In the second part of our study, cDNA of AQP-1 and pro-vasotocin were cloned from the silver sea bream. An AQP-1 full clone was isolated from kidney and intestine and it consists of 904 bp with an open reading frame of 774 bp. The deduced amino sequence of sea bream AQP-1 shares highest identity with AQP-1a of gilthead sea bream (97.7%) and AQP-1a of other fish species (83.6% to 95.8%), however, considerably low identity was found between the silver sea bream AQP-1 and AQP-1b of gilthead sea bream (56%). The silver sea bream AQP-1 possesses basic features of a functional aquaporin and AQP-1, which includes two channel-forming asparagine-proline-alanine (NPA) signature motifs, six transmembrane domains, residues of the pore-forming region and a potential mercurial inhibiting site (Cys-178). The water channel was ubiquitously expressed in gills, liver, intestine, rectum, kidney, heart, urinary bladder and blood cells. A partial fragment of pro-vasotocin was isolated from hypothalamus of silver sea bream and consists of 184 bp, including encoding regions for the processing and amidation signal, vasotocin hormone and part of the neurophysin. / Lastly, single doses of cortisol (50 microg/g tissue) or vasotocin (1 microg/g tissue) were administered to seawater-acclimated sea bream with further three-day stabilizing period in seawater followed by an abrupt 6‰ exposure or administered to seawater transfer controls for three days. Cortisol markedly stimulated intestinal expression of AQP-1 in both the seawater transfer control and abrupt 6‰ transfer groups. Vasotocin treatment did not significantly modify AQP-1 expression in all tested organs. Hypothalamic pro-vasotocin expression levels were similar among different treatment groups. / Semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis was used for studying the effect of salinity and hormones on expression of AQP-1 and pro-vasotocin. In the long-term salinity acclimation experiment, the sea bream were acclimated to six different salinity regimes (0‰, 6‰, 12‰, 33‰, 50‰, 70‰) for four weeks. The abundance of AQP-1 transcript was the highest in intestine of 70‰-acclimated fish among different salinity groups and there was also a statistically significant increase in 12‰-acclimated fish. Branchial AQP-1 expression was significantly upregulated in sea bream acclimated to freshwater. In contrast, the hypothalamic pro-vasotocin expression was significantly downregulated during freshwater acclimation. In addition, the sea bream were also subjected to an abrupt 6%o transfer at different time intervals (2, 6, 12, 72 and 168 hours). RT-PCR analysis revealed there was a transient decrease in branchial AQP-1 expression two hours after abrupt hypo-osmotic exposure and the expression levels subsequently returned to the seawater control levels. The expression levels of hypothalamic pro-vasotocin were not significantly altered by the abrupt exposure treatment. / The present experiments investigated the effects of salinity and hormones on the relative expression of hypothalamic pro-vasotocin, and aquaporin-1 (AQP-1) in intestine, gills and kidney of the silver sea bream Sparus sarba. With the use of immunohistochemical techniques, immunoreactivity of AQP-1 was detected at the basal side of enterocytes and gill chloride cells, and at the apical brush border of kidney tubules whereas AQP-3 was only localized in similar positions in the gills and intestines. AQP-1 was relatively more ubiquitous than AQP-3 and was localized with same cell types as the electrogenic Na+-K+-ATPase in gills and kidney. / The present study had demonstrated the responsiveness of intestinal and branchial AQP-1 expressions of the silver sea bream to environmental salinity perturbations. Further to this, cortisol was observed to upregulate the transcription of AQP-1 in the intestine. Pro-vasotocin expression was altered by long-term salinity adaptation, however, the linkage of this alteration to AQP-1 functioning in different osmoregulatory organs is yet to be elucidated. / Luk, Chun Yin. / Adviser: Norman Y. S. Woo. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-222). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Three scenarios regarding a target man's moral behavior were used to examine 'religious halo' 'religious boomerang', and a 'halo recovery' effect. Initially, participants rated a male target in response to his religious affiliation. Secondly, participants rated the male target following an act of infidelity. Finally, participants provided ratings of the male target with the knowledge that the target received forgiveness from significant others. Results indicated that participants did not discriminate based on knowledge of the target's religious affiliation but did reject the target following an act of infidelity. New to this research, however, was discovery of a 'halo recovery' where participants were again accepting of a target following forgiveness from his wife and church leaders. These results varied from previous findings that suggested that participants' religious affiliation primarily influenced judgments of moral behavior.

Bibliography: leaves 267-287.

Thesis submitted to the Division of Science and Engineering. Bibliography: leaves 154-174.

"June 2004." / Bibliography: leaves 135-159. / xi, 159 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Studies the mechanism underlying the morphological responses of boron- tolerance in plants by observing root and shoot responses to varied levels of subsoil boron in 2 barley varieties and 3 weed species common to agricultural areas of South Australia. Hypothesises that 4 mechanisms of boron-tolerance exist: 1. a physical barrier at xylem loading that also, 2., may include an efflux system; 3. enhanced sugar levels in shoot and root and 4, maintaining or increasing root biomass in the upper soil depths where the concentrations of boron are not toxic. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Discipline of Soil and Land Systems, 2004

xxi, 299 leaves : ill. ; 25 cm / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.1976) from the Dept. of Plant Physiology, University of Adelaide

The vascular endothelium is a single cell layer that lines the lumen of the entire vasculature. It is the site of synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), a vasodilatory compound synthesized by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). NO causes intracellular calcium sequestration of the vascular smooth muscle cells, relaxing and dilating the arteries. Age profoundly affects endothelium-dependent vasodilation, leading to specific losses of NO. We sought to determine what causes the age-specific loss of endothelial NO. This was accomplished by investigating whether there are differences in markers of eNOS post-translational regulation elements in the aortic endothelium of young (2-4 months; corresponding to an adolescent human adult) and old (32-34 months; corresponding to a 65-75 year-old human). F 344 x Brown Norway hybrid rats. Results show that maximal eNOS activity significantly declines with age (n=4;p���0.05) though there was no change in eNOS protein levels in the aortic endothelium. Endothelial NOS exists in two distinct subcellular fractions. No alterations were detected in the soluble, inactive fraction while significantly less eNOS protein is detected in the active, plasma membrane fraction of the endothelium (n=4;p���0.02). Endothelial NOS activation is also controlled by its phosphorylation state. In this work we demonstrate that free ceramides and ceramide-activated phosphatase (PP2A) activity are significantly elevated with age in the endothelium and correlate with specific alterations in eNOS phosphorylation status consistent with its inactivation. These changes were concomittent with an age-associated decline in endothelial glutathione (GSH) and increased sphingomyelinase activity which liberates ceramides from membrane sphingolipids. In previously published reports we demonstrated that the dithiol compound R-��-lipoic acid (LA) increased maximal NO synthesis in cultured endothelial cells and that LA improved age-associated loss of eNOS stimulatory phosphorylation in rats. Therefore, we administered pharmacologic doses of LA (40 mg/kg, i.p. over 24 h) to old rats to determine whether it restored NO-dependent vasomotor function. Results show that LA significantly increased endothelial GSH (p���0.05 compared to saline controls), decreased sphingomyelinase activity and reversed the age-related increase in ceramide (p���0.01) in old animals. Finally, LA significantly improved endothelium-dependent vasodilation, suggesting that it might be a good therapeutic agent for age-related vascular endothelial dysfunction. / Graduation date: 2005

Graduation date: 1992

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences