Life Sciences Commons^™

Bazedoxifene, Parth M. Raina, Mayur Parmar

HPD Articles

No abstract provided.

Larval Dispersal Patterns And Connectivity Of Acropora On Florida’S Coral Reef And Its Implications For Restoration, Samantha King, Antoine Saint-Amand, Brian K. Walker, Emmanuel Hanert, Joana Figueiredo

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Since the 1980s, populations of Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata have experienced severe declines due to disease and anthropogenic stressors; resulting in their listing as threatened, and their need for restoration. In this study, larval survival and competency data were collected and used to calibrate a very high-resolution hydrodynamic model (up to 100m) to determine the dispersal patterns of Acropora species along the Florida’s Coral Reef. The resulting connectivity matrices was incorporated into a metapopulation model to compare strategies for restoring Acropora populations. This study found that Florida’s Coral Reef was historically a well-connected system, and that spatially selective restoration …

Romosozumab, Kristina Krupa, Mayur Parmar, Linda F. Delo

HPD Articles

No abstract provided.

Abaloparatide, Miis Akel, Mayur Parmar

HPD Articles

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Salinity And Acetaminophen On The Aquatic Snail Physa Acuta, Michelle Sackey-Ansah, Megan Mackey, Daniel Elias, Jason Doll, Alyssa Brookhart

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Pharmaceuticals are increasingly detected in water bodies, and their presence can negatively impact aquatic organisms. This effect can be amplified when combined with increasing salinity in freshwater ecosystems. Acetaminophen is a widely used analgesic that is commonly found in river, streams, and waters where it is discharged directly. Therefore, organisms present in these locations (e.g., insects, snails, amphibians, and fish) are likely to be affected by acetaminophen. In this study, we determined the effects of elevated salinity (0.68 g/L), acetaminophen (500 µg/L) and combined elevated salinity (0.68 g/L) and acetaminophen (500 µg/L), on the growth, reproduction, and movement of the …

Antibody-Dependent Enhancement Activity Of A Plant-Made Vaccine Against West Nile Virus, Amber M. Paul, Haiyan Sun, Dhiraj Acharya, Huafang Lai, Junyun He, Fengwei Bai, Qiang Chen

Publications

West Nile virus (WNV) causes annual outbreaks globally and is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in Unite States. In the absence of licensed therapeutics, there is an urgent need to develop effective and safe human vaccines against WNV. One of the major safety concerns for WNV vaccine development is the risk of increasing infection by related flaviviruses in vaccinated subjects via antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Herein, we report the development of a plant-based vaccine candidate that provides protective immunity against a lethal WNV challenge mice, while minimizes the risk of ADE for infection by Zika (ZIKV) and dengue …

Scalable Causal Structure Learning: Scoping Review Of Traditional And Deep Learning Algorithms And New Opportunities In Biomedicine, Yejin Kim

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Causal structure learning refers to a process of identifying causal structures from observational data, and it can have multiple applications in biomedicine and health care.

OBJECTIVE: This paper provides a practical review and tutorial on scalable causal structure learning models with examples of real-world data to help health care audiences understand and apply them.

METHODS: We reviewed traditional (combinatorial and score-based) methods for causal structure discovery and machine learning-based schemes. Various traditional approaches have been studied to tackle this problem, the most important among these being the Peter Spirtes and Clark Glymour algorithms. This was followed by analyzing the …

Biorisk Management, Laboratory Acquired Infections And Clinical Containment, Kashif Ali, Furqan Kabir, Esmeralda Meyer

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Plant Defense-Fitness Trade-Off Hypotheses Using Solanum As A Model Genus, Sakshi Watts, Satinderpal Kaur, Rupesh R. Kariyat

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

Plants possess physical and chemical defenses which have been found to deter herbivores that feed and oviposit on them. Despite having wide variety of defenses which can be constitutive or induced, plants are attacked and damaged by insects associated with different mouthparts and feeding habits. Since these defenses are costly, trade-offs for growth and defense traits play an important role in warding off the herbivores, with consequences for plant and herbivore growth, development and fitness. Solanum is a diverse and rich genus comprising of over 1,500 species with economic and ecological importance. Although a large number of studies on Solanum …

Examining Stripes On A Herd Of Zebras: Impact Of Genomic Matching For Ultrarare Sarcomas In Phase 1 Clinical Trials (Samba 102), Justin T Moyers, Roberto Carmagnani Pestana, Jason Roszik, David S Hong, Aung Naing, Sarina Piha-Paul, Daniel Karp, Jordi Rodon, Andy Livingston, Maria Alejandra Zarzour, Vinod Ravi, Shreyaskumar Patel, Robert S Benjamin, Joseph Ludwig, Cynthia Herzog, Ravin Ratan, Neeta Somaiah, Anthony Conley, Richard Gorlick, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Vivek Subbiah

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Recently, the Connective Tissue Oncology Society published consensus guidelines for recognizing ultrarare sarcomas (URS), defined as sarcomas with an incidence ≤1 per 1,000,000. We assessed the outcomes of 56 patients with soft tissue, and 21 with bone sarcomas, enrolled in Phase 1 trials.

Experimental design: In this Sarcoma-Matched Biomarker Analysis (SAMBA-102 study), we reviewed records from patients on Phase 1 trials at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center between January 2013 and June 2021.

Results: Among 587 sarcomas, 106 (18.1%) were classified as URS. Fifty (47%) were male, and the median age was 44.3 years (range, 19-82). …

Mechanisms Of Mcl-1 Protein Stability Induced By Mcl-1 Antagonists In B-Cell Malignancies, Shady I Tantawy, Aloke Sarkar, Stefan Hubner, Zhi Tan, William G Wierda, Shuxing Zhang, Varsha Gandhi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Several MCL-1 inhibitors (MCL-1i), including AMG-176 and AZD5991, have shown promise in preclinical studies and are being tested for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. A unique feature of these agents is induction and stability of Mcl-1 protein; however, the precise mechanism is unknown. We aim to study the mechanism of MCL-1i-induced Mcl-1 protein stability.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Using several B-cell leukemia and lymphoma cell lines and primary chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) lymphocytes, we evaluated molecular events associated with Mcl-1 protein stability including protein half-life, reverse-phase protein array, protein-protein interaction, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and de-ubiquitination, followed by molecular simulation and modeling.

RESULTS: …

Computational Simulations Of Fabrication Of Aluminum-Based Josephson Junctions: Topological Aspects Of The Barrier Structure, Chuanbing Han, Huihui Sun, Fudong Liu, Xiangju Zhao, Zheng Shan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although the performance of qubits has been improved in recent years, the differences in the microscopic atomic structure of the Josephson junctions, the core devices prepared under different preparation conditions, are still underexplored. In this paper, the effects of the oxygen temperature and upper aluminum deposition rate on the topology of the barrier layer in the aluminum-based Josephson junctions have been presented by classical molecular dynamics simulations. We apply a Voronoi tessellation method to characterize the topology of the interface and central regions of the barrier layers. We find that when the oxygen temperature is 573 K and the upper …

Harnessing The Therapeutic Vulnerability Of Mmr Heterogeneity In Colorectal Cancer, Gayathri Anandappa, Michael J Overman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In a recent issue of Cancer Cell, Amodio and colleagues report an interesting method of modulating immunosurveillance in colorectal tumors with DNA mismatch repair (MMR) heterogeneity.1 By pharmacologically enriching the MMR deficient (MMRd) component using 6-thioguanine, they demonstrate improved tumor control in murine models.

Features Of Tumor-Microenvironment Images Predict Targeted Therapy Survival Benefit In Patients With Egfr-Mutant Lung Cancer, Shidan Wang, Ruichen Rong, Donghan M Yang, Junya Fujimoto, Justin A Bishop, Ling Cai, Lynne D Berry, Clare Wilhelm, Dara Aisner, Lynette Sholl, Bruce E Johnson, David J Kwiatkowski, Ignacio I Wistuba, Paul A Bunn, John Minna, Guanghua Xiao, Mark G Kris, Yang Xie

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are effective for many patients with lung cancer with EGFR mutations. However, not all patients are responsive to EGFR TKIs, including even those harboring EGFR-sensitizing mutations. In this study, we quantified the cells and cellular interaction features of the tumor microenvironment (TME) using routine H&E-stained biopsy sections. These TME features were used to develop a prediction model for survival benefit from EGFR TKI therapy in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and EGFR-sensitizing mutations in the Lung Cancer Mutation Consortium 1 (LCMC1) and validated in an independent LCMC2 cohort. In the validation …

Bitumen Aging—Laboratory Simulation Methods Used In Practice And Selected Directions Of Research On New Methods, Paweł Czajkowski, Andrzej Przyjazny, Grzegorz Boczkaj

Natural Sciences Publications

Changes in the properties of bitumen binders that occur as a result of aging have a huge impact on the durability of products produced from them. In particular, asphalt pavements, which constitute the most common use of petroleum bitumen, are susceptible to damage resulting from the increasing stiffness of the bitumen during its life cycle. Increased stiffness of asphalt pavements reduces the pavement resistance to low-temperature cracks and fatigue cracks, ultimately leading to the loss of their functional properties and the need for road repair. The rate of changes in bitumen properties is influenced by many factors, the most important …

Localization Of Arabidopsis Glucan Synthase-Like 5, 8, And 12 To Plasmodesmata Andthe Gsl8-Dependent Role Of Pdlp5 In Regulating Plasmodesmal Permeability, Behnaz Saatian, Susanne Kohalmi, Yuhai Cui

Biology Publications

Cell-to-cell communication via membranous channels called plasmodesmata (PD) plays critical rolesduring plant development and in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Several enzymes and receptor-like proteins (RLPs), including Arabidopsis thaliana glucan synthase-likes (GSLs), also known as callosesynthases (CALSs), and PD-located proteins (PDLPs), have been implicated in plasmodesmal permeabilityregulation and intercellular communication. Localization of PDLPs to punctate structures at the cellperiphery and their receptor-like identity have raised the hypothesis that PDLPs are involved in theregulation of symplastic trafficking during plant development and in response to endogenous andexogenous signals. Indeed, it was shown that PDLP5 could limit plasmodesmal permeability throughinducing an increase …

Genetic And Ecological Drivers Of Molt In A Migratory Bird, Andrea Contina, Christen M. Bossu, Daniel Allen, Michael B. Wunder, Kristen Ruegg

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

The ability of animals to sync the timing and location of molting (the replacement of hair, skin, exoskeletons or feathers) with peaks in resource availability has important implications for their ecology and evolution. In migratory birds, the timing and location of pre-migratory feather molting, a period when feathers are shed and replaced with newer, more aerodynamic feathers, can vary within and between species. While hypotheses to explain the evolution of intraspecific variation in the timing and location of molt have been proposed, little is known about the genetic basis of this trait or the specific environmental drivers that may result …

Planarians To Schistosomes: An Overview Of Flatworm Cell-Types And Regulators, J Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Schistosomiasis remains a major neglected tropical disease that afflicts over 200 million people globally. Schistosomes, the aetiological agent of schistosomiasis, are parasitic flatworms that propagate between molluscan and mammalian hosts. Inside the mammalian host, schistosomes rapidly grow over 100-fold in size and develop into a sexually mature male or female that thrives in the bloodstream for several decades. Recent work has identified schistosome stem cells as the source that drives parasite transmission, reproduction and longevity. Moreover, studies have begun to uncover molecular programmes deployed by stem cells that are essential for tissue development and maintenance, parasite survival and immune evasion. …

A Swimming Program For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Assessing Critical Parameters From Caregivers’ Perspectives, Abir K. Bekhet, Norah Johnson, Tana Karenke, Amy Van Hecke

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

One in 54 individuals is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Swimming can impact the physical and mental well-being of persons with ASD, which in turn may improve their caregivers’ well-being. The purpose of this qualitative evaluation study is to assess the necessity, acceptability, feasibility, fidelity, and beginning effectiveness of a 12-session swimming training program (STP) at an indoor university pool designed to teach persons with ASD how to swim, and to teach caregivers precautions for safety around water. Participants included 7 boys, and 3 girls with ASD [mean age 7.05 years (SD 1.17)] and their caregivers. Results indicated that …

Enhancing The Quality Of Life For Senior Citizens: A Facilitator’S Guidebook For Mindful Music And Movement, Shannon Sexton

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Music appreciation and enjoyment enhance well-being throughout the lifespan. The challenges and constraints that people experience as they age can lead to lack of access to music, decreased physical activity, and fewer avenues for creative expression. Group music and movement interventions created for older populations offer opportunities for social connection and improved quality of life. Mindful practices add further benefit when combined with these interventions. Current available programs are scarce and most often do not encompass mixed modalities. In addition, the benefits of these programs do not show long-term sustainability. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the effects …

Comparison Of Serum Albu-Min Levels In The Breast Milk Of Breastfeeding Infants Aged 1-3 Months And 4-6 Months, Ninik Mudjihartini

Indonesian Journal of Medical Chemistry and Bioinformatics

Abstract: Background: Serum albumin is the most abundant plasma protein in the blood, contributing to maintaining colloid osmotic pressure and binding substances that are poorly soluble in plasma so that they can be distributed throughout the body. Serum albumin levels in breast milk can vary, influenced by various factors such as the lactation phase (age of the baby), number of parities, age and body mass index (BMI) of the mother. This study aims to determine the comparison of serum albumin levels in breast milk of mothers who breastfeed infants aged 1-3 months and 4-6 months and to find the relationship …

Nonobvious Design, Mark Bartholomew

Journal Articles

To earn patent protection, a claimed product design must be “nonobvious.” Yet while nonobviousness has been described as “the heart” and “cornerstone” of the utility patent system, in the design patent context, the term has become next to useless. Instead of actually policing nonobviousness in design, modern courts grant patent rights to any work that is not an exact replica of another. The problem, judges maintain, is that comparing one visual design against another demands the use of aesthetic judgment and aesthetic judgment is an instinctual, subjective process incapable of legal definition. Recent neuroscientific studies of aesthetic judgment dispel some …

Comparative Metabolite Profiling And Fingerprinting Of Mature And Immature Grains Of Different Species Using A Multiplex Approach Of Lc-Ms And Gc-Ms Coupled To Chemometrics, Doaa Bahaa Abdelhalim Saied

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the current study was the assessment of heterogeneity amongst metabolites of 5 cereal and leguminous grains of different species, and cultivars i.e., Triticum aestivum L., Hordeum vulgare L., Vicia faba L. & Cicer arietinum L. at different maturity stages. Gas chromatography mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) post silylation technique was employed for nutrients profiling. A total of 70 peaks belonging to sugars, fatty acids/esters/steroids and organic acids were identified including sucrose, melibiose, glucose and fructose as major sugars, butyl caprylate, hydroxybutanoic acid and malic acid to contribute for the discrimination between grain species and different maturity …

Adar1 Deletion Causes Degeneration Of The Exocrine Pancreas Via Mavs-Dependent Interferon Signaling, Dhwani N Rupani, Fredrik I Thege, Vidhi Chandra, Hajar Rajaei, Robert W Cowan, Olivereen Le Roux, Sara L Manning, Jack Hashem, Jennifer Bailey-Lundberg, Andrew D Rhim, Florencia Mcallister

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 1 (ADAR1) is an RNA-binding protein that deaminates adenosine (A) to inosine (I). A-to-I editing alters post-transcriptional RNA processing, making ADAR1 a crucial regulator of gene expression. Consequently, Adar1 has been implicated in organogenesis. To determine the role of Adar1 in pancreatic development and homeostasis, we conditionally deleted Adar1 from the murine pancreas (Ptf1aCre/+; Adar1Fl/Fl). The resulting mice had stunted growth, likely due to malabsorption associated with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Analyses of pancreata revealed ductal cell expansion, heightened interferon-stimulated gene expression and an increased influx of immune cells. Concurrent deletion of Adar1 and Mavs, a …

A Pleiotropic Variant In Dnajb4 Is Associated With Multiple Myeloma Risk, Marco Dicanio, Matteo Giaccherini, Alyssa Clay-Gilmour, Angelica Macauda, Juan Sainz, Malwina Rybicka-Ramos, Agata Tyczyńska, Stephen J Chanock, Torben Barington, Shaji K Kumar, Parveen Bhatti, Wendy Cozen, Elizabeth E Brown, Anna Suska, Eva K Haastrup, Robert Z Orlowski, Marek Dudziński, Ramon Garcia-Sanz, Marcin Kruszewski, Joaquin Martinez-Lopez, Katia Beider, Elżbieta Iskierka-Jazdzewska, Matteo Pelosini, Sonja I Berndt, Małgorzata Raźny, Krzysztof Jamroziak, S Vincent Rajkumar, Artur Jurczyszyn, Annette Juul Vangsted, Pilar Garrido Collado, Ulla Vogel, Jonathan N Hofmann, Mario Petrini, Aleksandra Butrym, Susan L Slager, Elad Ziv, Edyta Subocz, Graham G Giles, Niels Frost Andersen, Grzegorz Mazur, Marzena Watek, Fabienne Lesueur, Michelle A T Hildebrandt, Daria Zawirska, Lene Hyldahl Ebbesen, Herlander Marques, Federica Gemignani, Charles Dumontet, Judit Várkonyi, Gabriele Buda, Arnon Nagler, Agnieszka Druzd-Sitek, Xifeng Wu, Katalin Kadar, Nicola J Camp, Norbert Grzasko, Rosalie G Waller, Celine Vachon, Federico Canzian, Daniele Campa

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pleiotropy, which consists of a single gene or allelic variant affecting multiple unrelated traits, is common across cancers, with evidence for genome-wide significant loci shared across cancer and noncancer traits. This feature is particularly relevant in multiple myeloma (MM) because several susceptibility loci that have been identified to date are pleiotropic. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify novel pleiotropic variants involved in MM risk using 28 684 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from GWAS Catalog that reached a significant association (P < 5 × 10-8 ) with their respective trait. The selected SNPs were analyzed in 2434 MM cases and 3446 controls from the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph). The 10 SNPs showing the strongest associations with MM risk in InterLymph were selected for replication in an independent set of 1955 MM cases and 1549 controls from the International Multiple Myeloma rESEarch (IMMEnSE) consortium and 418 MM cases and 147 282 controls from the FinnGen project. The combined analysis of the three studies identified an association between DNAJB4-rs34517439-A and an increased risk of developing MM (OR = 1.22, 95%CI 1.13-1.32, P = 4.81 × 10-7 ). rs34517439-A is associated with a modified expression of the FUBP1 gene, which encodes a multifunctional DNA and RNA-binding protein that it was observed to influence the regulation of various genes involved in cell cycle regulation, among which various oncogenes and oncosuppressors. In conclusion, with a pleiotropic scan approach we identified DNAJB4-rs34517439 as a potentially novel MM risk locus.

Noninvasive Reflection Spectroscopy Measurement Of Skin Carotenoid Score In Infants Is Feasible And Reliable, Nancy E Moran, Jocelyn Chang, Rachel Stroh, Yusuf Zaidi, Noor Hason, Salma Musaad, Teresia O'Connor

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Skin carotenoid measurement by reflection spectroscopy (RS) offers a noninvasive biomarker of carotenoid intake, but feasibility, reliability, and validity are not established in infants.

Objectives: In this study we aimed to determine the feasibility and reliability of 4-mo-old infant skin carotenoid score (SCS) measurement and its correlation with total carotenoid intake and plasma concentrations.

Methods: SCSs were measured in a prospective, observational study with a modified, portable RS device at the index finger and heel of the foot in 4-mo-olds (n = 21). Infant plasma, human milk, and formula carotenoid concentrations were measured by HPLC-photodiode array, and carotenoid intake …

Evolution Of Physical Training In Police Academies: Comparing Fitness Variables, Bridget Frugoli Melton, Gregory Ryan, Victor Zuege, Haresh Rochani, Derick Anglin, Joseph Dulla

Health Sciences & Kinesiology: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of three different physical training approaches to improving cadets’ fitness variables. Retrospective data for male and female land management law enforcement officers attending a 15-week training program at three separate time points were provided for analysis. The time points reflected the three different training approaches, including calisthenic training (CT) = 83, functional fitness training (FT) = 90, and strength training (ST) = 110. Inferential data analysis was used to find which mode of exercise had the greatest impact on body composition, cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, agility, and flexibility. All groups …

Smokejumper Obituary: Flake, Harold William (Idaho City 1961), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Manure Application Improves Soil Health And Stabilizes Carbon In Continuous Maize Production System, Saurav Das, Daniel Liptzin, Bijesh Maharjan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Soil health lies at the core of a sustainable food production system. A comprehensive evaluation of different agronomic practices and their effect on soil health is essential to determine the best practices that support soil ecosystem services. However, it may take years or decades to observe measurable changes in soil health under varying management practices. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of long-term (>77 years) manure and inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on soil health and determine the interrelationship among the measured soil bio-physicochemical indicators. The study also aims to understand the sustainability of the monocropping …

A Gain-Of-Function Tpc2 Variant R210c Increases Affinity To Pi(3,5)P2 And Causes Lysosome Acidification And Hypopigmentation, Qiaochu Wang, Zengge Wang, Yizhen Wang, Zhan Qi, Dayong Bai, Yuanying Chen, Xili Zhu, Jaepyo Jeon, Jian Xiong, Chanjuan Hao, Michael Xi Zhu, Aihua Wei, Wei Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Albinism is a group of inherited disorders mainly affecting skin, hair and eyes. Here we identify a de novo point mutation, p.R210C, in the TPCN2 gene which encodes Two Pore Channel 2 (TPC2) from a patient with albinism. TPC2 is an endolysosome and melanosome localized non-selective cation channel involved in regulating pigment production. Through inside-out recording of plasma membrane targeted TPC2 and direct recording of enlarged endolysosomal vacuoles, we reveal that the R210C mutant displays constitutive channel activation and markedly increased affinity to PI(3,5)P2. Mice harboring the homologous mutation, R194C, also exhibit hypopigmentation in the fur and skin, as well …