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Analysis Of The Role Of Fcrl5 And Figlers In B Cell Development, Signaling, And Malignancy, Christopher L. Haga Jan 2008

Analysis Of The Role Of Fcrl5 And Figlers In B Cell Development, Signaling, And Malignancy, Christopher L. Haga

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The regulation of signaling and migration is critical to B lymphocyte development, activation, and proliferation. This dissertation reports a functional role for Fc receptor-like molecule 5 (FCRL5), a B cell specific member of the Fc receptor-like family of molecules, and the discovery of a novel family of conserved transmembrane proteins with fibronectin, immunoglobulin, and leucine-rich repeat domains (FIGLER) expressed in bone marrow and B lineage cells. Until now, the signaling potential of FCRL5 was unknown. A panel of FcRIIB/FCRL5 chimeric receptors were created and expressed in a B cell line lacking endogenous FcRIIB. Coligation of the chimeric receptor with the …

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice And No Child Left Behind: A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Experiences, Linda Marie Hogue Jan 2008

Developmentally Appropriate Practice And No Child Left Behind: A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Experiences, Linda Marie Hogue

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The authorization of The Elementary and Secondary Act—No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 provided new federal guidelines for accountability in the United States. As a result, schools are required to provide statistical data through standardized test scores to measure adequate yearly progress benchmarks set by each state. The agenda of the federal government was to force school equity for all children. Since the inception of NCLB, teachers have begun the struggle of meeting the demands of federal, state, and local guidelines that impose harsh penalties if benchmarks are not attained by their students. The National Association for the …

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Techniques For Context-Free Grammar Induction And Applications, Faizan Javed Jan 2008

Techniques For Context-Free Grammar Induction And Applications, Faizan Javed

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Grammar Inference is the process of learning a grammar from examples, either positive (i.e., the grammar generates the string) and/or negative (i.e., the grammar does not generate the string). Although grammar inference has been successfully applied to many diverse domains such as speech recognition and robotics, its application to software engineering has been limited. This research investigates the applicability of grammar inference to software engineering and programming language development challenge problems, where grammar inference offers an innovative solution to the problem, while remaining tractable and within the scope of that problem. Specifically, the following challenges are addressed in this research: …

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Performance Characterization And Reconfiguration Of Wireless Sensor Networks, Parag P. Joshi Jan 2008

Performance Characterization And Reconfiguration Of Wireless Sensor Networks, Parag P. Joshi

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Some attributes of a wireless sensor network (WSN) are its large scale of deployment, possible harsh ambient conditions, and limited resource budgets. Therefore, minimizing the demand placed on resource utilization is vital. WSN applications that require binary or quantized information are of interest owing to the resulting savings in bandwidth and power. Two very important applications of binary WSNs are target localization and target detection. Optimizing a multi-modal surface to estimate a target’s location and power is a highly complex problem. Deterministic and stochastic approaches are computationally intensive and sluggish or converge to local minima, causing large estimation errors. This …

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Mechanism Of Interferon-Beta-Mediated Inhibition Of Il-8 Gene Expression, Travis Laver Jan 2008

Mechanism Of Interferon-Beta-Mediated Inhibition Of Il-8 Gene Expression, Travis Laver

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Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a potent chemoattractant of numerous cells, particularly neutrophils, in the innate immune response. In addition to immune functions, IL-8 is known to contribute to the pathogenesis of a number of diseases, including cancer. Interferon-β (IFN-β), a Type I interferon, inhibits the expression of IL-8, but the details of this effect are not known. In this study we investigate transcriptional control of the IL- 8 gene and the mechanism by which IFN-β exerts inhibitory effects on IL-8. Herein we show that stimulation of U87-MG glioma cells with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) results in a rapid recruitment of NF-κB …

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Air Pollution And Preterm Births In Atlanta, Georgia, Corey Masuca Jan 2008

Air Pollution And Preterm Births In Atlanta, Georgia, Corey Masuca

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Exposure to ambient outdoor air pollution exposure is one of the many extraneous factors associated with preterm births. Many epidemiological studies involving preterm births and ambient air pollution have repeatedly indicated positive associations. However, for many such studies, results may be statistically significant but weakly associated or inconclusive. Such results may be primarily attributable to the fact that most studies include only single or multiple criteria air pollutants but not the total air pollution mixture of criteria air pollutants and air toxic pollutants (e.g., PAHs) to which people are actually exposed. This study assessed associations between pollutant classes, including criteria …

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Reading Teachers' Attitudes Toward Scripted Reading Programs: A Multiple Case Study, Holly G. Morgan Jan 2008

Reading Teachers' Attitudes Toward Scripted Reading Programs: A Multiple Case Study, Holly G. Morgan

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In the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2002), reading teachers have been faced with new challenges and pressures, including reading curricula. Many schools have scrambled to purchase materials that are labeled as being scientifically researched (Vogt & Shearer, 2007). As a result of the influx of scripted reading programs, the educational field has been flooded with primarily quantitative research that was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific program. In addition, much of this research regarding the effectiveness of scripted reading programs has been promoted by the publishing companies themselves. The reading teachers’ attitudes toward …

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Carbon Nanotube/Epoxy Nanocomposi Tes: Effect Of Interfacial Chemistry And Processing On Molecular Mobility, Cure Behavior, Morphology And Properties, Mohamed A. Abdalla Jan 2008

Carbon Nanotube/Epoxy Nanocomposi Tes: Effect Of Interfacial Chemistry And Processing On Molecular Mobility, Cure Behavior, Morphology And Properties, Mohamed A. Abdalla

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No abstract provided.

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The Impact Of Feedback On Self-Rated Driving Ability Among Older Adults, Michelle Lynn Ackerman Jan 2008

The Impact Of Feedback On Self-Rated Driving Ability Among Older Adults, Michelle Lynn Ackerman

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No abstract provided.

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The Role Of Community-Based Programs In Addressing Health Disparities As It Relates To Breast And Cervical Cancer In African American Women: A Systematic Review Of Studies, Rashaan Anderson Jan 2008

The Role Of Community-Based Programs In Addressing Health Disparities As It Relates To Breast And Cervical Cancer In African American Women: A Systematic Review Of Studies, Rashaan Anderson

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In an effort to extrapolate the detail intricacies of how community-based programs impact public health a systematic review of the literature was performed. This research will examine ways in which community based programs reduce health disparities in breast and cervical cancer in African American women. The primary mechanism used to identify appropriate citations for systematic review and inclusion was performed using the PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CancerLit and PsychINFO online databases. Key-word searches to be included for were the terms community, community based participatory research, community-based organizations, community coalitions, non for profit organizations, action plan, action research, grassroots organizations, community …

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Strengthening And Rehabilitation Of Steel Bridge Girders Using Cfrp Laminates, Ahmed Sabri Abd-El-Meguid Jan 2008

Strengthening And Rehabilitation Of Steel Bridge Girders Using Cfrp Laminates, Ahmed Sabri Abd-El-Meguid

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hile traditional retrofitting methods for steel bridge girders could be time consuming and uneconomical, an alternative repair method is suggested using Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) laminate strips, providing engineers with a competitive solution that will increase the life-cycle of repaired bridges. This study investigated its feasibility as an option to strengthen and rehabilitate steel bridges. The main advantages of using CFRP laminates are their light weight and durability, which results in ease of handling and maintenance. The dissertation conducted experimental and analytical work to evaluate the effectiveness of strengthening steel beams by the use of novel CFRP laminate strips …

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Multiracial Tobacco, Alcohol, And Drug Use: An Investigation Of The Function Of Racial Identity In A Longitudinal Sample From Youth To Young Adulthood, Julia Katrina Crumly Jan 2008

Multiracial Tobacco, Alcohol, And Drug Use: An Investigation Of The Function Of Racial Identity In A Longitudinal Sample From Youth To Young Adulthood, Julia Katrina Crumly

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The purpose of the research is threefold. The first purpose is to determine if multiracial individuals are at a higher risk for alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. The second purpose is to determine the relationship between racial identity and risk behaviors. The third purpose is to determine how the change/no change of racial identity longitudinally contributes to one’s risk to engage in risk behaviors. A national representative longitudinal data set was obtained and analyzed for the purpose of this study. Results of the study reveal that there are differences in multiracial groups for risk behaviors, minority identification is not necessarily …

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The Effects Of Maternal Prenatal Insults On The Bmi Growth Trajectory Of Children Between The Ages Of 5-12 Years, Anthony Goudie Jan 2008

The Effects Of Maternal Prenatal Insults On The Bmi Growth Trajectory Of Children Between The Ages Of 5-12 Years, Anthony Goudie

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The level of childhood obesity in the United States is at epidemic proportions. Most population studies looking at the factors contributing to childhood obesity focus on obesity as a dichotomous outcome. The purpose of this study is to test for the effects of maternal prenatal insult behaviors on the growth trajectory of a sample of children 5-12 years of age in the United States. This is the first known study to use a latent growth curve model and a cohort-concurrent analytical design to test the association between maternal prenatal insult behaviors and the annual longitudinal increase in body mass index …

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Gender Difference In Cardiovascular Risk Indicator And Cardiovascular Disease Among Veterans With Ptsd, Elizabeth Frazier Jan 2008

Gender Difference In Cardiovascular Risk Indicator And Cardiovascular Disease Among Veterans With Ptsd, Elizabeth Frazier

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Using the allostatic load model of disease processes, this study investigated gender differences on cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular disease among PTSD and MDD veterans. Cross-sectional analysis of 884 de-identified veteran's data from four VISN7 primary care clinics was completed via ANCOVAs and binary logistic regression analyses. Veterans with PTSD had significantly higher levels of SBP. Among female veterans without PTSD, MDD was associated with increased DBP. Among veterans with neither PTSD nor MDD, male veterans had higher levels of DBP. Veterans without PTSD and men had higher rates of cardiovascular disease. Study results support continued focus on gender differences in …

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Growth Hormone Signaling And Action In Osteoblasts, Douglas J. Digirolamo Jan 2008

Growth Hormone Signaling And Action In Osteoblasts, Douglas J. Digirolamo

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Growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) exert profound growth promoting actions during pre- and post-natal skeletal development. GH and IGF- 1 appear to cause these anabolic actions by influencing a variety of effects on osteoblast proliferation, differentiation, and survival. However, because GH stimulates the production of IGF-1 from the liver and other GH-responsive peripheral tissues, including bone, the individual contributions of these two molecules to anabolic responses in bone remains poorly defined. In this dissertation research, I sought to distinguish the direct and indirect (IGF-1 dependent) GH actions on osteoblasts. In the first section of this thesis, I …

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Effects Of Aerobic Exercise On The Asthmatic Lung, Matthew M. Hewitt Jan 2008

Effects Of Aerobic Exercise On The Asthmatic Lung, Matthew M. Hewitt

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Asthma is identified by the clinical symptoms of wheezing, chest tightness, dyspnea and cough, and by the presence of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) to inhaled stimuli. We have reported previously that repeated bouts of moderate intensity aerobic exercise attenuate airway inflammatory responses in a mouse model of atopic asthma. Because the effects of exercise on physiological responses are dependent upon several variables, including total exercise duration, the hypothesis of the current work was that differing amounts of moderate intensity aerobic exercise exert dissimilar effects on AHR and airway inflammation. The aims to test this hypothesis included: 1) determine the effect of …

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Molecular Regulation Of Pax5-Mediated Biological Functions, Ti He Jan 2008

Molecular Regulation Of Pax5-Mediated Biological Functions, Ti He

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B lineage cells are major players in the adaptive immune system. Pax5 is essential for B lineage cell development and function. Pax5 controls B lineage cell developmental progression by regulating expression of many B lineage specific genes and the B lineage specific VH to DJH recombination; and the meantime, Pax5 also represses the transcription of lineage- and developmental stage- inappropriate genes to restrict the B lineage developmental pathway. It is not clear how Pax5-mediated function can be regulated to fulfill its role in different biological reactions. In this dissertation, we focused on the study of the molecular regulation of Pax5-mediated …

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Biogenesis, Trafficing, And Function Of Wild-Type And Mutant Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (Cftr), Asta Jurkuvenaite Jan 2008

Biogenesis, Trafficing, And Function Of Wild-Type And Mutant Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (Cftr), Asta Jurkuvenaite

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease resulting from mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), a cAMP-activated chloride channel that functions at the apical surface of epithelial cells and plays a critical role in mucociliary clearance. The most common mutation in the CFTR gene involves a deletion of phenylalanine at position 508 in the protein (ΔF508 CFTR). ΔF508 CFTR is recognized as misfolded in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is degraded. In vitro manipulations such as culturing cells at 27°C can “rescue” ΔF508 CFTR to the plasma membrane (rΔF508 CFTR), but no pharmacological agent has produced comparable …

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Wavelet-Based Regression And Classification For Longitudinal Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data, William R. Prucka Jan 2008

Wavelet-Based Regression And Classification For Longitudinal Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data, William R. Prucka

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Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique capable of in vivo characterization of the spatial and angular dependence of free water diffusion in tissue. By studying intra- and extra-cellular water mobility, inference can be made about the surrounding medium. The non-uniform angular dependence of diffusion, known as anisotropy, is evident in fibrous tissues, which exhibit greater diffusion parallel versus perpendicular to the fiber orientation. DTI’s sensitivity to anisotropy makes it an effective tool for measuring the integrity of fibrous myelinated white matter tracts in the brain. For demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), DTI has …

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The Role Of Ddx3 In Regulating Apoptosis, P53 And Snail, Mianen Sun Jan 2008

The Role Of Ddx3 In Regulating Apoptosis, P53 And Snail, Mianen Sun

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Cancer is a common disease that causes high rates of lethality. Resistance to cancer therapy is one major obstacle for producing an effective cancer treatment. Clarifying mechanisms of cancer development, such as resistance to apoptosis and metastasis, can provide important information for developing effective cancer treatment strategies. In the present study, DDX3 was demonstrated to have effects on both responses to cancer treatment and cancer development. DDX3 together with glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) was found to impede death receptor-induced apoptosis, which is important because death receptors are activated by some cancer treatments. Additionally, DDX3 was shown to regulate two proteins …

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Mapks Regulate Nuclear Import Of Human Papillomavirus Type 11 Replicative Helicase E1, Jei-Hwa Yu Jan 2008

Mapks Regulate Nuclear Import Of Human Papillomavirus Type 11 Replicative Helicase E1, Jei-Hwa Yu

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Papillomaviruses (PV) are prevalent pathogens that infect human or animal squamous epithelia. Its genome is a double strand circular DNA of approximately 7.9 kb. It contains origin of replication (ori) and encodes early viral proteins for viral DNA amplication, and late capsid proteins for packaging viron. The viral DNA replicates as extrachromosomal nuclear plasmid in the host cell. Infections by low risk virus, such as HPV-6 and -11, can result in benign papillomas, condylomata, and low grade squamous intraepithelial dysplasias (SIL), whereas infection by high risk virus, such as HPV-16 and -18, can progress to high grade SIL, carcinoma in …

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Development Of Method For Measurement Of Passive Losses In Cr2+:Znse And Cr2+:Zns Laser Crystals Using Polarized Laser Beam, Anitha Arumugam Jan 2008

Development Of Method For Measurement Of Passive Losses In Cr2+:Znse And Cr2+:Zns Laser Crystals Using Polarized Laser Beam, Anitha Arumugam

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Measurement of total attenuation in transition metal doped crystals is still an opened field and needs further research and development. In this investigation we developed a method for measurement of passive losses in Cr2+:ZnSe and Cr2+:ZnS laser crystals using polarized laser beam. A method for loss measurement, the Transmission Comparison Method, has been taken into consideration and modified to quantify the sample loss which in our case is larger than the extremely small loss measured in the Transmission Comparison Method. The developed method was then used to measure the surface reflectivity losses, intrinsic material absorption, and internal volumetric scattering, all …

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Potential Iatrogenic Effects On Enamel Treated With A Light Cured Flouride Releasing Filled Resin, Henry G. Griggs Jan 2008

Potential Iatrogenic Effects On Enamel Treated With A Light Cured Flouride Releasing Filled Resin, Henry G. Griggs

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White spot lesions have long been a problem in fixed appliance orthodontic treatment. Various methods of prevention have been used in the past, most requiring patient compliance. The use of non-compliant orthodontic sealants to form a barrier on the facial surface of the tooth has been attempted in the past with limited success due mainly to the inability of composite resins to fully polymerize. Pro Seal(Reliance Orthodontic Products, Inc, Itasca, IL) is new product which claims to fully polymerize and provide protection from white spot lesions during orthodontic treatment. In vitro studies support this claim. The side effects of acid …

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The Use Of Modeling Tools In The Analysis Of Functional Requirements, Gopi Kamadia Jan 2008

The Use Of Modeling Tools In The Analysis Of Functional Requirements, Gopi Kamadia

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The thesis offers an Object-Oriented analysis methodology to investigate the functional requirements of software systems with modeling technologies, such as Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Systems Modeling Language (SysML). The main focus of the analysis is to discover objects and describe them in the problem domain. The thesis also proposes a validation process for the requirements stage of the development life cycle with an Acclaro Design For Six Sigma (DFSS) approach. A software development experiment is carried out with a case study of a threedimensional graphics game. The game is first implemented without following any sound analysis process and then …

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Heroes, Jacob Melvin Jan 2008

Heroes, Jacob Melvin

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This thesis is a collection of five personal essays dealing with moral ambiguity. The essays fit into the genre of Creative Nonfiction. Moral ambiguity is a theme that can be traced throughout the history of literature. This thesis blends the elements of literature and nonfiction in order to craft essays around a theme of moral complexity.

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Multi-Material Contact For Computational Structural Mechanics, Kenneth Cline Walls Jan 2008

Multi-Material Contact For Computational Structural Mechanics, Kenneth Cline Walls

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Multi-material Eulerian formulations in computational structural mechanics are traditionally approached using mixed-element thermodynamic or constitutive models. These traditional approaches replace contacting materials in an element with an equivalent, single material. However, this approximation often has little basis in the actual physics taking place at the contacting boundary. This work presents a significant departure from traditional Eulerian contact models by solving the conservation equations in each material separately and then imposing inequality constraints associated with contact to the solutions for each material with the appropriate traction integrals included. The advantages of this method are demonstrated with several computational examples. This work …

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Electrospun Tri-Layer Micro/Nano-Fibrous Scaffold For Vascular Tissue Engineering, Xing Zhang Jan 2008

Electrospun Tri-Layer Micro/Nano-Fibrous Scaffold For Vascular Tissue Engineering, Xing Zhang

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No abstract provided.

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The Arms Of Safety: Al Lingo And The Strategy Of Massive Interference, 1963-1965, Christopher Joel Ewing Jan 2008

The Arms Of Safety: Al Lingo And The Strategy Of Massive Interference, 1963-1965, Christopher Joel Ewing

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No abstract provided.

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Awareness Of Functional Difficulties In Mild Cognitive Impairment: Relation To Cognitive Variables And Mood, Ozioma C. Okonkwo Jan 2008

Awareness Of Functional Difficulties In Mild Cognitive Impairment: Relation To Cognitive Variables And Mood, Ozioma C. Okonkwo

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No abstract provided.

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The Role Of Bhlh Gene Ash1 In The Developing Chick Eye, Weiming Mao Jan 2008

The Role Of Bhlh Gene Ash1 In The Developing Chick Eye, Weiming Mao

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No abstract provided.

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