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Dynamic Biomechanical Characteristics Of The Optic Nerve Head By Oct Imaging, Jihee Kim Jan 2021

Dynamic Biomechanical Characteristics Of The Optic Nerve Head By Oct Imaging, Jihee Kim

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Approximately 80 million people in the world were estimated to suffer from glaucoma in 2020. To date, lowering intraocular pressure (IOP) is the only clinical treatment to delay or prevent the development and progression of glaucomatous vision loss. However, many glaucoma patients have IOP in the normal range, while some people with abnormally high pressure do not develop neuropathy. This indicates that biomechanical responses of the optic nerve head (ONH) to changes in IOP can vary significantly among individuals. This study investigated acute IOP-induced compliance in the ONH via SDOCT imaging, using computer vision, and deep learning networks to improve …


A Novel In Vitro Model To Study Immune Interactions In Glioblastoma, Hasan Alrefai Jan 2021

A Novel In Vitro Model To Study Immune Interactions In Glioblastoma, Hasan Alrefai

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Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and lethal primary brain tumor in adults. Despite decades of research, GBM has a median survival of approximately 14 months, necessitating the development of novel GBM therapeutics. The drug-development process has been hindered due to the lack of high-fidelity pre-clinical models. While in-vitro models of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) present an interesting approach to modeling GBM, they typically fail to incorporate the non-cancerous cells that support tumor growth and progression. Others have attempted to address this problem by using techniques such as 3D bioprinting to incorporate astrocytes and macrophages in an extracellular matrix; however, they …


Structural Changes To Desmosomal Architecture During Assembly And Maturation, Reena R. Beggs Jan 2021

Structural Changes To Desmosomal Architecture During Assembly And Maturation, Reena R. Beggs

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Desmosomes are macromolecular junctions important in adhesion and resisting mechanical stress in epithelial and cardiac tissue. Desmosomes have a complex architecture with transmembrane cadherins, desmogleins and desmocollins, constituting the adhesive interface and plaque proteins, including plakoglobin and desmoplakin, binding the cadherin tails and integrating with intermediate filaments. Dysregulation of desmosomes occurs in many disease states, such as cardiomyopathies, skin diseases, and various cancers. While mature desmosomes' structure is generally understood, less is known about desmosome architecture during assembly and recycling. Desmosomes are dynamic, biochemically intractable, and diffraction-limited, making them challenging to study. To overcome these obstacles, I applied the super-resolution …


Caregiving And Depressive Symptomatology: Multi-National Testing Of Role Strain Theory, Jessica Valles Jan 2021

Caregiving And Depressive Symptomatology: Multi-National Testing Of Role Strain Theory, Jessica Valles

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While several studies have shown that caregiving duties are correlated with poor mental health outcomes, little is known about this association and how it varies by the type of care provided, as well as the other types of social roles that the caregiver occupies. Furthermore, the nature of these associations amongst caregivers who have been diagnosed with a chronic condition themselves is also unclear. Role Strain theory offers a foundation by which we can begin to understand the level of burden that results from occupying multiple social roles including that of caregiving. Using dating from the WHO Study on Global …


Choking Under Pressure Detection Model Based On Expert System Foundation Using Tennis Performance Variables For Individual Performance Enhancement, Stepan Vancurik Jan 2021

Choking Under Pressure Detection Model Based On Expert System Foundation Using Tennis Performance Variables For Individual Performance Enhancement, Stepan Vancurik

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Choking under pressure is a phenomenon understood as underperformance or suboptimal performance in a particular task or an action that occurs due to the presence of pressure situations. The phenomenon is feared by many people, especially athletes. Choking has been heavily addressed and studied in psychology and behavioral science research. Research works addressing the phenomenon have also been occasionally published in scientific literature; however, a structural approach to objectively measure, analyze, identify, and define its determinants is absent. Therefore, this dissertation study attempts to add to the existing choking research by proposing a novel approach for choking identification, analyzing domain …


Effects Of Chemical Dispersant (Corexit® Ec9500a) On Gill Structure And Function, And The Associated Crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone Mediated Stress Response In The Blue Crab (Callinectus Sapidus), Amanda Christine Weiner Jan 2021

Effects Of Chemical Dispersant (Corexit® Ec9500a) On Gill Structure And Function, And The Associated Crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone Mediated Stress Response In The Blue Crab (Callinectus Sapidus), Amanda Christine Weiner

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Chemical dispersants are fast becoming the most widely used tool in the remediation of spilled oil. The sheer magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill necessitated the use of multiple forms of remediation at scales never attempted. As a result, there is a critical need to understand how the spill and ensuing cleanup efforts impacted the surrounding ecosystem and its inhabitants. The goal of this research is to better understand the impact of the chemical dispersant (Corexit®EC9500A) on a key ecological and economic species, the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), in the Gulf of Mexico. The first part of my dissertation …


Polymeric Vesicles: Design, Synthesis And Characterization, Yiming Yang Jan 2021

Polymeric Vesicles: Design, Synthesis And Characterization, Yiming Yang

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Synthetic nanovesicles, known as liposomes, are assembled from synthetic lipids as encapsulation devices for delivery of small molecules and are now a key component of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Due to their similarity to a cell membrane, liposomes also find use in anticancer treatment to reduce toxic side effects of chemotherapy. However, synthetic liposomes may require a multi-step synthesis, and very often show poor physical and chemical stability. In contrast, polymeric vesicles (polymersomes) assembled from synthetic polymers can boast much better mechanical and chemical stabilities and provide stimuli responsiveness that can enhance targeted drug delivery and provide drug release on-demand. Polymersomes …


Biological Pathways And Processes Underlying The Cardiac Regenerative Response Post-Injury In Small And Large Mammals, Eric Yang Zhang Jan 2021

Biological Pathways And Processes Underlying The Cardiac Regenerative Response Post-Injury In Small And Large Mammals, Eric Yang Zhang

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Mammalian cardiomyocytes exit the cell-cycle shortly after birth. Consequently, the adult heart is unable to properly compensate for cardiac muscle lost to injury. As such, heart failure has remained the leading cause of death in the developed world for more than three decades. In this work, we illustrate our findings in using novel in-vivo animal models to examine two regenerative phenomena observed following myocardial injury:i.) neonate cardiomyocyte proliferation in large mammals ii.) the ‘paracrine effect’ as mediated by mesenchymal stromal cells In i.) we use a large animal model of myocardial injury during the early postnatal develop-mental stage to establish …


Aerodynamic Analysis Of Utility Truck Safety In Severe Environments, Haibo Zhu Jan 2021

Aerodynamic Analysis Of Utility Truck Safety In Severe Environments, Haibo Zhu

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In the present study, the stability of utility trucks under strong wind conditions is analyzed. Since the lateral area of trucks is larger than that of ordinary vehicles, the impact of crosswind on trucks is the most serious. Therefore, the main consideration was to simulate the impact of crosswind conditions on the truck. The research direction of crosswinds affecting the performance of utility trucks can be divided into two major aspects: one is to consider crosswind aerodynamics, and the other is to test crosswind stability. In order to study the crosswind aerodynamics of the truck, the influence of the change …


Midpalatal Suture Maturation Stage Evaluation In Young Adults, Anna Maria Betlej Jan 2021

Midpalatal Suture Maturation Stage Evaluation In Young Adults, Anna Maria Betlej

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Rapid palatal expansion (RPE) is a gold standard treatment for posterior unilateral and bilateral crossbites or limited buccal overjet in patients with constricted maxilla. Midpalatal suture fusion is a limitation for obtaining the skeletal results and avoiding dental side effects. It is generally believed that midpalatal suture interlock increases significantly after the pubertal growth spurt. However, in the literature there are reported cases of successful midpalatal suture split in older adults. Individual cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) assessment of midpalatal suture maturation was proposed by Angelieri et al. Since RPE treatment approach is commonly used it is important to understand the …


Topics In Low Dimensional Dynamical Systems: Interval Rotation Numbers And Laminations, Sourav Bhattacharya Jan 2021

Topics In Low Dimensional Dynamical Systems: Interval Rotation Numbers And Laminations, Sourav Bhattacharya

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The goal of this thesis is to study two broad disciplines: \emph{One Dimensional Dynamical Systems and Complex Dynamical Systems} in the spirit of \emph{``Developing efficient machinery to make conclusions about the dynamics of a given map $f$ from reduced information''}. In \emph{One Dimensional Dynamical Systems}, we accomplish the above stated goal by studying the \emph{forcing relation} among \emph{over-rotation numbers} of points on the interval. We began by discovering peculiar \emph{patterns} named \emph{very badly ordered patterns}, having no \emph{block structure} over an \emph{over-twist pattern}. It has been proved that unlike \emph{circle maps} these patterns \emph{surprisingly} don't \emph{force} a lower \emph{over-rotation number} …


Stress And Neuropeptide Y: Hippocampal Crossroads, Mariana Andrea Cortes Jan 2021

Stress And Neuropeptide Y: Hippocampal Crossroads, Mariana Andrea Cortes

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Anxiety disorders are the most common neuropsychiatric disorders diagnosed in adolescence and adulthood. While most animal models of trauma and stress-related disorders are performed in adults, and clinical trials for the treatment of these disorders typically include adult patients, there is a gap in knowledge for understanding how traumatic disorders develop in adolescence. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is an endogenous peptide that provides anxiolytic benefits, and promotes feeding, arousal, and reduces inflammation. While being reduced in patients with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), animal models using NPY injections directly in to hippocampus have found it to be sufficient for blocking …


Queen Of Swords, Mary Elizabeth Chambliss Jan 2021

Queen Of Swords, Mary Elizabeth Chambliss

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Queen of Swords, titled after a card in the tarot signifying an independent, incisive woman that often keeps others at “sword’s length,” is the fictional story of Birmingham heiress Reagan Norcross. Beautiful, educated, wealthy, and accomplished, Reagan is more unhappy than she’s ever been. So when an old fling, Russell Harris, takes a job at her family’s construction and design firm, Norcross Lasting, it seems like a sign that everything is going to turn around. But even as her interactions with Russell in and out of the office become more like a romance novel, Reagan’s unhappiness and instability only get …


The Hocl Response Of Escherichia Coli., Rhea Marie Derke Jan 2021

The Hocl Response Of Escherichia Coli., Rhea Marie Derke

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Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), like Chron’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affect millions of people worldwide. There are limited treatment options available for these diseases because their direct causes are unknown. IBDs are characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and changes in the composition of the gut microbiome. Enterobacteria, including Escherichia coli, bloom to high levels in the gut during inflammation and contribute to the pathology of IBDs. E. coli must tolerate high levels of antimicrobial compounds produced by the immune system to survive during persistent inflammation. A large proportion of such compounds are reactive oxygen and reactive chlorine …


Cognitive Progression And Care Patterns In All-Cause Dementia By Prior Cancer Diagnosis, Mackenzie Elisha Fowler Jan 2021

Cognitive Progression And Care Patterns In All-Cause Dementia By Prior Cancer Diagnosis, Mackenzie Elisha Fowler

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Cancer and dementia are common aging-related diseases. Cancer and itstreatments are associated with cognitive impairment referred to as cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). Dementias demonstrate similar impairment. Only one study has examined the longitudinal association between cancer and dementia. This dissertation goes beyond limitations of the prior study and has three aims: 1.) to evaluate dementia progression by prior cancer diagnosis, 2.) to evaluate progression of all-cause dementia by cancer treatments, and 3.) to evaluate patterns and predictors of care among dementia patients by cancer history. This study uses EHR data to evaluate cognitive progression by cancer history /cancer treatment characteristics, …


Identifying Novel Therapeutics And Therapeutic Entry Points For The Treatment Of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Through Regulation Of Gene Expression, Rylie Maria Hightower Jan 2021

Identifying Novel Therapeutics And Therapeutic Entry Points For The Treatment Of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Through Regulation Of Gene Expression, Rylie Maria Hightower

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My graduate research has primarily focused on genetic and epigenetic modifiers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and understanding how those modifiers can be used as novel therapeutic entry points for treatment. A vast array of promising therapeutic strategies is being explored outside the realm of directly targeting dystrophin deficiency. This is primarily due to the lack of successful clinical trials that have demonstrated the ability to benefit a significant number of DMD patients. Here, I have expanded the field’s understanding of using the regulation of gene expression as a way to target dystrophin-deficiency associated pathology through, 1) therapeutic treatment of a …


Undergraduate Students’ Perspectives On Mental Health Services, Resources, And Supports During Covid-19: A Qualitative Dissertation, Amy Hutson Chatham Jan 2021

Undergraduate Students’ Perspectives On Mental Health Services, Resources, And Supports During Covid-19: A Qualitative Dissertation, Amy Hutson Chatham

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, increased isolation from supportive relationships, uncertainty about the future, fear of illness, and lack of traditional life-events took a toll on university student mental health. It is important to understand undergraduate students’ mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and their desires for support from their institutions of higher education. Existing studies have documented increased rates of depression, stress, and anxiety among university undergraduates; however, these studies rarely illuminate students’ perspectives on mental health services, resources, and supports that they need during and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This phenomenological study explored the perspectives of undergraduate …


Man Enough: Exploring The Gendered Experiences Of High-Achieving Black Men In Higher Education, Christopher E. Jones Jan 2021

Man Enough: Exploring The Gendered Experiences Of High-Achieving Black Men In Higher Education, Christopher E. Jones

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Research regarding Black males in higher education has become an important endeavor for colleges and universities seeking to increase their graduation rates. Much of the previous research and practices have used a deficit-based approach explaining Black males’ low levels of academic achievement as primarily the result of them being underprepared. This ignores the contributions of Black males who do excel academically while minimizing the role their racialized gender plays in their outcomes. This dissertation focuses on an anti-deficit approach by exploring how high-achieving Black college males’ perceptions of manhood and masculinity have contributed to their overall academic success. Even though …


A Lean Six Sigma Evaluation And Cost Analysis Of Alabama’S Oral Fluid Roadside Screening And Confirmation Testing Program, Minjee Kim Jan 2021

A Lean Six Sigma Evaluation And Cost Analysis Of Alabama’S Oral Fluid Roadside Screening And Confirmation Testing Program, Minjee Kim

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In recent years, oral fluid has emerged as a vital biological specimen for driving under the influence of drug (DUI/D) cases among toxicology laboratories. Oral fluid possesses numerous advantages. The collection process is non-invasive, rapid, and simple compared to other traditional biological specimen, such as blood or urine. Due to its simplicity of collection, oral fluid can be collected proximate to the actual time of driving, traffic stop, or crash. Oral fluid as a biological specimen is also able to capture active parent drugs of recent use, especially for drugs that were administered orally. However, because oral fluid testing program …


Heads Or Tails? Structural Studies Of Host Interaction And Molecular Piracy In Bacteriophages, James Lewis Kizziah Jan 2021

Heads Or Tails? Structural Studies Of Host Interaction And Molecular Piracy In Bacteriophages, James Lewis Kizziah

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Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic human pathogen dependent mainly on bacteriophages (phages) for dissemination of the virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenicity. Most phages have double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) genomes which are packaged into protein capsids attached to tails of varying morphology to form their complete virion structures. S. aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) are highly specialized mobile genetic elements that encode various virulence factors and have been named molecular pirates for their ability to parasitize certain helper phages. SaPI1 is capable of hijacking virions constructed by the helper phage 80α, partly by altering the size of the capsid to only …


Inducible T Cell Costimulator Stabilizes Regulatory T Cell Phenotype And Controls Host-Microbiota Interactions To Reduce Susceptibility To Intestinal Inflammation, Ashley Elizabeth Landuyt Jan 2021

Inducible T Cell Costimulator Stabilizes Regulatory T Cell Phenotype And Controls Host-Microbiota Interactions To Reduce Susceptibility To Intestinal Inflammation, Ashley Elizabeth Landuyt

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Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a loss-of-function mutation in the gene encoding inducible T cell costimulator ligand (ICOSL) as correlating with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The reason for this association was largely unknown. ICOS signals have been implicated in controlling the dynamics of regulatory T (Treg) cells, which are essential to intestinal homeostasis. Compared to WT mice, ICOS-deficient mice possessed fewer Treg cells in the colonic lamina propria (cLP). The deficit in ICOS-deficient Treg cell numbers was attributable to preferential loss of Foxp3 expression. Bisulfite sequencing revealed that ICOS-deficient Treg cells did not demethylate conserved noncoding sequence 2 …


Mucus Matters: Mucociliary Physiology In Chronic Lung Diseases, Jacelyn Emily Peabody Lever Jan 2021

Mucus Matters: Mucociliary Physiology In Chronic Lung Diseases, Jacelyn Emily Peabody Lever

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The mucociliary escalator is an innate defense mechanism in the lung comprised of the ciliated, pseudostratified epithelium that lines the conducting airways and the mucus that sits atop the cilia. Mucus traps inhaled particulate matter/pathogens, and the cilia brush works in concert to propel the mucin gel proximally. Therefore, proper mucociliary physiology is critical to maintaining lung health. A metachronal wave propagated across the epithelium can occur when the phase of the ciliary stroke is shifted in time relative to its neighbors. Metachrony has been hypothesized to help overcome the viscoelastic forces required for the propulsion of mucus. Still, its …


Omics Discovery For Cardiometabolic Traits In African Americans, Bre Ashanti Minniefield Jan 2021

Omics Discovery For Cardiometabolic Traits In African Americans, Bre Ashanti Minniefield

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Research shows African Americans are more likely to suffer from a chronic disease compared to other American populations. Due to the fact that African Americans are extremely underrepresented within human health research, the potential biological causes of the racial/ethnic differences are not well understood. Some of these health differences may be due to genomic variations within either the mitochondrial genome, nuclear genome, or both. To aid the revolution of inclusive human health research, we examined genomic factors related to cardiometabolic diseases in African Americans.African Americans have the highest prevalence of hypertension compared to all other American populations. With the majority …


Alternative Splicing Of Anxa7 Dictates Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Fates In Glioblastoma, Sindhu Nair Jan 2021

Alternative Splicing Of Anxa7 Dictates Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Fates In Glioblastoma, Sindhu Nair

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Alternative splicing (AS) is a tightly regulated process essential for lineage specification in complex tissues like the brain. Dysregulated splicing in glioblastoma (GBM) is a mechanism exploited by tumor cells to retain or splice out exons consequently rewiring isoform-specific protein interactions to sustain tumor phenotypes. Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) amplifications are frequent events in GBM driving tumor growth and progression and are key targets for chemotherapy. However, RTK targeting in GBM has achieved limited success predominantly due to adaptive mechanisms of resistance in a constantly evolving tumor microenvironment. Clonal populations and crosstalk between RTKs sustain heterogeneity within a tumor leading …


The Effects Of Implantoplasty On Implant Design Characteristics And Mechanical Strength, Peter Nasseh Jan 2021

The Effects Of Implantoplasty On Implant Design Characteristics And Mechanical Strength, Peter Nasseh

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Implantoplasty is defined as the mechanical removal of the implant threads and the macroscopically rough implant surface. Clinical outcomes such as probing depth and bleed-ing on probing measurements were shown to improve significantly after implantoplasty and peri-implant bone stability was achieved in the majority of the cases.This in-vitro study aims to investigate the effects of implantoplasty on the implant’s maximum compressing force and the type of failure that occurred on different implant sys-tems with different sizes, materials, collar designs and prosthetic connections. A total of 132 screw-shaped titanium implants from different manufacturers (Bi-oHorizons, Zimmer Biomet, and Nobel Biocare) and different …


The Effects Of Pubertal Timing On Psychosocial Outcomes In Adulthood, Marlon Goering Jan 2021

The Effects Of Pubertal Timing On Psychosocial Outcomes In Adulthood, Marlon Goering

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Pubertal timing has been shown to be an important predictor of adolescents’ engagement in delinquent activities, development of depressive symptoms, and academic success. Less understood is whether early or off-time pubertal timing put adolescents at risk for detrimental outcomes. Additionally, little is known about whether the effects of pubertal timing dissipate during adolescence or persist into adulthood and what underlying mechanisms may explain any persisting effects and whether these effects vary by sex. The present study aimed to answer these questions in an understudied population of predominantly African American males and females, focusing on peer deviance and school connectedness as …


Examining The Viability Of Native American Stickball As A Comprehensive Indigenous Peace System, Edison Doyle Pearce Jan 2021

Examining The Viability Of Native American Stickball As A Comprehensive Indigenous Peace System, Edison Doyle Pearce

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This study examines the viability of Native American stickball as a comprehensive peace system developed for the primary purpose of ameliorating hostilities, preventing war, and creating a landscape of peace. Originating as early as the 12th century, Native American stickball is recognized as the oldest field sport in North America. More than a game, stickball is steeped in symbolism and comprised of rich oral histories, elements of fictive kinship alliances, religious connotations, and other prosocial mechanisms designed to create and maintain peace. To determine how the interplay between these various components is adaptive through time, a three-phase research model was …


Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease In Blood Of Marrow Transplant Survivors, Radhika Gangaraju Jan 2021

Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease In Blood Of Marrow Transplant Survivors, Radhika Gangaraju

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Background: Blood or marrow transplant (BMT) recipients are vulnerable to accelerated atherosclerosis due to prior exposure to chemotherapy and radiation, and consequent long-term cardiovascular morbidity, such as coronary heart disease (CHD). A comprehensive evaluation of the risk of late-occurring CHD in adult BMT survivors and the associated risk factors has not been performed. Patients and Methods: Using the Blood or Marrow Transplant Survivor Study (BMTSS), we analyzed the incidence and risk factors for CHD in patients who underwent BMT between 1974 and 2014, and survived ≥2 years. The risk of CHD was examined in BMT survivors as compared to 1,131 …


Sialylation As A Novel Mechanism Of Radiation Resistance In Rectal Cancer, Mary Smithson Jan 2021

Sialylation As A Novel Mechanism Of Radiation Resistance In Rectal Cancer, Mary Smithson

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Locally advanced rectal cancer is treated with chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery. Most patients do not have a complete response to chemoradiotherapy, and the resistance mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigated the role of ST6GAL-1 in therapeutic resistance. ST6GAL-1 is a sialytransferase that adds the negatively charged sugar, sialic acid (Sia), to cell surface proteins in the Golgi altering their function. We hypothesized that ST6GAL-1 mediates resistance to chemoradiation in rectal cancer by inhibiting apoptosis. Patient derived xenograft (PDX) and organoid models of rectal cancer as well as rectal cancer cell lines SW837 and SW620 were assessed for ST6GAL-1 protein with …


Maxillary And Mandibular Expansion Treatment With Invisalign First: A Retrospective Study Of Virtual Prediction Versus Clinical Outcomes, Laura Constanza Rey Londono Jan 2021

Maxillary And Mandibular Expansion Treatment With Invisalign First: A Retrospective Study Of Virtual Prediction Versus Clinical Outcomes, Laura Constanza Rey Londono

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Introduction: The purpose of this retrospective study is to evaluate the maxillary and mandibular expansion achieved with Invisalign First (Align Technology, San Jose, CA) in growing children. Methods: Clinical stereolithography (STL) models of 32 patients in the mixed dentition stage, treated with the Invisalign First, were extracted from the ClinCheck software and analyzed in Dolphin imaging (version 11.95 Premium, Chatsworth, Calif) at three timepoints: T1 (initial records), T2 (virtual outcome prediction), and T3 (achieved outcome). The recorded measurements included: upper and lower primary intercanine and permanent intermolar width, upper and lower primary intercanine and permanent intermolar gingival width, upper arch …