Digital Commons Network^™

Elucidating The Functional Role Of Nitric-Oxide In Bacillus Subtilis By Proteomic Analysis, Erin R. Treece

Theses

A Nitric-oxide synthase-like (NOS) protein has been found to be present in several Gram-positive bacteria, including Bacillus subtilis. NOS generates nitric-oxide from the amino acid L-arginine via the stable intermediate N-hydroxy-L-arginine. The function of NO production in Gram-positive bacteria has not yet been elucidated, but studies indicate a function in signal transduction. In this study, a proteomic approach is used to examine the physiological role of NO in the Gram-positive model bacteria, B. subtilis. Protein profiles obtained from two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of cells grown in the presence of aminoguanidine, a known NOS inhibitor, revealed the downregulation of three proteins via …

Neural Characteristics Of Affectionate Communicators: Trait Affection And Asymmetry In The Prefrontal Cortex, Robert Joel Lewis

Theses

Individual differences in thresholds for affectionate communication should be reflected by differences in neurological structure and function. A theoretical schema from several overlapping literatures including evolutionary psychology, social neuroscience, fundamental personality, and communication are examined to make the case that high-affection communicators have greater relative electrical activity in the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) versus the right PFC reflected in asymmetrical baseline EEG recordings. Participants (N=16) reported trait-affection levels using Floyd?s (2002) TAS-G, which measures an individual?s threshold for expressing affection. Participants? baseline electrical activity was then recorded. Asymmetry was operationalized as the difference between microvolt (μV) values of laterally opposed …

The Use Of Molecular Scatology To Study River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) Genetics, Barbara Mcelwee

Theses

North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) were extirpated throughout all of Western New York due to habitat loss, pollution, and trapping. Between 1995 and 2000, 279 river otters were released throughout Western New York, 31 of which were released in the Genesee river watershed. Since their release there have been no followup studies on the river otters until the RIT River Otter Lab was formed in 2004. Researchers surveyed three local creeks to record data on toilet site locations and collect otter feces in order to perform dietary and genetic analyses. Through the use of molecular scatology I extracted DNA …

Part I: Studies Toward The Total Synthesis Of Trocheliophorolide A. Part Ii: Studies On The Development Of A Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Cross-Coupling Towards The Synthesis Of Alkenyl Alkynyl Ketones, William T. Spencer

Theses

In Part I, efforts toward the total synthesis of a novel antibacterial γ-lactone, Trocheliophorolide A, are described. The natural product was isolated from Red Sea soft corals S. trocheliophorum and L. arboreum. Biological assays show that this compound exhibits significant growth inhibition of bacterial cell lines S. aureus and B. subtilis. The structure consists of an (S)-β-angelica lactone ring connected to an ynediene side chain. Our strategy employs synthesis of the lactone ring as a stannylfuranone, which will be Stille coupled with vinylidene dibromide to form an alkenyl bromide. This alkenyl bromide will be cross-coupled with an enynyl metal species …

Color In Scientific Visualization: Perception And Image-Based Data Display, Hongqin Zhang

Theses

Visualization is the transformation of information into a visual display that enhances users understanding and interpretation of the data. This thesis project has investigated the use of color and human vision modeling for visualization of image-based scientific data. Two preliminary psychophysical experiments were first conducted on uniform color patches to analyze the perception and understanding of different color attributes, which provided psychophysical evidence and guidance for the choice of color space/attributes for color encoding. Perceptual color scales were then designed for univariate and bivariate image data display and their effectiveness was evaluated through three psychophysical experiments. Some general guidelines were …

Multimodal Breast Imaging: Registration, Visualization, And Image Synthesis, Karl Baum

Theses

The benefit of registration and fusion of functional images with anatomical images is well appreciated in the advent of combined positron emission tomography and x-ray computed tomography scanners (PET/CT). This is especially true in breast cancer imaging, where modalities such as high-resolution and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and F-18-FDG positron emission tomography (PET) have steadily gained acceptance in addition to x-ray mammography, the primary detection tool. The increased interest in combined PET/MRI images has facilitated the demand for appropriate registration and fusion algorithms. A new approach to MRI-to-PET non-rigid breast image registration was developed and evaluated based on …

Rna Genome Annotation With A Focus On T. Brucei, Brett Bucci

Theses

The goal of this project is to identify untranslated regions (UTRs) and UTR-indicating patterns in the genome of T. brucei. T. brucei is an interesting organism, and as the cause of African sleeping sickness -- which infects 300,000-500,000 people and a significant number of cattle annually -- is currently the subject of considerable research. Using existing algorithms, several patterns have been found that may lead to more complete UTR annotations in the T. brucei genome. The most encouraging sequence is the 11-base sequence GAGGGIICG]TGGGG, which appears in five hypothetical genes near the tail. Discovery of several such sequences could guide …

Fracture Healing : The Effects Of Local Insulin Delivery Via Calcium Sulfate And Tricalcium Phosphate, Sarah Elizabeth Buchala

Theses

Previous studies have documented the major role played by insulin in osseous healing. This is the first study to examine local intramedullary insulin delivery to the fracture site and its effect upon the normal fracture healing process. Preceding results show that when administered at the fracture site of the impaired fracture healing model of the diabetic BB Wistar rat, insulin will regulate early cellular proliferation and chondrogenesis and late mineralized tissue, cartilage content and mechanical strength.

In this study, two novel delivery vehicles have been evaluated for sustained insulin release in the normal fracture model of the BB Wistar rat. …

Mapping Inter-Subject And Inter-Regional Brain Connectivity During Free Viewing Of Novel Natural Scenes, Sheela Nagaraj

Theses

Traditional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have used controlled tasks such as finger tapping to isolate function in distinct cortical. Recent studies have examined the mechanisms involved during natural conditions by asking subjects to freely view the presentation of a movie. The objective of our study was to further observe the extent to which similarities are present between subjects during natural vision. It was hypothesized that there would be a linear relationship between the percentage of region-specific overlap, which is the percent of the anatomical region of interest which contains spatial activation exhibited by all six subjects, and corresponding …

Design Of Three-Dimensional Axon Stretch Growth Device, Fayekah Assanah

Theses

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) causes destruction and degeneration of axons in the white matter of the spinal cord, resulting in functional loss and paralysis. A successful treatment of SCI requires axons to regenerate across damaged regions. Current studies focus on identifying mechanisms to promote axon regeneration in lesions and have yet to be successful in preventing nerve degeneration due to scar tissue formation. Establishing axonal bridges over long distances of SCI lesions remains a challenge, resulting in poor functional recovery. Instead of relying on promoting axon regeneration into lesions, Pfister et al. has developed a transplantable nervous tissue construct spanned …

Pattern Recognition Of Brain Fmri Images For Various Physiological States, Priyanka Bhatt

Theses

The development of fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) has led many researchers to localize brain functions using different stimuli. The use of pattern recognition techniques have made it possible to predict the stimuli being presented from the corresponding brain images and activation patterns. The primary objective of the present study was to use pattern recognition methods to develop a model using available fMRJ images and then to use the model to identify the stimulus presented from a large number of unknown images. Two different experimental conditions were used involving both binary and multi-class classification. Bilateral finger tapping data which had …

Multi Well Uni-Axial Stretch Injury Device, Mridusmita Choudhury

Theses

Most diffuse brain injury is the result of uni-axial stretch of brain axons in traumatic brain injury. Traumatic injury to axons throughout the brain and is believed to be a major cause for coma, and other complications. Diffuse axonal injury is mostly multi-focal and appears throughout the deep cortical and sub-cortical regions.

Several models have tried to replicate this phenomenon. Previous models, like the Penn model, have lower throughput as they conduct experiments on one well at a time, and it has lower reproducibility as well. The other problem with these models is that they are not very user friendly, …

Utr Prediction Programs For Trypanosoma Brucei, Maria Moutafis

Theses

In the past few years, the field of bioinformatics has seen a rapid increase in the need for use of various sequence analysis tools. As we advance in the fields of science and technology, new programs and software are constantly being developed in this field. Rapidly expanding gene sequence databases and rapidly evolving sequence analysis tools are providing researchers with ways to search for highly similar query sequences whether they are nucleotide, protein, or gene databases. This thesis will focus on sequence alignment tools, specifically concentrating on tools that help determine/predict non-coding regions of sequences also known as untranslated regions …

Ultra-Fine Particle Formation Using Principle Of Rapid Expansion Of Supercritical Solutions`, Miraj Minesh Sheth

Theses

There are indications in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries that the reduction in size of a crystalline particle can lead to better performance of the drug compound, particularly for water insoluble drugs, in the final dosage form. Many particle formation techniques have been investigated in recent years by researchers to obtain desired particulate sizes and size distributions. Supercritical fluid technologies have been successfully investigated for particle formation due to its unique gas/liquid properties in the supereritical state. In this report, results of particle formation using the principles of Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Solutions (RESS) have been documented.

In the RESS …

Dexamethasone- And Age-Sensitive Genes In Neonatal Small Intestine, Carla Cerqueira

Theses

Regulation of GLUT5 is dependent on the presence of its substrate, fructose, but it is also correlated with the developmental (aging) process of the intestine. To identify fructose-responsive genes whose expression also changes with age, intestines of 10 and 20 d old pups were perfused, by Ferraris et al., with fructose and then compared by microarray analysis. From this, a gene clustering analysis revealed that some age- and fructose-specific genes are regulated by corticosterones, which normally increase in pups ≥ 14 d old. Subsequent work indicated that priming the gut with Dexamethasone (Dex, a glucocorticoid analog) allowed fructose to precociously …

The Extraction Of Type 1 Collagen And The Fabrication Of Multi-Filament Embedded Hydrogels For Guided Nerve Regeneration, Mevan Lakmal Siriwardane

Theses

Each year, there are approximately 11,000 new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) in the United States [2]. There have been some success in pre-clinical studies to induce axonal generation, but the reconnection of axons over large distances remains the greatest challenge. Since the development of nerve conduit to facilitate general axonal regeneration, the primary focus has changed to directing the regeneration of axons while also promoting their outgrowth over very extensive lesions to ensure functional recovery of transected nerves during in vitro experiments by using natural materials such as type I collagen, which is the largest constituent of the …

Imaging The Airways, Betsy Skrip

Theses

The IMAGING THE AIRWAYS thesis project is a multidiscipline and multimedia endeavor consisting of two main parts: I. 3D Modeling of a Complete Respiratory Airway for Use in Computational Flow Dynamics Studies of Particle Deposition in the Lungs and II. Creation of an Educational Animation about the Respiratory System for Use in RIT’s Human Visualization Project and CollaboRITorium. Part I involved collaboration with RIT’s Mechanical Engineering Department to construct a 3D model of one complete respiratory pathway, from the oral cavity to the site of gas exchange between the lungs and the blood. The project is a continuation of thesis …

Lightweight Objective Quality Of Voice Estimation Through Machine Learning, Daniel Riordan

Theses

Communication systems are undergoing constant and rapid innovation, both at the design stage and in the field. This in turn has led to an inereasing need for fast, efficient, portable and economic methods for the testing of these systems. For voice carrying communication systems the quality of the transmitted voice that the system produces is a large factor in the overall performance rating of the system. This measure is known as the ‘Quality of Voice’ (QoV) and can be evaluated either subjectively or objectively.

Speech quality is a complex subjective phenomenon that can be best quantified by subjective testing. A …

Detection And Molecular Epidemiological Analysis Of Acute Gastroenteritis Viruses In The South Of Ireland, Grainne Lennon

Theses

Rotavirus infections are considered to be the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis in children under the age of 5 years, and are responsible for up to 611,000 deaths annually, mainly in developing countries. From 1997 to 1999, 16 hospital laboratories in the Republic of Ireland reported to detection of 4,643 cases of rotaviral disease, while in 2004 and 2005 and increase of 1,600 and 2,251 rotavirus cases were reported. These rotavirus cases have a significant impact on the healthcare system with the minimum cost per case being €728.40. A large percentage of the infections were reported in neonates, suggesting …

Assessment Of Favorable Conditions And Potentials Of Salinity Gradients In Solar Ponds (Sgsps) And The Production Of Solar Salt Along Abu Dhabi Coasts, Huda Ali Mohammed Saeed Al Mansouri

Theses

Coastal sabkha area of Abu Dhabi extends about 300km long and 15 km wide. It consist of a series of hypersaline (47%) lagoons surrounded by salt-entrusted flat sabkhas. Temperature there may reach 60° C in the summer. Moreover, the salinity of the lagoons is very high and may reach 70%.

The objective of this study was to assess the possibility of utilizing salinity gradient in solar ponds and/or production of solar salt along Abu Dhabi coasts. This study was conducted in sabkha area which extends from Al Mafraq-Al Sil’a Highway, near the Satellites Station (kilo 255, Dy 17 Street) until …

An Investigation Into The I-Stat Chem8+ System For The Measurement Of Sodium, Potassium, Urea & Creatinine., Gene Ferris

Theses

In the hospital environment Point of Care Testing (POCT) can be an invaluable tool in Emergency departments, Theatres, Intensive Care Units and Paediatric wards by providing rapid test results without the need for transport and laboratory processing. The study design included the collection and duplicate analysis of patient samples firstly using the i-STAT and then on the Architect c8000, a routine laboratory analyser. Statistical analysis was performed in order to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in results between the i-STAT POCT system and current laboratory instrumentation. The parameters analysed were the vital biochemical parameters Sodium (Na), Potassium …

Urine Protein Electrophoresis: Comparison Of Agarose Gel And Capillary Zone Electrophoretic Techniques., Anne-Marie Curtin

Theses

Proteinuria is the excess excretion of protein in the urine and is found in a variety of conditions including renal diseases and neoplastic conditions such as multiple myeloma (MM). The investigation of proteinuria type through the use of electrophoresis is a useful and widely used non-invasive diagnostic tool. The aim of this study was to compare various agarose gel and capillary zone electrophoresis techniques in order to establish a method choice for the separation of protein in routine laboratories. Comparisons were made based on urine monoclonal peak quantification and protein fractions detected. An examination of a capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) …

Development Of An Automated Method For Csf Bilirubin Measurement., Helen Caverley

Theses

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is a potentially fatal condition which can be difficult to accurately diagnose. Patients often present with a second bleed which can be more damaging than the initial bleed. Diagnosis of SAH centres on computed tomography (CT) scans. However, 2% of patients positive for SAH will present as negative on CT scans. It is recommended that these patients have lumbar puncture and the CSF is analysed for bilirubin. The presence of bilirubin is suggestive of SAH. Spectrophotometric scanning involves expensive equipment which is often not available in routine settings. A need exists for a robust, inexpensive, automated method …

Design Of A Multiplex Pcr Assay For The Detection Of Neisseria Gonorrhoeae., Elizabeth J. O'Callaghan

Theses

The incidence of N. gonorrhoeae infections in Ireland has been steadily increasing since 2003. Culture is currently the preferred method of diagnosis, however the sensitivity of culture can be low. In recent years there has been increased interest in non-culture techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Many of the PCR assays available have been shown to cross-react with commensal organisms, producing false positive results. This study aimed to improve the detection of N. gonorrhoeae by designing a multiplex PCR assay that used two N. gonorrhoeae genes as targets, thereby providing dual detection and confirmation of a positive result. PCR …

Epidemiology And Drug Resistant Profiles Of Candida Species, In Cork Hospitals., Emma Mccurtin

Theses

Candida causes superficial infections in healthy individuals; however in the immunocompromised host Candida can cause invasive, systemic infections and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. This is not due to a more virulent phenotype but to a weakened immune system unable to fight this opportunistic pathogen. The immunocompromised population is ever increasing, due to medical advancements and more aggressive treatments, and hence is the need for epidemiological data of these potentially life threatening infections. The aim of this study was to provide an epidemiological snapshot, of Candida infections from the immunocompromised population in Cork hospitals. Surveillance programmes from …

Orthogonal Cutting Of Bone, Donal Mccrohan

Theses

The cutting of bone has been undertaken for many centuries. Research in this area is contnually progressing to achieve an efficient cutting action while reducing recovery time and rauma to the patient.

Orthogonal cutting is defined where the cutting edge of the tool is set in a position that is perpendicular to the direction of relative work or tool motion. The failure mechanisms involved in the cutting of bone, their direct relationships to cutting tool geometry and cutting direction for orthogonal cutting are not accurately defined or quantified. A study of the orthogonal cutting behaviour of bone initiated in the …

Mupirocin Resistance In Staphylococci: An Investigation Of Current Status And Potential Alternative Therapies, Susan O'Shea

Theses

Mupirocin is a topical antibiotic used in hospital infection control practices to control transmission of staphylococci, in particular MRSA, which has become a major problem in Irish hospitals and has a significant impact on patient morbidity and mortality. Overreliance on mupirocin to eradicate MRSA carriage and to prevent infection has led to mupirocin resistance among staphylococcal species. Two distinct types of resistance have developed within strains: low'-level mupirocin resistance (LMR) and high-level mupirocin resistance (HMR).

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and types of mupirocin resistance in a large population of clinical staphylococcal isolates including Methicillin …

Clostridium Difficile: Comparative Evaluation Of Two Detection Techniques And Characterisation Of Clinical Isolates., Rebecca Dennehy

Theses

Clostridium difficile is one of the most common causes of antibiotic associated diarrhoea. The presence of C difficile in stool samples may be detected by a variety of means including enzyme immunoassays and culture. Enzyme immunoassays detect the presence of the toxins produced by the organism, toxin A and/or toxin B, but are known to lack sensitivity. The aim of this study was to compare the commercial ELISA assay currently used for the detection of C difficile toxins in Waterford Regional Hospital to culture for the organism to selective media. To compare the sensitivity of the two methods serial dilutions …

The Effects Of Writing About Positive Reminiscence On Happiness With Adolescents, Alison M. Senter

Theses

Much research has been done with adults in the field of positive psychology, reminiscence, and journal writing. Previous findings reveal that reminiscing about positive memories enhances one's happiness, well-being, life satisfaction, and self-continuity. The current study sought to expand this to adolescence. A group of 19 male and female ninth graders from a northeastern, suburban high school were assigned to a positive reminiscence or a daily hassles journal writing group. Analyses revealed significant effects on participants' positive affect; journal writing in general and specifically writing only about positive memories both significantly increased participants' ratings of perceived positive affect. However, no …

The Impact Of Storage Container Materials On Iga In Human Breast Milk Stored At Two Different Temperatures, Matthew D. Jenkins

Theses

This study investigated the relationship between the type of material and the concentration of IgA in human milk stored at two temperatures over time. Twelve breastfeeding mothers participated in the study with samples of milk obtained at locations of the participant's preference and transported to the laboratory in a sterile Snappies PP container stored in a cooler filled with ice. The sample was divided up and pipetted into 12 containers. IgA concentrations were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at time zero, 9, 24, 48, 72 and 168 hours. Milk IgA concentration decreased in all containers, with the exception of polycarbonate …