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Understanding Nanog’s role in cell differentiation
Oluwatobiloba Aminu, Junguk Hur, and Bony de Kumar
Background: Pluripotency and differentiation are crucial cellular states for normal development and disease control. They are regulated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Master transcription factors, such as Nanog, Sox2, and Oct4, play a critical role in pluripotency, but their function in differentiation is not entirely clear. This study aims to investigate Nanog's role in differentiation using mouse embryonic stem cells as a model.
Methods: An integrative analysis was carried out using gene expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing data to determine the impact of Nanog binding on downstream gene expression. Target genes were identified as those whose expression was altered by Nanog binding, and a GSEA analysis was performed to identify shared biological processes. Additionally, Homer was utilized to conduct motif enrichment analysis at each time point.
Results: Within 24 hours of retinoic acid treatment, Nanog is recruited to newly identified sites. These sites are primarily located in intergenic regions and the genes associated with them are mainly involved in development and differentiation, specifically mesodermal and mesenchymal development. Furthermore, these recently identified sites possess enriched motifs, such as LHX1 and FLI1, which play a significant role in mesodermal differentiation, in addition to the known pluripotent and developmental transcription factors.
Conclusion: This study provides insight into the complex regulation of pluripotency and differentiation and highlights the potential role of Nanog in regulating mesodermal differentiation. It also suggests that Nanog may prefer mesodermal differentiation through indirect recruitment by factors involved in mesodermal transcription factors. Further research is needed to understand the exact mechanism of Nanog's involvement in differentiation.
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Effect of tDCS Stimulation on Conner’s CPT Performance of Young Adult
Shakila Parvin Bristy
Conner’s CPT measures attention related performances in adult and children using EEG recordings. This study showed changes in cognitive performance induced by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The objective of this study is to prove, if tDCS stimulation compared to sham can improve Conner’s CPT performance by increasing excitability of the visual cortex through anodal stimulation of the occipital lobe. After analyzing the result, we found lower alpha, beta and gamma mean values in sham session and a decrease in theta activity during actual tDCS stimulation session resulting in greater excitability in the visual cortex and improvement of attentional performance. Besides there were no changes in latency data between the two sessions based on stimulation type from baseline EEG to sham, and from sham to tDCS stimulation. By utilizing the result, we will be able to apply tDCS stimulation for children with ADHD to improve their performance.
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How Does Faculty Members Emotions Affect their Research Productivity? An International Faculty Perspective
Muhammad Salahuddin and Robert Stupnisky
Faculty success is complex and depends on multiple factors (e.g., demographic characteristics, emotion for research, motivation); particularly complicated are the factors affecting research productivity. Emotions have multi-faceted psychological dimensions that affect international faculty (46% of all US faculty) research success. This study wants to evaluate international faculty research productivity through the lens of Perkun's emotion theory. 759 faculty were selected randomly from ten higher education institutions in the USA. This study used multi-item measurement scales and examined research questions through t-tests, ANOVA, correlation, and path analysis. There were significant differences found among the faculty demographic characteristics and research success. International faculty had higher positive emotions (e.g., pride, enjoyment, satisfaction) while the domestic faculty had higher negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, frustration, disappointment). The control over research and the value of research positively predicted emotions for research. International faculty had more success in research (e.g., securing grants, and publications) than domestic faculty
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Indicators of Faculty Research Proficiency: A Systematic Literature Review
Muhammad Salahuddin
Global formalization of knowledge depends largely upon the research productivity of university faculty; however, the skills that makeup a competent researcher are undefined. The current study aimed to identify the components of faculty research proficiency in the social science domain.
The research questions are:
(1) What research competencies are essential for a faculty member?
(2) How has faculty research proficiency been measured in the past?
The School of Graduate Studies Graduate Research Achievement Day (GRAD) program gives graduates students the opportunity to showcase their research via posters and oral presentations. An integral component of the program is for students to explain their work in a manner understandable to a non-specialist audience. Students presented their research to a panel of judges, and awards were given to those students whose work and presentation were deemed best. The posters included in this collection were recognized for their quality and presentation. Graduate students interested in participating in future programs can find more information on the Graduate Research Achievement Day website.
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