Η Κινάση του Αναπλαστικού Λεμφώματος(Alk) είναι ένας υποδοχέας κινάσης τυροσίνης(RTK)ο οποίος εμπλέκεται σε διάφορες μορφές καρκίνου στον άνθρωπο, και η λειτουργικότητά του δεν έχει διαλευκανθεί πλήρως. Γνωρίζουμε ότι, ο υποδοχέας dAlk εκφράζεται ευρέως στο ΚΝΣ των ενήλικων μυγών και ιδιαίτερα στα μισχοειδή σωμάτια της Drosophila melanogaster, νευρωνικές δομές απαραίτητες για τις διεργασίες της μνήμης και της μάθησης. Στόχος της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση του ρόλου του υποδοχέα dAlk και του προσδέτη του Jeb στην μνήμη μακράς διαρκείας(LTM)και ο καθορισμός του υποσυνόλου των νευρώνων στους οποίους παράγεται τόσο το Alk όσο και ο προσδέτης του Jeb. Για την διεξαγωγή των πειραμάτων χρησιμοποιήθηκαν γενετικές μέθοδοι και συμπεριφορικές μελέτες στην Drosophila melanogaster. / The Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Alk is implicated in several human cancers, but with many unknown functions.It has already been demonstrated that the receptor Alk is widely expressed in the central nervous system of adult flies and especially in the Mushroom Bodies, neuronal structures essential for learning and memory. The main purpose of my undergraduate thesis is to elucidate the role of the receptor Alk and its ligand Jeb in Long Term Memory. Moreover, we focused on finding the specific subset of neurons in which the RTK dAlk and its ligand Jeb are produced.For this research we used genetic tools alongwith behavioural techniques.

Syftet med denna uppsats är testa Muddes hypotes: När populistiska aktörer når politiska framgångar och hotar etablissemanget, svarar delar av etablissemanget med att inkludera ett populistiskt språkbruk för att mota bort utmanaren. Ovanstående hypotes prövas genom att undersöka om Hillary Clinton och Jeb Bush som tillhör ett politiskt etablissemang utvecklat sitt språk i sina kampanjtal mot att bli mer eller mindre populistiska, i samband med att Donald Trump och Bernie Sanders som av flera medier blivit beskrivna som populister anslutit sig till primärvalet 2016 i USA. Teorin som används i uppsatsen är hämtad från Cas Muddes studie The Populist Zeitgeist samt Kirk A. Hawkins studie ”Is Chávez Populist?”. Metoden i uppsatsen utgörs av en kvalitativ idealtypsanalys. Utifrån uppsatsens resultat kan följande indikationer redovisas. Hillary Clinton har inte inkluderat ett mer populistiskt språk i sina kampanjtal i samband med att Trump och Sanders ställt upp inför primärvalet 2016 i USA. Detta står i motsats till Jeb Bush som inkluderat ett mer populistiskt språk i samband med att Trump och Sanders ställt upp inför primärvalet 2016 i USA, vilket styrker Muddes hypotes.

The Drosophila melanogaster gene Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (DAlk) is homologous to mammalian Alk, which is a member of the Alk/Ltk family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). In humans the t(2;5) translocation involving the Alk locus encodes an active form of Alk that is the causative agent in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (Morris et al., 1994). Alk has also been associated with other cancers such as inflammatory myofibroblastic tumours (IMTs). The physiological function of the Alk RTK has not been described in any system until very recently, and is still not defined in vertebrates. The molecular similarity between Drosophila Alk and mammalian Alk suggested that mutation of Alk in flies may affect similar functional and developmental processes, and thus lead to some understanding of Alk function in vivo. By employing an EMS mutagenesis screen we were able to obtain loss-of-function mutants in the Drosophila DAlk gene. Eleven independent DAlk mutants were identified and characterized. DAlk is normally expressed in the developing gut and in the CNS. DAlk mutant animals have a lethal phenotype and die at late embryonic stages or as 1st instar larva. In DAlk mutant embryos there is a complete failure in the development of the midgut whereas the CNS appears normal. The midgut consists of visceral musculature that is syncytial and is formed by fusion of multiple myoblasts. This is a dynamic process where two types of myoblasts, i.e. fusion-competent-myoblasts and founder-cells that function as seeds for muscle formation, fuse. In DAlk homozygous embryos there is no founder cell specification, which explains the failure of midgut formation in these embryos. Recently a novel secreted molecule Jelly Belly (Jeb) was identified. Jeb is expressed in the tissue neighbouring the DAlk expressing cells of the developing visceral mesoderm. Jeb mutant embryos show a phenotype that is similar to that of DAlk mutant embryos. We have been able to show that Jeb is the ligand for DAlk in the developing visceral mesoderm and that Jeb binding stimulates a DAlk driven ERK signaling pathway. This leads to the expression of Dumbfounded (duf)/kin of Irregular chiasm-C (kirre), a founder-cell specific immunoglobulin that has an important role in myoblast aggregation and fusion. The functional Drosophila midgut is made up of the visceral muscle that encircles the endodermal tube. This tube formation includes migration of cells originating in the anterior and posterior parts of the embryo, first along the anterior-posterior axis using the visceral mesoderm as a template, then dorsally and ventrally. In DAlk mutant embryos there is no visceral muscle fusion and both the visceral mesoderm and the endoderm fail to undergo dorsal-ventral migration.

The Drosophila gene Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (Alk) is homologous to mammalian ALK, a member of the Alk/Ltk family of receptor tyrosine kinases. In Drosophila Alk is crucial for development of the embryonic visceral mesoderm, where it is the receptor for Jelly Belly (Jeb) ligand. Jeb binding stimulates an Alk-driven, extracellular signal-regulated, kinase-mediated signaling pathway, which results in the expression of the downstream gene duf/kirre. The visceral mesoderm is made up from two different cell types, founder cells and fusion competent myoblasts. The Jeb-Alk signal transduction pathway drives specification of the founder cells of the Drosophila visceral muscle. In this work we aimed to identify genes specifically expressed in the founder cells and/or fusion competent myoblasts. Four genes from a number of candidiates were investigated further. These genes are Hand, expressed in founder cells, goliath, parcas and delilah, which are expressed in fusion competent myoblasts. Hand is a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor. Alk-mediated signal transduction drives the expression of the bHLH transcription factor hand in vivo, and loss of Alk function results in a complete lack of hand expression in the visceral mesoderm, while Alk gain of function results in an expansion of hand expression. There are no obvious defects in the visceral muscle fusion process hand mutant animals, suggesting that Hand is not critical for visceral muscle fusion per se. I have studied another molecule Goliath, a putative RING finger E3 ligase. goliath is specifically expressed in the FCM of visceral and somatic muscles. goliath mutant animals do not display any obvious muscle phenotypes, perhaps reflecting a redundant role with CG10277, which encodes a second Goliath family protein in Drosophila. Deletion mutation of the CG10277 locus does not result in muscle defects either, and generation of double mutants of goliath and CG10277 will be required to determine their function in vivo. In addition, I have studied another bHLH transcription factor Delilah and its role in muscle development. We show that delilah is expressed in visceral muscle, somatic muscles and in tendon cells. Delilah mutant animals display a held out wing phenotype and are unable to fly. Inducible RNAi against delilah results in a similar phenotype. Delilah is transcriptionally regulated by mef2 and biniou, early regulators of muscle development. While delilah appears to function in tendon cells, we were unable to find any obvious phenotype in either visceral or somatic muscles. In order to further investigate the underlying mechanism of Delilah function we have used Tandem affinity purification (TAP) methodology followed by mass spectrometry to identify Delilah binding partners. This analysis suggests a number of candidate functional partners for the Delilah protein.

This thesis investigates the discourse patterns of Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush during the Republican primary campaign from August 2015 through January 2016. The goal of this study is to identify differences among the candidates’ discourse patterns, particularly those distinct to the discourse style of Donald Trump, on the basis of a newly compiled corpus from their respective debates and speeches. This corpus analysis reveals differences in terms of readability and lexical choice that distinguish the speech style of Donald Trump from Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio and identifies metaphors utilized by Donald Trump. Drawing heavily from the research of Charles Fillmore and George Lakoff, this study also illustrates the importance of metaphors and frames within political discourse, and the corpus analysis of Republican candidates during the 2016 election provides clear evidence that candidates use frames and metaphors to create a unique profile. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) is a Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK) and an oncogene associated with several human diseases, but its normal function in humans and other vertebrates is unclear. Drosophila melanogaster has an ALK homolog, demonstrating that the RTK has been conserved throughout evolution. This makes Drosophila a suitable model organism for studying not only Drosophila ALK function, but also to study mammalian forms of ALK. In Drosophila the ligand Jeb activates ALK, initiating signaling crucial for visceral mesoderm development. The activating ligand for mammalian ALK is unclear, and for this reason Drosophila was employed in a cross-species approach to investigate whether Drosophila Jeb can activate mouse ALK. Jeb is unable to activate mouse ALK, and therefore mouse ALK is unable to substitute for and rescue the Drosophila ALK mutant phenotype. This suggests that there has been significant evolution in the ALK-ligand relationship between the mouse and Drosophila. In humans ALK has recently been shown to be involved in the development of neuroblastoma, a cancer tumor in children. I have developed a Drosophila model for examining human gain of function ALK mutants found in neuroblastoma patients. The various ALK variants have acquired point mutations in the kinase domain that have been predicted to activate the RTK in a constitutive and ligand independent manner. When expressed in the fly eye, active human ALK mutants result in a rough eye phenotype, while inactive wild type ALK does not, due to the lack of an activating ligand in the fly. In this way  several of the ALK mutations identified in neuroblastoma patients could be confirmed to be activated in a ligand independent manner. Moreover, a novel ALK mutant; ALKF1174S, was discovered in a neuroblastoma patient and was in the Drosophila model shown to be a gain of function mutation, and a previously predicted gain of function mutation; ALKI1250T, was shown to be a kinase dead mutation. This fly model can also be used for testing ALK selective inhibitors, for identifying activating ligands for human ALK and for identifying conserved components of the ALK signaling pathway. Gut musculature development in Drosophila is dependent on ALK signaling, while somatic muscle development is not. Proteins of the Wasp-Scar signaling network regulate Arp2/3-complex mediated actin polymerization, and I have investigated their function in visceral and somatic muscle fusion. I found that Verprolin and other members of this protein family are essential for somatic but not visceral muscle development. Despite fusion defects in both tissues in Verprolin and other examined mutants, gut development proceeds, suggesting that fusion is not crucial for visceral mesoderm development. Hence the actin polymerization machinery functions in both somatic and visceral muscle fusion, but this process only appears to be essential in somatic muscle development. / Exploiting Drosophila as a model system for studying Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase in vivo

Includes supplementary material. / Sea TENTACLE is a proposed afloat platform whose primary mission is to utilize the state-of-the-art technology of unmanned vehicles to monitor and neutralize all subsurface enemy threats in the littorals. This mission can be specified further as anti-submarine warfare, mine warfare and maritime surveillance. The design philosophy of Sea TENTACLE embodies the ideal of providing a multi-mission capable sea frame extending network-centric warfare into the littorals. The design goals of the TSSE team were first to develop a platform to deploy, recover, and maintain unmanned vehicle (e.g. UUVs, USVs, UAVs) and second to enableto ship to act as an afloat network operations center for distributed assets. Allowing all units to work together seamlessly to conduct focused missions in the littorals makes the Sea TENTACLE a creitical component within the network-centric environment. The versatility of its cargo hold and modular design allows Sea TENTACLE to be outfitted dynamically to complete a veriety of secondary missions including humanitarian aid, salvage and spacial operations support. Sea TENTACLE's combat management and operations system will employ the Enterprise architecture design enabling C4ISR capabilities that will meet emerging network centric warfare needs.

Over the last sixty years, voting patterns in the United States have changed dramatically, and this is especially true in the state of Florida. Though there is some literature in the field of political science that outlines the voting and election history of Florida and identifies some trends, this literature is extremely limited and is not comprehensive of the data that is available up to the present day. This study seeks to find Florida’s voting patterns and to explain how they can be understood by both the casual observer and the political scientist. To do so, unique methodology was applied that used the "relative margin" of both a county and a region in a particular election to give the Democratic nominee’s performance context both in the election in question and in history, by comparing the actual margin of victory or defeat of the Democratic nominee to the statewide margin of victory or defeat. This was an illuminating process that ultimately revealed some truths about the election history of Florida: the counties and regions most likely to vote for Democratic nominees in the 1950s and early 1960 are now among the least likely to do so, and the counties and regions most likely to vote for Republican nominees in the 1950s and early 1960s are now considered to be "swing" or "tossup" areas that are regularly and alternatively won by Democratic and Republican nominees. Additionally, the pattern of each region in how it voted in presidential elections was compared to forty seven other states in the country to provide further context as to how the election patterns can be understood in context.