<p>The Cell Broadband Engine processor is a powerful processor capable of over 220 GFLOPS. It is highly specialized and can be controlled in detail by the programmer. The Cell is significantly more complicated to program than a standard homogeneous multi core processor such as the Intel Core2 Duo and Quad. This thesis explores the possibility to abstract some of the complexities of Cell programming while maintaining high performance. The abstraction is achieved through a library of parallel skeletons implemented in the bulk synchronous parallel programming environment NestStep. The library includes constructs for user defined SIMD optimized data parallel skeletons such as map, reduce and more. The evaluation of the library includes porting of a vector based scientific computation program from sequential C code to the Cell using the library and the NestStep environment. The ported program shows good performance when compared to the sequential original code run on a high-end x86 processor. The evaluation also shows that a dot product implemented with the skeleton library is faster than the dot product in the IBM BLAS library for the Cell processor with more than two slave processors.</p><p> </p>

Little is known about protein profiles in slow-twitch (MHC I) and fast-twitch (MHC IIa and MHC IIx) human skeletal muscle fibers. Therefore we developed a method of assessing fiber type specific protein content across the continuum of human skeletal muscle fiber types. The method presented here combines the advantages of SDS-PAGE for fiber typing with the common Western Blot (WB) technique. Individual vastus lateralis muscle fibers (n = 264) were isolated and clipped into two portions, one for fiber-typing and one for protein identification. Following fiber type determination, WB destined fiber segments were combined into fiber type specific pools (20 fibers/pool) and assessed for GAPDH, actin, Citrate Synthase, and total p38 content. GAPDH expression was 69%, 92%, 159%, and 200% more abundant in MHC I/IIa, MHC IIa, MHC IIa/IIx, and MHC IIx pools when compared to MHC I, respectively. Inversely, Citrate synthase content was 526%, 497%, 316%, and 47% more abundant in MHC I, MHC I/IIa, MHC IIa, and MHC IIa/IIx when compared to MHC IIx, respectively. Similar to GAPDH, total p38 expression was 67% greater in MHC IIa versus MHC I fibers. These data establish a novel application of WB combined with SDS-PAGE for fiber type specific protein analysis in human skeletal muscle. These initial results show content of particular proteins exist in a hierarchal fashion throughout the continuum of human skeletal muscle fiber types. Application of these methods will enhance our understanding of skeletal muscle health profiles among physically active and clinically based populations. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Access to dissertation permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-247). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-50).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-247). Also available on the Internet.

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is the enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step in prostaglandin (PG) synthesis. In skeletal muscle, PGF2a, has been shown to regulate protein synthesis, and ibuprofen and acetaminophen have been shown to block the normal increase in PGF2a and muscle protein synthesis following resistance exercise in humans. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the expression of the COX-1 (COX-1 variants: COX-1 v1, -1v2, -1 b,, -1 b2, and -1b3) and COX-2 isoforms following resistance exercise to help elucidate the isoform or variant through which PGF2a, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen regulate muscle protein synthesis. Human skeletal muscle biopsy samples were taken from 16 individuals (8M, 8F) before, 4 h, and 24 h following a single bout of resistance exercise and analyzed using real-time RT-PCR. COX-Iv1 and COX-1v2 were the most abundant COX mRNA before exercise and remained unchanged (P>0.05) following exercise (i.e., constitutively expressed). Relatively few individuals expressed the intron 1-retaining COX-1 b variants (COX-1 b,, - 1b2, and -1 b3) at any time point, and when expressed these variants were in very low abundance. COX-2 was not expressed in any subject before exercise, but increased significantly (P<0.05) at 4 and 24 h following exercise. These results suggest that the intron 1-retaining COX-1 b,, -1 b2, and -lb3 variants are likely not the COX through which PGF2a is produced to stimulate skeletal muscle protein synthesis. PGF2a, stimulation, as well as ibuprofen and acetaminophen inhibition of skeletal muscle protein synthesis likely work through COX-2, or one of the constitutively expressed COX-1 variants (COX-lv1 or -1v2). / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Human Performance Laboratory

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

Intramuscular connective tissue is critical in maintaining muscle structure and the transfer of force from contractile elements to the bone. We examined intramuscular connective tissue characteristics in young and old men and women, as well as men and women subjected to simulated microgravity. We hypothesized that intramuscular collagen content, collagen cross-linking and formation of advanced glycation endproducts of old individuals would be greater than young, and that intramuscular collagen content would be elevated following prolonged periods of unloading spanning 35, 60 and 90 days. Vastus lateralis muscle biopsies revealed that intramuscular collagen (Young: 9.6±1.1, Old: 10.2±1.2 ug•mg muscle wet wf-') and collagen cross-links (hydroxylysylpyridinoline, HP) (Young: 395±65, Old: 351±45 mmol HP•mol collagen-1) were unchanged (p>0.05) with aging. The advanced glycation endproduct, pentosidine, was increased (p<0.05) by 203% (Young: 5.2±1.3, Old: 15.9±4.5 mmol pentosidine•mol collagen"') with aging. With unloading, collagen content of the vastus lateralis was unchanged (p>0.05) following all time periods but was found to be elevated (p<0.05) in the soleus following 90 days of unloading. Furthermore, baseline collagen content was found to greater (p<0.05) in the soleus compared to the vastus lateralis. These results suggest the age related decline in whole muscle function is not related to increases in intramuscular collagen content or cross-linking but may be related to the accumulation of advanced glycation endproducts. Muscle function following unloading does not appear to be impacted by collagen content in the vastus lateralis but may play a role in the soleus. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science