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Vitamin D Deficiency And Acute Lower Respiratory Infections In Children Under 5 Years Of Age: A Systematic Review, Allison Larkin Jun 2013

Vitamin D Deficiency And Acute Lower Respiratory Infections In Children Under 5 Years Of Age: A Systematic Review, Allison Larkin

Student Works

Introduction: Acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) is the leading cause of mortality in children 5 years and younger. The purposes of this literature review were to examine vitamin D deficiency (VDD) and ALRI in children 5 years and younger and make recommendations regarding vitamin D to prevent ALRI. Method: Databases were searched for studies investigating VDD and ALRI in children 5 years and younger. Two independent reviewers assessed internal validity using the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force grading criteria. Results: Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria. VDD was associated with increased risk or increased severity of ALRI in 13 studies, but …

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Hypersaline Lake Environments Exhibit Reduced Microbial Dormancy, Joshua Christopher Vert Jun 2013

Hypersaline Lake Environments Exhibit Reduced Microbial Dormancy, Joshua Christopher Vert

Theses and Dissertations

From acid seeps and deep-sea thermal vents to glacial ice and hypersaline lakes, extreme environments contain relatively simplified communities consisting of extremophiles that have evolved to survive and thrive under adverse abiotic conditions. In more neutral environments, microorganisms use dormancy as a common life history strategy to weather temporal fluctuations of resources or stresses until more 'optimal' conditions are present. It is unclear if dormancy is an essential survival mechanism for microorganisms in extreme environments; however, recent studies suggest that extreme environments may create stable conditions for extremophiles to the extent that dormancy is of less ecological importance. Using lake …

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Identification And Differentiation Of Tier 1 Bacterial Agents Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Dan Li Jun 2013

Identification And Differentiation Of Tier 1 Bacterial Agents Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, Dan Li

Theses and Dissertations

A simple method was developed for detection and differentiation of five Tier 1 bacterial agents, including Bacillus anthracis, Francisella tularensis, Yersinia pestis, Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei as well as their closely related near neighbors by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Generally, different classes of compounds can be used as biomarkers for biowarfare agent detection, including nucleic acids (i.e., DNA or RNA), proteins (i.e., antibodies), carbohydrates (i.e., sugars), lipopolysaccharides, lipids (i.e., fatty acids) and small molecules. One-step thermochemolysis (TCM) was developed to provide GC-MS detectable biomarker signatures, including sugars, fatty acids and small molecules. Solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) was used for …

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Thymidine Kinase 1: Diagnostic And Prognostic Significance In Malignancy, Melissa Marie Alegre Jun 2013

Thymidine Kinase 1: Diagnostic And Prognostic Significance In Malignancy, Melissa Marie Alegre

Theses and Dissertations

Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is a cancer biomarker which has diagnostic and prognostic potential in a variety of malignancies. TK1 is significantly elevated in the serum and tumor tissue of most malignancies. This increase in TK1 can be detected in the very early stages of malignancy, including in pre-malignant disease with an increased risk for progression. Several studies have demonstrated that elevated TK1 is found in serum months before any clinical symptoms of malignancy. It has also been demonstrated that TK1 is elevated months before clinical recurrence of malignancy. This work first sought to demonstrate the early nature of TK1 …

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Resource Legacies And Priming Regulate Microbial Communities In Antarctica's Dry Valleys, Sabrina Deni Saurey Jun 2013

Resource Legacies And Priming Regulate Microbial Communities In Antarctica's Dry Valleys, Sabrina Deni Saurey

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple mechanisms control bacterial community structure but two in particular, the "legacy" of past environmental conditions, and the "priming" of bacteria to respond to seasonal or reoccurring fluctuations in resources, have the potential to determine both bacterial communities, as well as, temporal shifts in active bacterial taxa. To begin to evaluate the legacy effects of resources on microbial communities, we added four limiting resources annually (i.e., water only; C-mannitol + water; N-NH4NO3 + water; and C, N + water) and measured shifts in bacterial community composition after seven years in a cold desert ecosystem in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. …

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Bacterial Spores Remain Viable After Electrospray Charging And Desolvation, Sara Nielson Pratt Jun 2013

Bacterial Spores Remain Viable After Electrospray Charging And Desolvation, Sara Nielson Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

The electrospray survivability of B. subtilis spores and E. coli was tested in atmospheric mobility experiments. E. coli did not survive electrospray charging and desolvation, but B. subtilis did. Experimental conditions ensured that any surviving bacteria were charged, desolvated, and de-agglomerated. B. subtilis was also found to survive both positive and negative electrospray and subsequent introduction into vacuum conditions. Attempts were made to measure the charge distribution of viable B. subtilis spores using electrostatic deflection. From those experiments, it was found that either the spores do not become highly charged under the electrospray conditions used or only spores in a …

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Adaptation To The U.S. And Religion/Spirituality: Experiences Of Indian International Students, Kirti Potkar Jun 2013

Adaptation To The U.S. And Religion/Spirituality: Experiences Of Indian International Students, Kirti Potkar

Theses and Dissertations

Religion and spirituality are deemed an important aspect of human diversity, found to be important to people, and have significant impact on different aspects of functioning. Given the rising numbers of international students on U.S. campuses, it becomes important to examine how religion/spirituality impacts their sojourn in the U.S. This study explored the religious/spiritual experiences of Indian international students here in the U.S. using a qualitative approach. Thirteen Indian international students pursuing graduate degrees in the U.S. were interviewed. The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using a synthesis of hermeneutic methods informed by Kvale (1996). The following themes emerged …

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What's On The Other Side? A Conversation With Brent L. Top On The Spirit World Jun 2013

What's On The Other Side? A Conversation With Brent L. Top On The Spirit World

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

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Fluid-Structure Interactions With Flexible And Rigid Bodies, David J. Daily May 2013

Fluid-Structure Interactions With Flexible And Rigid Bodies, David J. Daily

Theses and Dissertations

Fluid structure interactions occur to some extent in nearly every type of fluid flow. Understanding how structures interact with fluids and visa-versa is of vital importance in many engineering applications. The purpose of this research is to explore how fluids interact with flexible and rigid structures. A computational model was used to model the fluid structure interactions of vibrating synthetic vocal folds. The model simulated the coupling of the fluid and solid domains using a fluid-structure interface boundary condition. The fluid domain used a slightly compressible flow solver to allow for the possibility of acoustic coupling with the subglottal geometry …

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The Effects Of Practice On The Concurrent Performance Of A Speech And Postural Task In Persons With Parkinson Disease And Healthy Controls, K. Bo Foreman, Stuart Sondrup, Christopher Dromey, Eon Jarvis, Shawn Nissen, Leland E. Dibble May 2013

The Effects Of Practice On The Concurrent Performance Of A Speech And Postural Task In Persons With Parkinson Disease And Healthy Controls, K. Bo Foreman, Stuart Sondrup, Christopher Dromey, Eon Jarvis, Shawn Nissen, Leland E. Dibble

Faculty Publications

Purpose. Persons with Parkinson disease (PD) demonstrate deficits in motor learning as well as bidirectional interference (the performance of one task concurrently interferes with the performance of another task) during dual-task performance. Few studies have examined the practice dosages necessary for behavioral change in rehabilitation relevant tasks. Therefore, to compare the effects of age and PD on motor learning during dual-task performance, this pilot study examined persons with PD as well as neurologically healthy participants during concurrent performance of postural and speaking tasks. Methods. Seven persons with PD and 7 healthy age-matched and 10 healthy young control subjects …

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Isolation, Characterization And Synthesis Of Asthma Inducing Fungal Glycolipid And Analytical Method Development For Novel Antimicrobial Peptide Mimics, Vinod Chaudhary May 2013

Isolation, Characterization And Synthesis Of Asthma Inducing Fungal Glycolipid And Analytical Method Development For Novel Antimicrobial Peptide Mimics, Vinod Chaudhary

Theses and Dissertations

NKT cells are an important part of human immune system and recognize a specific set of antigens called glycolipids. Only a handful of "natural" NKT cell antigens are known till date. Although NKT cells play a protective role against pathogenic organisms, imbalances in NKT cell functions are implicated in many diseases including asthma. Allergic asthma, a Th2 driven inflammation of airways, is primarily caused by inhalation of environmental allergens. In the last decade, inhaled allergen Aspergillus fumigatus has been under scrutiny for the presence of NKT cell antigens that might trigger asthma. We successfully isolated, characterized and synthesized a "natural" …

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Synthesis And Immunological Evaluation Of Type I, Type Ii, And Gamma Delta Nkt Cell Antigens, Brian L. Anderson May 2013

Synthesis And Immunological Evaluation Of Type I, Type Ii, And Gamma Delta Nkt Cell Antigens, Brian L. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the immune system is to protect our bodies from infection. One way it accomplishes this task is through the presentation of foreign pathogens to NKT cells. After an antigen is presented to the T cell receptor, activated NKT cells quickly release soluble chemical signals, termed chemokines and cytokines, that modulate the response of the immune system. Due to the immunological relevance of NKT cell activation, we developed and synthesised non-natural analogs of immunostimulatory type I, II, and gamma delta NKT cell antigens. The immunological evaluations of these analogs resulted in identification of sulfatide as a gamma delta …

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The State Of The Research: Meta-Analysis And Conceptual Critique Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Ryan Lance Nelson May 2013

The State Of The Research: Meta-Analysis And Conceptual Critique Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Ryan Lance Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers studying the long-term cognitive sequelae of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have produced disparate results. Some studies have shown little to no long-term cognitive effects while others have shown that persistent cognitive sequelae continue to affect a subgroup of patients. Meta-analysis has been used to try to integrate these contrasting results to foster a coherent understanding of the cognitive outcomes following mTBI. However, previous meta-analyses of long-term cognitive sequelae have used studies from a period of mTBI research where methodological rigor has been called into question (Carroll, Cassidy, Holm, Kraus, & Coronado, 2004). Using studies from this period, meta-analysts …

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Techniques For Li-Bdn Synthesis For Hybrid Microarchitectural Simulation, Tyler S. Harris May 2013

Techniques For Li-Bdn Synthesis For Hybrid Microarchitectural Simulation, Tyler S. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Computer designers rely upon near-cycle-accurate microarchitectural simulation to explore the design space of new systems. Unfortunately, such simulators are becoming increasingly slow as systems become more complex. Hybrid simulators which offload some of the simulation work onto FPGAs can increase the speed; however, such simulators must be automatically synthesized or the time to design them becomes prohibitive. Furthermore, FPGA implementations of simulators may require multiple FPGA clock cycles to implement behavior that takes place within one simulated clock cycle, making correct arbitrary composition of simulator components impossible and limiting the amount of hardware concurrency which can be achieved. Latency-Insensitive Bounded …

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An Exploration Of Carbon-Filled Carbon Nanotubes As A Potential Material In Coronary Stents, Kristopher Neil Jones May 2013

An Exploration Of Carbon-Filled Carbon Nanotubes As A Potential Material In Coronary Stents, Kristopher Neil Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the potential of using carbon-infiltrated carbon nanotubes (CI-CNT) as a material for coronary artery stents. Stents are commonly fabricated from metal, which may not perform as well as many polymers and ceramics in biomedical applications. Pyrolytic carbon, a ceramic, is currently used in medical implant devices due to its preferrable biocompatibility properties. Micro-patterned pyrolytic carbon devices can be created by growing carbon nanotubes, and then filling the space between with amorphous carbon via chemical vapor deposition. We prepared multiple samples of two different planar stent-like flexible geometries and smaller cubic structures out …

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Nongame Fish Species Distribution And Habitat Associations In The Snake River Basin Of Southern Idaho, Kevin A. Meyer, James A. Lamansky Jr., Daniel J. Schill, Donald W. Zaroban Apr 2013

Nongame Fish Species Distribution And Habitat Associations In The Snake River Basin Of Southern Idaho, Kevin A. Meyer, James A. Lamansky Jr., Daniel J. Schill, Donald W. Zaroban

Western North American Naturalist

The distribution and abundance of game fish populations are commonly monitored closely, whereas sampling of nongame species is often neglected. We used a broad-scale salmonid sampling project both to simultaneously assess the distribution and relative abundance of nongame fish species in small streams (i.e., ≤15 m wetted width) in the Snake River basin of southern Idaho and to relate the distribution and abundance of nongame species to abiotic and biotic stream conditions in the study area. Of the 1738 reaches surveyed, 34% were dry or contained too little water to support fish, and an additional 21% had flowing water but …

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Seasonal Variation In Offspring Sex Ratio In The Snowy Plover, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, William P. Johnson Apr 2013

Seasonal Variation In Offspring Sex Ratio In The Snowy Plover, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, William P. Johnson

Western North American Naturalist

The Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus) is unique in being a determinate layer of an odd modal clutch size and in having a variable mating system in which female brood desertion occurs regularly. These traits make determining Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios important not only for long-term population stability, as the species is of conservation concern, but also for application to sex allocation theory. In this study, we determined Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios, examined differential costs of producing male and female offspring, and evaluated sex ratio variation in relation to maternal condition, habitat condition, and time during the …

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Assessing Migratory Stopover Site Quality For Birds During Fall Migration Along Two California Rivers, Renée L. Cormier, Thomas Gardali, Julian K. Wood Apr 2013

Assessing Migratory Stopover Site Quality For Birds During Fall Migration Along Two California Rivers, Renée L. Cormier, Thomas Gardali, Julian K. Wood

Western North American Naturalist

Measuring site quality for birds at migration stopover grounds and identifying critical stopover habitats are both important components of gauging the full life cycle conservation of migratory birds. We evaluated riparian stopover habitat quality on the San Joaquin and Mokelumne rivers in California’s Central Valley for migrant Willow Flycatchers (Empidonax traillii), Orange-crowned Warblers (Oreothlypis celata), Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia), and Wilson’s Warblers (Cardellina pusilla). For each species, we used 3 approaches to assess habitat quality: (1) we examined change in mass of individuals that were recaptured at least once; (2) we tracked …

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Continued Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma Cepedianum) Range Expansion In The Colorado River Basin, P. Aaron Webber, M. Tildon Jones Apr 2013

Continued Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma Cepedianum) Range Expansion In The Colorado River Basin, P. Aaron Webber, M. Tildon Jones

Western North American Naturalist

Gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) was introduced to the Colorado River basin in 1996 as a result of unintentional stocking. It then rapidly spread into lakes and rivers in both the upper and lower Colorado River basins. We captured adult gizzard shad in the Yampa and White rivers in Colorado in 2012 during boat electrofishing surveys not specifically targeting gizzard shad. These captures document the range expansion of gizzard shad into these Green River tributaries. We also collected larval and young-of-year gizzard shad during seining surveys in backwaters of the middle Green River in 2012, thereby confirming that this …

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End Matter, Vol. 73 No. 1 Apr 2013

End Matter, Vol. 73 No. 1

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

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Front Matter, Vol. 73 No. 1 Apr 2013

Front Matter, Vol. 73 No. 1

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

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Studies Of A New Hybrid Taxon In The Artemisia Tridentata (Asteraceae: Anthemideae) Complex, Heather D. Garrison, Leila M. Shultz, E. Durant Mcarthur Apr 2013

Studies Of A New Hybrid Taxon In The Artemisia Tridentata (Asteraceae: Anthemideae) Complex, Heather D. Garrison, Leila M. Shultz, E. Durant Mcarthur

Western North American Naturalist

Members of the Artemisia tridentata complex (ASTERACEAE: Anthemideae: Artemisiasubgen. Tridentatae) have adapted to changing environmental conditions through geographic migration, introgression, and hybridization. These processes have resulted in morphologic and genetic variation. A presumed hybrid (“Bonneville” big sagebrush) of the complex occurs in the moister ranges of A. t. ssp. wyomingensis and can be found growing with shrub species commonly associated with A. t. ssp. vaseyana. These populations appear to be preferred habitat for sage-grouse and are more heavily grazed by ungulates than the parental populations. We determined ploidy levels and conducted a detailed morphological analysis to determine if …

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Provisioning Rate, Dietary Composition, And Prey Selection Of Breeding Bobolinks And Grasshopper Sparrows, Ben R. Skipper, Daniel H. Kim Apr 2013

Provisioning Rate, Dietary Composition, And Prey Selection Of Breeding Bobolinks And Grasshopper Sparrows, Ben R. Skipper, Daniel H. Kim

Western North American Naturalist

We examined parental provisioning behavior of 2 grassland obligate birds, Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) and Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum) in south central Nebraska. We assessed rates of food delivery (provisions ⋅ nestling–1h–1) and prey composition by using video recordings. We estimated arthropod availability from sweep net samples collected during 2 breeding seasons. We evaluated the effects of provisioning rate and prey composition on nestling quality inferred through nestling mass. We focused our efforts on lepidopteran larvae and orthopterans, as these orders comprised the bulk of identified prey deliveries. Total provisioning rates at 53 …

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Medusahead Invasion Along Unimproved Roads, Animal Trails, And Random Transects, Kirk W. Davies, Aleta M. Nafus, Matthew D. Madsen Apr 2013

Medusahead Invasion Along Unimproved Roads, Animal Trails, And Random Transects, Kirk W. Davies, Aleta M. Nafus, Matthew D. Madsen

Western North American Naturalist

Medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae [L.] Nevski), an exotic annual grass, is rapidly spreading and causing ecological damage across the western United States. Because this exotic plant occupies vast areas and because management resources are limited, it is critical that land managers prioritize where they direct treatment and monitoring efforts. Identifying where and by what means medusahead is spreading could provide valuable information to assist in determining where prevention and control efforts should be applied. We compared medusahead invasion levels along unimproved roads, animal trails, and random transects at 6 sites in southeastern Oregon to determine where medusahead was more common …

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Hatching Plasticity Under Complex Conditions: Responses Of Newt Embryos To Chemical And Mechanical Stimuli From Egg And Larval Predators, Brian G. Gall, Leticia L. Hoffmann, Edmund D. Brodie Jr. Apr 2013

Hatching Plasticity Under Complex Conditions: Responses Of Newt Embryos To Chemical And Mechanical Stimuli From Egg And Larval Predators, Brian G. Gall, Leticia L. Hoffmann, Edmund D. Brodie Jr.

Western North American Naturalist

Environmentally cued hatching plasticity is a common attribute of the eggs of oviparous organisms that has been especially well studied in amphibians. Nevertheless, this process has been largely overlooked in species with complex natural histories. We exposed embryos of the rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) to chemical and mechanical stimuli from multiple potential threats, including caddisfly larvae, a major predator on the egg stage of newts. Newt embryos did not exhibit hatching plasticity toward chemical cues from any treatment but, contrary to prediction, did delay hatching in response to mechanical stimuli from an egg predator. Observations of predation by …

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Bats Of Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas: Community Composition, Abundance, And Seasonal Acivity, Tamera D. H. Riedle, Raymond S. Matlack Apr 2013

Bats Of Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas: Community Composition, Abundance, And Seasonal Acivity, Tamera D. H. Riedle, Raymond S. Matlack

Western North American Naturalist

Basic natural history information is lacking for many bats, especially for bats of the Texas Panhandle. We examined community composition, relative abundance, and seasonal activity of bats in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, using 3 survey methods (mist net, roost surveys, and acoustic monitoring) between July 2006 and May 2009. Twelve species of bats were captured or observed, with the Brazilian free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), canyon bat (Parastrellus hesperus), and big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) being the most common. Acoustic calls of 2 additional species, most likely the California myotis (Myotis californicus …

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Avian Response To Frost-Damaged Aspen In Northern Utah, Andreas Leidolf, Ronald J. Ryel Apr 2013

Avian Response To Frost-Damaged Aspen In Northern Utah, Andreas Leidolf, Ronald J. Ryel

Western North American Naturalist

In early May 2007, northern Utah mountains experienced a period of prolonged warmer-than-normal temperatures, followed by a frost that killed or damaged much of the first-flush quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) foliage. We assessed the effects of this transitory disturbance on the aspen bird species assemblage by comparing breeding bird survey data collected in the Bear River Mountain Range, Utah, USA, in 2005 and 2006 (predisturbance) to data from 2007 (postdisturbance). Whereas bird total abundance, species richness, and species diversity did not differ significantly among years, there were significant year-by–frost damage severity interactions, with plots with low levels of …

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The Biology Of Small Mammals By Joseph F. Merritt, Howard O. Clark Apr 2013

The Biology Of Small Mammals By Joseph F. Merritt, Howard O. Clark

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

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Kenneth W. Stewart, 1935–2012: Obituary And List Of Publications, Bill P. Stark, Richard W. Baumann Apr 2013

Kenneth W. Stewart, 1935–2012: Obituary And List Of Publications, Bill P. Stark, Richard W. Baumann

Western North American Naturalist

Kenneth W. Stewart, obituary

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Mimicking The Mechanical Behavior Of Advancing Disc Degeneration Through Needle Injections, Jeremy S. Alsup Apr 2013

Mimicking The Mechanical Behavior Of Advancing Disc Degeneration Through Needle Injections, Jeremy S. Alsup

Theses and Dissertations

Objective - To investigate the effects of injected protease solution on the mechanical advancement of disc degeneration, and to establish test protocol for future pre-clinical validation of spinal arthroplasty devices. The hypothesis that injection of a protease into a cadaveric lumbar disc will mimic advanced degeneration mechanics was the subject of this study. Summary of Background Information - Spinal disc degeneration is a universal condition that progresses in adults due to aging, disease, or injury. Stages of disc degeneration have been categorized in cadaver specimens, with each degeneration level exhibiting characteristic changes in flexibility parameters. Spinal disc tissue can be …

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