Microtubule motors are essential for cell division. Although the functions of some mitotic motor proteins have been elucidated, the precise mechanisms by which they govern spindle assembly and chromosome segregation remain largely unknown. This...
Classical threshold theory assumes that a threshold is fixed and immutable. It cannot explain nor predict the underlying mechanisms for any changes in threshold value due to training. However, increased sensitivity to sensory signals through...
The present thesis is focused on developing a better understanding of factors driving disease biology and overall risk using cancers of the bladder and breast as model systems. As no single approach was likely to unravel the complexities of these...
Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders which affect a variety of different animal species including humans. The central pathogenic event underlying prion diseases is the conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrP C )...
The synthesis of macrocyclic tetrapyrroles continues to be an area of vigorous research due to their application to a wide range of fields spanning the physical sciences. Only recently have general syntheses for the reduced systems, such as...
Vaccines are one the greatest advances in public health. Vaccines work by priming cells of the adaptive immune system in such a way that they remember that they have encountered a specific antigen before. This then allows those cells to respond...
Transport vesicles form at a donor compartment and fuse to an acceptor compartment mediate the movement of cargo proteins within eukaryotic cells from one subcellular compartment to another. COPII vesicles specifically provide the means of...
As methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) hospitalizations keep increasing, the understanding of the characteristics that make one isolate more successful over another is paramount. Strain variations among Staphylococcus aureus observed...
Molecular optical imaging in vivo has potential for functional assessment of tumor tissue at the cellular and subcellular level. Advances in biological understanding of genomics and proteomics have increased the knowledge of possible cellular...
While anthropogenic emissions of the toxic element mercury (Hg) to the atmosphere are currently rising, major uncertainties remain in determining the relative impacts of anthropogenic activity and natural processes on the global Hg cycle. In this...
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...
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...
Metabolic engineering of the catabolic end-product metabolism of Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum was initiated. T. saccharolyticum is an anaerobic, thermophilic bacterium that utilizes xylans and xylose, the second most prominent sugar after...
Digital integrated circuits -- Testing. Digital integrated circuits -- Testing -- Mathematical models. Digital integrated circuits -- Design and construction.
This study presents δ18O analyses of garnets microsampled by laser fluorination from two localities in the deep seated, Barrovian metamorphic terrane of eastern Vermont. The broad goals of the research were to constrain further the amount,...
Terpenes -- Mechanism of action. ; Protein kinases -- Inhibitors. ; Oleanolic Acid.
Synthetic oleanane triterpenoids (SO) are a novel class of therapeutic compounds based on the structure of oleanolic acid. These synthetic oleanane triterpenoids which include 2-cyano-3,12-dioxooleana-1,9(11)-dien-28-oic acid (CDDO), CDDO-methyl...
NIMA-related kinases (Neks) control several aspects of cell division downstream of master mitotic regulators such as Cdk1 and Plk1. Though depletion of Nek6, Nek7, or Nek9 results in cytokinesis failure, to date no molecular mechanism has been...
Visual pigments. ; Cellular signal transduction. ; Rhodopsin. ; G proteins. ; Phosphorylation. ; Photoreceptors. ; Retinal degeneration.
Arrestins are regulatory proteins that participate in the termination of G protein-mediated signal transduction. The major arrestin in the Drosophila visual system, Arrestin 2 (Arr2), has been demonstrated to be essential for the termination of the...
The heterochronic gene lin-14 affects certain somatic cell-fate choices during post-embryonic development in C. elegans. In lin-14 mutants, cells express stage-specific developmental programs, such as cell divisions or dauer entry, at inappropriate...
Acyl-coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) plays important roles in cellular cholesterol homeostasis and in early stages of atherogenesis. ACAT has been investigated as a pharmaceutical target, yet its active site(s) remain largely...
Breast -- Cancer -- Tomography. ; Breast -- Cancer -- Imaging. ; Breast -- Cancer -- Diagnosis. ; Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. ; Image processing -- Digital techniques.
Near-infrared (NIR) light has the potential to be used as a non-invasive means of diagnostic imaging within the human breast. Due to the diffusive nature of light in tissue, computational model-based methods are required for functional imaging...
Genes at the mammalian β-globin loci are arranged in the order of their developmental activation. Expression of individual genes at this locus is controlled by gene proximal and distal cis -regulatory elements. This thesis focused on the function...
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...