2 pp.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

We know very little about how muscles and motor units in one region of the upper airway are impacted by adjustments in an adjacent airway region. In this case, the focus is on regulation of the expiratory airstream by the larynx and how changes in laryngeal aperture impact muscle motor unit activities downstream in the pharynx. We selected sound production as a framework for study as it requires (i) sustained expiratory airflow, (ii) laryngeal airway regulation for production of whisper and voice, and (iii) pharyngeal airway regulation for production of different vowel sounds. We used these features as the means of manipulating expiratory airflow, pharyngeal, and laryngeal airway opening to compare the effect of each on the activation of genioglossus (GG) muscle motor units in the pharynx. We show that some GG muscle motor units (a) discharge stably on expiration associated with production of vowel sounds, (b) are exquisitely sensitive to subtle alterations in laryngeal airflow, and (c) discharge at higher firing rates in high flow vs. low flow conditions even when producing the same vowel sound. Our results reveal subtle changes in GG motor unit discharge rates that correlate with changes imposed at the larynx, and which may contribute to the regulation of the expiratory airstream.

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My dissertation examines political participation in non-democratic countries. Specifically, it looks into China's urban political participation in the past decade and examines how Chinese urban citizens are mobilized to participate in politics when an authoritarian regime has been experiencing dramatic economic change. The theoretic question of this dissertation is the evolvement of state-society relations during the economic development and how the change of the state-society relationship is reflected in individual behavior. I found that while the social context such as the workplace served as fundamental grassroots institution to mobilize citizens' political participation in the early 1990s, China's urban political participation has shifted to lean more and more on individual resources. Political participation in non-democratic regimes is a unique and rapidly developing field in the studies of political behavior. Scholars studying citizens' political participation in USSR and China have long noted that political participation in an authoritarian regime is mobilized and controlled by the state and citizens are organized by the state to participate in politics to provide for regime legitimacy. In the dissertation I tested this paradigm within the context of China's economic development. The data I employ are the 1993 China's Social Mobility and Social Change Survey and the 2002 Asian Barometer Survey. Both data sets contain highly congruent batteries of questions on citizens' political behavior and political attitudes that provide the basis of comparison across time. The data sets were collected across China in 1993 and 2002 respectively representing the population of adult residents (excluding Tibet). The comparison of urban political participation in the past decade exhibited a general and measurable decline of citizens' participation in the economic reform. I found Chinese citizens' political participation has shifted largely from the pattern of "grassroots-state-mobilization" to "individual-voluntary-mobilization" during the economic reform. I argue that this is largely resulted from the change of state-society relations as individual citizens are granted with more autonomy in political liberalization and become less dependent on the state for economic sources.

Aims: To determine the contribution of Kirsten-ras and other abnormalities in the signalling pathway from growth factor to RAS in colorectal cancer and to develop a means of targeting a ras mutation of probable prognostic importance. Methods: Sections of 105 consecutive early colorectal cancers were obtained. DNA was extracted and codons 110-134 of the TGF- β RII receptor gene were amplified using PCR and screened for microsatellite instability. Codons 12 and 13 of the Kirsten-ras gene were identified by direct sequencing. Immunohistochemical staining was used to identify expression of pan RAS proteins, the growth factors EGF and TGF- β, and their common receptor, EGF-R. A ribozyme transcription unit was constructed to target the mRNA produced from Kirsten ras encoding a valine mutation at codon 12. The ribozyme was transcribed in colorectal cell lines using a novel expression/reporter plasmid. Two control ribozyme constructs were also used: one lacked ribozyme activity, the other was not transcribed in colorectal cells. Ribozyme expression and Kirsten-ras mRNA levels in transfected cells were identified by an RNase protection assay. Cell viability after transfection was determined by labelled thymidine uptake. Results: A ras pathway abnormality was identified in almost 90% of the tumours while microsatellite instability at the TGF- β RII gene was identified in only 3 (2.9%). Kirsten-Ras mutations were present in 30 (28.6%). Cleavage of target mRNA by the ribozyme in vitro and transcription in transfected cells were confirmed. However, there was no demonstrable reduction in Kirsten-ras mRNA in treated cells and no specific effect on cell viability.

published_or_final_version / Mathematics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Route charges are fees that airlines pay in order to utilize the Air Navigation Services (ANS) of a European state. The fee is based on three values; the weight of the aircraft, the length of the flight, and the state’s specific unit rate. The unit rate of each state is in turn based on the forecasted costs of providing ANS for that state and the amount of traffic forecasted for the year to come. This makes for different unit rates for different states, which leads to different costs for flying different routes in the European airspace. A state having costs that are increasing faster than the amount of traffic is increasing will lead to a higher unit rate. A higher unit rate may lead to airlines avoiding the state’s airspace due to higher costs, thus accounting for even less traffic and an increase in unit rate. This thesis examines the relationship between unit rate and amount of traffic, and specifically tries to find out how much the unit rate affects the traffic count. This has been done by reading previous papers on the subject, and creating a model to easily present facts found. The result of the thesis suggests that states actually profits more by increasing the unit rate rather than actively trying to reduce it. This contradicts the idea of lowering prices always being a good thing. There is a limit to how much the unit rate can be increases however, at which all traffic will choose to circumnavigate the airspace. Finding a good balance between traffic lost and unit rate increased is suggested as the best way to go.