mainly on carbon storage within meadows and sediments. However, little is known about contribution of outwelling (i.e., lateral transport) to seagrass carbon budgets. Here, radium isotopes (²²³Ra and ²²⁴Ra) were used to assess dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) outwelling from a Mediterranean Posidonia oceanica meadow during early autumn. DIC outwelling was 114 ± 61 mmol m ^{− 2} day ^{− 1} and exceeded above-meadow CO2 outgassing (3 ± 1 mmol m ^{− 2} day …

Map The System: Presence And Impact Of Ppcps In Water, Emma Vandermeulen, Ruby Mitchell

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

In a changing climate, there is growing emphasis on protecting our water sources and developing systems for conserving and reusing water. While many contaminants of concern are monitored and addressed by water treatment systems, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are generally not accounted for. PPCPs in water systems have been an increasing concern as detection of these products has increased over the last few decades. Studies have been exploring the impact of antibiotics, antidepressants, contraceptives, and other anthropogenic products on our water system and how these substances interact with local ecosystems. Our main research questions are to understand what …

Adaptive Plasticity Of Coloration In Response To Environmental Change, Karissa Coffield

Scholars Week

When rapid environmental changes occur, different selective forces can create phenotypic trade-offs in which a trait can provide fitness benefits or costs under different environmental conditions. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, and previous research has revealed that some species will plastically respond to variation in temperature and ultra-violet radiation (UVR) by altering their coloration. Divergent selection on coloration may change with elevation and climate induced shifts in temperature because high temperatures are likely to result in lighter color morphs but as elevation increases, UVR exposure increases leading to the prediction that darker color morphs will be more common. …

Evaluación Y Rentabilidad De Variedades De Chile En Tres Granjas De Minnesota Y Wisconsin, 2022, Natalie Hoidal, Charlie Rohwer, Ryan Pesch, Rodrigo Cala, Javier García, Griselda Bernabe Suarez, Fernando Alejandro García Loyo

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

Los agricultores latinos de hortalizas frescas de Minnesota y Wisconsin están interesados en cultivar chiles picantes tanto frescos como deshidratados para su venta en mercados locales. Este ensayo de variedades es el tercero y último de un proyecto de tres años de duración. El ensayo incluyo 14 variedades de chile incluyendo jalapeño, serrano, habanero, poblano y "otros" tipos. Las variedades incluyeron las mejores variedades de 2020 y 2021 junto con nuevas variedades. Calculamos el rendimiento, tamaño y las unidades Scoville. Además del ensayo de variedades, realizamos un análisis empresarial para determinar la rentabilidad de la producción de chiles picantes en …

Evaluating Form And Function Of Groundcovers And Their Environmental Impacts In Louisiana Landscapes, Thomas Maxwell Mckeown

LSU Master's Theses

Increasing environmental concerns are encouraging the adoption of sustainable landscapes that have environmental, social, and financial benefits. Ornamental groundcover systems are touted as sustainable landscape features due to the associated decreased demand of water, fertilizer, pesticide, and maintenance; however, limited research exists on soil property effects, planting density, weed density, or consumer preferences of groundcovers. This study was aimed to gain a more thorough understanding of ornamental groundcovers systems and their environmental impacts. The effects of groundcover growth habit (matting; bunching) and irrigation delivery (micro spray; overhead) on soil temperature, volumetric water content (VWC), and electric conductivity (EC) along with …

Gut Microbiota-Derived Trimethylamine N-Oxide Contributes To Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Through Inflammatory And Apoptotic Mechanisms, Tyler W. Benson, Kelsey A. Conrad, Xinmin S. Li, Zeneng Wang, Robert N. Helsley, Rebecca C. Schugar, Taylor M. Coughlin, Caris Wadding-Lee, Salma Fleifil, Hannah M. Russell, Timothy Stone, Michael Brooks, Jennifer A. Buffa, Kevin Mani, Martin Björck, Anders Wanhainen, Naseer Sangwan, Sudha Biddinger, Rohan Bhandari, Akiirayi Ademoya, Crystal Pascual, W. H.Wilson Tang, Michael Tranter, Scott J. Cameron, J. Mark Brown, Stanley L. Hazen, A. Phillip Owens

Exercise and Sport Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Large-scale human and mechanistic mouse studies indicate a strong relationship between the microbiome-dependent metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and several cardiometabolic diseases. This study aims to investigate the role of TMAO in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and target its parent microbes as a potential pharmacological intervention. Methods: TMAO and choline metabolites were examined in plasma samples, with associated clinical data, from 2 independent patient cohorts (N=2129 total). Mice were fed a high-choline diet and underwent 2 murine AAA models, angiotensin II infusion in low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient (Ldlr-/-) mice or topical porcine pancreatic elastase in C57BL/6J mice. Gut …

Biodiversity Of Forage Fishes In The Lower Laguna Madre, Southernmost Texas, David Camarillo Jr., Elizabeth Mogus Garcia, Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal estuarine ecosystems serve as nursery habitats for many commercially and recreationally important fishes. Biodiversity is a structural indicator and has been used as a metric for conservation and management. In the hypersaline Lower Laguna Madre of Texas, a variety of organisms makes their living in and around the dominant seagrass vegetation. This study provides a general assessment of forage fishes biodiversity collected seasonally with bag seines in two sites: Holly Beach (HB) and South Bay (SB) within the most southern Texas bay system as part of a broader study on fish biology. A total of 15,880 fishes representing 32 …

Temporal Machine Learning Analysis Of Prior Mammograms For Breast Cancer Risk Prediction, Chun-Wai Chan, Matthew Embury, Gary J Whitman, Randa El-Zein, Isabelle Bedrosian, Maryellen L Giger

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The identification of women at risk for sporadic breast cancer remains a clinical challenge. We hypothesize that the temporal analysis of annual screening mammograms, using a long short-term memory (LSTM) network, could accurately identify women at risk of future breast cancer. Women with an imaging abnormality, which had been biopsy-confirmed to be cancer or benign, who also had antecedent imaging available were included in this case-control study. Sequences of antecedent mammograms were retrospectively collected under HIPAA-approved guidelines. Radiomic and deep-learning-based features were extracted on regions of interest placed posterior to the nipple in antecedent images. These features were input to …

Methodological Precision Of In Situ And In Vitro Algal Density Measurements In The Model Cnidarian, Exaiptasia Diaphana, Lauren R. Bolzan, Alison M. Roark

Open Access Fund Publications

In cnidarian symbiosis research, studying algal uptake, maintenance, and expulsion typically requires quantification of algal density in host tissue. Multiple methods are used to measure algal density including in vitro cell counts of holobiont homogenate and in situ cell counts of tentacle clippings. The relative precision of both types of measurement has not previously been reported for the model cnidarian Exaiptasia diaphana in the fully symbiotic state. The objective of this study was to evaluate the precision of in vitro and in situ algal density measurement protocols using light, fluorescent, and confocal microscopy and an automated cell counter. In situ …

Plants Detect And Adapt, But Do Not Feel, Paul C. Struik

Animal Sentience

Plant sentience is a hot topic in scientific and popular media. There are moral reasons to respect both the service of plants to humanity and their natural integrity as creatures playing their own significant role in a complex ecosystem. However, to infer that plants have certain cognitive capacities that are present also in certain human and nonhuman animals calls for scientific rigor beyond mere analogy. The unique capacities of plants identified by Segundo-Ortin & Calvo are not necessarily linked to sentience. Nor is it likely that sentience is an evolutionary trait that is present to some extent in all living …

Questions About Sentience Are Not Scientific But Cultural, Yoram Gutfreund

Animal Sentience

Abstract: The findings of complex cognitive-like behaviours in plants are surprising and exciting. However, they do not provide a scientific reason for ascribing sentience to plants. The target article, in trying to provide evidence for sentience in plants, exposes the weakness of the science of animal consciousness in general. In this commentary, I try to explain why the scientific method is incapable of resolving the question of which organisms or systems are sentient.

Attentional Focus Effects On Motor Variability, Charlend Kenneth Howard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Subtle changes in task instructions with associated changes of one’s focus of attention (FOA) can have measurable effects on performance and learning of complex motor skills (Wulf, 2013). The beneficial effects of adopting an external focus of attention (EF) have been well-documented in physical environments, and recently have also been demonstrated in virtual reality (VR) environments (Cochran, Aiken, Rhea, & Raisbeck, 2021; Yamada, Kuznetsov, Diekfuss, & Raisbeck, 2021). However, these studies primarily focused on performance outcomes (such as error and accuracy), with relatively less emphasis on movement coordination. Given that most human movements are motor abundant (more degrees of freedom …

Gulf Sturgeon Mesohabitat Use And Movement In The Lower Pearl River Louisiana-Mississippi, Amanda Popovich

LSU Master's Theses

After spring migrations to natal rivers Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi reside in freshwater holding areas prior to fall emigrations to nearby estuaries. Limited published information on the physical habitat characteristics of these holding areas is available, especially for juvenile fish in the western portion of the Gulf Sturgeon’s distribution. To further investigate freshwater occupancy and movement patterns, 32 acoustic receivers were deployed from late April to October of 2021 and 2022 in 1600-m reaches distributed throughout the lower Pearl River, Louisiana-Mississippi, the westernmost river within their distribution. Generalized linear mixed models and multi-state models were used to determine what …

Pattern Dynamics And Stochasticity Of The Brain Rhythms, Clarissa Hoffman, Jingheng Cheng, Daoyun Ji, Yuri Dabaghian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Our current understanding of brain rhythms is based on quantifying their instantaneous or time-averaged characteristics. What remains unexplored is the actual structure of the waves-their shapes and patterns over finite timescales. Here, we study brain wave patterning in different physiological contexts using two independent approaches: The first is based on quantifying stochasticity relative to the underlying mean behavior, and the second assesses "orderliness" of the waves' features. The corresponding measures capture the waves' characteristics and abnormal behaviors, such as atypical periodicity or excessive clustering, and demonstrate coupling between the patterns' dynamics and the animal's location, speed, and acceleration. Specifically, we …

Leaf Area Index And Light Interception In African Violets (Streptocarpus Sect. Saintpaulia), Chintakunta Keerthi Reddy, Venkat Sai Chatla

Scholars Week

LEAF AREA INDEX AND LIGHT INTERCEPTION IN AFRICAN VIOLETS

(Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia)

ABSTRACT Chintakunta Keerthi Reddy, Venkat Sai Chatla Hutson School of Agriculture Mentor: Dr. Megan Taylor

African violets are a genus of six flowering plants from tropical eastern Africa, commonly known as Saintpaulias. They can thrive indoors in low light conditions and bloom all year round. They require less light than other blooming plants and can bloom during regular daylight hours in the US and Canada if given proper exposure. Several light intensities were used for the African violet (Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia) experiment, which showed a significant variation in …

Effects Of Salinity, Alkalinity, And Acidity On Crop Growth And Development On Pea (Pisum Sativum), Laxmi Prasanna Shakamudi, Rasagna Chamakura, Vineela Bathula

Scholars Week

Effects of salinity, alkalinity, and acidity on crop growth and development

on pea (Pisum sativum)

Authors: Laxmi Prasanna Shakamudi, Rasagna Chamakura, Vineela Bathula

Mentor: Dr. Megan Taylor

Hutson school of agriculture, Murray state university

Pea (Pisum sativum) is one of the vegetables that belong to the Fabaceae family, is a pulse crop that has been widely used and cultivated in all parts of the world. As with many crops pea plants also experience abiotic stresses that affect the plant’s growth, development, and productivity. Abiotic stresses that affect crop growth and development include soil salinity, alkalinity, and …

Effects Of Planting Depth Of Soybean (Glycine Max) On Growth And Development, Hannah Dejournett, Mallory White, Mason Welden

Scholars Week

Effects of Planting Depth of Soybean (Glycine max) on Growth and Development

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray, KY

Mentor: Dr. Megan Taylor

Hannah DeJournett, Mallory White, Mason Welden

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of soybean (Glycine max) seed placement on growth and development. Several abiotic and biotic factors influence germination and emergence, planting depth is no exception. Planting depth is a management practice that can be controlled at the time of planting, making it an ideal candidate for experimentation. To determine the effect of planting depth on soybeans, soybeans were established at different depths. Previous …

Lai As Affected By Flashing-Light Interception With Corn And Soybeans, Josh W. Pohl, Jondavid Mcclanahan, Jake Eaker

Scholars Week

LAI as Affected by Flashing-Light Interception With

Corn (Zea mays) and Soybeans (Glycine max)

Corn (Zea mays) and Soybean (Glycine max) are both staple crops in global agriculture. With growing concern regarding food security and production, indoor cultivation of corn and soybean plants has become a question of interest. This study looks at the application of different lighting regimes for corn and soybeans and effects on development. Light that can be used by plants is called photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). PAR is the solar radiation range of energy that plants use for …

Soil Properties Associated With Land Management Practices In Western Kentucky, Ava Isaacs, Gracey Moffitt

Scholars Week

Soil Properties Associated with Land Management Practices in Western Kentucky

1. A. Isaacs, G. Moffitt, W. Sides, and Corey Hale

Mentor: Dr. I.P. Handayani

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State University, Kentucky, USA

Abstract

One of the most important factors regarding soil and plant health is nutrient availability and fertility. Of these two factors that were mentioned available potassium is a key component. With that being said we decided that it would be beneficial to see how potassium can be traced within the soil in various locations after fertilizer is applied. There were two parts to this experiment. Part one was …

Effect Of Seed Storage On Germination Of Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.), Corn (Zea Mays), And Soybean (Glycine Max), Sangam Dangal, Disha Ande, Harshaditya Bijapuri

Scholars Week

Effect of Seed Storage on Germination of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), Corn (Zea mays), and Soybean (Glycine max)

Disha Ande, Harshaditya Bijapuri, Sangam Dangal, Dr. Megan Taylor

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Seed germination is an essential stage in the plant cycle for growth and development, resulting in the yield's quantity and quality. It is a complex process that is influenced by various biotic and abiotic factors. The storage of seeds leading up to planting is an essential management practice of crop production, as it directly …

Effects Of Soil Salinity, Alkaline Conditions And Acidity On Crop Growth And Development On Radish (Raphanus Sativus), Anvesh Kumar Dasarla, Chandan Prasanna Lakshmi Kumar Sunkavalli, Turki Alanazi

Scholars Week

Effects of soil salinity, alkaline conditions and acidity on crop growth and development on Radish (Raphanus sativus)

Authors:Anveesh Kumar Dasarla,ChandanPrasanna Lakshmi Kumar Sunkavalli,TurkiAlanazi.

Hutson School of Agriculture

Murray State University

Radish (Raphanus sativus) a member of the mustard family, it is a root veggie. This plant, which can be perennial root. The radish is a vegetable that was probably domesticated in Asia or the Mediterranean region. The veggie, which has few calories, is typically consumed raw, though the young leaves can be prepared similarly to spinach. There are numerous radish varieties, one of which is …

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix Movements In The Lower Cumberland And Lower Tennessee River, Miranda Belanger

Scholars Week

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix are an invasive species making up a large portion of the fish biomass in the lower portions of the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River. This species is expanding its range throughout the upper portions of these rivers, beginning with Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Silver Carp rarely spawn in Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, but they can enter these reservoirs through the lock chamber. Thus, the bottleneck created by lock chambers can be used to control expansion of invasive Silver Carp. Although Silver Carp movement patterns have been studied in other portions of the Tennessee …

Adaptive Plasticity Of Coloration In Response To Environmental Change, Karissa Coffield

Scholars Week

When rapid environmental changes occur, different selective forces can create phenotypic trade-offs in which a trait can provide fitness benefits or costs under different environmental conditions. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, and previous research has revealed that some species will plastically respond to variation in temperature and ultra-violet radiation (UVR) by altering their coloration. Divergent selection on coloration may change with elevation and climate induced shifts in temperature because high temperatures are likely to result in lighter color morphs but as elevation increases, UVR exposure increases leading to the prediction that darker color morphs will be more common. …

Reactive Chlorine Species Reversibly Inhibit Dnab Protein Splicing In Mycobacteria, Daniel Wahl

Scholars Week

Intervening proteins, or inteins, are mobile genetic elements translated within host polypeptides and removed at the protein level by splicing. In protein splicing, a selfmediated reaction removes the intein, leaving only a peptide bond in place. While protein splicing can proceed in the absence of external co-factors, several natural examples of conditional protein splicing (CPS) have emerged. In CPS, the rate and accuracy of splicing is highly-dependent on environmental conditions. As activity of the intein-containing host protein is compromised prior to splicing, and inteins are highly abundant in the microbial world, CPS represents an emerging form of …

Do You Text & Walk? What's The Risk?, Makena Yelland, Quinlan Manross, Abraham Silva, Tyler Block, Fabio Fontana, Hyeyoung Cho

INSPIRE Student Research and Engagement Conference

The purpose of the research is to capture the recognition of gaze fixation, gait behaviors, and texting performance amongst young adults.

Gene Discovery And Molecular Dissection Of Lignin Biosynthesis In Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium Perenne), A. Lidgett, M. Emmerling, R. Heath, R. Mcinnes, D. Lynch, A. Bartkowski, K. Fulgueras, T. Sawbridge, E. K. Ong, K. F. Smith, A. Mouradov, G. C. Spangenberg

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Lignification of plant cell walls has been identified as a major factor limiting forage digestibility. It limits the amount of digestible energy available to livestock, resulting in an incomplete utilisation of cellulose and hemicellulose by ruminant animals. Modification of the lignin profile of ryegrasses (Lolium spp.) and fescues (Festuca spp.) is undertaken through modulating the expression of genes encoding enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of monolignols.

Identification Of Putative AtTt2 R2r3-Myb Transcription Factor Orthologues In Tanniferous Tissues Of L. Corniculatus Var. Japonicus Cv Gifu, D. N. Bryant, P. Bailey, P. Morris, Mark P. Robbins, C. Martin, T. Wang

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

R2R3-MYB plant transcription factors are sequence–specific DNA-binding proteins, which regulate the expression of specific gene(s) following the R2R3 DNA-binding domain interacting with the corresponding promoter sequence(s). The biosynthetic pathway leading to the production of anthocyanins has been demonstrated to be under MYB transcriptional regulatory control (Cone et al., 1986), while the accumulation of proanthocyanidins (PAs) in Arabidopsis seed coats is determined by the R2R3-MYB AtTT2 (Nesi et al., 2001). Using an informatics approach, partial sequences of putative AtTT2 orthologues have been identified and cloned from the forage legume Lotus corniculatus var. japonicus cv Gifu.

Role Of Microorganisms In Communication Between Soil And Plants, Domenico Prisa

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Microbial population in the rhizosphere establishes a number of important interactions with plants, whose study is crucial in perspective of sustainable agricultural production. Studies on various plant crops have revealed that, despite the complex microbial biodiversity of the soil, the bacterial microbiome is characterised by multiple functionalities. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms, underlying the interactions between plants and the microbiome, could enable better development of plants, related to the beneficial action of microorganisms. Therefore, this review aims to describe the characteristics of the rhizosphere microbiome with the interactions that occur between soil and roots, as well as the …

Evaluating Draft Epa Emissions Models For Laying Hen Facilities, Yijie Xiong, Guoming Li, Brett C. Ramirez, Robert T. Burns, Richard S. Gates

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

In August 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released draft models to estimate daily NH₃, H₂S, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and TSP emissions from egg-layer houses (high-rise and manure-belt) and manure storage using inputs of daily mean ambient temperature, relative humidity (RH), and hen inventory. These models were developed from refined datasets generated by the National Air Emissions Monitoring Study fieldwork completed in 2009. Notably, they do not include data for cage-free housing. Currently, 66% of U.S. laying hens are housed in cages; thus, these models, if adopted, will have a substantial impact …