With the increase in research on age-related decline in human cognitive capabilities has come an increased demand for a nonhuman cognitive aging model that controls for confounds in the human research, including education, socio-economic class, and language abilities. A nonhuman primate model of cognitive aging is particularly attractive given the similarities in physiology and behavior between nonhuman primates and humans. The rhesus macaque has proven to be a highly effective model of human aging, but apes, the closest genetic relatives to humans, are virtually unstudied. Only three studies have examined age-related changes in cognitive abilities in apes, and all three studies were conducted using tasks that have had relatively little success in revealing age-related performance decline in monkeys. Sixteen gorillas housed at Zoo Atlanta and Disneys Animal Kingdom underwent five experiments to determine the effects of age, sex, and previous research experience on performance. Testing occurred in a modified Wisconsin General Test Apparatus using the delayed response paradigm. When delay intervals were increased from zero to 90 seconds performance decreased across all subjects. However, there was no univariate effect of age, sex, or experience on performance. Similarly, when the number of potential choice sites was increased from two to four there was a decrease in performance, but again there was no univariate effect of age, sex, or experience. However, older subjects were more likely to have a response bias and choose a single site across all tasks, irrespective of where the reward was located. This effect was more pronounced in inexperienced subjects. As a result, age does not appear to affect performance accuracy in the delayed response task in gorillas, but there may be an effect on response rigidity. Given the shortcomings of the delayed response task in simple cognitive studies with nonhuman primates, further research on cognitive aging in gorillas should utilize a research naïve population and use an experimental protocol that is titrated based on individual responses. This will allow the delay interval to be gradually increased to a point where age-related differences may be apparent.

Novel Turbo Equalization Methods for the Magnetic Recording Channel Elizabeth Chesnutt 95 Pages Directed by Dr. John R. Barry The topic of this dissertation is the derivation, development, and evaluation of novel turbo equalization techniques that address the colored noise problem on the magnetic recording channel. One new algorithm presented is the noise-predictive BCJR, which is a soft-output detection strategy that mitigates colored noise in partial-response equalized magnetic recording channels. This algorithm can be viewed as a combination of the traditional BCJR algorithm with the notion of survivors and noise prediction. Additionally, an alternative equalization architecture for magnetic recording is presented that addresses the shortcomings of the PRML approach, which dominates magnetic recording. Specifically, trellis-based equalizers are abandoned in favor of simple equalization strategies based on nonlinear filters whose complexity grows only linearly with their length. This research focuses on the linear-complexity SFE algorithm and on investigating the possibility of lowering the SFE filter calculation complexity. The results indicate that with using the proposed novel SFE method, it is possible to increase the information density on magnetic media without raising the complexity. The most important result presented is that partial-response equalization needs to be reconsidered because of the amount of noise enhancement problems that it adds to the overall system. These results are important for the magnetic recording industry, which is trying to attain a 1 Tb/cm2 information storage goal.

In mammals, the neurogenic inflammatory response can be induced by stimulation or activation on the peripheral sensory C-fibers to release neuropeptides from the peripheral terminals, at the same time their afferent functions are enhanced. There are several neuropeptides stored and released from peripheral terminals of the afferent fibers, such as substance P (SP), neurokinin A, and calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP). SP is one of the major inflammatory mediators of neurogenic inflammation that can act on neurokinin-1 receptors on smooth muscles and endothelial cells of blood vessels, causing vasodilatation, endothelial gap formation, and local plasma leakage. There are many studies and reports indicate that animals pretreated with a short period non-lethal hyperthermia can induce heat shock response and activate the expression of a group of inducible proteins called heat shock proteins (HSPs), and this stress response reduces the injury by same or other following stresses. In this study, the hyperthermia treatment (HT) was implemented by 42¢J hot water bath and the core body temperature of anesthetized rat was elevated and maintained around 42.0¡Ó0.5¢J for 15 min, and the normothermia control treatment (NT) was implemented by 37¢J warm water bath with the same period. 24 hours after NT or HT, the neurogenic plasma leakage was induced by intravascular injection with capsaicin (90 £gg/kg), SP (3 £gg/kg), or electrical stimulation on the right thoracic vagus nerve. The blood pressures of each animal were continually recorded during the neurogenic inflammation induction or sham operation. The amount of neurogenic inflammation of airway was evaluated by the area density leaky blood vessels. The leaking vessels were labeled with India ink and quantitative analysis by morphometric method. Plasma leakage was also measured by interstitial Evans blue concentration. The results indicated that HT could reduce plasma leakage and hypotension of the neurogenic inflammation that induced by capsaicin, SP or electrical stimulation on vagus nerve. Animals pretreated with aminoguanidine (a selective inhibitor of iNOS) had no significant effect on the neurogenic inflammation by following systemic SP infusion, but that could eliminate the anti-neurogenic inflammatory effect of HT. Animal applied with diphenhydramine (an antagonist of histamine H1 receptor) could attenuate the neurogenic inflammation by following systemic SP infusion, and HT could attenuate the neurogenic inflammation that with or without H1 receptor antagonist. This result indicates that NO synthesis and the activity of iNOS have few effects on neurogenic inflammation of airway, but it plays a critical factor on the initiation of heat shock response. The neurogenic inflammation induced by SP not only direct act on blood vessels but have other indirect effect by the histamine H1 receptor to enhance inflammation. Neonatal rats received high dose capsaicin treatment would induce irreversible sensory C-fiber denervation. The adult rats that were neonatally treated with capsaicin showed a more serious inflammatory response to systemic SP infusion as compared with animals neonatally treated with vehicle. HT still had the anti-inflammatory effects on the neurogenic inflammation that induced by SP. The results indicated that animals with sensory C-fiber denervation might conserve their neurogenic inflammatory responses and were hypersensitive to SP. In conclusion, the HT could attenuate the neurogenic inflammation that induced by different drugs or methods, and the anti-inflammatory effects were correlated with the increase in HSP72 expression. In the neurogenic inflammation induced by SP, the activation of histamine H1 receptors may enhance inflammation, but the activity of endogenous iNOS was less effective.

In recent years, frequent global disasters such as Typhoon Morakot Republic of China 98 years with the 2011 earthquake in northeastern Japan, these disasters have caused the destruction of large-scale and large-scale, often the government or private relief organizations generally can not load capacity , to compensate for inadequate relief efficiency can be deployed quickly, efficiently support the government's disaster relief units and discipline, national army, police, the main consumer unit, and police units to maintain social order based, such as the main use for disaster relief, more not suitable, so the domestic disaster relief units, non-military, none other than the consumer unit, while the main army to fight, and its legitimacy in the context of this study, in the case of national disaster and emergency rescue shows that the military action in emergency relief and response play a very important role. Both discipline and efficiency not only for the organization, and disaster prevention and emergency response is to rescue the most important time, my country is satisfied that the military after the disaster since Typhoon Morakot one of the central task, while the military situation of disaster relief to the value created out of nothing. However, the national security and domestic disaster prevention organizations have not effectively integrated in the mechanism are also required to solve the problem, when disaster strikes, often severely affected by different levels of the efficiency of disaster relief. Therefore, this research study focused on the motive. The collate and analyze the U.S., Japan and the Chinese military system and the prevention of military, fire and victims of views, some suggestions are as follows: First, refer to the Japanese military relief and rescue regulations of the military situation for me complete relief laws; II to this new security and Taipei and Taichung million concentric drill, for example, development of military active duty, reserve and local governments have to develop mutual support of the relief plan with the annual military exercise, the norm of the exercise; Third, investment needs and national defense disaster training, raises the cost effectiveness of investment in national defense and disaster relief of the legitimacy of the military; Fourth, prevention must be added back to the mobilization and training facilities to meet the current social change. Need to continue to promote the future "sense of urgency of national defense establishment," "a complete disaster laws and regulations", "Construction of National Defense of the security system," the consensus. Basis should be established in future, committed to sophisticated, the forward-looking, overall, the reference approach the major advanced countries, to measure state conditions, a set of conditions for me really disaster prevention system in order to achieve "peace maintaining an army less military forces during the war and more "of the goal to meet the future needs of national defense, military disaster relief mission to reach.

Mevinphos (Mev) is an orgnophosphate insectide used for suicidal purposes in Taiwan; seizure and cardiovascular depression are commom syptoms observed in organophosphate-poisoned patients. The amygdala (AMG) is part of the limbic system and the basolateral nucleus of AMG (BLA) is one of the most seizure-prone brain structures. The central neucleus of AMG (CeA) is thought to play a central role in behavioral, physiological response and cardiovascular regulation. However, detailed mechanisms in Mev-induced seizure and cardiovascular depression by an action on AMG are lacking. Based on electroencephalographic (EEG) activity to indicate neuronal electrical activity and arterial blood pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR) to indicate cardiovascular responses, the present study investigated whether Mev acts on AMG to elicit seizure or cardiovascular depression. Microinjection of Mev into BLA of adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats maintained under propofol anesthesia increased EEG activity in AMG, cortex and CA3 of hippocampus leading to seizure initiation; however AP, HR, respiration rate (RR) and the power density of low-frequency (LF) component of AP was not significantly changed. Microinjection of Mev into BLA also time-dependently increased protein level and mRNA of cytokines interleukin (IL)-12, IL-13, tumor suppressor factor alpha (TNF£\) and interferon gamma (IFN£^) and cyclooxygenase (COX) activity in AMG. Microinjection of Mev into CA3 induced less seizure activity in cortex and CA3 than that induced by microinjection of Mev into BLA. In addition, microinjection Mev into CA3 did not induce seizure in AMG. These results suggest that Mev acted on BLA to initiate limbic seizures. Intraperitoneal injection of muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine (ATR), which can pass the blood-brain barrier (BBB), activator of GABAergic neurotransmission midazolam (MDZ) or antiinflaamatory agent pentoxifylline (PTX) and Lisofylline (LSF), but not muscarinic receptor antagonist atropine methyl nitrate (AMN), which can not pass BBB, inhibited Mev-induced seizure and increase of cytokines in AMG by an action on BLA. Microinjection of ATR, COX-1 inhibitor naproxen (NPX) or COX-2 inhibitor NS-398, antiserum against receptor of IL-12, IL-13, TNF£\ or IFN£^, but not nicotinic receptor antagonist mecamylamine (MEL), into BLA inhibited Mev-induced seizure and increase of cytokines and COX activity in AMG by an action on BLA. However, caspase 3 activity and DNA fragmentation at AMG were not changed by microinjection of Mev into BLA. Microinjection of Mev into CeA induced a decrease in AP and RR leading to cardiovascular depression and an increase of power desity of LF, accompanied with insignificant HR and EEG activity change. Microinjection of Mev into CeA induced the time-dependently increase of caspase 3 activity and DNA fragmentation leading to apoptosis in AMG. Microinjection of ATR or caspase 3-dependent apoptosome inhibitor NS-3694, but not MEL, into CeA inhibited cardiovascular depression and the increase of caspase 3 activity and DNA fragmentation induced by Mev action on CeA. However, the levels of cytokines were not changed by Mev treatment. Intravenous injection of Mev did not induce changes of partial pressure of oxygen, blood flow and the level of superoxide anion in AMG. In addition, microinjection of Mev into BLA or CeA did not affect the level of superoxide anion in AMG. These results suggest that AMG mediates the initiation of seizure and cardiovascular depression induced by Mev. Furthermore, inflammation in BLA and apoptosis in CeA individually play an important role in Mev-induced seizure and cardiovascular depression.

Phosphorus is an essential element for plant growth and development. Due to its low availability, solubility and mobility, phosphate is often the limiting macronutrient for crops and other plants. Plants have evolved several responses to phosphate deficiency. However, very little is known about the molecular basis of these responses. Here, I study the expression of PAP12, its role in the phosphate starvation response and the interaction of its promoter with nuclear factors. Analysis of a PAP12 T-DNA insertion line (pap12-1) revealed PAP12 is responsible for the majority of the acid phosphatase activity detected by the standard in-gel assay. RNA gel blots showed that PAP12 was induced only by Pi deficiency, and not by general nutrient stress. PAP12 expression, at the RNA and protein level, reflected endogenous phosphate levels in two mutants with altered phosphate accumulation. In the pho1 mutant, PAP12 expression and activity were up-regulated with respect to wild-type plants, and in the pho2 mutant, PAP12 expression and activity were reduced. Analysis of the PAP12 promoter using promoter-GUS fusions revealed expression in leaves, roots, flowers, hydathodes, root tips, and pollen grains. This broad pattern of expression suggests that PAP12 functions throughout the plant in response to low phosphate concentrations. The results showed PAP12 does not play a major role in phosphate remobilization, acquisition or in helping plants cope with low phosphate environments. Instead, the major phenotype associated with PAP12 deficiency was a significant delay in flowering in the low-phosphate pho1 background and a slight acceleration of flowering in the high-phosphate pho2 background over-expressing PAP12. These results suggest that PAP12 may have a role in linking phosphate status with the transition to flowering. Finally, I used promoter deletion and DNA-protein interaction assay to understand PAP12 expression upon phosphate starvation. A 35-bp region of the PAP12 promoter was identified as an important phosphate regulatory cis-element required for induction during phosphate starvation. We isolated a 23.5 kDa nuclear factor, which binds to this 35-bp region of the PAP12 promoter in a phosphate-dependent manner. The work presented here will add to our knowledge about the molecular processes that regulate phosphate nutrition.

The most recent development in the field of Item Response Theory (IRT) has been the evaluation of IRT models as multilevel models, known as Multilevel IRT models (MLIRT). These models offer several statistical and practical advantages over ordinary IRT models. However, models such as 2-PL MLIRT models have not been studied yet. This dissertation consists of two studies, a simulation and a substantiation for an urban school district dataset. The simulation study tested the performance of twoparameter (2-PL) MLIRT models with predictor variables under various conditions that included 3 test lengths (15, 30, and 60 items), 4 sample sizes (200, 500, 1000, and 2000), 2 correlation conditions between the predictor variable and the ability (or attitude) parameter (rpb=.35 and .8), and 4 binomial distributions of the predictor variable (p=0.1, 0.25, 0.4, and 0.5). The bias and Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) values of the item parameters indicated that the distribution of the predictor variable and the correlation between the predictor and the ability (or attitude) parameter did not affect the estimates of 2-PL MLIRT models. These models performed well for sample sizes as low as 500 and test lengths as low as 15 which is lower than the required sample size for ordinary IRT models. Even for a sample size of 200, sufficiently accurate estimates were obtained with more than 300 iterations. The second study investigated the characteristics of the items that measured urban teachers’ perceptions of cultural awareness and beliefs about teaching African American children and tested whether these perceptions were influenced by the teachers’ gender, ethnicity, or teaching experience. Teacher beliefs about teaching African American students, culturally responsive management, and cultural awareness factors were influenced by the ethnicity of the teachers. Culturally responsive management, home and community support, and curriculum and instructional strategies factors were influenced by the teaching experience of the teachers. Items that were biased based on ethnicity or teaching experience were identified. None of the items exhibited gender bias. The study identified items that could be used over other items when the need for a shorter instrument or more informative categories arises.

With the rising prevalence of diabetes, effective means of successful management of blood glucose levels are increasingly important. To improve on the ease of measurements, new technology is being developed to enable less invasive measurements. Some recent efforts have focused on the development of optical microscale glucose sensing systems based on the encapsulation of glucose oxidase within microspheres coated with polyelectrolyte multilayer nanofilms. In such sensors, a phosphorescent oxygen indicator is also co-encapsulated with the enzyme inside so that when glucose is present, glucose oxidase within the sensor reduces the local oxygen levels, causing a corresponding change in the luminescence intensity of the sensors. To test the aforementioned factors, a two-substrate, 2D FEM model of microscale optical glucose sensors in the dermis was developed. The model was used to predict the response time and sensitivity of glucose sensors with varying number and spacing of particles distributed in the dermis and varying physiological characteristics of the surrounding tissue; specifically, capillary density, blood vessel location relative to sensor, and glucose and oxygen consumption in tissue. Simulations were conducted to determine the magnitude of the change in the response time of sensors. Because the steady-state oxygen concentration within the sensors for a given blood glucose level determines the signal output, steady-state concentration of oxygen within sensors and the surrounding tissue for the entire physiological glucose range was evaluated. The utility of the model to predict the performance and efficacy of the sensors in the event of a host response to the foreign body implant was also evaluated. Simulations were performed to evaluate changes in sensor response and sensitivity in the occurrence of inflammation and progression of fibrous encapsulation of various thickness and density. The results from these simulations have provided knowledge on the impact of physiological factors that can potentially degrade sensor function in vivo. Our results indicate that upon the occurrence of a host response, sensitivity is reduced while range is extended. Furthermore, using the model we have been able to determine which conditions in vivo improve response time, sensitivity, and the linear response range for these sensors.

Along with the rapid development of industrial and commercial industries, the extent of disasters in Kaohsiung city in recent years due to highly concentrated population, newly erected skyscrapers and factories is far beyond one's imagination. By using the Kaohsiung Emergency Operation Center (KEOC) as an example, this study investigates practical operations, including disaster prevention, disaster emergency action, restoration and reconstruction after disaster, etc., of the emergency operation center at a special municipality level. Methodologies utilized in this study include literature review, direct observation, questionnaire survey, and statistical analysis by using the SPSS software package for Windows (Version 8.0). Main conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: 1. The regional plan for disaster prevention and response needs to be specified. 2. Manpower for disaster prevention and response of Kaohsiung city needs to be increased and the duties need to be specified. 3. Budgets for disaster prevention and response need to be prepared liberally. More equipments and devices for disaster prevention and response need to be purchased. 4. Personnel training, exercise and teamwork/cooperation for disaster prevention and response should be conducted seriously. 5. Persuade the public that prevention is better than rescue. 6. Actions for disaster prevention and response should be incorporated into the local communities. 7. Modern emergency operation centers need to be well constructed. 8. Data for disaster prevention and response need to be integrated and processed into useful information. 9. Set up standard operating procedures (SOP) for disaster rescue and crisis management. 10. Integration and utilization of volunteers for disaster prevention and response need to be institutionalized. 11. Task schedules need to be well controlled, supervised, and checked. Recommendations from this study are summarized as follows: 1. Set up short, medium, and long-term objectives properly for disaster prevention and response. 2. Set up a duty-oriented unit for disaster prevention and response according to the law. 3. It is more appropriate than the current organizational system to combine the KEOC and Rescue Command Center, Fire Bureau into one task force and fulfill the services at one site. 4. It is recommended that Kaohsiung city government should actively pursue the establishment of the Southern Stand-by Supporting Unit, Central Emergency Operation Center in Kaohsiung city . 5. Amend related laws and regulations for disaster prevention and response as soon as possible. All recommendations mentioned above provide not only Kaohsiung city, but other counties and cities as well, with valuable references pertaining to establishing and operating the most efficient emergency operation center.

In our investigation, fully expanded tobacco leaves were used to study the hypersensitive response caused by the inoculation of INF1 purified from E. coli strains DH5£\