Micromachines (Basel)
February 2023
Indium tin oxide (ITO) is currently the most widely used material for transparent electrodes; however, it has several drawbacks, including high cost, brittleness, and environmental concerns. Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are promising alternatives to ITO as materials for transparent electrodes owing to their high electrical conductivity, transparency in the visible range of wavelengths, and flexibility. AgNWs are effective for various electronic device applications, such as touch panels, biosensors, and solar cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Adult onset diabetes is a significant health issue in rural communities that are disproportionately suffering from the health, social and financial costs of the disease. Despite this, over half of rural counties in the USA lack access to diabetes self-management programs, which are effective at improving diabetes management. The Cooperative Extension System (CES) is a nationwide education network that provides research-based information and programs in nearly 3000 counties in the USA to improve the health and wellbeing of rural and urban communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Physiol Educ
December 2020
Throughout my academic career, I have been extremely fortunate to have as mentors, teachers, and advisors, remarkable individuals who helped me develop into a competent researcher and passionate teacher. This essay describes a period in my career as a graduate student that was challenging, but also rewarding. I was fortunate to have contact with world-class researchers and teachers, including Drs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluenza virus infections can be complicated by bacterial superinfections, which are medically relevant because of a complex interaction between the host, the virus, and the bacteria. Studies to date have implicated several influenza virus genes, varied host immune responses, and bacterial virulence factors, however, the host-pathogen interactions that predict survival versus lethal outcomes remain undefined. Previous work by our group showed that certain influenza viruses could yield a survival phenotype (A/swine/Texas/4199-2/98-H3N2, TX98), whereas others were associated with a lethal phenotype (A/Puerto Rico/8/34-H1N1, PR8).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough it has been speculated that proteasome dysfunction may contribute to the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease (HD), a devastating neurodegenerative disorder, how proteasome activity is regulated in HD affected stem cells and somatic cells remains largely unclear. To better understand the pathogenesis of HD, we analyzed proteasome activity and the expression of FOXO transcription factors in three wild-type (WT) and three HD induced-pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines. HD iPSCs exhibited elevated proteasome activity and higher levels of FOXO1 and FOXO4 proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mortality associated with influenza A virus (IAV) is often due to the development of secondary bacterial infections known as superinfections. The group A streptococcus (GAS) is a relatively uncommon cause of IAV superinfections, but the mortality of these infections is high. We used a murine model to determine whether the surface-localized GAS M protein contributes to the outcome of IAV-GAS superinfections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Physiol Neurobiol
November 2017
Ubiquilin-1 (Ubqln1), a ubiquitin-like protein, is implicated in a variety of pathophysiological processes, but its role in mediating body weight gain or metabolism has not been determined. Here, we demonstrate that global overexpression of Ubqln1 in a transgenic (Tg) mouse reduces the animal's body weight gain. The decreased body weight gain in Tg mice is associated with lower visceral fat content and higher metabolic rate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Physiol Neurobiol
November 2017
The arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ANH) interacts with other hypothalamic nuclei, forebrain regions, and downstream brain sites to affect autonomic nervous system outflow, energy balance, temperature regulation, sleep, arousal, neuroendocrine function, reproduction, and cardiopulmonary regulation. Compared to studies of other ANH functions, how the ANH regulates cardiopulmonary function is less understood. Importantly, the ANH exhibits structural and functional sexually dimorphic characteristics and contains numerous neuroactive substances and receptors including leptin, neuropeptide Y, glutamate, acetylcholine, endorphins, orexin, kisspeptin, insulin, Agouti-related protein, cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript, dopamine, somatostatin, components of renin-angiotensin system and gamma amino butyric acid that modulate physiological functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Physiol Neurobiol
June 2016
Effects of microinjection of 2 doses of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptor agonist, muscimol (M), into the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus on oxygen consumption and control of ventilation over time and body temperature (BT) at the end of the experiment were compared in adult male and female rats. Relative to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, 0 nmol), BT was decreased only in male rats with both doses of M, while in female rats, the 5 nmol dose depressed oxygen consumption. Ventilation was depressed by 5 nmol M in male and 10 nmol M in female rats by decreasing tidal volume.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethods Mol Biol
August 2016
This chapter discusses experimental design and use of statistics to describe characteristics of data (descriptive statistics) and inferential statistics that test the hypothesis posed by the investigator. Inferential statistics, based on probability distributions, depend upon the type and distribution of the data. For data that are continuous, randomly and independently selected, as well as normally distributed more powerful parametric tests such as Student's t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) can be used.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Psychosoc Nurs Ment Health Serv
October 2015
Individuals who are incarcerated experience disparities in mental health, warranting study by nurse researchers. However, nurse researchers' unfamiliarity with the jail environment may pose a barrier to conducting research with this vulnerable population. The current article presents an account of the planning and implementation needed to study perceived health and gambling behavior in county jail inmates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypothyroidism affects cardiopulmonary regulation and function of dopaminergic receptors. Here we evaluated effects of 5 months of hypothyroidism on dopamine D1 receptor modulation of breathing in female hamsters using a D1 receptor antagonist SCH 23390. Euthyroid hamsters (EH) served as controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFType II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) can affect ventilation, metabolism, and fasting blood glucose levels. Hypothyroidism may be a comorbidity of T2DM. In this study T2DM was induced in 20 female Sprague Dawley rats using Streptozotocin (STZ) and Nicotinamide (N).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThyroid dysfunction is common in individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM) and may contribute to the associated cardiac dysfunction. However, little is known about the extent and pathophysiological consequences of low thyroid conditions on the heart in DM. DM was induced in adult female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats by injection of nicotinamide (N; 200 mg/kg) followed by streptozotocin (STZ; 65 mg/kg).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMortalin (mot-2) induces inactivation of the tumor suppressor p53's transcriptional and apoptotic functions by cytoplasmic sequestration of p53 in select cancers. The mot-2-dependent cytoprotective function enables cancer cells to support malignant transformation. Abrogating the p53-mot-2 interaction can control or slow down the growth of cancer cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGambling problems have been associated with lower perceived health in community samples, but little research has examined this relationship in an incarcerated population. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived health and gambling problems of adult inmates (18-49 years old) in a county jail. We surveyed 184 male and female inmates aged 18-49 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Physiol Neurobiol
March 2014
Bromocriptine depressed ventilation in air and D2 receptor expression in the nucleus tractus solitaries (NTS) in male hypothyroid hamsters. Here we postulated that in age-matched hypothyroid female hamsters, the pattern of D2 receptor modulation of breathing and D2 receptor expression would differ from those reported in hypothyroid males. In females hypothyroidism did not affect D2 receptor protein levels in the NTS, carotid bodies or striatum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: An integrative review was conducted to determine perceived health and gambling behavior in incarcerated adults (ages 18-49), measures of perceived health and gambling behavior, and relationships between perceived health and gambling behavior.
Conclusions: Adult inmates report poorer perceived health and increased levels of gambling problems than those who are not incarcerated. No research investigating the relationships between perceived health and gambling among adult inmates was found.
Background: Avoidance of influenza among college students requires understanding the risks for falling ill, outcomes of this disease, and utilizing methods to prevent developing influenza. We hypothesized that the behavior and knowledge of college students in the midst of a pandemic situation would be different than that during a regular influenza season.
Methods: We evaluated influenza knowledge of 311 university students in 2008 prior to and 318 students during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic using voluntary online surveys that contained 25 questions regarding vaccination behaviors and influenza knowledge.
Thyroid hormones (THs) play a pivotal role in regulating cardiovascular homeostasis. To provide a better understanding of the coordinated processes that govern cardiac TH bioavailability, this study investigated the influence of serum and cardiac TH status on the expression of TH transporters and cytosolic binding proteins in the myocardium. In addition, we sought to determine whether the administration of T(3) (instead of T(4)) improves the relationship between THs in serum and cardiac tissue and cardiac function over a short-term treatment period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Physiol Neurobiol
January 2013
During and following hypoxic exposure young male hypothyroid hamsters treated with the dopamine D(2) receptor agonist bromocriptine increased breathing, while ventilation was depressed in bromocriptine-treated euthyroid hamsters. Moreover, D(2) receptor expression was increased in carotid bodies and striatum, but not in the nucleus tractus solitaries (NTS) of hypothyroid relative to euthyroid hamsters. Here ventilation was determined in older male hypothyroid and euthyroid hamsters given vehicle or bromocriptine, and exposed to baseline air, hypoxia, and then air.
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