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Method development for accessing the impacts of road salts on P. acuta behavior and egg viability
Get PDFIn the US, nearly 24.5 million tons of road salt was distributed across public roadways in 2014. Of the various substances used in these formulations, NaCl accounted for 90% of these treatments. After application, up to 55% of these salts have been shown to enter local waterways via runoff and have been shown to cause many negative effects on the environment including inhibition of algal growth, reductions in activated sludge respiration rates, and mortality in all life stages of some amphibians. However, the effects of NaCl on aquatic invertebrates has been poorly explored. Thus, the goals of this study were to determine 1) the effects of NaCl on Physa acuta egg cluster viability, 2) methods to assess the baseline locomotion behavior of Physa acuta (average mobile speed, average speed, total distance traveled, acceleration, number of frozen events and time spent frozen), and 3) assess the effect of NaCl on these endpoints. Sixteen newly laid egg clusters were collected and exposed to 0, 100, 500, or 1000 mg/L NaCl and viability determined after 15 days of exposure. The locomotor behavior of seven unexposed adult snails were recorded and analyzed using ToxTrac (v. 2.83) to determine the basal movement patterns of this species. To assess the impacts of NaCl exposure on adult mobility, adult Physa acuta (n=3) were exposed to the above treatments for 7 days and locomotor behaviors quantified on days 3 and 7. While this study is still ongoing, it is expected that increased NaCl concentrations will cause a decrease in egg cluster viability and dose dependent impacts on mobility. These findings will help to elucidate the impacts of a commonly used deicing substance on a common invertebrate species
Where there is land, there is wealth
No full textThis presentation serves to capture the relationship between two variables, an increase in extractive industries and unrest over land reform, with the dependent variable, indigenous land (in)security. Two groups in South America: the Guaraní and the Yanomami, serve as case studies for this intersection
Toxoplasma gondii SUB4 Gene Deletion Mutants and Their Viability in Host Cell Invasion
Get PDFToxoplasma gondii is a microscopic parasitic protist. It is responsible for the disease toxoplasmosis which can cause severe health problems in immunocompromised individuals and babies whose mothers become infected while pregnant. T. gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that can infect almost any warm-blooded mammal. Because of this, host cell invasion is a key function that T. gondii must perform. Vital to this process is a group of secretory organelles including rhoptries, micronemes, and dense granules. Research has shown that subtilisin-like proteases act in processing and cleaving certain sites on proteins associated with these secretory organelles. T. gondii has a set of 12 genes that code for these proteases. While much research has been done on SUB1 and SUB2, little to none has been done on other genes such as SUB4. To determine the vitality of SUB4 in T. gondii host-cell invasion, I am creating gene knockout mutants using CRISPR-cas9 and will observe their ability to invade mammalian fibroblast cells. I created a drug repair cassette by adding SUB4 homology arms to a drug marker amplified from pJET plasmid. I designed and am currently in the process of amplifying two sgRNAs that flank the gene on both 5\u27 and 3\u27 ends. Once these are constructed, I will transfect T. gondii ΔKU80 cells, which cannot perform nonhomologous end-joining repairs, with these vectors to knockout the SUB4 gene. Following drug selection and screening to determine if the parasites successfully recombined the SUB4 locus, I will characterize mutant parasites using microscopy and biochemical techniques. Finally, I will conduct invasion and egress assays to determine the ability of Toxoplasma gondii to invade host cells without expression of the SUB4 gene. I expect that they will invade the fibroblast cells but at a slower rate compared to the wild-type parasites, elucidating the role of SUB4
Ch. 8: Voices from an “Extinct Species”: Narrative Responses to Trauma in German Jewish Memoirs
No full textThis chapter appears in the book, Contested Selves: Life Writing and German Culture. Edited by Katja Herges and Elisabeth Krimmer.
Chapter abstract: THE GERMAN JEWISH WOMEN who spent many of their later years writing memoirs about their lives during and after the rise and fall of Nazi Germany seldom expected to publish their work. They wrote for their children and grandchildren and for the generations to come, but mostly they wrote for themselves, in order to work through their traumatic pasts, to make sense of their choices, and to confront their losses and regrets from a temporal and geographical distance. Hundreds of these personal statements now lie in archives, silent like their authors. This essay seeks to amplify the voices of these women because they tell an important story both individually and collectively. Amplification implies, primarily, a psychological, literary, and theoretical understanding. I choose a descriptive stance rather than a tribute to the memoirists’ loss. The memoirists were witnesses to personal and collective trauma in 1930s and 1940s Germany; as literature, however, their memoirs demonstrate the ways that life writing acts as a response to trauma: that is, as a reconstitution of the self and as a form of pursuing and attaining moral meaning and cultural purpose.https://scholar.umw.edu/modernlanguages_books/1008/thumbnail.jp
Proton Pump Inhibitors Promote Apoptosis in Jurkat T Lymphocytes
Get PDFCancer cells are known to rely on the anaerobic energy pathway of glycolysis even under normoxic conditions, resulting in measurable intracellular acidification that may trigger cell death by apoptosis. In normal cells, the pH is restored by activation of voltage-gated proton pumps, preventing apoptosis. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), such as omeprazole, inhibit the action of these voltage-gated proton pumps. Research has shown that omeprazole is also capable of inducing caspase-dependent apoptosis in Jurkat T-lymphocytes, but this area of study remains largely unexplored. The goal of this research was to determine the temporal dynamics of caspase activity in Jurkat cells treated with omeprazole, dexlansoprazole, or esomeprazole. Caspase activation was observed with fluorescence microscopy and the fluorogenic caspase probe, L-bisaspartic acid rhodamine 110 (D2R). All three PPIs were shown to induce significant caspase activity when incubated in the presence of the drug over a 30-hour period, with dexlansoprazole showing comparative activity to the positive control, doxorubicin. Microfluidic devices were utilized to capture cells for real-time analysis, but only the doxorubicin showed caspase activity during these trials, with an onset time of 3.66 ± 1.67 hours. The microfluidic device experiments showed a decrease in cell-to-device binding affinity following the incubation period, indicating that PPI exposure alters the cell surface receptors in some capacity. Future studies will focus on addressing these challenges to allow for the elucidation of the intensity and timing of caspase activation, which will be beneficial for evaluating PPIs as potential cancer therapeutics
An Examination of the Influence of Literacy upon Political, Cultural and Class Unity in England and Francia during the Early Middle Ages
Get PDFAt first glance, the collapse of the Roman Empire also meant a breakdown of the unifying bureaucratic and cultural bonds tying together Europe, and thus, a collapse of the Empire to a fractious mass of warring dukedoms and kingdoms. Yet, despite this loss of central Roman governmental authority, the retained Latin and emerging vernacular literacy encouraged the old bonds and fostered new connections within the elite classes. Among the successor states to the Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxon England and Francia provide strong evidence of the significant role that literacy played in the maintenance and establishment of cultural bonds. Despite significant differences, both real and superficial, literacy in these two regions not only stimulated intra-regional connections, but also, promoted strong ties inter-regionally. Ultimately, in both Francia and Anglo-Saxon England, literacy created cultural bonds through law, scholarship and high culture
Cigarette Demand in the United States
Get PDFThis project analyzes cigarette demand in the United States from the years 1964 to 2018. Using the number of cigarette packs purchased in any given year as the dependent variable, a time series OLS regression is run with price, income, population, and the previous year’s dependent variable as the independent variables. Findings indicate price is insignificant, which is common in addictive substances. Income is discovered to have a direct relationship with the dependent variable, as when it decreases so do the number of cigarette packs purchased. Population does not follow economic theory and has an inverse relationship with the dependent variable. The independent variable equal to the previous year’s dependent variable is proven to be the most significant factor, which is expected in addictive substances; the total number of smokers in one year, and therefore the number of cigarettes purchased, is heavily dependent upon the number of smokers in the year previous. Cigarette demand in the United States remains complicated by several societal factors, only some of which have been used in this regression. Further, more rigorous research into the reasons for the continued decline of cigarette demand must be completed, especially as new anti-smoking policies arise
Winning and Attendance in Major League Baseball; Does Winning Attract More Fans?
Get PDFMajor League Baseball is a widely studied topic among economists and has been studied since its start in 1869. Many of these studies focus on factors that affect attendance to home games. In this study, data has been collected on the thirty teams in Major League Baseball and the areas the teams are located in for the 2019 season. The data has been analyzed to determine the extent to which home game wins affect attendance, finding that for every additional home game win increase, attendance increases by nearly 23,000
ButterSpy.com
No full textButterSpy is a butterfly identification website serving the Alexandria, VA area that invites the user to observe a butterfly and then enter observations they make. The website then checks the database of butterflies and returns all possible butterflies matching the information provided. The purpose of this project was to develop an online identification application that did not involve a camera as to remove the concept of instant gratification and make the user practice their observational skills. It is geared towards people who want to practice their identification skills but consider a field guide a too overwhelming place to start. This project was written in HTML/CSS for front-end development and PHP for back-end development. SQL was also used to communicate with the database, but the administration tool phpMyAdmin was used to do most of the database interactions. An algorithm had to be designed to conduct the search for butterflies in the database with column values that matched the user input. Users had the option to input primary color (required) and then a secondary color and/or the shape of the antennae. By using multiple nested if-then statements and logical operators, ButterSpy effectively conducts a search and accurately gives results. Through the process of developing ButterSpy, I increased my proficiency in HTML/CSS, PHP, SQL and JavaScript (though JS was not used in the final product.) Additionally, I was able to practice my time management and self discipline skills, about which I discovered have lots of room for improvement. The project is available for viewing at www.butterspy.com
How Transformational Leadership Can Help Native American Students
No full textIn this paper, I examine the challenges that Native American students face in higher education and the role that education plays in their lives. I provide data on this topic spanning more than three decades through a literature review of three published articles. Through this literature review, I reveal key challenges that Native American students historically have faced and provide information on what factors play an important role in their success. Furthermore, I expose a research gap on the role that higher education administrators can play in addressing these challenges and inequities. I present strategies and recommendations on how to effectively implement a sustainable way to address these challenges from an ethical and practical perspective