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University of Alabama at Birmingham

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Latin American Immigration To The Deep South: Community Responses In Birmingham Metro Area, Al (1995-2010), Nadejda Bontcheva-Loyaga Jan 2016

Latin American Immigration To The Deep South: Community Responses In Birmingham Metro Area, Al (1995-2010), Nadejda Bontcheva-Loyaga

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Starting in the late 1990s, Latin American immigrants began settling in great numbers in non-traditional immigration states in the Deep South. Birmingham, Alabama, one of the large cities in the region, rapidly experienced a staggering growth in its Latin American immigrant population, which created numerous difficulties with access to services and intercommunity relations. The current study looks at these difficulties and the institutional framework that was established to address them and support the settlement process of incoming immigrants in the city. The study analyses the most pressing issues that needed to be addressed in five areas – healthcare, language and …

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Clustering Phish Using The Simple Set Comparison Tool, Jason Robert Britt Jan 2016

Clustering Phish Using The Simple Set Comparison Tool, Jason Robert Britt

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Phishing has been a problem since before the early 2000s and has only become more prevalent and diverse since. Phishing countermeasures have been developed and used to prevent or mitigate phishing attacks. However, each countermeasure has pros and cons and not every countermeasure is effective in every situation. Choosing the best suited phishing countermeasure or combination of phishing countermeasures to use and track their effectiveness requires grouping phish based upon common characteristics and tactics used by phish or phish grouping. To be effective phish grouping needs to produce dependable groupings, quickly produce groups, and analyze large volumes of phish. This …

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Cardiovascular Risk Factors In Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Phenotypes, Samantha G. Bromfield Jan 2016

Cardiovascular Risk Factors In Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Phenotypes, Samantha G. Bromfield

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Hypertension and diabetes are common and are known risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several blood pressure (BP) phenotypes, identified by ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), have been reported to be associated with an increased risk for CVD. However, there are few data on ABPM phenotypes among individuals with diabetes. Identifying modifiable factors that improve cardiovascular health may reduce CVD events and the prevalence of ABPM phenotypes, such as masked hypertension. Given the ability of ABPM to identify unconventional BP phenotypes that provide prognostic information beyond clinic BP, it is important to understand the optimal number of 24-hour ABPM readings necessary …

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Sea Urchins Under Predicted Near-Future Ocean Conditions: The Effects Of Ocean Warming And Acidification On Physiology And Behavior, Cecilia Joy Brothers Jan 2016

Sea Urchins Under Predicted Near-Future Ocean Conditions: The Effects Of Ocean Warming And Acidification On Physiology And Behavior, Cecilia Joy Brothers

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Sea urchins (Class Echinoidea) play important economic and ecological roles in the marine ecosystems they inhabit. However, climate change is causing seawater temperatures to increase and pH and the saturation state of polymorphs of calcium calcite to decrease at unprecedented rates, and these changes may have serious implications for the fitness and survival of sea urchin populations. The purpose of the present dissertation was to determine the effects of ocean warming and acidification on the physiology and behavior of sea urchins. This research was conducted on three sea urchin taxa (Lytechinus variegatus, Heliocidaris erythrogramma, and Sterechinus spp.) representing species that …

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Elementary Photoreceptor Signaling In Human Vision, Kady Scarlett Bruce Jan 2016

Elementary Photoreceptor Signaling In Human Vision, Kady Scarlett Bruce

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To perceive a spot of light at photopic threshold, a minimum number of photons must be absorbed by cone photoreceptors. While many factors affecting psychophysical threshold have been studied, few have been examined at the single-cone level. Here we reveal how variation in synaptic weighting and signal integration among cones in the human retina occurs in vivo. Using an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AOSLO) equipped with stimulation capabilities, we targeted cone-sized stimuli to single cones. Perceptual increment thresholds were measured from individual cones and cone pairs in 7 subjects using a Bayesian-based staircase method of threshold estimation. In 42 …

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Igniting The Path To Reading Success: Torchbearer Principals' Perceptions Of Reading Instruction, Vilveca Bryant Jan 2016

Igniting The Path To Reading Success: Torchbearer Principals' Perceptions Of Reading Instruction, Vilveca Bryant

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The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore principal perceptions of how reading scores improved in high-poverty, high-performing schools in Alabama that had achieved Torchbearer School status. In 2005, the Alabama State Department of Education began bestowing the honor of Torchbearer schools to schools in high poverty areas throughout the state that have achieved high academic performance in Reading and Math. The goal of this qualitative study was to understand principal experiences and the essence of what it meant to be a principal of a successful high poverty school, to hear the voices of the participants. Participant descriptions revealed …

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Mending Rural America: Disaster Recovery In Small Municipalities, Marybrook Burchfield Jan 2016

Mending Rural America: Disaster Recovery In Small Municipalities, Marybrook Burchfield

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Long-term disaster recovery is an important aspect of public administration, especially as the United States is more frequently affected by natural disasters. Federal, state and local governments must adapt and respond to their citizens’ needs. This research analyzes one small Alabama community’s recovery following a devastating series of tornados. This case study on the City of Cordova is conducted via a document analysis of local newspaper articles, government documents and personal communication. The experiences of Cordova are analyzed using principles outlined in FEMA’s National Disaster Recovery Framework. The analysis suggests that disaster recovery in a small city or town is …

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Primary Visual Cortex And Plasticity Following Central Vision Loss, Wesley K. Burge Jan 2016

Primary Visual Cortex And Plasticity Following Central Vision Loss, Wesley K. Burge

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Age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of blindness in the industrialized world, and the advanced phase of the disease that causes significant vision impairment affects nearly 2 million individuals in the United States (Friedman et al., 2004). It is characterized by the degeneration and eventual death of retinal photoreceptors in the macula, which is the area of the retina that mediates central vision. The resulting loss of cells often leads to profound deficits in visual function. However, many individuals with age-related macular degeneration learn to use their spared peripheral vision for visual tasks such as reading, …

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Conceptualizations Of Health And Health Communication By Clergy In Jefferson County, Alabama: A Qualitative Exploration, Anthony David Campbell Jan 2016

Conceptualizations Of Health And Health Communication By Clergy In Jefferson County, Alabama: A Qualitative Exploration, Anthony David Campbell

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The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how clergy define health and how they communicate health messages to their congregations and communities. Clergy are influential figures who fulfill a variety of roles outside of their unique pastoral responsibilities, including serving as a source of health-related information and resources. Little is known about how clergy perceive the role of churches and their own role in health and health ministry. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 32 African American and white clergy members from a variety of religious denominations in Jefferson County, Alabama between January 2015 and February 2016. Data were …

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Differential Effects Of Short-Term Morphine Treatment On Brain Volumes Of Men And Women With Low Back Pain, Kelsey Campbell Jan 2016

Differential Effects Of Short-Term Morphine Treatment On Brain Volumes Of Men And Women With Low Back Pain, Kelsey Campbell

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Objective: Long- and short-term opioid use is associated with morphological changes in the human brain. Opioids have analgesic and adverse effects, including addiction, that differently impact men and women. The current study aimed to investigate whether differences exist between men and women in gray matter volume changes after acute morphine treatment for chronic low back pain. Methods: This study analyzed data from 27 chronic low back pain patients (17 men, 10 women) who were treated with oral morphine over a period of 30 days. High-resolution structural images were acquired immediately before and after morphine treatment. Images were compared using voxel …

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The Effects Of Six Weeks Of High Intensity Interval Training (Hiit) Or Moderate Intensity Training (Mit) On Antioxidant Capacity And Metabolic Health In Obese/Overweight Males, Samuel Pierce Cauffman Jan 2016

The Effects Of Six Weeks Of High Intensity Interval Training (Hiit) Or Moderate Intensity Training (Mit) On Antioxidant Capacity And Metabolic Health In Obese/Overweight Males, Samuel Pierce Cauffman

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Background: Obesity is an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Oxidative stress or low total antioxidant capacity has been shown to be associated with decreased insulin sensitivity (SI) in overweight/obese individuals. Exercise training has been shown to improve systemic antioxidant capacity (TAC) and SI; however whether or not correlations between SI and TAC observed under untrained conditions are associated following exercise training is less clear. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine if SI was correlated with serum TAC in a cohort of overweight/obese men at baseline and following six-weeks of exercise …

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Understanding Protein-Protein Interactions In Plantae In Network Biology Utilizing A Novel Y2h Liquid Assay Approach, Jessica Lopez Lopez Jan 2016

Understanding Protein-Protein Interactions In Plantae In Network Biology Utilizing A Novel Y2h Liquid Assay Approach, Jessica Lopez Lopez

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The Yeast-2-Hybrid (Y2H) assay is a heterologous system that is expanding network biology knowledge via in vivo investigations of binary protein-protein interactions. Traditionally, the Y2H protocol entails the mating or co-transformation of yeast in solid agar media followed by visual analysis for diploid selection. Having played a key role in identifying protein-protein interactions for nearly three decades, the Y2H system includes the interaction between two proteins of interest which result in a reconstituted transcription factor allowing a reporter gene to be transcribed. In this thesis, two primary objectives were pursued to expand the knowledge of protein-protein interactions. The primary objective …

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Examining Hiv-Associated Symptom Burden And Microbial Translocation In The Veterans Aging Cohort Study: A Secondary Data Analysis, Natalie Lynn Wilson Jan 2016

Examining Hiv-Associated Symptom Burden And Microbial Translocation In The Veterans Aging Cohort Study: A Secondary Data Analysis, Natalie Lynn Wilson

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group of 50 women (group 1) received computer-tailored feedback with brief counseling.

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The Impact Of Rrna And Trna Synthesis On Chromatin Structure And Cell Fate, Jessica Makofske Woolnough Jan 2016

The Impact Of Rrna And Trna Synthesis On Chromatin Structure And Cell Fate, Jessica Makofske Woolnough

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The Central Dogma of molecular biology describes the process by which genetic material is faithfully converted into functional molecules across all domains of life. Originally, RNA was solely understood as an intermediate in this process. However, mounting evidence over the past 50 years has made clear that RNA have diverse functional roles as a class of molecule termed non-coding RNA. Two of the first described non-coding RNA have essential roles within the Central Dogma, itself: ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA). These two non-coding RNA are highly abundant, collectively accounting for up to 90% of the total transcript in …

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Retention Of Cad/Cam Crowns Luted With A Novel Biomimetic Cement, Nan Xiang Jan 2016

Retention Of Cad/Cam Crowns Luted With A Novel Biomimetic Cement, Nan Xiang

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Objectives: To measure the tensile strength of e.max copings cemented with resin, calcium silicate and calcium phosphate cements following thermocycling. Methods: 40 extracted non-carious mandibular premolar teeth were examined and selected using Keyence microscope for no carious cracks etc.were mounted in acrylic. The teeth were placed in a lathe and prepared to uniform dimensions (22° total taper) using a flat-end tapered diamond bur (846.11.025HP, Brasseler) and a 3mm preparation height. The surface area of the prepared surface was calculated with digital microscopy. The teeth were scanned with a Cerec 3 (Sirona) digital scanner. E.max crowns were milled using Cerec 3 …

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Glycosyltransferases Involved In The Glycosylation Of Serine-Rich Glycoproteins From Streptococci, Fan Zhu Jan 2016

Glycosyltransferases Involved In The Glycosylation Of Serine-Rich Glycoproteins From Streptococci, Fan Zhu

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Serine - rich repeat glycoproteins (SRRPs) play important roles in mediating bac-terial attachment to a variety of host and microbial surfaces. They have been im-plicated in the development of tissue infections such as pneumonia, infective en-docarditis, meningitis and oral infectious diseases. Streptococcus parasanguinis, one of the commensal streptococci present in the oral cavity, utilizes its fimbriae to mediate the initial attachment to the tooth pellicle. Fap1 (Fimbriae-associated-protein 1), the first identified SRRP, is the subunit of the fimbriae which utilizes proteins encoded by an 11-gene cluster (gly-gtf3-dGT1-galT2 and secY2-gap1-gap2-gap3-secA2-gtf1-gtf2) to mediate its glycosylation and secretion. The key enzymes responsible for …

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Hospital-Physician Vertical Integration: The Effect Of Integration On Cardiology Compensation And Clinical Productivity, Vance Mcleod Chunn Jan 2016

Hospital-Physician Vertical Integration: The Effect Of Integration On Cardiology Compensation And Clinical Productivity, Vance Mcleod Chunn

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HC2.

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Cultural Competence Practices Implemented In Hospitals And Health Systems By Minority Executives On The Top Management Team, John H. Cunningham Jan 2016

Cultural Competence Practices Implemented In Hospitals And Health Systems By Minority Executives On The Top Management Team, John H. Cunningham

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The study examined whether hospital implementation of cultural competence practices was influenced by the racial/ethnic composition of top management. With one-third of the U.S. population identifying with a racial or ethnic group other than non-Hispanic White, and that population continuing to grow increasingly diverse, racial and ethnic minorities are increasingly accessing health care services. Yet they represent less than 1% of the top management teams (TMT) of health care organizations. The study sought to determine the extent to which health care organizations with TMTs that are representative of the racial and ethnic compositions of the communities in which they serve …

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Three-Dimensional Facial Morphological Changes From Adolescence To Adulthood In Caucasian And African American Populations, Matthew Davis Jan 2016

Three-Dimensional Facial Morphological Changes From Adolescence To Adulthood In Caucasian And African American Populations, Matthew Davis

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The purpose of this cross sectional retrospective study was to use three dimensional surface imaging to determine gender dimorphism and facial morphological changes from adolescence to adulthood in African American and Caucasian populations. Materials and Methods: Three-dimensional images were captured using a laser scanner (Minolta Vivid VI900) and a stereophotogrammatic camera system (3dMDfaceTM). The total sample size included 371 subjects, including the following: 107 African-American adolescents 10–13 years of age, 100 African-American adults 19–30 years of age, 64 Caucasian adolescents 10–13 years of age, and 100 Caucasian adults 18–30 years of age. All subjects had normal body mass index, no …

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Performance Of Ordinary Least Squares And Heteroskedasticity Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimators In Heteroskedastic Analysis Of Covariance Models, Erica Lynn Dawson Jan 2016

Performance Of Ordinary Least Squares And Heteroskedasticity Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimators In Heteroskedastic Analysis Of Covariance Models, Erica Lynn Dawson

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Ordinary Least Squares Optimization is one of the most widely used methods in statistical analysis to estimate the parameters of a general linear model. Yet, when the assumption of homoskedastic errors is violated, the statistical model is incorrectly specified and alteration of both Type I and Type II error rates occurs. We examine different heteroskedasticity consistent covariance matrix estimators (HCCM) under various heteroskedastic analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models with orthogonal predictors, and find that under the test of group differences, MacKinnon and White’s HC2 and Davidson and MacKinnon’s HC3 perform reasonably well in terms of Type I error control; and …

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The Role Of Ppar-Delta In Regulating Cardiomyocyte Proliferation And Angiogenesis In Post-Myocardial Infarction Adult Heart, Yishu Ding Jan 2016

The Role Of Ppar-Delta In Regulating Cardiomyocyte Proliferation And Angiogenesis In Post-Myocardial Infarction Adult Heart, Yishu Ding

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immediately before, soon after, and one month after intervention. Average daily calcium

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Targeting Voltage Gated Sodium Channels For Prevention Of Breast Cancer Metastasis, Shilpa Dutta Jan 2016

Targeting Voltage Gated Sodium Channels For Prevention Of Breast Cancer Metastasis, Shilpa Dutta

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Voltage gated sodium channels (VGSC) are a recently identified drug target involved in the breast cancer invasion mechanism. VGSCs participate in the acidification of the perimembrane, activating the cysteine proteases, cathepsin B and S, thereby triggering the proteolysis of the extracellular matrix and the basement membrane, thereby promoting cell invasion. Highly aggressive, invasive breast cancer cells dramatically overexpress one subtype of VGSC, nNav1.5. Described here are the design, synthesis and in vitro evaluation of drug-like, small molecule blockers of nNav1.5 that are potential therapeutic agents for the prevention of breast cancer metastasis. Initially, five compounds were designed and synthesized based …

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Separate But Equal: A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Experiences With African American Males In Gender-Specific Classrooms In An Urban School Setting, Hamidah Elmore Jan 2016

Separate But Equal: A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Experiences With African American Males In Gender-Specific Classrooms In An Urban School Setting, Hamidah Elmore

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The purpose of this phenomenological study was to illuminate teachers’ experiences with African American males in gender-specific classrooms in an urban school setting in an inner-city school system in Alabama. The central question, “What is it like to be a teacher of African American males within a gender-specific classroom?” guided this qualitative study. This question spawned several sub-questions: (1) “What characteristics are common in an African-American male gender-specific instructor?”, (2) “What strategies do successful African-American male gender specific instructors use in their teaching?”, (3) “What types of administrative support are useful for African-American male gender-specific instructors?”, and (4) “What types …

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Mechanical Properties Of The Growth Plate In A Rat Model Of Obesity, Patrick Neil Estep Jan 2016

Mechanical Properties Of The Growth Plate In A Rat Model Of Obesity, Patrick Neil Estep

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The other group (group 2) of 50 women received the same intervention with heel QUS

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The Role Of Glutamate In Immune Cell Infiltration And Excitotoxic Mechanisms In Autoimmune Demyelination, Kirsten Scarlett Evonuk Jan 2016

The Role Of Glutamate In Immune Cell Infiltration And Excitotoxic Mechanisms In Autoimmune Demyelination, Kirsten Scarlett Evonuk

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Multiple sclerosis is the most common neurological disorder in young adults. Current treatments modulate the immune system, but no treatments prevent central nervous system damage. Inflammation occurs even during disease remission, contributing to ongoing damage and resulting in disease progression. The lack of neuroprotective treatments despite continued inflammatory onslaught in the central nervous system indicates the need for therapeutic discovery in this area. One potential therapeutic target is glutamate, whose dysregulation in multiple sclerosis has been implicated in excitotoxic cellular death. Herein we describe the roles of glutamate in multiple sclerosis and explore the blockade of a source of excitotoxic …

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Epigenetic Dysregulation In Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia, David Anthony Figge Jan 2016

Epigenetic Dysregulation In Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia, David Anthony Figge

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Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a persistent behavioral sensitization that develops after repeated levodopa (L-DOPA) exposure in Parkinson disease (PD) patients. LID is characterized by a “priming effect”, whereby initial administrations of L-DOPA trigger a sensitized biochemical and transcriptional response upon subsequent administrations of L-DOPA. In neurons, transcriptional regulation through dynamic changes to epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation and histone acetylation, have been shown pivotal to many long-term behavioral modifications; however, their role in LID has been minimally explored. Using a rodent model, we show LID development leads to the aberrant expression of DNA demethylating enzymes and locus-specific changes to DNA …

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The Function Of Prmt1 In Normal And Abnormal Megakaryopoiesis, Hairui Su Jan 2016

The Function Of Prmt1 In Normal And Abnormal Megakaryopoiesis, Hairui Su

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Protein arginine methylation is a common type of post-translational modifications. Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) is the predominant PRMT that is involved in diverse physiological and pathological processes in mammalian cells. Dysregulation of PRMT1 is often positively correlated with cancer development, yet many aspects of PRMT1’s role in cancer, especially in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) remain unclear. We identified two PRMT1-methylated substrates and how they impact normal and abnormal megakaryopoiesis. In this dissertation, we demonstrate that dual-specificity protein phosphatase 4 (DUSP4) and RNA binding motif protein 15 (RBM15), two crucial factors for megakaryocytic (MK) differentiation, are methylated by PRMT1 and …

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Microglia Orchestrate The Inflammatory Response To Alpha-Synuclein In Parkinson Disease Models, Aaron Thome Jan 2016

Microglia Orchestrate The Inflammatory Response To Alpha-Synuclein In Parkinson Disease Models, Aaron Thome

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Parkinson disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder characterized by a progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and widespread aggregates of the protein alpha-synuclein (α-syn). Increasing evidence points to inflammation as a chief mediator of PD with many of the inflammatory manifestations of human PD cases recapitulated in animal models of PD. We began by examining the inflammatory potential of α-syn fibrils, a newly characterized α-syn conformation that is neurotoxic and prion-like in its endogenous α-syn recruitment and cellular transmission. Our studies provide evidence that the α-syn fibrils evoke a pro-inflammatory response …

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The Roles Of Il-21 And Il-10 In Cellular And Humoral Immune Responses, Yuan Tian Jan 2016

The Roles Of Il-21 And Il-10 In Cellular And Humoral Immune Responses, Yuan Tian

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values, it may be more appropriate to use CH

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Human Cytosolic Sulfotransferase (Sult) 1b1 Half-Site Reactivity And The Identification And Characterization Of A Novel Variant Sult1b1 Isoform (L145v), Zachary Evan Tibbs Jan 2016

Human Cytosolic Sulfotransferase (Sult) 1b1 Half-Site Reactivity And The Identification And Characterization Of A Novel Variant Sult1b1 Isoform (L145v), Zachary Evan Tibbs

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The human cytosolic sulfotransferases (hSULTs) are a fourteen-member family of phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes that catalyze the transfer of a sulfonate moiety from 3’-phosphoadenosine 5’-phosphosulfate (PAPS) to a recipient substrate. SULT-mediated sulfation serves to deactivate physiological hormones and detoxify xenobiotics. SULT1B1 is primarily resident to the gastrointestinal tract, liver, and possibly peripheral white blood cells (WBCs), whereby it performs its supposed physiological role. The iso-form has the capacity to sulfate thyroid hormones, small phenols, and polyaromatic hy-drocarbons resulting in their inactivation, detoxification, and bioactivation/detoxification, respectively. Immunohistochemistry was used to show hSULT1B1 protein is present in periph-eral lymphocytes and neutrophils. Further, …

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