Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Chloroplast-Derived Antigensagainst Malaria, Melissa Schreiber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Malaria is the most prevalent vector-borne parasitic disease worldwide and a major cause of death from infections. There is a great need to develop a low cost vaccine for malaria to control transmission of infection and impact of disease, due to the emergence of anti-malarial resistance. Two leading blood stage malarial vaccine candidates are the apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) and the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1). The aim of this project is to express malarial antigens in tobacco plants via plastid transformation and deliver them by subcutaneous or oral gavage of minimally processed transplastomic tissue to evaluate their efficacy to elicit …

Comparison Of Nutritional Intake Of Home School Children And Public School Children: A Comparison Study, Stephen D. Perry

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Purpose: To compare selected food /nutrient consumption between families that educate their children at home with those that educate their children in the public school system.

Methods: The study sample included 112 children aged 7-11 years in Fayette Co Kentucky. The children were divided into groups according type of education. There were 65 home-schooled children and 47 children who attend public school. Subjects recorded their dietary intake for one week. The data were analyzed using Nutrition Data Software for Research (2006). Comparisons were made for the intake of selected nutrients using two tailed independent sample t-tests.

Results: The public school …

Determinación De Resistencia Antihelmíntica Frente A Las Lactonas Macrocíclicas Por Parte De Nemátodos Gastrointestinales Del Equino Mediante El Test De Reducción De La Oviposición Fecrt En Los Municipios De Aguazul, El Yopal, Maní Y Paz De Ariporo Departamento Del Casanare, Erik Chaparro Salamanca

Medicina Veterinaria

La presente investigación se llevó a cabo en los municipios de Aguazul, El Yopal, Maní y Paz de Ariporo, departamento del Casanare; el objetivo principal fue determinar los grados de resistencia o susceptibilidad antihelmíntica de parásitos gastrointestinales del equino, frente a las lactonas Macrocíclicas (Ivermectina) para lo cual se muestrearon 40 equinos (10 equinos por municipio), criollos dedicados a la reproducción en estado silvestre. A todos los animales se les tomó una muestra de materia fecal el día cero (antes del tratamiento con Ivermectina) y el día 14 (post tratamiento con Ivermectina) (Ivermectina comercial no genérico), estas muestras se procesaron …

Effects Of Aging And Gender On Regulators Of Muscle Adaptation In F344/Bn Rat Model, Satyanarayana Paturi

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with aging. Here we examine the effects of aging and gender on the regulation of molecules believed to regulate muscle growth and adaptation in the F344/BN rat. In male animals, soleus and EDL muscle/body weight ratio declined continuously with aging while muscle atrophy in female animals plateaued at 26-months and remained constant thereafter. Aging increased the phosphorylation of protein kinase-B (Akt) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in the female but not male soleus muscle. This finding was associated with the attenuation of muscle atrophy observed in female …

Factors That Influence The Distribution Of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria In The Mud River, Wv, Timothy Shaun Dotson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Background: Prior studies of the Ohio and Mud Rivers have shown that fecal contamination alone does not explain the distribution of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) in surface waters. The objectives of this study were to determine effects on the distribution of ARB in the Mud.

Methods: Water samples and physical parameters were collected twice per season in spring through fall at 12 sites on the Mud River. Aliquots were plated on R2A agar and R2A agar plus individual antibiotics for the enumeration of total cultivable bacteria, and cultivable bacteria resistant to ciprofloxacin, virginiamycin, or tetracycline respectively. The IDEXX Quanti-Tray/2000™ method …

In-Vivo Delivery Of Dna Vaccines Using Metallo-Lipid Nanoparticles, Clarissa Sara Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There has been a rapidly growing area of research in the design and synthesis of molecules that self-organize in water to form functional nanosystems and due to the high interest in the area metal ligand complexes were tested as drug delivery systems with a Leishmania vaccine. Herein, we present the design, synthesis and functional activity of Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes that self-assemble in water to form spherical nanoscale structures that exhibit an affinity to bind DNA and deliver it into eukaryotic cells with a high percent efficiency in-vitro. In order to assess the effectiveness of these nanoparticles to deliver DNA …

Evaluation Of A Nutrition Program Targeting Child Care Centers, Kendra Witt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Color Me Healthy (CMH) is an interactive nutrition program designed for preschool aged children in child care settings. The current study examined if CMH increases the consumption of fruit and vegetables. Child care centers were randomly assigned to one of two conditions; children (n=165) in ten centers received CMH and children (n=98) in seven centers acted as controls. Consumption of fruit and vegetable snacks was assessed at baseline, one week post-intervention and 3 months post-intervention. Hierarchical linear modeling determined that group assignment was the only significant predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption. Children who were exposed to the CMH program …

Generation Of Recombinant Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Lines And Theirapplication For In Vivo Bioluminiscence Imaging In The Heart, Ramana Kammili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the United States, with 80 million people suffering from some form of heart disease each year. One major limitation is the inability of the heart to repair the damaged tissue. Stem cell therapy holds enormous promise to repair and regenerate the damaged myocardium, but there are many technical difficulties that must first be overcome. One such difficulty is the present lack of ability to track and assess transplanted stem cells over time in vivo. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that in vivo bioluminescence imaging is a safe and useful …

Comparison Of Long-Term Care Residents' Food Intake, Body Weight, And Food Costs Between Two Meal Service Styles, Dee Murphy

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if residents (n = 26) living in an Iowa long-term care facility had differences in food intake at their noon meal and body weight when served traditional tray meal service for 10 weeks compared to being served restaurant-style meal service for 10 weeks. The study also evaluated the facility’s raw food costs of the two meal service styles.

Mean meal intake scale scores improved when residents were served restaurant-style meal service (0.4±0.3) compared to traditional tray meal service. Residents did not show a significant percent weight (1.1%±3.7%) change or percent BMI (0.9%±3.7%) …

Transcriptional Alterations During Mammary Tumor Progression In Mice And Humans, Karen Fancher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Family history, reproductive factors, hormonal exposures, and subjective immunihistochemical evaluations of in situ lesions, and to a lesser extent age, remain the best clinical predictors of an individual's risk of developing breast cancer. Identification of early markers predictive of impending invasive breast cancer from in situ carcinoma is a long-term goal. The latent mammary cancer transgenic mouse model of human breast cancer, C57BL/6JTg(WapTag)1Knw (Waptag1), develops characteristic stages of tumorigenesis in a highly predictable manner: atypical hyperplasia advances to ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which progresses to papillary adenocarcinomas and/or solid, invasive tumors. Microarray analyses of whole mammary glands and tumors …

Urine Protein Electrophoresis: Comparison Of Agarose Gel And Capillary Zone Electrophoretic Techniques., Anne-Marie Curtin

Theses

Proteinuria is the excess excretion of protein in the urine and is found in a variety of conditions including renal diseases and neoplastic conditions such as multiple myeloma (MM). The investigation of proteinuria type through the use of electrophoresis is a useful and widely used non-invasive diagnostic tool. The aim of this study was to compare various agarose gel and capillary zone electrophoresis techniques in order to establish a method choice for the separation of protein in routine laboratories. Comparisons were made based on urine monoclonal peak quantification and protein fractions detected. An examination of a capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) …

An Investigation Into The I-Stat Chem8+ System For The Measurement Of Sodium, Potassium, Urea & Creatinine., Gene Ferris

Theses

In the hospital environment Point of Care Testing (POCT) can be an invaluable tool in Emergency departments, Theatres, Intensive Care Units and Paediatric wards by providing rapid test results without the need for transport and laboratory processing. The study design included the collection and duplicate analysis of patient samples firstly using the i-STAT and then on the Architect c8000, a routine laboratory analyser. Statistical analysis was performed in order to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in results between the i-STAT POCT system and current laboratory instrumentation. The parameters analysed were the vital biochemical parameters Sodium (Na), Potassium …

Detection And Molecular Epidemiological Analysis Of Acute Gastroenteritis Viruses In The South Of Ireland, Grainne Lennon

Theses

Rotavirus infections are considered to be the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis in children under the age of 5 years, and are responsible for up to 611,000 deaths annually, mainly in developing countries. From 1997 to 1999, 16 hospital laboratories in the Republic of Ireland reported to detection of 4,643 cases of rotaviral disease, while in 2004 and 2005 and increase of 1,600 and 2,251 rotavirus cases were reported. These rotavirus cases have a significant impact on the healthcare system with the minimum cost per case being €728.40. A large percentage of the infections were reported in neonates, suggesting …

Gender Bias Of Cardiovascular Risk In Caucasian Type Ii Diabetics: A Haemostatic Explanation?, William Quirke

Theses

People with type II diabetes are disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease compared to those without diabetes. The relative risk of cardiovascular disease caused by type II diabetes is higher in females than in males. This risk has not been fully explained by traditional risk factors and attention has turned to the possible role of haemostatic abnormalities in explaining the excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among diabetic females. We examined specific parameters of the coagulation (factor VII, factor VIII, von Willebrand factor, fibrinogen) and fibrinolytic (plasminogen activator inhibitor- 1, thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor) system in 113 Irish Caucasian type II diabetics to …

Evaluation Of A Simple Intervention To Increase Self- Efficacy For Independent Exercise In Cardiac Rehabilitation Participants, Sherry A. Barkley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: While benefits of exercise after a cardiac event are well documented, participation in and adherence to cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs is often low. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a self- efficacy coaching intervention (SCI): a simple theory-based behavioral intervention to increase self-efficacy for independent exercise as well as independent exercise behavior in CR patients. It was hypothesized that persons receiving the SCI treatment (T) would have higher levels of self-efficacy for exercise and greater participation in independent exercise than participants in an attention control (C) group.
Methods: People referred to a hospitalbased CR …

Gene Therapy Using Tet-Repressor System To Modulate Prostate Tumor Microenvironment, Nazita Yousefieh

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in men in the United States and is projected to be the third most frequent cause of male cancer-related deaths in 2007 after lung and skin cancers. The initial treatment for prostate cancer at early stages is prostatectomy or radiation, which usually is curative. However, approximately 20% of patients are not cured by such treatments and their cancer recurs, sometimes with long latencies. In other patients prostate cancer is diagnosed only after the cancer has metastasized and there are no effective therapies at this stage. Therefore immunotherapy seems to be a promising …

Maldi Mass Spectrometry Imaging For The Discovery Of Prostate Carcinoma Biomarkers, Lisa Harris Cazares

Theses and Dissertations in Biomedical Sciences

The elucidation of new biological markers of prostate cancer (PCa) should aid in the detection, and prognosis of this disease. Diagnostic decision making by pathologists in prostate cancer is highly dependent on tissue morphology. The ability to localize disease-specific molecular changes in tissue would help improve this critical pathology decision making process. Direct profiling of proteins in tissue sections using MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) has the power to link molecular detail to morphological and pathological changes, enhancing the ability to identify candidates for new specific biomarkers. However, critical questions remain regarding the integration of this technique with clinical decision …

The Evaluation Of Midazolam On Head Injured Patients In The Prehospital Setting, Dragana Klinac

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Midazolam (Hypnovel ®) is the only sedating agent used by paramedics at St John Ambulance Service W.A. in the management of many conditions including seizure activities, antisocial or uncontrollable behaviours, back pain incidents and head injuries. Midazolam, with a rapid absorption, fast onset of action and short duration on neurological activity, has been accepted as a safe and effective agent in prehospital treatment since the late-1990s. Often, if a patient is not complying with treatment or is uncontrollable or aggressive, paramedics are required to sedate the individual. This study primarily examines the use of midazolam for the sedation of unmanageable …

A Versatile Imaging System For In Vivo Small Animal Research, Jianguo Qian

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In vivo small animal imaging has become an essential technique for molecular biology studies. However, requirements of spatial resolution, sensitivity and image quality are quite challenging for the development of small-animal imaging systems. The capabilities of the system are also significant for carrying out small animal imaging in a wide range of biological studies. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a high-performance imaging system that can readily meet a wide range of requirements for a variety of small animal imaging applications. Several achievements have been made in order to fulfill this goal.;To supplement our system for parallel-hole single …