Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 23, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-126).

The focus of this research was to investigate the role of protein kinase C-iota (PKC-é) in the regulation of Bad function, a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family and Cdk7 function, a master cell cycle regulator in glioblastoma. The results were obtained from the human glial tumor derived cell lines, T98G and U87MG. In these cells, PKC-é co-localized and directly associated with Bad as shown by immunofluorescence, immunoprecipitation, and Western blotting. Furthermore, in-vitro kinase activity assay showed that PKC-é directly phosphorylated Bad at phospho specific residues, S112, S136 and S155 which in turn induced inactivation of Bad and disruption of the Bad/Bcl-XL dimer. Knockdown of PKC-é by siRNA exhibited a corresponding reduction in Bad phosphorylation suggesting that PKC-é may be a Bad kinase. Since, PKC-é is an essential downstream mediator of the PI (3)-kinase, we hypothesize that glioma cell survival is mediated via a PI (3)-kinase/PDK1/PKC-é/Bad pathway. Treatment with PI(3)-kinase inhibitors Wortmannin and LY294002, as well as PDK1 siRNA, inhibited PKC-é activity and subsequent phosphorylation of Bad suggesting that PKC-é regulates the activity of Bad in a PI (3)-kinase dependent manner. Robust expression of PKC-é is a hallmark of human glioma and benign and malignant meningiomas, however, little is understood about its role in glioma cell proliferation. The cyclin dependent kinase activating kinase complex (CAK), comprises of cyclin dependent kinase 7 (Cdk7), cyclin H and MAT1, is the master cell regulator. Cdk7 phosphorylates its downstream cyclin dependent kinases (cdks) and promotes cell proliferation. Results show that PKC-é directly associated and phosphorylated Cdk7 at T170. Furthermore, Cdk7 phosphorylated its downstream target, cyclin dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) at T160. Purified PKC-é was also observed to phosphorylate endogenous as well as exogenous Cdk7. PKC-é knockdown with siRNA, PDK1 siRNA and (PI) 3-kinase inhibitors, Wortmannin and LY294002 treatment exhibited corresponding reduction in phosphorylation of Cdk7 and subsequently cdk2. In addition, PKC-é knockdown reduced cell proliferation; led to cell cycle arrest and also induced apoptosis. Thus, these findings suggest the presence of a novel PI (3)-kinase/PKC-é/BAD mediated cell survival and PI (3)-kinase/PKC-é/Cdk7 mediated cell proliferation pathway.

Temos aktualumas. Jaunimo vertybių sistemoje derama vieta tenka pagrindinėms universalioms vertybėms – išsilavinimui, dorai, darbui, grožiui, sveikatai, verslumui, savitarpio pagalbai, kurios atsispindi žmogiškame, socialiniame ir dvasiniame kapitale. Jei moksleivis neišsiugdo šių vertybių, tai jų vietą užima „žemesniojo“ lygio asmeninės vertybės ir žalingi įpročiai– rūkymas, alkoholizmas ir net narkomanija. Žalingų įpročių plėtra – greičiausiai plintanti socialinė problema mokyklose. Jauni žmonės turėtų augti saugioje aplinkoje, auklėjami ir globojami šeimos bei mokyklos. Pedagogams pavyksta sumažinti pamokų nelankymo problemą, palaikyti klasėse draugiškus santykius tarp moksleivių ir pedagogų, sumažinti didėjančio nusikalstamumo statistinius rezultatus. Tačiau narkotinių ir psichotropinių medžiagų vartojimo atvejų kasmet didėja. Jauni žmonės - moksleiviai - eina pertraukų metu parūkyti, daugelis jų jau vartoja alkoholinius gėrimus, nes tokį pavyzdį mato savo aplinkoje. Nemaža dalis moksleivių jau yra ragavę ne tik „lengvais“ vadinamų narkotikų, bet bandę ir „stipresnių“ narkotikų. Kyla vis didesnis narkomanijos paplitimo pavojus tarp jaunų žmonių. Narkotikų platintojai išnaudoja kiekvieną galimybę išplėsti narkotikų tinklą ir tarp moksleivių. Tyrimo problema. Lietuvos mokyklose vis aktualesnė tampa žalingų įpročių – alkoholizmo, rūkymo ir narkotikų – plitimo tarp moksleivių problema. Daugelis moksleivių pirmą kartą gyvenime susiduria su šiomis blogybėmis. Situacija... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The first hypothesis was confirmed that bad habits of pupils pose a threat to the process of development of the human capital. Findings of the research conducted show how it is important to form the social skills, capacity and readiness to resist the social pressure to use narcotic substances, to smoke and to consume alcoholic beverages. Only after realization of that threat it is possible to timely break bad habits and to choose the adequate decision. The human capital – investment to education and health care, development of knowledge and life skills are becoming a priority trend of prevention. The second hypothesis that children at school and within its territory are safe from the threat of drug addiction has also been confirmed. Even though the school administration and pedagogues seek actively to prevent the spreading of drugs, the number of pupils with bad habits is still more increasing. Of the two thirds of the respondents they recognized of having bad habits (consume alcohol, smoke, and are dependent on drug addiction). Only half of the respondents spend less than 50 Litas per month for bad habits, one fifth of the pupils from 51 to 100 Litas, 15 percent of the pupils from 101 to 200 Litas and 12 percent or every eighth of the responding pupils spend even several times more for bad habits. The market economy contributed to the increase of bad habits and the growth of drug threat. The third hypothesis that drug addiction is further spreading at schools and the efforts... [to full text]

Tyrimo tikslas buvo nustatyti jaunų vairuotojų alkoholio vartojimo, patiriamos įtampos, pablogėjusios nuotaikos ir polinkio rizikingai vairuoti sąsajas. Tyrime dalyvavo 202 Lietuvoje gyvenantys jauni vairuotojai nuo 18 iki 29 metų amžiaus (82 vyrai ir 120 moterų). Tiriamieji pildė vairuotojų elgesio klausimyną (DBQ) polinkiui į rizikingą vairavimą nustatyti, pablogėjusi nuotaika buvo matuojama Zungo depresijos skale (SDS), o patiriama įtampa - subjektyviai suvokto streso skale (PSS), taip pat pateikti socialiniai - demografiniai klausimai. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad polinkis rizikingai vairuoti siejamas su jaunų vairuotojų lyties skirtumais. Vyrai atlieka daugiau tyčinių vairavimo pažeidimų nei moterys, o moterys atlieka daugiau klaidų vairuodamos, tačiau lyties skirtumai nedaro įtakos patekimų į autoavarijas dažnumui. Kuo dažniau jauni vairuotojai vartoja alkoholį, tuo daugiau jie atlieka tyčinių vairavimo pažeidimų ir tuo dažniau patenka į autoavarijas, tačiau jie nedaro daugiau klaidų vairuodami. Jauni vairuotojai, kurie pasižymi didesne pablogėjusia nuotaika, daro daugiau klaidų vairuodami. Tuo tarpu jauni vairuotojai, pasižymintis pablogėjusia nuotaika, atlieka panašų kiekį tyčinių vairavimo pažeidimų bei autoavarijų kaip ir tie, kurių nuotaika yra geresnė. Taip pat nustatyta, kad kuo didesnė jaunų vairuotojų patiriama įtampa, tuo jie daro daugiau klaidų vairuodami. Tuo tarpu didesnė patiriama įtampa nepaveikia jaunų vairuotojų atlikti daugiau tyčinių vairavimo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The research has been targeted to define the correlations between young drivers alcohol use, bad mood, sustained tension and risky driving. The research involved 202 young Lithuanian drivers from 18 till 29 years (82 men, 120 women). Participants had to fill in a questionnaire made up of Drivers Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) to evaluate risky driving, Zung Self-rating depression scale (SDS) to evaluate bad mood, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to evaluate sustained tension and social-demographics questions. The research results showed existing association between risky driving and gender. Men more often than women make driving violations purposely. Driving mistakes are more common for women than for men. Crash involvement has not been associated with gender. The increase of young drivers alcohol use also increases the results of driving violations and involvement in crashes. However, increased alcohol use is not associated with bigger amount of driving mistakes. The greater degree of young drivers bad mood result, more driving mistakes are made. Whereas, greater degree of bad mood does not affect higher scores in driving violations and crash involvement. The greater degree of young drivers sustained tension result, more driving mistakes are made. Whereas, greater degree of sustained tension does not affect higher scores in driving violations and crash involvement. And finally, alcohol use and sustained tension have significant influence on young drivers risky driving, whereas... [to full text]

No description available.

No description available.

Magister Legum - LLM

Ce mémoire propose une analyse de la théorie de la volonté en relation avec le mal dans la pensée de Thomas d’Aquin. Le mal est une privation d’être et l’être est identique au bien. La volonté est une forme intellectuelle d’appétit, ainsi que la gouvernante des puissances inférieures, mais aussi de la raison qui est à la fois son principe. L’appétit est un mouvement vers ce qui est le bien d’une nature, il est donc difficile d’accepter que la volonté puisse élire son contraire qui est le mal. La thèse de Platon selon laquelle le mal n’est désiré que par ignorance est écartée, puisque le propos de Thomas est d’expliquer le consentement en faveur du mal connu. Or, si le mal peut être voulu, on ne peut le vouloir sans le référer au bien. Ainsi, le libre arbitre, bien qu’ayant Dieu pour principe, est le principe du premier mauvais choix. La compréhension de la problématique passe par la division de ce qui appartient à l’extérieur de la volonté et ensuite à l’intérieur. De soi, un acte extérieur peut être immoral, comme le vol, mais la volonté d’une intention bonne qui choisit cet acte devient mauvaise, bien qu’elle garde le mérite de sa bonne intention. Son choix mauvais est parfois dû à une certaine ignorance, mais, puisque nous n’ignorons pas toujours le mal, il faut attribuer une faiblesse à la volonté, car elle n’accomplit pas pleinement sa nature. Quand elle répète ses actes de faiblesse à l’égard du mal, elle se dispose à accueillir l’habitus de la malice, et alors elle cherche d’elle-même le mal. Aucun de ces principes, cependant, ne peut s’appliquer à l’homme originel ni au diable. Ceux-ci n’auront pour principe de leurs choix que l’orgueil dans le libre exercice de la volonté. / This paper proposes to analyse the theory of will in interaction with evil in Thomas Aquinas’s thought. Evil is a privation of being, and being is identical to good. The will is an intellectual form of appetite, as well as the governor of lower faculties and of reason, which is also its principle. Appetite is a movement towards the good of a nature; it is therefore difficult to accept that will could elect its opposite, which is evil. Plato’s thesis consisting of attributing the will towards bad to ignorance is discarded, because Thomas’s explanation concerns the consent towards evil witch is known. Now, if evil can be wanted, we cannot want it without referring it to good. In that way, free will, though having God for principle, is the principle of the first bad choice. The comprehension of the problem has to go through the division of that which belongs to the will’s exterior and to it’s interior. In itself, an exterior act can be immoral, like stealing, but the good intentioned will that choses this act then becomes evil, keeping nonetheless the merit of its good intention. The bad choice is sometimes attributable to ignorance, but since we do not always ignore evil, we have to accuse a certain weakness in the will for not being able to fulfill its nature. When it repeatedly acts weakly towards evil, it makes itself available for the mischievous habitus, and it then, on its own, searches the evil act. None of these principles, though, can apply to the original man or for the devil. They will not have any other principle for their choice than that of pride in the free exercise of their will.

Cette thèse avait pour objectif général d’approfondir nos connaissances sur les rêves dysphoriques (mauvais rêves et cauchemars), selon deux axes. Premièrement, nous avons voulu éclaircir les implications méthodologiques reliées aux différentes mesures de la fréquence de rappel de rêves (articles 1 et 2). Deuxièmement, nous avons voulu étudier un aspect encore peu exploré des rêves dysphoriques : leur contenu (article 3). Dans la première étude, nous avons comparé systématiquement différentes méthodes rétrospectives et prospectives utilisées pour mesurer la fréquence des cauchemars et des mauvais rêves chez 411 participants. En plus de reproduire les résultats d’études antérieures selon lesquelles les mesure rétrospectives sous-estiment la fréquence des rêves dysphoriques, nous avons démontré que ces fréquences n’étaient pas affectées de manière différentielle par le format de la mesure prospective (journaux de rêves narratifs ou à choix de réponse). Dans la deuxième étude, nous nous sommes intéressés à la fréquence de rappel onirique en général (i.e. de tous les rêves) auprès d'un échantillon de 358 participants pour approfondir les résultats relatifs à la comparaison entre les deux types de journaux de rêves obtenus dans la première étude. Nos résultats soulignent que la fréquence de rappel obtenue par un journal à choix de réponse est plus élevée que celle obtenue d’un journal narratif, et que le présumé effet d’augmentation de rappel attribué aux mesures prospectives est limité dans le temps. Ces résultats suggèrent que des facteurs motivationnels sont impliqués dans la tenue d’un journal de rêves, et que dans le cas des journaux narratifs, ces facteurs outrepasseraient les facteurs attentionnels favorisant le rappel onirique. Dans la troisième étude, nous avons comparé le contenu de 253 cauchemars et 431 mauvais rêves obtenus prospectivement auprès de 331 participants, offrant ainsi l’une des descriptions de ce type des plus détaillées à ce jour. Nos résultats démontrent que cauchemars et mauvais rêves partagent de nombreuses caractéristiques mais se différencient en plusieurs points : le contenu des cauchemars est davantage caractérisé par des menaces physiques, et celui des mauvais rêves par des menaces psychologiques. De plus, les cauchemars ont plus souvent la peur comme émotion principale, ont une intensité émotionnelle plus forte, se terminent plus souvent de façon négative et sont plus bizarres que les mauvais rêves. Ces différences de contenu entre mauvais rêves et cauchemars suggèrent que ces deux types de rêves sont des manifestations d’un même phénomène variant en termes d’intensité, et que cette intensité est multidimensionnelle. Les résultats de l’étude 3 sont discutés en lien avec différentes théories sur l’étiologie et la fonction des rêves. / The overall goal of this thesis was to further our understanding on disturbed dreaming (bad dreams and nightmares) along two main lines of inquiry. First, we examined the methodological implications associated with the different instruments used to measure dream recall frequency (articles 1 and 2). Second, we investigated the actual content of disturbing dreams, a dimension for which empirical data remain surprisingly scarce (article 3). Study 1 compared the frequency of nightmares and bad dreams obtained with retrospective methods and with two types of prospective instruments (narrative and checklist logs) in 411 participants. In addition to replicating findings showing that when compared to daily logs, retrospective self-reports underestimate current nightmare and bad dream frequency, we showed that these frequencies were not differentially affected by the type of prospective log. Our second study extended these findings by comparing the differential effects of narrative and checklist logs on general dream recall in 358 participants. The results indicate that checklist logs yield higher prospective dream recall frequency than narrative logs, and that prospectively measured dream recall frequency tends to peak at the beginning of the log and then remains stable over time. Thus, improved dream recall arising from subjects' increased attention towards their dreams is short-lived and the effect quickly offset by motivational factors. Our third article presents a comprehensive and comparative description of the content of 431 bad dreams and 253 nightmares collected prospectively from 331 participants. The results indicate that although nightmares and bad dreams share many content characteristics and features, they also differ along several dimensions: nightmares tend to involve physical threats whereas psychological threats predominate in bad dreams; nightmares are more likely than bad dreams to contain fear as their principal emotion as well as being significantly more emotionally intense; and when compared to bad dreams, nightmares are more bizarre and contain significantly more aggressions, failures, and unfortunate endings. Taken together these findings support the view that nightmares represent a more intense expression of the same basic phenomenon and that this intensity manifests itself along a number of content dimensions. These results are discussed in relation to different theories on the etiology and function of dreams.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are complex and interesting objects of study. They are quite popular among both casual and connoisseur gamers, and they are often played continuously over many years. Despite a reasonable amount of existing research on MMORPGs, no clear explanation has emerged to explain what particular game features encourage so many players to enjoy these games for so long. In this thesis, I contend that the most important elements in the success of an MMORPG are meritocratic play and managed player efficiency (MPE). This contention is proved by examining the existing literature on player enjoyment and game design, surveying popular MMORPGs, and building and testing a simple, browser-based game that implements meritocratic play and managed player efficiency. While existing research and my survey of popular MMORPGS provide good support for the importance of meritocratic play and MPE, participants in my study provided much stronger support by reporting particular enjoyment of game tasks that displayed the clearest meritocratic play and the best opportunities to manage player efficiency.