Sensitive electrochemical assays of DNA structure

Electrochemical methods have been used to study the structure and function of nucleic acids for more than 50 years. These approaches complement other experimental techniques, which we illustrate by using examples from studies of processes involved in the repair of DNA damage. The excellent sensitivity of the electrochemical approaches makes them good candidates for use as biosensors of a wide range of molecules and biological processes

Biomanufacturing cardiac cells from human pluripotent stem cells

No Abstract

Navigating Cultures and Development: An account of a female Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco

Little is known of how the “doers” of development may navigate regarding her community’s culture and her job in international development. This lack of knowledge leads to the erasure of experiences, felt both by the volunteer herself, as well as the community members she works with. Through autoethnographic methodology, and analysis, I retell my experiences and entanglements as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco with Moroccan institutions and culture, with my own identities and prior American socialization. I examine three questions: (1) How does the female PCV in Morocco make sense out of and create value from life events, relationships, the environment and herself? (2) How does the female PCV navigate the structure of the Peace Corps and her host community? (3) To what extent does my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer deepen my own sense of feminist consciousness? Over a year and a half of private journaling and public blogging, I began a qualitative analysis of thematic coding. Through a process of distilling my codes, I found that the most profound, mundane and pertinent of experiences I documented could be understood best in 4 categories: Time, Space, Language and Doing Development. Within all four categories, the principal social determinant of how, when, where, or what an experience was about, was most often gender. Analysis showed that these four categories, undercut by gender has profound effects on the creation of a sense of belonging, and the growth of consciousness

From armor to augmentation : reclaiming my everyday body

My work explores the silhouette of the body and how we can be empowered to augment it. First impressions are formed instantly and inform much of our social interactions, but these impressions are often made with the limited information of a quick glance and the simple outline of a body shape. There is a negative stigma about some body types and this can make social interaction daunting. This is especially true for women in general, for whom physical appearance is closely tied to perceived value by society. It is even more of an issue for women like myself, whose body type does not match the impossible, idealized female form perpetuated by modern media. My work explores how I can be empowered to change my silhouette to take control of the first impressions I make. It examines the idea of clothing as a form of adornment and augmentation, and how fashion can be used to remove negative stigmas and reclaim my sense of self

The Effects of Substrate Roughness in Air and Water on the Gecko Adhesive System

In an effort to better understand the fascinating gecko adhesive system, scientists have long tested the abilities of the gecko in controlled conditions that mimic the gecko’s native environment. The effects of humidity, environmental temperature, and exposure to water have all been tested. Roughness, however has not been studied in great detail. Surfaces of varying roughnesses are all over the gecko’s natural environment. We tested geckos on hydrophilic silicon carbide sandpapers of varying roughnesses in both air and water to attempt to better study the effects of roughness on gecko adhesion. When tested on the rougher (1 µm) surface, the geckos shear adhesive pull-off force was significantly larger than on the less rough (0.5 µm) surface. Finally, we tested the effect of treatment (air or water) on the rough surfaces and found that there was no significant effect on adhesion when being exposed to water or air on a rough surface. There was a non-significant trend for the difference between the two roughnesses to be larger in water than in air, but sample sizes and statistical power to test this effect were low

Addressing Disparities in Nurses’ Understanding of Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure (CHF) continues to affect millions of people a year and remains one of the leading causes of re-hospitalization in the US. Within the Central San Joaquin Valley (CSJV) the incidence of CHF remains significantly higher than the rest of California. In order to ensure appropriate patient care and outcomes registered nurses (RNs) must have a thorough and full understanding of the disease process and its associated symptomatology. This study aimed to find if the implementation of an interactive multimedia educational program focusing on all aspects of CHF could improve RNs education and understanding of CHF. It is crucial that RNs taking care of patients at the bedside are comfortable in both identifying and treating as well as performing patient education on CHF. The study aimed at finding if an interactive multimedia educational program focusing on the application of didactic material in an interactive case study could effectively improve RN understanding of CHF. If effective RNs caring for patients with CHF will be able to better provide patient care and education resulting in improved patient outcomes, self-care, and quality of life

The Influence of Water Depth on the Locomotor Kinematics of the Chilean Flamingo (\u3cem\u3ePhoenicopterus chilensis\u3c/em\u3e)

Vertebrates exhibit a diverse range of locomotor modes and associated morphological structures. Although many vertebrates can be classified as using distinct aquatic or terrestrial locomotor behaviors, several species use a terrestrial mode of locomotion while only partly submerged in aquatic environments, a behavior called wading. Wading can be observed in a variety of taxa including amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Although there are over 100 species of wading birds, quantitative measurements of avian wading kinematics have not been performed. To address the lack of comparative studies on avian wading kinematics, video footage of Phoenicopterus chilensis (Chilean flamingo) was collected and analyzed for several kinematic variables during walking on land and wading through increasing depths of water. Step height increased as water depth increased, indicating exaggerated hindlimb movements in deeper waters. Minimum ankle angle, and tibiotarsal angle to the horizontal, decreased in deep waters, indicating greater folding together of the tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus that likely reduced drag induced by contact between water and the limb. In addition, the minimum angle of the head and the minimum distance between the head and body both increased with increasing water depth, potentially reflecting changes in mass distribution allowed by the increased buoyancy afforded by deeper water. These results demonstrate that wading birds make several kinematic adjustments as they move through increasing depths of water, potentially helping them accommodate changes in both drag and buoyancy across habitat gradients

Tumor necrosis factor α sensitizes spinal cord TRPV1 receptors to the endogenous agonist N-oleoyldopamine

Modulation of synaptic transmission in the spinal cord dorsal horn is thought to be involved in the development and maintenance of different pathological pain states. The proinflamatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), is an established pain modulator in both the peripheral and the central nervous system. Up-regulation of TNFα and its receptors (TNFR) in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cells and in the spinal cord has been shown to play an important role in neuropathic and inflammatory pain conditions. Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) receptors are known as molecular integrators of nociceptive stimuli in the periphery, but their role on the spinal endings of nociceptive DRG neurons is unclear. The endogenous TRPV1 receptor agonist N-oleoyldopamine (OLDA) was shown previously to activate spinal TRPV1 receptors. In our experiments the possible influence of TNFα on presynaptic spinal cord TRPV1 receptor function was investigated. Using the patch-clamp technique, miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) were recorded in superficial dorsal horn neurons in acute slices after incubation with 60 nM TNFα. A population of dorsal horn neurons with capsaicin sensitive primary afferent input recorded after the TNFα pretreatment had a basal mEPSC frequency of 1.35 ± 0.20 Hz (n = 13), which was significantly higher when compared to a similar population of neurons in control slices (0.76 ± 0.08 Hz; n = 53; P < 0.01). In control slices application of a low concentration of OLDA (0.2 uM) did not evoke any change in mEPSC frequency. After incubation with TNFα, OLDA (0.2 uM) application to slices induced a significant increase in mEPSC frequency (155.5 ± 17.5%; P < 0.001; n = 10). Our results indicate that TNFα may have a significant impact on nociceptive signaling at the spinal cord level that could be mediated by increased responsiveness of presynaptic TRPV1 receptors to endogenous agonists. This could be of major importance, especially during pathological conditions, when increased levels of TNFα and TNFR are present in the spinal cord

Nse2, a component of the Smc5-6 complex, is a SUMO ligase required for the response to DNA damage

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe SMC proteins Rad18 (Smc6) and Spr18 (Smc5) exist in a high-M(r) complex which also contains the non-SMC proteins Nse1, Nse2, Nse3, and Rad62. The Smc5-6 complex, which is essential for viability, is required for several aspects of DNA metabolism, including recombinational repair and maintenance of the DNA damage checkpoint. We have characterized Nse2 and show here that it is a SUMO ligase. Smc6 (Rad18) and Nse3, but not Smc5 (Spr18) or Nse1, are sumoylated in vitro in an Nse2-dependent manner, and Nse2 is itself autosumoylated, predominantly on the C-terminal part of the protein. Mutations of C195 and H197 in the Nse2 RING-finger-like motif abolish Nse2-dependent sumoylation. nse2.SA mutant cells, in which nse2.C195S-H197A is integrated as the sole copy of nse2, are viable, whereas the deletion of nse2 is lethal. Smc6 (Rad18) is sumoylated in vivo: the sumoylation level is increased upon exposure to DNA damage and is drastically reduced in the nse2.SA strain. Since nse2.SA cells are sensitive to DNA-damaging agents and to exposure to hydroxyurea, this implicates the Nse2-dependent sumoylation activity in DNA damage responses but not in the essential function of the Smc5-6 complex