Matching Items (105)
Description
The objectives of this review include a discussion of the West Nile Virus phylogeny, transmission history, how the virus functions in the body and how it is a threat to public health, and then discusses these items related to vaccine technology surrounding West Nile Virus. This will include past developments, current research in the field and what it may take to develop such a vaccine safe and economical for human usage.
ContributorsSlinker, Haleigh Renee (Author) / Chen, Qiang (Thesis director) / Huffman, Holly (Committee member) / Oberstein, Bruce (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Letters and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
A total of 154 families were included in the larger study in which this study is situated. A sub-sample of 32 parent-child dyads (balanced in terms of parent and child gender and ethnicity) were randomly selected for in-depth content analysis of transcript and video data. The fourth-grade students and their parents were recruited from elementary schools, community recreation centers, and public libraries. Each dyad participated in six science activities while researchers audio and video recorded sessions, which were then transcribed and coded for expressions of encouragement and discouragement. Parents filled out questionnaires while children were interviewed. Parents did not report that science was more important for one gender over the other. A significant difference in encouragement and discouragement based on child gender was not found. A significant difference in encouragement based on parental beliefs was not found, but a significant difference in discouragement based on parental beliefs was found. Neither parental beliefs nor parental behaviors predicted how children rated interest in the science activities they participated in. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.
ContributorsMessinger, Kayla Lorrie-Lee (Author) / Sandrin, Susannah (Thesis director) / Seeley, Bridget (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Dental caries also known as tooth decay is a bacterial infection that causes demineralization and destruction of enamel dentin and cementum in the tooth. This bacterium, Streprococcus mutans, feeds on the carbohydrates in the mouth and produces lactic acids that result in dental caries. This thesis discusses the use of plants to produce antibodies, Guy 13 and anti-GTFB to treat this dental disease. We believe these plant-derived antibodies will be effective to treat dental caries and economical to produce.
ContributorsSayegh, Luvenia Crystal (Author) / Chen, Qiang (Thesis director) / Garg, Vikas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Letters and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
In the digital humanities, there is a constant need to turn images and PDF files into plain text to apply analyses such as topic modelling, named entity recognition, and other techniques. However, although there exist different solutions to extract text embedded in PDF files or run OCR on images, they typically require additional training (for example, scholars have to learn how to use the command line) or are difficult to automate without programming skills. The Giles Ecosystem is a distributed system based on Apache Kafka that allows users to upload documents for text and image extraction. The system components are implemented using Java and the Spring Framework and are available under an Open Source license on GitHub (https://github.com/diging/).
ContributorsLessios-Damerow, Julia (Contributor) / Peirson, Erick (Contributor) / Laubichler, Manfred (Contributor) / ASU-SFI Center for Biosocial Complex Systems (Contributor)
Created2017-09-28
Description
Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a severe and often fatal disease in human and nonhuman primates, caused by the Ebola virus. Approximately 30 years after the first epidemic, there is no vaccine or therapeutic medication approved to counter the Ebola virus. In this dissertation, a geminiviral replicon system was used to produce Ebola immune complex (EIC) in plant leaves and tested it as an Ebola vaccine. The EIC was produced in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves by fusing Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP1) to the C-terminus of heavy chain of 6D8 monoclonal antibody (mAb), which is specific to the 6D8 epitope of GP1, and co-expressing the fusion with the light chain of 6D8 mAb. EIC was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and protein A or protein G affinity chromatography. EIC was shown to be immunogenic in mice, but the level of antibody against Ebola virus was not sufficient to protect the mice from lethal the Ebola challenge. Hence, different adjuvants were tested in order to improve the immunogenicity of the EIC. Among several adjuvants that we used, Poly(I:C), which is a synthetic analog of double-stranded ribonucleic acid that can interact with a Toll-like receptor 3, strongly increased the efficacy of our Ebola vaccine. The mice immunized with EIC co-administered with Poly(I:C) produced high levels of neutralizing anti-Ebola IgG, and 80% of the mice were protected from the lethal Ebola virus challenge. Moreover, the EIC induced a predominant T-helper type 1 (Th1) response, whereas Poly(I:C) co-delivered with the EIC stimulated a mixed Th1/Th2 response. This result suggests that the protection against lethal Ebola challenge requires both Th1 and Th2 responses. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the plant-produced EIC co-delivered with Poly(I:C) induced strong and protective immune responses to the Ebola virus in mice. These results support plant-produced EIC as a good vaccine candidate against the Ebola virus. It should be pursued further in primate studies, and eventually in clinical trials.
ContributorsPhoolcharoen, Waranyoo (Author) / Mason, Hugh S (Thesis advisor) / Chen, Qiang (Thesis advisor) / Arntzen, Charles J. (Committee member) / Change, Yung (Committee member) / Ma, Julian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Urbanization is a landscape-level alteration of habitat that can lead to habitat fragmentation, degradation, and the introduction of nonnative species. Due to their life history characteristics, mammalian predators are particularly vulnerable to these effects. The categorization of many species as synanthropic, benefiting from human development, has been difficult as species have a gradient of responses to urbanization. Although coyotes, gray foxes and bobcats have all been shown to benefit from light to moderate levels of urbanization, often due to the increase in food resources, they typically require access to natural areas as escape cover. Camera traps at varying distances were used to document mesopredator response to the urban edge of Gold Canyon, Arizona from November 2015 through March 2016. Coyote, gray fox and bobcat relative abundance did not vary with distance to urban edge during this time period. Although, negative trends suggest that a larger scale study may reveal a negative relationship between distance to urban edge and mesopredator abundance for all 3 of these species. The efficacy of different baits at increasing mesopredator detections was also tested, with insignificant results. However, coyotes seemed to be more likely to interact with Carman's Raccoon Lure No. 2 than coyote urine. Understanding the responses of mesopredators to urbanization will allow us to better coexist with these vulnerable species as land continues to be developed at high rates across the globe.
ContributorsEvans, Jacquelyn Diane (Author) / Cunningham, Stanley (Thesis director) / Allen, Daniel (Committee member) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This project examines the secretive world of the Venture Capital Industry specifically focusing on the ideology of gender inequality. Through research it has been found that females within the industry at the partnership level have actually decreased. By completing a literature review, we found that there were several biases and stereotypes that are prevalent within the industry and could be contributing factors for the decreasing participation. Following our literature review, we focused on a sample of 100 from the LPJ Index, and gathered data on all individuals listed, those at the partnership level and all other individuals within the industry. Through analyzing our data we found that female participation at the partner level is low and more importantly that 68% of firms do not even have a female partner in their ranks. We found that male and female partners have relatively the same education and the same areas of interest, which should suggest that they are on the same playing field, which is clearly not represented in the partnership composition, where males are dominating the industry. These findings lend credence to some of the deep rooted stereotypes that are facing females in the Venture Capital Industry and could explain why there are not many opportunities for them. Through future research and participation from firms to actively help increase the opportunities for women, the gender inequality that is facing the Venture Capital Industry can begin to narrow.
ContributorsBaker, Audree (Co-author) / McCormick, Bobby (Co-author) / Lee, Peggy (Thesis director) / Peterson, Suzanne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Looking into the school community cohesion and how refugee youth integrate into schools is important when addressing refugee resettlement issues at large. It is important that school community identity (SCI) formation for refugee high school youth is understood in order to develop school programs that can better assist integration process of refugee families. Looking at high school refugee youth from Arizona a model was created that better displays the specifics this study found when dealing with this population. Unlike non-refugee high school youth, refugee youth do not develop school community cohesion through voice, resonance, or empowerment like other studies have shown. This study shows that they must first develop a SCI before they can have a strong school community presence. School community identity is an important first step that facilitates sense of school community. Two focus groups were down at the Somali American United Council, and from these two groups four common themes surfaced: faculty support, emotional security, cultural understanding, and partnership/collaboration. Using these themes a refugee school identity model was created to represent the data collected. The participants in the focus group often told stories and used phrases that indicated a lack of identity in their school, and no claims to a need of a voice within their school community was mentioned. This indicates that refugee students need an identity within their school community before they will express a need for voice or influence.
ContributorsReiswig, Clinton Gene (Author) / Klimek, Barbara (Thesis director) / Zayas, Luis (Committee member) / Sambe, Pape (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Social Work (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been responsible for significant social and economic
disruption, prompting an urgent search for therapeutic solutions. The spike protein of the virus
has been examined as an immunogenic target because of its role in viral binding and fusion
necessary for infection of host cells. Previous studies have identified a recombinant protein
(denoted as S1) that has been shown to potentially induce a neutralizing antibody response by
mimicking the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. We have produced the S1 in plants
using agroinfiltration, a plant transformation technique whereby plasmid-containing
Agrobacterium tumefaciens is injected into Nicotiana benthamiana plants, resulting in transfer of
the desired gene from bacteria to plant cells. S1 was expressed to high levels within 5 days of
infiltration, and Western blot analysis showed recognition of the S1 by an anti-S1 antibody.
ELISA results exhibited increased binding activity to anti-S1 with increasing concentrations of
S1, indicating their specific interaction. This ongoing study will demonstrate the potential of a
plant-produced S1 as a vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic tool against COVID-19 that is not
only effective, but also cost-efficient and scalable in comparison to conventional mammalian cell
culture production methods.
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been responsible for significant social and economic
disruption, prompting an urgent search for therapeutic solutions. The spike protein of the virus
has been examined as an immunogenic target because of its role in viral binding and fusion
necessary for infection of host cells. Previous studies have identified a recombinant protein
(denoted as S1) that has been shown to potentially induce a neutralizing antibody response by
mimicking the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. We have produced the S1 in plants
using agroinfiltration, a plant transformation technique whereby plasmid-containing
Agrobacterium tumefaciens is injected into Nicotiana benthamiana plants, resulting in transfer of
the desired gene from bacteria to plant cells. S1 was expressed to high levels within 5 days of
infiltration, and Western blot analysis showed recognition of the S1 by an anti-S1 antibody.
ELISA results exhibited increased binding activity to anti-S1 with increasing concentrations of
S1, indicating their specific interaction. This ongoing study will demonstrate the potential of a
plant-produced S1 as a vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic tool against COVID-19 that is not
only effective, but also cost-efficient and scalable in comparison to conventional mammalian cell
culture production methods.
ContributorsNguyen, Katherine (Author) / Chen, Qiang (Thesis director) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Jugler, Collin (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
Honey bee workers display remarkable flexibility in the aging process. This plasticity is closely tied to behavioral maturation. Workers who initiate foraging behavior at earlier ages have shorter lifespans, and much of the variation in total lifespan can be explained by differences in pre-foraging lifespan. Vitellogenin (Vg), a yolk precursor protein, influences worker lifespan both as a regulator of behavioral maturation and through anti-oxidant and immune functions. Experimental reduction of Vg mRNA, and thus Vg protein levels, in wild-type bees results in precocious foraging behavior, decreased lifespan, and increased susceptibility to oxidative damage. We sought to separate the effects of Vg on lifespan due to behavioral maturation from those due to immune and antioxidant function using two selected strains of honey bees that differ in their phenotypic responsiveness to Vg gene knockdown. Surprisingly, we found that lifespans lengthen in the strain described as behaviorally and hormonally insensitive to Vg reduction. We then performed targeted gene expression analyses on genes hypothesized to mediate aging and lifespan: the insulin-like peptides (Ilp1 and 2) and manganese superoxide dismutase (mnSOD). The two honey bee Ilps are the most upstream components in the insulin-signaling pathway, which influences lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster and other organisms, while manganese superoxide dismutase encodes an enzyme with antioxidant functions in animals. We found expression differences in the llps in fat body related to behavior (llp1 and 2) and genetic background (Ilp2), but did not find strain by treatment effects. Expression of mnSOD was also affected by behavior and genetic background. Additionally, we observed a differential response to Vg knockdown in fat body expression of mnSOD, suggesting that antioxidant pathways may partially explain the strain-specific lifespan responses to Vg knockdown.
ContributorsIhle, Kate (Author) / Fondrk, M. Kim (Author) / Page, Robert (Author) / Amdam, Gro (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-01-01