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Photograph of the Lone Star Plane - 02
No full textBackside of color photograph.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1157/thumbnail.jp
Genome-wide association study identifies novel variants in olfactory, vitamin A, vitamin B, and cadherin pathways associated with learning and memory
No full textLearning and memory, as fundamental components of human cognition, are heritable traits that are highly variable between individuals and within populations. Investigation into the genetic basis of cognition is a prominent area of research, with genetic associations being previously reported for a wide range of cognitive phenotypes. Here we utilise a genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach to evaluate the contribution of genetic variation to learning and memory phenotypes in a comprehensively phenotyped, well-characterised, healthy, and unrelated cohort of individuals (n = 613). Cognitive phenotypes were assessed using nine comprehensive test batteries consisting of twenty-one cognitive performance assessments including IQ, five measures for visual and verbal learning, and fifteen measures for semantic, working, episodic and prospective memory. Principal component analysis was utilised to amalgamate correlated test scores into additional new cognitive phenotypes. Our study identified genome wide significant associations for 13 loci across all phenotypes. A novel association was identified between the rs817826 SNP at 9q31.2 and verbal learning discrimination (p = 2.71 × 10− 9). GWAS of cognitive PCs identified three variants in the vicinity of thiamine (Vitamin B1) transporter gene SLC19A3 (most significant SNP rs12105620, p = 2.17 × 10− 9), a 3’ UTR variant in PPARD (rs9658167, p = 1.47 × 10− 8), and an intronic variant in RBFOX1 (rs17138790, p = 4.24 × 10− 8) associated with the cognitive PC related to visual and verbal learning. The cognitive PC relating to prospective and retrospective memory revealed a locus containing a synonymous variant in NXPE3 (rs2305990, p = 6.56 × 10− 9) and intronic variants in RD3 (rs17189035, p = 2.71 × 10− 8) and WLS/GNG12-AS1 (rs17130484, p = 4.13 × 10− 8). Pathway analysis identified olfactory, vitamin A, and cadherin pathways as being significantly overrepresented across multiple cognitive domains. The novel associations identified provide candidates for further investigation and necessitate replication in similarly characterised independent cohorts
MedBlockSync: A Blockchain Solution for Multi-institutional Healthcare
No full textThe integration of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) into the healthcare industry has revolutionized patient data management by enabling the storage of highly sensitive information. However, the continuous exchange of this information among health institutions to ensure accurate patient care introduces significant challenges related to data dissemination and security. Blockchain technology, with its inherent properties of decentralization, immutability, and transparency, offers a robust solution to these challenges, facilitating secure and efficient data sharing among stakeholders. In this paper, we present MedBlockSync, a robust blockchain system designed for improved data integrity across multi-institutional healthcare organizations. The framework is developed to achieve three key objectives: (1) safeguarding EMR data against cyberattacks, (2) enabling seamless and secure sharing of healthcare information among various stakeholders, and (3) facilitating Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) communication, including real-time data transmission from smart sensors to the blockchain network and EMRs through a secure channel. By incorporating advanced security features into EMRs without necessitating modifications to existing digital health infrastructures, MedBlockSync enhances interoperability among healthcare systems, ensuring both scalability and adaptability in the digital health landscape
Key Library Resources: Library resources to get you started
Full text linkhttps://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/librarydisplayposters/1020/thumbnail.jp
Effects of short-term exposure to environmentally relevant pesticides mixture on morphological alterations, oxidative-nitrative stress biomarkers, cellular apoptosis, and antioxidant expression in kidneys of goldfish
No full textChemical stressors are pervasive, affecting both terrestrial and aquatic environments. The continual influx of these toxins is damaging ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them. The abundance of environmental toxins makes aquatic habitats inhospitable for aquatic life. These chemical stressors consistently disrupt the life processes of aquatic organisms, particularly their physiological functions. This study examined on the effects of environmentally relevant pesticides mixture (low-dose and high-dose: S-metolachlor: 2.4 go/L, 12 μg/L; linuron: 2.0 μg/L, 10 μg/L; isoproturon: 1.2 μg/L, 6.0 μg/L; tebucanozole: 1.2 μg/L, 6.0 μg/L; aclonifen: 0.8 μg/L, 4.0 μg/L; atrazine: 0.4 μg/L, 2.0 μg/L; pendimethalin: 0.4 μg/L, 2.0 μg/L, and azinphos-methyl: 0.8 μg/L, 4.0 μg/L) on tissue morphology, cellular apoptosis, and nitrotyrosine protein (NTP), dinitrophenyl protein (DNP), renin, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) expression in the kidneys of goldfish (Carassius auratus) exposed for one week under controlled laboratory conditions. Histopathological analysis revealed severe tissue damage in the kidneys, while silver staining identified melano-macrophage centers, and immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR shed light on the expression of molecular biomarkers in these tissues. Exposure to pesticide mixtures caused fish to exhibit glomerular shrinkage, enlargement of Bowman\u27s space, and degradation of glomerular cells. Moreover, the expression of renin, DNP, NTP, SOD, and apoptotic nuclei increased in kidney tissues, while CAT expression decreased. Overall, our findings indicate that exposure of goldfish to an environmentally relevant pesticide mixture leads to increased cellular damage and altered osmoregulatory and antioxidant enzyme expressions, which may impair physiological functions, including growth, reproduction, and development in teleost fish
Photograph of a Birthday card for Kika de la Garza - 01
No full textColor photograph. A birthday card for Kika de la Garza from Armando Olivarez, his teacher/coach Ms. Maria Ester Salinas, and the director of special education department Filomena Leo. All three are photographed with Armano after he won a 1st place gold medal at the Special Olympics.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1125/thumbnail.jp
Photograph of Kika de la Garza on the Floor of the House of Representatives - 02
No full textBackside of color photograph.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1139/thumbnail.jp
Photograph of NASA Space Shuttle Mission Crew - 02
No full textBackside of color photograph. A NASA informational section, includes brief biographies for each member of the NASA Space Shuttle Mission Crew.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1149/thumbnail.jp
Commentary: Traces of Texas – A priceless gift for all Texans
No full textEvery holiday season I have enjoyed thanking someone, often someone long gone, for a great gift to Texas. This year, I’d like to thank a man who is still with us – with hopefully many decades ahead of him still – for his extraordinary gift to all Texans.
Jac Darsnek is the much-loved creator and editor of the “Traces of Texas” Facebook page. It has accrued more than a million followers since 2010.
Texas has always been more than a place. It’s a memory, a voice, a photograph tucked into a drawer, a story shared across a kitchen table over coffee and donuts and pan dulce. For well over a decade now, “Traces of Texas” has been quietly, and sometimes with surprising virality, reminding us of that truth.
When Jac Darsnek began posting on social media back in 2010, there was no master plan to reach more than a million people. There was simply an instinct, sharpened by experience, that Texans liked talking about Texas. That instinct turned out to be exactly right.
By late 2012, something clicked – not because of flashy trends or algorithms, but because Jac leaned into history, real history, and let it speak for itself. His breakthrough moment was publishing a black and white photo of the original Whataburger, which went viral.
The photographs became the heartbeat of “Traces of Texas.”
Black and white images, most of them taken long before color film was common, carried with them a gravity that modern photos often lack. These weren’t stylized shots posed to impress; they were working photographs, family photographs, photos of musicians before fame, pilots before legends, farmers before nostalgia softened the edges of real life. This was Texas unfiltered.
What’s remarkable is not just where the photos come from – though Texans are blessed with extraordinary archives like the Portal to Texas History, UT Arlington’s Special Collections archive, the Briscoe Center, and others, which Jac peruses for occasional gold – but what matters most is what happens after they’re posted. The comments section becomes a living classroom, a town square, a reunion hall.
Jac says that he has been regularly amazed by what Texans collectively know.
Someone posted a photograph taken at Dyess Air Force Base in the 1950s, and suddenly readers identified the exact model of the cash register, which had a standard cigarette rack on top, the type of flight suits the pilots were wearing, even the materials that would later replace them.
Jac said that you put all these people together, and you realize Texas has an astonishing depth of collective knowledge and a generosity and passion for sharing it.
That generosity mirrors Jac’s own. Gratitude underpins “Traces of Texas” like a cultural bedrock. Every contributor is thanked. Every artifact is treated as something precious.
Jac once shared that if someone takes time from their “one granted life” to send in a photo or a story, the least you can do is acknowledge it and thank them most sincerely. That attitude may be the secret ingredient. Jac told me that he learned that lesson from Willie Nelson who said, “the more he tried to give away, even more was returned back to him.”
Then there are the people. Centenarians. War veterans. Farmers. River guides. Storytellers like Mel Dart, who flew 35 missions over Europe in WWII and said he was “too dumb to be scared.”
Or Dorothy McQuarry, born on a farm near Thorndale, Texas. Jac walked the property with her when she was 99 and she showed him a still-producing old well and said she had pumped “a kajillion gallons of water out of that thing” during her lifetime.
Jac also remembers Tony Drewry of Terlingua, who somehow manages to be a river guide, plumber, volunteer fireman, musician, photographer, and caretaker of a critically endangered native grass. Tony is Texas personified.
Sometimes, “Traces of Texas” does something even more miraculous: it reconnects people. Long-lost relatives recognize family names under a photograph and reunite.
After the devastating 2013 explosion in West, Texas, a family photo was found and returned to its owners after being posted on “Traces of Texas” hoping the right eyes might see it. They did.
Most followers live in Texas, but not all. Some are far from home, “Texpatriates” I call them, offshore in the North Sea, or living in Kenya or Rhode Island, and they write to say that “Traces of Texas” keeps them emotionally connected to the place they still consider home. That matters.
In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution honoring Jac for “making a significant contribution to the preservation of the history and heritage of the State of Texas.”
In the end, “Traces of Texas” isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about continuity. It’s a reminder that Texas is made of people, past and present, and that our stories and photographs are worth preserving, sharing, and honoring. “Traces of Texas” is our shared digital archives freely provided for us all.
That is a wonderful gift. And Texas is better for it