Digital Commons Network^™

Purification Of Cell-Based Influenza H5n1 Viruses By Liquid Chromatography Technologies, Alan Yung-Chih Hu

Vaccine Technology IV

No abstract provided.

Bacterium-Like Particles As Delivery Vehicles For Multimeric Antigens, Kees Leenhouts

Vaccine Technology IV

No abstract provided.

2012-05-24 Minutes, Longwood University

Board of Visitors Meeting Minutes 1964-

No abstract provided.

Suspension Vero Cells (Svero) For Poliovirus Production: Effect Of Culture Passage On Growth Kinetics And Productivity, Guillermina Forno

Vaccine Technology IV

No abstract provided.

Business Faculty Notes

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law

No abstract provided.

Case Commentaries

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law

No abstract provided.

Loss Of Mhc And Neutral Variation In Peary Caribou: Genetic Drift Is Not Mitigated By Balancing Selection Or Exacerbated By Mhc Allele Distributions, Sabrina S. Taylor, Deborah A. Jenkins, Peter Arcese

Faculty Publications

Theory and empirical results suggest that the rate of loss of variation at Mhc and neutral microsatellite loci may differ because selection influences Mhc genes, and because a high proportion of rare alleles at Mhc loci may result in high rates of loss via drift. Most published studies compare Mhc and microsatellite variation in various contemporary populations to infer the effects of population size on genetic variation, even though different populations are likely to have different demographic histories that may also affect contemporary genetic variation. We directly compared loss of variation at Mhc and microsatellite loci in Peary caribou by …

Unh Alums Making Headlines, Elaine Isherwood

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

On Vacation With God: A Guide To Spiritual And Physical Renewal, Gerald A. Klingbeil

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Invasive Species And E-Commerce, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

ISSUE

Internet commerce (hereafter e-commerce) is a growing and vital part of the United States economy. Total e-commerce sales in the United States for 2011 totaled $194 billion, an increase of 16% over 2010. From 2002 to 2011, the proportion of reported e-commerce sales in the U. S. grew from about 1.4% to 5.5% of total retail sales (United States Census Bureau News 2012). Globally, e-commerce is expected to increase at a rate of 13.5% annually, amounting to $1.4 trillion in yearly sales by 2015 (Enright 2011). A portion of this activity includes the sale and trade of living organisms. …

Patent: Methods Of Treating Fgf21-Associated Disorders, Brian R. Boettcher, Shari L. Caplan, Douglas S. Daniels, Bernhard Hubert Geierstanger, Norio Hamamatsu, Stuart Licht, Andreas Loew, Stephen Craig Weldon

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The invention relates to the identification of new polypeptide and protein variants of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) that have improved pharmaceutical properties. Also disclosed are methods for treating FGF21-associated disorders, includ ing metabolic conditions.

Isoform-Specific Roles Of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases In Pain, Benedict Alter

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Isoform-specific roles of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases in pain by Benedict Joseph Alter Doctor of Philosophy in Biology and Biomedical Sciences Neurosciences Washington University in St. Louis, 2012 Professor Robert Gereau, Chairperson The extracellular signal-regulated kinase: ERK) isoforms, ERK1 and ERK2, are believed to be key signaling molecules in nociception and nociceptive sensitization. Studies utilizing inhibitors targeting the shared ERK1/2 upstream activator, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase: MEK), and transgenic mice expressing a dominant negative form of MEK have established the importance of ERK1/2 signaling. However, these techniques do not discriminate between ERK1 and ERK2. To dissect the …

Magnetic Resonance Elastography Of The Brain: From Phantom To Mouse To Man, Erik Clayton

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The overall objective of this study is to develop magnetic resonance elastography: MRE) imaging to better understand brain deformation, brain tissue mechanical properties, and brain-skull interaction in vivo. The findings of this study provide parameters for numerical models of human head biomechanics, as well as data for validation of these models. Numerical simulations offer enormous potential to the study of traumatic brain injury: TBI) and may also contribute to the development of prophylactic devices for high-risk subjects: e.g., military personnel, first-responders, and athletes). Current numerical models have not been adequately parameterized or validated and their predictions remain controversial. This dissertation …

Mediating War In Early Modern German Prose, Patrick Brugh

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Gunpowder technology had been in Europe since the fourteenth century, but it took two hundred years before German authors were aware of its social and aesthetic implications. When early modern people discussed gunpowder warfare in texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries they were astonished by its ability to destroy people, places, and things, as well as an aesthetic of warfare upon which war stories had long been based: heroics. While modern historians still debate the quantitative impact of gunpowder technology on society, early modern authors and eyewitnesses were in unanimous agreement: Gunpowder changed the way they thought about war. …

Trace Element Cycling During Iron(Ii)-Activated Recrystallization Of Iron(Iii) Oxide Minerals, Andrew Frierdich

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Biogeochemical iron cycling initiates secondary abiotic reactions between aqueous Fe(II) and Fe(III) oxide minerals, which results in dynamic recrystallization via simultaneous Fe(II) oxidative adsorption and Fe(III) reductive dissolution. Fe(III) oxide minerals are abundant in soils, sediments, and groundwater systems, and often control the fate and transport of trace elements. A robust understanding of their reactivity with Fe(II) and how associated trace elements are affected during Fe(II)-activated recrystallization is required to predict the effect of biogeochemical processes on contaminant fate and micronutrient availability. The main objective of the research presented in this dissertation is to characterize how Fe(II)-activated recrystallization of iron …

Characterization Of Normal Development And Injury In The Premature Baboon Brain, Jennifer Griffith

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Nearly 13% of infants born in the United States each year are preterm - that is, born before 37 weeks gestation. Although improvements in clinical care have contributed to survival rates that now exceed 85%, premature infants are at high risk for motor, sensory, cognitive and behavioral disabilities. In order to develop therapeutic interventions to prevent these adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, we must first understand the nature of cerebral injury associated with premature birth and the mechanisms by which it leads to altered brain development. A baboon: Papio papio) model of preterm birth was used to evaluate cerebral development from 90 …

The Automation Of Electrophysiological Experiments And Data Analysis, David Morton

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The role of computation in science is continually growing and neuroscience is no exception. Despite this, a severe lack of scientific software infrastructure persists, slowing progress in many domains. In this thesis, we will see how the combination of neuroscience and software engineering can build infrastructure that enables discovery. The first chapter discusses the Turtle Electrophysiology Project, or TEP, an experiment-automation and data-management system. This system has allowed us to automate away some of the most tedious tasks involved in conducting experiments. As a result, we can collect more data in less time, and with fewer errors related to the …

Information Processing In A Midbrain Visual Pathway, Dihui Lai

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Visual information is processed in brain via the intricate interactions between neurons. We investigated a midbrain visual pathway: optic tectum and its isthmic nucleus) that is motion sensitive and is thought as part of attentional system. We determined the physiological properties of individual neurons as well as their synaptic connections with intracellular recordings. We reproduced the center-surround receptive field structure of tectal neurons in a dynamical recurrent feedback loop. We reveal in a computational model that the anti-topographic inhibitory feedback could mediate competitive stimulus selection in a complex visual scene. We also investigated the dynamics of the competitive selection in …

Citizen Action, Power Relations And Wetland Management In The Tampa Bay Urban Socio-Ecosystem, Cornelius Owusu Adjei

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that provide ecological, economic and social benefits to societies. In the Tampa Bay region in West Central Florida, a growing population has put immense pressure on wetlands. The situation has not gone unnoticed in the public domain with concerns raised about the need to formulate policies that would protect them. However, it has been difficult to ascertain the level of citizen involvement in the decision making process.

This study aimed at investigating whether the perceptions and concerns of citizens drove them to influence local water policy. Questionnaires were used to collect data from residents living in …

Fatty Acid Composition In The Mature Milk Of Bolivian Forager-Horticulturalists: Controlled Comparisons With A Us Sample, Melanie A. Martin, William D. Lassek, Steven J. C. Gaulin, Rhobert W. Evans, Sheela S. Geraghty, Barbara S. Davidson, Ardythe L. Morrow, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Breast milk fatty acid (FA) composition varies greatly among individual women, including in percentages of the long-chain polyunsaturated FAs (LCPUFA) 20:4n-6 (arachidonic acid, AA) and 22:6n-3 (docosahexaenoic acid, DHA), which are important for infant neurological development. It has been suggested that owing to wide variation in milk LCPUFA and low DHA in Western diets, standards of milk FA composition should be derived from populations consuming traditional diets. We collected breast milk samples from Tsimane women at varying lactational stages (6–82 weeks). The Tsimane are an indigenous, natural fertility, subsistence-level population living in Amazonia Bolivia. Tsimane samples were matched by lactational …

Expression And Function Of Small Rnas In Normal And Psoriatic Skin, Cailin Joyce

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease characterized by hyperproliferation and altered differentiation of keratinocytes, and infiltration of activated immune cells in the epidermis. Array based genome-wide expression studies by our lab and others have revealed over 1,300 alterations in mRNA transcript levels in psoriatic skin. microRNAs: miRNAs) are a class of short, regulatory RNAs that play critical roles in human development and disease. I hypothesized that differential expression of miRNAs might underlie some of the gene expression changes in psoriatic skin. Thus, I sought to characterize the global landscape of miRNA expression in human skin, and to investigate the …

Global Poverty - Local Problem: Institutional Determinants Of Poverty Among Indigenous Peoples Of Nepal, Gyanesh Lama

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation investigated why some groups or communities become poor while others become rich. Using institutional design as a theoretical guidance, the study conducted an in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic disparities between indigenous peoples and caste people in Nepal. The study used multilevel modeling, Geographic Information System: GIS), and ethnography research methods. Indigenous peoples in Nepal were found to be significantly at higher risk of poverty than caste people. Discrimination against indigenous peoples appears to be the key determinant of indigenous poverty. Geographic isolation and proximity to caste people were also significant predictors of indigenous poverty. The study has implication …

Comparative And Functional Genomic Analysis Of The Methanobrevibacter Smithii Pan Genome, Elizabeth Hansen

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The human gastrointestinal tract hosts trillions of microorganisms that impact human health. Although members of the domain Bacteria dominate our gut bioreactors, members of Archaea and Eukarya, and their viruses, are also represented. Methanobrevibacter smithii is the dominant Archaeon found in human gut, although only a subset of humans harbor this methanogen. Together with other hydrogen-consuming organisms: acetogens, sulfate reducing bacteria), M. smithii plays an important role in determining the efficiency of fermentation of dietary polysaccharides. Thus, deciphering the interactions between methanogens, acetogens and SRB and other members of the gut microbiota offers an important opportunity to gain new insights …

The Unconventional Amino Acid Starvation Response Of The Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium Falciparum, Shalon Ledbetter

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The apicomplexan parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is the causative agent of the most severe form of malaria, resulting in nearly 1 million deaths each year. The parasite establishes its replicative niche within human erythrocytes, where it degrades massive amounts of host cell hemoglobin, salvaging the released amino acids for its own use. However, human hemoglobin does not contain the amino acid isoleucine, which is one of the most prevalent amino acids in the parasite's proteome. Since P. falciparum cannot synthesize isoleucine, it must acquire this amino acid from human serum. Optimal growth and, ultimately, the survival of P. falciparum depend on …

A Role Of T Cell Receptor Specificity In The Thymic Regulatory T Cell Development, Hyang-Mi Lee

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The development of regulatory T: Treg) cells is essential for the maintenance of immune tolerance and homeostasis. In the thymus, TCR-specificity to self-antigen appears to be a primary determinant for Treg cell lineage commitment, imprinting both self and foreign antigens in the peripheral Treg cell population to provide dominant tolerance. The degree of T cell self-reactivity considered dangerous by the immune system, thereby requiring thymic education to prevent autoimmunity, is unknown. Here, I analyzed a panel of TCRs with a broad range of reactivity to ovalbumin: OVA323-339) in the RIP-mOVA self-antigen model for their ability to induce mechanisms of thymic …

Serum Response Factor Regulates Multiple Aspects Of Central Nervous System Development, Puo Yuan Lu

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

SRF is a highly evolutionary conserved activity-dependent transcription factor. Previous studies have shown that neuron-specific deletion of SRF results in deficits in tangential cell migration, guidance-dependent circuit assembly, activity-dependent gene expression, and synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. However, very little is known in terms of whether SRF participates in earlier aspects of central nervous system development such as neuronal projection establishment, cell-fate specifications, and neural stem cell homeostasis and survival. We report that SRF is critical for development of major axonal tracts in the forebrain. Conditional mutant mice lacking SRF in neural progenitor cells: Srf-Nestin-cKO) exhibit striking deficits in cortical …

Characterization Of Complement C3 Dysregulation Predisposing To Two Human Disease States, Elizabeth Miller

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The complement system is an essential branch of the innate immune system and acts as a bridge to the adaptive immune system. It serves as the first line of defense against pathogens, as well as in the clearance of immune complexes and apoptotic cells. Deficiencies in many of the complement components lead to an increase in bacterial infections while others predispose to autoimmune conditions, especially systemic lupus erythematosus: SLE). Regulation of the complement system is important for protection of the host tissues against inappropriate activation. In the absence of appropriate regulation, commonly due to mutations in regulatory proteins, complement can …

Vilém Flusser's Media Philosophy: Tracing The Digital In Nature Through Art, Anne Popiel

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Philosopher Vilém Flusser's theories and metaphorical writing style are considered together in order to explain the connection between digital technology, nature and artistic creativity in his work.

Neural Adaptation And The Effect Of Interelectrode Spacing On Epidural Electrocorticography For Brain-Computer Interfaces, Adam Rouse

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Electrocorticography: ECoG) is increasingly being identified as a safe and reliable recording technique for both Brain-Computer Interface: BCI) applications as well as neurophysiology studies. This thesis describes some of the first real-time closed-loop BCI studies of chronic ECoG in non-human primates. Epidural microECoG electrodes developed in our lab were implanted in three monkeys with the electrode array centered over primary motor cortex: M1). Monkeys were then trained to perform a one-dimensional BCI task. The BCI control scheme was independent of any prior screening for task-related activity. All three monkeys successfully learned to perform the task with multiple control configurations and …

Ranging Behavior, Group Cohesiveness, And Patch Use In Northern Bearded Sakis (Chiropotes Sagulatus) In Guyana, Christopher Shaffer

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

I conducted a 15 month study of the activity patterns, diet, ranging behavior, and group cohesiveness of northern bearded sakis: Chiropotes sagulatus) in a continuous lowland rainforest in southern Guyana. My study combined observational data with a novel GIS-based method for assessing food patch quality to assess how bearded sakis adjusted their ranging and grouping patterns in response to changes in resource quality. My study group consisted of at least 65 animals, making it the largest group of Chiropotes yet reported. Bearded sakis were highly active, spending most of their time traveling: 40% of activity) and feeding: 35% of activity). …