Thesis advisor: R. Shep Melnick / In what seems like the blink of an eye, transgender rights has catapulted from a nonissue in American politics to the peak of the culture wars. Scholarship on the transgender rights movement has proliferated rapidly in recent years, most of it sympathetic to the cause but some of it critical. Missing from this literature, however, is a serious examination of how courts and agencies have justified their efforts to advance what Vice President Joe Biden in 2012 called “the civil rights issue of our time.” This dissertation tries to fill that gap. Through an in-depth analysis of court precedents and agency pronouncements, and an examination of the assumptions behind regulators’ redefinition of male and female, it suggests that noble intentions have led civil rights institutions into a thicket of interpretive difficulties and regulatory dilemmas. First, judges and administrators have declared biological sex a “stereotype,” but have offered virtually no explanation for why this is so. This has resulted in regulatory peculiarities, including: courts relying on “stereotypes” when invalidating policies that they deem stereotypical; agencies instructing schools to adopt conflicting definitions of male and female; and government officials unable or unwilling to explain why separating restrooms and athletic teams by a non-physical understanding of sex is necessary in the first place. The deeper reason for these peculiarities, I argue, is a failure to articulate a coherent account of what makes us sexed beings. Second, civil rights officials have argued that their interpretation of federal law finds unambiguous support in a body of court rulings that condemn stereotyping. The problem with this argument, I suggest, is that the precedents that are cited actually say the opposite of what they are made out to say. They say that sex is biological, and that transgender women are biological men who fail to live up to social expectations about maleness. By invoking the abstract notion “stereotype,” regulators hide their break with precedent from citizens and perhaps also from themselves. Transgender regulation thus raises important questions about legal interpretation in relation to constitutional government, and about the role of the legal profession within liberal democracy. This dissertation challenges two dominant narratives about transgender rights. According to one, transgender rights is part and parcel of a broader postmodernism that is tearing through American institutions and weakening the foundations of Western societies. According to the other, transgender rights is a logical extension of the original civil rights revolution and a fulfillment of liberalism’s deeper humanitarian impulses. I argue that transgender regulations are more “conservative” than those who decry (or hope for) postmodernism believe, but more postmodern than those who appeal to liberal equality seem willing to acknowledge. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3αß is an enzyme that is involved in cell cycle regulation by promoting the degradation of cyclin D1 and cycling D3 in cells. Special emphasis is placed in its regulatory role in B cells, as there it is evidence that suggests that this protein is inhibited during germinal center formation, where B cells undergo proliferation, somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. By inducing DNA recombination via the Cre/lLxP recombination system and utilizing tamoxifen as a Cre activity inducer, B cells were culture in 40LB cells to form induced germinal center in vitro. Flow cytometry analysis suggests that in the absence of GSK-3 αß B cells proliferate extensively in germinal centers and being the process of class switch recombination. Although the results of this study are in accord with current theory, more experiments and research need to be made to validate the conclusions set forth in this study.

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Most studies of insect Malpighian tubules (MTs) have examined transport of monovalent ions (K^+, Na^+, Cl^-). Isolated Drosophila melanogaster MTs also transport Ca^2+ from bath to lumen and transport is stimulated by cAMP. The lower segment of the MTs transports Ca^2+ at a higher rate per unit length than does the main segment known to produce the primary urine. This study examines both whole animal calcium regulation in larvae, pupae and adults and the mechanisms of Ca^2+ transport by isolated MTs. Drosophila melanogaster appears to regulate its calcium content and haemolymph calcium level. Calcium content of the whole fly only increased 10% with a 6.2-fold increase in dietary calcium. Anterior MTs can contain as much as 50% of the whole animal calcium content. The difference in MTs accumulation is due primarily to the enlarged initial segment of the anterior MTs. This segment, absent from the posterior MT, contains calcium-containing concretions. Whole fly calcium content does not increase continuously with the age implying that calcium is eventually being excreted. Haemolymph calcium concentrations do not change in response to changes in dietary calcium, suggesting that calcium concentration is regulated either by the rate of absorption or by the rate of excretion. The midgut and the enlarged initial segment of the anterior MTs may play important roles in haemolymph calcium regulation. Isolated MTs show sensitivity to both Ca^2+ channel blockers and Ca^2+ -ATPAse inhibitors on the basolateral and apical membranes respectively. Voltage-gated calcium channels appear to mediate calcium movement from bath to cell. A ruthenium red sensitive Ca^2+ -ATPAse may be used to transport calcium against the electrochemical gradient from cell to lumen. Lastly, the dissolution of luminal concretions plays a large role in net calcium secretion. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria continue to be a threat to the health of the world's population. Glycopeptide antibiotics are one type of drug that are used to treat these serious pathogens. Increased usage over the years has led to the emergence of bacteria which are resistant to these glycopeptide antibiotics and now the need for altered antibiotics with an increased effectiveness has arisen. 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘺𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘺𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴 NRRL 15009 produces the glycopeptide antibiotic A47934. Here, the biosynthetic gene cluster for A47934 was sequenced in its entirety. All enzymes encoded by assigned open reading frames were analyzed and functions assigned where possible. The resulting biosynthesis cluster encodes all the enzymes necessary to produce A47934, as well as confer resistance and regulate the resistance response. In addition to sequencing the biosynthetic gene cluster, enzymatic studies were attempted on the two-component regulatory system (VanR and VanS) which confers resistance to A47934. Finally, inactivation of 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘓 was attempted. Overall, the results presented here should help us to further understand how these chemically complex glycopeptide antibiotics are made and lend further insight into how we can attempt to produce new semi-synthetic versions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

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Many consumers seem to be uncomfortable or unwilling in making online transactions. This lack of trust stems in part from the online exchange process itself where consumers are deprived of many traditional cues that they would use to evaluate this process. This research focuses on consumer perceptions of regulatory governance in online exchanges and how signals of governance might act to increase consumer trust in online transac-tions. An experimental methodology was used to examine the effects of different types of structures on consumer perceptions and to provide direction for public policy makers as well as online businesses and private regulatory entities. / Ph. D.