Michio Iwao Interview

Bio: Michio Iwao is one of four sons of the parents Kotama and Tomonosuke Iwao. He is known as an Asian American craftsperson that was born on July 12, 1922 in Suisun City, California. During World War II Michio and his family were relocated and held at the Gila River Internment Camp also known as Trulock. This stay lasted from 1942 to 1945 under the War Relocation Authority. This Japanese Internment camp inspired Iwao to spend his idle time learning how to make bird pins. This was the start of Iwao becoming a craftsperson

Effects of High-Speed Training on Messenger RNA Expression in Two-Year-Old Thoroughbred Racehorses

Accumulating high-speed exercise has been identified as a significant risk factor for catastrophic injuries in racing Thoroughbreds. Injuries, regardless of severity, are a main cause of withdrawal from the racing industry, raising animal welfare concerns and resulting in significant economic losses. While most of the current literature focuses on catastrophic injuries incurred during racing rather than training, the present study aims to help fill this gap as well as discuss the associated risk factors. The evaluation of messenger RNA (mRNA) expression changes provides an efficient and straightforward approach to identifying horses at risk for catastrophic injury. While alternative injury risk assessment methods, such as Positron Emission Tomography and other advanced imaging techniques, have been investigated, they present accessibility concerns when evaluating cost, availability, and complexity. As such, peripheral blood was collected weekly, prior to exercise or administration of medication, from eighteen, two-year-old Thoroughbreds throughout their first season of race training. Messenger RNA was isolated from these samples and used to analyze the expression of 34 genes via RT-qPCR. Statistical analysis of the non-injured horses (n=6) showed that 13 genes were significantly associated with increasing average weekly furlong performance while CXCL1, IGFBP3, and MPOhad negative correlations with cumulative high-speed furlongs and week of training for both injured and non-injured groups. Comparison of both groups identified opposing correlations between an anti-inflammatory composite index (IL1RN, IL-10, and PTGS1) and average weekly furlong performance. Furthermore, evaluation of training effects on mRNA expression during the weeks surrounding injury identified differences between groups in IL-13 and MMP9 at -3 and -2 weeks prior to injury. While some previously reported relationships between exercise adaptation and mRNA expression were not noted in this study, this may have been due to the small sample size. Several novel correlations, however, were identified and warrant further investigation as markers of exercise adaptation or potential risk for injury

Grace Elizabeth Johnson in a Senior Soprano Recital

This is the program for the senior soprano recital of Grace Elizabeth Johnson. Ms. Johnson was accompanied on the piano by Phyllis Walker. This recital took place on March 12, 2012, in the McBeth Recital Hall in the Mabee Fine Arts Center

On the construction and interpretation of fitness landscapes for HIV: a computational perspective

To identify vulnerable viral targets to incorporate into an immunogen, fitness landscapes for the viral proteome have been constructed. These landscapes describe the sum or synergistic replicative cost exacted on the virus for any combination of non-synonymous mutations. Here we attempt to assess the robustness of current computational methods for measuring the fitness cost of HIV polymorphisms in these landscapes. We also address in the following chapters assumptions and shortcomings that may underlie current landscape\u27s uneven ability to predict fitness effects. In the first chapter, I appraise the robustness of current frame-works that derive fitness costs from patient sequence data. In this chapter I also address the fields over-reliance on cross-sectional data, justified by the assumptions that the viral populations can be 1) regarded as an ideal population at equilibrium and 2) are at large unmarred by host pressures. To explore how these problematic assumptions may undermine landscape construction, I assemble an alternate landscape, where fitness costs were directly measured from temporal population fluxes using a dynamical systems framework. This landscape paints a far different picture of the fitness topography. In the following chapter, I tackle another problematic aspect of current landscapes, their neglect of physicochemical detail. I demonstrate that this model contrivance, leads us to under or over estimating fitness costs at positions with highly divergent or similar physicochemical character. In response, I adapt a population genetics model to account for the functional impact of each residue mutation, and illustrate that it improves our ability to predict in vitro viral fitness. Finally, in the last chapter, we employ several different metrics of fitness to determine if the overall topography of the fitness landscape might shift over the course of early infection. Research has suggested that the replicative capacity of the virus increases over time and that viral populations are continuously evolving in response to immune pressures. We found, that although the protein was not mutational static at residue resolution, at the regional and protein level it remained static due to compensating mutations

Psychosocial Student Adaptions to COVID-19 in Higher Education: A Mixed-Methods Approach to COVID-19 through the Theoretical Framework of Anomie

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted individuals and social institutions due to an abrupt and expansive change to norms and values, which are key characteristics of an anomic state. The purpose of this exploratory and descriptive study was to understand how students enrolled at residential university perceived educational and societal pressures associated with COVID-19. This research applied a mixed methods approach and relied upon three phrases of research: (1) Pilot questionnaire (n=54); (2) Qualitative interviews (n=14); and (3) Quantitative questionnaire (n=253). Findings suggested similarities in how university students responded to COVID-19 and how communities responded previously to other forms of natural disasters. The research supports a macro and micro v impact upon students, suggesting the integration of these viewpoints for the best understanding of social patterns. Students indicated experiencing worsening mental health, strain with their personal identities, strain with their academic institution, and loss of social connection to others within the community. This project concludes with a discussion of the implications of natural disasters, such as COVID-19, for individual and group responses to strain through resilience, coping mechanisms, and adaptation. Additionally, suggestions are given for resolving student strain produced by normlessness that can be applied to future academic and non-academic situations

Certainty is Wild and Weaving: Analyzing the Clouds of Venus

Supposed detection of phosphine as a biosigature in the clouds of Venus has resulted in a flurry of interest in studying the potential habitability of Venus and other Venus-like exoplanets. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the planet\u27s atmosphere. In this senior project, use spectroscopy to better understand the molecular composition and atmospheric dynamics of Venus. To do this, I analyzed partly-processed spectra from a previously unstudied infrared wavelength obtained at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in July 2021. I developed multiple systems of analysis to extract information from the partly processed data and understand the consequences of this processing. Using the relative motion between Venus and the Earth, I found that differences in atmospheric spectral features between Venus and the Earth was well explained by a Doppler shift, providing more insights into how this data was partially processed before I received it. Using the Earth’s atmosphere as an anchor for analysis, I report here the detection of ozone and water in the Venusian atmosphere between 1120 cm-1 and 1122 cm-1. Initial calculation results in a ozone mixing ratio around 1 ppm, which fits within our current understanding of ozone in the atmosphere of Venus. The system developed to identify these features can be used to explain the presence of other particles in the full set of observational data and track their spatial and temporal variability across the Venusian disk

Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Chronological Aging and Cell Death in the Toxic Dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis

The toxic dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis, forms nearly annual blooms in the Gulf of Mexico that persist for many months in coastal waters, causing extensive marine animal mortalities and human health impacts. The molecular mechanisms that contribute to cell survival in high density, low growth blooms, and the mechanisms leading to often rapid bloom demise are not well understood. The studies presented in this dissertation investigate the existence and involvement of a programmed cell death-like (PCD-like) pathway in the demise of K. brevis cultures following oxidative stress and chronological aging. Firstly, to gain an understanding of the molecular processes that underlie chronological aging in this dinoflagellate, a microarray study was carried out and identified extensive transcriptomic remodeling during the transition into stationary phase indicative of a shift in the metabolic and signaling requirements for survival in a quiescent non-dividing phase. To better understand the connection between the transcriptomic context identified in the microarray study and the presence of a PCO-like pathway in K. brevis, hallmark morphological and biochemical changes (DNA fragmentation, caspase-like activity, and caspase 3-like protein expression) were used to define PCD-like morphological changes following chronological aging and oxidative stress. Targeted in silico bioinformatic mining was used to identify enzymes potentially responsible for the activities observed, as well as the substrates. Finally, K. brevis S-adenosylmethionine synthetase (KbAdoMetS), a putative caspase substrate predicted from the bioinformatics screen, was examined using MALDI-TOF MS to confirm the validity of the bioinformatics approach. Taken together, this work identified that K. brevis contains morphological changes indicative of a caspase-dependent PCD-like pathway and that KbAdoMetS is a caspase 3-like substrate. Finally, we sought to characterize the presence of metacaspases in Karenia brevis, and specifically evaluated the role of metacaspase 1 (KbMC1) during chronological aging and death in culture. Immunocytochemistry, subcellular fractionation, and western blotting results using a custom KbMC1 peptide antibody indicate that KbMC1 may be involved in PCD-like execution through its chloroplastic localization with proposed interactions with the photosynthetic machinery. This study provides the first comprehensive investigation of the molecular processes regulating chronological aging and execution of PCD-like death in a toxic dinoflagellate