Vaccinia virus (VV), the prototype member of the orthopoxvirus family, is
a large virus of complex morphology which contains a 191 Kbp double-stranded
DNA genome whose expression is tightly regulated in a temporal
fashion during viral replication. The regulation of gene expression can be
exerted at various of levels, including...
The first goal of this study was to understand the role of calpains in skeletal muscle
protein degradation in cultured cells. We have developed a genetic approach to inhibit
endogenous calpain activity through over-expressing dominant negative m-calpain (DN),
antisense m-calpain (AS) and calpastatin inhibitory domain (CID). We observed that,
under...
The immune system has been identified as a very sensitive target for the toxic effects of 2,3,7,S-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). Exposure to TCDD has been shown to disrupt the generation of both cell-mediated and humoral T cell-dependent immunity in laboratory animals; however, the mechanism remains unknown. In this dissertation, the hypothesis is...
Electron transport and relaxation may be substantially different in low-dimensional
systems compared to that observed in bulk material. In the present work, Monte Carlo
models are used for the solution to the Boltzmann transport equation, with scattering
rates calculated quantum mechanically for superlattice and quantum wells. Carrier
relaxation following optical...
The compressive behavior of continuous fiber composites is not as well
understood as their tensile behavior because research and industrial applications have until
recently focused on the latter. Furthermore, most theoretical and experimental studies on
the compression of composites have examined the case of unidirectional specimens with
fibers along the...