Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Vita. "May 2008" Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1984. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-35).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Investigating the immunoglobulin repertoire is a means of understanding the adaptive immune response to infectious disease or vaccine challenge. The data examined are typically generated using high-throughput sequencing on samples of immunoglobulin variable-region genes present in blood or tissue collected from human or animal subjects. The analysis of these large, diverse collections provides a means of gaining insight into the specific molecular mechanisms involved in generating and maintaining a protective immune response. It involves the characterization of distinct clonal populations, specifically through the inference of founding alleles for germline gene segment recombination, as well as the lineage of accumulated mutations acquired during the development of each clone. Germline gene segment inference is currently performed by aligning immunoglobulin sequencing reads against an external reference database and assigning each read to the entry that provides the best score according to the metric used. The problem with this approach is that allelic diversity is greater than can be usefully accommodated in a static database. The absence of the alleles used from the database often leads to the misclassification of single-nucleotide polymorphisms as somatic mutations acquired during affinity maturation. This trend is especially evident with the rhesus macaque, but also affects the comparatively well-catalogued human databases, whose collections are biased towards samples from individuals of European descent. Our project presents novel statistical methods for immunoglobulin repertoire analysis which allow for the de novo inference of germline gene segment libraries directly from next-generation sequencing data, without the need for external reference databases. These methods follow a Bayesian paradigm, which uses an information-theoretic modelling approach to iteratively improve upon internal candidate gene segment libraries. Both candidate libraries and trial analyses given those libraries are incorporated as components of the machine learning evaluation procedure, allowing for the simultaneous optimization of model accuracy and simplicity. Finally, the proposed methods are evaluated using synthetic data designed to mimic known mechanisms for repertoire generation, with pre-designated parameters. We also apply these methods to known biological sources with unknown repertoire generation parameters, and conclude with a discussion on how this method can be used to identify potential novel alleles.

This document only includes an excerpt of the corresponding thesis or dissertation. To request a digital scan of the full text, please contact the Ruth Lilly Medical Library's Interlibrary Loan Department (rlmlill@iu.edu).

A suppressed immune system is a complicating health factor in cancer patients that keeps them from achieving the highest quality of life possible. Moderate exercise is thought to boost the immune system in cancer patients. The aim of this project was to determine the effects of an eight week aerobic exercise program on the mucosal immune system of cancer survivors compared to non-cancer patients. Our hypothesis was that the immune system of the cancer patients would positively respond to a moderate exercise program, specifically increasing antibody production. To examine our hypothesis, five cancer and six non-cancer patients undertook a supervised moderate aerobic exercise program at the University of Northern Colorado. The subjects performed an incremental peak treadmill test to exhaustion at the start of the program and after 8 weeks of training. Saliva samples were taken at specific times for each peak exercise test: prior to testing, immediately after testing, and 30 minutes post-test. Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assays (ELISA) were performed at Ball State University to analyze the levels of immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG, IgM) in saliva samples of cancer and non-cancer patients. Our findings demonstrated there was a significant increase in IgG after 8 weeks of moderate exercise in non-cancer patients 30 minutes after the treadmill test. A significant increase was also seen in salivary IgA levels after 8 weeks of moderate exercise in cancer patients 30 minutes after the treadmill test was administered, supporting our hypothesis that exercise enhances immune function. Eight weeks of moderate exercise has been shown to enhance immune function demonstrated by the increase of IgA and IgG levels in saliva. / Department of Biology

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 1997. / "August 1997." Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-96). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 82-96). Also available on the Internet.