Both cDNA tag-based and DNA chip hybridization assays have revealed widespread transcriptional activity across mammalian genomes, providing a rich source of novel protein-coding and non-coding transcripts. Annotation and functional evaluation of this undefined transcriptome space represents a major step towards the comprehensive definition of biomolecules regulating the properties of living cells, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and their derivatives. In this study I analysed 87 rare mRNA transcripts from human ESCs that mapped uniquely to the human genome, in regions lacking evidence for known genes or transcripts. In addition, the transcripts appeared enriched in the hESC transcriptome as enumerated by serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE). Full-length transcripts corresponding to twelve novel LongSAGE tags were recovered and evaluated with respect to gene structure, protein-coding potential, and gene regulatory features. In addition, transcript abundance was compared between RNA isolated from undifferentiated hESCs and differentiated cells. Analysis of full-length transcripts revealed that the novel ORFs did not exceed a size of129 amino acids and no matches were observed to well characterized protein domains. Interesting protein level predictions included small disulfide-bonded proteins, known members of which are important in a variety of biological processes. Transcripts evaluated for differential expression by real-time RT-qPCR (Reverse Transcription followed by real-time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction) were found to be variably expressed (0.2- to 4.5-fold) in Day-2 orDay-4 retinoic acid-induced differentiation cultures compared to undifferentiated hESCs. Relative quantitation using a universal reference RNA (derived from pooled adult tissues)showed large differences in novel transcript levels (0.002- to 35-fold) compared to hESCs. Collectively, these results provide a detailed analysis of a set of novel hESC transcripts and their abundance in early and adult differentiated cell types, both of which may advance our understanding of the transcriptional events governing stem cell behavior.

The hsDC2, an unknown gene, was located on chromosome 4q25. Its genetic protein product contains 149 amino acids with the molecular weight of 16.8 kDa approximately. Predicted by bioinformatics, hsDC2 might be a transmembrane protein with three transmembrane helices on the endoplasmic reticulum. Based on the results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, it revealed that hsDC2 was expressed in many tissues. It was showed that there were more mRNA expression in the cancer tissue. Using real-time quantitative PCR to analyze cancer cell lines, we found that hsDC2 might be related to differentiation status of cells. Among the well-differentiated cells such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line NPC TW01, hepatoma cell line Hep3B and temperature-induced differentiated human fetal osteoblast cell line (hFOB), there were more hsDC2 mRNA expression. We also obtained some useful information from bioinformatics databases. To further elucidate the biological functions of the gene, glutathion S-transferase-hsDC2 fusion protein was used to generate anti-hsDC2 polyclonal antibody. However, we still need further research to clarify the biological function of hsDC2.

A study on the Law of Retribution concept and the literature skills of ¡mXing-Shi Yin Yuan Chuan¡n Abstract ¡mXing-Shi Yin Yuan Chuan¡nis a vernacular fiction mainly about human feeling and events in Ming and Ching dynasties¡CAlthough the term ¡uYIN YUAN¡v usually refers to romance and marriages¡Athe novel portrays not only love affairs and matrimony but also the reality of family life in the feudal society¡Ageneral observation of gentlemen¡Bgovernment officials¡Bbusinessmen¡Band servants¡Acan also be found in the book¡Areflecting various aspects of real life and the complicacy of human natures¡C This paper is divided into six chapters¡GChapter One brings out the study motivation¡Adirection¡Aand scope¡Aas well as general introducing the present related references to describe the current study situation¡CChapter Two collects and studies who the author is¡HTime background and the orientation of the book¡CChapter Three talks about the author¡¦s ideas on ¡ucausality¡v¡AThe thought of ¡ucausality¡vcover the ideologies of Buddhism¡BTaoism¡Band Confucianism¡Areflecting the miscellaneous¡ucausality¡vvalues in the book¡C Chapter Four extends the various¡ucausality¡vvalues¡Aand points out the conflicts between the¡ucausality¡vpresentations¡Awhich reveal the author¡¦s internal contradiction towards the values¡CChapter Five analyzes the character molding skills¡Awhich draw a lot of interest¡CIt praises the portraying of the characters and the outstanding polishing skills as each typical role is vividly presented¡CChapter Six concludes and outlines the varied values and meaning¡AIt also mentions the short-comings and the researcher's suggestions on future related study directions¡Ain order to draw more academic attentions¡C ¡mXing-Shi Yin Yuan Chuan¡nis based on a chaotic family¡Aironically describing the fallen morality and disordered ethnics during Ming and Ching dynasties¡CThe nearly sick brutality between the couple shows the family violence at that time¡Athis is definitely an earthly novel worth recommending¡C Keywords¡Gromance¡Bcausality¡Bfamily violence¡Bearthly novel¡C

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The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 19, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Berkley Hudson. Includes bibliographical references.

År 1977 stängdes grindarna vid Forsviks Bruk för vad man trodde var sista gången. Några år senare började dock de gamla industribyggnaderna renoveras och Forsviks Bruk har sedan dess fungerat som industriminne och besöksmål.Denna studie syftade att skapa en visuell novell och pröva den som intresseväckande och engagerande verktyg, likt det webbmaterial som många museer idag tillämpar. Forskning gjordes i museipedagogik, serious games och berättande med bild och text, och från detta skapades sedan den fiktiva berättelsen Spökskeppet och implementerades som visuell novell med mjukvaran Twine.Den visuella novellen utvärderades sedan i två separata undersökningar, den ena mot målgruppen (grundskoleelever i årskurs 4 – 6), den andra mot intressenter vid Forsviks Bruk. Frågeställningarna gällde huruvida den visuella novellen lämpar sig som intresseväckande material samt om det fiktiva i berättelsen hamnar i konflikt med det faktiska som Forsviks Bruk förmedlar till sina besökare.

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study of a fragmentary text of Greek prose fiction generally known as The Sesonchosis Novel (2nd century CE). It provides a new picture of the scope, character, and date of the work with the help of two new papyrus fragments and explores its relationship to both the complex tradition of the Greco-Roman Sesostris legend and the genre of the ancient novel. Thus the first part of the dissertation focuses on the Sesostris legend by tracing the position of the character Sesostris in Egypt, surveying the nature and development of the legend in Greek and Roman texts, and analyzing in detail two episodes from the legendary material (the attempted coup and the royal chariot). It explores how Sesostris held almost semi-divine status in Egypt as well as how useful and potent a symbol of Egyptian kingship he became in Greco-Roman culture. The second part focuses on The Sesonchosis Novel, arguing that the novel's plot may have covered the whole life of its main character and that the text may thus be best described as a biographical novel or "ruler novel." The implications of this hypothesis for the ancient novel genre as a whole are discussed in some detail, particularly in relation to The Ninos Novel. / The Classics

This thesis is interested in Wilkie Collins’s blurring of high and low, authoritative and non-authoritative discourses, in The Law and the Lady, The Moonstone and Armadale. It looks at how these novels undermine the legal system, realism, and medicine respectively—three discourses that presumed high levels of authority during the nineteenth century. Collins supplements this undermining of authority by privileging less official approaches to human understanding and behavior. I argue that it is this self-reflexive subversion of Victorian normative values that renders his novels deserving of critical attention and reconsideration within the canon

This dissertation seeks to show that the figure of the female letter-writer in English Renaissance literature, rather than reflecting the culture’s desire to contain, undermine, or destroy the notion of women’s textual production, in fact represents the culture’s desire to imagine and see women as writers. The image of the female letter-writer was sufficiently pervasive both to normalize the idea that real women might properly engage in textual production, and to function as a literary trope which was used to investigate issues beyond gender ideology. “Author of Prodigies” explores representations of women’s epistolary creation in a broad selection of fictional texts, primarily drama. Based on these representations, I argue that the figure of the female letter-writer functioned as a means through which the fragile and epistemologically fraught relationship between the subject and the writing in which she engages was explored. In Chapter One, I focus primarily on the history of early feminist criticism, issues of how letters are related to non-epistolary texts, Renaissance notions of subjectivity and its relationship to gender, and how subjectivity was understood to adhere in epistolary writing. In Chapter Two, I examine texts in which female characters pen letters in their own blood. Blood letters figure the fragility, marginality, and vulnerability associated with self revelation in a context in which female subjectivity was not comfortably acknowledged. Chapter Three features texts that contemplate the fantasy of female characters wooing their beaux by merging epistolary production and metadramatic performances of femininity. These characters use gendered social constraints to their advantage, revealing themselves to be sufficiently skillful to manipulate social and material signs of their marginalized position in order to achieve their personal desires. Chapter Four focuses on male fetishization of women’s intellectual labour through letter-writing, and the ways in which women writers anticipate and manipulate this response. These depictions of women’s mental work are infused with mystery, which is integral to the pleasure of imagining women engaged in letter-writing. However, as the terms of the fetish are being established in these texts they are also in the process of being normalized. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-15 21:08:25.539

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