Digital Commons Network^™

Utilization Of Aptamers As Affinity Probes In Polymeric Microdevices For Disease Management And The Production Of A Recombinant Membrane Protein, Anne Obubuafo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Aptamers have emerged as potential affinity agents that rival or complement antibodies in developing diagnostic assays for disease detection. We have demonstrated the use of PMMA microfluidic devices for conducting rapid affinity microchip CGE of a target protein using aptamers as the affinity probes with an electrophoresis development time of <2 min. Migration times were reproducible for thrombin complexes and free aptamers in CGE buffer with device-to-device RSD variations below 10%. By removing salts from plasma and adding an unlabeled random sequence oligonucleotide to the plasma, thrombin was detected in plasma. This method can be easily adapted to high-throughput parallel screening of plasma samples in multi-channel polymeric microdevices. The expression of rEpCAM in bacteria and mammalian cells was investigated with results showing successful expression in the mammalian systems, while protein expression in the bacteria was inhibited. Higher and prolonged expression levels were obtained in Cos 7 cells as compared to BHK and Hep2 cells due to episomal expression in Cos 7 cells. By combining a one-step IMAC procedure with electrophoresis and electro elution a more selective approach to obtaining electrophoretically pure rEpCAM was achieved. We developed dual-aptamer sandwich assays for thrombin and PDGF-BB targets on PMMA substrate using UV modification with a one-step EDC/NHS coupling reaction. Results indicate that the use of high EDC concentrations lead to faster immobilization and increased coverage density with a shorter sandwich assay development time. The assays were sensitive for both proteins and showed linearity in fluorescence response to changing protein concentration. Single molecule detection methods provide high sensitivity techniques in which aptamers can find use. We have demonstrated the use of two aptamers in a FRET-based assay for the detection of low levels of thrombin. Sensitivity and reliability of the aptamer smFRET assay depends on complex formation and stability. Due to the dissociation constants of the aptamers, single molecule events detected were below the calculated value for a 6 pM concentration of thrombin. Future work will involve adjusting the single molecule system by the use of pinholes to enable analysis of higher sample concentrations.

Revolutionizing Genomic Analyses: Mutation Analyses Using Novel Enzyme-Based Assays With Laser-Induced Fluorescence And Polymeric Microfluidic Devices As Electrophoretic Platforms, Rondedrick Deshaun Sinville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Polymer-based microelectrophoresis was investigated to analyze known (mutation detection) and unknown (mutation scanning) low-abundant mutations in genomic DNA with high diagnostic value for colorectal cancers. For our mutation detection assays, point mutations in the K-ras oncogene were identified using the ligase detection reaction (LDR). For the mutation scanning assay, which searches for sporadic mutations, an EndoV-LDR assay was utilized with mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene used as a model. A poly(methylmethacrylate), PMMA, microchip filled with a 4% linear polyacrylamide (LPA) gel was used to electrophoretically sort products formed from LDRs, which produced oligonucleotides <65 bp in length. Using microchip electrophoresis with the LPA, a 44 bp ligation product was resolved from a 100-fold molar excess of unligated primers (25 bp) in approximately 120 s, which was ~17 times faster than conventional capillary gel electrophoresis. In order to simplify the electrophoretic process and further reduce development time, the LDR products were sorted in the absence of the sieving gel using free solution conjugate electrophoresis (FSCE). FSCE incorporated polyamide “drag-tags” onto LDR primers, which provided DNA fragment mobilities in free solution that were dependent upon their size. LDR/drag-tagged (LDR-dt) products could be formed in a multiplexed format for mutant-to-wild-type ratios as low as 1 to 100 with single base resolution. Separations were conducted using capillary array electrophoresis (CAE) and PMMA microchips filled with only a TRIS buffer. Analysis times for the LDR-dt products were less than 11 min using CAE and ~85 s for PMMA microchips with high reproducible migration times within and between microchips. PMMA-based microchips were also evaluated for the identification of sporadic mutations using an endonuclease V – LDR (Endo V/LDR) technique. Endo V cleaves heteroduplexed DNA one base 3’ of single-base mismatched sites as well as nicking DNA at some matched sites as LDR reseals miscleaved sites to reduce false positive signals. Results suggested that Endo V/LDR products from p53 mutations could be successfully separated and detected using a PMMA microfluidic chip filled with a sparsely cross-linked replaceable polyacrylamide gel in less than 6 min, which was approximately 10-fold shorter compared to CAE.

Isang Yun And His Selected Cello Works, Jee Yeoun Ko

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Isang Yun was born in Duksan, in Korea, in 1917, and became one of the leading Korean composers in Germany in the twentieth-century. IsangYun’s Music is frequently performed throughout the world even after his death. His name as a composer was recognized as a mediator of East Asian and Western musical traditions. This thesis will discuss his involvement in political issues during the Japanese occupation in Korea in addition to the background of his controversial extreme penalty and the strong support he received from the North Korean government after his release. The discussion will also include the reconciliation between Isang …

The Effects Of In Utero Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure On Immune Responses To Allergen In Adult Offspring, Rodney Lamar Rouse

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fetal stress has been linked to adult atherosclerosis, obesity, and diabetes. Epidemiology studies have associated fetal exposure to maternal smoking and post-natal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) with increased asthma risk. We tested the hypothesis, in a mouse model of asthma, that ETS exposure in utero alters airway function and respiratory immune responses in adult offspring. Pregnant BALB/c mice were exposed daily to ETS or filtered air (AIR). Neonatal gene expression was assessed. Offspring inhaled aerosolized ovalbumin (OVA) or saline in weeks 7-8. Regardless of whether they inhaled OVA or saline, mice were sensitized by OVA injections in weeks …

The Relationship Between Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines, Prostaglandins, And Fetal Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Activation In Mares With Infective Pre-Term Delivery, Sara K. Lyle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Ascending placentitis is a significant cause of abortions, stillbirths, and perinatal loss in horses. A technique for laparoscopic-guided catheterization of the allantoic space was developed and utilized in an experimental model of streptococcal infective pre-term delivery in pony mares. Mares received either 1 x 107 CFU live S. zooepidemicus (n=3), 5.1 x 108 CFU live S. zooepidemicus (n=1), 1 x 107 heat-killed S. zooepidemicus (n=3), 1 mL sterile PBS (n=3). Sham control mares did not receive a transcervical inoculation (n=3). One mare not instrumented with an allantoic catheter received 5.1 x 108 CFU live S. zooepidemicus. Mares with spontaneous abortion …

God, Gold, Or Glory: Norman Piety And The First Crusade, Samuel Andrew Bartlett

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends in crusade historiography depict the Frankish participants of the First Crusade as acting out of piety, while their Norman counterparts remain as impious opportunists. This thesis challenges this prevailing point of view, arguing that the Norman crusaders met the same standard of piety as the Franks. To support my theory, I looked at four different facets on the question of Norman piety, dividing them up into chapters of my thesis. In the first chapter, there is a brief discussion of the current portrayal of the Normans in modem crusade historiography. In the next chapter, I established what piety …

Phylogenetics And New Approaches To Vaccine Development For West Nile, Arun Venkatesh Iyer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

West Nile virus (WNV) was first isolated in 1937 from a febrile Ugandan woman. WNV now has a worldwide distribution from Australia and India in the east to Europe and the United States in the west. The first human cases of WNV in the United States were detected in New York in 1999. The North American isolates were also found to be highly neuroinvasive and neurovirulent and in many cases leading to mortality or permanent CNS sequelae among humans. WNV was first isolated in Louisiana in 2001. The genome of this virus named LSU-AR01was sequenced and a detailed genetic analysis …

Syntheses Of Trimethylamine- And Phosphonate- Substituted Carboranylporphyrins For Application In Boron Neutron Cancer Therapy, Michael William Easson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chapter 1 contains an introduction to porphyrins and carboranylporphyrins, including their physical properties, history, methods of synthesis, medicinal applications, and an overview of recently published compounds. Chapter 2 contains the total synthesis of a series of trimethylamine- and phosphonate-substituted carboranylporphyrins for application in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), including characterization by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, matrix-assisted time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, high resolution mass spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectrophotometry, X-ray crystallography, and melting point apparatus. Chapter 3 contains synthetic methods which were investigated as alternate routes to porphyrin synthesis and functionalization. Chapter 4 presents the in vitro biological evaluation of trimethylamine- and phosphonate-substituted …

Performing Photographs: Memory, History, And Display, Melanie A. Kitchens

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In my study, I place concepts and practices of photography and performance in dialogue to enable our understanding of how photographs perform and how performance contains or can contain elements we attribute to photographs. The connection between photography and performance that most intrigues me is how they make memories and when collected or restored in some socially shared way make histories too. My specific aim is to understand how photographs and performance might benefit from each other in how they make and transmit memories and histories. To activate the study, I select and focus on five specific events in which …

An Investigation Into Fuel Cells And Flow Cytometers Optimal Design, Etim Sunday Udoetok

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of the fuel cells part of this project was to investigate the performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells and closely related fuel cell types like the Alkaline Fuel Cells and Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells. The investigation involved understanding the performance of fuel cells, addressing the shortcomings of currently used designs, and finding new methods for improving the performance of fuel cells. CFD was used to study flow channels and information learned from the study was used to design a new and improved flow channel. A prototype of the new design was fabricated, tested and found to perform …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of Various Exercise Interventions On Parkinson’S Disease, Michael D. Sage

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The overall purpose of the current thesis was to evaluate the influence of various exercise strategies on Parkinson’s disease (PD). While countless exercise interventions have been investigated by PD, results have been weak and inconclusive at best. As such, there are currently no scientifically-validated recommendations for an optimal exercise intervention. The four studies comprising this thesis have attempted to address the shortcomings of previous literature, namely, inconsistent use of outcome measures, lack of PD symptomatic measures, varying lengths of exercise interventions, absence of a non-exercise control group, continued assessment of participants after exercise has ended, and verifying replicabilty of findings. …

The Continuing Need For Broker-Dealer Professionalism In Ipos, James A. Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Health Effects Of Nanoparticles, Claude Ostiguy, Brigitte Soucy, Gilles Lapointe, Catherine Woods, Luc Ménard, Mylène Trottier

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Cliquez ici pour la version française de ce rapport

Research in the nanoparticle (NP) and nanotechnology field is growing at a breathtaking pace. The reason is simple: the unique properties of NP will allow the development of products with unprecedented characteristics and opportunities in every field of human activity, and with tremendous economic impacts. It is currently anticipated that the number of exposed Quebec workers, not only in manufacturing these products but also in using and processing them, will increase over the next few years. Several products are already available commercially and some Quebec companies now have large-scale NP production …

Wildland Firefighter Health Risks And Respiratory Protection, Claire Austin

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Cliquez ici pour la version française de ce rapport

Les pompiers forestiers sont exposés à un mélange complexe de produits de combustion, inclusion faite du monoxyde de carbone, de vapeurs et de gaz irritants, d’agents cancérogènes, de particules inhalables et de nanoparticules. Ils fournissent un niveau d’effort considérable lorsqu’ils combattent des incendies, et leurs quarts de travail peuvent s’étendre jusqu’à 16 heures ou plus.

Des études sur les pompiers forestiers ont été réalisées aux États-Unis et en Australie, mais jamais au Québec. Ces pompiers font souvent état de troubles respiratoires et neurologiques. Une déperdition de la fonction respiratoire a aussi …

Le Syndrome D’Irritation Bronchique : De La Surveillance Épidémiologique Aux Mécanismes, Jean-Luc Malo, Denyse Gautrin, Karim Maghni, James Martin

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Le syndrome d’irritation bronchique (SIrB) est un type d’asthme professionnel où le travailleur exposé à un irritant non spécifique, généré à une forte concentration, développe une symptomatologie respiratoire asthmatique avec un risque d’atteinte fonctionnelle permanente. La plupart du temps, les travailleurs présentent des symptômes sans consulter au service de premiers soins ni faire de demandes d’indemnisation.

L’étude proposée comporte un volet épidémiologique qui fait le pont avec un volet portant sur les mécanismes, ce dernier étant exploré dans un modèle animal.

Dans le cadre du volet épidémiologique, notre objectif était d’identifier 1) les facteurs de risque – incluant le calibre …

Strategic Approach To Preventing Occupational Stress, Jean-Pierre Brun, Caroline Biron, Hans Ivers

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Cliquez ici pour la version française de ce rapport

Malgré une quantité impressionnante de données empiriques démontrant les conséquences néfastes du stress au travail sur la santé des individus et des organisations, il existe peu d’évidences scientifiques sur le processus d’implantation et l’efficacité des interventions visant à prévenir le stress au travail. Plusieurs revues de la littérature scientifique sur les programmes de prévention du stress au travail montrent la dominance des programmes de prévention centrés sur l’individu (DeFrank & Cooper, 1987; Van Der Hek & Plomp, 1997). Les effets associés à ce type d’intervention sont généralement limités et de durée …

Validation D’Un Outil D’Autodiagnostic Et D’Un Modèle De Progression De La Mesure En Santé Et Sécurité Du Travail, Mario Roy, Jean Cadieux, Lucie Fortier, Louise Leclerc

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Ce rapport de recherche vise essentiellement à rendre compte de la démarche qui a été réalisée pour la validation d’un outil d’autodiagnostic de l’état de la SST destiné aux établissements de production et de fabrication dans le contexte québécois. La démarche a nécessité (1) la révision d’une version préliminaire du questionnaire, (2) la réalisation d’un test auprès de trois entreprises du secteur de l’imprimerie, (3) des ajustements pour la production d'un questionnaire de deuxième génération, (4) l'utilisation d’une procédure Delphi auprès de cinq experts académiques du domaine, (5) la production d'un questionnaire de troisième génération, (6) et la validation finale …

Jack Spicer And The Phenomenology Of Meaning, Benjamin J. Kossak

Honors Papers

Jack Spicer’s poetry is often a mess of obscenity, convoluted references, and opaque language. It resists any attempts to reduce it to a system of proscriptions or abstract ideas. However, it consistently engages the reader on the level of bodily interaction. In the introduction to Admonitions, Spicer describes his poetry as a “frightening hall of mirrors,” and this grotesque exploration of the body demands a sympathetic awareness in the body of the reader. Further, the obscenity scattered throughout his work evokes a response not only through the attractive/repulsive paradox of any obscenity, but also in that it showcases an orality …

An Eelnet Made For The Eel Fighting: Layers Of Obscurity And The Continuous Present In The Space Of Robert Lowell's Poetry, Alena Jones

Honors Papers

In this essay I undertake to describe how the continuous present might persist on Lowell's page. I move from "Epilogue" first to a Heideggerian critic, Adam Kirsch, and then to Heidegger, whose theory of language establishes a space where the continuous present is always possible on the page. But here, where Heidegger says it should succeed, language proves insufficient for Lowell. Lowell exposes his own failure to shape his material using literary devices like journey and climax. His attempts to align his writing with visual media allow his specific literary failures to become sites of the successful preservation of a …

Anti-Semitism And The Early Printing Press: A Study Of The Effect Of The Printing Press On Jewish Expulsions In Germany, 1450-1520, Amy O'Callaghan

Honors Papers

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire saw a dramatic escalation in anti-Semitism that paved the way for one of the largest waves of Jewish expulsions in medieval history. The Jews were expelled from Endingen in 1470, Mainz in 1473, and following the case of Simon of Trent, the Trent Jews were banished in 1475 and the Jews of Pass au in 1479; by the end of the fifteenth century Mecklenburg, Magdeburg, Salzburg and Nuremberg had also succeeded in driving out their Jewish populations. This is only a sample of the cities that lost their Jewish …

Connectedness To Nature And Electricity Consumption: An Interdisciplinary Study Of Behavior And Emotional Response To Nature In The Union Street Housing Complex, Jenna Trostle

Honors Papers

Much research has been done surrounding conservation behaviors in the household and electricity consumption. Most research has tended to focus on attitudes about the environment and how those attitudes influence pro-environmental behavior, but the research has not usually found a strong link between the two. The Connectedness to Nature Scale was used in this study to measure emotional responses to nature, and to determine whether people who felt more connected to nature used less electricity in the household. The residents of the Union Street Housing complex at Oberlin College were chosen as the group monitored for this project, as the …

Learning To Eat Appreciatively And Thoughtfully (Eat): Connecting With Food Through School Gardens, Lina A. Yamashita

Honors Papers

Many young people today do not learn to cook, or eat nutritious, regular meals together with their families, or go shopping for produce. Because of this, they do not have the opportunity to develop any real appreciation for food. To make matters worse, many public schools fail to teach students anything at all about the complex environmental and cultural history of food – how it is produced, preserved, prepared, and distributed. At the same time, schools serve lunches that often lack nutritional value. In this thesis, I argue the importance of giving students the opportunity to connect to food through …

Factory Farms Muck Up Rural America, Susan Poll-Klaessy

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Television Violence Prevention Versus Juvenile Violence Prevention: Any Connections In Parental Control?, Sharlette Kellum

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

Animated features, like children's cartoons, are considered by some to be the most violent shows on televi-sion, with approximately 25 to 50 acts of violence per hour (Dietz and Strasburger, 1991). Cartoons, unlike other shows that portray violence, present instances of violence to children in an "acceptable" way, which teaches children from zero to 17 years of age that hurting people is tolerable. Television violence has been linked to juvenile aggression, which has been linked to juvenile violence. In researching several studies, the author found that many of the preventions mentioned in the television violence studies were also mentioned in …

Reliability Of Urinary Bladder Pressure Measurement In Critical Care, Melanie Horbal Shuster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background of the study: Intra abdominal pressure (IAP) theoretically may be a predictor of enteral nutrition tolerance (EN). Urinary bladder pressure (UBP) is the gold standard for estimating IAP. Current recommendations for UBP measurement (UBPM) calls for the instillation of normal sterile saline (NSS) into the bladder while the patient is supine with a zero degree (0°) head of bed elevation (HOBE). How different instill volumes (IVs) and body positions influence UBPM were unknown, and the intra- and inter-observer reliability had not been adequately investigated.

Specific aims: 1) Systematically evaluate the relative contribution of bladder IV and subject's position upon …

Transatlantic Acts: Nation, Self-Narration, And Celebrity In Victorian And Modernist Women's Autobiography, Kristianne Kalata Vaccaro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines select Victorian and Modernist women writers' autobiographical narratives with attention to how the presence of transatlantic travel' bodily and textual, between Europe and America' links private processes of self-narration to public critiques of nation-specific systems, customs, and traditions. Exploring how these writers' audience-aware narratives reflect a kind of dual (body/text) performance at home and/or abroad, this project complicates traditional notions of women's autobiography as private and apolitical. I argue that autobiographical texts by Harriet Martineau, Fanny Kemble, Gertrude Stein, and Sylvia Townsend Warner manipulate their authors' celebrity status and relish the presence of their transatlantic public, shrewdly …

Encyclopedia Of Tidepools And Rocky Shores, Edited By Mark W. Denny & Steven D. Gaines, By Malcolm Ebright, Robert E. Knowlton

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

2008 Betcha Can't Do It Like We Did It, Northern University High School

Malcolm Price Laboratory School Yearbooks

The student yearbook of the Northern University High School, part of the Malcolm Price Laboratory School of the University of Northern Iowa.

An Occupational Therapy Guide For Improving Social Performance In Adolescents Within The Juvenile Justice System, Missy Law, Ashle Hicks

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Occupational therapists believe social participation is an important aspect of adolescent development. Social participation problems can be linked to mental health diagnoses and delinquency. Adolescents who are court ordered into the juvenile justice system often do not receive the necessary treatment due to lack of resources within the community.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to gather information regarding social participation aspects in relation to adolescent delinquency and placement within the juvenile justice system. The findings suggest there is more emphasis placed on punishment for adolescents rather than rehabilitation. Interventions used to support rehabilitation are primarily limited to counseling. A …

Privacy, Authenticity, & Equality: The Moral And Legal Case For The Right To Homosexual Marriage, Jeffrey L. Johnson

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.