Metabolic syndrome, characterized by a collection of risk factors including abdominal obesity, insulin insensitivity, elevated plasma triglycerides, hypertension and low plasma high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), is a major contributing factor to the development of cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes (T2D). Xanthohumol (XN), a flavonoid isolated from Humulus lupulus cones, has...
Due to public and regulatory restrictions, genetic containment technology is critical for research and development of transgenic trees in forestry. A multi-year field trial demonstrated that the RNAi-LFY construct successfully induces sexual sterility in 6K10 poplar (Populus alba) without visible effects on vegetative development. However, its limited number of replicates...
Diet History Questionnaires (DHQ) can only provide general information about a person’s nutritional intake. It is unable to cluster groups of people based on diets or lifestyles, nor identify specific foods that may play a role in disease prevention. The aim of this study was to validate the use of...
Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for hydrogen production exhibit great advantages over many other biohydrogen production techniques in terms of versatility of substrate and hydrogen yield. However, hydrogen scavenging by methanogens put forward a great challenge to the application of the single chamber MECs when using mixed culture. Various strategies were...
Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for hydrogen production exhibit great advantages over many other biohydrogen production techniques in terms of versatility of substrate and hydrogen yield. However, hydrogen scavenging by methanogens put forward a great challenge to the application of the single chamber MECs when using mixed culture. Various strategies were...
Postpartum uterine inflammation (endometritis) is not uncommon in beef cattle, resulting in infertility and culling. Prolonged calving may contribute to the increased incidence of endometritis in heifers. Commonly used methods to treat endometritis in beef cattle include intrauterine antibiotics and/or hormone injections, which can result in meat residues. Platelet rich...
Mycoplasma haemolamae is associated with mild to marked anemia in stressed, immune-suppressed, and debilitated animals, and may be found in low numbers in healthy animals. The continued presence of the organism, detectable by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay, may be associated with an underlying problem, such as stress or immune-suppression...
Canine Transitional Cell Carcinoma (TCC) makes up 2% of all canine cancers and is the most common cancer of the bladder for dogs. Usually diagnosed in its later stages, TCC is difficult to treat, with low survival times. Current diagnosis involves invasive techniques, and mainstream screening tests are often ineffective....
Birds of prey and carnivorous mammals feed on small birds, rodents and other small mammals. Humans perceive many of the prey animals of these predators as well as the predators themselves, as “pests”, and seek to control them. Control methods for these unwanted pests, particularly rodents, have the potential to...
Columbia Glacier, Alaska’s most rapidly retreating body of ice, provides a compelling insight into the fragile state of tidewater glaciers worldwide. Catastrophic retreat of the glacier’s terminal ice margin began in 1978 when contact was lost with its stabilizing terminal moraine shoal. Since this time, Columbia Glacier has lost ~20...
We compiled Western Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) and Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) locations in northwestern North America, consolidating data from multiple sources including nine U.S. State and Canadian Provincial jurisdictions. We assessed numbers of discrete locations, and analyzed distribution patterns temporally and spatially. Western Pond Turtle observation records ranged from...
Gene expression in plants (and other eukaryotes) is a very complex process. Gene expression is primarily controlled by proteins and their binding sites near the gene in the chromosomal DNA. More specifically, interactions among transcription factors (DNA-binding proteins) and cis-regulatory modules (CRMs-sets of binding sites) control the expression of nearby...
Stringhalt is a disorder in horses characterized by high stepping with hyperflexion of the hind limbs. This disorder has been reported from the US, Australia, Chile, and Brazil. In most instances, the disease manifests itself in horses exposed to summer dandelion (Hypochaeris radicata). Stringhalt has been induced by feeding summer...
There exists a growing need to establish a better in vitro model for evaluating PAH toxicity and carcinogenicity and to improve assessments of risk to human health, especially to the complex mixtures that exist in the environment. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants due to the incomplete combustion...
There exists a growing need to establish a better in vitro model for evaluating PAH toxicity and carcinogenicity and to improve assessments of risk to human health, especially to the complex mixtures that exist in the environment. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants due to the incomplete combustion...
Flour aging is thought to occur naturally during storage of wheat flour. In soft-wheat it is hypothesized that aging may increase water absorption properties of the flour. The aim of this study was to determine if the absorption capacity of flour changes as a response to flour aging. Absorption was...
Vibrio cholerae (Vc), the etiological agent of cholera, has developed many mechanisms to combat the great fluctuations in pH, ion content and osmotic conditions of the vastly differing environments it encounters through its infections of the human host. A series of cation antiporters are found in the Vc membrane to...
Toxicological studies show that oral doses of nickel can cause allergic contact dermatitis, and routes of exposure, such as nickel leached from stainless steel cookware are not well characterized. In this study, four variables: grade of stainless steel, cook time, stainless steel seasoning or cooking cycles, and commercial tomato sauces,...
Various flavonoid-rich plant extracts have shown efficacy in the treatment of diabetes. Although it is often assumed that dietary flavonoids exert biological antioxidant effects, it is possible that the observed effects work in carbohydrate metabolism. In this study we evaluated the effect of catechins and catechin containing extracts on α-amylase...
Budburst, the initiation of annual growth in plants, is sensitive to climate variation and is therefore used to monitor physiological responses to climate change. Budburst timing can vary between regions of an individual tree, but this phenomenon it is unaccounted for in current monitoring efforts and may contribute to the...
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a major concern in infants, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. There is currently no vaccine available. While it causes a significant number of hospitalizations and complications, RSV is a thermo labile virus and not very stable in the environment. This matter complicates the creation of...
Zinc is an essential micronutrient required for many cellular functions, including
the development and function of the immune system. The biological consequences of
zinc deficiency illustrate the significance of zinc in human health. Zinc deficiency has
been shown to cause the dysregulation of both innate and adaptive immune responses, as...
While monocytes are vital for host defense against pathogens, in cases of non-resolving inflammation, monocytes and their differentiated progeny can secrete tissue-damaging factors, present auto-antigens, and promote the inflammatory response. In this study, a systems biology approach was used to map human monocyte gene regulatory regions by integrating expression quantitative...
While monocytes are vital for host defense against pathogens, in cases of non-resolving inflammation, monocytes and their differentiated progeny can secrete tissue-damaging factors, present auto-antigens, and promote the inflammatory response. In this study, a systems biology approach was used to map human monocyte gene regulatory regions by integrating expression quantitative...
Presentation entitled : The Challenge of Finding Where SOD Gets Zinc: Identifying Novel Techniques to Recombinantly Express Metallothionein / by Nick B. West, Joseph Beckman and Daniel Sudakin
Understanding the mechanisms through which stem cells self-renew is important for the development of new therapies to repair and restore damaged tissue. This research explores possible mechanisms of telomere mimic action and seeks to validate a new assay for evaluating telomere binding antagonists and studying the effects of telomere binding...
The Bcl-2 family of proteins regulate cell survival and are targets for cancer therapy. This protein family has also been implicated in chemotherapeutic resistance, the cause of approximately 90% of treatment failure in advanced cancer. We analyzed the expression and the role of the Bcl-2 proteins in chemotherapy resistant breast...
As engineered nanomaterials (ENM) become more common in consumer products, it is crucial to rapidly assess toxicity of unique ENM. Previous studies rarely focused on standardizing nanotoxicity testing, leading to inconsistent and irreproducible results. This study characterized a variety of ENM of different size, shape, core type, and surface charge...
The entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana are commercially available as microbial control agents for the black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), the key root-feeding insect pest in Pacific Northwest small fruits and ornamentals. Understanding habitat selection is critical to improve the efficacy, persistence and cost of...
Solarization could be an alternative to chemical controls for soil pathogens and weeds, and it may also influence plant growth factors. Biomass, shoot length, and AMF colonization were examined in red oak (Quercus rubra), Mazzard cherry (Prunus avium), and hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) at J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. nursery...
Soil solarization has been used throughout the world, but its effect on plant growth variables in ornamental tree saplings in the Willamette Valley are not well documented. Solarization could be an alternative to chemical controls for soil pathogens and weeds, and it may also influence plant growth factors. This study...
Abstract
Haptoglobin is an acute phase protein that is elevated in response to tissue damage and infections in dairy cows. The objectives of this study were to evaluate whether serum haptoglobin concentrations in the first week after calving can indicate disease status and severity, and whether haptoglobin concentrations are elevated...
Natural disturbances and human activities can alter the benthic composition of coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. Reef fishes that associate with particular structures on the sea floor, such as coral heads, may be vulnerable to perturbations of those habitats. The spread of a newly discovered crustose alga (Ramicrusta sp.)...
Infestations of container nursery beds by Phytophthora spp. can be persistent and costly. One method of disinfestation that does not require the use of chemicals is soil solarization, which captures energy from the sun to heat soil and thermally inactivate target pathogens. In laboratory temperature gradient experiments, I investigated the...
Hypoxia is a naturally occurring phenomenon that happens seasonally off the Oregon coast. As a consequence, there has been a great deal of research focused around analyzing the strength and duration of the hypoxic event during the summer season. This paper, however, takes an innovative approach by looking at the...
Antimicrobial agents are being increasingly used in consumer soaps and detergents, despite a lack of data demonstrating their efficacy in such products. This study investigated the nature of the interaction between different crystalline structures of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and BTC, and explore which structure, if any, could be best used...
Bio-oil from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) represents a promising fuel source due to large higher heating values and compatibility with current energy infrastructure. For bio-oil production to become commercially viable, novel methods of co-product recycling must be explored.
The aims of this study were to culture Chlorella vulgaris, a common HTL...
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is a potent immunosuppressant and a prototypic ligand for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). In a graft versus host (GvH) response, treatment with TCDD suppresses a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response by Day 10, concurrent with a T-regulatory (Treg) like phenotype in the donor CD4+ T-cells, observed on Day...
Endogenous circadian clock regulation is essential to normal rhythmicity, particularly the timing of hormone release in the brain. In the context of mammalian reproduction, a surge of a specific hormone, gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), initiates a surge of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary gland, which is required for ovulation in...
Abstract
Flame-retardants (FRs) generally enter the environment by dissociating from the products they were originally manufactured into. The predominant class of FR used in consumer products before their eventual phase-out in the mid-2000s were the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Previous studies have illustrated a correlation between socio-economic status, notably gross...
Soil water repellency is one cause of rill soil erosion and overland flow that results in the loss of fertile topsoil. Previous research suggests that since microbial growth depends on temperature/moisture and follows diurnal and seasonal cycles, a biological mechanism would be able to explain the observed seasonality and climate...
Vibrio cholerae a major health problem in developing countries because of its ability to cause the disease cholera in humans. As V. cholerae bacteria are common inhabitants of temperate marine and brackish water environments worldwide, they are subject to intense top-down pressure by amoebae, which can affect their survival and...
Phytochemicals from the genus, Fagonia, have been attracting increasing attention due to their potential beneficial effects on human health, particularly, anti-cancer properties. Certain Fagonia species contain various types of phytochemicals such as saponins, alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, terpenoids, and tannins. In this study, we investigated the phytochemical composition of a...
BACKGROUND: Oregon produces 99% of the hazelnuts grown in the United States. The key pest threatening commercial hazelnut orchards in Oregon is Cydia latiferreana (Tortricidae), filbertworm moth (FBW). Currently, most growers control FBW with one to two applications of esfenvalerate (Asana XL), a broad spectrum pyrethroid. Pheromone mating disruption is...
In order to reduce the cost of lignocellulosic ethanol production, a model was previously developed to predict the amount of fermentable sugar released based on parameters concerning both biomass and enzymes. To validate this model, enzymatic hydrolysis must be carried out using individual purified cellulase enzymes. Endo-1,4-β-D-glucanase I (EG I),...
In order to reduce the cost of lignocellulosic ethanol production, a model was previously developed to predict the amount of fermentable sugar released based on parameters concerning both biomass and enzymes. To validate this model, enzymatic hydrolysis must be carried out using individual purified cellulase enzymes. Endo-1,4-β-D-glucanase I (EG I),...
Anaerobic digestion of lipid-extracted algal biomass has been proposed as a method to
recover and recycle nutrients in algal biofuel systems. The purpose of this study was to quantify recoverable nitrogen and phosphorus from anaerobically digested C. vulgaris. Recoverable nutrients were deemed those present in the liquid phase of anaerobic...
Oregon is the number three producer of strawberries in the nation despite the fact that Oregon strawberry acreage dropped from 2,600 acres in 2005 to 2,000 acres in 2014 (Beeles, 2015; NASS, 2019, Losh, 2017). With over three billion pounds of berries grown nationally each year, strawberries are an important...
The Pacific Treefrog (Pseudacris regilla) is commonly encountered throughout the Pacific Northwest and can be an indicator for ecosystem health. At each life stage P. regilla utilizes a different habitat and therefore it is important to understand habitat use at all life stages to properly manage the ecosystem, however, few...