Entomolepididae é uma família de sifonostomatóides com distribuição cosmopolita. Até o momento, é composta por 9 gêneros e 19 species, com maior diversidade no Indo-Pacífico. Entomolepididade encontra-se dividida em duas subfamílias que diferem, basicamente, pelo número de segmentos pedígeros entre o cefalotórax e o escudo terminal - Parmulodinae apresenta apenas um segmento enquanto que Entomolepinae possui dois segmentos. Assim como nas subfamílias, é comum encontrar sobreposições nas diagnoses do gênero. Apesar de ser um grupo relativamente antigo, não há na literatura dados acerca das relações entre as espécies de Entomolepididae. Assim, esta tese teve por objetivo realizar uma revisão taxonômica e um estudo filogenético da família Entomolepididae. Ao estudar os espécimes tipos de Parmulodes verrucosus, e Entomopsyllus stocki, foi possível identificar inconsistências que levaram à redescrição da primeira e a adição de notas na descrição da segunda espécie. O estudo da fauna associada à esponjas do gênero Aplysina permitiu a identificação de 4 novas espécies de Spongiopsyllus: S. atypicus, S. stocki, S. boxshalli e S. hoi. O estudo filogenético incluiu as 23 espécies de Entomolepididade, conhecidas até então, além de 3 espécies de Asterocheridae como grupos-externos, e como resultado, foi obtida apenas 1 árvore maximamente parcimoniosa. Apenas a subfamília Entomolepinae foi recuperada como grupo monofilético. Dentre os gêneros de Entomolepididae, apenas Entomopsyllus não é monofilético. Spongiopsyllus mostrou-se um clado próximo à Entomopsyllus. A evolução de Entomolepididae envolveu muitos caracteres homoplásticos, tornado difícil o reconhecimento de padrões / Entomolepididae is a cosmopolitan siphonostomatoid family. Until now, the family is composed by 9 genera and 19 species with major diversity on Indo-Pacific Ocean. Entomolepididade has two subfamilies which differs basically by the number of pedigerous segments between the cephalotorax and the terminal shield - Parmulodinae show one segment instead Entomolepinae has two segments. As in the subfamilies, is common to find overlaps in genera diagnosis. Despite its ancient characteristics, do not have in the literature data concerning the relationships among Entomolepididae species. Thus, this thesis aimed to make a taxonomic revision and a phylogenetic study of Entomolepididae. The analyze of Parmulodes verrucosus, and Entomopsyllus stocki type specimens allowed the identification of incongruences that led to the redescription of the first and to the descriptional notes of the second species. The study of associated fauna of Aplysina sponges allow the idenification of 4 new Spongiopsyllus species: S. atypicus, S. stocki, S. boxshalli and S. hoi. The phylogenetic study include all 23 known Entomolepididae species, in addition to 3 Asterocheridae species as outgroups, resulting in 1 most parsimonious tree. Only the subfamily Entomolepinae was recovered as monophyletic. Among the genera, just Entomopsyllus was non-monophyletic. Spongiopsyllus is a clade close to Entomopsyllus. The Entomolepididae evolution involved many homoplastic characters which become difficult the identification of patterns

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR/CRISPR-associated (Cas) protein system, CRISPR/Cas9, uses single-guide RNA to guide Cas9 to the target site for genome editing. In this study, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to knockout KED in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). KED was first identified while screening the wounded tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaves. We found that alignment of the protein sequence of SlKED (Solanum lycopersicum KED) and NtKED (Nicotiana tabacum KED) showed 55.1% identity. To investigate, we generated SlKED knockout tomato plants with a single base pair deletion, a five base pair deletion and a three base pair deletion with a single base pair insertion. We performed wounding assays and analyzed gene expression and found that the wounded SlKED knockout plant showed no gene induction. Furthermore, the biological assay results revealed that the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) gained more mass when fed on the SlKED knockout plant. Our studies show that the KED gene plays a role in wound-induced mechanism and suggested it may involve in the plant defense system against biological stress and insect feeding. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Healthcare-associated infections occur commonly in hospitals and have a major impact on patient well-being. The occurrence of the healthcare-associated infection, Clostridium difficile, has been occurring more frequently among hospitalized patients due to an epidemic strain, and is an important cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and colitis. This study examined the impact of several organizational factors on the occurrence of C. difficile infection (CDI) in hospitals using an institutional theory perspective. Administrative claims were utilized from University HealthSystem Consortium hospitals to obtain hospital-level data for the calendar year 2011. Data were available for 89 hospitals. Hospital-level analyses, negative binomial regression models, were conducted to test eight developed hypotheses and the associations between organizational factors and the incidence of CDI in hospitals. Cases of CDI were risk-adjusted for known factors associated with CDI. After controlling for factors known to be associated with CDI, the results of the analyses showed that one study hypothesis was supported. That is, hospitals with higher Leapfrog Group Safety Scores had CDI rates that were no different than hospitals with lower Safety Scores. Further, it was found that U.S. News and World Report Best Hospital Honor Roll member hospitals had significantly higher occurrence of CDI as compared to non-Honor Roll member hospitals, though it was predicted that there would be no difference in CDI rates. The organizational factors state-led CDI prevention collaboratives, state mandatory CDI reporting, Magnet status, the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and CDI physician champions, were not significantly associated with CDI occurrence.

Les rhamnolipides produits par Pseudomonas aeruginosa sont des glycolipides ayant des propriétés élicitrices des réactions de défense de la vigne et d'Arabidopsis thaliana dont le mode de perception est inconnu. En tant que composés amphiphiles, uneinteraction avec la membrane plasmique a été proposée. Au niveau fondamental, il est démontré ici par une approche de biophysique utilisant la RMN du solide et des simulations de dynamique moléculaire in silico, que le caractère amphiphile des RLs favorise leur insertion au sein de modèles lipidiques de membranes de plantes, qui ne sont pas déstabilisés par leur présence. De plus il a été observé, par la réalisation de puces à ADN sur A. thaliana, que la perception de ces composés induisait une reprogrammation transcriptionnelle précoce de grande ampleur. En vue de démontrer l'intérêt agronomique des RLs pour la protection d'une plante de grande culture, leur activité sur le colza (Brassica napus) a également été étudiée. Des marqueurs caractéristiques de la mise en place des réponses de défense ont été observés, ainsi qu'un effet de protection detissus foliaires contre le pathogène B. cinerea, ce qui renforce le potentiel des RLs comme agents de biocontrôle pour la protection des Brassicacées / Pseudomonas aeruginosa rhamnolipids are glycolipids known to trigger defense responses in grapevine and Arabidopsis thaliana but their mode of perception by plants is still unknown. As amphiphilic compounds, rhamnolipids have been proposed to interactdirectly with plasma membrane lipids. Here we show, by a biophysical approach involving solid state NMR and in silico molecular dynamic simulations, that the insertion of rhamnolipids does not disturb the dynamic of plant plasma membrane models. Inorder to characterize early gene expression modifications triggered by rhamnolipids a micro-array study on A. thaliana was realized, revealing a large transcriptional change. The potential of rhamnolipids to protect the agronomical plant Brassica napus was also investigated. Rhamnolipid triggering of chemical and physical defenses associated with efficient protection against the opportunistic pathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea, used as a model, was shown. Those results highlight a real potential of RLs as biocontrol agents for Brassicaceae protection

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a gene-dense region located on the short arm of chromosome 6 (6p21.31). This region contains the highly polymorphic HLA genes as well as many other genes with immunological and non-immunological function. The susceptibility genes of many human disorders have been mapped to genes within the MHC. However, the genes themselves and indeed the locations of the genes, for many of the disorders, remain a mystery. This is a result of the high degree of linkage disequilibrium (LD) that exists between loci within the MHC. The high LD is explained by the genomic structure of the MHC. The MHC contains several blocks of DNA within which recombination is extremely rare, whereas the boundaries of the blocks are defined as "hotspots" of recombination. Most disease association studies have used the highly polymorphic HLA class I and class II genes which are separated by an, as yet, undefined number of blocks and several hundred kilobases of DNA. The MHC gamma block resides in the central region of the MHC between the blocks that contain the HLA class I and class It genes. As such, typing for polymorphisms in the gamma block is critical for MHC disease gene mapping studies. The gamma block contains approximately 20 known genes including the complement C4 genes. The gamma block can contain between I and 3 tandemly arranged C4 genes. The C4 protein exists as either the C4A or C413 isotype and is polymorphic with up to 40 allotypes being reported. However, the majority of Caucasian haplotypes can be explained by the common C4A3 / C4B1 or C4AQ0 / C4B1 complotypes with the remaining haplotypes explained by just a few other complotypes. For this reason, and because C4 allotyping is a technically difficult procedure, C4 allotyping is rarely used in MHC disease association studies. / The molecular heterogeneity of human C4 genes has not been extensively studied. However, the C4A3 and C4131 genes have been completely sequenced and are >99% identical at the DNA level across 41 exons and 15 kb of DNA. This high degree of homology and the presence of up to 3 C4 genes on any MHC haplotype makes PCR separation of the C4 genes difficult for subsequent genetic studies. The aim of this study was to extensively characterise the molecular heterogeneity of the human C4 genes and thereby: 1. determine the extent of human C4 gene polymorphism 2. confirm previous studies which have defined isotype specific sequences 3. characterise the C4 protein polymorphisms at the DNA level 4. determine if common C4 allotypes can be subtyped on a molecular basis 5. identify C4 gene polymorphisms that can be used as targets for DNA based typing methods 6. apply DNA based C4 typing methods in MHC disease association studies 7. provide insights into MHC haplotype evolution. In contrast to separating the C4 genes, a novel approach whereby the C4 genes were amplified and sequenced simultaneously was applied in this study. The DNA from 24 homozygous workshop cell lines, representing different ancestral haplotypes (AHs), was studied. Comparison of the C4 genes from different AHs revealed that the C4d region of the C4 a-chain is most polymorphic, but that polymorphic amino acid residues are also present in other regions of C4. The highest degree of polymorphisms was seen in the introns. In addition, the presence of the isotype specific sequences in exon 26 was confirmed and primers were designed to specifically amplify, and thereby separate, the C4A and C4B genes. / Comparison of the C4 gene sequences representing the same C4 allotype revealed that most C4 allotypes are heterogeneous and may be split into several subtypes. The polymorphisms observed at the sequence level did not correlate with C4 allotypes defined by electrophoretic mobility. However, it could be shown that the differences in electrophoretic mobility of the C4 allotypes are due to cumulative charge differences. Seven polymorphic amino acids were found to account for the different migration rates of the C4 allotypes analysed in this study. In addition, a number of haplospecific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified within the C4 genes. Haplospecific SNPs are informative markers enabling the genetic mapping of recombinant AHs, an approach which can be used to identify disease susceptibility genes. Haplospecific SNPs located in the C4 gene region are important markers as they represent a separate block of the MIIC (i.e. the gamma block). The frequency of one such SNP marker has been shown for a diabetes patient group and a control population. Although further studies are required to elucidate the role of the gamma block genes in susceptibility to diabetes, this study demonstrates a possible approach for the mapping of MHC disease susceptibility genes, which can also be applied in studies of other MHC associated diseases. To conclude, the present study adds to our knowledge of the C4 gene polymorphism, provides insights into MHC and C4 gene evolution and enables future studies to examine the significance of the C4 genes and other gamma block genes in susceptibility to MHC associated diseases.

Offprints of author's four journal articles in pocket / Bibliography: leaves 131-147 / x, 148 leaves, [13] leaves of plates : ill. (1 col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, 1986

<p>The aims of the present thesis were to evaluate the management of acute WAD and to develop, describe and evaluate a cognitive behavioural approach for the physiotherapy management of long-term WAD as well as to study the predictors and mediating factors for long-term disability and pain after a whiplash injury. </p><p>Two approaches for acute and chronic WAD were evaluated in experimental studies. Fifty-nine patients with acute whiplash injury (study I) and 33 patients with chronic WAD (study V), were randomised into experimental and control groups. In addition, three chronic WAD patients participated in an experimental single case study (study IV). Home exercise programmes for patients with acute WAD were used in study I. In study IV a physiotherapy management with integrated components of cognitive-behavioural origin was tried for chronic WAD patients. In study V physiotherapy treatment in primary care units and a physiotherapy management with integrated components of cognitive-behavioural origin was tried for chronic WAD patients. Study I showed that a home exercise programme including training of neck and shoulder range of motion (ROM), relaxation and general advice, appears to be a sufficient treatment for most acute WAD patients. Further, the results of study IV and V suggest that cognitive behavioural components m be useful in physiotherapy treatment for patients with chronic WAD, but its contribution is not yet fully understood. </p><p>Study III showed that the significance of coping as an explanatory factor for disability increased during the one-year period after a whiplash injury. In study V it was concluded that self-efficacy is related to patients' use of different coping styles. A model to study coping as a mediator between self-efficacy and disability was therefore introduced. In a path-analytic framework, data from subjects in study I were re-analysed to illustrate a theoretical standpoint that emphasises the process of coping. With regard to disability, the proportion of explained variance increased from 39% at three weeks after the accident, to 79% at one-year follow-up. These results also show that coping has a crucial and mediating role between self-efficacy and disability. Positive long- term outcomes in WAD-patients would therefore be improved by, shortly after an accident, boosting self- efficacy and teaching patients to use active, adaptive coping strategies to manage their problems. </p>

Thesis (M.S. in Cancer Biology)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The aims of the present thesis were to evaluate the management of acute WAD and to develop, describe and evaluate a cognitive behavioural approach for the physiotherapy management of long-term WAD as well as to study the predictors and mediating factors for long-term disability and pain after a whiplash injury. Two approaches for acute and chronic WAD were evaluated in experimental studies. Fifty-nine patients with acute whiplash injury (study I) and 33 patients with chronic WAD (study V), were randomised into experimental and control groups. In addition, three chronic WAD patients participated in an experimental single case study (study IV). Home exercise programmes for patients with acute WAD were used in study I. In study IV a physiotherapy management with integrated components of cognitive-behavioural origin was tried for chronic WAD patients. In study V physiotherapy treatment in primary care units and a physiotherapy management with integrated components of cognitive-behavioural origin was tried for chronic WAD patients. Study I showed that a home exercise programme including training of neck and shoulder range of motion (ROM), relaxation and general advice, appears to be a sufficient treatment for most acute WAD patients. Further, the results of study IV and V suggest that cognitive behavioural components m be useful in physiotherapy treatment for patients with chronic WAD, but its contribution is not yet fully understood. Study III showed that the significance of coping as an explanatory factor for disability increased during the one-year period after a whiplash injury. In study V it was concluded that self-efficacy is related to patients' use of different coping styles. A model to study coping as a mediator between self-efficacy and disability was therefore introduced. In a path-analytic framework, data from subjects in study I were re-analysed to illustrate a theoretical standpoint that emphasises the process of coping. With regard to disability, the proportion of explained variance increased from 39% at three weeks after the accident, to 79% at one-year follow-up. These results also show that coping has a crucial and mediating role between self-efficacy and disability. Positive long- term outcomes in WAD-patients would therefore be improved by, shortly after an accident, boosting self- efficacy and teaching patients to use active, adaptive coping strategies to manage their problems.

In previous studies the carboxyl-terminus of microtubule-associated protein 1S was shown to interact with the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit NR3A (Eriksson et. al.)1.  In this study, interactions between three truncations of the microtubule-associated proteins 1B and one truncation of the microtubule-associated protein 1S carboxyl-terminus and the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits NR1 and NR3A were examined. The study showed that an interaction occurred between amino acids 2167 to 2365 of the microtubule-associated protein 1B and NR3A.  That region of microtubule associated protein 1B corresponds to a microtubule-binding region in the light chain. It has been shown in earlier studies (Reviewed in Halpain S. et a12, Riederer, BM.  et.al3.) that the light chain is a active part of the protein that have been post translational cleaved. The MAP 1 proteins are present in all tissue but has higher concentrations in the Post Synaptic Density of neurons in the central nervous system.  The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors are present in glial cells and in the dendritic shafts of the central nervous system neurons (Eriksson et. al.)1 . The diseases were these proteins may play a part is mainly memory destructive diseases such as Alzheimers disease and in muscular dystrophy, but these assumptions are still being speculated.