Despite immunogenicity, melanoma-specific vaccines have demonstrated minimal clinical efficacy in patients with established disease, but enhance survival when administered in the adjuvant setting. It has been shown that T cell infiltration of...
The purpose of this thesis is to describe methods for detecting hidden crevasses on glaciers in Polar regions. Crevasses form in ice sheets as a result of forces imposed upon the brittle ice. The crevasses are hidden from view by bridges of soft...
Estrogen -- Receptors -- Regulation. Selective estrogen receptor modulators. Receptor-ligand complexes. Breast -- Cancer -- Chemoprevention. Colon (Anatomy) -- Cancer -- Chemoprevention.
We have previously shown that the selective estrogen receptor modulator, Arzoxifene (Arz), and the rexinoid, LG100268 (268) synergistically prevent breast cancer in an ER+ breast cancer model. This study was designed to determine the mechanism of...
The objective of this thesis was to examine the neural and physiological substrates underlying the processing of aversive information, and how individual differences in anxiety influence these responses. In a series of experiments, we utilized skin...
Community health services -- United States -- Evaluation. ; Health care reform -- United States. ; Medical care -- United States -- Evaluation. ; Evidence-based medicine.
Plant MADS proteins play critical roles in vegetative and reproductive development. DNA binding and yeast three-hybrid assays suggest that plant MADS proteins function as dimers or multimers. However, little is known about how plant MADS proteins...
Neonatal infections -- Prevention. Nosocomial infections -- Prevention. Neonatal intensive care -- Social aspects. Neonatal intensive care -- Psychological aspects.
Statement of the problem. Nosocomial bloodstream infections (NBSIs) are a significant source of morbidity and mortality for the very low birth weight babies (VLBW) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Efforts to reduce the rates of infection...
Three-dimensional imaging in medicine -- Mathematical models. Intraoperative monitoring. Cerebral cortex -- Imaging. Computer vision. Space perception.
Brain deformation models have proven to be a powerful tool in compensating for soft tissue deformation during image-guided neurosurgery. The accuracy of these models can be improved by incorporating intraoperative measurements of brain motion. We...
This research has established feasibility of surface temperature characterization using ruby fluorescence. Study was performed in pin-on-disk geometry, with balls made of different plastics sliding against the sapphire disk. Fluorescence signal was...
We examine variations of cops and robbers games on graphs. Our goals are to introduce some randomness into their study, and to estimate (expected) capture time. We show that a cop chasing a random walker can capture him in expected time n + o(n)....
Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and their associated cyclins are key regulators of cell cycle progression. Caenorhabditis elegans has two predicted A- type cyclins, encoded by the genes cya-1 and cya-2. Cyclin A has been shown to be required for...
Computer input-output equipment. ; Computational grids (Computer systems). ; High performance computing. ; Electronic data processing -- Distributed processing.
High-performance computing increasingly occurs on computational grids composed of heterogeneous and geographically distributed systems of computers, networks, and storage devices that collectively act as a single virtual computer. A key challenge...
MCL1 was discovered as a gene which is rapidly upregulated in ML-1 cells during TPA induced differentiation. MCL1 has sequence similarity to BCL2. Members of the BCL2 family either promote viability, such as BCL2 and MCL1, while others, such as BAX...
Metals are ubiquitous in our environment. Through evolution, many biological processes have taken advantage of and have become dependent on specific metals for various biochemical functions. Metals can also be toxic to biological systems at...
Studies of the structure and function of the human and non-human primate auditory system have led to the hypothesis that it is composed of dorsal and ventral processing streams that are respectively dedicated to spatial and non-spatial processing....
Automatic control -- Sensitivity. Structural control (Engineering). Strains and stresses -- Computer simulation. Structural analysis (Engineering). Engineering models.
Autonomous damage detection in engineering structures is critically important as the demands placed upon those structures are increased. It has been well established that damage detection can be done through monitoring the modal frequencies of the...
Free electron lasers -- Experiments. Wave guides -- Design and construction. Diffraction gratings -- Experiments. Electron beams. Infrared sources.
The far infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, 15-3000 μm in wavelength, has a paucity of narrow band laser sources. To address the issue of whether a grating based free electron laser could operate well as such a source, a grating...
Genetic polymorphisms. Metalloproteinases -- Genetic aspects. Metalloproteinases -- Pathophysiology. Breast -- Cancer -- Genetic aspects. Carcinogenesis.
Extra cellular matrix (ECM) provides structural support for the body and also contributes to cell proliferation and migration. Modification ECM is an important part of normal physiology, and integral to a variety of pathologies including tumor...
This thesis focuses on the emergence of universal dynamical scaling in quantum critical spin systems driven out of equilibrium, with emphasis on quench dynamics which involves isolated standard critical points, multi-critical points, and...
Nanoparticles -- Magnetic properties.;""Harmonics (Electric waves)"";""Biosensors."";""Spectrum analysis."";""Brownian motion processes.""
Magnetic nanoparticles have an increasing role in the clinical and pharmaceutical realms where their physical properties can be exploited for imaging, biological and functional sensing, control of cellular processes, therapeutics, and an array of...
Numerical modeling of the global heliosphere provides key insights into the physics of the outer heliosphere. The solar wind data utilized by these models impacts their accuracy and should be as close as possible to the actual solar wind. Ideally,...
Climate change is altering the thermal environment for populations at all trophic levels and thus the response of any given population to warming can only be understood in the context of species interactions. Consumer-resource species interactions...
Computer security has come a long way since the days of the first Internet worm. With the spreading and commercialization of the Internet, the stakes have gotten higher. Viruses existed and spread before most computers were online, but as global...
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the USA and worldwide causing 160,000 and 1.5 million deaths per year, respectively. Due to the late stage of diagnosis, poor efficacy of chemotherapies (targeted and pleiotropic), and...
Objectives: This dissertation comprises three essays on geographic variations in healthcare, and the association between utilization and health outcomes. I first explore associations between outpatient visits and Medicare beneficiaries'...