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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Nanoparticle Toxicity And Molecular Mechanisms In Fish: A Case Study With Silver Nanoparticles, Jiejun Gao Dec 2016

Nanoparticle Toxicity And Molecular Mechanisms In Fish: A Case Study With Silver Nanoparticles, Jiejun Gao

Open Access Dissertations

Nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used in a myriad of commercial and industrial products making their entry to the environment a likely event. NPs have unique physical-chemical properties that result from their small size and high surface area to volume ratio, making them highly reactive and potentially toxic. In Chapter 1, we summarize the effects and mechanisms of metal-based NPs on the vascular system. In vitro studies have shown that NPs are anti-angiogenic because they cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis of endothelial cells resulting in increased permeability and decreased proliferation and migration. Whole animal studies examining the effects of NPs …


Gonadal Intersex In Teleosts: Mechanisms, Molecular Biomarkers And Diagnostic Assays, Ahmed M.E. Abdel-Moneim Mohamed Dec 2016

Gonadal Intersex In Teleosts: Mechanisms, Molecular Biomarkers And Diagnostic Assays, Ahmed M.E. Abdel-Moneim Mohamed

Open Access Dissertations

Natural and synthetic estrogenic and androgenic compounds are continuously released into aquatic ecosystems. Exposure of teleost fishes to these contaminants can negatively impact sex differentiation and reproductive output. Specifically, development of gonadal intersex in gonochoristic (fixed sex) fish species has been studied extensively in relation to exposure to this class of compounds. The main objectives of this dissertation were to: 1) conduct field and laboratory studies to investigate the molecular signaling pathways behind the development of gonadal intersex; and 2) establish molecular biomarkers and assays for testing the ability of environmental pollutants to develop this condition using a battery of …


X-Ray Fluorescence For Quantification Of Lead And Strontium In Vivo, Aaron James Specht Aug 2016

X-Ray Fluorescence For Quantification Of Lead And Strontium In Vivo, Aaron James Specht

Open Access Dissertations

Lead (Pb) is a toxicant well known for its effects on almost every organ system in the body. Pb use in industry has declined since removal of Pb from gasoline, but many developing countries still have significant use of Pb. Exposure to Pb has been linked with diseases causing neurodegeneration and thus have lasting effects long after the initial exposure. Another metal, strontium (Sr), has been linked with bone disease in particular situations and shown to have uses in treating osteoporosis as a supplement. However, there are no studies of the effects of Sr using a meaningful biomarker. The most …


Elucidation Of Pharmacologically Manipulated Responding In The Delay Discounting Task In High Alcohol Preferring Mice, Meredith Halcomb Apr 2015

Elucidation Of Pharmacologically Manipulated Responding In The Delay Discounting Task In High Alcohol Preferring Mice, Meredith Halcomb

Open Access Dissertations

Impulsive behavior is the hallmark of many psychopathologies. Uncovering the neurobiological mechanisms driving impulsivity is paramount in the development of through the delay discounting (DD) task in both human and animal models. The present study is an examination of the predictive validity of the two primary types of DD procedures in animals, the Adjusting Amounts (AA) and within session Increasing Delays (ID) tasks. Methods:Subjects were administered either1.25 mg/kg d-amphetamine (AMP), 1.5 g/kg ethanol (EtOH) or saline and tested in either the AA or ID method for 15 days to evaluate drug effects on impulsive behavior. Results: Stimulant administration resulted …


Beta-Lactam Antimicrobial Dosing Optimization In Obese Patients Compared To Non-Obese Patients Using Population Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Approach, Eun Kyoung Chung Apr 2015

Beta-Lactam Antimicrobial Dosing Optimization In Obese Patients Compared To Non-Obese Patients Using Population Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Approach, Eun Kyoung Chung

Open Access Dissertations

Obesity is a significant global health problem and has been associated with altered pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of many drugs. However, little is known regarding the effect of obesity on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of many broad-spectrum, beta-lactam antibiotics such as piperacillin/tazobactam, meropenem, and cefepime. The objective of this study is to evaluate the population pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of piperacillin/tazobactam, meropenem, and cefepime in hospitalized obese patients in order to determine dosing regimens that provide similar exposures between obese and non-obese patients. ^ For piperacillin/tazobactam, a retrospective analysis was conducted using prospectively collected serum concentration-time data from two previous studies (Study …


The Impact Of Stress History Of Deformable Dry Granules On The Mechanical Properties Of Tablets, Biplob K Mitra Apr 2015

The Impact Of Stress History Of Deformable Dry Granules On The Mechanical Properties Of Tablets, Biplob K Mitra

Open Access Dissertations

A mechanistic understanding of the relationship among the granule composition, individual granule property, downstream robust processing, and the final tablet attributes is critical for rational development of a quality tablet. However, in the dry granulation literature, milled granules that are polydisperse in solid fraction, size, and shape are extensively used for compaction studies. Thus, the effect of an individual granule property or an individual component on the compaction properties of dry granules was not adequately separated. To advance the mechanistic understanding of the effect of dry granulation on tensile strength of tablets, individual granule properties such as size, solid fraction, …


Role Of Group Ii Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Subtype 2 (Mglur2) In Appetitive And Consummatory Aspects Of Ethanol Reinforcement, Kyle Allyson Windisch Oct 2014

Role Of Group Ii Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Subtype 2 (Mglur2) In Appetitive And Consummatory Aspects Of Ethanol Reinforcement, Kyle Allyson Windisch

Open Access Dissertations

Background: Group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR2/3) are predominately presynaptically located Gi/o coupled receptors that are highly expressed in the cortex, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and hippocampus. Previous studies suggest that group II mGluRs are involved in regulating ethanol (EtOH) consumption and seeking following extinction (Backstrom and Hyytia, 2005; Kufahl, et al., 2011). The sipper tube model, which allows for procedural separation of seeking and consumption, was used to further clarify the role of mGluR2/3 in EtOH-seeking and consumption. The non-selective group II mGluR agonist LY379268 (LY37) and selective mGluR2 positive allosteric modulator (PAM) BINA were used to determine the …


Dj-1 And Atp13a2: Two Proteins Involved In Parkinson’S Disease, Josephat M Asiago Jan 2014

Dj-1 And Atp13a2: Two Proteins Involved In Parkinson’S Disease, Josephat M Asiago

Open Access Dissertations

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease, affecting approximately 0.3% of the total U.S. population, and its prevalence increases with age. Two neuropathological hallmarks of PD are the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, a region in the midbrain involved in initiating and sustaining movement, and the presence of cytosolic inclusions called Lewy bodies (LBs) in various brain regions. LBs are enriched with fibrillar forms of the presynaptic protein &agr;-synuclein (aSyn). Two autosomal recessive genes implicated in familial PD are PARK9, encoding the P-type ATPase ATP13A2, a lysosomal ATPase; and …