Este estudo avalia a qualidade de vida de sujeitos acometidos por tumores musculoesqueléticos de membros inferiores, submetidos a cirurgias de ressecção, com salvamento de membro ou amputação. A casuística foi composta por 56 sujeitos, avaliados no período de 14 meses (agosto de 2011 a setembro de 2012), que foram divididos em três grupos: 1- 12 amputados; 2- 16 em pós-operatório de salvamento do membro (colocação de endoprótese ou reconstrução biológica); 3- sujeitos saudáveis (sem diagnóstico de câncer), selecionados entre a população em geral, de forma pareada com os outros grupos, segundo sexo, idade, escolaridade e condição socioeconômica. Além do Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil (2010), foram aplicados dois protocolos de avaliação, um de qualidade de vida (Medical Outcomes Study 36 - Item Short-Form Health Survey - SF-36) e o outro de capacidade funcional (Toronto Extremity Salvage Score - TESS), ambos adaptados culturalmente e validados no Brasil. Os dados foram estatisticamente analisados, conforme preconizado por cada protocolo. Os resultados indicaram que ambos os tipos de abordagem cirúrgica (amputação ou reconstrução) produziram prejuízos na capacidade funcional e na qualidade de vida dos sujeitos acometidos por tumores musculoesqueléticos, quando comparados à população saudável. Diferentemente do que apontaram outros trabalhos internacionais com casuística semelhante, os sujeitos submetidos a amputações apresentaram resultados melhores relacionados à sua capacidade funcional e à qualidade de vida, na maioria dos domínios do SF36 e com relevância estatística (p=0,001) no escore final do TESS, do que aqueles submetidos a técnicas de salvamento de membro. Por fim, é importante analisar a percepção dos sujeitos sobre sua funcionalidade e qualidade de vida, de modo a encontrar caminhos mais adequados no processo de reabilitação desta população. / This study appraises the quality of life of individuals with musculoskeletal tumors in lower extremities, undergoing resection surgeries with extremity salvage or amputation. The casuistry was composed by 56 subjects assessed in the course of 14 months (from August, 2001 to September, 2012), who were divided into 3 groups: 1- 12 amputated; 2- 16 in postsurgical extremity salvage (endoprosthesis implant or biological reconstruction); 3- healthy subjects (without cancer diagnosis), selected from the whole population, paired off with other groups, according to sex, age, schooling and socioeconomic status. Besides the Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil (2010), two assessment protocols were applied, one about quality of life (Medical Outcomes Study 36 - Item Short-Form Health Survey - SF-36), and the other one about functional capacity (Toronto Extremity Salvage Score - TESS), both culturally adapted and validated in Brazil. The data were statistically analyzed according to what each protocol proclaims. The results revealed that both surgical approach types (amputation or reconstruction) caused harm to the functional capacity and to the quality of life of the subjects suffering from musculoskeletal tumors, when compared to the healthy population. Unlike what other international papers with similar casuistry have shown, the subjects undergoing amputation presented better results related to their functional capacity and quality of life, in the majority of the domains of SF36, with statistical relevance (p=0.001), than those submitted to the techniques of extremity salvage. Finally, it is important to analyze the subjects\' perception on their functionality and quality of life in order to discover the most suitable ways in the process of rehabilitating this population.

An estimated 1,735,350 new cancer diagnosis and 609,640 cancer related deaths are predicted to occur in the United States in 2018. To improve patient prognosis, biomarkers are needed to identify cancer in early stages. When diagnosed at an early stage, cancer is more likely to respond to treatments and patients have a higher survival rate. Consequently, there is an ever-present need to identify biomarkers that can aid in the detection of cancer. Additionally, there is a paradigm shift in the field of cancer treatment towards immunotherapy. Traditional cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy and are not cancer-specific, which leads to bystander effects on the patient<&trade>s normal organs that often harm the patient and create unnecessary hardship. To alleviate this, immunotherapy utilizes a patient<&trade>s own immune cells to attack and destroy cancer cells via cancer-specific biomarkers. These biomarkers are ideally on the surface of cancer cells and absent from the patient<&trade>s normal cells to avoid healthy tissue destruction. With this new therapy, there is a recent push to find surface antigens for immunotherapy techniques.This dissertation describes the characterization of HPRT as a diagnostic and therapeutic biomarker for the detection and possible treatment of hematological and solid malignancies. We describe the general upregulation of HPRT upon malignancy and show that this elevation in protein expression is independent of stage, which indicates that it would be useful as an early stage diagnostic companion tool. We have preliminarily linked the elevation in HPRT to a mutation in one of its prime transcription factors, p53. Specific mutation in p53 called Gain of Function mutations have shown to influence salvage pathway enzyme expression, and we have shown that mutations in p53 are relevant to the elevated levels of HPRT within several cancer types. In addition, we also found that HPRT associates significantly with the membrane of several cancer cell lines as well as patient samples. We found that HPRT has insignificant expression on normal cells, which suggests it may be useful as a targetable biomarker for immunotherapy. Throughout our analysis, we also determined that HPRT might have a role in immune regulation as an elevation of the protein correlates to the decrease of several pro-inflammatory genes involved in immune activation. The knowledge gained from the data presented in this dissertation have opened up new functions for HPRT outside of simple nucleotide production and have confirmed that HPRT has a unique role in cancer that has not been previously reported.

In our studies we found that stabilized expression of HIF-1α in heart led to better recovery of function and less tissue death after 30 minutes of global ischemia, via mechanisms that preserve the mitochondrial polarization. Our group previously showed that HIF-1α conferred ischemic tolerance by allowing cardiomyocytes to use fumarate as an alternative terminal electron acceptor to sustain anaerobic mitochondrial polarization. The source of fumarate was identified as the purine nucleotide cycle (PNC). Here we discovered that HIF-1α upregulates AMP deaminase 2 (AMPD2), the entry point to the PNC. The combination of glycolysis and the PNC may protect the heart's nucleotide resources. We subsequently examined the effects that HIF-1α exerts on nucleotide metabolism in the ischemic heart. We found that HIF-1α expression reduces adenosine accumulation in the ischemic heart. As ATP is depleted during ischemia, AMP accumulates. Our results suggest that AMP metabolism is shunted towards AMPD2 rather than the adenosine producing 5'-nucleotidase pathway. Subsequently, we treated hearts with the PNC inhibitor hadacidin followed by 30 minutes of global ischemia. Inclusion of hadacidin reduced ATP and adenylate energy charge in the hearts. These findings allow us to propose that activity of the PNC prevents the F0F1 ATP synthase from consuming glycolytic ATP in order to maintain mitochondrial polarization during ischemia. Thus, the PNC provides ATP sparing effects and preserves the energy charge in the ischemic heart. The fact that ATP and adenylate energy charge is better preserved during the initial 20 minutes of ischemia in HIF-1α expressing hearts is supportive of our observation that HIF-1α upregulates the PNC. HIF-1α also upregulates adenosine deaminase, which degrades adenosine. The limitation of adenosine accumulation may help HIF-1α expressing hearts avoid toxicity due to chronic adenosine exposure. Finally, we found that HIF-1α induces the expression of the nucleotide salvage enzyme hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT). Upon reperfusion HPRT serves to reincorporate the nucleotide degradation product, hypoxanthine, into the adenylate pool and may prevent the production of reactive oxygen species. Collectively, HIF-1α robustly protects the heart from ischemic stress and it upregulates several pathways whose cardioprotective role may extend beyond the remodeling of nucleotide metabolism.

Since the late 1970s, archaeology has grown into an industry whose practitioners work in both public and private sectors. As an industry, modern archeology is commonly known as Cultural Resources Management, or CRM. CRM emerged from a surplus of employment opportunities made available to archeologists after the passing of National heritage legislation. This legislation defines the importance of discovering, documenting, and recovering the places and objects associated with people and events important to United States' history. As there are many different people who are considered to be important to United States' history (e.g., past presidents, Native Americans), there are as many different archeologists seeking to participate in its interpretation, each with various educational and experience backgrounds. While CRM has been successful in partially piecing back together history, its practitioners confront numerous challenges. These challenges are often associated with meeting the standards outlined by the legislation but also include challenges associated with industry personnel. In some cases, the industry's efforts to meet these standards have led to labor problems. As a result, many CRM employees today see a separation between industry managers and industry laborers that has made it increasingly difficult to fulfill the goals of the legislation and to ultimately contribute to our understanding of the past. Primarily, the role and contribution of field technicians to CRM is being debated by many CRM practitioners. This thesis explores the relationship between the two primary CRM personnel parties - the managers and laborers in an effort to define the labor problems confronting CRM personnel, how they have evolved, and what solutions are available to them (both managers and laborers). To this end, I surveyed industry managers and field technicians to better understand how each perceives the role of field technicians. Challenges confronting CRM personnel will be shown to partially stem from low industry wages, deficient safety policies and procedures, out-dated academic curricula, and a lack of communication between managers and field technicians. Investigations of the relationship between management and labor provide a unique opportunity to explore a multitude of questions related to CRM employment over the past two decades and in the future. / Graduation date: 2001

Adenosine (Ado) salvage is essential in plant development. The lack of Ado kinase activity (ADK) in Arabidopsis thaliana adk1 adk2 double mutants results in embryonic lethality; reduction of ADK expression causes a pleiotropic phenotype due to the accumulation of Ado inhibiting transmethylation activities. The phenotype of ADK mutants shows that this enzyme plays a critical role in Ado salvage but the functional significance of the other putative Ado recycling enzymes Ado deaminase (ADA) and Ado nucleosidase (ADN) in Arabidopsis thaliana have yet to be elucidated. ADA catalyzes the irreversible deamination of Ado to inosine. The locus At4g04880 (AtADA) of A. thaliana is annotated as encoding a putative ADA, based on its amino acid sequence similarity and the presence of important, conserved catalytic residues. However, indirect and direct spectrophotometric activity assays of the recombinant enzyme demonstrated that the gene product of this locus does not possess ADA activity; complementation experiments to test for the functionality of the AtADA product in A. thaliana and E. coli confirmed its lack of ADA activity. Instead, phylogenetic analysis revealed that AtADA belongs to the group of ADA-like (ADAL) proteins, a group closely related to ADAs that to date have not been shown to have ADA activity. AtADA is no exception as it also lacks ADA activity based on the in vivo and in vitro experiments outlined in this thesis. Thus, the locus At4g04880 should be re-annotated as ADAL. The question of the function of AtADAL cannot be answered as of yet; in general, the knockout of ADA gene product demonstrated that At4g04880 is not essential for Arabidopsis growth. Since no further ADA-related genes exist in the genome of Arabidopsis it is concluded that ADA activity is not present in this plant. ADN catalyzes the conversion of purine and pyrimidine ribosides to their corresponding bases; although it prefers Ado as a substrate it also acts on cytokinins. The activity of this enzyme has been described in several plant species but no corresponding genes have been identified to date. The genome of Arabidopsis was screened for ADN genes using an inosine-uridine nucleoside hydrolase sequence from the protozoa Crithidia fasciculata. Two genes, annotated as ADN1 and ADN2 were identified and their gene products were studied using a spectrophotometric assay. The substrate spectrum of ADN2 includes both purine and pyrimidine nucleosides but it prefers to utilize uridine. Thus, ADN2 is proposed to be involved in the purine and pyrimidine salvage in Arabidopsis but predominantly in uridine recycling. Recombinant ADN1 did not show activity on any of the tested substrates. Even though the in vivo role of both ADNs is still uncertain, due to their lack or low activity on Ado there may yet be the ADN gene in the Arabidopsis genome which likely acts on both adenosine and cytokinin ribosides.

Adenosine (Ado) salvage is essential in plant development. The lack of Ado kinase activity (ADK) in Arabidopsis thaliana adk1 adk2 double mutants results in embryonic lethality; reduction of ADK expression causes a pleiotropic phenotype due to the accumulation of Ado inhibiting transmethylation activities. The phenotype of ADK mutants shows that this enzyme plays a critical role in Ado salvage but the functional significance of the other putative Ado recycling enzymes Ado deaminase (ADA) and Ado nucleosidase (ADN) in Arabidopsis thaliana have yet to be elucidated. ADA catalyzes the irreversible deamination of Ado to inosine. The locus At4g04880 (AtADA) of A. thaliana is annotated as encoding a putative ADA, based on its amino acid sequence similarity and the presence of important, conserved catalytic residues. However, indirect and direct spectrophotometric activity assays of the recombinant enzyme demonstrated that the gene product of this locus does not possess ADA activity; complementation experiments to test for the functionality of the AtADA product in A. thaliana and E. coli confirmed its lack of ADA activity. Instead, phylogenetic analysis revealed that AtADA belongs to the group of ADA-like (ADAL) proteins, a group closely related to ADAs that to date have not been shown to have ADA activity. AtADA is no exception as it also lacks ADA activity based on the in vivo and in vitro experiments outlined in this thesis. Thus, the locus At4g04880 should be re-annotated as ADAL. The question of the function of AtADAL cannot be answered as of yet; in general, the knockout of ADA gene product demonstrated that At4g04880 is not essential for Arabidopsis growth. Since no further ADA-related genes exist in the genome of Arabidopsis it is concluded that ADA activity is not present in this plant. ADN catalyzes the conversion of purine and pyrimidine ribosides to their corresponding bases; although it prefers Ado as a substrate it also acts on cytokinins. The activity of this enzyme has been described in several plant species but no corresponding genes have been identified to date. The genome of Arabidopsis was screened for ADN genes using an inosine-uridine nucleoside hydrolase sequence from the protozoa Crithidia fasciculata. Two genes, annotated as ADN1 and ADN2 were identified and their gene products were studied using a spectrophotometric assay. The substrate spectrum of ADN2 includes both purine and pyrimidine nucleosides but it prefers to utilize uridine. Thus, ADN2 is proposed to be involved in the purine and pyrimidine salvage in Arabidopsis but predominantly in uridine recycling. Recombinant ADN1 did not show activity on any of the tested substrates. Even though the in vivo role of both ADNs is still uncertain, due to their lack or low activity on Ado there may yet be the ADN gene in the Arabidopsis genome which likely acts on both adenosine and cytokinin ribosides.

Abstract Taiwan is surrounded by an ocean with abundant marine resources. It is a typical island-nation with an excellent geological location. Taiwan¡¦s trade, traffic, and fishing industries rely heavily on the ocean their main natural mediation channel. Thus, the marine policy has always been the government¡¦s main administrative focus. Apart from continuing to protect marine ecological resources and promote the policy of marine environment sustainability, the government of Taiwan also actively promotes marine-related projects related to technological research and development, reuse of resources, and industrial development. Since 2008 and after four signed agreements of cross-strait marine transport, the cross-strait bilateral relation has moved toward a stable development, and the policy of cross-strait exchange has been loosened. This has enabled the maritime transport between Mainland China and Taiwan to increase enormously into large-scale bilateral marine transport. The geological position of the Taiwan Strait- long with the safety of maritime navigation in the area- is now far more important as the number of marine transport, fishing vessels, and shipwrecks has increased rapidly. These have all significantly highlighted the issue of marine search and rescue. Marine search and rescue is a humanitarian act. It is an obligatory duty of those involved in marine search and rescue operations to rescue those facing danger during maritime activities. Therefore, under the principle of highly valuing issues related to both bilateral parties across the Taiwan Strait, this thesis analyzes the procedures and practices of mutual marine search and rescue based on cross-strait marine search and rescue mechanisms. This thesis proposes, a systematic model of cooperation with a precondition of not endangering bilateral sovereignty. The example of the Kinmen and Xiamen areas as the shortest distance between Mainland China and Taiwan is the focus of analysis. The discussion emphasizes how to establish the fastest and most efficient joint search and rescue mechanisms within the shortest distance so that the model can be adopted in other areas of the Taiwan Strait and even beyond to create a safer global marine environment. Key words: marine search and rescue, marine salvage, regional cooperation, joint search and rescue mechanisms, Kinmen, Xiamen

This thesis provides an analysis of aboriginal involvement in archaeological resource management in British Columbia and explores the potential of co-operative arrangements for the development of a more inclusive management regime. The objectives of the thesis are (i) to investigate the role of First Nations in the development of archaeology and archaeological resource management, (ii) to compare aboriginal community-based heritage management initiatives in B.C. with those operating within the Yukon and Northwest Territories and the U.S., (iii) to develop an aboriginal involvement framework to analyze aboriginal participation in archaeological resource management in B.C., and (iv) to assess the opportunities and constraints to increased aboriginal involvement in archaeological resource management in B.C. Preliminary chapters outline the historical, legislative, and theoretical contexts for this study. Relevant literature is reviewed to provide a discussion of the development of archaeology and its effects on aboriginal people. The creation of a management ethic for archaeology is presented together with the nature of aboriginal participation in the management process. Secondly, literature pertaining to aboriginal involvement in resource management is surveyed to provide a context for analyzing aboriginal participation in archaeological resource management. From this review an aboriginal involvement framework is developed. Based on the themes discussed in preceding chapters and the proposed framework, six key concepts of aboriginal involvement in archaeological resource management are identified to provide structure for an analysis of aboriginal involvement in archaeological resource management in B.C. Next, in case study format, the Sto:lo Nation's approach to heritage management is analyzed using the key concepts distilled from the framework. The Sto:lo Nation's experience with managing archaeology is followed by a discussion of the provincial approach to archaeological resource management. The contrasting nature of both the Sto:lo Nation's and the Province's approaches to archaeological resource management is discussed and the difficulties inherent in developing a more inclusive management regime are highlighted. Finally, a set of opportunities and constraints to the development of a co-operative approach to archaeological resource management is outlined. This set is derived both from the events and literature discussed in the previous chapters as well as the results of the case study investigation. A pilot project for the co-operative management of archaeological resources is suggested and the benefits of such an approach are discussed. The thesis closes with the presentation of conditions to facilitate the development of co-operative management of archaeological resources in B.C.

No description available.

Waste management has received very little attention in Lesotho' s Development Planning. Lack of environmental policy and environmental framework law has resulted in waste being illegally dumped. Inadequate services in the country, coupled with increasing population in the urban areas due to rural-urban migration, has led to litter being a serious environmental problem in the whole country, especially in the urban areas. This study aims to analyse the defects of the waste management strategies in Maseru by investigating the waste management systems employed in two residential areas of different income levels. In addition, this thesis attempts to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic and educational factors on solid waste management practices in Maseru. An investigation into trends or similarities in the services rendered by the Maseru City Council was carried out and compared with the literature reviewed. A survey was conducted as two case studies, mainly to assess the present coverage and the standard of refuse generation, collection and disposal service. Waste was collected from the two study areas and compared in terms of the type and amount of waste. generated. The major factors influencing waste generation were found to be the gender and educational level of the household head, income level of the household and the household size. These were found to be proportional to waste generation and inter-related. In this regard, that families headed by men were found to have higher incomes than those headed by women and were found to produce more waste. Furthermore, in households where the household head had attained a higher level of education, income levels increased, there was a concomitant increase in waste generation. In general, high income residential areas generated more waste than low income residential areas. Large families use more money and consume more food than small families, thus generate more waste. The major component of waste was largely paper and plastic, but glass, cans and organic materials were also recorded. In general, waste management in Maseru (Lesotho) was found to be very poor because of lack of policy and contradicting and scattered sectoral laws dealing with waste management, lack of urban planning and infrastructure. More importantly, waive of laws relating to waste has resulted in land degradation due to illegal dumping and littering. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzubrg, 1998.