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Patterned Cell Cultures For High Throughput Studies Of Cell Electrophysiology And Drug Screening Applications, Anupama Natarajan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, the field of tissue and bio-engineering has seen an increase in the development of in vitro high-throughput hybrid systems that can be used to understand cell function and behavior at the cellular and tissue levels. These tools would have a wide array of applications including for implants, drug discovery, and toxicology, as well as for studying cell developmental behavior and as disease models. Currently, there are a limited number of efficient, functional drug screening assays in the pharmacology industry and studies of cell-surface interactions are complicated and invasive. Most cell physiology studies are performed using conventional …

Studies On A Novel Human Cardiospecific Transcription Factor And Its Involvement In Omi/Htra2 Mediated Cell Death, Meenakshi Puthucode Balakrishnan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Omi/HtrA2 is a mitochondrial serine protease that is known to translocate to the cytoplasm upon induction of apoptosis and to activate caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death. The molecular mechanism of Omi/HtrA2's function is not clear but involves degradation of specific substrates. These substrates include cytoplasmic, mitochondrial, as well as nuclear proteins. We have isolated a new Omi/HtrA2 interactor, the THAP5 protein. THAP5 is a fifth member of a large family of transcription factors that are involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle control, chromosome segregation, chromatin modification and transcriptional regulation. THAP5 is an approximately 50kDa nuclear protein, with a restricted …

Learning From Geometry In Learning For Tactical And Strategic Decision Domains, Jason Gauci

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are an abstraction of the low-level architecture of biological brains that are often applied in general problem solving and function approximation. Neuroevolution (NE), i.e. the evolution of ANNs, has proven effective at solving problems in a variety of domains. Information from the domain is input to the ANN, which outputs its desired actions. This dissertation presents a new NE algorithm called Hypercube-based NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (HyperNEAT), based on a novel indirect encoding of ANNs. The key insight in HyperNEAT is to make the algorithm aware of the geometry in which the ANNs are embedded and …

A Blueprint For Planning And Designing Staged-Authentic Heritage Attractions In Small Island Nations, Earney F. Lasten

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this largely qualitative study was to develop a blueprint for planning and designing a staged-authentic heritage tourist attraction for small island nations. Data were gathered and analyzed in three phases. In Phase I, existing and potential supply, demand, and external variables associated with staged-authentic heritage attractions were identified, and a preliminary planning model and conceptual framework was developed. In Phase II, the model was refined. A blueprint containing seven major questions and 26 sequential steps was developed. In Phase III, the blueprint was tested using focus groups and an online tourist survey in the Caribbean region (Aruba) …

Development Of Optical Coherence Tomography For Tissue Diagnostics, Panomsak Meemon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microvasculature can be found in almost every part of the human body, including the internal organs. Importantly, abnormal changes in microvasculature are usually related to pathological development of the tissue cells. Monitoring of changes in blood flow properties in microvasculature, therefore, provides useful diagnostic information about pathological conditions in biological tissues as exemplified in glaucoma, diabetes, age related macular degeneration, port wine stains, burn-depth, and potentially skin cancer. However, the capillary network is typically only one cell in wall thickness with 5 to 10 microns in diameter and located in the dermis region of skin. Therefore, a non-invasive flow imaging …

Patent Pooling Behind The Veil Of Uncertainty: Antitrust, Competition Policy, And The Vaccine Industry, Hillary Greene

Faculty Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Fluorination On Partitioning Behavior And Bilayer Self Assembly, Vivian Aramide Ojogun

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Fluorinated systems are defined by unique properties that offer advantages in drug delivery, material synthesis and industrial applications. In comparison to their hydrocarbon counterparts, the design of fluorinated solutes for tailored applications is limited by the inability to predict the effect of fluorination on phase behavior. This work examines and interprets the influence of fluorination on the phase behavior of fluorinated solutes and surfactants, with emphasis on their impact on vesicle bilayers.

Thermodynamic partitioning of functionalized series of fluorinated and hydrocarbon nicotinate prodrugs fashioned to promote solubility in a fluorocarbon solvent (perfluorooctyl bromide; PFOB) is measured. Predictive approaches are also …

Pls 3233 : International Terrorism, Political Science

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Bio 3850 : Environmental Biology, Biological Sciences

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Bio 5991 : Non-Credit Independent Study, Biological Sciences

Approved Course Proposals

No abstract provided.

Sculpted Landscapes: Art & Place In Cleveland's Cultural Gardens, 1916-2006, Mark T. Tebeau

History Faculty Publications

Perhaps the world's first peace garden, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens embody the history of twentieth-century America and reveal the complex interrelations between art and place. This essay uses the Cleveland Cultural Gardens as a lens through which to explore how art and place have intersected over time. It explores how communities have negotiated questions of national, ethnic, and American identity and embedded those identities into the vernacular landscape. It considers how the particulars of place were embedded into a public garden and asks whether it is possible for public art to transcend its place both in terms of geography and …

Micro-Environment And Plant Assemblage Structure On Virginia's Barrier Island "Pimple" Dunes, Brett A. Mcmillan, Frank P. Day

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

“Pimple” dunes are small, rounded coastal dunes that form along major dune ridges of the barrier islands along the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Although most pimple dunes are small structures ranging between 10 and 20 m in diameter, they have distinct plant assemblages that replicate the upland ecotones of their barrier islands. We examined the relationship between microenvironment, edaphic factors, and plant assemblage structure on pimple dunes. Water availability was an obvious major ecological driver, but we also tested other environmental factors that may correlate with plant assemblage structure. We found distinct assemblage types that segregated themselves by habitat type: …

Spawning-Related Movements Of Barred Sand Bass Paralabrax Nebulifer, In Southern California: Interpretations From Two Decades Of Historical Tag And Recapture Data, E. T. Jarvis, Christi Linardich, C. F. Valle

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

During the 1960s and 1990s, the California Department of Fish and Game tagged 8,634 barred sand bass in southern California, and 972 fish (11%) were recaptured. Tag returns suggest barred sand bass are transient aggregate spawners that form spawning aggregations consisting of both resident and migrant individuals. Spawning residency at a historic spawning location was estimated by the frequency of returns over time; most same-year returns (82%, n  =  141) were recaptured within a 7 to 35-day period. The maximum recapture distance was 92 km. The average (± SD) non-spawning season recapture distance from peak spawning season tagging locations was …

Prospective Associations Of Insomnia Markers And Symptoms With Depression, Mariana Szklo-Coxe, Terry Young, Paul E. Peppard, Laurel A. Finn, Ruth M. Benca

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Whether insomnia, a known correlate of depression, predicts depression longitudinally warrants elucidation. The authors examined 555 Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study participants aged 33-71 years without baseline depression or antidepressant use who completed baseline and follow-up overnight polysomnography and had complete questionnaire-based data on insomnia and depression for 1998-2006. Using Poisson regression, they estimated relative risks for depression (Zung scale score >= 50) at 4-year (average) follow-up according to baseline insomnia symptoms and polysomnographic markers. Twenty-six participants (4.7%) developed depression by follow-up. Having 3-4 insomnia symptoms versus none predicted depression risk (age-, sex-, and comorbidity-adjusted relative risk (RR) = 3.2, 95% …

Robustness Of The Healthcare Utilization Results From The Rotavirus Efficacy And Safety Trial (Rest) Evaluating The Human-Bovine (Wc3) Reassortant Pentavalent Rotavirus Vaccine (Rv5), Robbin Itzler, Gary Koch, David O. Matson, Leif Gothefors, Pierre Van Damme, Mark J. Dinubile, Penny M. Heaton

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: The Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial was a placebo-controlled Phase III study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of a three-dose pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) including its effect on healthcare utilization for rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE). The per-protocol (PP) analyses, which counted events occurring 14 days after dose 3 among infants without protocol violations, have already been published. This paper evaluates the consistency of the healthcare utilization results based on the modified intention to treat (MITT) analyses with the PP analyses. The MITT analyses include all infants receiving at least one dose of vaccine or placebo and follow-up begins after …

Effluent Organic Nitrogen (Eon): Bioavailability And Photochemical And Salinity-Mediated Release, Deborah A. Bronk, Quinn N. Roberts, Marta P. Sanderson, Elizabeth A. Canuel, Patrick G. Hatcher, Rajaa Mesfioui, Katherine C. Filippino, Margaret R. Mulholland, Nancy G. Love

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The goal of this study was to investigate three potential ways that the soluble organic nitrogen (N) fraction of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents, termed effluent organic N (EON), could contribute to coastal eutrophication - direct biological removal, photochemical release of labile compounds, and salinity-mediated release of ammonium (NH₄+). Effluents from two WWTPs were used in the experiments. For the bioassays, EON was added to water from four salinities (∼0 to 30) collected from the James River (VA) in August 2008, and then concentrations of N and phosphorus compounds were measured periodically over 48 h. Bioassay results, based …

Electric Pulses To Prepare Feeder Cells For Sustaining And Culturing Of Undifferentiated Embryonic Stem Cells, Lauren M. Browning, Tao Huang, Xiao-Hong Nancy Xu

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Current challenges in embryonic-stem-cell (ESC) research include inability of sustaining and culturing of undifferentiated ESCs over time. Growth-arrested feeder cells are essential to the culture and sustaining of undifferentiated ESCs, and they are currently prepared using gammaradiation and chemical inactivation. Both techniques have severe limitations. In this study, we developed a new, simple and effective technique (pulsed-electric-fields, PEFs) to produce viable growth-arrested cells (RTS34st) and used them as high-quality feeder cells to culture and sustain undifferentiated zebrafish ESCs over time. The cells were exposed to 25 sequential 10- nanosecond-electric-pulses (10nsEPs) of 25, 40 and 150 kV/cm with 1s pulse interval, …

Sequence And Structural Analysis Of The Chitinase Insertion Domain Reveals Two Conserved Motifs Involved In Chitin Binding, Hai Li, Lesley H. Greene

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Background: Chitinases are prevalent in life and are found in species including archaea, bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. They break down chitin, which is the second most abundant carbohydrate in nature after cellulose. Hence, they are important for maintaining a balance between carbon and nitrogen trapped as insoluble chitin in biomass. Chitinases are classified into two families, 18 and 19 glycoside hydrolases. In addition to a catalytic domain, which is a triosephosphate isomerase barrel, many family 18 chitinases contain another module, i.e., chitinase insertion domain. While numerous studies focus on the biological role of the catalytic domain in chitinase activity, …

Biodiversity Assessment Of The Fishes Of Saba Bank Atoll, Netherlands Antilles, Jeffrey T. Williams, Kent E. Carpenter, James L. Van Tassell, Paul Hoetjes, Wes Toller, Peter Etnoyer, Michael Smith

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Biodiversity surveys were conducted on Saba Bank, Netherlands Antilles, to assess ichthyofaunal richness and to compare with published surveys of other Caribbean localities. The primary objective was to estimate the total species richness of the Saba Bank ichthyofauna. A variety of sampling techniques was utilized to survey the fish species of both the visually accessible megafauna and the camouflaged and small-sized species comprising the cryptic ichthyofauna. Based on results presented herein, the number of species known on Saba Bank is increased from 42 previously known species to 270 species. Expected species-accumulation curves demonstrate that the current estimate of species richness …

Factors Influencing The Distribution Of Bull Trout And Westslope Cutthroat Trout West Of The Continental Divide In Glacier National Park, Vincent Stephen D'Angelo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The reported decline of native bull trout Salvelinus confluentus and westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi populations west of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park (GNP) prompted research to identify critical habitats and investigate factors influencing their distribution and relative abundance. I evaluated the association of six abiotic factors (stream width, elevation, gradient, large woody debris density, pool density, mean August stream temperature) and a biotic factor (the presence of nonnative lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush) with the occurrence and density of bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout in 79 stream reaches in five sub-drainages of the North Fork Flathead …

Female Competition And The Role Of Testosterone In A Polygynous System, Lars Stefan Ekernas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Testosterone plays an important role in male competitive ability, and it may play a similar function in females. Female-female competition for resources is often associated with high testosterone, both within females and in comparison to males. Positive associations between testosterone and competition are most likely to be seen in systems with high female-female competition. Resource defense polygyny may be one such system since females congregate on high-quality nutrient sources, leading to substantial opportunities for interference competition. I studied female Grant’s gazelle (Nanger granti), a classic resource defense polygynous species, to investigate female competition and its relationship to testosterone. I found …

Luminal Calcium Regulates Membrane Fusion In The Early Secretory Pathway, Marvin Bentley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Calcium is an important regulatory ion which acts as a trigger or is required at a basal level for many membrane fusion events. The role of calcium, and in particular luminal calcium, in regulating fusion in the early secretory pathway has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, I show that calcium has an inhibitory effect on homotypic coat protein complex (COPII) vesicle fusion. In particular, chelation of luminal calcium as well as fast chelation of extra luminal calcium, result in a significant increase of COPII vesicle fusion. Specific inhibition of Sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPases using cyclopiazonic acid in the presence of …

Movements, Activity Range, Habitat Use, And Conservation Of The Jamaican (Yellow) Boa, Epicrates Subflavus, Erika Elise Miersma

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The endemic Jamaican boa, Epicrates subflavus, was once common throughout Jamaica. This vulnerable species is now fragmented into small populations throughout the island due to habitat loss, introduced species, human persecution and poaching. Conservation of the boa requires knowledge of the basic ecology of the boa and education of local people. Jamaican boas were studied in the community of Windsor in Jamaica’s Cockpit Country. Radio telemetry was used to examine the movements, activity ranges, and habitat use of twelve boas. In addition, an outreach program was undertaken to combat human persecution and poaching. Male Jamaican boas moved greater distances per …

Quantification And Reduction Of Exposure To Residential Woodsmoke Particulate Matter, Megan Ann Bergauff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Particulate matter is released during combustion reactions and can be harmful to human health. One common source for human particulate matter exposure is through biomass burning, primarily from wildfires or stoves used for heating or cooking in the home. A method was developed for the analysis of seven selected chemical tracers of woodsmoke (levoglucosan, dehydroabietic acid, abietic acid, vanillin, acetovanillone, guaiacol, and 4-ethylguaiacol) in particulate matter. This method was used to analyze particulate matter collected in Libby, MT, a community where woodsmoke is the predominant component of the particulate matter, before, during, and after a woodstove changeout program. Ambient levels …

Short-Term Effects Of Wildfire On Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Habitat Ecology, Lacey Greene

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

We studied changes in vegetation and habitat selection by endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (Ovis candensis sierrae; hereafter Sierra bighorn) for 2 years following wildfire on winter ranges in eastern California. We hypothesized that wildfire would change both forage availability and predation risk. Green forage biomass on Sierra bighorn winter ranges rebounded quickly from wildfire. Within 2 years green forage biomass was equal in burned and unburned areas, although total forage biomass was greater in unburned areas. Plants in the burn had 3% greater crude protein but equivalent digestibility and phenology. Forage composition in burned areas was forb dominated compared …

Subsistence Change And Emergent Social Inequality In An Early Complex Hunter-Gatherer Winter Village: A Zooarchaeological Assessment Of The Bridge River Site (Eerl4), Middle Fraser B.C., Eric S. Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT Carlson, Eric S., M.A., Spring 2010 Anthropology Subsistence Change and Emergent Social Inequality in an Early Complex Hunter-Gatherer Winter Village: A Zooarchaeological Assessment of the Bridge River Site (EeRl4), Middle Fraser B.C. Chairperson: Dr. Anna Marie Prentiss Analyses of faunal material from the 2008 excavations at the Bridge River Site (EeRl4) show that reliance on stored anadromous salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.) remains the primary food staple from early occupations of the village (1550bp) until its abandonment (1100bp), and indeed intensifies through time. Second, taxonomic diversity in food resources declines through time, signifying a diachronic process of resource specialization. The presence …

Summer Wolf Diet In Northwestern Montana, Jonathan Derbridge

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wolf (Canis lupus) diet can be estimated from undigested remains of prey in scats or through stable isotope analysis (SIA) of wolf hair when distinct δ13C and δ15N values of potential diet sources are known. Our objectives were to compare diet analysis methods, to estimate intra-population diet variability, and to determine proportions of prey consumed by wolves. We collected scats of 4 wolf packs in northwestern Montana from June to August 2008, and guard hairs of 45 wolves from 12 packs, May to August 2009. We calculated percent biomass consumed of deer (Odocoileus spp.), elk (Cervus canadensis), moose (Alces alces), …

Gayle M. Burns And I.M.B. V. Michael Astrue : Appellant's Responsive Brief, Utah Supreme Court

Utah Supreme Court Briefs (2000–2020)

CERTIFIED QUESTION FROM THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT, DISTRICT OF UTAH, JUDGE DALE A. KIMBALL PRESIDING

Marco A. Donjuan V. Gabrielle Mcdermott : Brief Of Appellant, Utah Supreme Court

Utah Supreme Court Briefs (2000–2020)

No abstract provided.

The Foundations And Early Development Of Mormon Mission Theory, David Golding

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to answer a fundamental question facing missiologists and historians of Mormonism: given their sustained preoccupation with converting others to Mormonism and their thriving tradition of missionary work, how do Mormons conceive of their mission? By focusing on the theoretical frame in which Mormon missionaries imagined the non-Mormon world, prepared for missionary engagement, and derived their expectations for their mission work, this study aims to illuminate the development of Mormon missionary activities and explain the processes by which Mormons fashioned for themselves a missional character. Beginning with Joseph Smith and the emergence of his missional thought and ending …