6,106 research outputs found

    Graduate Catalog of Studies, 2023-2024

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    Dissecting the mechanisms of transport of herpes simplex virus between Langerhans Cells & dendritic cells in epidermis and dermis following infection of human genital mucosa and skin

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    Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has deemed a priority for a vaccine. CD8 and CD4T cells are important in the control and clearance of HSV, however no known vaccine has been able to stimulate CD8T cells. The dermal dendritic cells (dDCs) are suspected to play a role. Previously the host lab has shown in human tissue that HSV-1 infection of Langerhans cells (LCs) caused apoptosis and migration of LCs to the dermis, where they were phagocytosed by dDCs (termed HSV viral relay). Very little is known about the mechanisms of this relay. The host lab has also identified a second resident epidermal immune cell, Epi-cDC2s, which are infectable by HSV. This thesis aims to unravel the mechanisms involved in the relay. RNA-seq and cell surface phenotyping on human dDCs subsets showed that was differential chemokine receptor expression. Bead-based immunoassays were used to determine the chemokines produced by HSV-1 infected LCs and Epi-cDC2s,and showed HSV infected LCs produced increased CXCR3 ligands, while HSV infected Epi-cDC2s produced increased CCR5 ligands. The importance of these chemokine axes was investigated using chemotaxis assays. An cyclic immunofluorescent microscopy panel was then developed to investigate whether this migration could be seen in situ in HSV infected foreskin explants. Underneath epidermal foci of infection, there was migration of both cDC1s and cDC2s towards the basement membrane. Under foci of infection there was a greater proportion of cDC2s clustering with LCs. The uptake of HSV infected epidermal cells by the dDC subsets was examined using imaging cytometry. Preliminary results suggest that there were no significant differences between the ability of dDCs to phagocytose HSV infected epidermal cells. Understanding the mechanisms and the role of each dDC subset in the HSV viral relay will determine which dDC subsets are crucial for CD8 and CD4 T cell stimulation

    Deriving a mathematical framework for data-driven analyses of immune cell dynamics

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    Zelluläre Entscheidungen, wie z. B. die Differenzierung von T-Helferzellen (Th-Zellen) in spezialisierte Effektorlinien, haben großen Einfluss auf die Spezifität von Immunreaktionen. Solche Reaktionen sind das Ergebnis eines komplexen Zusammenspiels einzelner Zellen, die über kleine Signalmoleküle, so genannte Zytokine, kommunizieren. Die hohe Anzahl der Komponenten, sowie deren komplizierte und oft nichtlineare Interaktionen erschweren dabei die Vorhersage, wie bestimmte zelluläre Reaktionen erzeugt werden. Aus diesem Grund sind die globalen Auswirkungen der gezielten Beeinflussung einzelner Zellen oder spezifischer Signalwege nur unzureichend verstanden. So wirken beispielsweise etablierte Behandlungen von Autoimmunkrankheiten oft nur bei einem Teil der Patienten. Durch Einzelzellmethoden wie Live-Cell-Imaging, Massenzytometrie und Einzelzellsequenzierung, können Immunzellen heutzutage quantitativ auf mehreren Ebenen charakterisiert werden. Diese Ansammlung quantitativer Daten erlaubt die Formulierung datengetriebener Modelle zur Vorhersage von zellulären Entscheidungen, allerdings fehlen in vielen Fällen Methoden, um die verschiedenen Daten auf geeignete Weise zu integrieren und zu annotieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit quantitativen Modellformulierungen für die Entscheidungsfindung von Zellen im Immunsystem mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Lymphozytenproliferation, -differenzierung und -tod.Cellular decisions, such as the differentiation of T helper (Th) cells into specialized effector lineages, largely impact the direction of immune responses. Such population-level responses are the result of a complex interplay of individual cells which communicate via small signaling molecules called cytokines. The system's complexity, stemming not only from the number of components but also from their intricate and oftentimes non-linear interactions, makes it difficult to develop intuition for how cellular responses are actually generated. Not surprisingly, the global effects of targeting individual cells or specific signaling pathways through perturbations are poorly understood. For instance, common treatments of autoimmune diseases often work for some patients, but not for others. Recently developed methods such as live-cell imaging, mass cytometry and single-cell sequencing now enable quantitative characterization of individual immune cells. This accumulating wealth of quantitative data has laid the basis to derive predictive, data-driven models of immune cell behavior, but in many cases, methods to integrate and annotate the data in a way suitable for model formulation are missing. In this thesis, quantitative workflows and methods are introduced that allow to formulate data-driven models of immune cell decision-making with a particular focus on lymphocyte proliferation, differentiation and death

    Advances in Binders for Construction Materials

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    The global binder production for construction materials is approximately 7.5 billion tons per year, contributing ~6% to the global anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 emissions. Reducing this carbon footprint is a key aim of the construction industry, and current research focuses on developing new innovative ways to attain more sustainable binders and concrete/mortars as a real alternative to the current global demand for Portland cement.With this aim, several potential alternative binders are currently being investigated by scientists worldwide, based on calcium aluminate cement, calcium sulfoaluminate cement, alkali-activated binders, calcined clay limestone cements, nanomaterials, or supersulfated cements. This Special Issue presents contributions that address research and practical advances in i) alternative binder manufacturing processes; ii) chemical, microstructural, and structural characterization of unhydrated binders and of hydrated systems; iii) the properties and modelling of concrete and mortars; iv) applications and durability of concrete and mortars; and v) the conservation and repair of historic concrete/mortar structures using alternative binders.We believe this Special Issue will be of high interest in the binder industry and construction community, based upon the novelty and quality of the results and the real potential application of the findings to the practice and industry

    Specificity of the innate immune responses to different classes of non-tuberculous mycobacteria

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    Mycobacterium avium is the most common nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) species causing infectious disease. Here, we characterized a M. avium infection model in zebrafish larvae, and compared it to M. marinum infection, a model of tuberculosis. M. avium bacteria are efficiently phagocytosed and frequently induce granuloma-like structures in zebrafish larvae. Although macrophages can respond to both mycobacterial infections, their migration speed is faster in infections caused by M. marinum. Tlr2 is conservatively involved in most aspects of the defense against both mycobacterial infections. However, Tlr2 has a function in the migration speed of macrophages and neutrophils to infection sites with M. marinum that is not observed with M. avium. Using RNAseq analysis, we found a distinct transcriptome response in cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction for M. avium and M. marinum infection. In addition, we found differences in gene expression in metabolic pathways, phagosome formation, matrix remodeling, and apoptosis in response to these mycobacterial infections. In conclusion, we characterized a new M. avium infection model in zebrafish that can be further used in studying pathological mechanisms for NTM-caused diseases

    Quantifying the Impacts of Flash Flooding on Dominica’s Material Stocks in Buildings: A GIS-based methodological framework for Small Island States

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    Economic growth is usually accompanied by extensive extraction of natural resources, especially in developing countries. From a “material-stock-flow-service” perspective, the substantial part (e.g., construction materials) of the extracted natural resources as inflows to a society get accumulated in the built environment as “material stocks” (MS). Depending on the end-use types of their containers, MS provide essential services to a society such as housing, education and transportation. When an environmental hazard strikes, MS lose their functionality due to the destruction of the physical structure of their carriers, resulting in extra construction waste that then must be cleared for recovery. To make a society more resilient to environmental hazards, which is especially important in small island states with limited natural and human resources, the knowledge of exposure of MS to hazard risk is critical. This research focuses on the quantity and spatial distribution of MS in buildings in the context of intense rainfall-triggered flash flooding in Dominica, a small island state in the Caribbean region. A Geographical Information System (GIS)-based stock-driven methodology is used to quantify four typical types of construction materials: concrete, aggregates, timber, and steel. To quantify exposed MS in buildings to flash flooding, an event-based flood model is used to generate flood inundation extents at the national scale. To investigate the degrees to which the exposed households are susceptible to the impacts of environmental hazards, this research also designs a resident survey to collect social factors contributing to household vulnerability to hazards. For 2020, the total MS in the building sector is estimated at 6,574 kt, equivalent to 91 t per capita, given Dominica’s population of the year. In terms of the distributions of MS in different material categories, concrete accounts for 86% of the total MS in buildings, followed by aggregate at 7%, timber at 4% and steel at 3%. Examining the exposure of MS in buildings to flash flooding, it is found that flood events of larger magnitudes would result in more MS contained in the exposed buildings. For flash flood events with 5-year, 10-year, and 20-year return periods, the numbers of exposed buildings are 2,781, 3,030, and 3,274, respectively, which contain 17%, 18%, and 19% of the total MS in buildings in Dominica. This research demonstrates how to link the results of material stock accounting to flash flood modelling, approaching the concept of socio-economic metabolism from an environmental hazard risk perspective. Knowledge of the quantity and spatial distribution of the exposed MS in buildings can assist local governments in making cost-effective mitigation plans before a hazard event. Although the designed survey was not implemented due to travel restrictions, it is a valuable instrument to collect the information about household vulnerability to environmental hazards, which can help hazard response agencies with more-efficient rescue operations during a hazardous event

    Religion, Education, and the ‘East’. Addressing Orientalism and Interculturality in Religious Education Through Japanese and East Asian Religions

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    This work addresses the theme of Japanese religions in order to rethink theories and practices pertaining to the field of Religious Education. Through an interdisciplinary framework that combines the study of religions, didactics and intercultural education, this book puts the case study of Religious Education in England in front of two ‘challenges’ in order to reveal hidden spots, tackle unquestioned assumptions and highlight problematic areas. These ‘challenges’, while focusing primarily on Japanese religions, are addressed within the wider contexts of other East Asian traditions and of the modern historical exchanges with the Euro-American societies. As result, a model for teaching Japanese and other East Asian religions is discussed and proposed in order to fruitfully engage issues such as orientalism, occidentalism, interculturality and critical thinking

    Carbon stock prediction in managed forest ecosystems using Bayesian and frequentist geostatistical techniques and new generation remote sensing metrics

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    The study compares the performance of a hierarchical Bayesian geostatistical methodology with a frequentist geostatistical approach, specifically, Kriging with External Drift (KED), for predicting C stock using prediction aides from the Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 multispectral remote sensing platforms. The frequentist geostatistical approach’s reliance on the long-run frequency of repeated experiments for constructing confidence intervals is not always practical or feasible, as practitioners typically have access to a single dataset due to cost constraints on surveys and sampling. We evaluated two approaches for C stock prediction using two new generation multispectral remote sensing datasets because of the inherent uncertainty characterizing spatial prediction problems in the unsampled locations, as well as differences in how the Bayesian and frequentist geostatistical paradigms handle uncertainty

    2023-2024 Boise State University Undergraduate Catalog

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    This catalog is primarily for and directed at students. However, it serves many audiences, such as high school counselors, academic advisors, and the public. In this catalog you will find an overview of Boise State University and information on admission, registration, grades, tuition and fees, financial aid, housing, student services, and other important policies and procedures. However, most of this catalog is devoted to describing the various programs and courses offered at Boise State

    Integration of heterogeneous data sources and automated reasoning in healthcare and domotic IoT systems

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    In recent years, IoT technology has radically transformed many crucial industrial and service sectors such as healthcare. The multi-facets heterogeneity of the devices and the collected information provides important opportunities to develop innovative systems and services. However, the ubiquitous presence of data silos and the poor semantic interoperability in the IoT landscape constitute a significant obstacle in the pursuit of this goal. Moreover, achieving actionable knowledge from the collected data requires IoT information sources to be analysed using appropriate artificial intelligence techniques such as automated reasoning. In this thesis work, Semantic Web technologies have been investigated as an approach to address both the data integration and reasoning aspect in modern IoT systems. In particular, the contributions presented in this thesis are the following: (1) the IoT Fitness Ontology, an OWL ontology that has been developed in order to overcome the issue of data silos and enable semantic interoperability in the IoT fitness domain; (2) a Linked Open Data web portal for collecting and sharing IoT health datasets with the research community; (3) a novel methodology for embedding knowledge in rule-defined IoT smart home scenarios; and (4) a knowledge-based IoT home automation system that supports a seamless integration of heterogeneous devices and data sources
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