Mississippi’s State Penal System

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THE EFFECTS OF CENTRAL INTERLEUKIN-1 SIGNALING ON PERIPHERAL IMMUNOMODULATION

Heroin administration suppresses the production of nitric oxide (NO), which is a molecule active in host defense against infection and disease. Previous research in our laboratory has demonstrated that the immunosuppressive effects of heroin can be conditioned by repeatedly pairing heroin administration with a unique environmental context. Re-exposure to the previously drug-paired context can illicit immunosuppressive effects similar to heroin administration alone. In addition, our laboratory has reported that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and medial nucleus accumbens shell (mNAcS) are critical neural substrates that mediate this conditioned effect. The study presented in Chapter 2 revealed the presence of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) immunoreactivity in the BLA and mNAcS across various time points following re-exposure to a previously drug-paired environment; however, there were no differences in the level of IL-1β expression. Chapter 3 demonstrated that blockade of IL-1 signaling in the BLA, but not CPu or mNAcS, attenuates heroin-conditioned immunosuppression of NO production and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression in spleen tissue. Chapter 4 found that intra-BLA administration of various doses of IL-1β had no effect on NO production or iNOS mRNA expression following an immune challenge. Taken together, these findings suggest that IL-1 signaling in the BLA is necessary for the expression of heroin-conditioned immunosuppression of NO and iNOS mRNA. In addition, these findings indicate that exogenous IL-1β administration into the BLA does not alter the peripheral induction of NO in blood plasma or iNOS mRNA expression in spleen tissue following an immune challenge.Doctor of Philosoph

Region-specific contribution of the ventral tegmental area to heroin-induced conditioned immunomodulation

Dopamine receptor stimulation is critical for heroin-conditioned immunomodulation; however, it is unclear whether the ventral tegmental area (VTA) contributes to this phenomenon. Hence, rats received repeated pairings of heroin with placement into a distinct environmental context. At test, they were re-exposed to the previously heroin-paired environment followed by systemic lipopolysaccharide treatment to induce an immune response. Bilateral GABA agonist-induced neural inactivation of the anterior, but not the posterior VTA, prior to context re-exposure inhibited the ability of the heroin-paired environment to suppress peripheral nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor-alpha expression, suggesting a role for the anterior VTA in heroin-conditioned immunomodulation.Master of Art

Modalities of the Idea: Stylistic Change and L'Idea della Bellezza in Early Modern Italy

In the careers of many prominent seventeenth-century painters such as Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Domenichino and even Caravaggio there is a familiar stylistic progression: each began their careers with a chiaroscuro manner rooted in Venetian and Emilian naturalism and then later shift to a markedly classicizing manner characterized by a brightening or lightening of the palette, a tendency to idealize the human form, and an insistence on composing in a series of parallel planes. The art-theoretical concept known as L'Idea della bellezza was the touchstone in cases where this stylistic phenomenon manifested itself. Developed and modified in antiquity to maintain its relevance to art theory, the Platonic Idea went through many variations and interpretative models until it was reintroduced to art theory in the Renaissance. At the same time, expectations of artists increased as the arti di disegno sought to be included among the liberal arts. Artists' primary and secondary phases of education ensured a reading knowledge of Latin and equipped them with the ability to engage with the theoretical material of their day. This intellectual interest was reinforced by the foundations of the Florentine Accademia del Disegno, and later the Bolognese Accademia degl'Incamminati. As the number of publications by artists seemingly dwindled in the period following Mannerism, it was assumed that artists were increasingly disinterested with the complex theoretical discourse taken up by a growing number of critics and theorists. However, artists of the early modern period did participate in the debates of their day, which in turn reveals their sensibilities. A number of treatises and writings on art have survived from Pietro Testa, Orfeo Boselli and Nicholas Poussin that demonstrate a sustained interest in theory. Within these writings we find that art-theoretical concepts such as L'Idea elucidate each artist's conceptual process and metaphysical understanding of art. In the Seicento the dominant position taken by artists and theorists alike was the reemerging Nominalist formulation for art production, which explains the move from a carefully observed naturalism in an artist's early career to a more abstracted later style

Institutionalizing Community Engagement in Higher Education: A Quantitative Approach to Identifying Patterns of Engagement Based on Institutional Characteristics

The purpose of this research study was to explore the depth to which colleges and universities in the state of Georgia have institutionalized community engagement into their campus infrastructures. Community engagement was operationalized using the Furco, Weerts, Burton, and Kent (2009) model for institutionalizing community engagement in which there are five dimensions of engagement: Mission and Philosophy, Faculty Support and Involvement, Student Support and Involvement, Community Participation and Partnership, and Institutional Support. A survey design was used to collect data on trends in institutionalized community engagement at sample institutions (N = 48). A factor analysis statistical procedure indicated patterns of engagement in Georgia’s higher education institutions that generally mirrored the Furco et al. (2009) model of the five dimensions of community engagement. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test indicated no difference in the dimensions of community engagement based on institutional type (2-year/4-year) or control (public/private). However, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses results showed that institutional characteristics were a significant predictor of one dimension of community engagement, Institutional Support. Similarly, a logistic regression analysis further indicated that Faculty Support (B = .624, p ≤ .05) and Institutional Commitment (B = .267, p ≤ .10) dimensions were significant predictors of institutional receipt of the Carnegie Engaged Campus Classification, the President’s Higher Education Honor Roll in Community Service, or both designations. In addition, Institution Type (B = -2.487, p ≤ .10) had a moderately significant negative predictive power, indicating that the odds of receiving national recognition were decreased by 8% for 2-year institutions. The final logistic regression model accurately predicted 85.4% of the cases. Implications for higher education in the state of Georgia include the urgent need to establish a Campus Compact coalition to more comprehensively research community engagement in the state and identify best practices and support mechanisms for engagement across the state. Additionally, university leaders must be intentional in developing campus-community partnerships by implicitly and explicitly supporting the community work of faculty, students, and staff through the allocation of resources, rewards, and recognition. Lastly, institutional leaders should increase campus efforts to create campus environments that provide transformative teaching and learning experiences for students, faculty, and staff.Chapter I: INTRODUCTION..1 | Purpose.6 | Problem Statement...7 | Significance..7 | Research Questions..8 | Chapter II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE...9 | Defining Community Engagement..9 | Earnest Boyer: The Scholarship of Engagement.......12 | Renewing Higher Educations’ Commitment to Community Engagement 14 | The Wingspread Conferences 14 | A Crucible Moment...16 | Student Learning Outcomes of Community Engagement.18 | The Furco Rubric for Institutionalizing Community Engagement....20 | Mission and Philosophy.21 | Faculty Support for and Involvement ...23 | Promotion, Reward, and Tenure 23 | Student Support for and Involvement ...25 | Community Participation and Partnerships...27 | Institutional Support ..29 | Leadership..29 | Infrastructure..30 | Funding....32 | Institutional Characteristics...32 | The Carnegie Engaged Institution Designation.34 | The National President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll..35 | National Investors in Community Engagement.36 | Campus Compact...36 | Corporation for National and Community Service 37 | Current State of Community Engagement.38 | Theoretical Framework..40 | Chapter III: METHODOLOGY.43 | Methods..44 | Population..44 | Study Sample.46 | Research Design.48 | Ethical Considerations...48 | Survey Instrument..49 | Data Collection Procedures....53 | Study Variables..56 | Dependent Variables..56 | Independent Variables...60 | Supplemental Variables.66 | Analytic Procedures.......67 | Descriptive Statistics..67 | Factor Analysis..67 | Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)...69 | Regression Analyses..69 | Missing Data..71 | Limitations.72 | Chapter IV: FINDINGS.....75 | Research Question 1..75 | Research Question 2..83 | Research Question 3..85 | Research Question 4..98 | Summary..101 | Chapter V: SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION106 | Summary of the Study.....106 | Discussion and Implications for Practice.120 | Limitations...127 | Recommendations for Further Research..128 | Summary......129 | REFERENCES130 | APPENDIX A: Institutional Review Board Exemption Report..141 | APPENDIX B: Community Engagement Survey........143 | APPENDIX C: Request for Study Participation .........168 |York, TravisDaesang, KimTsemunhu, RudoEd.D.Educational Leadershi

Site of Prenylation Reaction in Synthesis of Phylloquinone (Vitamin K1) by Spinach Chloroplasts

In spinach chloroplasts, 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoate is prenylated by phytyldiphosphate and subsequently methylated by S-adenosylmethionine to form phylloquinol. The site of the prenylation reaction is the chloroplast envelope membrane

Reactions between cold methyl halide molecules and alkali-metal atoms

We investigate the potential energy surfaces and activation energies for reactions between methyl halide molecules CH3X (X = F, Cl, Br, I) and alkali-metal atoms A (A = Li, Na, K, Rb) using high-level ab initio calculations. We examine the anisotropy of each intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) and the mechanism and energetics of the only available exothermic reaction pathway, CH3X + A→CH3 + AX. The region of the transition state is explored using two-dimensional PES cuts and estimates of the activation energies are inferred. Nearly all combinations of methyl halide and alkali-metal atom have positive barrier heights, indicating that reactions at low temperatures will be slow

Characterization of crack nucleation in TA6V under fretting-fatigue loading using the potential drop technique

Crack initiation in a Ti-6Al-4V alloy was investigated experimentally in fretting fatigue conditions. A cylinder-plane geometry was used for the contact, and partial slip conditions were considered. The experiments were conducted on a new bi-actuator fretting fatigue machine and an original interrupted test expertise methodology was proposed. The potential drop technique is used to monitor crack nucleation. The careful calibration procedure used in this study and presented in this paper allowed the detection of cracks as small as 50 [mu]m. Three experimental campaigns were conducted: fretting tests (optical expertise), fretting fatigue tests up to a lifetime of 100,000 cycles (optical expertise) and fretting fatigue interrupted tests (potential drop technique). The experiments have shown that the addition of a fretting-fatigue to conventional fretting conditions can induce a drop off of 45% of the tangential threshold for crack nucleation. Two mechanisms were shown to promote this drop off: increasing the fatigue load leads to a decrease of the tangential force nucleation threshold whereas raising the fretting load leads to a decrease of the nucleation and fracture fatigue lifetime

Interleukin-1 signaling in the basolateral amygdala is necessary for heroin-conditioned immunosuppression

Heroin administration suppresses the production of inducible nitric oxide (NO), as indicated by changes in splenic inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and plasma nitrate/nitrite. Since NO is a measure of host defense against infection and disease, this provides evidence that heroin can increase susceptibility to pathogens by directly interacting with the immune system. Previous research in our laboratory has demonstrated that these immunosuppressive effects of heroin can also be conditioned to environmental stimuli by repeatedly pairing heroin administration with a unique environmental context. Re-exposure to a previously drug-paired context elicits immunosuppressive effects similar to heroin administration alone. In addition, our laboratory has reported that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) and medial nucleus accumbens shell (mNAcS) are critical neural substrates that mediate this conditioned effect. However, our understanding of the contributing mechanisms within these brain regions is limited. It is known that the cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) plays an important role in learning and memory. In fact, our laboratory has demonstrated that inhibition of IL-1β expression in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) prior to reexposure to a heroin-paired context prevents the suppression of measures of NO production. Therefore, the present studies sought to further investigate the role of IL-1 in heroin-conditioned immunosuppression. Blockade of IL-1 signaling in the BLA, but not in the caudate putamen or mNAcS, using IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) attenuated heroin-conditioned immunosuppression of NO production as measured by plasma nitrate/nitrite and iNOS mRNA expression in spleen tissue. Taken together, these findings suggest that IL-1 signaling in the BLA is necessary for the expression of heroin-conditioned immunosuppression of NO production and may be a target for interventions that normalize immune function in heroin users and patient populations exposed to opiate regimens

Acquisition of heroin conditioned immunosuppression requires IL-1 signaling in the dorsal hippocampus

Opioid users experience increased incidence of infection, which may be partially attributable to both direct opiate-immune interactions and conditioned immune responses. Previous studies have investigated the neural circuitry governing opioid conditioned immune responses, but work remains to elucidate the mechanisms mediating this effect. Our laboratory has previously shown that hippocampal IL-1 signaling, specifically, is required for the expression of heroin conditioned immunosuppression following learning. The current studies were designed to further characterize the role of hippocampal IL-1 in this phenomenon by manipulating IL-1 during learning. Experiment 1 tested whether hippocampal IL-1 is also required for the acquisition of heroin conditioned immunosuppression, while Experiment 2 tested whether hippocampal IL-1 is required for the expression of unconditioned heroin immunosuppression. We found that blocking IL-1 signaling in the dorsal hippocampus with IL-1RA during each conditioning session, but not on interspersed non-conditioning days, significantly attenuated the acquisition of heroin conditioned immunosuppression. Strikingly, we found that the same IL-1RA treatment did not alter unconditioned immunosuppression to a single dose of heroin. Thus, IL-1 signaling is not a critical component of the response to heroin but rather may play a role in the formation of the association between heroin and the context. Collectively, these studies suggest that IL-1 signaling, in addition to being involved in the expression of a heroin conditioned immune response, is also involved in the acquisition of this effect. Importantly, this effect is likely not due to blocking the response to the unconditioned stimulus since IL-1RA did not affect heroin’s immunosuppressive effects