Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 106-117). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1998. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1998. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1994. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 2005. / "July 2005." Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-167). Also issued on the Internet.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-09-06Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:23:48Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 souza_op_dr_jabo.pdf: 702114 bytes, checksum: 62f8c2206d3bd986cdf084d974ce6d45 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Iftm - Instituto Federal do Triangulo Mineiro / Com este trabalho o objetivo foi avaliar o desempenho do abacaxizeiro cultivar Smooth Cayenne submetido a níveis e frequências de reposição de água no solo, sobre a produtividade, qualidade do fruto e eficiência do uso da água. O trabalho foi realizado no Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM), Campus Uberaba, no período de outubro de 2009 a dezembro de 2010. O experimento foi conduzido no delineamento em blocos casualizados, esquema fatorial 4 x 2, constituído por quatro níveis de reposição de água no solo (50%, 75%, 100% e 125% da evapotranspiração da cultura (ETc)) e duas frequências de irrigação (1 dia = F1 e 3 dias = F2) e quatro repetições. A ETo foi estimada a partir da evaporação diária da água do tanque “Classe A”. As lâminas de irrigação foram aplicadas por meio de um sistema de irrigação por gotejamento, com gotejadores espaçados a cada 30 cm e vazão de 3,75 L h-1. A parcela experimental foi constituída de duas linhas duplas, com 4 m de comprimento, 2,80 m de largura, densidade de 52 plantas por parcela, sendo consideradas 20 plantas para avaliação. No plantio foi usado o espaçamento em linhas duplas de 0,90 x 0,50 x 0,30 m. A produtividade dos frutos, diâmetro médio do caule, peso médio dos frutos com coroa, diâmetro médio do pedúnculo, número de mudas tipo filhote, filhote rebentão, ácido ascórbico, rendimento de suco e resistência média dos frutos sem casca não foram influenciados pelas lâminas de reposição da ETc e frequência de irrigação. Número médio de folhas, mudas tipo rebentão, sólidos solúveis totais, acidez total titulável, relação de SST/ATT, resistência média dos frutos com casca, potencial hidrogeniônico de suco e diâmetro médio dos frutos foram influenciado pelas lâminas de reposição... / With this research the objective was to evaluate the performance of the cultivar Smooth Cayenne pineapple subject to levels and frequencies of water reposition on soil by dripping, about productivity and quality of the fruit and water use efficiency. The research was performed at Federal Institute of Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM), Uberaba Campus, Brazil, from October 2009 to December 2010. The experiment was carried out on randomized block design, factorial 4x2, consisting of four levels of water reposition on soil (50%, 75%, 100% and 125%), of the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and two irrigation frequencies (1 day = F1 and 2 days = F2), with four repetitions. The ETc was estimated from the daily water evaporation on the “Class A” reservoir. The depths were applied through a dripping irrigation system, with drip emitters spaced every 30 cm, flow of 3,75 L h-1. The experimental plot was constituted of double rows, with 4 m of length, 2,80 m wide and density of 3,3 plants per meter, with 52 plants per plot. At planting, it was used spacing double lines measuring 0,90 x 0,50 x 0,30 m. The results showed that the increase on the ETc reposition and on the irrigation frequency did not produce a decrease in fruit productivity, average stem diameter, average fruits weight with crown, stalk diameter, number of slips, suckers, ascorbic acid, hydrogen potential of juice, juice yield and average unshelled fruit hardness. Bigger ETc reposition depths cause the increase on the average leafs number, the reduction of sucker slips, the increase of soluble solids (TSS), decreased acidity (TTA), increased the ratio of TSS/TTA, hardness rating of unpeeled fruits and decreased average of fruit diameter. Depths of 50% reposition... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) regulate vessel contraction but during diseases including atherosclerosis, SMCs undergo functional changes that contribute to pathology. Chronic inflammation in the vasculature exacerbates disease progression. Acute phase serum amyloid A (SAA) is up-regulated during inflammation and expressed in atherosclerotic lesions. Previous work in our laboratory demonstrated that SAA activates secretory phospholipase A2 group IIA (sPLA2), whose products impact cellular cholesterol homeostasis. It was hypothesized that SAA promotes cholesterol trafficking from the plasma membrane to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in an sPLA2-dependent manner. SAA induced SMC cholesterol accumulation in the ER. Levels of plasma membrane cholesterol decreased, confirming that cholesterol moved from the plasma membrane to the ER. Another family member, (cytosolic phospholipase A2, group IV), was also required for SAA-induced sPLA2 activation and cholesterol mobilization. SAA activated neutral sphingomyelinase and blocking this activity inhibited cholesterol trafficking. These studies show that SAA activated sPLA2 which activated neutral sphingomyelinase. As a result, sphingomyelin was cleaved, which liberated cholesterol for movement to the ER. Additional studies demonstrated that SAA repressed expression of SMC contractile markers including Acta2 and Myh11. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is an SAA receptor implicated in atherogenesis and it was hypothesized that TLR2 plays a role in SAA-mediated phenotype/gene changes. The TLR2 ligands, FSL and Pam3CSK4, down-regulated SMC contractile marker expression. Knockdown of TLR2 demonstrated that SAA-mediated phenotype modulation was TLR2-dependent. SAA, FSL, and Pam3CSK4 also induced mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory and adhesion genes, changes inhibited by TLR2 knockdown. SAA repressed activity of the αSMA promoter, demonstrating transcriptional regulation. Myocardin, a transcription factor required to drive expression of SMC contractile genes, was down-regulated by SAA and FSL. Myocardin overexpression abrogated SAA- and FSL-mediated repression of the αSMA and SM22α promoters. These studies demonstrate that SAA promoted a phenotypic switch through activation of TLR2 and down-regulation of myocardin expression. Taken together, novel SAA- and TLR2-mediated mechanisms of cholesterol trafficking and phenotypic modulation in SMCs are shown. Importantly, this work uncovers previously unknown effects of TLR2 signaling on vascular SMCs and provides a context by which TLR2 activation and lesion-associated SAA may promote atherosclerosis. / 2017-12-01T00:00:00Z

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Under normal conditions, smooth muscle cells do not replicate, or proliferate, and provide a means of contraction for many internal organs, including blood vessels and the gut. However, under abnormal or disease conditions, such as congenital heart disease and cancer, smooth muscle cells acquire the ability to replicate, to make extracellular matrix proteins and to migrate. Thus, determining how smooth muscle cells regulate these processes is crucial to understanding how the cells can switch between normal and diseased states. Serum response factor (SRF) is a widely expressed protein that plays a key role in the regulation of smooth muscle differentiation, proliferation and migration. It is generally accepted that one way that SRF can distinguish between these functions is through pathway-specific co-factor interactions. A novel SRF co-factor, chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 8 (CHD8), was originally isolated from a yeast two-hybrid assay. CHD8 is widely expressed in adult tissues including smooth muscle. Data from in vitro binding assays indicate that the N-terminus of CHD8 can interact directly with the MADS domain of SRF. Co-immunoprecipitation assays verified the ability of these two proteins to interact within cells. Adenoviral-mediated shRNA knockdown of CHD8 in smooth muscle cells resulted in statistically significant 10-20% attenuation of expression of SRF-dependent, smooth muscle-specific genes. Similar experiments revealed that knockdown of CHD8 did not affect the SRF-dependent induction of immediate early genes required to promote proliferation. In contrast, knockdown of CHD8 in A10 vascular smooth muscle cells resulted in a marked induction in of apoptosis, characterized by increases in apoptotic markers such as phospho-H2A.X, cleaved PARP and activated caspase-3. These data suggest that CHD8 may play a specific role in modulating SRF’s activity toward anti-apoptotic genes, thereby regulating smooth muscle cell survival.

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We apply anisotropic Banach space methods together with operator renewal theory to obtain polynomial rates of decay of correlations for a class of generalized baker's transformations. The polynomial rates were proved for a smaller class of observables in a 2013 paper of Bose and Murray by fundamentally different methods. Our approach provides a direct analysis of the Frobenius-Perron operator associated to a generalized baker's transformation in contrast to the paper of Bose and Murray where decay rates are obtained for a factor map and lifted to the full map. / Graduate