Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

All ETDs from UAB

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year

Articles 1951 - 1980 of 3685

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Levels Of 23 Cytokines In Nonstimulated And Stimulated Tears Of Normal Human Subjects, Kayla Snipes Vickers Jan 2009

Levels Of 23 Cytokines In Nonstimulated And Stimulated Tears Of Normal Human Subjects, Kayla Snipes Vickers

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


The Effects Of Dietary Zinc On Growth And Reproduction Of The Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus, Kimberly Nichole Trawick Jan 2009

The Effects Of Dietary Zinc On Growth And Reproduction Of The Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus, Kimberly Nichole Trawick

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Association Between Circulating Concentrations Of Micronutrients And Risk Of Being Diagnosed With Primary Lung Cancer Among Smokers, Nuzhat Rahman Jan 2009

Association Between Circulating Concentrations Of Micronutrients And Risk Of Being Diagnosed With Primary Lung Cancer Among Smokers, Nuzhat Rahman

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Healthy Aging And The Endocrine Environment: The Association Between The Endocrine Environment And Body Composition In Postmenopausal Women, Amy K. Miskimon Jan 2009

Healthy Aging And The Endocrine Environment: The Association Between The Endocrine Environment And Body Composition In Postmenopausal Women, Amy K. Miskimon

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


The Effects Of Dietary Caffeine On Growth & Development Of The Sea Urchin, Lytechinus Variegatus , And The Zebrafish , Danio Rerio, Alicia L. Kindred Jan 2009

The Effects Of Dietary Caffeine On Growth & Development Of The Sea Urchin, Lytechinus Variegatus , And The Zebrafish , Danio Rerio, Alicia L. Kindred

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Evolutionary And Conservation Implications Of Sex Determination And Hatchling Depredation In Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, Anne Marie Leblanc Eich Jan 2009

Evolutionary And Conservation Implications Of Sex Determination And Hatchling Depredation In Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, Anne Marie Leblanc Eich

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation examines the arribada, or group nesting, phenomenon of ridley


Community Structure Of Caribbean Mangrove Root Sponges, Steven James Andrew Kimble Jan 2009

Community Structure Of Caribbean Mangrove Root Sponges, Steven James Andrew Kimble

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Histomorphometric And Bone Densitometric Analysis Of Dental Implant Sites., Rania Livada Jan 2009

Histomorphometric And Bone Densitometric Analysis Of Dental Implant Sites., Rania Livada

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Three Decades Of Terror: Domestic Violence, Patriar Chy, And The Evolution Of Female Characters In Stephen King's Fiction, James Ronald Guthrie Jan 2009

Three Decades Of Terror: Domestic Violence, Patriar Chy, And The Evolution Of Female Characters In Stephen King's Fiction, James Ronald Guthrie

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Processing And Characterization Of Banana Fibers And Their Biocomposites, Lina P. Herrera-Estrada Jan 2009

Processing And Characterization Of Banana Fibers And Their Biocomposites, Lina P. Herrera-Estrada

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Construction And Characterization Of A Portable Sound Booth For Onsite Voice Recording, Christophe E. Jackson Jan 2009

Construction And Characterization Of A Portable Sound Booth For Onsite Voice Recording, Christophe E. Jackson

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


Syndecan-4 Binds Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein-4, Tiffany Celeste Jones Jan 2009

Syndecan-4 Binds Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein-4, Tiffany Celeste Jones

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.


The Chemical Ecology Of Antarctic Sponges, Kevin J. Peters Jan 2009

The Chemical Ecology Of Antarctic Sponges, Kevin J. Peters

All ETDs from UAB

Sponges were collected from shallow waters along the western Antarctic Peninsula near Palmer Station on Anvers Island. The majority (78%) of the sponges were found to have outer tissues defended against the omnivorous, Antarctic sea star Odontaster validus. Of the species that had outer tissues defended, 62% of them also had internal tissues that inhibited feeding by O. validus. Lipophilic or hydrophilic extracts coated on artificial food pellets were found to be unpalatable for all of the sponge species tested. These data provide evidence that defenses are common survival strategies in sessile macroinvertebrates from Antarctica but that the allocation of …


Targeting Angiogenesis With Plasminogen Kringle 5, Braden Cox Mcfarland Jan 2009

Targeting Angiogenesis With Plasminogen Kringle 5, Braden Cox Mcfarland

All ETDs from UAB

The recombinant fifth kringle domain of plasminogen (rK5) has been shown to induce apoptosis of dermal microvessel endothelial cells (MvEC), and this pro-apoptotic effect required rK5 binding to cell surface glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78). GRP78 is a member of the heat shock protein family and under certain conditions is expressed on the cell surface. I am interested in identifying new anti-angiogenic therapy for glioblastoma tumors. The efficacy of certain anti-angiogenic therapy can be improved when combined with radiation, and radiation is a standard therapy for glioblastoma tumors; therefore, I investigated the pro-apoptotic effect of rK5 combined with radiation on primary …


Substitute Costs: A Method For Determining Ecological Service Values In Stormwater Management, Steven B. Mckinney Jan 2009

Substitute Costs: A Method For Determining Ecological Service Values In Stormwater Management, Steven B. Mckinney

All ETDs from UAB

Many alternatives exist for estimating the value of the natural environment. These approaches have been developed over the past 40 to 50 years and began principally because of increasing awareness that economic development had an associated cost in environmental degradation. Environmental economics provides some of the tools necessary to aid in balancing economic growth with the environmental impacts created by this growth and to do so through evaluating policy. Using environmental economics as a mechanism for policy assessment allows the evaluation of potential gains from specific courses of economic growth and of the trade-offs in environmental services that may be …


Predictors Of Self-Reported Health Status In Occupationally And Environmentally Exposed Individuals, Christie Shelton Jan 2009

Predictors Of Self-Reported Health Status In Occupationally And Environmentally Exposed Individuals, Christie Shelton

All ETDs from UAB

Every year, over 3.5 billion pounds of industrial toxins and one to two billions pounds of environmental toxins are deliberately released into the environment. Although exposures have been shown to have an adverse effect on the health of the individuals, the effect of these exposures on the self-reported health status of individuals who have been environmentally and occupationally exposed to these toxins is still unclear. The purposes of this study were to: 1) identify the best subset of predictors of self-reported health status in current/former farmers and manufacturing workers from the set of age, sex, race, blood pressure, cholesterol measures, …


Regulation Of B Cell Biology By Fcγ Receptors, Xinrui Li Jan 2009

Regulation Of B Cell Biology By Fcγ Receptors, Xinrui Li

All ETDs from UAB

B cell development, maturation and proliferation are all strictly regulated processes. Disruption of the regulatory network at any step would lead to immune disorders. The regulatory system of B cells can be considered as two layers: a general homeostasis regulation system and a specificity-based control system. General regulation of B cell homeostasis is mastered by BLyS (B Lymphocyte Stimulator) and several other BLyS family cytokines, which serve as a crucial survival factor for which transitional and mature B cells compete. Specificity-based control is achieved via B cell antigen receptors (BCRs), which serve as a determinant of whether an antigen-specific B …


Protein Trafficking And 4.1r Relocalization In Plamodium Falciparum-Infected Erythrocytes, Lindsay A. Parish Jan 2009

Protein Trafficking And 4.1r Relocalization In Plamodium Falciparum-Infected Erythrocytes, Lindsay A. Parish

All ETDs from UAB

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that is caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium. There are four species of malaria that routinely infect humans, but it is P. falciparum that is responsible for the majority of the severe and fatal cases of malaria. P. falciparum has a complex life cycle involving a mosquito vector and intracellular stages in both hepatocytes and erythrocytes; however, it is only the intraerythrocytic stages that are the cause of the pathology associated with malaria. This pathology is largely due to the ability of infected erythrocytes to cytoadhere to host microvasculature. After invasion, the parasite …


Living With Stress: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Social Capital, And Depression, John Porter Lillis Jan 2009

Living With Stress: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Social Capital, And Depression, John Porter Lillis

All ETDs from UAB

This study's objective was to determine the effects of personal and neighborhood stressors on depressive symptomology for community dwelling adults aged 65 and over. The psychosocial resource model was employed as social capital is hypothesized to be a resource and play a mediating role in the effect of both types of stressors on depressive symptomology. Individual level data utilized came from the UAB Study of Aging (N = 919) and the neighborhood level data came from the 2000 Decennial Census. Logistic regression analysis determined that neighborhood stressors had no direct or indirect effect on depressive symptomology. This analysis did show …


Mouse Modeling Of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (Pdac); Search For Early Diagnostic Markers And Therapeutic Targets, Kyoko Kojima Jan 2009

Mouse Modeling Of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (Pdac); Search For Early Diagnostic Markers And Therapeutic Targets, Kyoko Kojima

All ETDs from UAB

PDAC is a highly malignant neoplasm that carries a very poor prognosis. PDAC development is a multistage transformation process that involves multiple genetic alterations that include activation of EGFR/HER2 and KRAS, and loss-of-function mutations in INK4A/ARF, p53 and SMAD4. In recent years, several genetically engineered mouse models that accurately recapitulate human pancreatic neoplasia have been developed. Histological characterizations of those models have revealed possible roles for the mutated RAS, INK4a/ARF and p53 in pancreatic tumorigenesis. However, the role of SMAD4 mutation, which is associated with late stages of tumor progression, has yet to be explored. Additionally, those models that would …


Stress And Support Among Southern Lesbians: An Application Of The Stress Process Model, Jay A. Irwin Jan 2009

Stress And Support Among Southern Lesbians: An Application Of The Stress Process Model, Jay A. Irwin

All ETDs from UAB

The research question to be addressed in this dissertation is: Among adult Southern lesbians, does stress, social support, family ties, and social capital affect feelings of well-being among adult lesbians? Well-being is operationalized as depressive symptoms in this investigation. A study of this magnitude has not been conducted on such a population in previous work, either in sexuality research, or in the stress literature. This dissertation uses the stress process model as the main theoretical perspective and contributes to the existing literature on minority populations regarding the importance of stress, resources, and mental health. Lesbians in the Southern region of …


Genome Copy Number Profiles Of African-American And European-American Early-Onset Breast Cancer, Tyesha Latrece Farmer Jan 2009

Genome Copy Number Profiles Of African-American And European-American Early-Onset Breast Cancer, Tyesha Latrece Farmer

All ETDs from UAB

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related death among women in the United States, surpassed only by lung cancer. It is estimated that over 200,000 women developed breast cancer and more than 40,000 died of the disease in 2008 alone. Although the overall incidence of breast cancer is lower in African-American women, the incidence of early-onset breast cancer is higher than that observed in European-American women. African-American women also have higher mortality rates due to this disease than those observed in their European-American counterparts. Breast cancer exhibits heterogeneity at the molecular, cellular, and clinical levels, and the …


Occupational Stress, Dietary Self-Efficacy, Eating Habits And Body Composition In Police Officers, Rebecca Witten Grizzle Jan 2009

Occupational Stress, Dietary Self-Efficacy, Eating Habits And Body Composition In Police Officers, Rebecca Witten Grizzle

All ETDs from UAB

Obesity is a paramount public health threat in the U.S. as approximately twothirds of the adult population is overweight. Police officers have an even higher prevalence of overweight and obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors. Police officers often attribute their above average cardiovascular disease risk to shift work, jobrelated stress, and poor dietary habits while working. Occupational stress is a major concern among police officers. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationships among occupational stress, obesity, and diet habits. However, few research studies have characterized these relationships in police officers. The specific aims of this study were to determine …


Determinants Of Growth Hormone Receptor Downregulation, Luqin Deng Jan 2009

Determinants Of Growth Hormone Receptor Downregulation, Luqin Deng

All ETDs from UAB

Growth hormone (GH), a 22 kD polypeptide primarily produced in the anterior pituitary gland, is a key regulator of postnatal growth and affects carbohydrate, protein and lipid metabolism. Growth hormone receptor (GHR) is a single membrane-spanning type Ⅰ glycoprotein of the cytokine receptor family and is initially synthesized as a precursor and undergoes carbohydrate processing during transport through the Golgi. It has no intrinsic kinase activity. One molecule of GH binding to predimerized GHR on the cell surface induces the receptor conformational change activating the cytoplasmic domainassociated tyrosine kinase, Janus Kinase 2 (JAK2), which phosphorylates GHR, followed by the activation …


Evolutionary And Conservation Implications Of Sex Determination And Hatchling Depredation In Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, Anne Marie Leblanc Eich Jan 2009

Evolutionary And Conservation Implications Of Sex Determination And Hatchling Depredation In Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles, Anne Marie Leblanc Eich

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation examines the arribada, or group nesting, phenomenon of ridley turtles and its' ecological and evolutionary significance regarding certain aspects of reproduction such as egg survival, hatchling survival, and sex ratios. The initial two chapters test the role of non-steady moisture or temperature on sex ratios produced by the arribada nesting behavior. The first chapter addresses the potential effects of a nest's hydric environment on sex ratios using the red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta, as a laboratory model since it possesses a temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) pattern similar to that of sea turtles. The results indicate that daily water treatments …


The Potential Role Of Vh Replacement In Editing And Generating Autoreactive Antibodies, Run Fan Jan 2009

The Potential Role Of Vh Replacement In Editing And Generating Autoreactive Antibodies, Run Fan

All ETDs from UAB

VH replacement occurs through RAG-mediated secondary recombination between an upstream VH gene and an existing VHDJH joint. In the first part of this dissertation, we focused on the potential regulation of VH replacement in the human B lineage EU12 cells muHC+ population, which underwent spontaneous VH replacement during in vitro culture. We cloned one of the dominant IgH genes, A19H, expressed in the EU12 muHC+ cells, and generated recombinant antibodies. We found that these recombinant antibodies recognize SM antigens. The anti-SM reactivity of A19H can not be efficiently neutralized by a randomly selected group of fourteen IgL chains from healthy …


Insulin Signaling And Function In Osteoblasts, Keertik S. Fulzele Jan 2009

Insulin Signaling And Function In Osteoblasts, Keertik S. Fulzele

All ETDs from UAB

Insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) are evolutionarily conserved hormonal signaling pathways with structurally similar ligands and receptors. Recent stu-dies suggest that that insulin and IGF-1 exert distinct as well as overlapping functions to regulate different aspects of skeletal development. A major problem in distinguishing the actions of insulin and IGF-1 is the fact that the receptors are co-expressed in many cell types and each ligand is able to cross-activate the other ligands' receptor. To distinguish direct skeletal actions of insulin from that of IGF-1, we have conditionally disrupted each receptor in vitro and in vivo specifically in osteoblasts. Studies …


Patterns Of Differential Mrna And Protein Expression During Minus Lens Compensation And Recovery In Tree Shrew Sclera, Hong Gao Jan 2009

Patterns Of Differential Mrna And Protein Expression During Minus Lens Compensation And Recovery In Tree Shrew Sclera, Hong Gao

All ETDs from UAB

During the juvenile period of human development, an emmetropization mechanism uses visual signals to precisely guide the axial length elongation rate of the eyes to the optical power to keep the images in sharp focus. However, almost a third of the U.S. population develops axial myopia, in which the eye is elongated relative to the focal plane. The aims of the study were to examine 27 genes and 6 proteins in tree shrew sclera for potential differential expression patterns during minus lens compensation and dur-ing recovery. The study hypothesized that, in response to hyperopia produced by a -5 D lens, …


Regulation Of The Human Heme Oxygenase-1 Gene By Nitro-Linoleic Acid, Macienne M. Wright Jan 2009

Regulation Of The Human Heme Oxygenase-1 Gene By Nitro-Linoleic Acid, Macienne M. Wright

All ETDs from UAB

Nitro-fatty acids (NO-FA) exert anti-inflammatory effects in the vasculature. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) degrades heme into iron, biliverdin, and carbon monoxide and is up-regulated as an adaptive and protective response to inflammatory processes. This dissertation examined whether nitro-linoleic acid (LNO2) induced HO-1 gene expression and evaluated the molecular mechanism of induction in human aortic endothelial (HAEC), human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) and mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells. LNO2 induced HO-1 mRNA and protein in HAEC at the level of transcription. NO scavenging by carboxy-PTIO partially reversed LNO2–mediated induction of HO-1, suggesting that LNO2 acts via NO-dependent and NO-independent mechanisms of …


Protective Mechanisms Of Apoa-I Mimetic Peptide Action In Sepsis-Induced Tissue Injury, Zhenghao Zhang Jan 2009

Protective Mechanisms Of Apoa-I Mimetic Peptide Action In Sepsis-Induced Tissue Injury, Zhenghao Zhang

All ETDs from UAB

Sepsis is among the top ten causes of death in the US, and it is associated with severe inflammatory tissue damage and organ dysfunction. Reduced plasma high density lipoprotein (HDL) is associated with increased mortality in septic patients. Since raising plasma apolipoprotein (apo) A-I and HDL may reduce sepsis complications, we tested the hypothesis that the apoA-I mimetic peptide 4F confers similar protective effects in two animal models of sepsis, and explored the possible mechanisms. In endotoxemic rats, inflammatory mediators were significantly induced while blood pressure was significantly reduced by 6hr. The impaired arterial response to vasoconstrictors was related to …