Many school administrators in the United States continue to struggle with students not meeting the pass rate on statewide assessments. This study examined the effectiveness of a Tier 2 reading intervention, the Wilson Reading System (WRS) that was implemented at a local Virginia school for 1 semester to address the low pass rate on the statewide reading assessments. The framework for this study was based on the multi-tiered systems of support and the response to intervention model. A quasi-experimental pre-post research design was used to examine the differences on two reading assessments after completing the 16-week WRS program. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine the change between the 8th grade reading Student Growth Assessment (SGA) pretest and posttest scores, as well as the Lexile scores from the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) of the 82 8th grade students that received the WRS intervention. The results indicated a significant difference in the SGA (p < .005) and the SRI Lexile reading pretest and posttest scores (p < .005). These findings led to a recommendation to the school district leadership team to expand their reading intervention program at the middle school and to adequately train teachers on using the WRS. If students can maintain their respective reading grade level, students will be able to not only pass statewide reading assessments but also succeed in other school subjects, increasing the opportunity for students to graduate from high school and obtain successful careers.

acase@tulane.edu / Although men with testosterone deficiency are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D), previous studies have ignored the role of testosterone and the androgen receptor (AR) in pancreatic β–cell. Our study shows that male pancreatic β–cell specific AR knockout (βARKOMIP) mice develop glucose intolerance because AR potentiates glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) through increasing cyclic AMP (cAMP) accumulation and amplifying the insulinotropic effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Using transcriptome analysis, we find that AR-deficient islets exhibit altered expression of genes involved in inflammation and insulin secretion demonstrating the importance of androgen action in β-cell health in the male. Our recent study shows that male βARKOMIP mice exhibit impaired intraperitoneal (IP) glucose tolerance- because of impaired IP-GSIS- without alteration in oral glucose tolerance, suggesting that AR amplifies the islet-derived, but not the gut-derived GLP-1 to potentiate GSIS. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) increases the insulinotropic effect of GLP-1, not gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon, in male insulin-secreting β-cell line 832/3 cells and wild-type male mouse islets. Accordingly, using 832/3 cells transduced with exchange factor directly activated by a cAMP (EPAC)-based fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor, we observe that the AR agonist dihydrotestosterone (DHT) specifically allows GLP-1, not GIP and glucagon, to increase cAMP production above level of the individual hormones. The insulinotropic effect of DHT is abolished using EPAC and PKA inhibitors as well as rapamycin indicating that DHT stimulates GSIS via a cAMP/PKA/EPAC pathway and activation of mTOR. This study identifies AR as a novel receptor that enhances β–cell function, a finding with implications for the prevention of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in aging men. / 1 / Weiwei Xu

Erlangen, Nürnberg, University, Diss., 2007. / Enth. 1 Sonderabdr. aus: AIDS ; 19. 2005.

Le présent travail fait suite à la thèse de doctorat préparée au sein du laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière (SAF) de l'Université Lyon 1 et soutenue le 20 novembre 2006 sur le thème du Pilotage technique d'un régime de rentes viagères : identification et mesure des risques, allocation d'actif, suivi actuariel. Il présente des travaux sur le risque de longévité et la détermination du besoin en capital dans le cadre de Solvabilité 2.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-238).

Protein tyrosine phosphorylation regulates many aspects of cell growth and differentiation. Since cellular tyrosine phosphorylation levels are controlled by the antagonizing actions of the protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and the protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), these enzymes play a direct role in regulating processes as diverse as oncogenesis and neuronal development. In particular, the transmembrane group of PTPs, known as the receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatases (RPTPs), has been linked to regulation of axon growth and guidance during development and regeneration. The regulation of activity of these RPTPs is of clear importance, yet the fundamental mechanisms underlying this regulation are poorly understood. While extracellular ligands are well known to dimerize and activate the receptor protein tyrosine kinases, the extent to which RPTP regulation parallels this scenario is largely unknown. We have examined the dimerization state and the relationship this state has with the phosphatase activity of the neuronal RPTP, PTPRO. We have found that PTPRO, a Type III RPTP, can exist in a dimerized state, likely regulated by disulfide linkages in the intracellular domain. Ligand addition to a chimeric PTPRO increases dimerization of the transmembrane and intracellular domains. Ligand addition to the chimeric PTPRO also decreases its phosphatase activity towards artificial peptides and a putative substrate, TrkC, a protein also known to be important in neuronal development. PTPRO's regulation of TrkC may be physiologically relevant as the proteins can be co-precipitated from transfected cells and PTPRO's dephosphorylation of TrkC is efficient compared to that of other RPTPs. The decrease in PTPRO's activity upon ligand-induced dimerization was unexpected as dimerization of a structurally-similar RPTP family member suggested the opposite functional outcome. This work suggests a complex relationship between dimerization and activity for the Type III RPTPs, which include PTPRO. The results presented in this dissertation will extend the current knowledge on RPTP functions and the cellular processes they regulate.

Nitric oxide plays an important role in many biological functions. A metallo derivative in biological systems is a protein-bound dinitrosyl iron complex (DNIC), which results from iron-sulfur cluster degradation in the presence of excess NO. Through model complexes I have examined the fundamental properties of a dithiolato-Fe(NO)2 complex, bismercaptoethandiazacyclooctane iron dinitrosyl or (H+bme-daco)Fe(NO)2 as a biomimic of dicysteinate coordination of [Fe(NO)2]. This complex was prepared and fully characterized in my studies. The DNIC moiety is in its oxidized state, {Fe(NO)2}9. Through reaction studies, monitored by IR spectroscopy (H+N2S2)Fe(NO)2 (N2S2 = bme-dach. Bme-pda) has been shown to transfer NO to FeIII in (TPP)FeCl (TPP = meso-tetraphenylporphyrin) as NO-. The remaining mononitrosyl converts into complex (N2S2)Fe(NO). The (N2S2)Fe(NO) complexes (N2S2 = bme-daco, bme*-daco, bme-dach) were prepared by direct reaction of dimeric [(N2S2)Fe]2 and NO gas. The analogous (N2S2)Co(NO) complex (N2S2 = bme-dach) has also been prepared. The series of square pyramidal (N2S2)M(NO) have been studied by cyclic voltammetry and ν(NO) IR spectroscopy.

The initial motivation for crystallization of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) is an interest to understand how thiomolybdates interact with BSA and suppress copper intake from the food sources of cattle. The main objective of my research work is to determine the crystal structure of BSA using X-ray crystallography techniques. Once the tertiary structure of BSA is determined, its structural information can help us to study the interactions between BSA, copper, and thiomolybdates, and to understand the way in which thiomolybdates render copper unavailable in cattle. Many trials for the optimal crystallization conditions of BSA were attempted in order to grow high-quality BSA crystals. However, all crystals only diffract to 8 Å resolution limit. Such resolution is not sufficient to solve the tertiary structure of BSA. Another objective of my research was to crystallize Thioredoxin-2 (Trx-2) to obtain larger crystals which may lead to high resolution crystallographic data, better than 2.4 Å, for protein structure refinement. This is because Trx-2 diffraction data that had been collected are split at high resolution. The ambiguous data at high resolution might impede the structure refinement and even can cause the three-dimensional structure of Trx-2 to not be refined successfully. A number of attempts were conducted for crystallizing Trx-2 to grow bigger and higher quality of Trx-2 crystals. However, the improvement of crystal dimensions was not significant, the diffraction resolution limits are similar to previous published data, and the split data at high resolution was still observed.

This thesis documents the usefulness and accuracy of uncalibrated simulations to determine for what end-uses these simulations should be used. The study was divided into three segments 1)comparison of the accuracy of two simulation models, massless and advanced, against measured data 2) comparison of the results from two simulations models, simplistic and massless, to determine the sensitivity of envelope shape and details for two weather conditions 3) identification of the parameters that have a significant impact on the simulation output. Five buildings were selected as the test sample. Four of the buildings were multi story commercial buildings. The fifth was a single-family residential house. For the first segment of the study two simulation models were created for all the buildings; the massless model with emphasis on the envelope using massless construction and typical values for system parameters and the advanced model with the inclusion of thermal mass and extensive as-built details of the systems. For the second part of the research the simplistic model was created having a single floor one-zone with glazing and conditioned areas equivalent to the massless model. The sensitivity analysis was done using the massless model and selected variables from the loads and systems as sensitivity parameters. By following the procedure mentioned, it was found that uncalibrated simulation models do not depict the real operating conditions of a building. For some cases the simulated values are higher than the measured data while for others they are significantly lower. The CV (RMSE) between the measured and simulated values ranges from 30 to 150%. From the comparison of the simplistic and massless model, it was concluded that the outer envelope shape and details have an impact on the heating and cooling energy use irrespective of the weather conditions. For internally load dominated buildings this impact is more on the heating loads than on the cooling loads. The conclusions from the sensitivity analysis were that outside air fraction and the total supply air have the most significant impact on the simulation output while thermal mass has a small impact.

Ziel dieser Studie war es, die Häufigkeit der Expression von EGFR, HER-2 sowie COX-2 im Zervixkarzinom zu eruieren. Dabei galt es herauszufinden, ob Unterschiede hinsichtlich des Nachweises dieser drei, möglicherweise therapeutisch relevanten Moleküle zwischen den primären, nicht vortherapierten und operierten Karzinomen und den multimodal vorbehandelten Rezidiven gab. In der vorliegenden retrospektiven Arbeit wurden 45 TMMR-operierte Primärtumoren und 28 LEER-operierte Rezidivtumoren der Universitätsfrauenklinik Leipzig (Triersches Institut) einbezogen und zusätzlich hinsichtlich der prognostischen Überlebensanalyse durch das Tumorstadium, Lymphknotenmetastasen und Rezidivauftreten sowie histologischer Charakteristika untersucht. Dazu wurden Tissue - Microarrays angefertigt mit anschließender immunhistochemischer Untersuchung dieser. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die TMMR-Operation die Überlebensprognose signifikant verbessert, denn lediglich bei den LEER-therapierten Rezidivtumoren erlitten die Patientinnen sowohl Fernmetastasen als auch erneute Rezidive. Weder die Expression der drei untersuchten Moleküle noch die histopathologischen Parameter haben eine prognostische Relevanz. Es gibt keine signifikanten Zusammenhänge zwischen der Häufigkeit der Expression von EGFR, HER-2 sowie COX-2 und Primär-, bzw. Rezidivtumoren, sodass diese Moleküle keine Targets für eine individualisierte, zielgerichtete Therapie beim Zervixkarzinom darstellen.