Purpose:
The xanthophyll carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are concentrated in the macula lutea of the retina. It is thought that the two plant pigments may play a role in preventing the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Exposure to damaging light plays a role in retinal deterioration and AMD. The...
The primary goal of this thesis is to fabricate a magnetic film between the coplanar transmitted stripline for crosstalk suppression. Crosstalk is caused from undesired inductive and capacitive coupling of signals between two conductors. The effective crosstalk suppression results from the inductive coupling of circuit elements through the lossy properties...
The focus of this study is to develop a general and low-cost solution-based
process to fabricate micro- and nano-structured semiconductors that are suitable
for electronics. This process uses simple metal halide precursors dissolved in a
solvent (organic or aqueous) and is capable of forming uniform and continuous
thin films via...
Molecular genetic and enzymological techniques have been employed to study antibiotic biosynthesis. The nonproteinogenic amino acid capreomycidine is the signature residue found in the tuberactinomycin family of antitubercular peptide antibiotics and an important element of the pharmacophore. Recombinant VioG, a single module peptide synthetase from the viomycin gene cluster cloned...
Calcium activated proteases, or calpains, are activated in cardiac muscles under conditions of ischemia/reperfusion and hypoxia. Their activity in skeletal muscle under similar conditions is poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that hypoxia elevates calpain-mediated proteolysis in isolated glycolytic (extensor digitorum longus, EDL) and oxidative (soleus, SOL) mouse muscles studied...
PDMS membrane-based microvalves are becoming increasingly more important for the control of fluid flow within MECS applications such as microreactors used to synthesize nanoparticles and biological macromolecules. The motivation for pursuing PDMS membrane-based microvalves is for implementing a plug flow microreactor to simulate slug flow yielding a narrower residence time...
This thesis is an investigation of the natural products deriving from marine algae and cyanobacteria and has resulted in the discovery of eleven new secondary metabolites. The structure elucidations of these new molecules were performed using a variety of spectroscopic techniques. Four new macrolides were isolated and characterized from the...
The effects of the residual salt of surimi on biochemical and physical properties as affected by various freeze and thaw cycles were examined. Fresh Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) surimi was mixed with 4.0% sugar, and 5.0% sorbitol, along with eight combinations of salt (0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 % NaCl)...
Aerobic organisms have evolved many sensory mechanisms that allow
response to oxidants in the environment. One area of interest is the relationship
between the activity of the tumor suppressor protein p53 and the redox state of
thioredoxin. Human p53 activity is severely compromised in budding yeast lacking
thioredoxin reductase. Evidence...