Dollar Menu Morality: Fast Food In Twentieth and Twenty First Century America

This is a poster for the final research paper required in HIS300W, taught by Dr. Bridget Chesterton, Fall 2021

Conflict Resolution in the Assignment of Area Entitlements for Seabed Mining

This Article examines the conditions creating a need for, and the procedures being implemented to achieve, resolution of conflicts over deep seabed areas sought for exclusive exploration entitlements. The author argues that if and when deep seabed mining takes place, certain tangible advantages will accrue to nations or organizations that have obtained entitlements to exclusivity of activity within areas of the seabed. The author further suggests that the development of legal assurances of exclusivity and security of work within a claimed area has been proceeding along two different tracks, the 1982 Convention, and a prospectively complementary but currently separate and potentially competing entitlement system based on domestic laws, multilateral arrangements, and private agreements. The author argues that successful resolution in either track could facilitate progress in the other, and arrangements developed through efforts in the separate tracks could contribute eventually to a convergence of the two legal regulatory regimes

Nuclear receptors of the honey bee: annotation and expression in the adult brain

The Drosophila genome encodes 18 canonical nuclear receptors. All of the Drosophila nuclear receptors are here shown to be present in the genome of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Given that the time since divergence of the Drosophila and Apis lineages is measured in hundreds of millions of years, the identification of matched orthologous nuclear receptors in the two genomes reveals the fundamental set of nuclear receptors required to ‘make’ an endopterygote insect. The single novelty is the presence in the A. mellifera genome of a third insect gene similar to vertebrate photoreceptor-specific nuclear receptor (PNR). Phylogenetic analysis indicates that this novel gene, which we have named AmPNR-like, is a new member of the NR2 subfamily not found in the Drosophila or human genomes. This gene is expressed in the developing compound eye of the honey bee. Like their vertebrate counterparts, arthropod nuclear receptors play key roles in embryonic and postembryonic development. Studies in Drosophila have focused primarily on the role of these transcription factors in embryogenesis and metamorphosis. Examination of an expressed sequence tag library developed from the adult bee brain and analysis of transcript expression in brain using in situ hybridization and quantitative RT-PCR revealed that several members of the nuclear receptor family (AmSVP, AmUSP, AmERR, AmHr46, AmFtz-F1, and AmHnf-4) are expressed in the brain of the adult bee. Further analysis of the expression of AmUSP and AmSVP in the mushroom bodies, the major insect brain centre for learning and memory, revealed changes in transcript abundance and, in the case of AmUSP, changes in transcript localization, during the development of foraging behaviour in the adult. Study of the honey bee therefore provides a model for understanding nuclear receptor function in the adult brain

The Batten Disease Palmitoyl Protein Thioesterase 1 Gene Regulates Neural Specification and Axon Connectivity during Drosophila Embryonic Development

Palmitoyl Protein Thioesterase 1 (PPT1) is an essential lysosomal protein in the mammalian nervous system whereby defects result in a fatal pediatric disease called Infantile Neuronal Ceroids Lipofuscinosis (INCL). Flies bearing mutations in the Drosophila ortholog Ppt1 exhibit phenotypes similar to the human disease: accumulation of autofluorescence deposits and shortened adult lifespan. Since INCL patients die as young children, early developmental neural defects due to the loss of PPT1 are postulated but have yet to be elucidated. Here we show that Drosophila Ppt1 is required during embryonic neural development. Ppt1 embryos display numerous neural defects ranging from abnormal cell fate specification in a number of identified precursor lineages in the CNS, missing and disorganized neurons, faulty motoneuronal axon trajectory, and discontinuous, misaligned, and incorrect midline crossings of the longitudinal axon bundles of the ventral nerve cord. Defects in the PNS include a decreased number of sensory neurons, disorganized chordotonal neural clusters, and abnormally shaped neurons with aberrant dendritic projections. These results indicate that Ppt1 is essential for proper neuronal cell fates and organization; and to establish the local environment for proper axon guidance and fasciculation. Ppt1 function is well conserved from humans to flies; thus the INCL pathologies may be due, in part, to the accumulation of various embryonic neural defects similar to that of Drosophila. These findings may be relevant for understanding the developmental origin of neural deficiencies in INCL

THE VALUE TO THE SURGEON OF PARATHYROID HORMONE ASSAYS IN PRIMARY HYPERPARATHYROIDISM

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72424/1/j.1445-2197.1988.tb01084.x.pd

Programmed Autophagy in the Fat Body of Aedes aegypti Is Required to Maintain Egg Maturation Cycles

Autophagy plays a pivotal role by allowing cells to recycle cellular components under conditions of stress, starvation, development and cancer. In this work, we have demonstrated that programmed autophagy in the mosquito fat body plays a critical role in maintaining of developmental switches required for normal progression of gonadotrophic cycles. Mosquitoes must feed on vertebrate blood for their egg development, with each gonadotrophic cycle being tightly coupled to a separate blood meal. As a consequence, some mosquito species are vectors of pathogens that cause devastating diseases in humans and domestic animals, most importantly malaria and Dengue fever. Hence, deciphering mechanisms to control egg developmental cycles is of paramount importance for devising novel approaches for mosquito control. Central to egg development is vitellogenesis, the production of yolk protein precursors in the fat body, the tissue analogous to a vertebrate liver, and their subsequent specific accumulation in developing oocytes. During each egg developmental cycle, the fat body undergoes a developmental program that includes previtellogenic build-up of biosynthetic machinery, intense production of yolk protein precursors, and termination of vitellogenesis. The importance of autophagy for termination of vitellogenesis was confirmed by RNA interference (RNAi) depletions of several autophagic genes (ATGs), which inhibited autophagy and resulted in untimely hyper activation of TOR and prolonged production of the major yolk protein precursor, vitellogenin (Vg). RNAi depletion of the ecdysone receptor (EcR) demonstrated its activating role of autophagy. Depletion of the autophagic genes and of EcR led to inhibition of the competence factor, betaFTZ-F1, which is required for ecdysone-mediated developmental transitions. Moreover, autophagy-incompetent female mosquitoes were unable to complete the second reproductive cycle and exhibited retardation and abnormalities in egg maturation. Thus, our study has revealed a novel function of programmed autophagy in maintaining egg maturation cycles in mosquitoes

A bibliometric study of human–computer interaction research activity in the Nordic-Baltic Eight countries

Human–computer interaction (HCI) has become an important area for designers and developers worldwide, and research activities set in national cultural contexts addressing local challenges are often needed in industry and academia. This study explored HCI research in the Nordic-Baltic countries using bibliometric methods. The results show that the activity varies greatly across the region with activities dominated by Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, even when adjusting for differences in population size and GDP. Research output variations were larger for the top-tier conferences compared to entry-tier conferences and journals. Locally hosted conferences were associated with local increases in research activity. HCI research longevity appears to be an indicator of research maturity and quantity. HCI researchers typically collaborated either with colleagues within the same institution or with researchers from countries outside the Nordic-Baltic region such as US and the UK. There was less collaboration between national and Nordic-Baltic partners. Collaboration appeared especially prevalent for top-tier conference papers. Top-tier conference papers were also more frequently cited than regional-tier and entry-tier conferences, yet journal articles were cited the most. One implication of this study is that the HCI research activity gaps across the Nordic-Baltic countries should be narrowed by increasing the activity in countries with low research outputs. To achieve this, first-time authors could receive guidance through collaborations with experienced authors in the same institution or other labs around the world. More conferences could also be hosted locally. Furthermore, journals may be more effective than conferences if the goal is to accumulate citations.publishedVersio

PTHrP increases transcriptional activity of the integrin subunit α5

Increasing evidence is emerging highlighting the role of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) during metastasis by regulating cell adhesion. The current study demonstrated that modulation of PTHrP expression by PTHrP overexpression and small interfering RNA-induced silencing resulted in changes in cell adhesion and integrin expression. RNA interference of endogenous PTHrP caused a significant reduction in cell adhesion of a breast cancer cell line to collagen type I, fibronectin and laminin (P<0.05) and of a colon cancer cell to collagen type I and fibronectin (P<0.05). Overexpression of PTHrP induced a significant increase in cell adhesion of colon (P<0.0001) and breast (P<0.05) cancer cells to the same extracellular matrix proteins. These PTHrP-mediated effects were attributed to changes in integrin expression as the differences in adhesion profile correlated with the integrin expression profile. In an attempt to elucidate the mechanism whereby PTHrP regulates integrin expression, promoter activity of the integrin α5 subunit was analysed and significant increases in transcriptional activity were observed in PTHrP overexpressing cells (P<0.0001), which was dependent on nuclear localisation. These results indicate that modulation of cell adhesion is a normal physiological action of PTHrP, mediated by increasing integrin gene transcription