McNair Research Journal - Summer 2015

Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program Table of Contents Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair Statements: Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach McNair Scholars Institute Staf

Determining Signalling Nodes for Apoptosis by a Genetic High-Throughput Screen

With the ever-increasing information emerging from the various sequencing and gene annotation projects, there is an urgent need to elucidate the cellular functions of the newly discovered genes. The genetically regulated cell suicide of apoptosis is especially suitable for such endeavours as it is governed by a vast number of factors.We have set up a high-throughput screen in 96-well microtiter plates for genes that induce apoptosis upon their individual transfection into human cells. Upon screening approximately 100,000 cDNA clones we determined 74 genes that initiate this cellular suicide programme. A thorough bioinformatics analysis of these genes revealed that 91% are novel apoptosis regulators. Careful sequence analysis and functional annotation showed that the apoptosis factors exhibit a distinct functional distribution that distinguishes the cell death process from other signalling pathways. While only a minority of classic signal transducers were determined, a substantial number of the genes fall into the transporter- and enzyme-category. The apoptosis factors are distributed throughout all cellular organelles and many signalling circuits, but one distinct signalling pathway connects at least some of the isolated genes. Comparisons with microarray data suggest that several genes are dysregulated in specific types of cancers and degenerative diseases.Many unknown genes for cell death were revealed through our screen, supporting the enormous complexity of cell death regulation. Our results will serve as a repository for other researchers working with genomics data related to apoptosis or for those seeking to reveal novel signalling pathways for cell suicide

The societal context of professional practice: Examining the impact of politics and economics on journalistic role performance across 37 countries

The impact of socio-political variables on journalism is an ongoing concern of comparative research on media systems and professional cultures. However, they have rarely been studied systematically across diverse cases, particularly outside Western democracies, and existing studies that compare western and non-western contexts have mainly focused on journalistic role conceptions rather than actual journalistic practice. Using journalistic role performance as a theoretical and methodological framework, this paper overcomes these shortcomings through a content analysis of 148,474 news stories from 365 print, online, TV, and radio outlets in 37 countries. We consider two fundamental system-level variables—liberal democracy and market orientation—testing a series of hypotheses concerning their influence on the interventionist, watchdog, loyal-facilitator, service, infotainment, and civic roles in the news globally. Findings confirm the widely asserted hypothesis that liberal democracy is associated with the performance of public-service oriented roles. Claims that market orientation reinforces critical and civic-oriented journalism show more mixed results and give some support to the argument that there are forms of “market authoritarianism” associated with loyalist journalism. The findings also show that the interventionist and infotainment roles are not significantly associated with the standard measures of political and economic structure, suggesting the need for more research on their varying forms across societies and the kinds of system-level factors that might explain them

Evaluating Journalistic Routines in Kuwait: The Use of Information Sources

This study investigates the use of information sources in Kuwait and the influence of ownership, newsroom size, and media type on the gatekeeping routines. Using a sample of 1,868 news articles from nine different news outlets, including television, radio, print, and online media, we examine the sources and actors present in the news coverage. The results of the study demonstrate the strong dominance of political sources in the construction of news, highlighting the crucial role of the government in shaping media content. The findings also support previous research that indicates top-down or elite actors have more privileged news access compared to non-elite actors such as citizens. Surprisingly, state-owned media outlets used fewer and narrower ranges of information sources compared to private media outlets. Additionally, a significant proportion of the news articles analyzed had no sources cited or presented unilateral coverage of the news. Likewise, our study challenges conventional assumptions about online media´s role in promoting a greater diversity of sources and perspectives in news reporting. Our findings indicate that online media platforms do not necessarily enhance diversity in news reporting

Potential of low-cost subsurface irrigation system in boosting food production in high water scarcity regions

Improvement of agricultural practices under limited water availability is a key solution for arid and semi-arid areas food shortage problems. Pressurized irrigation technologies have made great improvement in the field water use efficiencies; however, the construction cost of these systems was usually beyond the dryland small-farmer means. Low cost porous material was used for maize water supply under typical dry environment. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of subsurface irrigation systems made of locally produced clay pots and clay pipes on growth, yield and water use efficiency of maize (Zea mays L.) in the dryland of Sudan. Clay pots release point source water to the surrounding soil as emitters whereas clay pipes are envisaged as subsurface buried porous tubing. The maize yield obtained from plots having subsurface clay pipes irrigation system was significantly higher (30%) than the maize grown under surface irrigation system. The experiments proved that the clay pipe and pitcher irrigation method is a water saving technology, which optimizes yields per unit of water used when compared to surface irrigation method. Also the clay pipes and pitcher are conservation irrigation systems, which save about 96.58 and 95.46% of water used for irrigation respectively when compared to the surface irrigation system

Hormographiella aspergillata : an emerging mould in acute leukaemia patients?

We describe three invasive mould infections due to Hormographiella aspergillata occurring within 1 year in patients undergoing treatment for acute leukaemia. All patients presented with pulmonary infiltrates; one patient additionally had cerebral and ocular involvement. Diagnostic procedures included bronchoalveolar lavage in all, and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in two patients. Susceptibility testing was performed by E-test and detected low minimal inhibitory concentrations for voriconazole and amphotericin B. All patients received systemic antifungal therapy; however, all of them died. Despite this cluster of three cases of an unusual mould infection, no hospital source was detected

The anticancer gene ORCTL3 targets stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 for tumour-specific apoptosis

ORCTL3 is a member of a group of genes, the so-called anticancer genes, that cause tumour-specific cell death. We show that this activity is triggered in isogenic renal cells upon their transformation independently of the cells’ proliferation status. For its cell death effect ORCTL3 targets the enzyme stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1) in fatty acid metabolism. This is caused by transmembrane domains 3 and 4, which are more efficacious in vitro than a low molecular weight drug against SCD1, and critically depend on their expression level. SCD1 is found upregulated upon renal cell transformation indicating that its activity, while not impacting proliferation, represents a critical bottleneck for tumourigenesis. An adenovirus expressing ORCTL3 leads to growth inhibition of renal tumours in vivo and to substantial destruction of patients’ kidney tumour cells ex vivo. Our results indicate fatty acid metabolism as a target for tumour-specific apoptosis in renal tumours and suggest ORCTL3 as a means to accomplish this