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Evolution and diversification in toll-like receptors of fundulus heteroclitus and teleosts based on whole genomic data.
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 103-114).114 leaves : illustrationsToll-like receptors (TLRs) are a major component of the innate immune system and are pivotal for organismal survival by recognizing a diverse group of pathogens. Compared to mammals, TLRs are found to be more diverse in teleost species, which suggests the essential role of innate immunity in teleosts due to the lack of their diversification in adaptive immunity.The purpose of this study was, 1) to estimate an evolutionary tree of teleosts TLRs, 2) to verify and clarify the number of TLR gene copies in Fundulus heteroclitus, and 3) to test for evidence of positive selection acting on the various TLRs. A gene tree of the TLR family in teleosts was constructed based on the whole genome data from Ensembl database, and it allowed for a clarification in teleost TLRs’ nomenclature and the description of the full complement of TLRs in F. heteroclitus.Positively selected sites were detected in all TLRs with TLR22 found to be under the highest positive selection rate (4.63% of TLR gene sites) among all TLRs. Copy number variation of teleost-specific TLR22 gene moreover suggested gene duplication and diversification potentially to compensate for the lack of other cell surface TLRs. These results suggested that various TLR22 paralogues have likely arisen from positive selection pressure as well as gene expansion and functional diversification in teleost species.1 Introduction -- Immune system -- Innate immune system -- Pattern recognition receptors -- Types of pattern recognition receptors -- Discovery of toll-like receptors -- Structure of toll-like receptors -- Function of toll-like receptors -- TLR signaling pathways -- Evolution of toll-like receptor family -- TLRs in teleosts -- Atlantic killifish (fundulus heteroclitus) -- Atlantic killifish’s genome -- Genomics tools and bioinformatics -- Motivation for this study -- 2 Methods -- Assembling the data set -- Sequence alignment for amino acid sequences -- Phylogenetic tree for amino acid sequences -- TLR genes annotation in F. heteroclitus -- Detection of positive selection in F. heteroclitus -- 3 Results -- Phylogenetic tree for full-length amino acid sequences -- TLR annotation in F. heteroclitus -- Detection of Site-Level Selection in TLRs -- Discussion and conclusions -- Evolutionary tree for teleost TLRs -- Nomenclature for TLR20+/22 -- Copy number variation for TLR22 -- Positive selection sites (PSS) for teleost TLRs -- Conclusio
Wheaton Magazine
No full textFall 2019 issue of the Wheaton MagazineWheaton College (MA)Between the lines: Engaging connection, pg.2@DHANNO: Creating history, pg.3Around the Dimple: Going global, pg.4Around the Dimple: Three win Watson Fellowships, pg.5Around the Dimple: Fulbright winners ready to grow, pg.6Around the Dimple: Fatoumata Diallo '19 gets JET, pg.7Around the Dimple: Pursuing career development, pg.8Around the Dimple: Rooting out poverty, pg.8Around the Dimple: Cheers to the new job!, pg.9Around the Dimple: Crowdsourcing for gender equity, pg.10Around the Dimple: Exhibiting scholarship, pg.11Conversation: Inequality from four perspectives, pg.12Publications, Honors and Creative Works, pg.13Lyons pride: Recognizing leadership, pg.14Lyons pride: Reasons to cheer:, pg.14Lyons pride: And the award goes to..., pg.15Lyons pride: NEWMAC athletes of the year, pg.15Campus scene: Commencement 2019, pg.16Campus scene: Insightful intervention, pg.18Campus scene: Building partnerships in education, pg.22Campus scene: Leadership, inclusion, networking, pg.26Campus scene: Cures and melodies, pg.28Alumni association network: Reunion 2019, pg.32Alumni association network: Alumni board welcomes new members, pg.34Alumni association network: A helping hand, pg.35Class Notes, pg.36Class Notes: A community treasure, pg.38Class Notes: Voice lessons, pg.39In Memoriam, pg.40Class Notes (removed), pg.42Perspective: The art of collaboration, pg.6
Wheaton Magazine
No full textSummer 2019 issue of the Wheaton MagazineWheaton College (MA)Between the lines: A real treat, pg.2@DHANNO: Affinity for Wheaton, pg.3Around the Dimple: Exceptional investment, pg.4Around the Dimple: Recognized for Fulbright success, pg.5Around the Dimple: A minute with... Rosalyn Pofcher '19, pg.6Around the Dimple: Break out, pg.7Around the Dimple: Chemistry on the case, pg.8Around the Dimple: Humanities in action, pg.9Around the Dimple: Exploring immigration politics, pg.10Around the Dimple: Learning by leading, pg.11Conversation: Welcome, new photography professor, pg.12Publications, Honors and Creative Works, pg.13Lyons pride: Game-changer, pg.14Lyons pride: Immersed in success, pg.15Campus scene: Community pancakes, pg.16Campus scene: Women in STEM, pg.16Campus scene: Shakespeare in the Dimple, pg.17Campus scene: Art plus math, pg.17Campus scene: Doggone good day, pg.17Campus scene: Taking care of the world, pg.18Campus scene: Happy Anniversary, pg.22Campus scene: Inspired focus, pg.28Alumni association network: Steering the Head of the Charles Regatta, pg.32Alumni association network: Tapping into success, pg.33Alumni association network: Solving crimes from the lab, pg.34Alumni association network: Alum's startup lends a hand with debt relief, pg.35Class Notes, pg.36Class Notes: Empowering women, pg.38Class Notes: Her stories, onstage, pg.39Class Notes: Vocal visit, pg.39Class Notes: In character, in business, pg.40Class Notes: A rising star in Pittsburgh, pg.41Class Notes (removed), pg.42In Memoriam, pg.62Perspective: Welcome Bach, pg.6
The effects of HE4 on ovarian cancer progression in danio rerio embryos.
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 52-64).68 leaves : illustrationsOvarian cancer is one of the most lethal cancers in the world. The high lethality is partially caused by the onset of metastasis during cancer progression. HE4 protein, a protein resides on human chromosome 20, is found to be overexpressed in ovarian cancer patients. Based on previous studies using in vitro methods, HE4 may play an important role in promoting cancer progression. Therefore, the following hypothesis was tested in this study: 1) zebrafish embryos injected with ovarian cancer cells that overexpress HE4 will have a lower survival rate, a greater tumor area, and more metastases compared to embryos injected with null-vector control plasmid cancer cells; 2) recombinant HE4 will inhibit the activity of granzyme B, one of the molecules that incudes cell apoptosis in the immune system. HE4-overexpressing cells and null-vector (NV) control cells were injected into zebrafish embryos, followed by imaging of injected embryos 3 and 5 days after injection; a granzyme B inhibition detection kit was also used in this study to study whether HE4 would inhibit granzyme B activity. Based on the result, HE4-overexpressing cells injected embryos showed a lower survival rate, larger tumor size, and developed more metastases compared to NV cells injected embryos, suggesting HE4 may play a role in promoting ovarian cancer progression. Moreover, 1 nM HE4 protein can also inhibit granzyme B activity by 9.37 %
Wheaton Magazine
No full textSpring 2019 issue of the Wheaton MagazineWheaton College (MA)Between the lines: A lot to smile about, pg.2@DHANNO: Embracing community, pg.3Around the Dimple: Advancing advising for success, pg.4Around the Dimple: Three Freedoms teach-in prepares support for at-risk scholars, pg.5Around the Dimple: Uncovering herstory, pg.6Around the Dimple: Banding together, pg.7Around the Dimple: Hands-on curating experience, pg.8Around the Dimple: Accelerating losses, pg.9Around the Dimple: Interdisciplinary collaboration, pg.10Around the Dimple: Wheaton plays founding role in launching humanities consortium, pg.11Conversation: Professor examines juvenile justice, pg.12Publications, Honors and Creative Works, pg.13Lyons pride: Key lessons, pg.14Campus Scene: Open for business, pg.16Campus scene: An evening with Callie Crossley, pg.16Campus scene: Grow with the flow, pg.17Campus scene: MLK Legacy celebration, pg.17Campus scene: Nurturing potential, in cells and students, pg.18Campus scene: Leveraging experiental learning, pg.22Campus scene: The plot thickens, pg.28Alumni association network: And the winner is..., pg.32Alumni association network: Alumni awards for peace advocates, pg.33Alumni association network: A personal tour of Bhutan, pg.34Alumni association network: Enforcing the laws for nature, pg.35Class Notes, pg.36Class Notes: Essence magazine recognizes Indira Henard '03, pg.38Class Notes: Roxanna Azari '10 speaks at UN, pg.38Class Notes: Tuning into culture, pg.39Class Notes: Leadership in action, pg.40Class Notes: Finding beauty in fungi, pg.41Class Notes (removed), pg.42In Memoriam, pg.62Perspective: Making a splash, pg.6
Encryption using the rubik's cube.
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 61).iv, 63 leaves : illustrationsIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 61).iv, 63 leaves : illustrationsRubik's Cubes, estimated to be the world's besting-selling toy, is a fascinating puzzle that I believe most people have attempted to solve. However, as anyone who has tried knows, Rubik's Cubes are hard to solve. Cryptography shares the essence with playing Rubik's Cubes; to fix the scrambled pattern. In this thesis, we discuss the advantages and challenges of using the Rubik's Cube as the basis of an encryption system.We also test the Rubik's Cube encryption under the formal definition of security while seek additional opportunities provided by using 4 by 4 by 4 and larger cubes. Finally we construct a key-exchange protocol based on the Rubik's Cube using a structure similar to Diffie-Hellman key exchange.1 Introduction -- 1.1 What is cryptography -- 1.2 Rubik�s cube and cryptography -- 1.3 Preliminaries -- 2 Encryption -- 2.1 The classic rubik�s cube -- 2.2 The design principle -- 2.3 Brute force attacks -- 2.4 The god number -- 2.5 Improvements -- 2.6 Encrypt long messages -- 3 Security of an encryption protocol -- 3.1 What is security? -- 3.2 Security of rubik�s cube encryption -- 3.3 Analysis of rubik�s cube encryption -- 4 More group structure of the cube -- 4.1 Size of the rubik�s cube group -- 4.2 Semi-direct product of a group -- 5 Key exchange protocol -- 5.1 Diffie-Hellman key exchange -- 5.2 Rubik�s cube key exchange -- 5.3 Complete example -- 6 Conclusio
