University of North Florida Environmental Center Annual Report 2020

2020 Annual Report of the Environmental Center at the University of North Floridahttps://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ecenter_annual/1008/thumbnail.jp

IERE Annual Report 2022

2022 Annual Report of the Institute for Environmental Research and Educationhttps://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ecenter_annual/1009/thumbnail.jp

IERE Annual Report 2023

2023 Annual Report of the Institute for Environmental Research and Educationhttps://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ecenter_annual/1010/thumbnail.jp

Placement of Intracoelomic Radiotransmitters and Silicone Passive Sampling Devices in Northern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens)

Historically, wetland toxin exposure studies have relied on single time point samples from stationary sampling devices. Development of passive sampling devices (PSDs) that can be attached to individual animals within wetland habitats has greatly improved in recent years, presenting an innovative sampling technology that can potentially yield individual-specific, quantifiable data about chemical exposure. In this study, silicone based PSDs were attached to the ventral skin of 20 northern leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens) with polypropylene sutures after radiotransmitters had been surgically implanted into the coleomic cavity. After a short recovery period, frogs were released back into the wetland habitat where they were acquired. The animals were located daily using radiotelemetry to assess how long PSDs would remain attached in the frogs\u27 natural habitat. After one week, PSDs remained on 18 of the original 20 frogs. At two weeks, 17 frogs were recovered and no PSDs remained attached. Although valuable data can be obtained over a short time period, more research will be necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of externally attaching silicone PSDs to northern leopard frogs for time periods longer than 1–2 weeks

Needs and Research Priorities for Young People with Spinal Cord Lesion or Spina Bifida and Their Caregivers: A National Survey in Switzerland within the PEPSCI Collaboration.

The aim of this study was to describe the needs and research priorities of Swiss children/adolescents and young adults (from here, "young people") with spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/D) or spina bifida (SB) and their parents in the health and life domains as part of the international Pan-European Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury (PEPSCI) collaboration. Surveys included queries about the satisfaction, importance, research priorities, quality of life (QoL), and characteristics of the young people. Fifty-three surveys with corresponding parent-proxy reports were collected between April and November 2019. The self-report QoL sum scores from young people with SCI/D and SB were 77% and 73%, respectively. Parent-proxy report QoL sum scores were lower, with 70% scores for parents of young people with SCI/D and 64% scores for parents of young people with SB. "Having fun", "relation to family members", and "physical functioning" were found to be highly important for all young people. "Physical functioning", "prevention of pressure injuries", "general health", and "bowel management" received the highest scores for research priority in at least one of the subgroups. As parents tend to underestimate the QoL of their children and young people prioritized research topics differently, both young peoples' and caregivers' perspectives should be included in the selection of research topics

Reflections: Students\u27 Tribute to Stan Kuczaj (1950-2016)

On April 14th, 2016, Animal Behavior and Cognition lost its Editor-in-Chief. But the scientific community and the friends and colleagues of Stanley ‘Stan’ Kuczaj III lost so much more. As many know, Stan began his career in Developmental Psychology, making enormous contributions in the area of language development, but became best known for his many innovative contributions in the area of marine mammal behavior. Stan founded Animal Behavior and Cognition because he was deeply passionate about research with a broad range of topics concerning animal behavior, animal cognition, and animal welfare. He was equally passionate about the idea that science should be accessible to all, and that accessibility should not come at a financial burden to researchers. The current editorial team is committed to carrying on Stan’s vision for the journal, and we believe that its continuation will pay homage to Stan as a researcher, and as a leader within the scientific community. However, for the next few pages, we wish to pay special tribute to Stan as a mentor, as this role was perhaps the one that was most pivotal in defining who he was as a scientist, colleague, and friend. We take comfort in the fact that Stan’s memory will live on in the legacy of his mentees, many of whom became cherished friends and colleagues. Below you will find reflections from several of these former students who were given the difficult task of trying to summarize the most meaningful aspect of Stan’s influence on their personal and professional development. Although no few words could summarize the impact of someone as enigmatic as Stan, we hope that these reflections will contribute to a full and nuanced tribute to the man he was

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

A Picture of the Research Field of Doctoral Education from the Students’ Perspectives : Studies Using Questionnaires and Scales

Peer reviewe

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN