A fundamental difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells is the presence of membrane bound organelles in eukaryotes. The dynamics of membrane trafficking within the cell are responsible for everything from intercellular communication and cell homeostasis, to mitosis, cell migration, and differentiation. These processes require exocytosis and compensatory endocytosis, often working...
The focus of this dissertation was to understand protein function and structure ona molecular level. To do this successfully, a variety of biochemical and biophysicaltechniques were employed. A wide variety of techniques were applied to study theproteins of interest in this dissertation to probe protein-protein interactions, proteinfunction, protein structure, and...
Hearing loss is one of the most common defect, affecting 360 million people worldwide due to several factors including congenital, present at or soon after birth or acquired with age. Congenital hearing loss affects 32 million children in the world. The economic impact of hearing loss is estimated to cost...
Studies of the use of NADH as the monitored fluorophore for enzymatic fluorescence kinetic methods are discussed. Interference studies
for the detection of NADH and the adaptation and optimization of fluorescence kinetic measurements to four serum assays are also described.
A microcomputer-controlled flow injection analysis (FIA) system was
designed and...
Dysferlin is a ∼230 kDa terminally anchored membrane protein that is ubiquitously expressed, but is particularly enriched in skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue. Mutations covering the length of the protein have been linked to muscle wasting diseases including limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and Myoshi myopathy. Dysferlin has been shown to play...
Congenital hearing loss is a common disorder and over 60 mutations in the sensory hair cell protein, otoferlin, have been linked to pre-lingual deafness. Although otoferlin is essential for hearing, the large size and low solubility of the protein have limited approaches to study its function on a molecular-level. To...
Auditory defects and disorders are prevalent at all ages and affect 8% of the population in developed nations including newborns and children. Congenital hearing loss is the most common birth defect and it is estimated that 1 in 1000 children are affected by deafness at birth or before the onset...
Otoferlin is a C2-domain, transmembrane protein whose mutated form is responsible for the DFNB9 subtype of prelingual hearing impairment. Mutations in otoferlin cause an autosomal recessive, non-syndromic form of deafness that is characterized by auditory neuropathy/ auditory dissynchrony (AN/AD), meaning that the outer hair cells (OHCs) are normal, and the...
In this dissertation, I describe spectroscopic studies of jet-cooled polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and one nitrogen substituted PAH (PANH) using pulsed field zero kinetic energy (ZEKE) photoelectron spectroscopy and resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy. Recently, there has been a demand for far-infrared (FIR) spectral information of astrophysically relevant molecules...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the initial on-site supervision experience of school counseling interns. Current counseling supervision research has failed to address dynamics specific to the context of school counselor training and professional development. This gap in the research suggest that examining the phenomenological experience of what...