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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Role Of Meibum And Tear Phospholipids In The Evaporative Water Loss Associated With Dry Eye., Samiyyah M. Sledge Dec 2021

Role Of Meibum And Tear Phospholipids In The Evaporative Water Loss Associated With Dry Eye., Samiyyah M. Sledge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is generally believed that the tear film lipid surface film inhibits the rate of evaporation (Revap) of the underlying tear aqueous. It is also generally believed that changes in the composition of the tear film lipid layer is responsible for an increase in Revap in patients with dry eye. Both of these ideas have never been proven. The purpose of the current studies was to test these ideas. Revap was measured in vitro gravimetrically. Lipid spreading was measured using Raman spectroscopy and microscopy. The influence of the following surface films on the Revap of the sub phase of physiologically …


Harnessing The Power Of Trained Immunity In The Setting Of Pancreatic Cancer: A Novel Mechanism Of Immune Trafficking And Tumor Control., Anne Elena Geller May 2021

Harnessing The Power Of Trained Immunity In The Setting Of Pancreatic Cancer: A Novel Mechanism Of Immune Trafficking And Tumor Control., Anne Elena Geller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the success of immunotherapy in many types of cancer, pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has yet to benefit. Innate immune cells are critical to antitumor immunosurveillance and recent studies have revealed that these populations possess a form of memory, termed trained innate immunity, which occurs through transcriptomic, epigenetic, and metabolic reprograming. Though trained innate immunity has mostly been investigated in the context of infection, the induction of trained innate immunity could also protect against tumors, and specifically pancreatic tumors. Here, we demonstrate that yeast-derived particulate β-glucan, a known inducer of trained immunity, traffics to the pancreas following IP administration. This causes …


Identifying The Cardiovascular Effects Of Multiple Pollutants., Katlyn Elizabeth Mcgraw May 2021

Identifying The Cardiovascular Effects Of Multiple Pollutants., Katlyn Elizabeth Mcgraw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death from environmental exposures. Although exposure to PM2.5 is an established risk factor for CVD, the contribution of other hazardous pollutant exposure to CVD is less clear. Overall, this work aimed to examine the effect of pollutants with lesser documented effects on cardiovascular disease using a multi-pronged approach to exposure assessment. The three aims were to examine the relationship between county-level toxic chemical releases and CVD mortality in the contiguous United States between 2002 and 2012, to assess the relationship between individual-level VOC metabolites and vascular function, and to build multipollutant …