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Data Visualization Training and Support at the UAB Libraries
Get PDFFDGP poster event, Alys Stephens center, April 18, 202
Adrien Proust, Cordon Sanitaire, and Cosmic Irony
No full text2025 Spring Expo Online Oral Presentation Arts & Humanitieshttps://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/sp-expo/1096/thumbnail.jp
Elucidating Non-Canonical Interactions Of Mcl1 With The P53 Family Of Tumor Suppressors
No full textVarious signaling mechanisms contribute to a cancers cell’s ability to survive through the stressors of tumorigenesis. Canonically, when a cell is exposed to irreversible stress, the induction to apoptosis is regulated by the Bcl-2 family of apoptotic regulators. However, to accommodate for the stressors of tumor progression, many solid tumors over express one of the pro-survival proteins (e.g., BCL2, BCLxL, MCL1) allowing for persistent growth without the induction to cell death. Over the past 10 years, researchers have investigated how over expression of these pro-survival proteins contribute to chemoresistance to standard of care therapies. To sensitize cells to these apoptotic resistance mechanisms, BH3 mimetics have been developed to selectively target anti-apoptotic proteins in hopes to sensitize a variety of cancers to pro-apoptotic stimuli. This work highlights how the cross talk between the Bcl-2 family of apoptotic regulators impacts the tumor suppressor p53 family to control cell signaling mechanisms to modulate cell survival and migration. Here, we present how implementing a BH3 mimetic targeting MCL1 enhances p73 mediated cell death in response to cisplatin. Furthermore, we present a novel protein-protein interaction between the tumor suppressor p63 and MCL1. Finally, we show that MCL1 modulates PTBP1 activity, allowing MCL1 to modulate gene expression at the DNA and RNA levels to drive a pro-migratory phenotype in several solid tumor models. As the development of MCL1 targeted inhibitors continues to expand, this work will provide a foundation for how these inhibitors impact non-canonical signaling mechanisms of MCL1 outside of the canonical apoptotic pathway
Rural Adolescent Girls\u27 Experiences With Female Antiheroes: A Phenomenological Study Of Literature Discussions And Mentorship
Get PDFThis phenomenological research study focused on the experiences of rural adolescent girls reading female led multicultural young adult literature with the guidance of a female mentor teacher. Using two multicultural young adult novels one with a strong female protagonist and one with a female antihero protagonist, this five-week study sought to explore the lived experiences of 14 adolescent girls in the rural Southeast. The theoretical frameworks of Radical Feminism (Lawford-Smith, 2022; hooks, 2015; Kreps 1972; Rhodes, 2005), Critical Race Theory (Crenshaw, 1988; Ladson-Billings. 2003; Delgado, 1989; Harris 1993), and Multicultural Young Adult Literature (Nieto, 2002; Fox & Short, 2003; Boyd et al., 2015; Hughes-Hasell, 2013; Bishop, 2003) guided each aspect of this study. These frameworks centered female adolescent experiences, how those experiences intersect with race and class, and how those experiences impact self-esteem. The data collected included a pre and post self-esteem questionnaire, an interview, book discussions (led by the researcher and female mentor teacher), and journal entries. Findings revealed these four main themes along with sub-themes: (1) girls\u27 perceptions of perfection and rebellion, (2) girls’ conceptualization of body and self-esteem, (3) girls’ perceptions of being misunderstood, and (4) girls’ perceptions of protection of self and relying on the support of others. This research underscores the importance of supporting adolescent girls as they grow and develop using a female mentor teacher and multicultural young adult literature with female protagonists
An Examination Of Psycho-Behavioral Risk And Resilence Profiles In People With Chronically Painful Knee Osteoarthritis
Get PDFThe prevalence and impact of chronic pain are far-reaching and costly to our society. Chronic pain conditions are affecting many people in the US and abroad. Osteoarthritis (OA) is commonly referred to as a slow progressing degenerative disease that tends to develop over 10 to 15 years and can result in functional limitations and pain. Chronic knee OA is a common form of OA pain that affects many adults across the globe. Biopsychosocial factors are theorized to play an important role in how people with chronic pain may develop, exacerbate, or cope with pain. The goal of this project was to investigate the relationships between psycho-behavioral risk, resilience, and their combined profiles as a predictive marker of pain and functioning as assessed by self-report and functional movement tasks. Data were collected from people with knee OA in one or both knees (n = 211) across two sites: University of Alabama at Birmingham, and University of Florida, Gainesville. Among the sample, 65.9 % were female, 54.5 % identified as Non-Hispanic Black (NHB), 62.6 % collected at UAB and the mean age was 61.0 (SD = 8.78). Overall, the results indicated that, 1) there are many strong relationships within psycho-behavioral risk/resilience measures for people with chronic knee OA, 2) a combined psycho-behavioral risk and resilience profile can be used to extract the most essential components of these measures using a PCA, 3) clustering methods based on the most important overall extracted components are useful for creating a data driven approach to generating profiles of varying psycho-behavioral risk/resilience, and 4) that these profiles show differences on important aspects of the chronic pain experience such as self-reported recall of pain on questionnaires, pain evoked from movement, and functional ability score on a series of movements. This research provides insight into the biopsychosocial model of chronic pain that is necessary for moving the field of pain research and treatment forward
Origins of an Evil God: Conceptualization of the Demiurge Figure in Plato and Beyond
Get PDFThis thesis explores the creation of the Demiurge from Plato to the Gnostics. I investigate this early Christian group taking the idea of the Demiurge from Plato and twisting this figure into an evil, malevolent creator. This process involves the Gnostics taking several nodes of development: Plato’s initial conception and Hellenized Egyptians syncretizing Seth with YHWH and mixing them into their worldview to craft their Demiurge. I then answer why these Gnostics made such an entity, understanding that it was them not only trying to supersede Judaism, but the Proto Orthodoxy of Christianity at this time
Reducing stress: The role of the rcl operon in bacterial stress response to hypothiocyanite
Get PDFThe human immune system utilizes a variety of weapons against bacterial communities within the body, which allow it to control the overall microbial population. Understanding how some bacterial species are able to better deal with and survive damage by the immune system while others are not, can help us elucidate the complex relationship between us and our microbiome. One tool that immune cells use for microbial control is the potent oxidant hypothiocyanite/hypothiocyanous acid (-OSCN/HOSCN). The response mounted by Escherichia coli and other bacterial species in order to survive damage caused by HOSCN is the focus of this dissertation. In the first part of this work, we discovered that the rcl operon in E. coli is a specific bacterial defense factor against HOSCN, making it the first of its kind described in the literature, and that the encoded oxidoreductase enzyme, RclA, protects E. coli from oxidative stress by reducing HOSCN into its precursors, thiocyanate (SCN) and water. Furthermore, RclA is highly conserved among epithelial-colonizing bacterial species, and homologs taken from Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron were also protective. Subsequently, we characterized E. coli’s overall transcriptional response to HOSCN and found that it is notably different from previously described responses to other immune oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or HOCl, and different from the responses of other bacterial species to HOSCN. We also found that there is a transcriptional effect on the gene encoding outer membrane porin ompC when rclB and rclC are mutated, as well as a slight post-transcriptional effect on protein OmpA when the entire rcl operon is deleted, suggesting a role for one or both of these genes in affecting envelope permeability to HOSCN. Taken together, these results demonstrate a method of immune system tolerance in bacteria that was previously not well-understood. Our data show that E. coli utilizes a specific genetic response to HOSCN in order to limit damage, including the rcl operon, which directly reduces HOSCN in the cytoplasm, and potentially limits envelope permeability in response to HOSCN treatment. These studies improve our understanding of how mammals exist and interact with the bacteria they host