Lee Po Yuk. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 75-81.

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PhD, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 1993

The Mycobacteria are a genus of bacteria which are acid-fast, non-motile, grampositive rods. The genus comprises several species classified into three main groups. Firstly, the major group of these organisms, which poses the biggest threat, is the M. tuberculosis complex which can cause tuberculosis-like disease. These include M. bovis, M. africanum and M. microti. Members of the M. tuberculosis complex are not found in the environment. The second group is M. leprae which is the causative agent of leprosy. The last group constitutes the nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), which are all the environmental mycobacteria that can cause various diseases resembling tuberculosis. Due to the importance of environmental mycobacteria, 15 mycobacteria isolates were isolated from environmental samples such as soil, water and drinking water biofilms. After PCR amplification of the hsp65 gene using genus specific primers hsp65, the isolates revealed sequences similarities when compared with the well characterized mycobacteria in the GenBank. Alignment of the nucleotide sequences and homology analysis were done with Clustall. It has been suggested that mycobacteria-associated phages (mycobacteriophages) may make an important contribution to the evolution of pathogenic mycobacteria. Spontaneous induction of phage associated with mycobacteria isolates using overlay and indicator plate methods was not successful to detect the presence of any inducible phage. A phage was isolated from soil samples that was designated the name A22. After purification and characterization. A22 phage was compared morphologically to well characterized L5 phage using electron microscopy. Morphological studies revealed that A22 mycobacteriophage had a non-contractile tail approximately 150 nm long with an isometric head approximately 60 nm, the phage could be assigned to the family Siphoviridae, According to these criteria, both of the phages (A22 and L5) belong to the order Caudovirales (tailed bacteriophages). Based on PCR amplification of A22 phage DNA using L5 gp71 specific primers and the infection of M. smegmatis L5 lysogen, we believe that this novel A22 phage differs from L5 phage.

In clinical findings, complications are the major cause of death in cirrhotic patients. Among all the complications, ascites is most frequent type. All cirrhotic patients with ascites could develop spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). The hospitalized prevalence of SBP was high (30%) in cirrhotic ascites patients. However, the outcome of cirrhotic SBP patients has been improved because of using the antibiotics cephalosporins. Furthermore, treatment with intravenous albumin in addition to cephalosporins reduced the incidence of renal impairment and the mortality in SBP patients in a multicentre study. However, other studies showed that administration of albumin might not work as effectively as other plasma expanders do. Moreover, administration of large volume albumin would make the medication very expensive and might have potential risk of infectious disease, since the therapeutic albumin is extracted from human plasma. Therefore, to treat patients with large volume albumin become disputable. In this study, we evaluated the effects of small volume intravenous albumin with cephalosporins treatments through monitoring patients¡¦ renal and hepatic functions and related inflammatory markers. Results showed that plasma TNF-£\, £LL-6 and ascites endotoxin, TNF-£\ and IL-6 levels were significantly reduced in patients treated with cephalosporins plus small volume albumin, but not in those treated with cephalosporins alone. Also, the combination therapy of cephalosporins and small volume albumin avoid the dramatically elevation of plasma and ascites nitric oxide, as well as the further degree of renal function impairment. The positive results of this study laid a solid foundation for a large scale investigation.

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Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Chemistry, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 234-240.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Physics)--Vanderbilt University, May 2005. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-157).

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