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2015

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Metabolic And Oxidative Regulation Of Neuronal Autophagy And Survival, Matthew Dodson Jan 2015

Metabolic And Oxidative Regulation Of Neuronal Autophagy And Survival, Matthew Dodson

All ETDs from UAB

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease are all characterized by metabolic dysfunction, increased oxidative damage to proteins and organelles, formation of proteinaceous inclusions, decreased autophagic and proteasomal function, and eventual neuronal and glial cell death. While our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie many of these pathologies is constantly growing, their exact cause, onset, interplay and progression still remain unclear. The gap between the description of disease pathologies and understanding the fundamental mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, progression and potential therapeutics to mitigate disease progression is still large. Based on the observation that altered glucose utilization, …

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Hiv-1 Adaptation To T-Cell Responses During Infection, Victor Yimin Du Jan 2015

Hiv-1 Adaptation To T-Cell Responses During Infection, Victor Yimin Du

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recommended vitamin D intake, and perceived barriers to adequate calcium intake

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Drive-By Bridge Damage Inspection, Ahmed Ali Elhattab Jan 2015

Drive-By Bridge Damage Inspection, Ahmed Ali Elhattab

All ETDs from UAB

Bridge structures are subjected to continuous degradation due to environmental effects and increase in traffic loading. Bridge monitoring is a key element of any maintenance strategy as it can provide early signs of structural deterioration. In recent years, the demand towards sensor-based bridge monitoring in lieu of visual inspection, has increased. However, sensor-based monitoring is costly and requires significant maintenance. Recent studies on bridge damage monitoring have focused on the instrumentation of a passing vehicle instead of the bridge. This approach is referred to ‘drive-by’ bridge inspection (Kim and Kawatani, 2009). Using this approach, the bridge itself is not instrumented, …

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Robust Production Of Mature Ribosomal Rna Is Directly Influenced By Multiple Steps Within The Transcription Cycle, Krysta Engel Jan 2015

Robust Production Of Mature Ribosomal Rna Is Directly Influenced By Multiple Steps Within The Transcription Cycle, Krysta Engel

All ETDs from UAB

Cellular growth depends on the capacity for protein synthesis, and likewise ribosome biogenesis. Therefore, robust rRNA synthesis by RNA Polymerase I (Pol I) is a critical component of cell growth. The work reported in this dissertation highlights the contribution of polymerase domains and trans-acting proteins during rRNA synthesis and ribosome biogenesis. Eukaryotes utilize three homologous nuclear RNA polymerases (RNAPs) to express their genomes. The trigger loop (TL) is a well conserved region within the active site of multi-subunit RNAPs that plays a direct role during the nucleotide addition cycle. Analysis of Pol II TL mutants has suggested that catalysis is …

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Assessment Of Student-Created Videos As An Alternate Laboratory Assignment And Design And Implementation Of Classroom Activities Designed To Improve Student Retention And Learning, Mitzy Ann Erdmann Jan 2015

Assessment Of Student-Created Videos As An Alternate Laboratory Assignment And Design And Implementation Of Classroom Activities Designed To Improve Student Retention And Learning, Mitzy Ann Erdmann

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation presents three educationally based research projects and describes how they are related. The first portion of this manuscript describes the development of an alternate assessment for the general chemistry laboratory that harnessed both the availability of and interest in using smart phone technology in an educational setting. Student-created technique videos were implemented into the general chemistry laboratory curriculum in order to asynchronously monitor student use of standard laboratory equipment. A feasibility study was performed first, which showed that students were able to create videos that showed themselves performing standard laboratory techniques. Teaching assistants reported being able to easily …

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Elliptic Equations And Systems With Nonlinear Boundary Conditions, Alzaki Mohmoud Muhammed Fadlallah Jan 2015

Elliptic Equations And Systems With Nonlinear Boundary Conditions, Alzaki Mohmoud Muhammed Fadlallah

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation presents some results on the solvability of second order elliptic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions at resonance, in which the nonlinear boundary conditions perturbation is not necessarily required to satisfy Landesman- Lazer conditions or the monotonicity assumption. The nonlinearity may be unbounded. The nonlinearity interacts in some sense with the Steklov spectrum. The proofs are based on a priori estimates for possible solutions to a homotopy on suitable trace spaces and topological degree arguments. We will also study solvability of nonlinear second-order elliptic systems of partial differential equations with nonlinear boundary conditions. We study the generalized Steklov-Robin eigensystem …

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Translucency, Stain Resistance And Hardness Of Composites Used For Invisalign Attachments, Katelyn Bowman Feinberg Jan 2015

Translucency, Stain Resistance And Hardness Of Composites Used For Invisalign Attachments, Katelyn Bowman Feinberg

All ETDs from UAB

The purpose of this study is to compare the translucency parameter, stain resistance and hardness of dental restorative composites and orthodontic adhesives in order to determine an ideal esthetic attachment material for Invisalign® treatment. Materials and Methods: Two dental restorative composites (Filtek™ Supreme Ultra, Tetric EvoCeram®) and three orthodontic adhesives (L.C.R.™, Transbond™ XT, Phase II® Dual Cure) were used in this in-vitro study. 2.0 mm thick samples of each material were fabricated in silicone molds covered with a flat sheet of Invisalign attachment template material. To evaluate the translucency parameter and stain resistance, initial L*a*b* values of each material were …

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The Effect Of Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein Induced Microrna-200 Family Members On Pancreatic Beta Cells, Stephen Filios Jan 2015

The Effect Of Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein Induced Microrna-200 Family Members On Pancreatic Beta Cells, Stephen Filios

All ETDs from UAB

Pancreatic beta cells secrete insulin to maintain normal blood glucose levels and allow cells of the body to use glucose. However, in diabetes, there is beta cell dysfunction and pancreatic beta cells undergo programmed cell death leading to inadequate insulin production and secretion. Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein (TXNIP) is a ubiquitously expressed protein, 46 kDa in size, which is an arrestin protein family member. Unique to this member of the arrestin family, however, is its ability to bind to, and reduce, thioredoxin. The TXNIP gene is increased in pancreatic islets more than any other gene in response to high levels of glucose. …

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Exercise Adherence Among Pregnant Women: The Roles Of Socioeconomic Status, Attitudes Towards Prenatal Exercise, And Social Support, Lee Anne Flagg Jan 2015

Exercise Adherence Among Pregnant Women: The Roles Of Socioeconomic Status, Attitudes Towards Prenatal Exercise, And Social Support, Lee Anne Flagg

All ETDs from UAB

Drawing on the sociological theories of fundamental causes and social support, it was hypothesized that exercise during pregnancy would be positively associated with both socioeconomic status (SES) and social support for exercise and that the association between SES and exercise levels would be at least partially explained by attitudes towards exercise. It was also hypothesized that there would be a positive interaction between SES and social support for exercise in relation to exercise levels during pregnancy. Cross-sectional observational data was obtained from a survey of pregnant women, predominantly from those accessing prenatal care at Birmingham, AL area obstetric clinics. The …

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Retention Of Cad/Cam Crowns Luted With Resin Cements And Rmgi, Shruti Sushilkumar Sonavane Jan 2015

Retention Of Cad/Cam Crowns Luted With Resin Cements And Rmgi, Shruti Sushilkumar Sonavane

All ETDs from UAB

Objectives: To measure retention of lithium disilicate (IPS e.max CAD, Ivoclar Viva-dent) and zirconia reinforced lithium disilicate (CELTRATM DUO, Dentsply) copings luted using resin cements and resin-modified glass ionomer cement. Methods: 110 Extracted human, non-carious mandibular 2nd premolars (n=10) were embedded in PVC cylinders with acrylic resin and placed into a lathe to produce a uni-form crown preparation (22°-convergence & 3mm-height). Following the orientation groove placement (69L bur), preparations were scanned and milled using a CEREC 3D/Sirona machine to produce e.max and CELTRATM DUO crowns. Preparations were imaged with a digital microscope (Keyence/VHX-600-20X) and the surface area of each crown …

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The Role Of Ribosome Biogenesis In Exercise-Induced Skeletal Muscle Anabolism In Aging, Michael Stec Jan 2015

The Role Of Ribosome Biogenesis In Exercise-Induced Skeletal Muscle Anabolism In Aging, Michael Stec

All ETDs from UAB

Numerous chronic medical conditions, as well as normal aging result in a significant loss of skeletal muscle mass. This has profound effects on quality of life and can increase the risk of all-cause mortality. Currently, the most potent treatment for reversing the loss of muscle mass is resistance exercise training (RT); however, the human muscle fiber growth (hypertrophy) response to this treatment is quite variable, and older adults do not respond as favorably to this treatment as younger adults. The focus of this dissertation is to elucidate the role that ribosome biogenesis plays in regulating the RT-induced hypertrophic response. We …

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The Role Of Mammalian Tribbles Homolog 3 (Trb3) In Macrophage Biology; Evidence For Reciprocal Regulation Of Macrophage Function In Foam Cell Formation, Dennis Steverson Jan 2015

The Role Of Mammalian Tribbles Homolog 3 (Trb3) In Macrophage Biology; Evidence For Reciprocal Regulation Of Macrophage Function In Foam Cell Formation, Dennis Steverson

All ETDs from UAB

Atherosclerosis is disease characterized by dysregulated lipid metabolism and chronic inflammation. Macrophages are critical to the progression of the disease and are involved in the pathophysiology at all stages of the disease. In the early stages, macrophages are responsible for fatty streak formation by becoming foam cells through lipid uptake. In the later stages, macrophages contribute to the degradation of the fibrous cap and are largely responsible for chronic inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques. Tribbles homolog 3 (TRB3) is a pseudokinase that inhibits Akt activation by blocking its phosphorylation site. TRB3 is expressed on numerous cell types in the body (pancreatic …

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Long-Term Stability Of Lefort I Maxillary Downdraft With Rigid Internal Fixation, Stephen Leonard Strickland Jan 2015

Long-Term Stability Of Lefort I Maxillary Downdraft With Rigid Internal Fixation, Stephen Leonard Strickland

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the skeletal and dental stability of a Le Fort I maxillary downgraft after a minimum 4year follow up period. Methods: This retrospective cohort study evaluated 18 patients' post-surgical stability after Le Fort I maxillary downgraft performed by a Z-osteotomy. Pre-surgical (T1), post-surgical (T2), post-orthodontic (T3), and long-term follow-up (T4) cephalometric radiographs were digitized and analyzed with Dolphin Imagining via a custom analysis to evaluate linear and angular skeletal and dental relapse. Results - The average Le Fort I maxillary down graft was 3.6mm. The average post-surgical orthodontic phase was 7.4 …

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Light Transmitting Fiber Posts - An In Vitro Evaluation., Antigoni Stylianou Jan 2015

Light Transmitting Fiber Posts - An In Vitro Evaluation., Antigoni Stylianou

All ETDs from UAB

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study is to measure and compare the light transmission, radiopacity and microscopic structure of a new fiber optic post compared to a clinically successful fiber post. Materials and Methods: A. The radiopacity of seven posts was evaluated in terms of average intensity values calculated in histograms produced by computer-based software. B. The two types of fiber posts were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and evaluated by computer-assisted image analysis. C. Two experimental groups with sample size n=12 included the D.T. Light posts and iLumi Fiber Optic posts. Two aluminum assemblies forming two cylindrical …

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Three-Dimensional Age-Related Changes Of The Adult Face; African American Female Population, Christina Theresa Sutherland Jan 2015

Three-Dimensional Age-Related Changes Of The Adult Face; African American Female Population, Christina Theresa Sutherland

All ETDs from UAB

Objectives: Treatment of older adults is one of the fastest growing areas in orthodontic practice. The objectives of this study are to: 1. Investigate the aging of the female African American face using three-dimensional surface imaging to understand how the soft tissue of the face matures in relation to the teeth and 2.) Compare the effects of aging on African American female faces to aging of Caucasian female faces. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 100 African American females with balanced faces. Five age groups (in years) were included: [20-30], [31-40], [41-50], [51-60], [61-70]. Three-dimensional (3D) surface images of …

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Deleterious Effects Of Hyperglycemia On Cognitive Functioning In The Cardia Study Cohort, Michele Holland Talley Jan 2015

Deleterious Effects Of Hyperglycemia On Cognitive Functioning In The Cardia Study Cohort, Michele Holland Talley

All ETDs from UAB

DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF HYPERGLYCEMIA ON COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN THE CARDIA STUDY COHORT MICHELE LYN HOLLAND TALLEY SCHOOL OF NURSING ABSTRACT With an aging society, maintaining cognitive functioning into older age is becoming more important. Because of the impact cognitive functioning has on daily activities, any disruption may inhibit the ability to perform such daily activities successfully. To prevent disruptions, determinants of cognitive functioning must be considered. Such determinants may or may not be modifiable. Some predictors may be demographic, metabolic, or inflammatory in nature. In addition, predictors or determinants may differ based on genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease. As part …

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Count Models With Multiple Inflations, Arvind Tripathi Jan 2015

Count Models With Multiple Inflations, Arvind Tripathi

All ETDs from UAB

The goal of this research is to develop new statistical models for the analysis of count data even if data exhibit over dispersion or under dispersion and has multiple inflated counts. Although many statistical models are available for the analysis of count data, there is no available statistical model that can address the presence of more than expected multiple counts together with over/under dispersion. In our first paper, we develop a multiple-inflation negative binomial (MINB) model and use the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm along with a numerical optimization to obtain maximum likelihood estimates. We applied the one step smoothly clipped …

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Just Past The Trestle, Gentry Chance Turner Jan 2015

Just Past The Trestle, Gentry Chance Turner

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JUST PAST THE TRESTLE GENTRY CHANCE TURNER MASTER OF ARTS ENGLISH ABSTRACT The fall of the Old South is the backdrop for this chronicle of one family's descent and resurrection throughout the violent upheaval of the twenty-first century. Several generations of Turner men are examined in this tale of power, hatred and the collateral damage of arrested development. The following chapters give a truncated vision of a lifetime of competing forces and the pain of escaping from "loved" ones.

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Hepatocyte Clock And Alcohol-Dependent Disruption In Glycogen Metabolism, Uduak Sunday Udoh Jan 2015

Hepatocyte Clock And Alcohol-Dependent Disruption In Glycogen Metabolism, Uduak Sunday Udoh

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Chronic alcohol consumption has been shown to significantly decrease hepatic glycogen, an important storage form of energy for the body and liver. Emerging studies indicate a link between metabolism and the molecular circadian clock. Previously, we have shown that chronic alcohol consumption disrupts the liver molecular clock mechanism. However, it is not known how this alteration impacts hepatic energy (e.g., glycogen) metabolism and contributes to alcohol hepatotoxicity. This dissertation investigates the impact chronic alcohol consumption has on time-of-day-dependent oscillations of various aspects of liver glycogen metabolism, and the importance of the liver circadian clock in these metabolic alterations. Chapter 1: …

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Difference In Recommended-To-Actual Nurse Staffing And Patient Falls, Shawn Ulreich Jan 2015

Difference In Recommended-To-Actual Nurse Staffing And Patient Falls, Shawn Ulreich

All ETDs from UAB

Patient falls are a serious safety concern in hospitals. Injuries from falls can be devastating to patients and are now subject to reimbursement penalties from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Patient falls have been identified by the American Nurses Association as a nursing sensitive indictor suggesting that improvements in the quality or quantity of nurses may impact this outcome. Moreover, the literature suggests that nurse staffing levels have an impact on various patient outcomes such as patient falls. Therefore, identifying appropriate nurse staffing levels to minimize patient falls is critically important to hospitals. A variety of staffing metrics …

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Individual, Family, And Social Factors Associated With Adolescent Obesity: A Policy Relevant Focus, Janice Marguerite Utley Jan 2015

Individual, Family, And Social Factors Associated With Adolescent Obesity: A Policy Relevant Focus, Janice Marguerite Utley

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INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, AND SOCIAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ADOLESCENT OBESITY: A POLICY RELEVANT FOCUS JANICE M. UTLEY PUBLIC HEALTH ABSTRACT This dissertation is comprised of three papers that examined individual, family, and social factors associated with adolescent overweight and obesity with the aim of generating data that could inform the design of policy interventions to prevent or reverse rising prevalence. The first investigation was a type of literature review called a scoping study that examined the extent, range, and type of research activity on adolescent obesity that used a multilevel or hierarchical design to look at two or more contextual areas …

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A Novel Role For Usp14 In Regulating Non-Proteolytic Ubiquitin Signaling, Jada Hallengren Vaden Jan 2015

A Novel Role For Usp14 In Regulating Non-Proteolytic Ubiquitin Signaling, Jada Hallengren Vaden

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Loss of the deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) USP14 in the ataxia (axJ) mice leads to altered neuromuscular junction (NMJ) structure, reduced synaptic transmission at the NMJ, and decreased mobility. However, the types of processes that USP14 regulates in the nervous system remain unclear. Because association with the proteasome stimulates USP14's ubiquitin hydrolase activity, it is thought to act primarily on proteasomal substrates. Therefore, one way for USP14 to support nervous system function is by modulating protein turnover. While a number of studies done in yeast and immortalized cell lines demonstrate that loss or inhibition of USP14 alters proteasome function, there is …

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The Effects Of The Initially Transcribed Sequence On Reiterative Transcription In Escherichia Coli, Jeffery Michael Vahrenkamp Jan 2015

The Effects Of The Initially Transcribed Sequence On Reiterative Transcription In Escherichia Coli, Jeffery Michael Vahrenkamp

All ETDs from UAB

Transcription, the synthesis of a ribonucleic acid transcript using a nucleic acid template, is the first step in gene expression for all life. In most organisms, high fidelity transcription is achieved through the formation of an RNA:DNA hybrid which allows the RNA polymerase to maintain the correct register. Slippage, which would lead to improper base pairing, is prevented by the heterogeneous sequence of the DNA template. However, when homogenous tracts of bases are present in the template, slippage can occur, allowing a single base in the template to encode multiple bases in the transcript in a process called reiterative transcription. …

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Characterization Of The Gtpase Rac1 As An Electrophilic-Sensitive Protein In Vascular Cells, Stephanie Brook Wall Jan 2015

Characterization Of The Gtpase Rac1 As An Electrophilic-Sensitive Protein In Vascular Cells, Stephanie Brook Wall

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The GTPase Rac1 is a protein which has been shown to be dysregulated in the context of a number of inflammatory diseases including atherosclerosis. Rac1 responds to extracellular signals and is involved in cellular cytoskeletal rearrangement, reactive oxygen species generation and cell cycle progression. When activated Rac1 interacts with effector proteins on the plasma membrane. This activation has recently been shown to be modulated by redox signaling via an active site cysteine. However, it is not known whether other redox signaling compounds can modulate Rac1 activity. An important redox signaling mediator is the electrophilic lipid, 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15dPGJ2). This lipid …

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Carbon Fiber Content Measurement In Composite, Qiushi Wang Jan 2015

Carbon Fiber Content Measurement In Composite, Qiushi Wang

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. Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have been widely used in various structural applications in industries such as aerospace and automotive because of their high specific stiffness and specific strength. Their mechanical properties are strongly influenced by the carbon fiber content in the composites. Measurement of the carbon fiber content in CFRPs is essential for product quality control and process optimization. In this work, a novel carbonization-in-nitrogen method (CIN) is developed to characterize the fiber content in carbon fiber reinforced thermoset and thermoplastic composites. In this method, a carbon fiber composite sample is carbonized in a nitrogen environment at elevated …

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Aping Nobility: Reinterpreting The Mma "Monkey Cup", Ruoxin Wang Jan 2015

Aping Nobility: Reinterpreting The Mma "Monkey Cup", Ruoxin Wang

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The “Monkey Cup” in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) exhibits a unique rendition of the monkeys robbing the sleeping peddler theme. Generally believed to have been created in the second quarter of the fifteenth century in Burgundian territories, the exact origin of the beaker is not known. Based on visual evidence and the socio-historical context, I propose that the “Monkey Cup” was created in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and the attribution should be broadened to the greater circle of the Valois courts. In this thesis, I offer a new contextualized reading of the …

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Searching For Safe, Fair, And Affordable Housing: Learning From Experiences., Lauren Heberle, Cate Fosl, T. Kagaba Jan 2015

Searching For Safe, Fair, And Affordable Housing: Learning From Experiences., Lauren Heberle, Cate Fosl, T. Kagaba

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Compendium Of Organics Recovery Programs At Colleges And Universities, A.P. Lacy, A. Sizemore, Lauren Heberle, C. Norton Jan 2015

Compendium Of Organics Recovery Programs At Colleges And Universities, A.P. Lacy, A. Sizemore, Lauren Heberle, C. Norton

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Characterizing The Nuclear Import And Functions Of Cystin, The Ciliary Protein Disrupted In The Cpk Mouse Model Of Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease, Jacob Asher Watts Jan 2015

Characterizing The Nuclear Import And Functions Of Cystin, The Ciliary Protein Disrupted In The Cpk Mouse Model Of Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease, Jacob Asher Watts

All ETDs from UAB

Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD; MIM 263200) is a ma-jor cause of pediatric morbidity and mortality. Typically, orthologous animal models are the mainstay for pathogenic studies of human diseases. However, gene-targeting of Pkhd1, the mouse ortholog of the ARPKD gene, results in mutants with little or no kidney disease. In contrast, disruption of the non-orthologous gene, Cys1, in the cpk mouse model closely phenocopies human ARPKD. We speculate that this phenotypic similarity suggests that the Pkhd1 and Cys1 genes encode proteins (FPC and cystin, respectively) that share, at least in part, common molecular pathways. Our laboratory, as well as …

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Effectiveness Of Functional Electrical Stimulation Assisted Rowing To Improve Shoulder Pain And Aerobic Fitness In Manual Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury, Susan Wilbanks Jan 2015

Effectiveness Of Functional Electrical Stimulation Assisted Rowing To Improve Shoulder Pain And Aerobic Fitness In Manual Wheelchair Users With Spinal Cord Injury, Susan Wilbanks

All ETDs from UAB

Exercise is beneficial to adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) because of its ability to improve function and increase life expectancy. The goal of this dissertation was to determine an effective intervention for increasing aerobic fitness and decreasing shoulder pain in manual wheelchair users with SCI by identifying underlying mechanisms for shoulder pain, optimizing training and utilizing appropriate outcome measures. Three studies were conducted. The first study indicated that exercise interventions for adults with SCI are of low to moderate methodological quality, frequently using outcome measures associated with changes in body structures and functions, and not frequently examining effects on …

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