We investigated the efficacy of standard (8-week nicotine, 16-week placebo) vs extended (24-week nicotine) patch therapy for smoking cessation, and the effect of slow nicotine metabolism, indicated by CYP2A6 reduced metabolizer (RM) genotype or low 3-hydroxycotinine/cotinine ratio (3HC/COT), on abstinence. RM versus normal genotype predicted lower 3HC/COT. Extended vs standard treatment produced higher abstinence at 24 weeks (32% vs 20%), but not at 52 weeks (both 14%). Low 3HC/COT and RM genotype predicted higher abstinence on extended versus standard treatment at 24 (47% vs 25%, 38% vs 17%) and 28 weeks (34% vs 19%, 23% vs 11%), while high 3HC/COT or normal genotype did not. Within extended treatment, low versus high 3HC/COT predicted higher abstinence at 8 (48% vs 29%), 24 (47% vs 25%), and 28 weeks (34% vs 16%), with similar trends for the genotype effect. Overall, extending nicotine treatment increased abstinence during therapy, particularly for slow metabolizers.

We investigated the efficacy of standard (8-week nicotine, 16-week placebo) vs extended (24-week nicotine) patch therapy for smoking cessation, and the effect of slow nicotine metabolism, indicated by CYP2A6 reduced metabolizer (RM) genotype or low 3-hydroxycotinine/cotinine ratio (3HC/COT), on abstinence. RM versus normal genotype predicted lower 3HC/COT. Extended vs standard treatment produced higher abstinence at 24 weeks (32% vs 20%), but not at 52 weeks (both 14%). Low 3HC/COT and RM genotype predicted higher abstinence on extended versus standard treatment at 24 (47% vs 25%, 38% vs 17%) and 28 weeks (34% vs 19%, 23% vs 11%), while high 3HC/COT or normal genotype did not. Within extended treatment, low versus high 3HC/COT predicted higher abstinence at 8 (48% vs 29%), 24 (47% vs 25%), and 28 weeks (34% vs 16%), with similar trends for the genotype effect. Overall, extending nicotine treatment increased abstinence during therapy, particularly for slow metabolizers.

The search for genetic regions associated with complex diseases, such as cancer or Alzheimer's disease, is an important challenge that may lead to better diagnosis and treatment. The existence of millions of DNA variations, primarily single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), may allow the fine dissection of such associations. However, studies seeking disease association are limited by the cost of genotyping SNPs. Therefore, it is essential to find a small subset of informative SNPs (tag SNPs) that may be used as good representatives of the rest of the SNPs. Several informative SNP selection methods have been developed. Our experiments compare favorably to all the prediction and statistical methods by selecting the least number of informative SNPs. We proposed algorithms for faster prediction which yielded acceptable trade off. We validated our results using the k-fold test and its many variations.

In recent years it has become apparent that when studying plant-herbivore interactions, it is important to also consider the multitrophic context, i.e. to what extent generalist and specialist enemies act as bodyguards for the plant. I have performed a field experiment with 25 genets, varying in plant defense levels, of meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) and its herbivore, the chrysomelid beetle Galerucella tenella. Each genet was treated with four different density manipulations of G. tenella (5, 15, 30, and 60 larvae per genet). The experiment was set up on an archipelago island with natural levels of a specialist hymenopteran parasitoid Asecodes parviclava and generalist natural enemies. I set up the following hypotheses: 1) larval survival will be higher on less defended plants than on more defended plants, 2) the proportion of parasitoids will be higher on more defended plants, and 3) larval survival will increase with increasing larval densities. The most important findings of the experiment were an overall very low total survival of larvae (G. tenella pupae and A. parviclava mummies), a generally high parasitism by A. parviclava on more defended plants, and that two groups of generalist predators (hunting and web-forming spiders) were more frequent on less defended plants. My study suggests that herbivore survival may not be higher on less defended plants under situations with abundant occurrence of generalist predators, as they are able to trace high-quality foraging sites.

Abstract Primary lactose intolerance has been associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism located upstream of the lactase gene. The most common diagnostic tests for lactose intolerance are time-consuming and the patient is not allowed to eat and drink for 12 hours before the test is carried out. A method that can establish the genotype would be an easier way of diagnosing lactose intolerance compared to fenotypic lactose intolerance tests. Optimization and validation of a previously published method was performed with real-time polymerase chain reaction. We used whole blood from de-identified blood donors. During the optimization and validation we used a positive control, genotype C/T from Laboratoriemedicin Västernorrland, Sundsvall. The whole-blood was extracted using the MagNa Pure LC instrument. The reagent used was KAPA PROBE FAST qPCR Master Mix. The optimized program for real-time PCR was established to be 95°C 3min [95°C x 3sec, 55°C x 20sec, detection, 72°C x 15sec] x 50 cycles. Optimal probe concentration was found to be 0.2µM and primer concentration will be 0.5µM. This genotyping method is a good first-stage screening test for lactoseintolerance. Before it can be used as a routine method further validation will be necessary in order to ensure that the evaluation of the results can be done in an easy and secure way.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The overarching goal of this research was to investigate the differences in the physicochemical and functional properties of protein isolates produced from seven different faba bean genotypes (CDC Fatima, Taboar, SSNS-1, FB9-4, FB18-20, Snowbird and CDC Snowdrop) grown at different locations in Canada (Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba) in 2011 and 2012. The protein isolates were prepared by alkaline extraction (pH 9.5) followed by isoelectric precipitation at pH 4.5. The isolates had an average protein content of ~94% and average protein and isolate yields of ~77% and ~25%, respectively. The physicochemical properties assessed in this study included surface charge/zeta potential (ZP), surface hydrophobicity (SH), and surface and interfacial tension (ST and IT). The functional properties tested included foaming capacity (FC) and foam stability (FS), emulsion capacity (EC) and creaming stability (CS), emulsion activity index (EAI) and emulsion stability index (ESI), oil holding capacity (OHC), and protein solubility. The findings indicated that all physicochemical properties for all isolates were independent of genotype. Overall, an average ZP of + 22.1 mV, SH of 47.2 arbitrary units, and ST and IT of 65.0 mN/m and 10.7 mN/m, respectively, were observed. However, with the exception of ZP considerable differences were observed due to the effect of environment. The ratio of the major globulin protein fractions [legumin:vicilin (L/V)] was found to shift during processing, from 3.8 (range: 3.4-4.6) in the flour to 4.5 (range 4.0-4.9) in the isolates. The L/V ratio for faba bean flour and isolate samples was also found to be independent of genotype. For all genotypes, with the exception of the zero-tannin varieties (Snowbird and CDC Snowdrop), the L/V ratio was affected by the environment. Similar to the physicochemical properties, all functional attributes were found to be independent of genotype. However, environmental effects were observed for all functional properties with the exception of EAI and ESI. Average values for FC of 162.0%, for FS of 65.0%, for EC of 184.0 g/g, for CS of 94.0%, for OHC of 5.7 g/g, for EAI of 13.0 m2/g, for ESI of 10.7 min and for solubility of 81.0% were reported. Zeta potential was observed to be positively correlated with CS (r = 0.46; p<0.05) and FS (r = 0.54; p<0.01), whereas SH and L/V ratio were not. The L/V ratio in the isolate, however, was correlated positively with SH (r = 0.40; p<0.05) and negatively with ZP (r = -0.39; p<0.05). Moreover, the solubility of faba bean isolates was found to be positively correlated with ZP (r = 0.44; p<0.05) and negatively correlated with both IT (r = -0.38; p<0.05) and OHC (r = -0.38; p<0.05). The functional properties of some commercial protein isolates (soy, pea, whey, egg and wheat) were evaluated for comparative purposes. The OHC of the faba bean isolate was found to be higher than that of any of the commercial isolates. With the exception of CS (soy and pea) and FC (egg), all of the emulsifying (EC, EAI and ESI) and foaming (FC and FS) properties of the faba bean protein isolates were comparable to those of soy, pea and egg isolates. In contrast, values for most of the other functional properties were greater for faba bean isolates than for the pea and wheat isolates, but lower than for the whey isolate. For example, the solubility of the protein isolates was observed to decrease in the following order: whey (89.0%) = egg (88.1%) > faba bean (81.0%) > soybean (30.5%) > pea (20.1%) > wheat (10.7%).