Boys and Girls Club Fundraiser

This project is designed to fulfill my senior project graduation requirement for the Esther G. Maynor Honors College at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. This community service project consisted of me implementing and completing a three-on-three basketball tournament to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club of Pembroke, NC. The event took weeks of organizing and planning. The first step was to figure out who the fundraiser would be for, and, after that, a plan had to be developed to raise the most amount of money possible. It was tough to procure many teams for the tournament, but enough managed to join to make the tournament a success. The tournament made it possible for me to raise money and supplies for the Boys and Girls Club. I hope they enjoy the provisions that I was able give them. It was a pleasure doing something positive for the community

Polymerized Bovine Hemoglobin Infusion Does Not Induce Lung Damage in a Rat Model

Establishing a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC) has potential to improve transfusion medicine andprovide a novel intervention to minimize tissue damage during hypoxic or ischemic insults. However, in vitro studiessuggest that HBOCs have toxic effects on endothelial cell barrier function. The purpose of this study was to determine ifthe HBOC polymerized bovine hemoglobin (PBvHb) alters pulmonary endothelial barrier function in rats duringnormoxia or hypoxia. Conscious male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with lactated Ringer’s (LR) or PBvHb (3 ml of1.3 mg PBvHb/ml in lactated Ringer’s) and exposed to 4hr of normoxia (FiO2=21%) or hypoxia (FiO2=10%). Evans bluedye (EBD) extravasation (estimate of pulmonary vascular leak), pulmonary artery (Pa) pressure, inflammatory mediators,vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1), and hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1??)were measured in the lung and/or plasma. As expected with hypoxia, Pa pressure increased (p<0.05). PBvHb also resultedin a significant increase in Pa pressure independent of hypoxia. While a significant main effect of PBvHb on EBDextravasation was observed, no differences in inflammatory cytokines or pulmonary white blood cells existed amonggroups. No pulmonary edema was present upon assessment of wet:dry lung weights or histological examination. Hypoxiadid not influence plasma VEGF, but resulted in a small but significant increase in sFlt-1. Irrespective of hypoxia, PBvHbwas associated with increased unbound VEGF and its soluble receptor sFlt-1. However, no differences in lung VEGF orHIF-1?? were observed. We conclude that in this model, acute administration of PBvHb does not have severe overalleffects on pulmonary endothelial barrier function or inflammation

Describing and increasing the resiliency of middle grade students in a small charter school

Resiliency is a term used to describe personal or environmental characteristics that foster a process of successful adjustment and transformation regardless of the risk and hardship (Benard, 1995). Certain youth have been shown to be deficient in resiliency based on the way particular factors impact their lives and their ability to successfully cope with these factors (Long et al, 2006). Factors that can be instrumental in causing youth to be deficient in resiliency are a lack of involvement in extracurricular activities, disengagement from school, and harsh parenting styles (Greene & Conrad, 2001; Demmert, 1994; Strand & Peacock, 2002; Borden, Perkins, Stone, & Villarruel, 2005; Arrington & Wilson, 2000; Lafromboise, 1988). However, all youth can possess life attributes that help them to become more resilient. Such attributes as high self-esteem, adult involvement, feeling connected with school, involvement in community, strong sense of identity, and religious faith are known as protective factors (HeavyRunner & Morris, 1997; Garrett, 1995; Strand & Peacock, 2002; Garmezy, 1991; Blum & Rinehart, 1997; Ralabate & Klotz, 2007; Werner, 1989). When the protective factors outweigh the risk factors youth are able to demonstrate resiliency. Furthermore, when youth are exposed to certain external elements, such crime, substance abuse, and suicide (Greene 2001; Williams 2001), they tend to have more negative outcomes related to overall resiliency. A case study was conducted to assess the risk and protective factors present in the lives of four middle grade charter school students. Observations, interviews, archival records, and a formal resiliency scale were used and triangulated. This information was then analyzed and coded to aid in discovering themes for factors related to resiliency. A plan to increase each student’s protective factors and decrease his or her risk factors was developed and presented to the charter school

Properties Of Simultaneous Discrete Occasion Setters

This series of experiments used 80 to 120 day old water-deprived rats (Rattus norvegicus) to investigate whether simultaneously presented discrete occasion setters shared two properties of serially presented discrete occasion setters. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that all groups showed a strong reinstatement effect. In the second experiment a target stimulus was first trained as a predictor of shock and then paired with a simultaneously presented occasion setter to inhibit responding to the target stimulus. The occasion setter was then paired with a shock. Due to a limitation of the procedures, results from Experiment 2 were inconclusive. The third experiment tested whether simultaneously presented occasion setters would only transfer to other targets that underwent occasion setting training. Results from Experiment 3 revealed strong contextual control over behavior that overshadowed the ability of the features to modulate responding to the targets. A fourth experiment addressed limitations from Experiment 3. Results from Experiment 4 revealed that simultaneous discrete occasion setters were unable to transfer to another target stimulus. Overall results from this experiment indicate that simultaneously presented cues do not act as occasion setters

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

A multi-stage genome-wide association study of bladder cancer identifies multiple susceptibility loci.

We conducted a multi-stage, genome-wide association study of bladder cancer with a primary scan of 591,637 SNPs in 3,532 affected individuals (cases) and 5,120 controls of European descent from five studies followed by a replication strategy, which included 8,382 cases and 48,275 controls from 16 studies. In a combined analysis, we identified three new regions associated with bladder cancer on chromosomes 22q13.1, 19q12 and 2q37.1: rs1014971, (P = 8 × 10⁻¹²) maps to a non-genic region of chromosome 22q13.1, rs8102137 (P = 2 × 10⁻¹¹) on 19q12 maps to CCNE1 and rs11892031 (P = 1 × 10⁻⁷) maps to the UGT1A cluster on 2q37.1. We confirmed four previously identified genome-wide associations on chromosomes 3q28, 4p16.3, 8q24.21 and 8q24.3, validated previous candidate associations for the GSTM1 deletion (P = 4 × 10⁻¹¹) and a tag SNP for NAT2 acetylation status (P = 4 × 10⁻¹¹), and found interactions with smoking in both regions. Our findings on common variants associated with bladder cancer risk should provide new insights into the mechanisms of carcinogenesis

Do birds of a feather flock together? Comparing habitat preferences of piscivorous waterbirds in a lowland river catchment

Waterbirds can move into and exploit new areas of suitable habitat outside of their native range. One such example is the little egret (Egretta garzetta), a piscivorous bird which has colonised southern Britain within the last 30 years. Yet, habitat use by little egrets within Britain, and how such patterns of habitat exploitation compare with native piscivores, remains unknown. We examine overlap in habitat preferences within a river catchment between the little egret and two native species, the grey heron (Ardea cinerea) and great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). All species showed strong preferences for river habitat in all seasons, with other habitat types used as auxiliary feeding areas. Seasonal use of multiple habitat types is consistent with egret habitat use within its native range. We found strong egret preference for aquatic habitats, in particular freshwaters, compared with pasture and arable agricultural habitat. Egrets showed greater shared habitat preferences with herons, the native species to which egrets are most morphologically and functionally similar. This is the first study to quantify little egret habitat preferences outside of its native range

Quantitative Analysis of Histone Modifications: Formaldehyde Is a Source of Pathological N6-Formyllysine That Is Refractory to Histone Deacetylases

Aberrant protein modifications play an important role in the pathophysiology of many human diseases, in terms of both dysfunction of physiological modifications and the formation of pathological modifications by reaction of proteins with endogenous electrophiles. Recent studies have identified a chemical homolog of lysine acetylation, N[superscript 6]-formyllysine, as an abundant modification of histone and chromatin proteins, one possible source of which is the reaction of lysine with 3′-formylphosphate residues from DNA oxidation. Using a new liquid chromatography-coupled to tandem mass spectrometry method to quantify all N[superscript 6]-methyl-, -acetyl- and -formyl-lysine modifications, we now report that endogenous formaldehyde is a major source of N[superscript 6]-formyllysine and that this adduct is widespread among cellular proteins in all compartments. N[superscript 6]-formyllysine was evenly distributed among different classes of histone proteins from human TK6 cells at 1–4 modifications per 10[superscript 4] lysines, which contrasted strongly with lysine acetylation and mono-, di-, and tri-methylation levels of 1.5-380, 5-870, 0-1400, and 0-390 per 10[superscript 4] lysines, respectively. While isotope labeling studies revealed that lysine demethylation is not a source of N[superscript 6]-formyllysine in histones, formaldehyde exposure was observed to cause a dose-dependent increase in N[superscript 6]-formyllysine, with use of [[superscript 13]C,[superscript 2]H[subscript 2]]-formaldehyde revealing unchanged levels of adducts derived from endogenous sources. Inhibitors of class I and class II histone deacetylases did not affect the levels of N[superscript 6]-formyllysine in TK6 cells, and the class III histone deacetylase, SIRT1, had minimal activity (<10%) with a peptide substrate containing the formyl adduct. These data suggest that N[superscript 6]-formyllysine is refractory to removal by histone deacetylases, which supports the idea that this abundant protein modification could interfere with normal regulation of gene expression if it arises at conserved sites of physiological protein secondary modification

What Do Minority Populations in Robeson County, NC Tell about Their Understanding of Diabetes?

Social variables influence quality of life of ethnic minority populations with diabetes in rural, southeastern North Carolina. This interpretive research study seeks to understand the diabetes experiences of these populations in a county with a majority minority populace. The research question was: What do minority populations in Robeson County, North Carolina, tell about their understanding of diabetes