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2016

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Liberty And Collaboration For All: A Case Study On Collective Impact, Social Capital, And Community Inclusion, Laura Peyton Vickery Jan 2016

Liberty And Collaboration For All: A Case Study On Collective Impact, Social Capital, And Community Inclusion, Laura Peyton Vickery

All ETDs from UAB

Disenfranchised communities often face exclusion at the hands of outside organizations trying to assist. Citizens within the community are excluded and left with few means of actively participating in the conversation and development surrounding these communities. This paper takes the position that the imbalance of power dynamics, where citizens become subjects, does not fully utilize the potential of those inside and those from outside the community. As discussed in Chapter 1, utilizing social capital to build networks and integrate insider and outsider organizations and resources will ultimately create optimization. Chapter 2 uncovers historical examples of civic life and a new …

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Investigating The Mechanisms Of Dopaminergic Signaling In Regulating Refractive Error, Alexander Hadwyn Ward Jan 2016

Investigating The Mechanisms Of Dopaminergic Signaling In Regulating Refractive Error, Alexander Hadwyn Ward

All ETDs from UAB

Myopia is a significant public health problem. Most juvenile-onset myopia occurs because the eye becomes too long for its own optics. We study mechanisms regulating refractive error in an animal model, the tree shrew (Tupaia glis belangeri), a mammal closely related to primates. We use translucent diffusers to induce form deprivation myo-pia (FDM). A role of the retinal dopaminergic system has been validated during the de-velopment of FDM. In this study, in Specific Aim 1, we used intravitreal injections as a way to deliver sub-stances to the retina to investigate their effect on eye growth and induced myopia. However, a …

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Egesta Of The Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus Promote Weight Gain In The Shrimp Litopenaeus Vannamei, Karen Elizabeth Jensen Jan 2016

Egesta Of The Sea Urchin Lytechinus Variegatus Promote Weight Gain In The Shrimp Litopenaeus Vannamei, Karen Elizabeth Jensen

All ETDs from UAB

Long-term economic and environmental sustainability of aquaculture will be dependent on utilization of novel nutrient sources and remediation of effluent streams. Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) is a method intended to maximize productivity and minimize waste by strategically reusing effluent from a primary, fed species in the production of one or more secondary, extractive species. Such relationships are based on the trophic role of the fed and extractive species in question. Sea urchin egesta are thought to play a role in nutrient cycling in natural habitats by providing an energy source for many coprophagous deposit feeders, suspension feeders, and microbes. The …

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Comparing The Quality Of End Of Life Cancer Care In The Medicare Population Prior To And After The Enactment Of The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement And Modernization Act Of 2003, Rene Jooste Jan 2016

Comparing The Quality Of End Of Life Cancer Care In The Medicare Population Prior To And After The Enactment Of The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement And Modernization Act Of 2003, Rene Jooste

All ETDs from UAB

Reimbursement for chemotherapy could account for two thirds of the income for oncologists in private practice. The Medicare prescription drug improvement and modernization act of 2003 (MMA) brought about a dramatic change in the way physicians were reimbursed for delivering chemotherapy in an attempt to slow the skyrocketing costs of drugs and Medicare costs for covering these drugs . The MMA reduced Medicare reimbursements for covered outpatient prescription drugs from 95% to 85% of the average wholesale price. In 2005, a new payment system was instituted that reimbursed fee-for-service providers for drugs at the national average sales price plus 6%. …

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Extrema Based Signal Transforms For Biomedical Signal Analysis, Bhadhan Roy Joy Jan 2016

Extrema Based Signal Transforms For Biomedical Signal Analysis, Bhadhan Roy Joy

All ETDs from UAB

Signal transforms are very important tools to extract useful information from scientific, engineering, or medical raw data. Unfortunately, traditional transform techniques impose unrealistic assumptions on the signal, often producing erroneous interpretation of results. Well-known integral transforms, such as short time Fourier transform, though have fast implementation algorithms (e.g., FFT), are still computationally expensive. They have multiple parameters that should be tuned, and it is not readily clear how to tune them for long-duration nonstationary signals. To solve these problems, one needs a computationally inexpensive transform with no parameters that will highlight important data aspects. We propose a simple transform based …

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Malaria, Changes In Angiogenesis Factors, Cytokine Profiles And Birth Outcomes, John A. Keenan Jan 2016

Malaria, Changes In Angiogenesis Factors, Cytokine Profiles And Birth Outcomes, John A. Keenan

All ETDs from UAB

Malaria remains an important public health problem, with over three billion people at risk of infection and as many as 214 million new cases each year. Of particular concern is the effect Plasmodium falciparum malaria has on reproductive health. Malaria is responsible for a wide array of adverse birth outcomes including infant death, low birth weight, preterm delivery and small for gestational age. The mechanism by which malaria influences adverse birth outcomes remains poorly understood. Cross-sectional data from 291 women delivering infants in Ghana are used to investigate whether malaria during pregnancy was associated with select cytokines or angiogenesis factors …

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Motor Unit Remodeling During Neuromuscular Degeneration In Aging And Parkinson's Disease, Neil Anthony Kelly Jan 2016

Motor Unit Remodeling During Neuromuscular Degeneration In Aging And Parkinson's Disease, Neil Anthony Kelly

All ETDs from UAB

The human neuromuscular system deteriorates progressively with age and disease. This results in denervation events and ultimately motor unit remodeling, which is revealed by abnormal “groups” of myofibers expressing the same myosin protein isoform – a phenomenon described as myofiber type grouping. Despite the acceptance of myofiber type grouping as a hallmark indicator of motor unit remodeling, traditional techniques of detecting it lack quantitative parameters and therefore comparative data in aging and disease are scarce. The purpose of this dissertation is to establish a statistically-driven, quantitative method for detecting myofiber type grouping and to use it to characterize the effects …

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The Effect Of The Combination Of Low Income And Low Education, Access To Care, And Social Isolation On Chd Outcomes In The Reasons For Geographic And Racial Differences In Stroke (Regards) Cohort Study, Marquita Lewis Jan 2016

The Effect Of The Combination Of Low Income And Low Education, Access To Care, And Social Isolation On Chd Outcomes In The Reasons For Geographic And Racial Differences In Stroke (Regards) Cohort Study, Marquita Lewis

All ETDs from UAB

Coronary heart disease (CHD) disparities persist for low socioeconomic populations, in spite of declines globally. In order to reduce these disparities, it is critical that investigators better understand determinants of health that exacerbate these disparities. This study investigated the association between the combination of low income and low education on CHD incidence, and the mediating effects of access to care and social isolation on this association. Data was used from participants recruited between 2003-2007 free of CHD at baseline from the national biracial prospective Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort study of participants aged >45 years. …

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Regulation Of Breast Cancer Metastasis By Sin3 Chromatin Remodeling Complexes, Monica Jeanene Lewis Jan 2016

Regulation Of Breast Cancer Metastasis By Sin3 Chromatin Remodeling Complexes, Monica Jeanene Lewis

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Metastasis continues to be the most difficult clinical challenge for breast cancer. Survival rates for patients with metastatic breast cancer have not significantly changed in the past 20 years. Therefore, we need a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate breast cancer metastasis to develop effective therapies. SIN3 chromatin remodeling complexes have been implicated in breast cancer progression. Mammalian cells have two paralogs of SIN3 (SIN3A and SIN3B) that are encoded by distinct genes and have unique functions during development. However, specific roles for SIN3A and SIN3B in breast cancer progression have not been characterized. To better understand how …

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Development Of A Split Luciferase Complementation Assay To Investigate Growth Hormone Receptor/ Prolactin Receptor Homo-/ Hetero-Association, Ying Liu Jan 2016

Development Of A Split Luciferase Complementation Assay To Investigate Growth Hormone Receptor/ Prolactin Receptor Homo-/ Hetero-Association, Ying Liu

All ETDs from UAB

Growth hormone receptor (GHR) and prolactin receptor (PRLR) are transmembrane glycoproteins cytokine receptors that are structurally homologous. Each can pre-homodimerize and ligand binding of each activates JAK2-STAT signaling pathways by inducing conformational change within the receptor homodimer. Human GHR can be activated by growth hormone (GH) while human PRLR can be activated by both GH and prolactin (PRL). We devised a split luciferase complementation assay, in which one receptor is fused to the N-terminal fragment of luciferase and the other receptor is fused to the C-terminal fragment of luciferase. When the two receptors approximate, luciferase activity (complementation) results. Using this …

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Histopathology And Image Validation Of Outer Retinal Tubulations In Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Katie M. Litts Jan 2016

Histopathology And Image Validation Of Outer Retinal Tubulations In Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Katie M. Litts

All ETDs from UAB

High-resolution imaging of the retina using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) is revealing new information about photoreceptor degeneration in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other diseases impacting rod and cone photoreceptors. By SD-OCT, the hyperreflective outer retinal bands are visible due to the precise vertical compartmentalization and horizontal alignment of outer retinal cells and tissues (Müller cells, photoreceptors, RPE, and Bruch’s membrane). Validating these bands with normal eyes is difficult because the outer retina is very delicate making accurate histology requiring attached retina and vertically aligned photoreceptors challenging. Conversely, the bands are …

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Understanding Protein-Protein Interactions In Plantae In Network Biology Utilizing A Novel Y2h Liquid Assay Approach, Jessica Lopez Lopez Jan 2016

Understanding Protein-Protein Interactions In Plantae In Network Biology Utilizing A Novel Y2h Liquid Assay Approach, Jessica Lopez Lopez

All ETDs from UAB

The Yeast-2-Hybrid (Y2H) assay is a heterologous system that is expanding network biology knowledge via in vivo investigations of binary protein-protein interactions. Traditionally, the Y2H protocol entails the mating or co-transformation of yeast in solid agar media followed by visual analysis for diploid selection. Having played a key role in identifying protein-protein interactions for nearly three decades, the Y2H system includes the interaction between two proteins of interest which result in a reconstituted transcription factor allowing a reporter gene to be transcribed. In this thesis, two primary objectives were pursued to expand the knowledge of protein-protein interactions. The primary objective …

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Changes In Intrinsic Local Functional Connectivity In Children With Autism Followed By A Visualizing/Verbalizing Reading Intervention, Jose Omar Maximo Jan 2016

Changes In Intrinsic Local Functional Connectivity In Children With Autism Followed By A Visualizing/Verbalizing Reading Intervention, Jose Omar Maximo

All ETDs from UAB

Deficits in language are a major clinical feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous studies suggest that individuals with ASD may rely on visuospatial skills to compensate for these deficits. Existing intervention programs in autism have not been tested at the neural level, thus falling short of quantifiable neurobiological changes underlying behavioral improvement. The current study takes a translational neuroimaging approach to test the impact of a structured visual imagery-based reading intervention on improving reading comprehension and its underlying neural circuitry. Changes in connectivity of a set of brain regions commonly known as the “reading network” were examined in children …

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Rural Hos[Ital Closure In Alabama - Post Aca, Dennis Otto Mccay Jan 2016

Rural Hos[Ital Closure In Alabama - Post Aca, Dennis Otto Mccay

All ETDs from UAB

RURAL HOSPITAL CLOSURES IN ALABAMA: POST ACA DENNIS O. MCCAY HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACT Rural hospitals differ from their urban counterparts with regard to two main areas. First, rural hospital patients are usually older, of lower income, and less healthy than those in urban areas. Second, their facilities tend to be smaller, older, and more prone to staff shortages than those in an urban environment. Rural hospitals have been closing at higher rates than their urban counterparts for a number of years, but more so since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The objective of this research …

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Cell-Specific Pgc-1Α-Dependent Transcription: Implications For Cognitive And Motor Dysfunction, Laura Mcmeekin Jan 2016

Cell-Specific Pgc-1Α-Dependent Transcription: Implications For Cognitive And Motor Dysfunction, Laura Mcmeekin

All ETDs from UAB

health beliefs in young women. The Prevention of Osteoporosis in Women (POW)

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A Comprehensive Investigation Of Hp1b, A Chromatin Protein, And Its Role In Aging, Benjamin Mills Mills Jan 2016

A Comprehensive Investigation Of Hp1b, A Chromatin Protein, And Its Role In Aging, Benjamin Mills Mills

All ETDs from UAB

Genetic regulation determines which genes are expressed, in which tissues, at which time, and to which level. This regulation is necessary for proper organismal development, and loss of gene regulation can result in phenotypic consequences. As organisms grow older, gene regulation often begins to fail, resulting in negative phenotypic outcomes associated with aging. The exact reason for this failure of gene regulation remains unknown, but current models suggest that chromatin, and its associated proteins, plays a large role. The structure of chromatin impacts gene expression, directly affecting several phenotypes including aging. In this study, we investigate HP1B, a chromatin protein, …

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Molecular Analysis Of Streptococcus Mutans Genetic Diversity For The Epidemiological Study Of Oral Disease, Stephanie Stahlbuhk Momeni Jan 2016

Molecular Analysis Of Streptococcus Mutans Genetic Diversity For The Epidemiological Study Of Oral Disease, Stephanie Stahlbuhk Momeni

All ETDs from UAB

Dental caries is chronic global infectious disease. Streptococcus mutans are most frequently associated with dental caries. The goal of this work is to use molecular genotyping methods to investigate the genetic diversity and evidence for transmission of S. mutans for the epidemiological study of dental caries. It was first necessary to validate methods proposed in this study including choice of selective media, choice of multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme, and the frequency of clonality. Analysis included 13,906 S. mutans isolates obtained from oral samples collected from children and their household members in an 8-year longitudinal epidemiological study. Two genotyping methods …

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Fabrication And Characterization Of Buckypapers For Use In Air Sampling, Jonghwa Oh Jan 2016

Fabrication And Characterization Of Buckypapers For Use In Air Sampling, Jonghwa Oh

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FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BUCKYPAPERS FOR USE IN AIR SAMPLING JONGHWA OH ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES ABSTRACT Occupational exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is a concern from a public health perspective. In many industrial activities, workers’ exposure to VOCs can be sufficiently high to induce adverse health effects, so their monitoring is necessary. In exposure assessment, post sampling extraction and quantification are the typical analytical procedures. Recently, our group developed the photothermal desorption (PTD) technique in which a pulse of light thermally desorbs an analyte directly from a sorbent. Advantages of this technique are; it is solvent free, repeated analysis …

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Fmic Annual Report 2016 | English, French Medical Institute For Mothers And Children Jan 2016

Fmic Annual Report 2016 | English, French Medical Institute For Mothers And Children

French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC) Archives

No abstract provided.

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Department Of Community Health Sciences Medical College (Report 2009 - 2016), Department Of Community Health Sciences, Medical College Jan 2016

Department Of Community Health Sciences Medical College (Report 2009 - 2016), Department Of Community Health Sciences, Medical College

Department of Community Health Sciences Archives

This report comprehensively documents the academic, research, and service accomplishments of the Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS) at the Aga Khan University from 2009 to 2016. It highlights the department’s mission to strengthen public health education and systems through innovative programs, strategic partnerships, and impactful research. Topics covered include CHS faculty profiles, educational programs, strategic initiatives, community outreach, grant-funded projects, and the vision for establishing a School of Public Health.

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Dietary Patterns, Insulin Resistance, And Cognitive Outcomes In A Cohort Of Black And White Americans, Keith Pearson Jan 2016

Dietary Patterns, Insulin Resistance, And Cognitive Outcomes In A Cohort Of Black And White Americans, Keith Pearson

All ETDs from UAB

As life expectancy continues to increase and the number of elderly Americans rises, public health initiatives are seeking to identify modifiable risk factors to preserve cognitive function and increase quality of life in advanced ages. The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate dietary patterns, carbohydrate consumption, and insulin resistance as modifiable risk factors that may contribute to the development of cognitive impairment and cognitive decline. Three separate studies were performed in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke study, a prospective cohort containing 30,239 black and white participants. Cognitive impairment was defined using the Six-Item Screener. …

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Early-Life Programming Of Emotional Behaviors And Cardiovascular Function, Samir Rana Jan 2016

Early-Life Programming Of Emotional Behaviors And Cardiovascular Function, Samir Rana

All ETDs from UAB

Extensive evidence implicates bi-directional relationship between mood disorders and cardiovascular disorders. Early-life experience can have strong effects both on emotional development and cardiovascular function throughout life. Studies in humans are limited to correlational analyses, which are necessarily limited in terms of revealing mechanistic underpinnings of these associations. Thus, various pre-clinical models are utilized to investigate the effects of early-life experience in various domains, such as behavior and cardiovascular function, which are likely mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. Previous studies have used maternal separation and neonatal handling in developing rodents as a way to model differences in early-life experience. The effect of …

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Correlating High Reliability Organization Practices With Preventable Harms Across Children’S Hospitals Participating In The Children’S Hospitals’ Solutions For Patient Safety Collaborative, Kelly H. Randall Jan 2016

Correlating High Reliability Organization Practices With Preventable Harms Across Children’S Hospitals Participating In The Children’S Hospitals’ Solutions For Patient Safety Collaborative, Kelly H. Randall

All ETDs from UAB

Background: Despite significant effort, focus, and resources dedicated to reducing patient safety risk, the healthcare system continues to have high error rates. Approaches and strategies implemented to decrease human error have been marginally successful in achieving sustainable reduction in patient harm. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between high reliability and patient safety outcomes by testing the following hypotheses: Organizations exhibiting more advanced high reliability practice will have fewer hospital acquired conditions (as defined by the Serious Harm Event Index (SHE) than organizations exhibiting less advanced high reliability practices; and organizations exhibiting more advanced high …

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Reorganization Of The Golgi Apparatus During Human Cytomegalovirus Infection, George Michael Rebmann Jan 2016

Reorganization Of The Golgi Apparatus During Human Cytomegalovirus Infection, George Michael Rebmann

All ETDs from UAB

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the largest and most structurally complex of all the herpesviruses. HCMV is an important human pathogen that results in significant morbidity and disease in immunocompromised individuals. The assembly of herpesviruses is complex and involves a nuclear and cytoplasmic phase. The nuclear events of capsid assembly and genome incorporation as well as nuclear egress are believed to be similar in all herpesviruses and as such, are more clearly defined then the cytoplasmic phase; including the process of tegument and envelope acquisition. Human Cytomegalovirus induces the reorganization of the cellular secretory pathway including the Golgi apparatus and membranes …

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Examining Hiv-Associated Symptom Burden And Microbial Translocation In The Veterans Aging Cohort Study: A Secondary Data Analysis, Natalie Lynn Wilson Jan 2016

Examining Hiv-Associated Symptom Burden And Microbial Translocation In The Veterans Aging Cohort Study: A Secondary Data Analysis, Natalie Lynn Wilson

All ETDs from UAB

group of 50 women (group 1) received computer-tailored feedback with brief counseling.

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The Impact Of Rrna And Trna Synthesis On Chromatin Structure And Cell Fate, Jessica Makofske Woolnough Jan 2016

The Impact Of Rrna And Trna Synthesis On Chromatin Structure And Cell Fate, Jessica Makofske Woolnough

All ETDs from UAB

The Central Dogma of molecular biology describes the process by which genetic material is faithfully converted into functional molecules across all domains of life. Originally, RNA was solely understood as an intermediate in this process. However, mounting evidence over the past 50 years has made clear that RNA have diverse functional roles as a class of molecule termed non-coding RNA. Two of the first described non-coding RNA have essential roles within the Central Dogma, itself: ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA). These two non-coding RNA are highly abundant, collectively accounting for up to 90% of the total transcript in …

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Retention Of Cad/Cam Crowns Luted With A Novel Biomimetic Cement, Nan Xiang Jan 2016

Retention Of Cad/Cam Crowns Luted With A Novel Biomimetic Cement, Nan Xiang

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Objectives: To measure the tensile strength of e.max copings cemented with resin, calcium silicate and calcium phosphate cements following thermocycling. Methods: 40 extracted non-carious mandibular premolar teeth were examined and selected using Keyence microscope for no carious cracks etc.were mounted in acrylic. The teeth were placed in a lathe and prepared to uniform dimensions (22° total taper) using a flat-end tapered diamond bur (846.11.025HP, Brasseler) and a 3mm preparation height. The surface area of the prepared surface was calculated with digital microscopy. The teeth were scanned with a Cerec 3 (Sirona) digital scanner. E.max crowns were milled using Cerec 3 …

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White Matter Abnormalities In Patients With Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures, Seongtaek Lee Jan 2016

White Matter Abnormalities In Patients With Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures, Seongtaek Lee

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The aim of the present study was to investigate white matter diffusion abnormalities using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES). The total subjects consisted of 16 patients with a definite diagnosis of PNES and 16 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). The diagnosis of PNES was confirmed by inpatient video/EEG monitoring; patients with epileptic seizures, additional types of seizures of unknown etiology, or who had an abnormal EEG indicating possible comorbid epilepsy were excluded. Also, HCs had no known history of comorbid neurological or psychiatric disorders. Whole brain fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) …

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Leukemia Stem Cell Markers And Inv(16) In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Jason Legrand Jan 2016

Leukemia Stem Cell Markers And Inv(16) In Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Jason Legrand

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Although greater than 85% of inv(16) acute myeloid leukemia patients are able to achieve first complete remission after anthracycline- and cytarabine-based therapy, only about 60% of patients survive the disease long-term due to relapsed disease or treatment-related mortality. Multiple studies have shown that acute myeloid leukemia is composed of heterogeneous populations of leukemic clones that can exhibit a wide degree of genetic, epigenetic, and functional diversity, accounting for different outcomes in response to therapy. Genomic analysis of leukemic clones in paired diagnostic and relapse samples of acute myeloid leukemia has shown that all relapses stem from surviving leukemic or ancestral …

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High-Intensity Interval Training With Energy Restriction Preserves Lean Tissue And Improves Glucose Tolerance In Obesity, Rachel Ann Harley Jan 2016

High-Intensity Interval Training With Energy Restriction Preserves Lean Tissue And Improves Glucose Tolerance In Obesity, Rachel Ann Harley

All ETDs from UAB

Calorie restriction (CR) reduces body weight (BW) and adiposity, but is often less than expected due to hypometabolism produced by reductions in lean body mass (LBM). A comparable energy deficit created by combining CR and exercise energy expenditure (EE) has been shown to attenuate the reduction in EE produced by CR. Continuous moderate-intensity training (MIT) is commonly used to sustain energy balance or expedite weight loss, but high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may produce greater results. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if HIIT preserves LBM and improves energy metabolism to a greater extent than MIT in the presence …

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