Board of Regents

Prepared by the Office of the Vice President for Student Services an

Letter, Sam Houston to Unknown, dated June 11th 1846

This handwritten letter, dated June 11, 1846, is from Sam Houston in Washington, D. C. to an unknown recipient and was found between pages 232-233. The letter speaks of Texas and land information that was requested. This note was found tipped into volume one of Abraham Lincoln : A History by John G. Nicolay and John Hay.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-manuscripts-nicolay-and-hay-documents/1001/thumbnail.jp

Letter of introduction for J. D. Logan, written and signed Sam Houston, Governor of Texas. April 1860.

A letter of introduction from Sam Houston to James Brooks, editor of the New York Express, regarding the newspaper editor of the San Antonio Daily and Weekly Herald, J.D. Logan. Logan was visiting New York on business and was perceived by Houston as being knowledgable about Texas. April 1860. Prominently signed by Sam Houston.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1230/thumbnail.jp

How cognitive diversity in senior management teams can add value through innovation and improved performance in the mining industry.

The mining industry has a reputation for being insular, traditional, highly technical and macho and is not adapting quickly enough to meet the demands of a world that is changing at an ever-increasing rate. Key disruptions in the mining industry are in technology, legislation, sustainability requirements and stakeholder expectations. This dissertation proposes that rebalancing cognitive diversity in mining’s senior management teams will establish the industry’s ability to proactively manage disruptive events and that the industry needs to change the way it designs and manages individuals, teams and organisations from a diversity perspective. These two research aims were met though analysing results from a literature review, and surveys and interviews of senior leaders from the mining industry. A key finding from this research is that the industry is correcting its demographic imbalances although progress is slow and in reaction to social equality movements and legislation, rather than being proactive. Proactively managed cognitive diversity in senior management teams has been found to improve innovation and performance and there is an appetite for change regarding diversity and inclusion from senior leaders within the mining industry, although there is low awareness of cognitive diversity and its value. The conclusion from this research is that to be effective at mitigating its largest risks and issues, the industry needs to leverage cognitive diversity within senior management teams. However, leaders currently do not have access to toolkits to be able leverage cognitive diversity and the mining industry lacks psychological safety and relatedness to allow diversity to be leveraged. The key recommendations from this research were that more research is needed regarding how cognitive diversity can be leveraged within the mining industry, senior management teams in mining need to be more cognitively diverse, and leaders need a toolkit to help them to be successful in managing cognitive diversity.MSc in Business and Strategic Leadershi

Assessing EPA + DHA requirements of Sparus aurata AND Dicentrarchus labrax: Impacts on growth, composition and lipid metabolism

The gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) require n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid DHA, for optimal growth and health. Due to the rapid growth of global aquaculture the quantity of marine oils used in aquafeeds has been limited, yet the overall quantity of oil in an aquafeed has increased by the addition of vegetable oil (VO) to supply dietary energy. For aquaculture to continue to grow more fish must be produced with less marine ingredients, yet EPA and DHA must be maintained at levels above fish requirements. This project set out to re-evaluate the requirement for EPA and DHA in gilthead seabream and European seabass. Two dose-response studies were designed and executed where juvenile seabream and seabass were fed one of six levels of EPA+DHA (0.2 – 3.2 % as fed). Biometric data were collected and analysed to determine new requirement estimates for EPA+DHA for fish of two weight ranges (24 – 80 g and 80 – 200 g). The effects of the dietary LC-PUFA gradient on lipid composition and metabolism were also considered. This project found that the requirement for EPA+DHA declines with fish weight and that the current published EFA requirements are too low for both species when fed modern diet formulations. At a size range of 24 – 80 g, the period when a 3 mm pellet is consumed, the optimum requirement for growth is 1.3 – 1.5 % EPA+DHA, for both species. Beyond ~80 g (4.5 mm pellet) seabream require 1.20 – 1.25 % EPA+DHA, whereas seabass require 1.10 – 1.20 % EPA+DHA. Previous studies in both species, indicated that juveniles require approximately 1% LC-PUFA in their diets. In both species the addition of VO to the diet increased the level of lipid in the liver. Fatty acid and gene expression data showed that LC-PUFA biosynthesis was stimulated in key tissues, liver and mid-intestine, as FO was replaced by VO. The expression of lipogenic genes was also upregulated in the mid-intestine of both species but in liver only in seabream. The implications of this project are that EPA and DHA need to be supplied at a higher level when fish are < 80 g (3 mm pellet) and then in larger pellet sizes dietary FO can be reduced, whence optimizing the application of this commodity

The compositional and metabolic responses of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) to a gradient of dietary fish oil and associated n-3 long-chain PUFA content

The authors express their gratitude to the technical team at the BioMar Feed Trial Unit, Hirtshals, in particular, Svend Jørgen Steenfeldt for expert care of the experimental subjects, for training and supervision provided by laboratory staff at Nutrition Analytical Services and Molecular Biology at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK. S. J. S. H’s. PhD was co-funded by BioMar and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland. BioMar provided the experimental feeds, trial facilities and fish, and covered travel expenses. V. K. and J. T. designed and executed the nutritional trial and all authors contributed to planning the analyses. V. K., J. T. and S. J. S. H. carried out the sampling. O. M., D. R. T and S. A. M. M. supervised the lead author. M. B. B. provided training in molecular biology to S. J. S. H. who carried out all analytical procedures. S. J. S. H. analysed all of the data and prepared the manuscript. Subsequently the manuscript was shared between all authors who made amendments, contributions and recommendations. The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interestPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Research News

Quarterly newsletter of Sam Houston University's Office of Faculty Research discussing research news, programs, and workshops that took place in that quarter

SGR: an online genomic resource for the woodland strawberry

Fragaria vesca, a diploid strawberry species commonly known as the alpine or woodland strawberry, is a versatile experimental plant system and an emerging model for the Rosaceae family. An ancestral F. vesca genome contributed to the genome of the octoploid dessert strawberry (F. ×ananassa), and the extant genome exhibits synteny with other commercially important members of the Rosaceae family such as apple and peach. To provide a molecular description of floral organ and fruit development at the resolution of specific tissues and cell types, RNAs from flowers and early developmental stage fruit tissues of the inbred F. vesca line YW5AF7 were extracted and the resulting cDNA libraries sequenced using an Illumina HiSeq2000. To enable easy access as well as mining of this two-dimensional (stage and tissue) transcriptome dataset, a web-based database, the Strawberry Genomic Resource (SGR), was developed. SGR is a web accessible database that contains sample description, sample statistics, gene annotation, and gene expression analysis. This information can be accessed publicly from a web-based interface at http://bioinformatics.towson.edu/strawberry/Default.aspx . The SGR website provides user friendly search and browse capabilities for all the data stored in the database. Users are able to search for genes using a gene ID or description or obtain differentially expressed genes by entering different comparison parameters. Search results can be downloaded in a tabular format compatible with Microsoft excel application. Aligned reads to individual genes and exon/intron structures are displayed using the genome browser, facilitating gene re-annotation by individual users. The SGR database was developed to facilitate dissemination and data mining of extensive floral and fruit transcriptome data in the woodland strawberry. It enables users to mine the data in different ways to study different pathways or biological processes during reproductive development.https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2229-13-22

Effects of inaccuracies in arterial path length measurement on differences in MRI and tonometry measured pulse wave velocity

Abstract Background Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) and aortic PWV measured using MRI (MRI-PWV) show good correlation, but with a significant and consistent bias across studies. The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether the differences between cf.-PWV and MRI-PWV can be accounted for by inaccuracies of currently used distance measurements. Methods One hundred fourteen study participants were recruited into one of 4 groups: Type 2 diabetes melltus (T2DM) with cardiovascular disease (CVD) (n = 23), T2DM without CVD (n = 41), CVD without T2DM (n = 25) and a control group (n = 25). All participants underwent cf.-PWV, cardiac MRI and whole body MR angiography(WB-MRA). 90 study participants also underwent aortic PWV using MRI. cf.-PWVEXT was performed using a SphygmoCor device (Atcor Medical, West Ryde, Australia). The true intra-arterial pathlength was measured using the WB-MRA and then used to recalculate the cf.-PWVEXT to give a cf.-PWVMRA. Results Distance measurements were significantly lower on WB-MRA than on external tape measure (mean diff = −85.4 ± 54.0 mm,p < 0.001). MRI-PWV was significantly lower than cf.-PWVEXT (MRI-PWV = 8.1 ± 2.9 vs. cf.-PWVEXT = 10.9 ± 2.7 ms−1,p < 0.001). When cf.-PWV was recalculated using the inter-arterial distance from WB-MRA, this difference was significantly reduced but not lost (MRI-PWV = 8.1 ± 2.9 ms−1 vs. cf.-PWVMRA 9.1 ± 2.1 ms−1, mean diff = −0.96 ± 2.52 ms−1,p = 0.001). Recalculation of the PWV increased correlation with age and pulse pressure. Conclusion Differences in cf.-PWV and MRI PWV can be predominantly but not entirely explained by inaccuracies introduced by the use of simple surface measurements to represent the convoluted arterial path between the carotid and femoral arteries

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