Since its domestication, the dog has served in many roles, from protector, guide, hunter, and best friend, to model organism. Every role in which the dog serves is important; however, this work highlights the importance of the dog as a model organism for study of human hereditary diseases. Roughly half of the 450 hereditary diseases found in the dog have clinical presentations similar to those found in the human. Included in these are auditory-pigmentation conditions and skin diseases for which the dog is a working model. Described herein are studies of the merle coat pattern and dermatomyositis. Through research on these topics, important information can be obtained that can be used to help both the dog and the human. Merle is a pattern of coloring observed in the coat of the domestic dog and is characterized by patches of diluted pigment. Dogs heterozygous or homozygous for the merle locus exhibit a wide range of auditory and ophthalmologic abnormalities. Linkage disequilibrium was identified for a microsatellite marker with the merle phenotype in the Shetland Sheepdog. This region of the human genome contains SILV, a gene important in mammalian pigmentation. Therefore, this gene was evaluated as a candidate for merle patterning. A short interspersed element insertion at the boundary of intron 10/exon 11 was found, and this insertion segregates with the merle phenotype in multiple breeds. These data show that SILV is responsible for merle patterning and is associated with impaired function of the auditory and ophthalmologic systems. Dermatomyositis (DM) is an inflammatory disease of the skin and muscle that occurs most often in the rough collie and Shetland Sheepdog. Gene transcript profiles were generated for affected and normal skin using a canine-specific oligonucleotide array. Two-hundred and eight-five gene transcripts, many of which are involved in immune function, were found to be differentially regulated in these tissues. Also reported are western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence analyses. While our work suggests that canine DM is a disease that may be immune mediated, it did not detect the production of specific disease-associated autoantibodies.

Since its domestication, the dog has served in many roles, from protector, guide, hunter, and best friend, to model organism. Every role in which the dog serves is important; however, this work highlights the importance of the dog as a model organism for study of human hereditary diseases. Roughly half of the 450 hereditary diseases found in the dog have clinical presentations similar to those found in the human. Included in these are auditory-pigmentation conditions and skin diseases for which the dog is a working model. Described herein are studies of the merle coat pattern and dermatomyositis. Through research on these topics, important information can be obtained that can be used to help both the dog and the human. Merle is a pattern of coloring observed in the coat of the domestic dog and is characterized by patches of diluted pigment. Dogs heterozygous or homozygous for the merle locus exhibit a wide range of auditory and ophthalmologic abnormalities. Linkage disequilibrium was identified for a microsatellite marker with the merle phenotype in the Shetland Sheepdog. This region of the human genome contains SILV, a gene important in mammalian pigmentation. Therefore, this gene was evaluated as a candidate for merle patterning. A short interspersed element insertion at the boundary of intron 10/exon 11 was found, and this insertion segregates with the merle phenotype in multiple breeds. These data show that SILV is responsible for merle patterning and is associated with impaired function of the auditory and ophthalmologic systems. Dermatomyositis (DM) is an inflammatory disease of the skin and muscle that occurs most often in the rough collie and Shetland Sheepdog. Gene transcript profiles were generated for affected and normal skin using a canine-specific oligonucleotide array. Two-hundred and eight-five gene transcripts, many of which are involved in immune function, were found to be differentially regulated in these tissues. Also reported are western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence analyses. While our work suggests that canine DM is a disease that may be immune mediated, it did not detect the production of specific disease-associated autoantibodies.

No description available.

Robert Merle est au purgatoire des Belles-Lettres françaises. Quelque chose dans sa trajectoire, qui va du prix Goncourt avec son tout premier roman, Week-end à Zuydcoote, aux treize tomes d’une saga historique, Fortune de France, a semble-t-il sonné le glas de sa consécration. Et ce quelque chose tient sans doute à la singularité d’un écrivain franc-tireur, allergique à toute mode, à toute école, à tout parti et qui portera un demi-siècle durant son rêve d’un « roman romanesque » qui allie le populaire à la qualité, un roman démocratique, un roman des Trente Glorieuses qui réhabilite ce « vice impuni », comme disait André Wurmser, la lecture. Ce sont des voies singulières que Merle explore, des voies qui l’entraînent vers les champs en jachère de l’expérimentation, du « mauvais genre », de la politique-fiction et du roman populaire. L’écrivain démocrate choisit, contre une littérature « mandarinale », contre tout formalisme et esthétisme, une littérature accessible, un roman romanesque, un roman à histoire où règne, en maître, la tension narrative. Et ce, au risque de la déconsécration, au risque du middlebrow. Son œuvre pourtant, si éclectique en apparence, est une œuvre essentielle car Merle est un écrivain de l’événement et du pire. Ce pire qui fit qu’une génération entière fut happée par l’Histoire et n’en sortit pas indemne. Unde malum faciamus ? Cette question qui, en filigrane, traverse tous ses écrits de 1949 à 2003, ne cessa de tarauder Merle. Toujours il s’est agi, pour cet écrivain-militant, de poursuivre le combat, envers et contre l’amnésie, les œillères, les mensonges, et de le poursuivre pour les générations à venir. / Robert Merle is in the purgatory of the French Belles-Lettres. Something in his work, which goes from the Prix Goncourt with his first novel, Weekend at Dunkirk, to the thirteen volumes of a historical saga, Fortune de France, seems to have gone awry and ended this recognition. And that something is probably due to the singularity of an independent writer allergic to any fashion, school or party who will uphold for half a century his dream of a “novelistic” novel which would be both popular and good, a “democratic” novel, a novel of the postwar boom, which rehabilitates the pleasure of reading, the “unpunished vice”, in André Wurmser’s words. Merle treads unusual paths, which lead him to the fallow fields of experimentation, to the disreputable genres of political and popular fiction. As a democratic writer opposed to “elitist” literature, as well as formalism and aestheticism, he chooses a literature which is accessible, a “novelistic” novel, in which the story itself and narrative tension are paramount, at the risk of not being recognized any longer or being dubbed a middlebrow writer. If eclectic in appearance, his work, is an essential one: Merle is a writer of the event and of the worst-case scenario. A worst witnessed by an entire generation caught up by history which did not leave unscathed. Unde malum faciamus? This question which underlines all of his writings from 1949 to 2003, never stopped haunting Merle. His goal, as a writer-activist, was ever to continue the fight against amnesia, blinders and lies for generations to come.

No description available.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-148).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-148).

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2010. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 78 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-78).

No description available.

L’urbanisation grandissante est certainement à l’heure actuelle parmi les phénomènes à l’origine des changements les plus importants induits par l’homme sur notre planète, et soulève donc de nombreuses questions concernant les conséquences d’une telle perturbation de l’environnement sur la biodiversité. La vie urbaine est souvent caractérisée par des conditions jugées comme contraignantes (fragmentation, dégradation et perte d’habitats, pollutions chimiques, sonores et lumineuses accrues, etc.) pouvant avoir des effets néfastes sur les vertébrés. Cependant, les mécanismes par lesquels l’urbanisation affecte la faune sauvage sont encore très mal compris. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif central de ce doctorat est d’améliorer notre compréhension de l’influence de l’urbanisation sur les espèces de vertébrés évoluant dans les environnements urbains. Pour cela, nous avons exploré, d’une part, l’influence globale de l’urbanisation, et d’autre part, l’impact spécifique de certaines contraintes caractéristiques des milieux urbains (pollution par les métaux lourds et pollution sonore) sur les passereaux, en utilisant une approche fonctionnelle intégrant notamment des études éco-physiologiques et éco-toxicologiques. Ainsi, nous avons mis en évidence que les passereaux urbains ne sont pas contraints énergétiquement par leur environnement pendant leur vie adulte, mais qu’en revanche, les conditions fortement modifiées des milieux urbains pourraient contraindre les individus pendant leur développement. De plus, nous avons montré que l’urbanisation est effectivement associée à une contamination par les métaux lourds plus importante, et surtout que des niveaux plus élevés de ces contaminants sont associés à des niveaux de corticostérone plus élevés (degrés de stress plus importants). Enfin, l’étude expérimentale de l’impact de la pollution sonore sur des paramètres très souvent négligés jusque-là (développement, physiologie, comportement anti-prédateur), nous a permis de montrer que le bruit d’origine anthropique pouvait avoir des effets particulièrement complexes sur le développement des vertébrés avec de possibles conséquences à long terme. L’ensemble de ces travaux soulignent l’importance d’évaluer l’impact des perturbations d’origine anthropique sur le développement phénotypique des individus afin de mieux comprendre l’influence de l’environnement urbain sur les populations de vertébrés. / Consistent expanding urbanization is certainly among the most important human-induced environmental changes facing our planet today, and thus raises important questions regarding the consequences of such environmental disturbance on biodiversity. Urban life is often characterized by constraining environmental conditions (e.g., fragmentation, degradation and loss of habitats, increased noise, light, and chemical pollutions) that can have detrimental effects on wild vertebrates. However, the mechanisms through which urbanization affects wildlife are still poorly understood. In this context, the main objective of this doctoral research is to improve our understanding of the influence of urbanization on vertebrate species that are able to live in urban environments. To this end, we explored both the global influence of urbanization and the impact of specific factors associated with urban life (heavy metals and noise pollutions) on passerine birds, using a mechanistic approach including eco-physiological and eco-toxicological studies. We demonstrated that urban passerines are not energetically constrained by their environment during their adult life, but conversely, that the altered environmental conditions of urban environments could constrain individuals during their development. Furthermore, we showed that urbanization is indeed associated with an increased heavy metal contamination, and most importantly, that higher levels of these contaminants are related to higher corticosterone levels (i.e., elevated stress levels). Finally, using an experimental approach to study the impact of noise pollution on several parameters that have often been overlooked (development, physiology, anti-predator behaviour), we showed that anthropogenic noise can have particularly complex effects on vertebrate’s development, with possible life-long consequences for developing birds. Overall, our results emphasize the importance of investigating the impact of human-induced environmental changes on the phenotypic development of individuals to better understand the influence of urban environments on vertebrate populations.