This thesis details my investigation of some pharmaceuticals and natural products on the transport of drugs which are substrates of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), such as cyclosporin A (CSA) and digoxin by using Caco-2 and MDCKII-MDR1 drug transport models. Three objectives were performed to address this goal. The first objective was to...
Inhaled and intranasal corticosteroids (ICS and INS) are among the mainstays of the treatment for asthma and allergic rhinitis, respectively, and also carry the potential to suppress the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Several important factors affect the interpretability of trials investigating the impact of ICS and INS on the HPA axis....
Hydraulic dredging is and most certainly will remain a primary
means of maintaining and improving ship channels and for land
reclamation in near-shore water. The study of which this thesis
describes a part is intended to develop a method of predetermining the
immediate disposition of sand spoils from hydraulic dredging...
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the world’s major staple food crops, with flour produced from starchy endosperm being used for breads, cakes, noodles and various other wheat-based foods. The unique bread making properties of wheat are primarily attributed to its gluten-forming storage proteins: gliadins and glutenins. This study investigated...
A nickel-based Hastelloy C22 powder with a nominal composition of Ni-21.30Cr-13.36Mo-1.92Co-2.94W-3.85Fe-0.23Mn-0.3V(wt%) and particle size distribution of D₁₀=23.8±0.3 μm, D₅₀=37.5±0.2μm, and D₉₀=59.3±1.1 μm was gas atomized to be used as a feedstock in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). In this study, laser power and scanning speed were optimized to manufacture specimens...
An innovative silver nano-dimple arrays (Ag DAs)-integrated microfluidic device was developed to achieve highly sensitive fluorescence-based nucleic acid detection. The Ag DAs were utilized to produce surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for strong fluorescence enhancement. We systematically investigated the plasmon-enhanced fluorescence by controlling the nanostructure dimension of the Ag DA substrate....
Transportation systems are facing safety and operational challenges with a cost of billions of dollars annually in lost production time and wasted fuel. Infrastructure expansion, previously held as a panacea to most transportation challenges has lost its appeal due to financial, land-use and environmental constraints. Interest is surging in intelligent...
The Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea, is an ideal natural laboratory for studying the
impact of atmospheric dry deposition of iron to the ocean surface. We have measured
atmospheric iron deposition weekly for 18 months, and dissolved and total dissolvable
iron concentrations in the stratified summer (August) and well-mixed...
The cycloundecapeptide cyclosporin A (CsA) was first isolated from the insect-pathogenic fungus Tolypocladium inflatum for its antifungal activity and later developed as an immunosuppressant drug. However, the full biosynthetic mechanism of CsA remains unknown and has puzzled researchers for decades. In this study, the biosynthetic gene cluster is suggested to...