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Measurement And Modeling Of Opnmr Phenomena In Gaas Semiconductors, Dustin D. Wheeler

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Since its inception, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been a key technique for sample characterization. One significant limitation of NMR is an inherent lack of sensitivity, making it extremely difficult to probe systems with low spin densities (≤ 10¹⁷ nuclei). Optically pumped NMR (OPNMR) provides one method to get around this sensitivity barrier by utilizing the high electronic polarizations that can be generated through the application of polarized light.

Semiconducting materials are the fundamental building blocks of important components in most aspects of modern society, including solar cells, optical detectors, and diodes and transistors in electronic circuits. Because of …

Dapk3 Suppresses Mammary Acini Morphogenesis And Is Required For Mouse Development, Brandon Kocher

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Over the past decade several lines of research have indicated that DAPK3, a member of the serine/threonine death associated protein kinase (DAPK) family, plays an important role in various signaling pathways important to tissue homeostasis and mammalian biology. Considered to be a putative tumor suppressor, the molecular mechanisms by which DAPK3 exerts its tumor suppressor functions are not fully understood. Furthermore, unlike other DAPK family members, DAPK3 has received little attention regarding its physiological roles in vivo due to the lack of knockout animals. To address these gaps in our fundamental understanding of DAPK3 we

utilized the MCF10A 3D tumorigenesis …

In Vivo Functions Of Inhibitory Immunoreceptors During Viral Infection, Aaron Rapaport

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

CD8+ T cells and NK cells are two effector cells of the mammalian immune system that rely on activating and inhibitory immunoreceptors to determine the outcome of an interaction with a target cell. An infected or transformed target cell can upregulate a variety of ligands that bind to activating receptors. Activating signals within an effector cell can then elicit responses that kill the target directly by lysing it or indirectly by secreting cytokines and chemokines that attract and activate other immune cells. In contrast, a healthy target cell can maintain expression of ligands for inhibitory receptors that restrain effector cell …

Dynamic Responses At The Barrier Epithelium, Katherine Beebe

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

A fundamental question in biology is how cellular systems sense and respond to their environment. The environment is a changing parameter, and cellular life has evolved a multitude of interesting and adaptive ways to sense and respond to external changes. The GI tract is a particularly interesting tissue in which to examine this question. One of few barrier epithelia, the intestine is exposed to both the unique environment of the lumen and the internal environment of the organism. Cells of the intestine simultaneously function as barrier, digestive organ, and sensory organ. Additionally, in many metazoan animals these functions occur in …

Micrornas In Als: Defining Cell-Type Specific Expression, Developing Methods To Modulate Micrornas In Vivo, And Identifying Novel Therapeutic Targets, Erica Danielle Koval

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an adult-onset, fatal neuromuscular disease with no adequate therapies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are dysregulated in a variety of disease states, suggesting that this newly discovered class of gene expression repressors may be viable therapeutic targets. A microarray of miRNA changes in ALS model SOD1G93A rodents identified 12 miRNAs as significantly changed. Six miRNAs tested in human ALS tissues were confirmed increased. Specifically, miR-155 was increased 5-fold in mice and 2-fold in human spinal cords. Generation of mice that express a GFP-tagged miRNA processing protein behind cell-type specific promoters allowed for the identification of miRNA expression patterns …

Plasmonic Paper As A Novel Chem/Bio Detection Platform, Limei Tian

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The time varying electric field of electromagnetic (EM) radiation causes oscillation of conduction electrons of metal nanoparticles. The resonance of such oscillation, termed localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), falls into the visible spectral region for noble metals such as gold, silver and copper. LSPR of metal nanostructures is sensitive to numerous factors such as composition, size, shape, dielectric properties of surrounding medium, and proximity to other nanostructures (plasmon coupling). The sensitivity of LSPR to the refractive index of surrounding medium renders it an attractive platform for chemical and biological sensing. When the excitation light is in resonance with the plasmon …

The Role Of Sleep In Memory Consolidation With An Induced Sleep-Like State In Drosophila And The Role Of Alpha-Synuclein In Fatty Acid Metabolism, Yasuko Suzuki

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The Role of Sleep in Memory Consolidation with an Induced Sleep-like State in Drosophila

Introduction: Sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. The importance of sleep in the memory consolidation process has been demonstrated by sleep deprivation studies in which sleep loss corresponded to poor performance on memory tasks. A sleep induction approach, that allows us to study sleep-mediated changes in the presence of sleep, provides further understanding of sleep's role in the memory consolidation process.

Method: We first developed a pharmacological method to induce a sleep-like state and examined if the induced …

Mechanisms Regulating The Self-Renewal And Differentiation Of Nephron Progenitors, Shuang Chen

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Nephrons, the basic functional units of the kidney, are built from an embryonic progenitor population called the cap mesenchyme (CM). Although stem-like in many aspects, these progenitors exhaust before or shortly after birth when nephron numbers reach a species appropriate limit termed "nephron endowment" . The actual number of nephrons varies greatly between individuals, and low nephron numbers have been linked to hypertension and other renal diseases. However, the mechanisms that lead to the depletion of CM cells remain elusive.

We hypothesized that cell intrinsic changes of the CM actively regulate the lifespan of CM cells. To test this hypothesis, …

Functional Roles Of Nucleases In Dna Metabolism And Genome Stability, Justin Lee Sparks

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The work outlined in this dissertation focuses on two distinct areas that are important for genome stability. Both areas focus on DNA repair pathways that require the action of nucleases, specifically Exonuclease 5 and Ribonuclease H2. First, I describe the biochemical and molecular characterization of the novel Exonuclease 5 family of enzymes from S. cerevisiae, S. pombe, and humans. The Exo5 family consists of bi-directional single-strand DNA specific exonucleases that all contain an iron-sulfur cluster as a structural motif and all have various roles in DNA metabolism. In the Saccharomycetales order that includes the budding yeast, S. cerevisiae, Exo5 is …

Genetic And Epigenetic Determinants Of Transcription In The Divergent Eukaryote Leishmania Major, Britta Anderson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Leishmania spp. and other trypanosomatid protozoa use a highly unusual mechanism to generate functional messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in which protein-coding genes are transcribed polycistronically. Here, transcription initiates primarily in divergent strand switch regions (dSSRs), where two polycistronic gene clusters are oriented head-to-head. These regions lack all known eukaryotic cis-regulatory elements, and it is not known how genetic and epigenetic factors cooperate to define dSSRs as regions of productive initiation. To quantitatively identify regulatory elements and to study the contribution of epigenetic factors to dSSR function, we combined genome-wide studies of chromatin structure with a focused interrogation of a single dSSR …

Murine Cytomegalovirus Encodes Proteins That Regulate Viral Late Transcription, Travis Chapa

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a Beta-herpesvirus that causes severe disease in immuno-compromised individuals (including AIDS patients), and is the leading viral cause of congenital birth defects. Murine Cytomegalovirus (MCMV) is the primary surrogate model for HCMV, and resembles the human virus with respect to virion structure, genome organization, gene expression, tissue tropism, and clinical manifestations. In my graduate studies, I discovered the function of two novel MCMV proteins during in vitro infection. I demonstrated that ORF M79 encoded protein pM79, and ORF M92 encoded protein pM92. Both pM79 and pM92 have homologs in HCMV, and I showed that they regulate …

Contribution Of The Microenvironment In Bone Resident Cancer: The Role Of Thrombospondin-1 In Bone And Risk Loci Contributing To Multiple Myeloma, Sarah R. Amend

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Cancer growth in bone, a defining characteristic of multiple myeloma and common in many solid tumors including breast and prostate cancer, is characterized by the active participation of host microenvironment cells. Tumor cells stimulate the vicious cycle through stimulation of bone remodeling by osteoclasts and osteoblasts, resulting in increased release of growth factors and cytokines to further promote local tumor growth. Notably, cancer cells are unable to remodel bone independently, and require the metabolically active bone cells for this support.

A specific role for the bone microenvironment in mediating tumor growth was first discussed in 1889 with the introduction of …

Identification Of Functional Variants In Alzheimer's Disease-Associated Genes, Sheng Chih Jin

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia affecting the health of more than 5 million Americans in 2013. Understanding how genetic variants contribute to AD is important to develop effective therapeutics for delaying and eventually curing the disease. Recent sequencing studies have identified rare variants p.V232M in PLD3 and p.R47H in TREM2 significantly associated with AD risk. Additionally, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) uncovered common variants in ABCA7, BIN1, CD33, CD2AP, CLU, CR1, EPHA1, MS4A4A, and PICALM that contribute to AD; however, the most-significant variants in these loci are located within non-coding regions and have no direct functional …

Discovery And Characterization Of Novel Polyomaviruses In Humans, Erica Anne Siebrasse

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The family Polyomaviridae is comprised of small, double-stranded DNA viruses of approximately 5,000 base pairs. Two polyomaviruses are well-established human pathogens and cause significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. These viruses were discovered in the 1970s, but the last seven years have seen an explosion of novel human polyomavirus discoveries. The work described here seeks to address two questions: "Are there additional, novel polyomaviruses infecting humans?" and "Do these polyomaviruses cause disease in their human hosts?" The discovery of an additional novel polyomavirus, MW polyomavirus (MWPyV), is described. MWPyV was discovered in the stool of a healthy child from …

Methods And Mechanisms Of Dna Methylation In Development And Disease, Maximiliaan Schillebeeckx

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

DNA methylation is a mechanism for long-term transcriptional regulation and is required for normal cellular differentiation. Failure to properly establish or maintain DNA methylation patterns leads to cell dysfunction and diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders. The goal of this thesis is to understand the role of DNA methylation in oncological cellular transformation and in normal development. To achieve this goal, I have developed a novel method for mapping genome-wide DNA methylation patterns and have applied the method to gonadectomy-induced adrenocortical neoplasms and to maturing motor neurons. The novel method, called Laser Capture Microdissected-Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (LCM-RRBS), accurately …

Host-Microbial Interactions That Modulate Luminal Iga, Clara Moon

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

IgA is the most abundant immunoglobulin produced in the body, most of which can be found at mucosal sites such as the intestine where it plays an important role at a critical intersection between the host immune system and the microbiota. In the work detailed here, I sought to investigate IgA delivery and stability using in vitro and in vivo methods. First, I developed a primary intestinal epithelial monolayer system, and utilized this system to evaluate factors that modulate IgA transcytosis. In vivo, I interrogated baseline levels of fecal IgA in WT mice and surprisingly observed a binary phenotype in …

On The Analysis Of Dna Methylation, Michael Stevens

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Recent genome-wide studies lend support to the idea that the patterns of DNA methylation are in some way related either causally or as a readout of cell-type specific protein binding. We lay the groundwork for a framework to test whether the pattern of DNA methylation levels in a cell combined with protein binding models is sufficient to completely describe the location of the component of proteins binding to its genome in an assayed context. There is only one method, whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, WGBS, available to study DNA methylation genome-wide at such high resolution, however its accuracy has not been determined …

Ensc 501.01: Scientific Approaches To Environmental Problems, Leonard Broberg

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ensc 360.01: Applied Ecology, Vicki J. Watson

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Gphy 520.01: Seminar In Graphical Thought, Jeffrey Allman Gritzner

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Gphy 500.01: Geography Graduate Colloquium, Christiane Von Reichert

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Gphy 314.01: Global Mountain Environments, Ulrich Kamp

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Hsta 101h.00: American History I, Kyle G. Volk

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Artz 106a.02: Visual Language - 2-D Foundations, Elizabeth J. Huhtala

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

A Novel Partitivirus That Confers Hypovirulence On Plant Pathogenic Fungi, Xueqiong Xiao, Jiasen Cheng, Jinghua Tang, Yanping Fu, Daohong Jiang, Timothy S. Baker, Said A. Ghabrial, Jiatao Xie

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

Members of the family Partitiviridae have bisegmented double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genomes and are not generally known to cause obvious symptoms in their natural hosts. An unusual partitivirus, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum partitivirus 1 (SsPV1/WF-1), conferred hypovirulence on its natural plant-pathogenic fungal host, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum strain WF-1. Cellular organelles, including mitochondria, were severely damaged. Hypovirulence and associated traits of strain WF-1 and SsPV1/WF-1 were readily cotransmitted horizontally via hyphal contact to different vegetative compatibility groups of S. sclerotiorum and interspecifically to Sclerotinia nivalis and Sclerotinia minor. S. sclerotiorum strain 1980 transfected with purified SsPV1/WF-1 virions also exhibited hypovirulence and associated traits similar …

The Case Against Separating The Care From The Caregiver: Reuniting Caregivers' Rights And Children's Rights, Pamela Laufer-Ukeles

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Creatures Of Incoherence: Dissecting The Drivers, History, And Cognition Of Attitudinal Incongruence In The American Body Politic, Timothy Collins

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Most American conservatives and liberals wield contradictory political attitudes. This dissertation explores what drives this “attitudinal incongruence.” First, I define and operationalize my terminology and situate the topic within social and political psychology to formulate my central model and theory of ideologically asymmetrical application of (1) individuals’ psychological and cognitive traits, and (2) individuals’ social identity and environmental traits. This leads to the overarching hypothesis that conservatives’ incongruities are more strongly driven by internal forces, and liberals’ by external forces. The central model is then demonstrated in a broad historical overview of attitudinal incongruence in America. The central tenets of …

Forum, Volume 38, No. 3, Fall 2014, Florida Humanities Council, Barbara O'Reilley

FORUM: The Magazine of Florida Humanities

Contents: Letter from the Director -- Ready for an Adventure? -- Splashing and Laughing in the Springs, and Working Together to Save Them -- Enter Another World: Where Waters, Once Worshipped, are Now Threatened -- Bowls of Liquid Light: Map of Florida Springs -- Where Early People Sought Sustenance -- Can Wakulla Recapture its Luster? -- Remembering a Once-Magical Place -- Springs were Mecca for Tourists, and Movie-Makers -- Humanities Alive! -- Flying Underwater -- Painting the Fluid -- Celebrating the Legacy of Florida's Highwaymen -- What did Teachers Do on their Summer Vacation? -- My Favorite Florida Place: Finding …

Bch 380.03: Fundamentals Of Biochemistry, J. Stephen Lodmell

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Bch 380.01: Fundamentals Of Biochemistry, J. Stephen Lodmell

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.