Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Tissue Engineering The Motoneuron To Muscle Segment Of The Stretch Reflex Arc Circuit Utilizing Micro-Fabrication, Interface Design And Defined Medium Formulation, Mainak Das Jan 2008

Tissue Engineering The Motoneuron To Muscle Segment Of The Stretch Reflex Arc Circuit Utilizing Micro-Fabrication, Interface Design And Defined Medium Formulation, Mainak Das

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stretch reflex circuit is one of the most primitive circuits of mammalian system and serves mainly to control the length of the muscle. It consists of four elements: the stretch sensor (muscle spindle/ intrafusal fiber lie parallel between extrafusal, contractile musculature), extrafusal muscle fiber, sensory neuron and motoneuron. The basic principle of the stretch reflex arc circuit is as follows: whenever there is a sudden stretch in a muscle, it needs to compensate back to its original length so as to prevent any kind of injury. It performs this compensation process using a simple negative feed back circuit called …


Role Of Transient Receptor Potential Canonical-6 (Trpc6) Channel In Metastasis Of Glioblastoma Multiforme, Rajarajeshwari Venkataraman Jan 2008

Role Of Transient Receptor Potential Canonical-6 (Trpc6) Channel In Metastasis Of Glioblastoma Multiforme, Rajarajeshwari Venkataraman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the extremely fatal brain tumors. The main reason that makes it so lethal is its capability to invade and spread to other parts of CNS producing secondary tumors. Among other factors hypoxia, reduced oxygen availability, is linked to higher metastatic potential of cancers. Hypoxia causes numerous changes in genome and proteome of the cell. These changes help a normal cell to adapt to nutritional deficiency, but the same changes can increase the malignancy and metastasis in tumor cells. Extensive research by a number of curious scientists reveal that various pathways involving numerous proteins cross-talk …


Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Chloroplast-Derived Antigensagainst Malaria, Melissa Schreiber Jan 2008

Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Chloroplast-Derived Antigensagainst Malaria, Melissa Schreiber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Malaria is the most prevalent vector-borne parasitic disease worldwide and a major cause of death from infections. There is a great need to develop a low cost vaccine for malaria to control transmission of infection and impact of disease, due to the emergence of anti-malarial resistance. Two leading blood stage malarial vaccine candidates are the apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) and the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1). The aim of this project is to express malarial antigens in tobacco plants via plastid transformation and deliver them by subcutaneous or oral gavage of minimally processed transplastomic tissue to evaluate their efficacy to elicit …


The Impact Of A Nurse-Driven Evidence-Based Discharge Planning Protocol On Organizational Efficiency And Patient Satisfaction In, Tracey King Jan 2008

The Impact Of A Nurse-Driven Evidence-Based Discharge Planning Protocol On Organizational Efficiency And Patient Satisfaction In, Tracey King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Healthcare organizations are mandated to improve quality and safety for patients while stressed with shorter lengths of stay, communication lapses between disciplines, and patient throughput issues that impede timely delivery of patient care. Nurses play a prominent role in the safe transition of patients from admission to discharge. Although nurses participate in discharge planning, limited research has addressed the role and outcomes of the registered nurse as a leader in the process. The aim of this study was determine if implementation of a nurse-driven discharge planning protocol for patients undergoing cardiac implant would result in improved organizational efficiencies, higher …


Health-Care Seeking Behaviors Of Puerto Ricans With Diabetes Mellitus Who Live In South Florida: An Exploratory Study, Laura Gonzalez Jan 2008

Health-Care Seeking Behaviors Of Puerto Ricans With Diabetes Mellitus Who Live In South Florida: An Exploratory Study, Laura Gonzalez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Latinos are the fastest growing minority population in the United States (U.S.) and have the worst access to health care of any ethnic group. The chronic disease of diabetes is twice as common in adult Latinos as in non-Latino whites, and the risk of death related to diabetes is twofold. Reasons for this disparity have yet to be clearly identified. This study had two purposes: 1) to explore cultural beliefs regarding health-care seeking behaviors in Puerto Ricans with diabetes who live in South Florida; and 2) to examine Puerto Ricans' perceptions about their health-care providers. The cultural phenomena of interest …


A Comparison Of Computer And Traditional Face-To-Face Classroom Orientation For Beginning Critical Care Nurses, Patricia Anzalone Jan 2008

A Comparison Of Computer And Traditional Face-To-Face Classroom Orientation For Beginning Critical Care Nurses, Patricia Anzalone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Education of the novice critical care nurse has traditionally been conducted by critical care educators in face-to-face classes in an orientation or internship. A shortage of qualified educators and growth in electronic modes of course delivery has led organizations to explore electronic learning (e-learning) to provide orientation to critical care nursing concepts. Equivalence of e-learning versus traditional critical care orientation has not been studied. The primary aim of this study was to examine the equivalency of knowledge attainment in the cardiovascular module of the Essentials of Critical Care Orientation (ECCO) e-learning program to traditional face-to-face critical care orientation classes …


Generation Of Recombinant Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Lines And Theirapplication For In Vivo Bioluminiscence Imaging In The Heart, Ramana Kammili Jan 2008

Generation Of Recombinant Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Lines And Theirapplication For In Vivo Bioluminiscence Imaging In The Heart, Ramana Kammili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the United States, with 80 million people suffering from some form of heart disease each year. One major limitation is the inability of the heart to repair the damaged tissue. Stem cell therapy holds enormous promise to repair and regenerate the damaged myocardium, but there are many technical difficulties that must first be overcome. One such difficulty is the present lack of ability to track and assess transplanted stem cells over time in vivo. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that in vivo bioluminescence imaging is a safe and useful …


Evaluation Of The Antecedents Of Cultural Competence, Mary Harper Jan 2008

Evaluation Of The Antecedents Of Cultural Competence, Mary Harper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The threefold purpose of this research is to identify the essential antecedents of cultural competence as identified by international nurse researchers, to compare the content of the extant cultural competence instruments to these antecedents and to potentially identify gaps in their conceptualization. A secondary aim of this research is to initiate validation of Harper's model of ethical multiculturalism. Conceptual Basis: The model of ethical multiculturalism depicts the attributes of ethical multiculturalism as the fulcrum of a balance between two ethical philosophies of fundamentalism and relativism. The attributes of moral reasoning, beneficence/nonmaleficence, respect for persons and communities, and cultural competence …


Green Chairs, Fictional Phalluses, Infiltration, And Love On The Rocks: Medical Imaging Artifacts Blown Up, Lynn Koller Jan 2008

Green Chairs, Fictional Phalluses, Infiltration, And Love On The Rocks: Medical Imaging Artifacts Blown Up, Lynn Koller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This text outlines and applies a methodology for deciphering problems and producing new information by analyzing the artifacts produced by medical imaging technologies - text and images - using practices gleaned from Surrealists, semiologists, and visual artists, emphasizing its own form as being the product of the apparatuses that produce it and therefore untrustworthy. Its basic assumption is that every text contains the information necessary to solve problems of all sorts, though because of the limitations of this text in both form and authorial intellect, we may only reach a starting point for a solution herein. In this regard, we …