Digital Commons Network^™

Alpha-Camkii-Induced Vegf Expression Is Critical For The Growth Of Human Osteosarcoma, Paul Glenn Daft

All ETDs from UAB

Osteosarcoma (OS) is among the most frequently occurring primary bone tumors, primarily affecting adolescents and young adults. Despite improvements in OS treatment, more specific molecular targets are needed. One target of interest is alpha-Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (α-CaMKII), a ubiquitous mediator of Ca2+-linked signaling, which has been shown to regulate tumor cell proliferation. Here, we show that α-CaMKII is highly expressed in primary OS tissue, and α-CaMKII deletion in human OS cell lines significantly reduces tumor burden in vivo. This inhibition of α-CaMKII results in decreased vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein secretion. Highly aggressive OS cells express VEGF receptor …

Patient And System Level Factors As Predictors Of Adherence To Antiretroviral Therapy Appointment Schedules In Cambodia, Gary T. Daigle

All ETDs from UAB

PATIENT AND SYSTEM LEVEL FACTORS AS PREDICTORS OF ADHERENCE TO ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY APPOINTMENT SCHEDULES IN CAMBODIA GARY T. DAIGLE EPIDEMIOLOGY / INTERNATIONAL HEALTH ABSTRACT On-time attendance at clinical appointments by patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) is essential to the prevention of medication interruptions, viral rebound, drug resistance, and long term mortality. An observational study conducted in 2010, Enablers and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy in Cambodia, sought to identify factors that predict on-time clinical appointment attendance by patients on ART. These factors were classified as either ART patient level factors (e.g. demographic, clinical) or patient care and support system level factors …

Imaging Biomarkers For Prediction Of Treatment Response In Schizophrenia, Jennifer Ann Hadley

All ETDs from UAB

Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the population and is one of the top five causes of disability worldwide. Patient response to any particular drug is variable and currently unpredictable. Our overall goal is to identify imaging biomarkers that will distinguish patients with schizophrenia who will respond to an antipsychotic drug from those who will not. When considering potential biomarkers, it is important to note that schizophrenia is known to involve altered neuronal connections, thought to reflect pathologically relevant changes associated with the disease. We propose to utilize functional connectivity as a biomarker for treatment response to antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia. …

Depression And Alcohol Use Disorders As Gendered Phenotypes Of 5-Httlpr, Bryant Walker Hamby

All ETDs from UAB

The serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) has been associated with both depression and alcohol use disorders in previous gene-environment interaction studies, but these associations have not been consistent. Previous research on mental health has posited that depression and alcohol use disorders are functionally equivalent manifestations of distress, with men displaying alcohol use disorders and women displaying depression in response to stress. This paper assesses whether the presence of the risk-conferring serotonin gene alleles increase an individual's chance of expressing distress as either depression or alcohol use disorders, depending on gender. The hypotheses that more symptoms of depression would be …

Assessing System Congruence By Analyzing The Relationship Between Employee And Patient Driven Outputs, Timothy J. Harlin

All ETDs from UAB

Patients are at risk for employee driven preventable adverse events during hospital stays. These adverse events are varied and include such things as medication errors, pressure ulcers, hospital acquired infections, and falls. Preventable adverse events continue at alarming frequency despite significant academic, regulatory, and management attention to the topic over the past 14 years since the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) To Err is Human report. In addition to being at risk for preventable adverse events, patients experience aspects of the health care system such as ease of access, employee attitude, skill and efficiency of staff, and perceived value. Although purporting …

An Evaluation Of The Healthy Eating Active Living (Heal) Alabama Program For Prevention Of Childhood Obesity Among Fifth Grade Students, Kelley Devane Hart

All ETDs from UAB

Childhood obesity is a major public health concern. The multiple effects of obesity in childhood are long-reaching. Since weight loss and maintenance are very difficult, prevention of obesity is important. Schools have been identified as an important environment for obesity prevention interventions since most children spend a large portion of the day at school. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to determine if the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Alabama intervention improved weight status, fitness levels, and health knowledge and behaviors. A 2-by-2 repeated measures ANOVA was performed to determine whether differences exist between intervention and comparison students …

Autism And Work: The Impact Of Comorbidity On Employment, Karen Harris

All ETDs from UAB

included sex ratio predictions for every nest in the main egg corral for 2007 and 2008.

Sialic Acid: A Signal For Pneumococcal Egress From The Nasal Mucosa Into The Central Nervous System, Brandon L. Hatcher

All ETDs from UAB

Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is one of the leading causes of bacterial meningitis world-wide. The classic paradigm in the establishment of bacterial meningitis is that in the absence of physical trauma, infection in the peripheral blood is needed to cause invasion of the central nervous system (CNS). Our previous studies have shown that pneumococci, a frequent colonizer of the nasopharynx, can cause bacterial meningitis through a nonhematogenous route by which bacteria appear to travel along the olfactory nerves, through the cribriform plate to the olfactory bulbs and into the rest of the CNS. However, with the frequency of nasopharyngeal colonization and …

The Role Of Gene Fragmentation And Loss In Poxvirus Evolution, Eneida Hatcher

All ETDs from UAB

temperatures were near pivotal. The second chapter addresses the effects of fluctuating

Proteomic Analysis Of Rosenthal Fibers And The Development Of Software For Proteomics, Michael Raymond Heaven

All ETDs from UAB

The first aim of my thesis was to identify the protein composition of the protein aggregates, called Rosenthal fibers, which are the defining feature of Alexander disease (AxD). AxD is a rare neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in the astrocyte specific protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). GFAP is a type III intermediate filament protein that is overexpressed in AxD. A guiding hypothesis of this project was that sequestration of vital cell proteins in the aggregates contributed to disease. The results of my research do not support this hypothesis, but do provide an in depth characterization of the protein composition …

Sex Differences In Ss-Adrenergic Responsiveness Of Isolated Rabbit Hearts, Gregory Hoeker

All ETDs from UAB

Stimulation of adrenergic receptors by catecholamines is the predominant regulatory mechanism for cardiovascular performance. Many cardiovascular diseases involve changes in ß-adrenergic signaling that often lead to decreased cardiac performance, cardiac arrhythmias, and/or sudden cardiac death. This has made ß-adrenergic receptors (ß-ARs) a significant therapeutic target in cardiovascular disease. Sex differences in ß-adrenergic responsiveness have been associated with cardioprotection in females, conferring a survival benefit in female patients with heart failure (HF). The heart contains three distinct ß-ARs: ß1-, ß2-, and ß3-AR. It is not known how each ß-AR subtype contributes to the sex differences in ß-responsiveness, let alone how this …

Effect Of Protons On The Biology Of Human Gliomas, Avinash Vinayak Honasoge

All ETDs from UAB

Gliomas are the most common and most deadly primary brain cancer. Patient outcome for the most malignant variety, the World Health Organization (WHO) Type IV glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), has stagnated over the last several decades - the best combination treatment of surgical resection, radiation, and chemotherapy results in median survival of just over a year. To escape treatment, GBM must multiply and migrate in a confined brain environment. Both of these aspects of tumor cell invasion rely on the cell's ability to volume regulate; cell division involves a stage called "pre-mitotic condensation" in which the cells shrink immediately prior to …

Nanodiamond Mediated Therapies For Prostate Cancer, Amanee Salaam

All ETDs from UAB

Enhancing therapeutic efficacy is essential for successful treatment of chemoresistant cancers such as metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Current chemotherapy regimens are plagued with issues such as toxicity, low bioavailability, and lack of specificity. To combat these issues, the feasibility of using nanodiamond particles (ND) to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin and resveratrol was investigated. The enhancement of chemotherapy using NDs was evaluated with three unique approaches: (1) drug mediation, (2) combination therapy, and (3) targeted drug delivery. The ND mediated doxorubicin system achieved a 50% improvement in therapeutic efficacy with over 60% cell death. The ND resveratrol combination therapy …

Role Of Immunoregulatory Cytokines Il-12 And Il-23 In Skin Cancer, Tahseen H. Nasti

All ETDs from UAB

The incidence of new cases of skin cancer, which includes non-melanoma epithelial tumors and melanoma, has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Approximately 75% of all skin cancer-related deaths is due to melanoma, which is one of the most aggressive and difficult cancers to treat. The initiating events and mechanisms that influence melanoma development are not fully known, due in part to a paucity of animal models amenable to identifying new oncogenic mutations, and investigating mechanisms of immunosurveillance. Transgenic mouse models often harbor an activating mutation in a known oncogene in all somatic cells, and its widespread expression from …

Dihydrofolate Reductase Inhibitors - Applications To Chagas Disease And Dental Caries, Thao Nguyen

All ETDs from UAB

significantly influenced sex ratios by increasing the production of males when

Coevolution Of Sponges And Microbial Symbionts Across Ocean Basins, Zachary Lee Nolen

All ETDs from UAB

Sponges (phylum Porifera) can comprise a large portion of benthic communities in freshwater and marine environments. Because sponges possess simple body plans and can have substantial phenotypic plasticity within species, reconstructing phylogenies of Porifera based upon morphologies alone has proven difficult. With the advent of nucleic acid sequencing technologies, interest in sponge phylogenetics has significantly increased among researchers. Additionally, sponges host a wide range of microbial symbionts, including the cyanobacterium Synechococcus spongiarum. This study examined the evolution of both sets of organisms in the symbiotic relationship between Aplysina sponges and Synechococcus cyanobacteria. In Chapter 3, gene sequences coding for the …

Three-Dimensional Photography Of Facial Morphology Of African-American Children Compared To Welsh Children, Don Franklin Norris

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this study is to compare the facial morphology of African-American children to Welsh children using three-dimensional imaging. Materials and Methods: Three-dimensional images were captured using a stereo-photogrammatic camera system (3dMDfaceTM). 107 African-American children were imaged with the 3dMDfaceTM system and were compared with 64 Welsh children which were previously imaged using two Minolta Vivid VI900 3D laser scanners arranged in a stereo pair. The subjects were between 10 and 13 years old, presented with a normal BMI, and had no major craniofacial deformity. The images were aligned, combined and averaged using Rapidform 2006 Plus Pack 2 software …

Nyar Savannah Program 2014, National Youth-At-Risk Conference, Savannah

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

N/A

Prevalence Of Malaria And Selected Arboviral Infections In Patients Presenting With Undiagnosed Febrile Illness In Rusinga Island, Kenya, Purity Ngina Kipanga

All Master’s Theses

Onset of uncomplicated malaria is characterized by fever, headache, joint pains, myalgia and lack of appetite. These non-specific signs and symptoms also present in patients with arthropod borne viral (arboviral) infections complicate differential diagnoses. The lack of diagnostics that can detect arboviral infections in Kenyan public hospitals coupled with malaria diagnostic tools incapable of detecting low Plasmodiumparasitemia,has led to diagnosis based on clinical symptoms only,favouring malaria diagnosis at the expense of arboviral infections detection.Investigations were conducted to detect Plasmodiumparasites undetected by microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and determine Sindbis and Bunyamwera viruses neutralizing antibodies among undiagnosed febrile ill patients …

Effect Of Herbivore-Induced Plant Volatiles Of Brachiaria Brizantha On Neighbouring Maize For Chilo Partellus Management In Suba District, Homa-Bay County, Kenya, Henlay Juma Otieno Magara

All Master’s Theses

The Lepidopteran stemborer Chilo partellus is a key constraint to cereal production in most resource-poor farming systems as it causes damage to the crop, accruing up to 80%. When plants are damaged by herbivorous insects, they produce herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) which can act as repellants for these insect pests and as attractants for organisms antagonistic to these pests (parasitic wasps and predators). Plants can also produce signals that warn other plants of impending attack. Thus, HIPVs potentially have a practical role in crop protection by directly deterring further colonization in already infested and neighbouring plants and indirectly by attracting …

Agalychnis Dacnicolor—Predation., Víctor H. Jiménez-Arcos, Eric Centenero-Alcala, Leopoldo D. Vázquez Reyes, Christopher Blair, Samuel A. Santa Cruz-Padilla

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

War Is Governance: Explaining The Logic Of The Laws Of War From A Principal-Agent Perspective, Eyal Benvenisti, Amichai Cohen

Michigan Law Review

What is the purpose of the international law on armed conflict, and why would opponents bent on destroying each other’s capabilities commit to and obey rules designed to limit their choice of targets, weapons, and tactics? Traditionally, answers to this question have been offered on the one hand by moralists who regard the law as being inspired by morality and on the other by realists who explain this branch of law on the basis of reciprocity. Neither side’s answers withstand close scrutiny. In this Article, we develop an alternative explanation that is based on the principal–agent model of domestic governance. …

A Brief Library & Internet Glossary, Jim Alderman

Beginning Library & Information Systems Strategies

Useful terms for a research project.

Analyzing Journal Articles, Jim Alderman

Beginning Library & Information Systems Strategies

Scholarly or academic journals are essential resources for doing academic research. While popular magazines like Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report are excellent sources of information on nearly any topic, they are written with the average reader in mind and do not include the depth of coverage that an academic researcher would need. For in‐depth examination of a topic, academic, scholarly publications should be the researcher's first choice.

Table Of Contents

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Hatch-Waxman Act's Side Effects: Precautions For Biosimilars, Anna B. Laakmann

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Politics And Aesthetics: Partitions And Partioning In Contemporary Art, Jonathan Owen Clark, Joao Lima Duque

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Jacques Rancière defined the “distribution of the sensible” as the effect of a type of aesthetico-political decision-making that creates a partitioning of the realm of the perceivable in relation to both art and society. The artworld itself constructs its own particular types of curatorial partitioning: between “art” and “non-art,” between “dominant, residual, and emergent,” and between “mainstream” and “periphery.” This essay examines certain “boundary effects” that develop as a result of the act of the partitioning itself and closely examines what arguably are two new categories in contemporary art: “crossover” and “interventionist.” Both categories have a certain relationship to a …

Nonnutritive Sweetener And Weight Management: A Potential Paradox In Modern Dieting, Katharine Mary Wright

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a serious health concern in modern society. One way to reduce caloric intake is with nonnutritive sweeteners (NNS). However, recent research suggests they may be compounding the obesity problem. Nonnutritive sweeteners have been linked to increased body mass in a few studies and may be a barrier to effective weight management for some individuals.

Under the framework of the health belief model, the research question was: Does this pattern of NNS-BMI covariance exist in young adults at the University of North Florida and, if so, are there other dietary or activity differences that might partially explain this relationship? …

Temperament And Personality Traits As Predictors Of Preschool Odd Symptoms, Longitudinal Course, And Impairment, Brittany L. Zastrow

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is commonly conceptualized as a disorder of negative affect and low effortful control. Currently, it is unclear whether temperament and personality traits associated with negative affect and effortful control can be useful assessment tools for identifying ODD early during development. This study examined the relationship between temperament and personality traits and ODD in a clinical sample of preschoolers. Results suggest that, at this age, temperament and personality traits of negative affect and neuroticism and effortful control and conscientiousness/agreeableness are not associated with one another. High negative affect, low conscientiousness, and low agreeableness were all specifically …

Reliability Analysis For Chain Topology Wireless Sensor Networks With Multiple-Sending Transmission Scheme, Jie Cai, Xiaoyu Song, Jinyuan Wang, Ming Gu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reliability analysis is a key problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The primary contribution of this paper is an in-depth study of the reliability of a chain topology wireless sensor network with multiple-sending scheme. We study the wireless link reliability for the fading channels. The node energy availability for the source and relay nodes is investigated in terms of the limited node energy. The instantaneous network reliability and the mean time to failure are derived. Finally, the initial node energy allocation scheme is proposed to balance the lifetime of each sensor node, thus reducing the total energy consumption. The simulation …