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The Effects Of Coated Gold Nanorods On Porcine Atrioventricular Valve Tissues Using Atomic Force Microscopy, Heather L'Ecuyer

All Theses

In this Master's thesis we examine the effect of surface modified gold nanorods (AuNRs) coated with polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) on the mechanical properties of porcine mitral valve tissue ex vivo. The presence of healthy mitral valve tissue in the body is important to ensuring unidirectional flow of blood through the systemic circuit. Unfortunately, due to its anatomic complexity and unique mechanical behavior, pathological mitral valve tissue remains difficult to treat with conventional methods. We hope that the knowledge gleaned from these studies could be useful for developing new and novel treatments treating pathological mitral valve mechanical properties.
Specifically, we examine …

May 2012, Lori Gwyn, Berva Pool, Aileen Aiello

SWOSU OSP

No abstract provided.

Numerical Study For A Viscoelastic Fluid-Structure Interaction Problem, Shuhan Xu

All Theses

In this thesis, we consider a viscoelastic flow in a moving domain, which has significant applications in biology and industry. Numerical approximation schemes are developed based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation of the flow equations. A spatial discretization is accomplished by the finite element method, and the time descritization is carried by either the implicit Euler method or the Crank-Nicolson method. Numerical results are presented for a fluid in a moving domain, where the boundary movement is specified by a given function. Then, we extend our work to a fluid-structure interaction problem. This system consists of a two-dimensional viscoelastic …

An Analysis Of Rigid Image Alignment Computer Vision Algorithms, Rajeshree R. Joshi

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Computer vision is a field of computer science that includes methods for acquiring, processing, and analyzing images. Image registration is one of the methods used in the computer vision field to transform different sets of data into one coordinate system to align images. Registration is important in order to be able to compare or integrate the data obtained from multiple measurements. Rigid image alignment is a type of image registration technique used to align two two-dimensional images into a common coordinate system based on two transformation parameters, translation and rotation. Before any comparative studies can be performed on two images …

Bulletin Ninth District Ny May 2012

Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association

The Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association is published four times annually in the months of March, May, September and November. It is distributed to all Association members from the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester in the state of New York.

The Bulletin keeps our members up-to-date on NDDA activities as well as on a variety of topics important to the profession.

Establishment Method And Cultural Practice Effects On Sports Turf, Josh Anderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of soil-based sod on sand-based rootzones for the establishment of sports fields and golf courses is a common occurrence. Furthermore, the use of soil-based sod on sand-based rootzones can lead to potential problems associated with decreased water infiltration, gas exchange, rooting, and turfgrass quality caused by soil layering. Core-aerification and sand topdressing may help alleviate the problems associated with soil layering from the use of soil-based sod on sand-based rootzones. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to evaluate the effects of sod establishment methods and post- establishment cultural practices on the infiltration rate, moisture content, divot resistance, …

An Exploratory Study Of Communicatively-Restricted Organizational Stress (Cros) Ii: Associations With Organizational Stress And Elevated Cholesterol, Justin P. Boren, Alice E. Veksler

Communication

This study expands on prior research on Communicatively-Restricted Organizational Stress (CROS), which includes those stressors that individuals do not have a socially-supportive outlet inside or outside of their organizations. First, by using a sample of 405 organizational members, we explore the prevalence of the CROS by identifying the existence of the nature of this concept. After that, we explore the way that the CROS acts on an individual both physiologically and psychologically by evaluating its associations with organizational-level variables (stress, support, and commitment) along with markers of stress (LDL and Total Cholesterol). Results were generally inconclusive. Discussion focused on significant …

Cave Research Foundation Quarterly, Volume 40, No. 2, May 2012, Laura Lexander

KIP Articles

Contents: Buffalo National River Caving -- From the President: Charles Fox -- Regional Expedition Reports -- 2012 Expedition Calendar

High-Dose Steroids Increase Bacterial Infection In Children With Juvenile Arthritis, Alicia Rohan

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

The Physical And Biological Mechanisms Controlling The Winter-Spring Phytoplankton Bloom In Long Island Sound, Jennifer A. George

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The spring phytoplankton bloom is an annual event that occurs at middle and high latitudes, in the world's oceans, is an important source of organic matter for marine food webs, and can influence global carbon cycles. The spring bloom is controlled by many physical and biological factors. This study examined the biological and physical mechanisms controlling the onset and demise of the spring phytoplankton bloom in Long Island Sound (LIS) during 2010 and 2011 with a focus on zooplankton grazing, phytoplankton growth, and the effects of increased seawater temperature on these factors. During 2010 and 2011, the spring bloom initiated …

Design, Synthesis And Biological Evaluation Of New-Generation Taxoid-Based Tumor-Targeting Drug Conjugates, Edison S. Zuniga

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Over the past decades, chemotherapy has transitioned to an age of "targeted therapy." The development of Gleevec (Novartis) and Tarceva (Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals) has revolutionized the treatment of certain cancers, such as chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and pancreatic cancer. Gleevec specifically targets the cancer cell-overexpressed Abl tyrosine kinase, and Tarceva targets the epidermal growth factor receptor that is mutated in different types of cancers. However, the use of these modern targeted-therapies is limited to specific cancer types. Therefore, considerable efforts have been made to find cancer-specific markers which can be exploited for tumor-specific delivery …

Protein Folding And Stability: Distinguishing Folded From Unfolded State Effects, Shifeng Xiao

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The villin headpiece subdomain (HP36) is one of the smallest naturally occurring protein domains that folds cooperatively in the absence of disulfide bonds or ligand binding. It has a simple topology consisting of three ? -helices that form a hydrophobic core. Kinetic studies have shown that the subdomain folds on the microsecond time scale, making it one of the fastest folding proteins. Its simple topology, small size, and rapid folding have made it a very popular model for computational, theoretical, and experimental studies. HP36 has a well packed hydrophobic core comprised in part of an unusual set of three closely …

A Stochastic Approximation Interpretation For Model-Based Optimization Algorithms, Ping Hu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This thesis studies a class of model-based randomized algorithms for solving general optimization problems. These are iterative algorithms that sample from and update an underlying distribution over the feasible solution space. We find that the model-based algorithms can be interpreted as the well-known stochastic approximation (SA) method. Following the connection between model-based algorithms and SA, we build a framwork to analyze the convergence and the convergence rate of these algorithms. Moreover, we present an instantiation of this framework which is the modified version of the Cross Entropy (CE) method, and analyze its convergence properties and numerical performance. In addition, we …

Margaret Kuchenreuther Receives Oustanding Community Service Award, University Relations

Campus News Archive

She is the only faculty member in the University of Minnesota system to receive the 2012 University of Minnesota Outstanding Community Service Award.

Cloning, Heterologous Expression In Yeast, And Biochemical Characterization Of Recombinant Putative Glucosyltransferase Clones 9 And 11 From Grapefruit (Citrus Paradisi), Anye Wamucho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flavonoids are plant secondary metabolites that play diverse roles in plants and human health. These compounds in most part exist in the glucosylated form. Grapefruit accumulates high levels of glucosylated flavonoids. Plant secondary product glucosyltransferases (GTs) catalyze the glucosylation reaction, but due to low homology at both the nucleotide and amino acid sequence level of different GTs, it is not possible to ascribe function based on sequence only. The hypotheses that PGT clones 9 and 11 are plant secondary product GTs and are biochemically regulated were tested. PGT 9 has been cloned into Pichia pastoris using the pPICZA and pPICZAα …

Critical Node Analysis For Water Distribution System Using Flow Distribution, Michael Hopkins

Master's Theses

The expansive nature of water distribution system makes them susceptible to threats such as natural disasters and man-made destructions. Vulnerability assessment research efforts have increased since the passing of “Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act” in 2002 to harden WDS. This study aimed to develop a method that locates critical nodes without hydraulic analysis of every failure scenario, applicable for any size WDS, incorporates critical infrastructure, and capable of verifying method accuracy. The Flow Distribution method is the application of the gravity model, typically used to predict traffic flows in transportation engineering, to a distribution system. Flow distribution predicts the amount …

Influence Of Habitat Heterogeneity On Small Mammals In The Central Platte River Valley, Nebraska, Justin D. Anderson

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Although the loss of prairie is substantial across the extent of its historic range, large portions of native rangeland still remain throughout Nebraska. It is critical that resource managers and private landowners manage rangelands in a manner that will enhance ecosystem integrity by using techniques that provide disturbance regimes. Heterogeneity based management, such as patch-burn grazing and rest-rotation grazing, can be used as a conservation tool to increase biodiversity within management units and at a landscape level. Heterogeneity-based management has received much attention in the literature within the past decade, but there has been little focus on how these management …

Multiple Deletions Reveal The Essentiality Of The Deda Membrane Protein Family In Escherichia Coli, Lisa A. Boughner, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

The DedA family is a highly conserved, ancient family of membrane proteins with representatives in most sequenced genomes. A characteristic of prokaryotic DedA family genes is extensive gene duplication, with most bacterial genomes carrying two or more homologues. The Escherichia coli genome carries eight DedA genes, each individually nonessential. We previously described an E. coli mutant (BC202; ΔyghB:: kanR, ΔyqjA:: tetR) with in-frame deletions of two DedA genes encoding proteins with 61% amino acid identity. BC202 fails to complete cell division or grow at elevated temperatures. Here, we report that restoration of normal growth and cell division of BC202 is …

Interspecific Hybridization Among Black Basses (Micropterus Spp.) In The Chattahoochee River, Columbus Georgia, Kimberly S. Holley

Theses and Dissertations

Interspecific hybridization can lead to the evolution of a new hybrid species or extinction of parental species due to competition or excessive backcrossing, When parental populations differ in abundance, hybrids tend to backcross more frequently with the more abundant parent, resulting in asymmetrical introgression. The objective of this study was to determine the extent and apparent direction of hybridization between shoal bass {Micropterus cataractae), a rare endemic species to the Apalachicola drainage, and spotted bass (M. punctulatus), an introduced and more abundant species. Pelvic fin tissue (N = 130) was taken from bass species in the Chattahoochee River between Columbus, …

Variation And Organization In Social Behavior: Infectious Disease And Human Intergroup Conflict And Warfare; And The Organization Of Foraging Behavior In Harvester Ants, Kenneth Letendre

Biology ETDs

Social behavior is an important contributor to the success of widely distributed animal taxa, including such distantly related taxa as humans and ants. There is variation in the features and organization of social systems based on ecological constraints and goals, as these alter the costs and benefits of social behaviors, and select for different optimal behaviors for social groups in different environments. I present two bodies of research: an effort to explain geographic variation in the frequency and intensity of human civil conflict; and an effort to describe and model the foraging behavior of colonies of harvester ants of the …

The Effects Of Precipitation Variability On C4 Photosynthesis, Net Primary Production And Soil Respiration In A Chihuahuan Desert Grassland, Michell L. Thomey

Biology ETDs

Although the Earths climate system has always been inherently variable, the magnitude and rate of anthropogenic climate change is subjecting ecosystems and the populations that they contain to novel environmental conditions. Because water is the most limiting resource, arid-semiarid ecosystems are likely to be highly responsive to future climate variability. The goal of my dissertation is to understand how precipitation variability affects primary productivity and soil respiration in desert grassland ecosystems. Initially, I reviewed the literature to understand how climate change affects net ecosystem exchange (NEE) across the warm deserts of North America (Chapter 2). Next, I examined the effects …

Lymphocyte Evolution And Ontogeny In Non-Eutherian Mammals, Xinxin Wang

Biology ETDs

Based on their different reproductive modes and evolutionary history, extant mammals are divided into three lineages: eutherians, marsupials and monotremes. Marsupials are the closest relatives to eutherians. They are born immune-incompetent. The characteristic that they develop their immune system postnatally makes them unique models to study newborn immune development and maternal immunology. As monotremes comprises the basal lineage of mammals, the study of monotreme immunology will provide unique insights regarding the origin of the mammalian immune system. Unfortunately, compared to our in-depth knowledge of eutherian immunology, especially humans and mice, knowledge of marsupial and monotreme immunology is scarce. The goal …

Biological Properties Evaluation And Chemical Profiles Of Phenolic Compounds In Muscadine Grapes (Vitis Rotundifolia), Qi You

All Dissertations

Phenolic compounds, including anthocyanins in muscadines have attracted much attention due to their diverse biological activities. With bioassays of antioxidant activities in terms of total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) total anthocyanin content (TAC), total procyanidin content (TPA), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), ABTS radical scavenging Activity (ABTS), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), and oil peroxidation inhibitory capacity of all muscadine samples, the muscadine grapes showed strong antioxidant activities. The liquid-liquid organic solvent extraction successfully separated the anthocyanins and other phenolics to different fractions. Strong linear relationship between responses of TPC, TAC and TPA versus their antioxidant activities …

Research And Development Effort In Developing The Optimal Formulations For New Tablet Drugs, Zhe Li

All Dissertations

Seeking the optimal pharmaceutical formulation is considered one of the most critical research components during the drug development stage. It is also an R&D effort incorporating design of experiments and optimization techniques, prior to scaling up a manufacturing process, to determine the optimal settings of ingredients so that the desirable performance of related pharmaceutical quality characteristics (QCs) specified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can be achieved. It is widely believed that process scale-up potentially results in changes in ingredients and other pharmaceutical manufacturing aspects, including site, equipment, batch size and process, with the purpose of satisfying the clinical …

Functions Of Autophagy In Lipid Homeostasis And Survival In Androgen-Dependent Prostate Cancer Cells, Ramesh Raj Kaini

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Androgen deprivation therapy, one of the standard treatments for prostate cancer, induces apoptosis as well as autophagy in androgen-responsive PCa cells. As modulation of autophagy is a new paradigm for enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of various cancer therapies, we sought to determine the functions of autophagy during androgen deprivation. In this study, we confirmed that androgen removal or inhibition induces autophagy in two different hormone sensitive prostate cancer cells. Androgen deprivation also caused depletion of lipid droplets which was abrogated on inhibition of autophagy by pharmacological means (3-methyladenine, bafilomycin A1) or using a genetic approach (Atg5 siRNA). In addition, colocalization …

Undergraduate And Graduate Course Descriptions, 2012 Summer, Wright State University

Course Descriptions

Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Summer 2012.

The Sounds Of Anxiety: A Quantitative Study Of Music Therapy And Anxiety, Rebecca Zarate

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Anxiety can be a minor and brief experience for some; for others it can be a life long debilitating struggle. In the United States, many people are not treated for anxiety but experience it on a daily basis. Current theory suggests that anxiety is an emotional and affective response to perceived danger that can lead to isolative, erratic, and avoidant behaviors. Anxiety is also recognized as a unique individual set of experiences that are difficult to explain and treat. This study explored individual responses to music therapy clinical improvisation and anxiety symptoms. The researcher determined if co-created improvised music between …

A Web Gaming Facility For Research And Teaching, Martin Shubik

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This essay considers the potential for utilizing web games for research and teaching. It discusses a specific gaming facility that has been constructed and utilized. The gaming facility can be made available for use for those interested in utilizing it for teaching and/or research purposes. The goal is to have this facility be of use for both single play and repeated matrix games. Much of the discussion here is aimed at single play games as a desirable benchmark preliminary to the study of repeated games. Properties of the one stage games are discussed and instructions for the use of the …

A Web Gaming Facility For Research And Teaching, Martin Shubik

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This essay considers the potential for utilizing web games for research and teaching. It discusses a specific gaming facility that has been constructed and utilized. The gaming facility can be made available for use for those interested in utilizing it for teaching and/or research purposes. The goal is to have this facility be of use for both single play and repeated matrix games. Much of the discussion here is aimed at single play games as a desirable benchmark preliminary to the study of repeated games. Properties of the one stage games are discussed and instructions for the use of the …

Novel Mechanisms Of Androgen Receptor Degradation By Alpha-Tocopherylquinone And Curcumin Analog 27, Alexandra Marie Fajardo

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Defining underlying molecular mechanisms exploited by cancer cells in their development and progression provides a necessary foundation for experimental therapeutics. The androgen receptor (AR) is a known therapeutic target for prostate cancer (CaP) given its well-established role in both the development and progression of CaP. The AR is a ligand activated transcription factor that regulates the expression of many genes involved in proliferation and differentiation. Identifying agents that down-regulate AR expression may elucidate mechanism(s) for selectively targeting the AR. Two related agents of the natural products curcumin and vitamin E, curcumin analog 27 (ca27) and alpha-tocopheryl quinone (TQ), respectively were …