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Hypoxic Induction And The Role Of Hifs In The Activation Of Luciferase Constitutive Reporters In Placental Stem Cells, Diane Michelle Doran Jan 2007

Hypoxic Induction And The Role Of Hifs In The Activation Of Luciferase Constitutive Reporters In Placental Stem Cells, Diane Michelle Doran

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Hypoxia is critically important to the development of the embryo and placenta. Proper placental development is critical for normal fetal growth and embryonic survival. Abnormal placental development has been implicated in numerous obstetric complications, including preeclampsia, which affects about 7% of all pregnancies and can be fatal for both mother and baby. Rodent and murine trophoblast stem cells differentiate into three distinct cell lineages: giant cells, spongiotrophoblasts, and labyrinthine cells, which form different layers and have different functions within the placenta. Recent studies in our laboratory have focused on the invasive giant cell layer using the rodent Rcho-1 choriocarcinoma stem …


Detection And Destruction Of Escherichia Coli Bacteria And Bacteriophage Using Biofunctionalized Nanoshells, Joseph E. Van Buren Jan 2007

Detection And Destruction Of Escherichia Coli Bacteria And Bacteriophage Using Biofunctionalized Nanoshells, Joseph E. Van Buren

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The ability to detect chemical and biological agents is arguably one of the highest priority technical challenges today. The capability to obtain specific information at and near single-molecule resolution is the ultimate goal in chemical and biological agent detection. Metallic nanostructures, nanoshells and nanorods in particular, are attractive substrates because of their plasmonic properties. Combining the specificity of biomolecular recognition with these nanostructures might lead to increased sensitivity and selectivity. Localization of biological recognition motifs to the surface of these nanostructures could provide a mechanism for highly specific and directed energy transfer when bound to its target. This study utilizes …


Due-B In Chromatin And Nuclear Speckles, Nadia Katrangi Jan 2007

Due-B In Chromatin And Nuclear Speckles, Nadia Katrangi

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The DNA unwinding element binding protein (DUE-B) was first identified by using a yeast one hybrid screen with the DNA unwinding element (DUE) from the c-myc origin as bait. DUE-B's orthologue in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacks the last 60 C-terminal amino acids and has been identified as a D-tyrosyl-tRNA deacylase. A substantial group of evidence suggests a role for DUE-B in the regulation of replication initiation. Here we show that DUE-B is focused in nuclear speckles and colocalizes with spliceosome associated protein 145 (SAP145), an mRNA splicing factor 3B subunit. Mass spectrometry results show that SAP145 co-purifies with the …


Role Of Angiotensin Converting Enzymes Ace And Ace2 In Diabetes Induced Cardiovascular Dysfunction, Keerthy Kanakamedala Jan 2007

Role Of Angiotensin Converting Enzymes Ace And Ace2 In Diabetes Induced Cardiovascular Dysfunction, Keerthy Kanakamedala

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Cardiovascular disease is a long term complication of diabetes, which remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. There is recent evidence for activation of the Renin angiotensin system (RAS) in diabetic animals and humans. Emerging evidence shows that the vasoconstrictor actions of Ang II may be opposed by formation of the vasodilator, Ang (1-7). There is limited data on blood pressure in murine models of type 2 diabetes. The aim is to study the role of angiotensin converting enzymes ACE and ACE2 in diabetes induced cardiovascular dysfunction using type 2 diabetic murine mouse models (db/db mice). Both db/db mice …


Oral Ld50 Of Botulinum Toxin Serotype A In Guinea Pigs, Christina Marie Wilhelm Jan 2007

Oral Ld50 Of Botulinum Toxin Serotype A In Guinea Pigs, Christina Marie Wilhelm

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As a disease, botulism is a neuroparalytic illness resulting from the action of a potent neurotoxin produced by C. Botulinum. Of the seven distinct C. Botulinum neurotoxin serotypes: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, only serotypes A, B, E and F cause human disease. The duration of action of the seven toxin serotypes varies with serotype A having the most sustained action (i.e. months vs. days in serotype E). This study was performed due to recently identified critical gaps in our food safety procedures. The goal of this study was to assess whether fresh 2% milk provided protective …


The Processing Of Β-Endorphin In Morphine Treated Rats Using Seldi-Tof Mass Spectrometry, Jennifer Y. Edwards Jan 2007

The Processing Of Β-Endorphin In Morphine Treated Rats Using Seldi-Tof Mass Spectrometry, Jennifer Y. Edwards

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Endocrine glands secrete peptide hormones that bind to specific receptors, and elicit a response. In the pituitary, prohormone convertases (PC) PC1/3 and PC2 convert inactive prohormones into biologically active peptide hormones. Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) is a precursor molecule that proteolytically cleaves at paired basic residue sites, and produces smaller biologically active peptides, such as adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), and β-endorphin. β-endorphin is an endogenous opioid peptide hormone that plays a vital role in the body's physiological response to stress, fear, and anxiety. Morphine is an exogenous opioid, used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain and competes …


Discovery Of New Antimicrobial Agents Using Combinatorial Chemistry, William I. Northern Jan 2007

Discovery Of New Antimicrobial Agents Using Combinatorial Chemistry, William I. Northern

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Combinatorial chemistry has become an important aspect of medicinal research due to its flexibility and the ability to produce large numbers of potential therapeutic agents. Once compounds are made, they must be screened to determine if there is any biological activity. This research project focused on developing a screening method for chemical agents produced by a graduate student in the chemistry department at Wright State University. After an acceptable screening method was found, the goal of the project was to determine if compounds produced had either antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, or both. Seven compounds exhibited biological activity. Two of these …


Differential Effects Of Mutant Tap63Γ On Transactivation Of P53 And/Or P63 Responsive Genes And Their Effects On Global Gene Expression, Shama Khan Khokhar Jan 2007

Differential Effects Of Mutant Tap63Γ On Transactivation Of P53 And/Or P63 Responsive Genes And Their Effects On Global Gene Expression, Shama Khan Khokhar

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p63, a member of the p53 gene family, known to play a role in development, has more recently also been implicated in cancer progression. Mice lacking p63 exhibit severe developmental defects such as limb truncations, abnormal skin, and absence of hair follicles, teeth, and mammary glands. Germline missense mutations of p63 have been shown to be responsible for several human developmental syndromes including SHFM, EEC and ADULT syndromes and are associated with anomalies in the development of organs of epithelial origin. The contrasting phenotypes associated with the different classes of p63 mutations might be in part due to the differential …


Vglut And Gad65 Expression In Physiologically Characterized Ia Afferents, Ivonne Nkoli Ukpabi Jan 2007

Vglut And Gad65 Expression In Physiologically Characterized Ia Afferents, Ivonne Nkoli Ukpabi

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Peripheral nerve injury is known to induce several changes in the physiology and morphology of the injured afferent. These changes include hyperexcitability, decreased dorsal root potentials (DRP), loss of synaptic vesicles as well as loss of the vesicular glutamate transporter, VGLUT1. While many of the changes caused by peripheral injury revert with regeneration, others appear to be permanent. The loss of the stretch reflex for example is a puzzling outcome of recovery after peripheral nerve transection and regeneration, especially given that the electrical counterpart of the stretch reflex (the H-reflex) recovers after regeneration. We hypothesized that stretch induced transmission is …


Coronary Heart Disease Risk Stratification In Full-Time Miami Valley Hospital Employees, Vicki K. Streng Jan 2006

Coronary Heart Disease Risk Stratification In Full-Time Miami Valley Hospital Employees, Vicki K. Streng

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Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States (American Heart Association, 2005). The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the results of a twelve-week exercise program on coronary heart disease risk factors in full-time hospital employees. Methods: The participants were given cardiovascular, weight training, and flexibility recommendations to follow during a twelve-week period. The main heart disease risk factors measured before and after the completion of the exercise program were blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and body mass index. The information was put into the Framingham Heart Score to estimate the participants’ 10-year risk of developing …


In Vitro Toxicity Assessment Of Silver Nanoparticles In Rat Alveolar Macrophages, Cataleya Carlson Jan 2006

In Vitro Toxicity Assessment Of Silver Nanoparticles In Rat Alveolar Macrophages, Cataleya Carlson

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The present study was conducted to assess the toxicity of nanosized silver particles (Ag-15nm, 30nm and 55nm) in rat alveolar macrophages. For toxicity evaluations, cellular morphology, mitochondrial function (MTT assay), membrane leakage (LDH assay) and reactive oxygen species generation (ROS) were assessed after a 24h under control and exposed conditions. The morphological appearance of control and exposed cells were observed by an inverted, phase contrast microscope and the uptake of nanoparticles was observed using the CytoViva Ultra Resolution Imaging (URI) system. Morphological images captured at 100x magnification demonstrated that nanoparticle-exposed cells at higher doses became abnormal in size, and most …


Susceptibility Of Primary Eosinophils To Infection With Hiv-1 Strain Htlv-Iiib, Jai Govind Marathe Jan 2006

Susceptibility Of Primary Eosinophils To Infection With Hiv-1 Strain Htlv-Iiib, Jai Govind Marathe

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Over the past two decades, much research has been done in the field of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). However, many of the aspects of pathogenesis of HIV infection and its persistence in the body, despite treatment, remain a mystery. Recent evidence suggests that HIV positive patients develop eosinophilia, especially in the later stages of infection and AIDS. Eosinophils are CD4 positive cells that have the potential to be infected by HIV. Studies have shown that an eosinophilic cell line, AML14.3D10, can be productively infected with a T-cell tropic, CXCR4-using (X4) strain of HIV-1. In this …


Phenotypic Characterization Of Escherichia Coli Strains Taken From Human Intestinal And Urinary Tracts, Kruthi Murthy Jan 2006

Phenotypic Characterization Of Escherichia Coli Strains Taken From Human Intestinal And Urinary Tracts, Kruthi Murthy

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Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a gram negative bacterium commonly found as a commensal in the intestinal tract of humans and other warm blooded animals. The commensal strains of E. coli are non-pathogenic and do not cause an infection in the host. However, some strains of E. coli are pathogenic and can cause several diseases in humans that include neonatal meningitis, intestinal infections and urinary tract infections. Almost 80-85% of the uncomplicated urinary tract infections are caused by uropathogenic E. coli. Our project involved the characterization of 12 strains of E. coli, isolated from humans in health and disease. These …


Determining The Effect Of Substitutions At Alanine 47 In Synechococcus Pcc6301 Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (Rubisco), Christopher R. Salyer Jan 2006

Determining The Effect Of Substitutions At Alanine 47 In Synechococcus Pcc6301 Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (Rubisco), Christopher R. Salyer

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Mutant screening and genetic selection in various organisms have shown that residues far from the active site of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO) can influence catalytic efficiency and CO2/O2 specificity. Because RubisCO catalyzes the rate-limiting step of photosynthesis, further study of these sites distant from the primary reaction center may provide the necessary information for engineering an increase in primary productivity of crop plants. In a previously described system of random mutagenesis and bioselection (Smith, 2002), the RubisCO genes from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC6301, were randomly mutated and introduced into the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus. An A47T substitution resulted in a very …


Kinetics And Passive Protection Efficacy Induced By Purified Ava Human Immunoglobulin G In Rabbits Against A Bacillus Anthracis Aerosol Challenge, Jennifer Lee Plahovinsak Jan 2006

Kinetics And Passive Protection Efficacy Induced By Purified Ava Human Immunoglobulin G In Rabbits Against A Bacillus Anthracis Aerosol Challenge, Jennifer Lee Plahovinsak

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The present study was conducted to determine the half-life, assess the toxicity, and passive protection efficacy of purified immunoglobulin G (IgG) from Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA) vaccinated human donors. Half-life determinations were calculated from the reportable values obtained using the anti-PA ELISA assay and the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) "ELISA for Windows" software. For toxicity evaluations animals were observed clinical for one hour post administration and for 14-days post-treatment. The protection efficacy was determined based upon the mortality results from a lethal Bacillus anthracis aerosol challenge. While no protection was achieved in this delayed exposure scenario, the study yielded …


Characterization Of Photosynthetic Reaction Centers From Bradyrhizobium Strain Btai 1, Isaac P. Forquer Jan 2005

Characterization Of Photosynthetic Reaction Centers From Bradyrhizobium Strain Btai 1, Isaac P. Forquer

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Photosynthetic rhizobia have been studied for about 15 years now. They are now considered to be metabolically aligned with a relatively recently discovered group of bacteria, the anoxygenic aerobic phototrophs (AAP’s).Rhizobia form symbiotic relationships with plants from the Fabaceae family. Photosynthetic rhizobia not only nodulate the roots, as most other rhizobia do, but they also form nodules on the stems of certain leguminous plants. The plant provides carbon to the bacteria and the bacteria provides the plant with soluble nitrogen fixed from the biologically inert but abundant atmospheric N2. A key question regarding photosynthetic rhizobia and other AAP’s derives from …


The Two Isoforms Of Rat Metallothionein Are Coordinately Regulated In Vivo, Diane M. Todd Jan 2003

The Two Isoforms Of Rat Metallothionein Are Coordinately Regulated In Vivo, Diane M. Todd

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Metallothionein (MT) is an inducible protein whose unique structure contributes to its many functions. One of MT’s functions is the detoxification of heavy metals. Cadmium (Cd), which is an environmental pollutant and a hazard to both humans and animals, is detoxified by MT. There are four known MT isoforms (MT I-IV) and this study focuses on only MT I and MT II. Even though a lot is known about the effect of Cd on MT induction little has been reported about the MT isoforms and their pattern of mRNA expression. It is the aim of this study to investigate the …


Cd28 Costimulation Requirement For Interferon-Y Secretion By Natural Killer T Cells During Hepatitis B Virus Infection, Paul J. Renick Jan 2002

Cd28 Costimulation Requirement For Interferon-Y Secretion By Natural Killer T Cells During Hepatitis B Virus Infection, Paul J. Renick

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Natural Killer T cells (NKT cells) are a unique subset of lymphocytes that express natural killer (NK) and T cell receptors (TCR). The NKT cell population includes four separate subclasses. This paper will focus on Category I NKT cells which possess a canonical TCR receptor (Va14Ja281) that recognizes only hydrophobic antigens presented by CD1d molecules. These cells are believed to play an important regulatory role in immunity. A variety of disease conditions, including cancer, infections and Type I diabetes, are controlled by NKT cells. NKT cells are also capable of secreting large quantities of cytokines, namely interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interferon-gamma …


Using Ecological Land Units In A Gap Analysis For Conservation Planning In A Southwestern Ohio Watershed, Christopher Lee Zimmerman Jan 2002

Using Ecological Land Units In A Gap Analysis For Conservation Planning In A Southwestern Ohio Watershed, Christopher Lee Zimmerman

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Gap analysis is a method to identify insufficiency in biodiversity protection. In degraded agricultural landscapes, it requires information on the past, present, and the potential natural distribution of forest vegetation to construct a comprehensive nature reserve network. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I conducted a biodiversity gap analysis to assess the representation of ecological land units (ELUs) supporting forest vegetation both within and external to the current reserve network in the Lower Twin Creek Watershed (LTCW), southwestern Ohio. I used this analysis to make conservation planning recommendations to the local park district. ELUs are based on relatively stable associations of …