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2014

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Articles 15211 - 15240 of 15611

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Anatomical And Neurochemical Investigation Of The Brain In Autism, Lauren E. Libero Jan 2014

Anatomical And Neurochemical Investigation Of The Brain In Autism, Lauren E. Libero

All ETDs from UAB

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with widespread behavioral symptoms and a strong neurobiological origin. Neuroimaging studies of ASD have uncovered evidence for widespread abnormalities in brain anatomy and functioning. Abnormalities reported by structural brain imaging, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) studies have aided in characterizing ASD as a complex, systems-wide disorder. The overarching goal of this project was to use multiple modalities of neuroimaging to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of ASD. The following techniques were used to collect and analyze multimodal neuroimaging data from a relatively large number of participants …

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Differences In How Bmi And Body Fat Distribution Influence Body Dissatisfaction And Self-Esteem In Caucasian And African American Early Pubertal Girls, Danielle Marie Lorch Jan 2014

Differences In How Bmi And Body Fat Distribution Influence Body Dissatisfaction And Self-Esteem In Caucasian And African American Early Pubertal Girls, Danielle Marie Lorch

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Body dissatisfaction is among many psychological concerns related to obesity, particularly among pre-adolescent females. Though obesity prevalence estimates are higher among African American (AA) adolescent females, the limited data available suggests that they are less susceptible to weight-related body dissatisfaction than Caucasians. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between BMI and body dissatisfaction and the relationship between BMI and self-esteem in obese AA and Caucasian girls, aged 7-11 years, and determine if these relationships are moderated by race. Furthermore, an examination of how total body fat and body fat distribution before and after a dietary …

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The Inverse Volatility Problem For American Options, Ajay Mahato Jan 2014

The Inverse Volatility Problem For American Options, Ajay Mahato

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The inverse problem of determining equity volatility from a knowledge of American option prices for a range of exercise prices and expirations is solved by minimization of a convex functional. This variational approach has distinct advantages over traditional least squares techniques in that, as the associated functional is convex, one typically has a unique global minimum, so that one is not concerned about the steepest descent minimization process "getting stuck" in spurious local minima. This is an enormous advantage numerically in difficult situations. We illustrate the method using examples drawn from recent market data.

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Sak Yant: The Transition From Indic Yantras To Thai "Magical" Buddhist Tattoos, Angela May Jan 2014

Sak Yant: The Transition From Indic Yantras To Thai "Magical" Buddhist Tattoos, Angela May

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Officially, Thailand is dominated by the state-sponsored Theravada Buddhist tradition, which has essentially been practiced in Thailand since 1902 when the sangha bureaucracy was established. However, within the last couple of decades a hybrid form of Thai Buddhism has emerged. The contemporary, hybridic Thai religion emphasizes Buddhism--placing it at the top of its hierarchal pyramid--even while it includes elements of Animism and Hinduism. This thesis explores the hybridization of popular religions in contemporary Thailand as reflected in the art form of Sak Yant. Thai Buddhist magical tattoos called Sak Yant are based on ancient Indic yantras that are considered powerful …

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Enhancing The Social Interactions Of Preschool Children With Autism: The Effectiveness Of A Peer-Mediated Intervention, Marjorie Katherine Mccalla Jan 2014

Enhancing The Social Interactions Of Preschool Children With Autism: The Effectiveness Of A Peer-Mediated Intervention, Marjorie Katherine Mccalla

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Deficits in social interactions are considered the defining feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and are a powerful predictor of individual outcomes. Although a wide variety of methods for improving social skills in individuals with ASD have been examined, it is still unclear what approaches are most effective. This pilot study evaluated the efficacy of a new manualized social skills intervention package for preschoolers with ASD that integrated methods with demonstrated efficacy (i.e., ABA, peer training, and video modeling). Approximately two thirds of the intervention were delivered during free play in the classroom and on the playground, allowing children to …

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Illuminating The Physiology And Ecology Of The Wound-Induced Macroalgal Oxidative Burst, Ruth Ellen Mcdowell Jan 2014

Illuminating The Physiology And Ecology Of The Wound-Induced Macroalgal Oxidative Burst, Ruth Ellen Mcdowell

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The role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the macroalgal wound response was investigated with emphasis on their occurrence, source, and ecological role. In a survey of Antarctic macroalgae, an oxidative response to wounding was common and ROS in seawater decreased the feeding rate of sympatric amphipod grazers. The macroalgal oxidative response was also sensitive to light. In contrast to the current understanding of the macroalgal oxidative burst, initial wound-induced ROS from the temperate kelp Saccharina latissima were light-dependent and arose from disrupted photosynthetic electron transport rather than from a defense-related enzyme such as an NADPH-oxidase. Furthermore, the light-dependence of …

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Hormonal Contraceptives Alter The Immune Function And Structural Integrity Of The Female Genital Tract: Implications For Hiv-1 Infection, Katherine Gisella Michel Jan 2014

Hormonal Contraceptives Alter The Immune Function And Structural Integrity Of The Female Genital Tract: Implications For Hiv-1 Infection, Katherine Gisella Michel

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The potential effect of hormonal contraception on HIV-1 acquisition and transmission represents an important public health issue. Several observational studies have suggested an association between the use of hormonal contraception, in particular injectable depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), and an increased risk of HIV-1 acquisition and transmission. To delineate the biological mechanisms behind this phenomenon, we have recruited healthy, HIV-negative women using either DMPA, NuvaRing, or combined oral contraceptives for a vaginal biopsy and cervicovaginal lavage (CVL). Analysis of the functional capacity of circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), distribution of vaginal immune cell populations, and systemic and genital levels of immune …

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Night Comes Early To The Valley, Caitlin Murphree Miller Jan 2014

Night Comes Early To The Valley, Caitlin Murphree Miller

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Night Comes Early to the Valley is a collection of short stories about vulnerable, flawed people trying to discover the best way to live their lives. They are well-meaning mothers, fathers, children, and lovers, yet all struggle to balance the fulfillment of their personal responsibilities with the realization of their deepest individual desires. The collection highlights characters who are desperate to atone for their mistakes, build brighter futures, and live up to the expectations of their loved ones--only to realize, over time, that the most formidable judge they'll ever face is their own conscience.

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Sociocultural Disposition And Psychosocial Adjustment: An Examination Of The Relationship Of Self-Efficacy, Optimism, And Hope To Social And Psychological Adjustment Among Urban Minority Youth, Latoya J. O'Neal Jan 2014

Sociocultural Disposition And Psychosocial Adjustment: An Examination Of The Relationship Of Self-Efficacy, Optimism, And Hope To Social And Psychological Adjustment Among Urban Minority Youth, Latoya J. O'Neal

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation examines the relationship between sociocultural disposition, as protective factors, and social and psychological adjustment among urban minority youth. Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the habitus provides the theoretical foundation for sociocultural disposition as a factor influencing the reproduction of poor psychosocial adjustment. Sociocultural disposition is operationalized as self-efficacy, optimism, and hopelessness. Data from this study are from the Birmingham Youth and Technology Study (BYTS) which was conducted during the 2008-2009 school year by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression was used to test six hypotheses regarding the relationship between sociocultural disposition …

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The Role Of Ih In 4-Aminopyridine Induced Epileptiform Activity, Steven Patrick Palladino Jan 2014

The Role Of Ih In 4-Aminopyridine Induced Epileptiform Activity, Steven Patrick Palladino

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significantly different from sex ratios of control groups produced at constant incubation

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Biology, Ecology, And Conservation Of Hatchling And Post-Hatchling Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys Terrapin Pileata), Tandy Dolin Petrov Jan 2014

Biology, Ecology, And Conservation Of Hatchling And Post-Hatchling Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys Terrapin Pileata), Tandy Dolin Petrov

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The diamondback terrapin has been considered a keystone species along its range in the coastal, brackish estuaries bordering the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. Historically, diamondback terrapin populations have been numerous; however, in Alabama; the population has dramatically declined over the past century due to a variety of threats. The threats in Alabama include predation by raccoons, incidental drowning in crab traps, as well as road mitigated mortality. Because of these threats, collaboration efforts between UAB, USA, DISL, and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, a head-start program has been initiated to mitigate the predation of hatchlings. …

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Coping With Chronic Illness: Temporal Patterns Of Spiritual Coping And Adjustment Among Adolescents With Chronic Illness, Nina Cole Reynolds Jan 2014

Coping With Chronic Illness: Temporal Patterns Of Spiritual Coping And Adjustment Among Adolescents With Chronic Illness, Nina Cole Reynolds

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Issues of spirituality rise to the forefront for youth facing serious health conditions. Positive and negative spiritual coping strategies have been linked with better or worse psychological adjustment, respectively, in pediatric patients. With expansion of research in this area, an empirical synthesis and examination of the prospective relationships between spiritual coping and mental- and physical-health is needed. Accordingly, the first manuscript reports on meta-analytic review of the cross-sectional studies of spiritual coping, health, and psychosocial adjustment. Results revealed that greater use of negative spiritual coping is related to more internalizing problems and poorer quality of life across multiple pediatric illness …

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Neuropathology Of Dopamine Systems In Schizophrenia: Regional Dopamine Pathologies In The Substantia Nigra/Ventral Tegmental Area Complex, Matthew Warner Rice Jan 2014

Neuropathology Of Dopamine Systems In Schizophrenia: Regional Dopamine Pathologies In The Substantia Nigra/Ventral Tegmental Area Complex, Matthew Warner Rice

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Dopaminergic neurotransmission anomalies are a well-established aspect of schizophrenia, a devastating mental disorder that affects approximately 1% of the world population. The substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), which extends from diencephalic to mesencephalic territories, provides the largest dopaminergic input to the brain. The SN/VTA contains subpopulations of dopaminergic neurons that project preferentially through different pathways, providing dopamine input to brain regions where dopaminergic anomalies have been reported in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that anomalies in the synthesis of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme for the production of dopamine, could contribute to the dopaminergic anomalies observed in this disorder. We first …

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White Matter Integrity In Adults With Hemiparetic Multiple Sclerosis Given Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy, Tyler Rickards Jan 2014

White Matter Integrity In Adults With Hemiparetic Multiple Sclerosis Given Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy, Tyler Rickards

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In adults with chronic stroke and children with cerebral palsy, structural changes in grey matter correlate with clinical improvements due to an efficacious upper-extremity (UE) rehabilitation therapy, Constraint-Induced Movement (CI) Therapy. Changes in white matter following CI therapy have not been observed, but damage to white matter tracts has not been found to decrease motor improvement resulting from this treatment. The objectives of this project were to: 1) evaluate the efficacy of CI therapy compared to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments on improving impaired UE function in participants with the progressive form of multiple sclerosis (MS), 2) investigate whether …

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Combined Effects Of Corexit Ec 9500a With Secondary Abiotic And Biotic Stressors In The Rotifer Brachionus Plicatilis, Michael Britt Williams Jan 2014

Combined Effects Of Corexit Ec 9500a With Secondary Abiotic And Biotic Stressors In The Rotifer Brachionus Plicatilis, Michael Britt Williams

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Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill the dispersant Corexit EC 9500A (C-9500) was applied to facilitate rapid oil degradation. C-9500 toxicity has been evaluated on a number of marine species; however, many of these studies do not account for environmental conditions that may increase negative outcomes related to dispersant exposure in the wild. We examined lethality and behavioral effects of C-9500 exposure on the model marine zooplankton Brachionus plicatilis. We also evaluated interactions of abiotic and biotic stressors that may alter outcomes of exposure. C-9500 exposure at standard husbandry conditions (17.5ppt, 24°C, 200 rotifer*ml-1 density) produced a 24 hr median …

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Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Function Following Burn Injury, Katie Leigh Wilson Jan 2014

Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Function Following Burn Injury, Katie Leigh Wilson

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The pathophysiological response to burn injuries involves severe inflammation and a hypermetabolic state, both contributing to prolonged muscle atrophy. However, the relationship between inflammation and hypermetabolism following burn injury is poorly defined. Catabolism results from energy storage depletion, in part due to futile substrate cycling, and preferentially involving amino acids. This rapid turnover of amino acids leads to massive, full body muscle wasting. The extent and duration of muscle loss is directly related to the total body surface area burned (TBSA). Severely burned patients may experience metabolic derangements and impaired muscle synthesis for up to two years. In order to …

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The Bear And The Tiger: Decoding Attitudes And Anxieties Towards Nature Through A.A. Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh In Post-Wwi Britain, Joanna Catherine Wilson Jan 2014

The Bear And The Tiger: Decoding Attitudes And Anxieties Towards Nature Through A.A. Milne's Winnie-The-Pooh In Post-Wwi Britain, Joanna Catherine Wilson

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This thesis aims to demonstrate how the two volumes of Winnie-the-Pooh stories, published in 1926 and 1928, and written by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard, operate as a unique lens through which early twentieth-century attitudes towards nature and wildlife in Britain may be discerned, and in particular how the stuffed animal characters of Pooh the bear and Tigger the tiger represent a shift in post-war British worldviews concerning nature and domination. The initial stage of this investigation determines how the exceptionally broad demographic constituting the audience for children's fiction makes the medium a particularly expressive record of the …

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Using Computers And The Internet: The Experiences Of Older, Vicki P. Winstead Jan 2014

Using Computers And The Internet: The Experiences Of Older, Vicki P. Winstead

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reproduction such as egg survival, hatchling survival, and sex ratios. The initial two

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Nonlinear Optical Characterizations Of Bithiophenes With Phosphorus Containing Substituents, Yuanli Zhang Jan 2014

Nonlinear Optical Characterizations Of Bithiophenes With Phosphorus Containing Substituents, Yuanli Zhang

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This dissertation describes experimental and theoretical studies of the nonlinear optical (NLO) absorption mechanisms in chalcogenidodiphenylphosphino-substituted bithiophenes and phosphonato-substituted bithiophenes. The NLO properties of these compounds were studied by measurements of NLO absorption versus input energy and Z-scan experiments. Both of these NLO experiments were performed in the picosecond (ps) and nanosecond (ns) time regimes in the blue spectral region. These experiments demonstrate that these compounds exhibit both high linear transmissions and strong nonlinear absorptions in the blue spectral region. Saturated solutions of the bithiophenes monosubstituted with chalcogenatodiphenylphosphino groups exhibit the highest NLO absorbances of picosecond laser pulses that have …

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Evaluation Of Municipal Wastewater In The Vicinity Of Birmingham, Alabama For Estrogens Using Vitellogenin Gene Expression In Largescale Stonerollers (Campostoma Oligolepis), Shara Blackwell Legg Jan 2014

Evaluation Of Municipal Wastewater In The Vicinity Of Birmingham, Alabama For Estrogens Using Vitellogenin Gene Expression In Largescale Stonerollers (Campostoma Oligolepis), Shara Blackwell Legg

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Environmental endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) have become a growing threat to the health of humans and wildlife. Numerous studies have demonstrated the presence of EDCs in freshwater aquatic environments. Environmental estrogens, both natural and synthetic, appear to be posing a threat to the reproductive fitness of aquatic organisms. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as significant routes by which the EDCs enter waterways. The egg yolk precursor protein vitellogenin (VTG) has proven to be a useful biomarker that can be used to identify organisms that have been exposed to environmental estrogens. In this study, a quantitative RT-PCR assay for …

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Depression And Alcohol Use Disorders As Gendered Phenotypes Of 5-Httlpr, Bryant Walker Hamby Jan 2014

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

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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 …

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Autism And Work: The Impact Of Comorbidity On Employment, Karen Harris Jan 2014

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

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

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An Examination Of The Services That Contribute To Positive Vocational Outcomes In Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Abbey N. Harris Jan 2014

An Examination Of The Services That Contribute To Positive Vocational Outcomes In Adults With Developmental Disabilities, Abbey N. Harris

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One of the most pressing issues concerning persons with developmental disabilities is making sure their needs are met once they reach adulthood. As adults, they should have the abilities and skills to be as independent as possible and to be contributing members of society. Without the proper services and help, though, this may not be possible for a large portion of this population. Research suggests that supportive employment services alone may not be enough to meet their unique vocational needs and to improve the likelihood of their achieving personal and financial independence. The purpose of this study was to determine …

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Phosphorus-Donor Substituted Transition Metal Complexes: Coordination And Alkene Hydroformylation, Samantha Delmont Hastings Jan 2014

Phosphorus-Donor Substituted Transition Metal Complexes: Coordination And Alkene Hydroformylation, Samantha Delmont Hastings

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more refined estimate of the transitional range of temperatures (TRT) and pivotal

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Understanding Non-Helical Nuclease Resistant Dnas And Their Roles In Tlr9 Mediated Cellular Invasion, Katherine Leigh Hayden Jan 2014

Understanding Non-Helical Nuclease Resistant Dnas And Their Roles In Tlr9 Mediated Cellular Invasion, Katherine Leigh Hayden

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Non-helical DNA structures such as hairpins and G-quadruplexes found in the non-coding regions of chromosomes have been implicated in a number of biological processes such as control of genetic expression and in dysregulation causing diseases such as cancer. Recent studies from our laboratory have found that apoptotic DNA released from cancer cells, a synthetic G-quadruplex forming telomeric sequence, and a highly thermal stable DNA hairpin can induce an invasion response from a variety of cancer cell types. This invasion has been demonstrated to be mediated through a toll-like receptor protein found within the endosomes of the cell. We hypothesize that …

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Finding Bands In Optical Coherence Tomography Images Using Curve And Function Fitting, Douglas Howard Ross Jan 2014

Finding Bands In Optical Coherence Tomography Images Using Curve And Function Fitting, Douglas Howard Ross

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Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive method to create a volume of data that is a measurement of the reflectance properties of tissue. The retina of the human eye has a layered structure that presents as bands in the OCT images. Evaluation of OCT images can be used to diagnose abnormal structure due to disease or damage. The principal task in evaluating the OCT images is segmentation. While the images can be evaluated by trained personnel, the quantity of OCT image data is increasing rapidly, therefore, the creation of methods for automatic segmentation is vital. Prior work in segmenting …

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Genetic And Epigenetic Changes Regulated By Bioactive Molecules In Cancer Therapeutics, Sabita Saldanha Jan 2014

Genetic And Epigenetic Changes Regulated By Bioactive Molecules In Cancer Therapeutics, Sabita Saldanha

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Cancer biogenesis stems from genetic and epigenetic changes that regulate various signaling pathways responsible for growth, division, and proliferation. Genetic changes occur through mutations that contribute to loss of function, overexpression or repression of proteins involved in metabolic pathways. The changes place individuals at risk to diseases, including cancer. However, epigenetics is a mechanism of gene control that occurs through changes in chromatin structure without alterations to the DNA sequence and is mostly reversible. Epigenetic alterations have been implicated in colorectal cancers (CRCs), transforming normal colonic epithelial cells. Aberrant DNA methylation and chromatin modifications have been shown to contribute to …

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American Options And Semilinear Parabolic Partial Differential Equations In Weighted Sobolev Spaces., Terrence K. Muthoka Jan 2014

American Options And Semilinear Parabolic Partial Differential Equations In Weighted Sobolev Spaces., Terrence K. Muthoka

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To value an American option as a function of time t and price of the underlying asset S is currently a major research problem in both Financial Markets and for academic purposes. Options and more general financial derivatives (also known as contingent claims) are now an important tool in risk management. One of the earliest models used in pricing derivatives is the Black-Scholes model, for which the movement in the price of the underlying asset on which the claim is based is modeled by geometric Brownian motion. Other models used for theoretical and numerical analysis of American options include the …

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Dihydrofolate Reductase Inhibitors - Applications To Chagas Disease And Dental Caries, Thao Nguyen Jan 2014

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

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significantly influenced sex ratios by increasing the production of males when

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Coevolution Of Sponges And Microbial Symbionts Across Ocean Basins, Zachary Lee Nolen Jan 2014

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

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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 …

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