Analysis of mitochondria morphology dynamics during adipogenesis

"There is great concern with an increase in the number of Americans who are overweight and obese. Fat cells or adipocytes play a central role in obesity. These cells are metabolically active and play a fundamental role in energy allocation and storage. The adipocyte functions as the energy storage cell by storing excess energy in the forms of triglycerides in lipid vesicles within the cell. The morphology of mitochondria is a dynamic process that varies from cell type to cell type and in response to a variety of signals and conditions (Wilson-Fritch, 2002; Wilson-Fritch, 2004). The morphology of mitochondria in the cell often reflects the functions of that type of cell. In my thesis I characterize the changes in mitochondrial morphology and actin during adipogenesis. In this thesis I found that mitochondria undergo a radical change in morphology during the first two days of adipogenesis. In the pre-adipocyte cell mitochondria assume a reticular morphology that is distributed uniformly throughout the cell. After stimulation of differentiation this reticular morphology fragments. The fragmented mitochondrial morphology persists throughout adipocyte differentiation and is the form of the mitochondria present in the mature adipocyte. These results suggest that the reorganization of mitochondrial morphology is established early during adipogenesis and may play a role in the functions of fully differentiated adipocytes."--Abstrac

The relationship between oxidized low-density lipoprotein and paraoxonase 1 following acute exercise

Heart disease and stroke cause significant death and disability in industrialized nations. Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is an essential component of the plaque formation within arteries that leads to these conditions. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is an antioxidant enzyme capable of preventing the oxidation of LDL. The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between ox-LDL concentration and PON1 activity in response to acute exercise. Fifteen aerobically trained individuals (M=12, F=3, VO2 max= 54.8 ± 1.7 mlkg-1min-1, BMI = 22.9± 0.5kgm-2) completed separate exercise treatment sessions at 60% and 80% VO2 max for 30 minutes. Ox-LDL concentration and PON1 activity were measured immediately before (PRE), immediately post (0 POST), and 15 minutes post (15 POST) exercise. To ascertain the degree of oxidative stress induced by the exercise sessions, protein carbonyl (PC) concentration and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were measured at PRE and 0 POST. Repeated measures analyses of variance revealed that ox-LDL concentration and PON1 activity failed to change significantly in response to both the 60% and 80% treatment sessions. In addition, Pearson product moment correlations found no significant relationships between the changes in ox-LDL and PON1 at any time point (p>0.05). There were no significant changes in PC or TAC from PRE to 0 POST in either treatment. The results from this study indicate that thirty minutes of running at 80% VO2max was not sufficient to induce oxidative stress and elevate ox-LDL concentrations and PON1 activity in these highly trained subjects

Motherload II : an electronic dimmer control

As a graduate assistant in technical theatre, I have had a unique opportunity to evaluate equipment in Taylor Building pertaining to technical production. My major interest in Theatre Arts is the field of Lighting Design, and after designing lighting for the Fall, 1974 production of Anything Goes In the Drama Department, I became very much aware of the inadequacies in the dimming equipment. Since that time, I have made repair and improvement of the dimming equipment an important part of my assistantship duties. I personally feel that this project is the final step in the improvement of that equipment. The most important function of stage lighting is to illuminate the actor, but lighting design has developed to be an important branch of theatre arts on the premise that it can be a highly expressive medium. Artistic lighting in Taylor Building is particularly difficult because the stage is unusually large and this is compounded by the low wattage output of the present dimming equipment. Since basic illumination is of primary Importance, artistic expression must suffer

Baptists and religious liberty in the U.S.S.R.

Living under a hostile government and suffering persecution, Russian Baptists, nevertheless, face life with manifest joy. This spirit has so intrigued me, that I have been led to make this study. Until 1956, very little was known concerning the status of religious groups in the Soviet Union. Over the past fifty years this status has fluctuated in relation to long-range and short-range goals of the Communist Party, in relation to changing Party leadership, and in relation to the changing world scene. Only since 1956, under Khrushchev's announced policy of de-Stalinization, liberalization, and "peaceful co-existence" with the Western world, has it been possible to learn much concerning the state of religious affairs in the Soviet Union. The result of my research indicates that forty-four of the sixty-two sources used in this work are dated subsequent to 1960, and almost half of these have appeared since 1965. To add to the mystery, differing viewpoints have been, and continue to be expressed by the Communist Party, by religious leaders within the Soviet Union, and by visitors to the Soviet Union. There are also differing opinions within each of these groups. It will be the author's purpose, therefore, through an historical and comparative study of Church and State relations in the U.S.S.R., to try to determine the extent of religious liberty and to evaluate future prospects for these churches. The situation of the Baptists will be emphasized to illustrate the plight of believers in Russia

Effectiveness of Common Household Cleaning Agents

"This research was conducted in compliance with the Maynor Honors College senior project requirements. The research was conducted to answer the question of how effective various cleaning products are compared to each other, and how long each take to completely disinfect the area provided. The products used were Distilled war, Great Value cleaning vinegar, Great Value bleach solution, and Great Value disinfectant spray. The effectivity was tested by way of petri collection using sterile swabs and an incubator set at 37 degrees Celsius. From least effective to most effective the solutions rank: Distilled water, cleaning vinegar, disinfectant spray, bleach solution. The distilled water area became less disinfected the longer the water sat, but it did remove surface dirt. Cleaning vinegar completely disinfected the area at 30 minutes. Disinfectant spray completely disinfected the area at 15 minutes. This research shows that bleach is the best solution to use for short complete disinfection based on colonies of bacteria.

On the Wing : a new four-movement composition for folk band and string orchestra

This project is a song suite for folk band and string orchestra. I composed the piece specifically for performance by my progressive folk band, Winterbirds. The piece lasts approximately 18 minutes and is divided into four movements. The instrumentation of the string orchestra is as follows: 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos, and basses. The instrumentation of the band is as follows: voices, fiddle, bass, accordion, guitar, and piano (3rd movement only). Accompanying the score is a narrative and analytical document describing the background and musical procedures of On the Wing. I discuss harmonic idioms that appear frequently in my music, including ambiguous extended tertian chords and cross-relations arising between consonant triads. I describe my rhythmic and metric language, including the use of gapped metric envelopes that deemphasize pulses in the region of maximal pulse salience. I also address predecessors in the genres of Folk, Pop, Rock, and New Age who have collaborated with large ensembles from the Western classical music tradition

A re-examination of otoconia from the Shaker mouse

We have studied saccular and utricular otoconia from Shaker-1 and Shaker-2 mice by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. In contrast to previous reports, we found that the crystals were composed of calcite rather than poly crystalline hydroxylapatite. These crystals were indistinguishable mineralogically and morphologically from normal mouse otoconia. The reported occurrence of hydroxylapatite otoconia in the Shaker mouse is probably false.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47271/1/405_2004_Article_BF00464412.pd

Seasonality of MRSA Infections

Using MRSA isolates submitted to our hospital microbiology laboratory January 2001–March 2010 and the number of our emergency department (ED) visits, quarterly community-associated (CA) and hospital-associated (HA) MRSA infections were modeled using Poisson regressions. For pediatric patients, approximately 1.85x (95% CI 1.45x–2.36x, adj. p<0.0001) as many CA-MRSA infections per ED visit occurred in the second two quarters as occurred in the first two quarters. For adult patients, 1.14x (95% CI 1.01x–1.29x, adj.p = 0.03) as many infections per ED visit occurred in the second two quarters as in the first two quarters. Approximately 2.94x (95% CI 1.39x–6.21x, adj.p = 0.015) as many HA-MRSA infections per hospital admission occurred in the second two quarters as occurred in the first two quarters for pediatric patients. No seasonal variation was observed among adult HA-MRSA infections per hospital admission. We demonstrated seasonality of MRSA infections and provide a summary table of similar observations in other studies

Disrupted autophagy undermines skeletal muscle adaptation and integrity

This review assesses the importance of proteostasis in skeletal muscle maintenance with a specific emphasis on autophagy. Skeletal muscle appears to be particularly vulnerable to genetic defects in basal and induced autophagy, indicating that autophagy is co-substantial to skeletal muscle maintenance and adaptation. We discuss emerging evidence that tension-induced protein unfolding may act as a direct link between mechanical stress and autophagic pathways. Mechanistic links between protein damage, autophagy and muscle hypertrophy, which is also induced by mechanical stress, are still poorly understood. However, some mouse models of muscle disease show ameliorated symptoms upon effective targeting of basal autophagy. These findings highlight the importance of autophagy as therapeutic target and suggest that elucidating connections between protein unfolding and mTOR-dependent or mTOR-independent hypertrophic responses is likely to reveal specific therapeutic windows for the treatment of muscle wasting disorders