No description available.

Background: Snoring is a common sleep disorder and it is associated with many modifiable risk factors and chronic diseases. This cross sectional study tries to identify association of snoring with smoking, alcohol intake before sleep and hypertension among Asian Indians. Methodology: A total of 241 Asian Indians ˃ 18 yrs were studied. Self assessment questionnaires seeking history of hypertension or cardiovascular disease were used to assess the outcomes. Demographic data and data related to snoring were obtained by using the Sleep Apnea scale of the Sleep Disordered Questionnaire (SA-SDQ). The items selected for inclusion from the SDQ were at junior high school reading level, five-level Likert scale response, formatted so that higher numerical values represented greater symptom severity. Results: Snoring was found to be associated with smoking, alcohol intake before going to bed, and hypertension. This association was present even after controlling for confounding factors like Age, Body Mass Index (BMI), and Gender. Conclusion: Insight into association of snoring with modifiable risk factors like smoking and alcohol before sleep and also between snoring and chronic disease like hypertension might help in early detection and management of chronic diseases both in snorers and their annoyed partner/ family.

This thesis presents a strategy designed to determine how Thi1 and Thi5 may differentially regulate thiamine production and the vegetative and sexual life cycles in fission yeast. Fission yeast cells regulate the cell cycle and development in response to available nutrients. Thiamine, vitamin B1, is an essential vitamin and its active form, TDP (thiamine diphosphate), is an important co-factor for many metabolic enzymes. It also acts as an inhibitor of meiosis and zygote formation in fission yeast. The thiamine biosynthetic pathway in fission yeast is repressed by the presence of thiamine. The transcription factors, Thi1 and Thi5, are independently capable of positively regulating the nmt1 (no message in thiamine) promoter in fission yeast and both factors are required for wildtype nmt1 expression. Although Thi1 and Thi5 regulate the same promoter in thiamine biosynthesis, it has been previously found that Thi1 and Thi5 antagonistically regulate different aspects of meiosis. Thi1 and Thi5 are both Zn(II) 2Cys6 transcription factors. Since zinc finger transcription factors are known to homo- and hetero-dimerize, I hypothesize that the synergistic and antagonistic attributes of Thi1 and Thi5 may be due to this process. To examine their potential interaction in vegetative and meiotic cells using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) as well as co-immunoprecipitation, tagged versions of these proteins have been constructed. For FRET analysis Thi1 and Thi5 have been successfully tagged with CFP and YFP and are able to rescue the thiamine auxotrophy of strains lacking thi1 and thi5. To perform co-immunoprecipitation Thi1 and Thi5 have been tagged with His6. I was able to detect the tagged versions of Thi1 and Thi5 using commercially available antibodies against the fluorescent tags CFP and YFP and the His6 tag. The use of these constructs to address the interaction between these proteins is currently underway. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2012-06-29 09:18:42.349

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The need for an employee-specific measure of resilience has directed the development of the Employee Resilience Scale (EmpRes). The conceptualisation of employee resilience in the present study describes an employee capacity that organisations can help develop through the provision of enabling factors. The EmpRes Scale was developed and tested in three samples, and was found to have adequate measurement properties. Findings from two organisational samples also revealed that employee resilience is significantly associated with learning culture, empowering leadership, job engagement, job satisfaction and intentions to turnover, and unrelated to employee participation and corporate communication. The research indicated that employee resilience has a mediating effect on the relationships between learning culture and job engagement and job satisfaction, and empowering leadership and job engagement, job satisfaction and intentions to turnover. The findings suggest that organisations enable their employees to be more resilient by creating a learning oriented culture and building empowering leadership, which in turn leads to better organisational outcomes. Although future research is required, the present study shows preliminary support for the psychometric properties of the scale as well as the conceptual model.

We have developed a novel TGF-β detection system, using genetically modified macrophages as cytokine biosensors, capable of detecting bioactive TGF-β in vivo and in vitro. Stimulation by TGF-β1 increases secretion of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) by activation of the promoter. An adenovirus containing the first 800bp of the PAI-1 promoter fused to the reporter gene β-galactosidase (Ad-PAI1800 βgal) was used to transfect primary cultures of rat bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM). After transfection the BMDM were stimulated with TGF-β, 2 or 3 or left unstimulated. X-gal histochemical assay was performed 72-hours post-transfection to detect β-galactosidase expression. Macrophages transfected with Ad-PAI1800βgal and stimulated with TGF-β1, 2 or 3 showed a dose-dependent production of β-galacosidase. AdPAI1800βgal BMDM also expressed β-galactosidase when co-cultured with NR8383 rat alveolar macrophages transfected with recombinant adenovirus expressing active TGF-β1. Genetically modified macrophages could detect expression of TGF-β1 in vivo. AdPAI1800βgal transfected BMDM were co-injected with AdTGF-βl transfected NR8383 macrophages into the renal artery of rats with nephrotoxic nephritis (NTN). Isolated glomeruli showed X-gal positive macrophages on assay. AdPAI1800βgal BMDM were also injected into the renal artery of rats 7 days after the induction of Thy 1.1 nephritis, 100% of isolated glomeruli contained X-gal positive macrophages on assay. Signalling macrophages were capable of detecting TGF-β1 expression in sections of kidney tissue containing Ad-TGF-β1 transfected NR8383 macrophages. BMDM showing β-galactosidase were readily detected over the transfected glomeruli. Pre-treatment of Ad-PAI1800βgal transfected BMDM with IFN-γ prevented production of the reporter gene. However when stimulation with TGF-β occurred 20 hours after IFN-γ macrophage programmed unresponsiveness was abrogated. Macrophage responsiveness to TGF-β stimulation in Thy 1.1 nephritic kidneys was also prevented by pre-treatment with IFN-γ. This system demonstrates the use of genetically modified macrophages as both <i>in vivo </i>and <i>in vitro </i>sensors of the bioactive TGF-β providing a novel approach to assess cytokine activity.

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資產證券化源自1970年代，第一筆擔保債權憑證交易自1988年出現在美國，然後在歐美迅速發展，目前已成為重要的之債券市場。台灣金融產業發展正值轉型期，銀行除面對低利率帶來經營壓力之外，同時亦需規避評等較差之企業貸款的信用風險，而保險業者在低利率時代來臨卻無良好報酬之投資標的可供投資。因此，此環境乃為推動證券化之良好契機。自1997年發生東南亞金融危機，乃至1998年韓國的亞洲金融危機，造成許多跨國企業紛紛裁員、關廠、甚至倒閉，造成一連串的金融危機連鎖效應。因此，公司間或產業間之榮枯是相互關聯的，且均會受總體經濟因素所影響。是以，近年來除信用風險亦成為近年來財務領域上重要議題。理論或實證上，當多個標的資產之信用衍生性商品被加以開發，並用來管理信用風險的時候，需考慮多個標的資產間的違約相關性，方能準確地衡量信用風險。故在信用風險管理與信用衍生性商品的評價中，違約相關性的估計與考量顯得格外重要。結構式或縮減式模型在發展違約相關性的多變數模型中是困難的，因為其衍生性商品價值的理論推導繁複或其數值計算是相當費時。本文在多標的資產之信用風險評價模型中，透過適當個別資產之邊際違約機率與Copula函數之選擇，及其相關參數之估算，即可快速求算具違約相關性之多變數聯合機率函數，以利擔保債權憑證(CDO)之評價。因此，本文針對BET、Copula、Factor Copulas等三種方法與分析架構做一剖析，再以國內153家上市公司所發行無擔保債券作為連結標的之擔保債權憑證為例，進行模擬實證並分析結果。

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Photocopy of typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves 166-168. / Microfiche. / x, 168 leaves