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No description available.

Thesis (M.Ph.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Richard Rothenberg, committee chair; Russ Toal, Karen E. Gieseker, committee members. Electronic text (135 p. : col. ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed August 12, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-135).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Statistics, August 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Nurs.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-107)

Thesis (M. S.)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: David Bader; Committee Co-Chair: Peter Sloot; Committee Member: Richard Vuduc.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

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Thesis (M.Sc.) (Applied Mathematics) --University of Limpopo, 2008. / In this dissertation, two non-linear mathematical models are proposed and analyzed to investigate the spread of infectious diseases in a variable size population through horizontal transmission in the presence of preventive or therapeutic vaccines which are capable of inducing temporary immunity and wane in time. In modeling the transmission dynamics, the population is divided into three subclasses namely; Susceptibles, Infectives and Vaccinated groups. It is assumed that both Vaccinated and Susceptible individuals are recruited into the community and can only become infected via contacts with the infectives group but the rate at which the vaccinated group may contract the diseases is extremely very low depending on the efficacy of the vaccine. All infectives are assumed to move at a constant rate to both Vaccinated and Susceptible groups. These models are analyzed by using the stability theory of differential equations and numerical simulation. The models exhibit two equilibria namely; the disease-free and the endemic equilibria. It is shown that if the vaccination reproduction number R0 < 1, the disease-free equilibrium is always globally asymptotically stable and in such a case the endemic equilibrium does not exist and the disease can be totally eliminated in the community. However, if R0 > 1, a unique endemic equilibrium exists that is locally asymptotically stable and consequently the equilibrium values of infective, vaccinated and susceptible population can be maintained at desired levels. Numerical simulations implemented on MAPLE using both Adomian decomposition technique and Runge-Kutta integration schemes, support our analytical conclusions and illustrate possible behaviour scenarios of the models. / International Pentecostal Holiness Church, Limpopo Provincial Treasury, National Student Financial Aid Scheme and National Research Foundation

Hepatitis C Virus currently affects up to 3% of the world’s population. There is no effective vaccine yet available and the natural immune response to infection is largely inefficient. Progress has been made in isolating several broad-acting neutralizing antibodies that target the viral envelope protein E2. However, a dominant element of the epitopes targeted is an overlap with the highly conserved CD81 binding sites. Various E2 constructs were investigated as possible targets to be used in phage display panning of a combinatorial library of the phagemid vector pComb3H. HVR2 deletion showed optimal exposure of the CD81 binding sites and D535A disrupted known CD81 epitopes. A selection technique was designed to improve exposure of conserved sites on an E2 construct target molecule that disrupts CD81 epitopes while remaining conformationally correct. Optimisation of the screening methodology was used to assess the quality of enrichment of the library panning along with more efficient selection of specific clones. The approach adopted in this project isolated Fab clones specifically reactive to the protein target, one of which also showed preferential binding in acidic environments. Taken together, the information gathered on E2 and the implementation of the phage display method described will contribute to more effective ways of isolating novel antibodies.