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Immunity Gene Knockout of Protein Inhibitor of Activated STAT (PIAS) in Aedes albopictus using CRISPR-Cas9
No full textNeglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) present a considerable public health threat to more than one billion people worldwide – especially to communities with high rates of poverty, little access to medical care, and inadequate waste disposal methods. Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, is one of the main vectors for several diseases – most notably, the dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. Due to the prevalence of Ae. albopictus and other such vectors, methods to control the spread of disease are essential to eliminating the threat of NTDs. This research aims to study the impacts of a CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene knock-out of the PIAS negative regulator in the JAK-STAT immune pathway. We hypothesize that the knock-out of PIAS will upregulate multiple genes in the immune system and the production of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The work presented here reports on the initial efforts to transfect an Ae. albopictus C6/36 cell line with a CRISPR-Cas9 plasmid designed to knock out PIAS, and the preparation to perform RT-qPCR comparative gene analysis on two immune genes hypothesized to be directly impacted by this knock-out. Additionally, this paper describes the challenges encountered and future directions for completing this project
Elucidating genome dynamics underlying complex life cycles in eukaryotes: an analysis of microscopy, transcriptomics, and the literature
No full textEffect of Fluid Elasticity on the Emergence of Oscillations in an Active Elastic Filament
Get PDFMany microorganisms propel themselves through complex media by deforming their flagella. The beat is thought to emerge from interactions between forces of the surrounding fluid, the passive elastic response from deformations of the flagellum and active forces from internal molecular motors. The beat varies in response to changes in the fluid rheology, including elasticity, but there are limited data on how systematic changes in elasticity alter the beat. This work analyses a related problem with fixed-strength driving force: the emergence of beating of an elastic planar filament driven by a follower force at the tip of a viscoelastic fluid. This analysis examines how the onset of oscillations depends on the strength of the force and viscoelastic parameters. Compared to a Newtonian fluid, it takes more force to induce the instability in viscoelastic fluids, and the frequency of the oscillation is higher. The linear analysis predicts that the frequency increases with the fluid relaxation time. Using numerical simulations, the model predictions are compared with experimental data on frequency changes in the bi-flagellated alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The model shows the same trends in response to changes in both fluid viscosity and Deborah number and thus provides a possible mechanistic understanding of the experimental observations
Identification of the Reactive Intermediates of the Iron-Catalyzed Oxidative α-Amination of Ketones
No full textα-Amino carbonyls constitute an important class of pharmaceutically relevant molecular scaffolds due to their potent bioactivity and synthetic versatility as building blocks in organic synthesis. The Strom Lab has demonstrated that these high value synthons can be accessed directly through the iron-catalyzed oxidative coupling of ketones with primary and secondary sulfonamides. However, the reaction mechanism that guides this desirable transformation had previously not been elucidated. The research discussed herein has made progress towards understanding the mechanistic route of catalysis for iron-catalyzed oxidative α-amination by studying the reaction intermediate(s) and the interaction between the iron catalyst and oxidant. It was hypothesized that α-amination is achieved by the in situ formation of an electrophilic center at the ketone α-position, which enables nucleophilic attack of the sulfonamide. This thesis proposes the identity of the α-electrophilic species generated during the reaction mechanism, supported through the synthesis of postulated reactive intermediates and reaction in competition experiments with compatible sulfonamides
Female Athletes Explicitly Gesture in Emotional Situations
Get PDFIntroduction: Both appraisal emotion approaches and self-regulation theory emphasize that appraising an event as conducive or detrimental to one’s current goals may trigger an affective response that can be observed nonverbally. Because there may be a female advantage in the inhibition and self-regulation of emotions, we hypothesized that female but not male athletes regulate emotions during sports through explicit nonverbal behaviors. Methods: All nonverbal hand movement behavior of right-handed female and male tennis athletes was recorded during competitive matches. All immediate nonverbal expressions after point losses and wins were coded by two independent blind raters applying the NEUROpsychological GESture (NEUROGES®) system. Results: No gender differences were found for overall hand movement activity. Female athletes executed more fall gestures than males as well as in space and both-handed act as a unit hand movements. In contrast to males, female athletes spent significantly more time with both-handed pantomime gestures (e.g., performing an imaginary backhand), particularly when losing points. Discussion: Increased expressions of pantomime gestures in female athletes after losing indicate that women regulate negative emotions nonverbally through explicit hand movements. Thus, female athletes seem to nonverbally cope with their negative emotional arousal through explicit nonverbal behaviors in order to control performance
“A Boy’s Best Friend is His Mother”: $b The Role of Sacrificial Motherhood In Horror Films
No full textRequired to be Perfect? Expectations for Gifted Black Female Students
No full textThe narrative experiences of Women of Color suggest they are held to higher standards in elite academic spaces. A recent empirically and experimentally grounded theory, Biernat’s (1995) Shifting Standards Model (SSM), predicts that individuals from devalued groups may be held to higher standards in specific contexts. The current study seeks to understand how the SSM can be used to understand the standards held for Black female gifted students. A total of 201 participants evaluated an elementary school-aged female student for admittance into a gifted program. A 3 (Race: White, Black, Race not specified) x 2 (Resource Constraint: Zero Sum, Non-Zero Sum) between-group design was used. The Race not specified level was excluded from final analyses due to poor attention check data. No interaction between Race and Resource Constraint were found. A main effect of Race was found on participant excitement about their referral decision, such that participants were more excited about their decision after evaluating the Black student. I found little evidence to support the Shifting Standards Model in this context. These findings are potentially limited by statistical power, as well as the use of a medium effect size when a small effect size may have been more appropriate for the given context
And Longer than a Century Lasts a Single day: Living and Writing the Repressions in Soviet Central Asia
No full textToo Much Democracy? Exploring the Link Between Majoritarian Institutions and Disparities in the American States
Get PDFIn the field of American state politics, the tension between majoritarian institutions and equality has largely been ignored. Do state institutions that empower majority preferences exacerbate disparities in social outcomes? Under what conditions do majoritarian institutions exacerbate inequalities in the American states? Our argument is that equality is most likely to be threatened under majoritarian institutions when (1) there are systemic participatory biases and/or (2) there are widespread prejudices about particular groups in society. We find that more majoritarian institutions are associated with larger disparities between White and Black life expectancy and poverty rates across the American states, but not differences in educational attainment. We also find that this effect is moderated by racial context, with majoritarian institutions being associated with greater disparities for states with diverse racial contexts and smaller disparities in more homogenous states. These findings suggest that majoritarian institutions operate to the benefit of the White majority, while coming at the cost of minority population outcomes when a racial threat is perceived, and presumably, public opinion is biased