This dissertation addresses two different problems: 1) coronal loop detection from solar images: and 2) salient contour group extraction from cluttered images. In the first part, we propose two different solutions to the coronal loop detection...
Clustered longitudinal data is often collected as repeated measurements on subjects over time arising in the clusters. Examples include longitudinal community intervention studies, or family studies with repeated measures on each member. Meanwhile,...
G-quadruplexes are thought to have biological importance, with studies based on small molecule interactions and quadruplex-interactive antibodies demonstrating their potential for formation in vivo. One potential biological function of quadruplex...
A wireless sensor network consists of a large number of low-power nodes equipped with wireless radio. For two nodes not in mutual transmission range, message exchanges need to be relayed through a series of intermediate nodes, which is a process...
Metastasis is a complex process requiring directed migration of metastatic cells to favorable microenvironments. Increased CXCR4 expression has been implicated in more invasive, aggressive and metastatic tumor phenotypes and poor patient survival...
Inflammation is now recognized as an important factor in several age-related diseases such as arthritis, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. In each case, sub-clinical chronic inflammation occurs over years and leads to progressive...
This project investigated the effect of hypothermia on the monocyte response with the goal of understanding, which intracellular processes are affected by hypothermia leading to differences in cytokine secretion. A better understanding of the...
This dissertation demonstrates an elegant method, known as 'micro-origami' or strain architecture to design and fabricate three-dimensional MEMS structures which are assembled using actuation of a metal-oxide bilayer with conventional planar...
Rising concerns about dependency on fossil fuels in the 21st century has sparked a growth in research for renewable energy sources. One renewable energy production process of interest is the reduction of cellulose into fermentable sugars by means...
Congenital stationary night blindness 1 (CSNBl) is a genetic disorder characterized in humans by night blindness, low visual acuity and myopia. CSNB 1 is caused by defects in genes that are involved in signaling between photoreceptors and...
In blood coagulation, the serine protease thrombin is a multifaceted enzyme that interacts with multiple proteins. Thrombin utilizes two anion binding exosites (ABE-I and II) to supplement binding to fibrinogen and to the platelet receptor GpIbα,...
Griffithsin (GRFT) is a carbohydrate binding protein derived from the red alga Griffithisia sp. that has been shown to effectively interfere with the cellular attachment and infectivity of a number of viruses, including HIV-1. However, it is...
Rising environmental concerns due to our rising population ad energy demand along with our excessive dependence on fossil fuels has created an urgent need to find clean, renewable and carbon free source of energy. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water...
The vaccinia virus complement control protein (VCP) is involved in the modulation of the host inflammatory response during vaccinia virus infection. It possesses the ability to inhibit both classical and alternative pathways of complement...
Musical pitch--Data processing; Sound--Recording and reproducing--Digital techniques
Many mathematical formulas and algorithms exist to identify pitches formed by human voices, and this has continued to be popular in the fields of music and signal pro-cessing. Other systems and research perform real time pitch identification...
Na,K-ATPase is essential for the regulation of cytoplasmic Na+ and K+ levels in lens cells. Insufficient Na,K-ATPase activity is associated with cataract formation. Based on earlier studies in which Src-tyrosine kinase inhibitors were found to...
Guanine-rich oligonucleotides (GROs) are being developed as a novel anticancer agents. GROs exhibit potent antiproliferative properties against several malignant cell lines and in established in vivo tumor models. In a recent Phase I clinical trial...
Heart--Hypertrophy; Hydrogen sulfide--Therapeutic use
Background: Although matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) play a vital role in tumor angiogenesis and TIMP-3 causes apoptosis, their role in cardiac angiogenesis is unknown. Interestingly, a disruption...
This dissertation is an exploratory study of teacher risk taking. The risk-taking literature in education and other types of organizations is lacking in studies exploring the concept of healthy risk taking and how that risk taking is related to...
Graft rejection; Diagnostic imaging; Postoperative care
The fourth hand transplant recipient in Louisville lost his graft at nine months post transplant from ischemia due to severe graft arteriopathy. Conventional imaging techniques and clinical measurements, including CT angiography and measurements of...
