The oxygen-dependent microbicidal events of neutrophils have been studied with reference to the triggering of the respiratory burst and with particular emphasis on the role of quinone. Ubiquinone as well as a previously described cytochrome b were...
In this thesis we develop a theory of Fourier analysis and fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) for finite inverse semigroups. Our results generalize results in the theory of Fourier analysis for finite groups. There is a general method for generating...
In the Firefighter Problem, a fire starts at a vertex of a graph, and in discrete time units, it spreads from burned vertices to their neighbors, unless they are protected by one of the f firefighters that are deployed every turn. Once burned or...
Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an autoimmune liver disease characterized by immune-mediated necroinflammatory liver damage associated with CD4 + T cell infiltration in liver parenchyma. Despite advances in the understanding of AIH, its etiology...
HIV infections -- Immunological aspects.
Breast milk -- Physiological effect.
Human breast milk is a highly complex secretion that serves as a source of nutrients and protective immune factors to the growing infant whose immune system is still developing. Epidemiological studies of infants born to Human Immunodeficiency...
Currently, the hypothesis that discrete auroral arcs are produced by fluxes of magnetospheric electrons accelerated along the ambient magnetic field into the ionosphere by linear/non-linear mechanisms associated with magnetic field-aligned currents...
Chapter 1: Munchnones and mesoionic heterocycles The reactivity, regioselectivity, and synthetic applications of munchnones (1,3-oxazolium-5-olates) is a common theme which runs through Chapters 2-5. The definition, structure, and reactivity of...
Continual improvements to clinical breast imaging technologies have led to ever earlier detections and increasingly accurate localizations of female breast cancers. While these advancements have certainly improved the prognoses of many patients,...
The demand for novel molecularly targeted drugs will continue to rise as we make progress toward personalizing cancer treatments to the molecular signatures of individual tumors. While the collection and analysis of genomic data has become routine,...
Brain tissue mechanics are an important biomarker for neurological disorders, yet methods to obtain tissue information yield inconsistent conclusions. These techniques can be invasive or require excised tissue, where tissue function is altered from...
Estradiol is a key regulator of immune protection in the female reproductive tract (FRT). Its concentration varies during the menstrual cycle, leading to changes in innate immune protection. In this thesis, I demonstrate the multiple levels at...
Many protocols for adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) include preparative conditioning strategies to deplete host lymphocytes prior to T cell infusion. Total body irradiation and high-dose chemotherapy regimens not only relieve immunosuppression, but...
Purple sulfur bacteria (PSB) can dominate the nitrogen, carbon, and sulfur cycles in anoxic ecosystems via their anoxygenic photosynthetic metabolisms and are the only producers of the carotenoid, okenone, a biomarker targeted for photic zone...
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...
Nanoparticles have made significant advances in recent years in the realm of cancer therapy. These nanoparticles typically range in size from 10-250nm in diameter, allowing for differential systemic-based biodistribution. The enhanced permeability...
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...
We present new forensic tools that are capable of detecting traces of tampering in digital images without the use of watermarks or specialized hardware. These tools operate under the assumption that images contain natural properties from a variety...
After decades of searching we have yet to find the progenitor systems for type Ia supernovae. In fact most of what we know about this homogeneous class of supernovae is from spectral features associated with the incinerated remains of the C+O white...
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. The discovery of breast tumor subtypes and the subsequent development of treatments aimed at them has allowed a reduction in the mortality of breast cancer. However, tumors with similar...
Access control is a core component of any information-security strategy. Researchers have spent tremendous energy over the past forty years defining abstract access-control models and proving various properties about them. However, surprisingly...
Recent years have witnessed a new class of monitoring applications that need to continuously collect information from remote data sources. Those data sources, such as web click-streams, stock quotes, and sensor data, are often characterized as...
Fluorescence molecular imaging will have an important clinical impact in the area of guided oncology surgery, where emerging technologies are poised to provide the surgeon with real-time molecular information to guide resection, using targeted...
PDZ protein-protein interaction domains recognize short linear motif (SLiM) sequences typically at the extreme C-terminus of a target protein. These domains often act as scaffolds, connecting target proteins to additional interaction and catalytic...
Studies presented in this dissertation focus on the transcriptional targets and cellular functions of [Delta]Np63[alpha], the predominant TP63 isoform expressed in epithelial stem cell compartments. TP63, a member of the p53 family of...
Casimir effect. Zero-point field. Electric conductivity. Quantum electrodynamics.
The Casimir force arises from an alteration of boundary condition in vacuum and is often regarded as a manifestation of quantum zero point energy. Considerable progress has been made in the last decade with an impressive achievement of experimental...
In utero exposure to maternal malnutrition is associated with increase offspring susceptibility to cardiometabolic and neuropsychiatric disease. Epigenetic mechanisms mediate, at least in part, fetal adaptations to adverse in utero environments...
Yeast vacuole fusion involves three transmembrane SNAREs and a unique soluble SNARE, Vam7p. This SNARE cycles between vacuolar membrane-bound and cytosolic state. In its membrane-bound state, it is able to participate in vacuolar fusion by...
Nerve growth factor (NGF), the prototypic neurotrophin, is well characterized for its pro-survival and growth effects in sympathetic and sensory neurons. Acting as a target-derived factor, NGF regulates the maturation of innervating neurons, and...
Liver disease of different etiologies confers significant morbidity and mortality and hence it constitutes a major health concern worldwide. Stemming from a range of causes, such as viral, drug-induced, alcoholic, or autoimmune, the rate of...
This thesis constitutes the first steps in the author's program to investigate the question of when a homotopy of 2-cocycles ω = {ω[subscript t]}[subscript t∊[0,1]] on a locally compact Hausdorff groupoid Ɠ induces an isomorphism of the...
The focus of this thesis is the study of nuclearity and exactness for groupoid crossed product C*-algebras. In particular, we present generalizations of two well-known facts from group dynamical systems and crossed products to the groupoid setting....
In the nervous system, neuronal communication relies critically on the function of membrane ion channels. One of these is the voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC), which is essential for the generation and propagation of action potentials in...
The multisubunit eukaryotic Mediator complex integrates diverse positive and negative gene regulatory signals and transmits them to the core transcription machinery. It is also involved in chromatin structure related epigenetic silencing through...
Mentally ill -- Care -- Decision making. Mental illness -- Treatment -- Decision making. Mental health services -- Decision making. Mental health -- Information services. Medical informatics. Mental Disorders -- drug therapy.
Objective. We explored preferences and perceptions about treatment decision-making roles among persons with severe mental illness and evaluated two computer-based medication values clarification tools. Methods. In this study we conducted a pilot...
Robustness to genetic perturbations is a fundamental property of all living things. The genetic code is degenerate, RNA secondary structure is robust to sequence changes, and protein structure is robust to amino acid substitutions. Complex systems...
G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) make up somewhere between 30-50% of all current drug targets, yet the structural characterization of these receptors has been moderate at best. Until recently, structural data were almost nonexistent and...