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Articles 151 - 180 of 271

Full-Text Articles in Biology

Anthropogenic Noise Alters Avian Community Composition In Temperate Forests, Chelsea Jill Wright Jan 2018

Anthropogenic Noise Alters Avian Community Composition In Temperate Forests, Chelsea Jill Wright

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Noise is an under-appreciated source of pollution that can influence the spatial distribution of birds. In this study, I examined how noise frequency and intensity (both background noise (kHz) and decibel levels (dB)) affected avian richness, density, and number of birds that sing with the same frequency as anthropogenic noise (low note frequency). I also examined the responses of two species in detail, the Eastern Wood Pewee and the Acadian Flycatcher, because they lack song plasticity. I examined whether they responded to noise by avoiding "noisy" areas or shifting their song frequency. I examined the response of bird communities to …


A Planarian Tau Tubulin Kinase Homolog Is Required For Spermatogenesis And Epithelial Ciliogenesis, Robert Alan Magley Jan 2018

A Planarian Tau Tubulin Kinase Homolog Is Required For Spermatogenesis And Epithelial Ciliogenesis, Robert Alan Magley

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Tubulin comprises the structural element of microtubules and Tau is one of many microtubule-associated proteins. Tau Tubulin Kinase (TTBK) phosphorylates both Tau and Tubulin and is required for the initial steps of cilia formation. Due to the structural similarities between cilia and sperm flagella, as well as the enriched expression of TTBK1 and TTBK2 in human testes, we hypothesized that TTBK homologs play a role in sperm maturation. This hypothesis was tested in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, a lophotrochozoan model capable of whole-body regeneration and development a complete reproductive system post-embryonically. Six TTBK homologs were identified in the genome of …


Community Structure And Epizootic Infection Prevalence Of Northern Wisconsin Anurans, Kayla Christine Watters Jan 2018

Community Structure And Epizootic Infection Prevalence Of Northern Wisconsin Anurans, Kayla Christine Watters

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Amphibian populations are declining globally at historically rapid rates, and while a multitude of factors have contributed to amphibian population declines, emerging infectious diseases, such as chytridiomycosis and ranavirus have been linked to a large proportion of the reported amphibian mass mortality events. Distribution and infection prevalence data for chytridiomycosis and ranavirus are lacking, and effective surveillance is crucial. This project aims to describe anuran richness, relative abundance, habitat occupancy, and community structure and to identify the chytridiomycosis and ranavirus infection prevalence rates of the anuran population at Dairymen's Inc. Wood frogs, spring peepers, boreal chorus frogs, northern leopard frogs, …


Mapping Hybrid Lethal Genes On The X Chromosome Of C. Briggsae, Blaine E. Bittorf Jan 2018

Mapping Hybrid Lethal Genes On The X Chromosome Of C. Briggsae, Blaine E. Bittorf

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In the cross of C. nigoni males to C. briggsae hermaphrodites, all F1 males arrest during embryogenesis. However in the reciprocal cross there are some viable F1 male progeny. This unidirectional male-specific lethality in the F1 hybrids has been attributed to a hybrid lethal gene in a 500 Kb region of the X chromosome of C. briggsae. Cbr-him-8 is a recessive maternal suppressor of the male-specific lethal phenotype, due to the requirement of the him-8 protein for proper X chromosome pairing. Without proper pairing of any one of the chromosomes in the Caenorhabditis genome, genes present on the unpaired chromosome …


Demography And Dendrochronology Of A Disjunct Population Of Eastern Hemlock In Southwestern Ohio, Marie Johnson Jan 2018

Demography And Dendrochronology Of A Disjunct Population Of Eastern Hemlock In Southwestern Ohio, Marie Johnson

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Edge and isolated plant populations provide information about the resilience and the most basic resource needs of a species. Plant demography examines changes in population size and structure over time. An isolated, disjunct eastern hemlock population in Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, Yellow Springs, Ohio consists of two distinct subpopulations each with different environmental characteristics, reproductive capacities, and health ratings. Both subpopulations at Clifton Gorge were found to exhibit significant decreases in average annual ring width through time. Linear regression modeling determined that average annual growing season precipitation and temperature were the strongest predictors of these growth trends. A comparative …


Fast Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Currents And Action Potential Firing In R6/2 Skeletal Muscle, Eric Joshua Reed Jan 2018

Fast Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Currents And Action Potential Firing In R6/2 Skeletal Muscle, Eric Joshua Reed

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Huntington’s disease (HD) is a degenerative disorder caused by expanded CAG repeats in the Huntingtin gene, which results in cognitive problems as well as muscle weakness, chorea, rigidity, and dystonia. Most research in HD has focused on neurodegeneration, but recent studies have found peripheral defects that may help explain the debilitating motor symptoms of HD. We have shown that skeletal muscle from the R6/2 transgenic mouse model of HD is hyperexcitable due to decreases in resting chloride and potassium currents. Other groups have speculated that the fast voltage-gated sodium channels may be affected in Huntington’s disease as well. To fully …


Osmotic Activation Of Sperm Motility Via Water Flow Through Aquaporins In The Freeze-Tolerant Cope's Gray Treefrog, Dryophytes Chrysoscelis, Deja Miller Jan 2018

Osmotic Activation Of Sperm Motility Via Water Flow Through Aquaporins In The Freeze-Tolerant Cope's Gray Treefrog, Dryophytes Chrysoscelis, Deja Miller

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Gametes of gray treefrogs, Dryophytes chrysoscelis, are deposited into freshwater ponds. Sperm undergo spermatogenesis and maturation beginning in the seminiferous tubules and migrating to the lumen. In mammals and fishes, these cells are immotile within the isosmotic fluid of the testes and have motility activated by exposure to a hyper- or hypoosmotic medium. Water flows into or out of the sperm cell, altering intracellular ionic concentrations, and ultimately stimulates flagellar movement. We tested the hypothesis that exposure to a hypotonic environment activates motility of gray treefrog sperm. We also hypothesized that osmotic water uptake is facilitated by expression of water …


The Rtfa Gene Regulates Plant And Animal Pathogenesis And Secondary Metabolism In Aspergillus Flavus, Jessica Michelle Lohmar Jan 2018

The Rtfa Gene Regulates Plant And Animal Pathogenesis And Secondary Metabolism In Aspergillus Flavus, Jessica Michelle Lohmar

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Aspergillus flavus is an opportunistic fungal plant and human pathogen and producer of mycotoxins including aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). As part of our ongoing studies to elucidate biological functions of the A. flavus rtfA gene, we examined its role in pathogenicity of both plant and animal model systems. rtfA encodes a putative RNA-Pol II transcription elongation factor, previously characterized in Saccharomycese cerevisiae, Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus fumigatus, where it was shown to regulate several important cellular processes, including morphogenesis, secondary metabolism. In addition, an initial study in A. flavus indicated that rtfA also influences development and production of AFB1, however its effect …


Comparison Of Thaumarchaeotal Populations From Four Deep Sea Basins., Stephen Techtmann, Nagissa Mahmoudi, Kendall T Whitt, Maria Fernanda Campa, Julian L Fortney, Dominique C Joyner, Terry C Hazen Nov 2017

Comparison Of Thaumarchaeotal Populations From Four Deep Sea Basins., Stephen Techtmann, Nagissa Mahmoudi, Kendall T Whitt, Maria Fernanda Campa, Julian L Fortney, Dominique C Joyner, Terry C Hazen

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The nitrogen cycle in the marine environment is strongly affected by ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota. In some marine settings, Thaumarchaeotes can comprise a large percentage of the prokaryotic population. To better understand the biogeographic patterns of Thaumarchaeotes, we sought to investigate differences in their abundance and phylogenetic diversity between geographically distinct basins. Samples were collected from four marine basins (The Caspian Sea, the Great Australian Bight, and the Central and Eastern Mediterranean). The concentration of bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA genes and archaeal amoA genes were assessed using qPCR. Minimum entropy decomposition was used to elucidate the fine-scale diversity of Thaumarchaeotes. We …


Risc-Interacting Clearing 3’- 5’ Exoribonucleases (Rices) Degrade Uridylated Cleavage Fragments To Maintain Functional Risc In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Zhonghui Zhang, Fuqu Hu, Min Woo Sung, Chang Shu, Claudia Castillo-González, Hisashi Koiwa, Guiliang Tang, Martin Dickman, Pingwei Li, Xiuren Zhang May 2017

Risc-Interacting Clearing 3’- 5’ Exoribonucleases (Rices) Degrade Uridylated Cleavage Fragments To Maintain Functional Risc In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Zhonghui Zhang, Fuqu Hu, Min Woo Sung, Chang Shu, Claudia Castillo-González, Hisashi Koiwa, Guiliang Tang, Martin Dickman, Pingwei Li, Xiuren Zhang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) is composed of miRNAs and AGO proteins. AGOs use miRNAs as guides to slice target mRNAs to produce truncated 5’ and 3’ RNA fragments. The 5’ cleaved RNA fragments are marked with uridylation for degradation. Here, we identified novel cofactors of Arabidopsis AGOs, named RICE1 and RICE2. RICE proteins specifically degraded single-strand (ss) RNAs in vitro; but neither miRNAs nor miRNA*s in vivo. RICE1 exhibited a DnaQ-like exonuclease fold and formed a homohexamer with the active sites located at the interfaces between RICE1 subunits. Notably, ectopic expression of catalytically-inactive RICE1 not only significantly reduced miRNA levels; …


Proteomic Profiling Of Vetiver Grass (Chrysopogon Zizanioides) Under 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (Tnt) Stress, Padmini Das, Dibyendu Sarkar, Rupali Datta Apr 2017

Proteomic Profiling Of Vetiver Grass (Chrysopogon Zizanioides) Under 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (Tnt) Stress, Padmini Das, Dibyendu Sarkar, Rupali Datta

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Vetiver grass is an ideal plant for 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) phytoremediation, due to its ability to tolerate and metabolize TNT as previously reported. The current study is the first attempt to investigate the changes in the proteomic profile of a plant under TNT stress. Vetiver plants were grown in nutrient media with varying concentrations of TNT (0, 25, 50, and 100 mg L−1) for 10 days. Although the plants appeared healthy, significant biomass reductions (p = 0.0008) were observed in treated plants. Total proteins in the root decreased significantly (p = 0.0003). Proteomic analysis of root proteins revealed the downregulation of …


Breeding Bird And Bat Activity Surveys At Dairymen's Inc., Mandy M. Salminen Jan 2017

Breeding Bird And Bat Activity Surveys At Dairymen's Inc., Mandy M. Salminen

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The purpose of this study is to conduct baseline inventories of breeding birds and bat activity for the Dairymen's Inc. property. In addition, I compared the breeding bird communities of two habitats, black ash swamp and alder thickets. I conducted line transects and point counts to collect data on the breeding birds. For bat activity levels, I conducted acoustic point counts on the Dairymen's lakes. The data from this study, was used to predict the outcome of the white-nose syndrome and emerald ash borer becoming part of the landscape. The inventory data will be used to create a baseline for …


Feeding Selectivity Of An Algivore (Tropheus Brichardi) In Lake Tanganyika, Robin Richardson-Coy Jan 2017

Feeding Selectivity Of An Algivore (Tropheus Brichardi) In Lake Tanganyika, Robin Richardson-Coy

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Algivorous fish remove attached algae (periphyton) from the benthos in near shore areas of lakes. Periphyton has a complex three-dimensional structure dominated by Bacillariophyta (diatoms), Chlorophyta (green algae), and Cyanophyta (cyanobacteria). These three phyla vary in nutritional quality with diatoms providing essential fatty acids that consumers need for growth and reproduction. Selection of specific phyla may be driven by nutritional quality or it may be a function accessibility due to both mouth morphology of the fish and location of the algae in the periphyton community. I investigated whether Tropheus brichardi, an algivorous cichlid of Lake Tanganyika, selectivity feeds on …


Energy Budget For The African Cichlid, Tropheus Duboisi, Cortney Kay Morris Jan 2017

Energy Budget For The African Cichlid, Tropheus Duboisi, Cortney Kay Morris

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Herbivorous fish living in Lake Tanganyika rely on algae as their main source of food and are constantly feeding on low quality (low energy) food. The lake is warming leading to fewer nutrient upwelling’s that are likely limiting the amount of energy available to fish. I calculated an energy budget to compare energy intake against energy expenditure of the African cichlid, Tropheus duboisi, by measuring metabolic rates at rest, while feeding, digesting and being aggressive as well as the caloric content of food, feces, and urine. Fish fed a low quality diet of algae contaminated with sediments had lower growth …


Infection Prevalence In A Novel Ixodes Scapularis Population In Northern Wisconsin, Mary Lynn Westwood Jan 2017

Infection Prevalence In A Novel Ixodes Scapularis Population In Northern Wisconsin, Mary Lynn Westwood

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Ixodes scapularis (i.e. the blacklegged or deer tick) is an important vector of emerging human pathogens. Over the past few decades, the incidence of blacklegged tick-associated zoonotic diseases have increased in accordance with an expansion of the blacklegged tick geographic range. Data concerning the infection prevalence of blacklegged ticks in this region is highly variable and fragmentary. Using a novel population of these ticks, constituting part of the invasion front in Vilas County, Wisconsin, I examined infection prevalence and vector aspects of their ecology. During the summer of 2016, I collected 461 blacklegged ticks and screened them using a standard …


Survey Of A Neotropical Anuran Assemblage (Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, Peru), Eric Woebbe Jan 2017

Survey Of A Neotropical Anuran Assemblage (Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, Peru), Eric Woebbe

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The Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve of Peru is one of the largest protected areas of the Amazon rainforest, yet it has hosted only a few studies of frogs and toads (anurans). The primary goals of my study are: 1) To conduct an inventory of the local anuran species, 2) to quantify richness among habitats, 3) to compare differences in beta diversity across a river versus a continuous landscape, and 4) to compare difference in body size between nocturnal and diurnal individuals. After eight weeks of daytime and nighttime surveys during the dry season, a total of 601 individuals were identified across …


The Impacts Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Herbivory On The Forage Quality Of Forest Vegetation, Jonathan David Becker Jan 2017

The Impacts Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Herbivory On The Forage Quality Of Forest Vegetation, Jonathan David Becker

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White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are abundant across North America. Deer impact ecosystems, both directly and indirectly. These impacts are driven by the foraging preferences of deer. The energy, protein, mineral, fiber, and secondary metabolite content of plants are important factors that inform the selective herbivory of deer. I examined the interactions between forage quality and deer impacts in northern Wisconsin using deer exclosures. I examined the forage quality of four focal species (Acer saccharum, Maianthemum canadense, Dryopteris intermedia and Carex pensylvanica) in both control and exclosure plots. Forage quality parameters measured were energy, protein, ash, phosphorus, silica, fiber, and saponins. …


Determinants Of Host Use In Tachinid Parasitoids (Diptera: Tachinidae) Of Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) In Southwest Ohio, Matthew W. Duncan Jan 2017

Determinants Of Host Use In Tachinid Parasitoids (Diptera: Tachinidae) Of Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) In Southwest Ohio, Matthew W. Duncan

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Tachinid parasitoids in the subfamily Phasiinae are important natural enemies of heteropteran bugs. Host location by these flies occurs via antennal reception to the pheromones of their hosts; however little is known regarding the mechanisms which underlie host selection. Halyomorpha halys, the invasive brown marmorated stink bug, represents a potential novel host species in North America. This study was conducted to determine the suitability of H. halys as a host for phasiine species, and to assess cues used in host selection by the species Gymnoclytia occidua. Field attraction to pentatomid pheromones by both phasiines and pentatomids in Southwest Ohio were …


Enhanced Neurogenesis In Subventricular Zone Of Rats That Voluntarily Ingest Fluoxetine And Simavastatin Combination Treatment, Tiffany L. Flannery Jan 2017

Enhanced Neurogenesis In Subventricular Zone Of Rats That Voluntarily Ingest Fluoxetine And Simavastatin Combination Treatment, Tiffany L. Flannery

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Stroke is one of the leading causes of deaths as the risk factors, both controllable and uncontrollable, are many. We first concentrated on a stress-free way to deliver the drugs. Our preference was to have the animals ingest the drugs, which led us to a reliable method for orally administering medication to the animal models. Using three different drug combinations, we tested the effects on neurogenesis without stroke. We found the drug combination of Fluoxetine/Statin/Ascorbic acid increases neurogenesis 19 fold when compared with control. Lastly, we looked at the gene changes in the cortex of the animal models that had …


Impacts Of Invasive Alliaria Petiolata On Two Native Pieridae Butterflies, Anthocharis Midea And Pieris Virginiensis, Danielle Marie Thiemann Jan 2017

Impacts Of Invasive Alliaria Petiolata On Two Native Pieridae Butterflies, Anthocharis Midea And Pieris Virginiensis, Danielle Marie Thiemann

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Invasion of Alliaria petiolata has negative direct and indirect impacts on the systems in which they invade. This study focuses on further identifying impacts which this non-native A. petiolata has on herbivores whose range they have invaded. Oviposition on A. petiolata by the specialist butterfly, Pieris virginiensis, is known to be a mismatch event leading to larval death from sinigrin and alliarinoside. To observe if the related specialist, Anthocharis midea, falls into the same oviposition sink paired plot comparisons between native Cardamine concatenata and non-native A. petiolata were conducted. Early in the season paired-plot comparisons showed a preference for native …


Plant Electrical Signal Classification Based On Waveform Similarity, Yang Chen, Dong-Jie Zhao, Zi-Yang Wang, Zhong-Yi Wang, Guiliang Tang, Lan Huang Oct 2016

Plant Electrical Signal Classification Based On Waveform Similarity, Yang Chen, Dong-Jie Zhao, Zi-Yang Wang, Zhong-Yi Wang, Guiliang Tang, Lan Huang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

(1) Background: Plant electrical signals are important physiological traits which reflect plant physiological state. As a kind of phenotypic data, plant action potential (AP) evoked by external stimuli—e.g., electrical stimulation, environmental stress—may be associated with inhibition of gene expression related to stress tolerance. However, plant AP is a response to environment changes and full of variability. It is an aperiodic signal with refractory period, discontinuity, noise, and artifacts. In consequence, there are still challenges to automatically recognize and classify plant AP; (2) Methods: Therefore, we proposed an AP recognition algorithm based on dynamic difference threshold to extract all waveforms similar …


Colwellia Psychrerythraea Strains From Distant Deep Sea Basins Show Adaptation To Local Conditions, Stephen Techtmann, Kathleen S. Fitgerald, Savannah C. Stelling, Dominique C. Joyner, Sagar M. Uttukar, Austin P. Harris, Et Al. May 2016

Colwellia Psychrerythraea Strains From Distant Deep Sea Basins Show Adaptation To Local Conditions, Stephen Techtmann, Kathleen S. Fitgerald, Savannah C. Stelling, Dominique C. Joyner, Sagar M. Uttukar, Austin P. Harris, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Many studies have shown that microbes, which share nearly identical 16S rRNA genes, can have highly divergent genomes. Microbes from distinct parts of the ocean also exhibit biogeographic patterning. Here we seek to better understand how certain microbes from the same species have adapted for growth under local conditions. The phenotypic and genomic heterogeneity of three strains of Colwellia psychrerythraea was investigated in order to understand adaptions to local environments. Colwellia are psychrophilic heterotrophic marine bacteria ubiquitous in cold marine ecosystems. We have recently isolated two Colwellia strains: ND2E from the Eastern Mediterranean and GAB14E from the Great Australian Bight. …


Regulation Of Mitotic Progression By Btf And Trap150, Divya Cheedu Jan 2016

Regulation Of Mitotic Progression By Btf And Trap150, Divya Cheedu

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Serine-arginine-rich (SR) or SR-like splicing factors interact with exon junction complex proteins during pre-mRNA processing to promote mRNA packaging into mature messenger ribonucleoproteins (mRNPs) and to dictate mRNA stability, nuclear export, and translation. In this thesis, I examined if depletion of two homologous non-classical serine-arginine-rich (SR) splicing factors, Btf (BCLAF1) and TRAP150, impacts regulation of cell cycle regulator transcripts and mitosis. Previous work showed that depletion of these proteins by RNAi causes mitotic defects including chromosome misalignment in metaphase. However, since Btf and/or TRAP150 did not co-localize with mitotic structures during mitosis, I hypothesized that Btf and/or TRAP150 depletion affect …


Determining Protein-Protein Interactions Of Als-Associated Sod1, Leah A. Shurte Jan 2016

Determining Protein-Protein Interactions Of Als-Associated Sod1, Leah A. Shurte

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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder that occurs due to the death of motor neurons and leads to paralysis and death within three to five years after symptoms present (Byrne et al., 2013). Superoxide Dismutase 1 (SOD1) was first identified to be associated with ALS in 1993. The objective of this study is to determine which proteins interact with wild type and mutant SOD1 and find any similarities or differences between them. ALS is attributed to a gain of toxicity, therefore abnormal protein interactions in mutant SOD1 are important. The results of this study will provide insight on …


Characterization Of Sterility And Germline Defects Caused By Smed-Boule Rna-Interference, Jessica Kathryne Steiner Jan 2016

Characterization Of Sterility And Germline Defects Caused By Smed-Boule Rna-Interference, Jessica Kathryne Steiner

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Evolutionarily conserved molecular processes involved in construction of the germline and embryonic development are essential for the procreation of many species. Infertility affects 15% of couples in the world and can be caused by dysfunctions during egg and sperm development, anatomic defects, as well as faulty embryonic development. Although there are some infertility disorders that are genetically defined, such as Turner and Klinefelter syndromes, many clinical infertility cases are diagnosed as idiopathic due to the lack of understanding of basic fertility mechanisms. Schmidtea mediterranea is a freshwater planarian species that has the ability to regenerate complete organisms, including germ cells …


The Effects Of Cold And Freezing Temperatures On The Blood Brain Barrier And Aquaporin 1, 4, And 9 Expression In Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla Chrysoscelis), Dalal Nouruldeen Felemban Jan 2016

The Effects Of Cold And Freezing Temperatures On The Blood Brain Barrier And Aquaporin 1, 4, And 9 Expression In Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla Chrysoscelis), Dalal Nouruldeen Felemban

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In sub-freezing temperatures, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood plasma within the brain of freeze-tolerant gray treefrogs, Hyla chrysoscelis, are likely to freeze. We hypothesized that this would challenge blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity and volume regulation for cells in the brain. Our first hypothesis, tested as cerebral Evans blue permeability, was not supported; BBB integrity appeared uncompromised by cold. Our second hypothesis, tested as changing expression of aquaporin (AQP) proteins, was partially supported. Whole-brain expression (Western blot) of AQP1 and AQP4 were unchanged by cold conditions, but AQP9 expression increased in thawed animals. AQP1 was found (immunohistochemistry) in ependymal cells, endothelial …


Fission Yeast As A Model Organism For Fus-Dependent Ycytotoxicity In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alan J. Cone Jan 2016

Fission Yeast As A Model Organism For Fus-Dependent Ycytotoxicity In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alan J. Cone

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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative motor neuron disease that causes progressive paralysis and death by asphyxiation. There is no cure or effective treatment; however, previous research has identified several genes that appear related to the pathology of ALS. When mutated, these genes result in proteins that gain toxic functions and disrupt normal cellular processes. Fused in Sarcoma (hFUS) is a human transcription factor in the nucleus that binds to DNA and RNA. Mutations in hFUS are associated with both familial and sporadic cases of ALS, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and cancer. In ALS and FTLD, hFUS is mislocalized …


Host Location And Host-Associated Divergence In Parasitoids Of The Gall Midge, Asteromyia Carbonifera, Jeffrey L. Howell Jan 2016

Host Location And Host-Associated Divergence In Parasitoids Of The Gall Midge, Asteromyia Carbonifera, Jeffrey L. Howell

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Some of the world's greatest mysteries are the series of ecological and behavioral processes that promote adaptive radiation: when one species rapidly diverges into multiple descendants due to ecological selective pressures. Selective pressures from natural enemies have the potential to drive such radiations, as has been suggested in the diversification of the goldenrod gall-midge, Asteromyia carbonifera (Stireman et al., 2008, 2012). This complex, multitrophic system involves the midge species complex, their goldenrod host plants (Solidago sp.), and a suite of parasitoid enemies in the diverse wasp superfamily, Chalcidoidea. There is evidence that the midge is undergoing host-associated differentiation (HAD), in …


Investigation Of Exoribonuclease-1 Function In Regulation Of Stem Cells During Planarian Regeneration, Steven Gobinsing Sayson Jan 2016

Investigation Of Exoribonuclease-1 Function In Regulation Of Stem Cells During Planarian Regeneration, Steven Gobinsing Sayson

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Precise regulation of gene expression is crucial for the maintenance of pluripotency and proper differentiation of stem cells. Due to their exceptional capacity for stem cell-driven regeneration, planarians are ideal models to dissect mechanisms regulating gene expression that secure stem cell function in vivo. While mechanisms of transcriptional regulation of gene expression in stem cells have been extensively investigated, less is known about regulation at the post-transcriptional level. Exoribonuclease-1 (XRN-1) is a conserved enzyme in eukaryotes that catalyzes 5' to 3' exonucleolytic degradation of RNA. XRN-1 is known to be required for proper regeneration of Dugesia japonica. Here, I …


The Development And Validation Of A One Tier Diagnostic Assessment To Test Premedical Students' Misconceptions About Traumatic Brain Injury, Md Hasan Iqbal Jan 2016

The Development And Validation Of A One Tier Diagnostic Assessment To Test Premedical Students' Misconceptions About Traumatic Brain Injury, Md Hasan Iqbal

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Since brain injury is common in the United States, it is important for health professionals and the public to have accurate knowledge about traumatic brain injury (TBI). Understanding misconceptions is important for health educators, nurses, and physicians, who work with TBI patients. While previous studies on misconceptions about TBI have been undertaken, these have not focused on pre-medical students, nor utilized validated assessments. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a one tier diagnostic test with a confidence index to determine premedical students' misconceptions about TBI. Using the theoretical framework suggested by Treagust (1986, 1988, and 1995), …