Use of Themed Occupational Therapy to Treat Assisted Living and Nursing Home Patients as an Alternative to Traditional Rehabilitative Therapy

Doctor of Medicine Applie

Netrin-1 Peptide Is a Chemorepellent in \u3cem\u3eTetrahymena thermophila\u3c/em\u3e

Netrin-1 is a highly conserved, pleiotropic signaling molecule that can serve as a neuronal chemorepellent during vertebrate development. In vertebrates, chemorepellent signaling is mediated through the tyrosine kinase, src-1, and the tyrosine phosphatase, shp-2. Tetrahymena thermophila has been used as a model system for chemorepellent signaling because its avoidance response is easily characterized under a light microscope. Our experiments showed that netrin-1 peptide is a chemorepellent in T. thermophila at micromolar concentrations. T. thermophila adapts to netrin-1 over a time course of about 10 minutes. Netrin-adapted cells still avoid GTP, PACAP-38, and nociceptin, suggesting that netrin does not use the same signaling machinery as any of these other repellents. Avoidance of netrin-1 peptide was effectively eliminated by the addition of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, genistein, to the assay buffer; however, immunostaining using an anti-phosphotyrosine antibody showed similar fluorescence levels in control and netrin-1 exposed cells, suggesting that tyrosine phosphorylation i s not required for signaling to occur. In addition, ELISA indicates that a netrin-like peptide is present in both whole cell extract and secreted protein obtained from Tetrahymena thermophila. Further study will be required in order to fully elucidate the signaling mechanism of netrin-1 peptide in this organism

Saxifraga tridactylites (Saxifragaceae) Naturalized in the Southeastern and Northwestern United States

© Copyright 2020 Southern Appalachian Botanical Society. Saxifraga tridactylites (Saxifragaceae), an annual herb native to northwest Africa, southwestern Asia, Europe, northeastern Iran, and western Russia, has rapidly naturalized in two geographically distinct areas of the United States: the Southeast and the Northwest. In the Southeast, the spread has been exceedingly fast and poses a potential threat to xeric limestone habitats of the Interior Low Plateau and Ridge and Valley physiographic provinces. Prior to our work, S. tridactylites appeared to be an insignificant introduction, only documented in a few North American locations in British Columbia and Oregon. Here, we show that the North American distribution is much greater than previously reported, with records from four counties in the Northwest and 53 counties in the Southeast: northern Alabama (14 counties), northwest Georgia (two counties) northern Mississippi (five counties), and southern Tennessee (32 counties). To our knowledge, it has not yet dispersed into Arkansas, Kentucky, or North Carolina