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Human Influences On Anuran Distribution Changes In The Southeastern U.S.A., Michelle Diane Luce Jul 2014

Human Influences On Anuran Distribution Changes In The Southeastern U.S.A., Michelle Diane Luce

Theses and Dissertations

As human populations continue to expand and grow, ecosystems and the species that inhabit them face ever-increasing stress. To conserve these ecosystems, scientists use indicator species to try to measure the impact of human-induced pressures on the environment. Anurans are exceptional indicator species because they are often the first vertebrates to respond to the direct and indirect effects of land use by humans. Sparse historical data have made it difficult to map the ‘natural’ distribution of many species and, therefore, to map any changes in distribution range as a result of human expansion. This study sought to address the lack …

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Perceptions And Influences Behind Teaching Practices: Do Teachers Teach As They Were Taught?, Stephanie Elizabeth Cox Jul 2014

Perceptions And Influences Behind Teaching Practices: Do Teachers Teach As They Were Taught?, Stephanie Elizabeth Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Schools face the problem of recruiting and retaining students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degrees. One reason that students leave STEM fields is because their introductory classes are too hard or not engaging. These introductory classes are typically taught using a lecture-heavy, instructor-centered approach, contrary to current evidence based pedagogy. Many who call for teacher reform put the blame on the way teachers are educated, which is often not student-centered, citing that because ‘teachers teach the way they were taught,’ current education is also not student-centered. The idea that ‘teachers teach the way they were taught’ is commonly …

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We Are Aquin: The Creation Of Community And Personal Identity In The Freeport Catholic Schools, Sherry Ann Cluver Jul 2014

We Are Aquin: The Creation Of Community And Personal Identity In The Freeport Catholic Schools, Sherry Ann Cluver

Theses and Dissertations

Aquin Central Catholic High School, a tiny institution in the rural, Midwestern town of Freeport, Illinois, is a case study unlike the schools from Chicago, Boston, and other large cities highlighted in previous scholarship. Freeport's patterns of schooling in the 1970s and 1980s were largely unaffected by race or "white flight," and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford afforded to its schools a greater than usual degree of local control. Yet, Aquin (founded in 1923) followed the trends of Catholic schools with regard to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), assimilation of previously immigrant Catholic families into middle class American social …

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Where Did You Come From? The Effects Of Culture, Hometown Region, And Gender On The Perception, Endorsement, And Justification Of Aggression, Lindsay Hendricks Jun 2014

Where Did You Come From? The Effects Of Culture, Hometown Region, And Gender On The Perception, Endorsement, And Justification Of Aggression, Lindsay Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine whether individual factors, including culture, hometown region, and gender, would affect the likelihood of a person perceiving and justifying an aggressive act. Previous literature explored the differences between distinctive cultural subtypes, hometown regions, and gender on the acceptance of expressing aggression. Hypotheses were established to examine the perception, justification, and endorsement of aggression in a northern setting with college-aged participants. Participants were asked to watch clips from six modern American movies. After each clip, participants answered seven questions based on their perceptions. Six univariate Analysis of Variances (ANOVAs) were conducted to …

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The Impact Of Parentification On Depression Moderated By Self-Care: A Multiple Group Analysis By Gender For South Korea And The U.S., Sunnie Giles Jun 2014

The Impact Of Parentification On Depression Moderated By Self-Care: A Multiple Group Analysis By Gender For South Korea And The U.S., Sunnie Giles

Theses and Dissertations

Parentification, the process of role reversal between parent and child, has long-term deleterious consequences. Using 500 men and 501 women, ranging from 18 years to 55 years old, residing in Korea and the U.S., this study examined the relationship of parentification experienced during childhood and depression in adulthood. The moderating impact of gender and self-care was examined in both the Korean and U.S. samples. Multiple-group analysis showed that the relationship between parentification and depression was statistically significant in all groups (U.S., Korean, male, and female), and self-care was negatively linked to depression. However, self-care did not moderate the relationship between …

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Undergraduate Major And Locus Of Control, Nicole Napowanetz Jun 2014

Undergraduate Major And Locus Of Control, Nicole Napowanetz

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this investigation were to further examine whether there was a relationship between gender and a locus of control orientation, as well does a specified major, in this case being STEM-related majors, constitute a higher internal locus of control? A review of the present literature demonstrates a lack of research in regards to undergraduate major and locus of control orientation. The need for further understanding in regards to the gender gap within STEM-related majors is established. To investigate further, data was collected via undergraduate students' completion of Rotter's Locus of Control I-E scale and a brief demographics questionnaire, …

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Outcome Variables Of Childhood Sexual Abuse As Potential Risk Factors For Sexual Revictimization In Adulthood, Christine Renee Bowles Jun 2014

Outcome Variables Of Childhood Sexual Abuse As Potential Risk Factors For Sexual Revictimization In Adulthood, Christine Renee Bowles

Theses and Dissertations

Childhood sexual abuse is a large problem, with research estimates indicating that between 16-25% of women have experienced sexual abuse at some point during their childhood (Dube et al., 2005; Gorey & Leslie, 1997). Even more alarming is the data that suggests that women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse are between 2 to 11 times more likely to experience sexual assault as an adult than individuals with no past history of abuse (Messman-Moore & Long, 2003). To help understand the complex and varied outcomes associated with childhood sexual abuse, Finkelhor and Browne (1985) developed a model conceptualizing the four …

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Predicting Alcohol Consumption In Adolescent Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta), Andrea Nichole Sorenson Jun 2014

Predicting Alcohol Consumption In Adolescent Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta), Andrea Nichole Sorenson

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies show that a low level of response to the intoxicating effects of alcohol is considered a risk factor for future alcoholism. However, assessing this sensitivity usually requires administering a controlled dose of alcohol, which has a number of inherent problems. Early observations in our lab suggest that the response to anesthetics that show cross tolerance with alcohol, like ketamine, are blunted in nonhuman primates at risk for high alcohol intake, and may be a viable measure of future alcohol consumption. This study was designed to test potential predictors of future alcohol consumption using the change in ketamine across …

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Towards An Automated System For Evaluation Of Visualizations, Douglas Taggart Jun 2014

Towards An Automated System For Evaluation Of Visualizations, Douglas Taggart

Theses and Dissertations

The Information Visualization field focuses on the visualization of abstract data, and with the growing interest in big data analysis, the need for analyzing complex datasets is nowadays highly relevant. With the growing amount and diversity of these datasets new and exciting ways to visualize them are being developed. However, being able to thoroughly test and evaluate the effectiveness of these new visualization techniques is an arduous manual process. Moreover, different researchers hold different opinions on how to thoroughly evaluate a new visualization method. A step towards automating the process of evaluation of visualizations, called the Framework for the Evaluation …

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Ontosoar: Using Language To Find Genealogy Facts, Peter Lindes Jun 2014

Ontosoar: Using Language To Find Genealogy Facts, Peter Lindes

Theses and Dissertations

There is a need to have an automated system that can read family history books or other historical texts and extract as many genealogy facts as possible from them. Embley and others have applied traditional information extraction techniques to this problem in a system called OntoES with a reasonable amount of success. In parallel much linguistic theory has been developed in the past decades, and Lonsdale and others have built computational embodiments of some of these theories using Soar. In this thesis we introduce a system called OntoSoar which combines the Link Grammar Parser using a grammar customized for family …

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Laser-Induced Fluorescence Imaging Of Calcium And Barium Ion Beams In The Second Vacuum Stage Of A Commercial Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Alisa Jane Edmund Jun 2014

Laser-Induced Fluorescence Imaging Of Calcium And Barium Ion Beams In The Second Vacuum Stage Of A Commercial Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Alisa Jane Edmund

Theses and Dissertations

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometers (ICP-MS) have become the workhorses of many analytical labs over the past few decades. Despite the instruments' high sensitivities and low detection limits there is still a demand for improvements in several aspects of their performance. One area of improvement is in the understanding of "space charge effects" Space charge effects are classified as problems associated with the ion beam. Problems are created when the mutual repulsions of the ions make consistent focusing of the ion beam difficult. This is particularly problematic with samples containing a low concentration analyte contained within a high salt solution matrix, …

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Necessary And Sufficient Conditions For State-Space Network Realization, Philip E. Paré Jr. Jun 2014

Necessary And Sufficient Conditions For State-Space Network Realization, Philip E. Paré Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the formulation and solution of a new problem in systems and control theory, called the Network Realization Problem. Its relationship to other problems, such as State Realization and Structural Identifiability, is shown. The motivation for this work is the desire to completely quantify the conditions for transitioning between different mathematical representations of linear time-invariant systems. The solution to this problem is useful for theorists because it lays a foundation for quantifying the information cost of identifying a system's complete network structure from the transfer function.

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Using State Merging And State Pruning To Address The Path Explosion Problem Faced By Symbolic Execution, Patrick T. Copeland Jun 2014

Using State Merging And State Pruning To Address The Path Explosion Problem Faced By Symbolic Execution, Patrick T. Copeland

Theses and Dissertations

Symbolic execution is a promising technique to discover software vulnerabilities and improve the quality of code. However, symbolic execution suffers from a path explosion problem where the number of possible paths within a program grows exponentially with respect to loops and conditionals. New techniques are needed to address the path explosion problem. This research presents a novel algorithm which combines the previously researched techniques of state merging and state pruning. A prototype of the algorithm along with a pure state merging and pure state pruning are implemented in the KLEE symbolic execution tool with the goal of increasing the code …

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Android Based Behavioral Biometric Authentication Via Multi-Modal Fusion, Anthony J. Grenga Jun 2014

Android Based Behavioral Biometric Authentication Via Multi-Modal Fusion, Anthony J. Grenga

Theses and Dissertations

Because mobile devices are easily lost or stolen, continuous authentication is extremely desirable for them. Behavioral biometrics provides non-intrusive continuous authentication that has much less impact on usability than active authentication. However single-modality behavioral biometrics has proven less accurate than standard active authentication. This thesis presents a behavioral biometric system that uses multi-modal fusion with user data from touch, keyboard, and orientation sensors. Testing of ve users shows that fusion of modalities provides more accurate authentication than each individual modalities by itself. Using the BayesNet classification algorithm, fusion achieves False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR) values of …

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Advanced Composite Air Frame Life Cycle Cost Estimating, Mohamed M. Al Romaihi Jun 2014

Advanced Composite Air Frame Life Cycle Cost Estimating, Mohamed M. Al Romaihi

Theses and Dissertations

Because of their versatility, advanced composite materials are being used at an increasing rate in the manufacturing of aircraft, as well as other products, such as autos, sporting goods, and medical products. Airframe structure materials used throughout aerospace manufacturing processes consist of significantly greater percentages of advanced composite materials. However, these manufacturing processes and the associated reduction in part counts are not considered in the aircraft procurement and life cycle cost (LCC) management processes in the United States Air Force (USAF) community or the Department of Defense (DoD). This situation led the leaders of USAF and DoD to restudy the …

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Traceability Implementation In Organic Farming: Case Study, Chamomile Tea Production, Shaima Abdelfattah Ibrahim Jun 2014

Traceability Implementation In Organic Farming: Case Study, Chamomile Tea Production, Shaima Abdelfattah Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Implementing a traceability plan in an herbal production plant is a complex task. In this study an attempt to integrate food safety, quality and traceability through the different stages of the organic German Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) production chain was made. First, all the current relevant international laws, regulations and standards regarding traceability, safety and quality, with emphasis on how and why they are necessary for any food production chain, were set forward. Second, physico-chemical and microbiological analyses were run throughout the different processing stages of production, for four different Chamomile batches produced over the same season using the same farming …

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A Model Of Grammatical Category Acquisition Using Adaptation And Selection, Sarah Zitting Cluff Jun 2014

A Model Of Grammatical Category Acquisition Using Adaptation And Selection, Sarah Zitting Cluff

Theses and Dissertations

By the later preschool years, most children have a knowledge of the grammatical categories of their native language and are capable of expanding this knowledge to novel words. To model this accomplishment, researchers have created a variety of explicit, testable models or algorithms. These have had partial but promising success in extracting grammatical word categories from transcriptions of caregiver input to young children. Additional insight into children's learning of the grammatical categories of words might be gained from evolutionary computing algorithms, which apply principles of evolutionary biology such as variation, adaptive change, self-regulation, and inheritance to computational models. The current …

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Facies Analysis, Sequence Stratigraphy And Paleogeography Of The Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Entrada Sandstone: Traps, Tectonics, And Analog, George R. Jennings Iii Jun 2014

Facies Analysis, Sequence Stratigraphy And Paleogeography Of The Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Entrada Sandstone: Traps, Tectonics, And Analog, George R. Jennings Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The late Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Entrada Sandstone has been divided into two general facies associations consisting primarily of eolian sandstones in eastern Utah and "muddy" redbeds in central Utah. Sedimentary structures within the redbed portion are explained by the interfingering of inland sabkha, alluvial, and eolian depositional systems. A complete succession from the most basinward facies to the most terrestrial facies in the Entrada Sandstone consists of inland sabkha facies overlain by either alluvial or eolian facies. Where both alluvial and eolian facies interfinger, alluvial facies overlain by eolian facies is considered a normal succession. Sequence boundaries, often identified by …

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Acceptance, Rejection, Or Somewhere In-Between: Family Communication Regarding Interracial Relationships, Lisa Martin Jun 2014

Acceptance, Rejection, Or Somewhere In-Between: Family Communication Regarding Interracial Relationships, Lisa Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The assumption that interracial families are neither as strong nor stable as same-race families is slowly becoming an archaic opinion. While it is difficult for some to admit that some mindsets are strongly rooted in prejudice, research shows that people are capable of changing. This study specifically seeks to explore the dynamics of family communication regarding interracial marriages. The findings spotlight those individuals who are actively working to alter misconceptions through their own interracial family.

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Characterization Of The Granule-Bound Starch Synthase I Gene In Chenopodium, Douglass C. Brown Jun 2014

Characterization Of The Granule-Bound Starch Synthase I Gene In Chenopodium, Douglass C. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Chenopodium L. is a relatively under-studied genus that includes the cultivated seed crop quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.). Quinoa is an allotetraploid (2n=4x=36, AABB genomes) that is cultivated by subsistence farmers and commercial growers in the Andean regions of South America. Approximately 60% of a quinoa seed is starch, a glucose polymer that is an important carbohydrate energy source in the human diet. Seed starch is normally comprised of amylose and amylopectin in a 1:3 ratio, but starches with different amylose:amylopectin ratios have different properties and potential uses. The accumulation of the amylose fraction of starch is controlled by a single …

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Patterns Of Student Curricular Experience In Psychology As Predictors Of Performance On The Ets Major Field Test, Jason J. Van Der Horst Jun 2014

Patterns Of Student Curricular Experience In Psychology As Predictors Of Performance On The Ets Major Field Test, Jason J. Van Der Horst

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the relationship between student performance and their performance on the Major Field Test (MFT). The MFT purports to adequately assess student mastery and achievement in the college major, in this case psychology. The major advantages of the MFT over internally-created instruments are its standardized content, its established national norms, and its connection to the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The MFT is the most widely used standardized test for learning outcomes assessment within psychology departments. The first hypothesis, that MFT scores are reflective of summary curricular values (i.e. GPA), was not supported when …

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Expression Of Osteoarthritis Biomarkers In Temporomandibular Joints Of Mice With And Without Receptor For Advanced Glycation End Products (Rage), Elizabeth Murayama Chavez Matias Jun 2014

Expression Of Osteoarthritis Biomarkers In Temporomandibular Joints Of Mice With And Without Receptor For Advanced Glycation End Products (Rage), Elizabeth Murayama Chavez Matias

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will be organized into three chapters discussing the mechanism underlying the onset and progression of osteoarthritis (OA) in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Understanding the mechanism of OA development in the TMJ helps in understanding how OA progresses and how to treat this disease. The goal of this investigation is to examine the process of cartilage degeneration and OA biomarker expression in the TMJ to understand their role in TMJ OA onset and development.Chapter one covers mechanisms that are altered in TMJ OA during disease progression. Using animal models with different stressors such as mechanical disturbances, direct injury, and …

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Rapid Adaptation Of Dopamine D2 Receptor Responses In The Brain And Blood Following Acute Ethanol, Ryan J. Folsom Jun 2014

Rapid Adaptation Of Dopamine D2 Receptor Responses In The Brain And Blood Following Acute Ethanol, Ryan J. Folsom

Theses and Dissertations

Dopamine (DA) D2 receptor expression parallels DA levels in the brain and these autoreceptors have been shown to be modulated by long-term ethanol exposure. We have previously demonstrated that ventral tegmental area (VTA) GABA neurons also express D2 autoreceptors (D2R), and that DA and D2R agonists markedly enhance the excitability of VTA GABA neurons, opposite to their well-known auto-receptor inhibition of DA neurons. Most importantly, D2R antagonists block ethanol inhibition of VTA GABA neurons and D2R expression in VTA GABA neurons down-regulates with chronic ethanol, as others have shown for whole VTA D2R expression. The aim of this study was …

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Examination Of Anabolic Signaling And Muscle Growth With Caffeine Treatment In Overloaded Hindlimb Muscle And Electrically Stimulated Muscle Lacking Liver Kinase B1, Timothy Michael Moore Jun 2014

Examination Of Anabolic Signaling And Muscle Growth With Caffeine Treatment In Overloaded Hindlimb Muscle And Electrically Stimulated Muscle Lacking Liver Kinase B1, Timothy Michael Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Skeletal muscle has the ability to increase in size (hypertrophy) after resistance is placed upon it. This hypertrophy is marked by significant upregulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and its downstream targets. The upstream kinases, protein kinase B (also known as Akt) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), are two of the many regulators of the mTOR pathway. Recent studies suggest that the widely consumed neuroactive compound caffeine could potentially inhibit mTOR by acting through Akt and/or AMPK. The purpose of this thesis was to: 1) determine if caffeine can inhibit the mTOR pathway and ultimately attenuate skeletal muscle …

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Discovery Of Novel Serum Biomarkers For Diagnosing And Staging Alzheimer's Disease, Dipti Jigar Shah Jun 2014

Discovery Of Novel Serum Biomarkers For Diagnosing And Staging Alzheimer's Disease, Dipti Jigar Shah

Theses and Dissertations

Discovery of Novel Serum Biomarkers for Diagnosing and Staging Alzheimer’s DiseaseDipti Jigar ShahDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry, BYUDoctor of PhilosophyAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is an untreatable neurologic disease affecting more than 5 million Americans, most over 60 years of age. Protein plaques and neurofibrillary tangles typify AD brain pathology and are thought to cause the progressive dementia and brain shrinkage observed in AD. Currently there are no methods to diagnose the disease at a time before damage becomes irreversible.Biochemical tests for AD using cerebrospinal fluid analysis or neuroimaging are not yet sufficiently sensitive and specific, and they are invasive. This points …

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The Effect Of Student Gender On Secondary School Teacher Perceptions Of Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Concerns, Erin Ann Williams Jun 2014

The Effect Of Student Gender On Secondary School Teacher Perceptions Of Social, Emotional, And Behavioral Concerns, Erin Ann Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Students at risk for social, emotional and behavioral concerns (SEBC) are likely to experience a variety of negative outcomes if not identified and provided with appropriate interventions in a timely manner. Males tend to be identified more frequently than females for SEBC (Young, Sabbah, Young, Reiser, & Richardson, 2010), and there are many variables that may contribute to this disproportionate identification. This study specifically examined the influence of student gender on secondary education teachers’ referral decisions for students at risk for SEBC. This study additionally examined the influence of teachers’ prior referral experience, confidence in the mental health services available …

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Feeling Images: Subjectivities And Affective Experience In The Egyptian Revolution, Brice Woodcock Jun 2014

Feeling Images: Subjectivities And Affective Experience In The Egyptian Revolution, Brice Woodcock

Theses and Dissertations

During the Egyptian Revolution, beginning in 2011 and continuing throughout this project,, images were used to garner support for or against various movements. When viewers disagreed with the version of events suggested by the images, these viewers remained unmoved by them even if the image depicted violence or death. In order to understand how this is possible, this work undertakes a study of the intimate relationship between affect and the viewer's point-of view, also known as their “subjectivity" in the context of images from the Egyptian Revolution. The participants of this project were not passive observers, but rather almost instantaneously …

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Transcriptomics Of Iron Limitation In Phaeocystis Antarctica, Mariam Reyad Rizkallah Issak Jun 2014

Transcriptomics Of Iron Limitation In Phaeocystis Antarctica, Mariam Reyad Rizkallah Issak

Theses and Dissertations

Phytoplankton, the hidden trees of the ocean, are responsible for nearly half of global oxygen production. Phytoplankton growth and productivity in high-nitrate low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions have been demonstrated to be limited by iron availability. One of the most important HNLC regions is the Southern Ocean, as it regulates Earth system climate due to its unique hydrography and consequently its phytoplankton assemblage drives the global carbon cycle. Iron fertilization experiments were conducted to understand the response of its photosynthetic assemblage to iron addition, and the nanoflagellate Phaeocystis antarctica has been reported the first to bloom. P. antarctica is ecologically important due …

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Polyketide Synthase Iii Isolated From Uncultured Deep-Sea Proteobacterium From The Red Sea- Functional And Evolutionary Characterization, Hadeel Mansour El Bardisy Jun 2014

Polyketide Synthase Iii Isolated From Uncultured Deep-Sea Proteobacterium From The Red Sea- Functional And Evolutionary Characterization, Hadeel Mansour El Bardisy

Theses and Dissertations

Natural polyketide products are one of the major secondary metabolites produced among bacteria, fungi, and plants. They vary from flavonoids, pyrones, and stilbenes to phloroglucinols and resorcinols that are involved in important functions as antimicrobial activity, defense mechanisms and pigmentation. They are biosynthesized from acyl-CoA precursors by polyketides synthases (PKSs) that are categorized into 3 types: I, II and III. PKS type III is considered the simplest in its structure. It was believed that PKS type III was exclusively encoded by higher plants until the enduring efforts of bacterial genomes sequencing revealed the presence of more and more PKSs type …

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Functional Identification Of A Ligase In The Red Sea Atlantis Ii Deepest Layer, Mahera Mohammed Jun 2014

Functional Identification Of A Ligase In The Red Sea Atlantis Ii Deepest Layer, Mahera Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations

Red sea, described as one of the unique marine ecosystems, incorporates up to 25 deep-sea brine pools. These pools posses multiple extreme conditions influencing the evolution and survival of their inhabiting microbial community. The combination of maximum depth (2194 m), high temperature (68C), anoxia, high salinity (26%), high pressure and high concentrations of heavy metals in the lower convective layer (LCL) of the Atlantis II brine pool makes it an ideal environment for identification of novel enzymes with unique characteristics and potential biotechnological applications. Here we describe the identification and the preliminary in vivo functional investigation of the ligase domain …

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