Prokaryotic microbes, commonly termed bacteria, are essential components of the ecosystem in the open ocean. They are major primary producers, major diazotrophs that fix dinitrogen …
Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas form a heterogeneous group of cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, arising from the surface epithelium of the oral …
In this thesis,alpha-bungarotoxin (Bgtx) was validated as a tool for exploring the function and regulation of three otherwise Bgtx-insensitive ion channels: the first is a …
This thesis work is motivated by the specific challenges in analyzing data from clinical trials in behavioral medicine. Specifically, smoking cessation and physical activity trials. …
While current antibiotic agents provide suitable and cost effective means of inhibiting bacterial infiltration of biomedical devices, they are slowly becoming obsolete as microbial species …
Today bone defects such as bone fractures, osteoporosis or bone cancers represent a common and significant clinical problem. However, traditional micron size implant materials have …
A detailed understanding of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) structure is essential to understanding its function in the cell. Here we present a new comparative phylogenetic analysis …
Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the mesothelial lining causally linked to asbestos exposure and is highly resistant to current therapies. We hypothesize a …
This dissertation describes translational research conducted to develop a rapid diagnostic for the detection of endotoxin using liquid crystal sensor technology. Due to the elastic …
Overweight, obesity, weight gain, and weight cycling are associated with increased health risk. The purpose of this dissertation was to characterize weight trajectories during middle …
Traditional analyses in nutritional epidemiology relate single nutrients or foods to disease risk. Dietary pattern analysis is increasingly preferred to analysis of single nutrients as …
The derived didactyl limbs of most extant artiodactyls have traditionally been viewed as adaptations for fast locomotion. The most primitive condition for artiodactyls is a …
The role that dispersal limitation plays in regulating the diversity of local sites in marine systems is poorly understood. Because the delivery of larvae and …
The mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) is a Ser/Thr kinase that regulates cell growth through its control of cell cycle progression, translation, ribosome biogenesis and …
Immunity to Toxoplasma gondii infection is principally mediated by the activation of CD8+ T cells producing the protective cytokine IFN-?. To characterize primary CTL activation, …
Neurons have highly developed pathfinding abilities, but in any part of the nervous system, during development or after the challenge of injury, cues provided by …
This dissertation focuses on the long term health outcomes of prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke. We hypothesize that exposure to toxins through maternal smoking could …
Xeroderma pigmentosum Group A protein (XPA) is essential in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. Patients without functional XPA have extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) …
The neural networks consisting of the axonal tracts that interconnect the thalamus and the neocortex are central to information processing where the thalamus acts as …
Multiple human impacts are a widespread phenomenon in coastal ecosystems due to high population densities and diverse activities in the coastal zone. I researched human …