Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-affirmation and health behaviour change : affective and cognitive predictors, moderators and mediators

This thesis explored the potential of self-affirmation for use as a health intervention by exploring the effect of self-affirmation on a range of health behaviours (e.g., salt, alcohol, and fruit and vegetable consumption). The moderating effects of risk, motivation (e.g., importance of health, decisional balance, prevention focus) and threat on the effects of self-affirmation were also explored in order to determine under which circumstances self-affirmation manipulations were most effective. The thesis also explored potential mediators of self-affirmation (e.g., explicit and implicit self-related affect and efficacy cognitions). In four experimental studies, participants completed a self- or non-affirming task prior to exposure to a health message. The effects of self-affirmation on cognitive, affective and behavioural responses were examined. The studies found that self-affirmation increased a range of cognitive (e.g., self- and response-efficacy) and affective predictors of health behaviour change (e.g., negative self-evaluative affect, implicit threat-related affect) and actual behaviour change (e.g., consumption of fruit and vegetables). The thesis found that response-efficacy mediated the effect of self-affirmation on behaviour change. The thesis also found that there was a trend for self-affirmation manipulations to be most effective with lower threat health messages, and on participants who were most vulnerable (i.e., at the highest risk or the lowest motivation). However, the studies also suggested that self-affirmation manipulations may be detrimental when high threat health messages are used or on low risk or highly motivated participants. The implications of the studies are that self-affirmation manipulations are capable of changing health behaviour; this offered preliminary support to the argument that self-affirmation manipulations have the potential to be developed as health interventions. However, the thesis also suggested that self-affirmation interventions would need to include low threat health information and that careful targeting would be needed when delivering the intervention.
Characterization and identification of genetic resistance to Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in Triticum aestivum and Hordeum vulgare

iii ACKNOWLEDEGMENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . ix LIST OF FIGURES . x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . xi LIST OF APPENDIX TABLES . xii LIST OF APPENDIX FIGURES. xiii LITERATURE REVIEW .
Factors Influencing Attachment of Escherichia coli O157:H7 to Beef Tissues and Removal Using Selected Sanitizing Rinses ‡.

Attachment of E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli K12 to beef tenderloin filet, chuck, and adipose tissues was studied. Most attachment occurred within 1 min of incubation; the number of attached organisms depended on the concentration of bacteria in the liquid inoculum. Similar levels of E. coli bound to the three types of beef tissues tested. E. coli O157:H7 was heavily piliated; however, there was no significant difference between levels of bound E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli K12, indicating that these surface structures apparently are not involved in attachment. Scanning electron photomicrographs of meat tissue and of purified collagen suggested that bacteria attached primarily to collagen fibers. Rinsing solutions consisting of 10% trisodium phosphate (TSP), 2% acetic acid (HAc), phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and combinations of each were tested for effectiveness in reducing the number of attached E. coli . The level of bacteria removed from tenderloin tissue following TSP, HAc, or PBS rinses did not differ considerably. When beef tissues were stored at 4°C for 18 h after the various rinse combinations, TSP rinse treatments reduced the levels of E. coli K12 and O157:H7 attached to adipose tissue up to 3.4 and 2.7 log units, respectively, compared to PBS rinse treatments. Therefore, TSP may be effective for reducing populations of E. coli O157:H7 on beef carcass tissue.
Model lipid systems and their interactions with polypeptides

Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) are a valuable tool to study lipid bilayer-biomolecule interactions in simplified cell-like model systems. In this work, a new method to efficiently form GUVs within minutes from more complex systems was developed. This method is based on swelling of a PVA-film under a lipid bilayer and minimizes damage of involved molecules during GUV formation. It also opens up many interesting perspectives for the formation of GUVs composed from new classes of synthetic lipids, such as glycolipids and amide-bearing phospholipids, where the traditional methods fail to efficiently produce “undamaged” vesicles. GUVs were also used for studying lipid-peptide interactions of a new class of elastin-like polypeptides functionalized with arginine-rich residues. It is shown that attractive interactions between lipids and peptides are suppressed by cargo-attachment and can be tuned by self-assembly into micelles and the arginine-amount of the cell penetrating residue.
The Identification of Source and Vector of a Prolific Marine Invader

The source and vector of an introduced species inform its ecological and evolutionary history and may guide management that seeks to prevent future introductions. Surprisingly, few studies have successfully used genetic tools to independently inform the specific source and pathway of biological invasions. The ecological history of many introduced species, including their origins and vectors, is often based on suppositions or educated guesses. Here, we used mitochondrial and microsatellite genotyping to trace the invasion of the Asian seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Rhodophyta) along the three coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere to which it has been introduced: the western coast of North America, eastern coast of the United States and the coasts of Europe and northwest Africa. Analyzing 37 native and 53 introduced sites, we identified the Pacific coastline of northeastern Japan as the ultimate source of the Northern Hemisphere invasion. Coincidentally, most exports of the oyster Crassostrea gigas historically originated from this region and both species often grow in close proximity. Based on genetic signatures, each of the three coastlines likely received thalli directly from Japan, as well as material from another introduced coastline (i.e., a secondary invasion). Our ability to document a source region, which was enabled by a robust sampling of locations and loci that previous studies lacked, reflected strong phylogeographic structure along native coastlines. We suggest Gracilaria vermiculophylla is an important representative example of many species likely exported out of Japan by the oyster trade and its genetic signatures that may be a hallmark of oyster introduction legacies.
Use of Arabidopsis as a Model to Investigate the Cellular Controls of Cotton Fiber Secondary Wall Thickening.

ABERG, LISSETE BETANCUR. Use of Arabidopsis as a Model to Investigate the Cellular Controls of Cotton Fiber Secondary Wall Thickening. (Under the direction of Dr. Candace H. Haigler.) Cell walls provide support and set the structure of plant cells. Studies analyzing their composition and the proteins involved in their biosynthesis have been performed in several models including cotton fiber, arabidopsis schlerenchyma, and arabidopsis interfascicular fibers. Despite the findings using cotton fiber, cotton is difficult to transform and its genome is not fully sequenced. For these reasons we decided to study secondary cell wall thickening in different arabidopsis cell types and find a good model for cotton fiber. First we used trichomes to determine their cell wall composition, since they possess thick walls and are dispensable for plant survival. We showed that the thick (> 1 μm) trichome wall contained pectin, cellulose, mannose-containing polysaccharides, integrated cuticular components, and guaiacyl lignin, having a different cell wall composition than that of cotton fiber. In the second part of this work, we characterized the expression of the cellulose synthase gene family in arabidopsis vegetative trichomes. We analyzed the expression of nine CESApromoter:GUS reporter genes. The promoters of five genes typically associated with primary wall deposition drove strong GUS expression in vegetative trichomes, whereas the CESA promoters typically associated with secondary wall deposition did not drive GUS expression. In order to corroborate this, we designed primers for nine CESA genes and performed qPCR using RNA isolated from detached trichomes. In addition, we compared microarray data from isolated trichomes for correspondence with the other experimental results. We also compared the process by which cell walls are built in arabidopsis trichomes and cotton fibers. We were able to conclude that although both are described as trichomes, their thick secondary cell walls are built by a different set of cellulose synthase genes, which opens a new perspective in the definition of cellulose synthase primary and secondary wall
Nutritional Composition of Smoked and Sun dried Pond raised Oreochromis karongae (Trewavas, 1941) and Tilapia rendalli (Boulenger, 1896)

A study was carried out to determine nutritional composition of two pond raised tilapia fish species - Oreochromis karongae (Lake Malawi Tilapia) and Tilapia rendalli processed by smoking and sun drying. These are two of the four tilapia species (others are Oreochromis mossambicus and Oreochromis shiranus) that are raised in pond aquaculture in Malawi. Presenting pond raised fish in processed form would help farmers realise more economic benefits because processed products fetch better market prices. Results showed that both fish species are highly nutritious with high levels of the much needed dietary protein (fresh/unprocessed) 63.14±0.19 and 62.92±0.16 for O. karongae and T. rendalli respectively. However, protein content was significantly reduced (P<0.05) when both species were smoked - O. karongae (61.48±0.19) and T. rendalli (61.82±0.10). With an exception of ash for O. karongae, the other nutrients were also reduced in smoked fish in both species. Smoking therefore negatively affected the nutrient content of the fish. Protein and moisture content in O. karongae decreased (62.60±0.27; 8.33±0.33 respectively) with sun drying, while fat increased (11.67±0.88) and there were no changes in ash content (20.00±0.00) and vice versa in T. rendalli (63.26±0.13) (P<0.05). In sun dried T. rendalli, protein and fat content increased (P<0.05) (63.16±0.13 and 15.27±1.22 respectively) while a decrease was observed in ash and moisture levels (P<0.05) (20.00±0.00 and 7.67±0.33 respectively). Despite increasing fat content in both species, results demonstrated that a sun dried product was superior because of high protein retention hence more nutritious and comparatively low moisture suggesting a longer storage life.
PD-L1 expression in non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma and benign kidney tumors.

4526 Background: Programmed death-1 (PD-1) receptor negatively regulates T cell-mediated responses.PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) is aberrantly expressed in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) and is associated with worse prognosis. PD-L1 expression and its association with clinicopathological features/clinical outcome are unknown in non-ccRCC and benign kidney tumors (BKT). Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) specimens were obtained from 124 patients (pts) with chromophobe RCC (CHR), papillary RCC (PAP), translocation Xp11.2 RCC (TrL), collecting duct carcinoma (CDC), oncocytoma (ONC), and angiomyolipoma (AML). PD-L1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry using a mouse monoclonal anti-PD-L1 antibody (405.9A11). The assay was validated using FFPE cell line controls known to be positive or negative for PD-L1 expression by flow cytometry. PD-L1 positivity (PD-L1+) was defined as ≥5% tumor cell membrane staining. For immune cells, a combined score based on the extent of infiltrate and percent.
Coronary ischemia-reperfusion: role of nitric oxide and endothelin-1. A

154. Wang P, Zweier JL. Measurement of nitric oxide and peroxynitrite generation in the postischemic heart. J Biol Chem 1996; 271:29223–30. Abstract. 155. Amrani M. , Chester A. H. , Jayakumar J., Schyns C. J., Yacoub M. H. L-Arginine reverses low coronary reflow and enhances postischaemic recovery of Godofredo Diéguez Castrillo @Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia. Spain 46 cardiac mechanical function. Cardiovasc Res 1995; 31995; 0:200–4. 156. Gourine AV, Gonon AT, Pernow J. Involvement of nitric oxide in cardioprotective effect of endothelin receptor antagonist during ischemia-reperfusion. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2001; 280 (3):H1105-12 157. Brunner F. Interaction of nitric oxide and endothelin1 in ischemia/reperfusion injury of rat heart. J Mol Cell Cardiol 1997; 29 (9):2363-74. 158. Zhao YB, Wang YZ, Yue YH, Zhao WC, Feng GX. Variation of plasma levels of endothelin, calcitonin gene-related peptide, nitric oxide, and malondialdehyde in acute myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in a rabbit model. Genet Mol Res 2015; 14 (2):5577-84. 159. Pabla R, Buda AJ, Flynn DM, Blessé SA, Shin AM, Curtis MJ, Lefer DJ. Nitric oxide attenuates neutrophil-mediated myocardial contractile dysfunction after ischemia and reperfusion. Circ. Res 1996; 78: 65-72. 160. Matheis G, Sherman MP, Buckberg GD, Haybron DM, Young HH, Ignarro. Role of L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway in myocardial reoxygenation injury. Am. J. Physiol. 1992; 262: 16-20. 161. Kawahara K, Hachiro T, Yokokawa T, Nakajima T, Yamauchi Y, Nakayama Y. Ischemia/reperfusioninduced death of cardiac myocytes: possible involvement of nitric oxide in the coordination of ATP supply and demand during ischemia. J Mol Cell Cardiol 2006; 40 (1):35-46. 162. Jones SP, Hoffmeyer MR, Sharp BR, Ho YS, Lefer DJ Jones SP, Hoffmeyer MR, Sharp BR, Ho YS, Lefer DJ. Role of intracellular antioxidant enzymes after in vivo myocardial ischemia and reperfusion. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2003: 284: H277–82 163. Khan IA. Role of endothelin-1 in acute myocardial infarction. Chest 2005; 127: 1474-6. 164. Niccoli G, Lanza GA, Shaw S, Romagnoli E, Gioia D, Burzotta F, Trani C, Mazzari MA, Mongiardo R, De Vita M, Rebuzzi AG, Lüscher TF, Crea F. Endothelin-1 and acutemyocardial infarction: a noreflow mediator after successfulpercutaneous myocardial revascularization. Eur Heart J 2006; 27:
Chemical composition, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities of orange essential oil and its concentrated oils

ABSTRACT In this study, the chemical composition, antimicrobial, and antioxidant activities of orange essential oil (AN), its folded orange oils (5×, 10×, 20×) and d-limonene (LN) were investigated. The results observed in the chemical composition showed a decrease in the major component LN, in contrast to other minor components, which increased their concentration, such as decanal, linalool, and α-terpineol. The antimicrobial activity was determined for foodborne pathogens using the disk diffusion method followed by the minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration. Results showed that folded orange oils (5×, 10×, 20×) had better antimicrobial activity than AN and LN. The antioxidant activity was carried out by 2,2ʹ-azinobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonate and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl methods; folded orange oil 20× presented significantly better results (p ≤ 0.05) than other oils studied. Using folded oils from AN could be a natural alternative in food processing as ingredients with antimicrobial and antioxidant effect.
Modelling avian growth with the Unified-Richards: as exemplified by wader-chick growth

Postnatal growth in birds is traditionally modelled by fitting three-parameter models, namely the logistic, the Gompertz, or the von Bertalanffy models. The purpose of this paper is to address the utility of the Unified-Richards (U-Richards) model. We draw attention to two forms of the U-Richards and lay down a set of recommendations for the analysis of bird growth, in order to make this model and the methods more accessible. We examine the behaviour of the four parameters in each model form and the four derived measurements, and we show that all are easy to interpret, and that each parameter controls a single curve characteristic. The two parameters that control the inflection point, enable us to compare its placement in two dimensions, 1) inflection value (mass or length at inflection) and 2) inflection time (time since hatching), between data sets (e.g. between biometrics or between species). We also show how the parameter controlling growth rate directly presents us with the relative growth rate at inflection, and we demonstrate how one can compare growth rates across data sets. The three traditional models, where the inflection value is fixed (to a specific percentage of the upper asymptote), provide incompatible growth-rate coefficients. One of the two forms of the U-Richards model makes it possible to fix not only the upper asymptote (adult value), but also the intersection with the y-axis (hatching value). Fitting the new model forms to data validates the usefulness of interpreting the inflection placement in addition to the growth rate. It also illustrated the advantages and limitations of constraining the upper asymptote (adult value) and the y-axis intersection (hatching value) to fixed values. We show that the U-Richards model can successfully replace some of the commonly used growth models, and we advocate replacing these with the U-Richards when modelling bird growth.
Mitochondrial calcium uptake pathways as a potential therapeutic target

It has been known since the 1960’s that mitochondria have a huge capacity to take up and accumulate calcium from the cytosol, regulating energy production, autophagy, and mitochondrial morphology. Dysfunctional mitochondrial calcium homeostasis is also involved in the pathology of many disease states. Therefore, mitochondrial calcium handling represents an interesting therapeutic target. In this thesis I aimed to investigate related therapeutic avenues and further understand the role of mitochondrial calcium handling machinery. When mitochondrial calcium uptake exceeds the calcium buffering capacity of the mitochondrial matrix, the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opens in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Pore opening causes mitochondrial depolarisation, energetic collapse, swelling, rupture, and cell death. Using isolated mitochondria, I screened a range of novel mitochondrial targeted derivatives of the canonical mPTP inhibitor, cyclosporin A (CsA), to assess their efficacy as mPTP inhibitors, and as potential therapeutics for neurological disease. Two compounds were found to be more effective than CsA at low concentrations, and one was selected for further study. The compound’s target was investigated and found to be Cyclophilin D, and it’s effect on various mitochondrial parameters was assessed, and it was found to be non-toxic ex vivo and in vitro. The molecular identity of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) was only recently discovered, followed by discovery of several associated proteins – MCUb, MICU1, MICU2, MICU3, EMRE, and MCUR1. I developed a screen using the bioluminescent protein aequorin to identify mitochondrial specific inhibitors of the MCU, and I developed a stable cell line in which the MCU protein was knocked down, in order to further examine the role of MCU and investigate the effect of reduced mitochondrial calcium uptake on mitochondrial and cellular properties. While mitochondrial calcium uptake was significantly reduced upon stimulation in these cells, cytosolic calcium, oxygen consumption, cell growth and mitochondrial morphology were not affected. I also investigated the protein expression level of the components of the MCU complex in the rat brain throughout development.
Studying TERRA-associated functions using a human cellular system, in which the transcription of a unique telomere can be induced at will

Telomeres protect the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes from being recognized and processed as double-stranded breaks in the DNA. In addition to their fundamental role in genome stability telomeres also set the lifespan of human somatic cells thus preventing their immortalization and cancer development. Indeed telomeres shorten at each cell cycle and eventually reach a critically short length that induces cellular senescence. Although telomeres are highly heterochromatic they are transcribed into the long non-coding telomeric repeat-containing RNA (TERRA). TERRA remains associated to telomeres post-transcriptionally and has been proposed to contribute to telomere length regulation and to telomere integrity. TERRA biogenesis has been relatively well characterized but its functions remain largely undefined. In order to follow the putative effects of telomere transcription we developed a human cellular system, in which the transcription of unique telomeres can be induced at will. The generation of these transcriptionally inducible telomeres (tiTELs) relies on the ability of cloned linear human telomeric DNA to generate or seed new telomeres in vivo and on the ”Tet-ON” technology to obtain an inducible transcription system. Among the different independent clones that we isolated, we chose three for further characterization. All these three clones displayed newly seeded tiTELs at the tip of one or two chromosomes and tiTELs transcription was fully induced after 24 hours. Previous in vitro data have suggested that TERRA might inhibit the activity of telomerase, the reverse transcriptase that replenishes telomeric DNA at each cell cycle. However, using our tiTEL system, we could demonstrate that prolonged telomeric transcription induction does not substantially affect telomere length. Furthermore, telomerase can elongate tiTELs independently of their transcription levels. These results argue against an effect of telomere transcription on telomerase activity and more generally on telomere length regulation. Furthermore, we could show that subtelomeric silencing is not substantially affected by tiTEL transcription, suggesting that the heterochromatic state of tiTELs is likely not altered upon its
Habitat separation among ungulates in dry tropical forests of Ranthambhore national park Rajasthan

According to niche theory, differential use of shared resources facilitates the coexistence of species in a community. Niche relationships have been studied for a wide variety of taxa, but such understanding from tropical ungulate assemblies in south-east Asia is lacking. We investigated habitat relationships in an assembly of four wild ungulates viz., chital (Axis axis), sambar (Cervus unicolor), nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) and chinkara (Gazella bennetti) from western India, using Discriminant Analysis. Ecological similarity between the four species was analysed in terms of 20 variables and the two cervids were found to use similar habitat features and the two bovids formed an analogous group. These two groups or guilds differentiated from each other in terms of vegetation structure as the cervids selected for Anogeissus-Grewia forest community while the bovids occupied Acacia-Butea scrub community. Habitat-use overlap between the two bovids appeared unstable in the light of theoretical aspects of population dynamics of interacting species. However, there is scope to achieve stable coexistence by differentiating over alternate resource axes like food.