Otoferlin is a protein that is essential in the process of hearing. Mutations in otoferlin are associated with profound recessive deafness. The long-term goal of the Johnson lab is to understand how otoferlin contributes to hearing and why certain mutations result in deafness. This project sought to characterize the difference...
Background: The ability to produce rapid muscle force and joint torque is important for performance in sports, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and balance recovery. One way to measure rapid torque production is rate of torque development (RTD), which is the slope of the torque-time curve. Interventions aimed at increasing RTD...
Ferlins are a family of calcium-sensitive proteins involved in fusion and fission membrane trafficking events. There are six ferlin members: dysferlin, otoferlin, myoferlin, Fer1L4, Fer1L5, and Fer1L6. Previous research shows the first three ferlins play a pathophysiological role in humans, while the other three remain uncharacterized. Fer1L6 is one of...
An understanding of oppression and privilege would improve engineering climates and encourage individuals with marginalized identities to stay engaged in engineering spaces. Currently there are quantitative tools to assess cultural competencies, but none that measure understandings of power relationships. This project aims to create a qualitative assessment instrument to measure...
Spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii, is a recently introduced, invasive pest in Oregon. It oviposits in near-mature and mature fruit, and thus is an important concern for the small fruit industry. A crop consultant observed that mature raspberry fruit with D. suzukii larvae do not show symptoms of molds as...
This study compares the requirements of three forest certification systems, the Sustainable Forestry Institute (SFI), the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), with the 2005 McDonald-Dunn Forest Plan Revision. The analysis was done with a series of matrices comparing the requirements of SFI and FSC...
After a joint injury, arthrogenic muscle inhibition (AMI) leads to decreased neuromuscular control and strength, as neural inhibition prevents volitional activation of the entire motor neuron pool. Traditional rehabilitation techniques such as strength training are unable to effectively reduce AMI and there is a need to identify interventions that can...
The ferlin protein family regulates membrane trafficking events for a wide range of cellular and physiological processes in eukaryotic organisms. Structurally, ferlins are distinguished by containing five to seven C2 domains with a single-pass transmembrane domain at the C-terminus. In mammals, there are 6 ferlin genes, including Fer1L6, which confer...
Background: Certain knee movements place the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) at risk of injury. These injuries commonly affect athletes especially at the end of events. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of exhaustive exercise on frontal plane hip and knee mechanics during two tasks in order...
Background: The capability of an individual to produce force rapidly is important for performance of sporting activities and to stabilize a joint to protect against injury. Rate of torque development (RTD) and contractile impulse (CI) may be more effective than peak torque in assessing rapid torque production. The relationship between...