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Mormon Characters In Young Adult Novels, Toni E. Pilcher Mar 2012

Mormon Characters In Young Adult Novels, Toni E. Pilcher

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents the analysis of Mormon characters in seven young adult novels: Emily Wing Smith's The Way He Lived and Back When You Were Easier to Love, Louise Plummer's A Dance for Three, A.E. Cannon's Charlotte's Rose, Kimberly Heuston's The Shakeress, Susan Campbell Bartoletti's The Boy Who Dared, and Angela Morrison's Taken by Storm. The characters in these novels are negatively stereotyped as typical Mormons. In four of the novels, the characters are stereotyped by other Mormon characters. In two of the novels, the characters are stereotyped by non-Mormon characters. The Mormon narrators …

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Power By Possession: Cuban-American Types And Collecting In The Agüero Sisters, Ashley Noelle Walton Mar 2012

Power By Possession: Cuban-American Types And Collecting In The Agüero Sisters, Ashley Noelle Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Although many other ethnic and cultural studies have moved beyond essentialist labels and categories, Cuban-American studies persists in categorizing the people belonging to the cultural group in terms of how much time they have spent in Cuba, thus creating a hierarchy of "authentic" Cuban-ness. Isabel Alvarez Borland gives a comprehensive overview of Cuban-American literary categories, and through her description we can see how these categories may lend themselves to stratification. These categories include: the first generation, the second generation, the one-and-a-halfer, and the ethnic writer. To say that one generation of Cuban exiles is more or less authentically Cuban discounts …

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Rhythms Of Times And Places, Bettye Pope Mar 2012

Rhythms Of Times And Places, Bettye Pope

Theses and Dissertations

Artist Statement I am inspired by living in multiple environments and experiencing many regions of the United States. My imagery varies from references to landscapes to geometric abstractions of quilt patterns. My media consists of acrylics, oils, and pastels on supports including fabric, canvas, or paper. Mixed media allows me to add multiple layers in creating visual textures, depth, and energy to draw in my viewers. The media is glazed, flowed, dripped, sprayed, rolled, scraped, and scrubbed into my interpretations of natural elements and geometric patterns. My landscape paintings are of observations of nature, and I attempt to capture the …

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Predicting Maximal Oxygen Consumption (Vo2max) Levels In Adolescents, Brent A. Shepherd Mar 2012

Predicting Maximal Oxygen Consumption (Vo2max) Levels In Adolescents, Brent A. Shepherd

Theses and Dissertations

Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) is considered by many to be the best overall measure of an individual's cardiovascular health. Collecting the measurement, however, requires subjecting an individual to prolonged periods of intense exercise until their maximal level, the point at which their body uses no additional oxygen from the air despite increased exercise intensity, is reached. Collecting VO2max data also requires expensive equipment and great subject discomfort to get accurate results. Because of this inherent difficulty, it is often avoided despite its usefulness. In this research, we propose a set of Bayesian hierarchical models to predict VO2max levels in adolescents, …

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Mathematical Framework For Early System Design Validation Using Multidisciplinary System Models, Bradley Jared Larson Mar 2012

Mathematical Framework For Early System Design Validation Using Multidisciplinary System Models, Bradley Jared Larson

Theses and Dissertations

A significant challenge in the design of multidisciplinary systems (e.g., airplanes, robots, cell phones) is to predict the effects of design decisions at the time these decisions are being made early in the design process. These predictions are used to choose among design options and to validate design decisions. System behavioral models, which predict a system's response to stimulus, provide an analytical method for evaluating a system's behavior. Because multidisciplinary systems contain many different types of components that have diverse interactions, system behavioral models are difficult to develop early in system design and are challenging to maintain as designs are …

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Accuracy Of Automated Grammatical Tagging Of Narrative Language Samples From Spanish-Speaking Children, Tyson Gordon Harmon Mar 2012

Accuracy Of Automated Grammatical Tagging Of Narrative Language Samples From Spanish-Speaking Children, Tyson Gordon Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

The present study measured the accuracy of automated grammatical tagging software as compared to manual tagging in Spanish-speaking children's personal and fictional event narrative language samples. Studies have identified articles, clitic (contracted with a verb) pronouns, and verbs as clinical markers for language impairment in Spanish-speaking children. Automated grammatical tagging software may aid in the rapid identification of these grammatical markers. Grammatical morphemes of 30 first and fourth grade children's personal and fictional event narrative samples were tagged and compared with their respective manually tagged samples. The accuracy of word-level coding averaged 91%, and similar accuracy was found for clinically …

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Plant-Soil Feedbacks And Subalpine Fir Facilitation In Aspen-Conifer Forests, Joshua R. Buck Mar 2012

Plant-Soil Feedbacks And Subalpine Fir Facilitation In Aspen-Conifer Forests, Joshua R. Buck

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes two studies. The first study examined changes in soil characteristics as a result of prolonged conifer dominance in successional aspen-conifer forests. Changing disturbance patterns in aspen-conifer forests appear to be altering successional dynamics that favors conifer expansion in aspen forests. The primary objective of this paper was to identify how increasing conifer dominance that develops in later successional stages alters forest soil characteristics. Soil measurements were collected along a stand composition gradient: aspen dominated, aspen-conifer mix, conifer dominated and open meadow, which includes the range of conditions that exists through the stages of secondary succession in aspen-conifer …

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An Object-Based Image Analysis Of Treated And Untreated Pinyon And Juniper Woodlands Across The Great Basin, April Hulet Mar 2012

An Object-Based Image Analysis Of Treated And Untreated Pinyon And Juniper Woodlands Across The Great Basin, April Hulet

Theses and Dissertations

Land managers need to rapidly assess vegetation composition and bare ground to effectively evaluate, manage, and restore shrub steppe communities that have been encroached by pinyon and juniper (P-J) trees. A major part of this process is assessing where to apply mechanical and prescribed fire treatments to reduce fuel loads and maintain or restore sagebrush steppe rangelands. Geospatial technologies, particularly remote sensing, offers an efficient option to assess rangelands across multiple spatial scales while reducing the need for ground-based sampling measurements. High-spatial resolution color-infrared imagery (0.06-m pixels) was acquired for sagebrush steppe communities invaded by P-J trees at five sites …

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Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum), Native Grasses, And Small Mammals In The Great Basin: A Test Of The Apparent Competition Hypothesis Facilitated By A Novel Method Of Decanting Seeds From A Flotation Solution, Jacob Elias Lucero Mar 2012

Cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum), Native Grasses, And Small Mammals In The Great Basin: A Test Of The Apparent Competition Hypothesis Facilitated By A Novel Method Of Decanting Seeds From A Flotation Solution, Jacob Elias Lucero

Theses and Dissertations

The effect of shared enemies between invasive and native species has been argued to facilitate biological invasions (i.e., the apparent competition hypothesis or ACH). This study investigated a previously untested possibility: whether granivorous small mammals facilitate cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion by driving food-mediated apparent competition between cheatgrass and native grasses. Specifically, we tested three predictions that must be true if such apparent competition occurs. First, cheatgrass invasion augments total seeds available to granivorous small mammals. Second, density of granivorous small mammals increases in response to increased seed availability (simulated with experimental additions of cheatgrass seeds). Third, granivorous small …

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Using Agent-Based Models To Understand Multi-Operator Supervisory Control, Yisong Guo Mar 2012

Using Agent-Based Models To Understand Multi-Operator Supervisory Control, Yisong Guo

Theses and Dissertations

As technology advances, many practical applications require human-controlled robots. For such applications, it is useful to determine the optimal number of robots an operator should control to maximize human efficiency given different situations. One way to achieve this is through computer simulations of team performance. In order to factor in various parameters that may affect team performance, an agent-based model will be used. Agent-based modeling is a computational method that enables a researcher to create, analyze, and experiment with models composed of agents that interact within an environment [12]. We construct an agent-based model of humans interacting with robots, and …

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Addressing Functional Decline And Psychosocial Needs In Hospitalized Elderly, Rebecca A. Porier Mar 2012

Addressing Functional Decline And Psychosocial Needs In Hospitalized Elderly, Rebecca A. Porier

Theses and Dissertations

Do hospitalized geriatric patients have better outcomes such as increased patient satisfaction, decreased length of stay, and decreased readmission rates with specialized interdisciplinary care, as on Acute Care of Elders (ACE) units, versus usual care? This is one question that this paper will address. The goal in this type of care is to achieve medical stability while preserving maximum functioning. Collaboration with all health care specialties is crucial to geriatric care . Secondarily, the gap in nursing knowledge of the elderly patient's care needs has to be addressed. Thirdly, patient's psychosocial needs should be addressed in order to promote their …

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Elevating Endogenous Cannabinoids Reduces Opioid Withdrawal In Mice, Divya Ramesh Feb 2012

Elevating Endogenous Cannabinoids Reduces Opioid Withdrawal In Mice, Divya Ramesh

Theses and Dissertations

Delta9-tetrahydrocannbinol (THC), the primary active constituent of Cannabis sativa, has long been known to reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms. Although THC produces most of its pharmacological actions through the activation of CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors, the role these receptors play in reducing opioid withdrawal symptoms remains unknown. The endogenous cannabinoids, N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide; AEA) and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG), activate both cannabinoid receptors, but are rapidly metabolized by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), respectively. The objective of this dissertation was to test whether increasing AEA or 2-AG, via inhibition of their respective hydrolytic enzymes, reduces morphine withdrawal symptoms in …

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The Antimicrobial Effect Of Steriplex Hc In Comparison With Sodium Hypochlorite On Enterococcus Faecalis, Jonathan Coudron Feb 2012

The Antimicrobial Effect Of Steriplex Hc In Comparison With Sodium Hypochlorite On Enterococcus Faecalis, Jonathan Coudron

Theses and Dissertations

The study objective was to compare the antimicrobial activity of STERIPLEX™ HC with 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) at different dilutions (50%, 25%, 10%, 1%, 0.1%) and different time intervals (1, 3, 5 minutes) on Enterococcus faecalis. All data was analyzed using an ANOVA. The 50%, 25%, and 10% dilutions of both disinfectants reduced the colony forming unit (CFU) count to below the limit of detection (50 CFU/ml) after one minute. The 1% dilutions at each of the time intervals show NaOCl was significantly more effective than STERIPLEX™ HC (all Ps < .0001) in reducing the CFU/ml count. The 0.1% dilutions of NaOCl and STERIPLEX™ HC at 1 minute, were not different (P = 0.7808), while at 3 minutes and 5 minutes NaOCl was significantly more effective (P = 0.0098 and P < .0001, respectively).

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Three-Dimensional Seismic Study Of Pluton Emplacement, Offshore Northwestern New Zealand, Jason Allen Luke Feb 2012

Three-Dimensional Seismic Study Of Pluton Emplacement, Offshore Northwestern New Zealand, Jason Allen Luke

Theses and Dissertations

Detailed 3D seismic images of a volcano-plutonic complex offshore northwestern New Zealand indicate the intrusive complex lies in a relay zone between NE-trending en echelon normal faults. A series of high angle normal faults fan out from the margin of the Southern Intrusive Complex and cut the folded strata along the margin. These faults terminate against the margins of the intrusion, extend as much as 1 pluton diameter away from the margin, and then merge with regional faults that are part of the Northern Taranaki Graben. Offset along these faults is on the order of 10s to over 100 meters. …

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Dynamics Of Substrate Interactions In Trna (M1g37) Methyltransferase: Implications For Drug Discovery, Maria Kiouppis Palesis Feb 2012

Dynamics Of Substrate Interactions In Trna (M1g37) Methyltransferase: Implications For Drug Discovery, Maria Kiouppis Palesis

Theses and Dissertations

The bacterial enzyme t-RNA (m1G37) methyltransferase (TrmD) is an ideal anti-microbial drug target since it is found in all eubacteria, serves an essential role during protein synthesis, and shares very little sequence or structural homology with its eukaryotic counterpart, Trm5. TrmD, a homodimeric protein, methylates the G37 nucleotide of tRNA using S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) as the methyl donor and thus enables proper codon-anticodon alignment during translation. The two deeply buried binding sites for SAM seen in X-ray crystallography suggest that significant conformational changes must occur for substrate binding and catalytic turnover. Results from molecular dynamics simulations implicate a flexible loop region …

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Humanized Mice As A Model To Study Human Viral Pathogenesis And Novel Antiviral Drugs, Freddy Mauricio Sanchez Tumbaco Feb 2012

Humanized Mice As A Model To Study Human Viral Pathogenesis And Novel Antiviral Drugs, Freddy Mauricio Sanchez Tumbaco

Theses and Dissertations

Animal models have greatly contributed to the understanding of different aspects of human biology, as well as a variety of human-related pathogens and diseases. In order to study them, humanized mice susceptible to pathogens that replicate in human immune cells have been developed (e.g., humanized Rag2-/-γc-/- mice). These animals are engrafted with human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), resulting in the de novo development and maturation of the major functional components of the human adaptive immune system and the production of a variety of human cell types. Primary and secondary lymphoid organs in the mouse are populated with human cells, and …

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The Role Of Calcineurin In Dendritic Remodeling And Epileptogenesis In A Rat Model Of Traumatic Brain Injury, John Campbell Feb 2012

The Role Of Calcineurin In Dendritic Remodeling And Epileptogenesis In A Rat Model Of Traumatic Brain Injury, John Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), a leading cause of death and disability in the United States, causes potentially preventable damage in part through the dysregulation of neural calcium levels. This dysregulation likely affects the activity of the calcium-sensitive phosphatase, calcineurin, with serious implications for neural function. To test this possibility, the present study characterized the role of calcineurin in a rat model of brain trauma, the lateral fluid percussion injury model. Golgi-Cox histochemistry revealed an acute post-TBI loss and delayed overgrowth of dendritic spines on principal cortical cells. The spine loss appeared to require calcineurin activity, since administering a calcineurin inhibitor, …

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Communicating A Centralized Message Within A Decentralized Political Movement: The Tea Party, Michael Walsh Feb 2012

Communicating A Centralized Message Within A Decentralized Political Movement: The Tea Party, Michael Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effectiveness of how well the Tea Party movement has communicated its message to both members and non-members. This research indicates that the present day populist political movement has done an exceptional job informing the public of its goals. While many non-members of the Tea Party movement disagree with its goals, they were, nonetheless, well versed in both the primary and secondary goals of the movement. Additionally, the research showed that the message has been consistent over various channels including broadcast and cable television, social media, websites, radio, and face-to-face.

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Spatial Distribution And Modulation Of Nitric Oxide Synthase In A Hypertensive Rat Model, Andrew Yannaccone Feb 2012

Spatial Distribution And Modulation Of Nitric Oxide Synthase In A Hypertensive Rat Model, Andrew Yannaccone

Theses and Dissertations

There are gaps in the fundamental understanding of the expression of nitric oxide synthases (NOS) in the microvasculature. We examined co-localization of NOS1 (nNOS), NOS2 (iNOS) and NOS3 (eNOS) in the spinotrapezius muscle of young adult male Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and Spontaneously Hypertensive (SHR) rats according to fiber type using immunohistochemistry and brightfield microscopy. Data regarding fiber distribution, population and morphology data were collected. Alkaline phosphatase staining was used to determine capillary density and average number of capillaries around a fiber. Gel electrophoresis and Western blot techniques were used to compare myosin heavy chain (MHC) protein expression with fiber type population …

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Biomolecular Mechanisms And Functional Characterization Of Nanomaterials In Programmed Cancer Cell Death For Potential Applications In Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, And Bioengineering, Md. Zakir Hossain Feb 2012

Biomolecular Mechanisms And Functional Characterization Of Nanomaterials In Programmed Cancer Cell Death For Potential Applications In Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, And Bioengineering, Md. Zakir Hossain

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer bionanotechnology is an interdisciplinary area of research in applied biosciences, biomedical engineering, and nano-medicine. Currently, apoptotic cell death inducers and regulators are considered to have significant potential for cancer therapy. The ability to escape apoptosis is one of the key properties of human cancer. Pancreatic cancer that has the highest fatality rates of all cancers is prompt to evade apoptosis. Nanomaterials like Ni NWs have various novel properties that could be very useful in bio-medical applications at the molecular and cellular levels. The overall objective of this research was to investigate the antiproliferative and apoptogenic properties of Ni NWs …

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Integrating Information Quality In Visual Analytics, Ahmed Abuhalimeh Feb 2012

Integrating Information Quality In Visual Analytics, Ahmed Abuhalimeh

Theses and Dissertations

Visualization and visual analytics rely heavily on rapid exploration, and a combination of various information dimensions and sources performed by an analyst. Integrating Information Quality involves combining Information Quality (IQ) residing in different sources and providing users with a unified view of this data quality. This process becomes significant in a variety of situations both commercial and scientific. Integrating information appears with increasing frequency as the volume and the need to share existing information grows. This research focus on a subset of IQ dimensions, which we term subjective IQ (SIQ). Visual analytics techniques rely on fast, continuous, and interactive user …

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Gender Discourse In Kitab Al-Tabaqat Al-Kubra: Deconstructing Ibn Sa'd'S Portrayal Of The Model Muslim Woman, Amira Naim Abou-Taleb Feb 2012

Gender Discourse In Kitab Al-Tabaqat Al-Kubra: Deconstructing Ibn Sa'd'S Portrayal Of The Model Muslim Woman, Amira Naim Abou-Taleb

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact of Ibn Saʽd’s (d. 230/845) historical context on his portrayal of the women of the Prohetic household in Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (KTK). The KTK stands as the oldest, extant version of a biographical dictionary of the early Muslim community and has been canonized as an authority on the lives of individuals who are perceived as the exemplary model (al-salaf al-ṣaliḥ) for later Muslims generations. As critical historiography suggests a strong link between a historical narrative and the socio-political context in which it was created, the two hundred year gap between the time of authorship of …

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Fatimid Metalwork, Gregory Bilotto Feb 2012

Fatimid Metalwork, Gregory Bilotto

Theses and Dissertations

Metalwork in the Islamic world encompasses a large geographical area from Spain to India, over an enormous time-period with the earliest dynasty, the Rashidun Caliphate in 632 CE to the present. Islamic metalwork includes numerous categories of artisanship incorporating arms, armor, vessels, utensils, coins, jewelry, tools, scientific instruments, figurines and polycandela. The focus of this writing however will be to analyze the four categories of metal objects into which the vast bulk of Fatimid metalwork falls, namely vessels, utensils, figurines, lamps and polycandela.

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Effects Of Temperature And Soil Organic Content On The Growth And Survival Of E. Coli In Sandy Soil, Mariam Maher William Melek Feb 2012

Effects Of Temperature And Soil Organic Content On The Growth And Survival Of E. Coli In Sandy Soil, Mariam Maher William Melek

Theses and Dissertations

With the continuous growth of populations and expansions in developing countries, the availability of sufficient water resources is approaching a critical state, especially in arid and semi-arid lands. In Egypt, although the Nile has been sufficient for many centuries now, its dependability for all life applications for the coming decades is in question. By far, agricultural practices consume the greatest portion of fresh water from the Nile. As a result, there is a growing effort dedicated to investigating the use of treated wastewater for irrigation instead of using virgin fresh water as a best-sustainable practice. When it comes to the …

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Preparation And Characterization Of Natural Composite Based On Plasticized Potato Starch And Date Palm Fibers, Aws Ibrahim Feb 2012

Preparation And Characterization Of Natural Composite Based On Plasticized Potato Starch And Date Palm Fibers, Aws Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Natural composites have become a necessity with which we should not dispense since they will become the solution and alternative for many traditional polymers that are made of petroleum resources. By adopting natural, biodegradable polymers, we will definitely contribute in preserving the environment as well as the fossil fuel which is on its way to depletion in the coming decades. This work is aimed at the characterization of natural composite based on glycerol plasticized potato starch reinforced with date palm fibers. Potato starch is plasticized with high purity glycerol and compression molded. Various compositions of date palm fibers (3.5%, 6.9%, …

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The Case Of The Disappearing Self As Portrayed In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Thoraia Abou Bakr Tallawi Feb 2012

The Case Of The Disappearing Self As Portrayed In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland And The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Thoraia Abou Bakr Tallawi

Theses and Dissertations

Aliceâ s Adventures in Wonderland and The Picture of Dorian Gray are both renowned Victorian novels that successfully made it into popular culture. Aliceâ s adventures have been reinvented many times over and inspired the remaking of it via books and films. The same goes for Dorian Gray; so much so that the original plot faded among the remakes and derivatives. This thesis analyses how the two main charactersâ selves fade among the collective, mirroring somehow the state of the books in modern society. In addition, the thesis discusses the role of society and the other in encouraging the self …

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Characterization Of The Bacterial Gut Fauna Of Phlebotomus Papatasi: Culture Dependent Vs. Culture Independent Techniques, Nada Mohamad El-Ayouty Feb 2012

Characterization Of The Bacterial Gut Fauna Of Phlebotomus Papatasi: Culture Dependent Vs. Culture Independent Techniques, Nada Mohamad El-Ayouty

Theses and Dissertations

NA

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Muslim Minorities In The West: Between Fiqh Of Minorities And Integration, Dina M. Taha Feb 2012

Muslim Minorities In The West: Between Fiqh Of Minorities And Integration, Dina M. Taha

Theses and Dissertations

Fiqh of minorities is a specific framework/perspective of the general Fiqh that looks with one eye at the objectives and principles of Sharîâ a, and the other eye to consider the reality of Muslim minorities in cases that will, usually, only arise in the situation where Muslims constitute a minority. Fiqh of minority is, arguably, based on the premises that Muslim existence in non-Muslim communities, should promote a civilizational dialogue between the Islamic culture and other cultures. This paper argues that Fiqh of minorities' scholars attempt to provide legal opinions and solutions for Muslim minorities in the West in order …

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Modeling And Simulation Of Cpu Mechanisms For Providing Operating System Support For Mobile Multimedia Systems, Abbas Khlaf Abd Al Muhsen Jan 2012

Modeling And Simulation Of Cpu Mechanisms For Providing Operating System Support For Mobile Multimedia Systems, Abbas Khlaf Abd Al Muhsen

Theses and Dissertations

In the ever-increasing digital world, mobile devices, such as smart-phones and tablet computers are on the trend to become the most used electronic devices. Multimedia applications running on these devices require appropriate operating system support. One limitation of the capabilities of these devices comes from their power source: they are all battery-powered, with a restricted battery energy budget. An important part of the total power is used by the CPU of these devices, so by controlling the power consumed by the CPU, the overall power used by the mobile device will be significantly reduced. This work proposes a systems engineering …

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Epigenetic Regulation Of Genes Involved In Vascular Dysfunction In Preeclamptic Women, Ahmad Mousa Jan 2012

Epigenetic Regulation Of Genes Involved In Vascular Dysfunction In Preeclamptic Women, Ahmad Mousa

Theses and Dissertations

DNA methylation is the most recognizable epigenetic mechanism. In general, DNA hypomethylation is associated with increased gene expression whereas DNA hypermethylation is associated with decreased gene expression. To date, little is known about the role of DNA methylation in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. In this study, we examined the differences in DNA methylation in omental arteries of normal pregnant and preeclamptic women using the high throughput Illumina HumanMethylation27 BeadChip assay. We found 1,685 genes with a significant difference in DNA methylation at a false discovery rate of < 10% with many inflammatory genes having reduced methylation. The thromboxane synthase gene was the most hypomethylated gene in preeclamptic women as compared to normal pregnant women. When we examined the expression of thromboxane synthase in omental arteries of normal pregnant and preeclamptic women we found it to be significantly increased in preeclamptic women. The increased expression was observed in vascular smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and infiltrating neutrophils. Experimentally induced DNA hypomethylation increased the expression of thromboxane synthase in the neutrophil-like HL-60 cell line, whereas tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), a neutrophil product, increased its expression in cultured human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). These finding suggest that DNA methylation and release of TNFα by infiltrating neutrophils could contribute to the increased expression of thromboxane synthase in systemic blood vessels of preeclamptic women, contributing to the hypertension and coagulation abnormalities. We also explored the possible contribution of DNA methylation to the altered expression of genes involved in collagen metabolism in preeclampsia. Several matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) genes, including MMP1 and MMP8, were significantly less methylated in preeclamptic women, whereas TIMP and COL genes were either significantly more methylated or had no significant change in their DNA methylation status. Experimentally induced DNA hypomethylation increased the expression of MMP-1, but not TIMP-1 or COL1A1, in cultured VSMCs and increased the expression of MMP-1 and MMP-8 in HL-60 cells. These findings suggest that DNA methylation contributes to the imbalance in genes involved in collagen metabolism in blood vessels of preeclamptic women.

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