Discourse and identity in Antigone, The Awakening, and The House of Mirth

Identity is a presupposed notion of individual qualities or beliefs that are inherent in one\u27s character. However, through the application of Mikhail Bakhtin\u27s theory of dialogism and discourse, this thesis argues that the representations of identity found in Antigone, The Awakening, and The House of Mirth are born out of experience with society rather than something innate. Following the trail of discourse, the female protagonist in each text develops a discourse that each character remains loyal to even in the face of social adversity. While their suicides may appear to end their dialogue with society, the ethical meaning of their deaths and its reflection on their discourse shapes the future outlook of the remaining characters in each text. Moreover, by choosing death for their female protagonist, each author enters into an inferred dialogue with their audience that highlights a moral value that resonates with readers because each text is reflective of its contemporary social hierarchy and customs

Self-extending symbiosis in symbiodinium microadriaticum and the effect of endosymbiotic / horizontal gene transfer on dinoflagellates and the tree of life

Symbiodinium microadriaticum is a dinoflagellate that lives in a mutualistic relationship with the coral Stylophora pistillata in the Red Sea. Symbiodinium microadriaticum is divided into several clades and the A1 clade of Symbiodinium microadriaticum lives in shallow waters and is resilient to thermal stress. The association between Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 and Stylophora pistillata enables Stylophora pistillata to tolerate the rise in the sea surface temperature caused by global warming and climate change. Here, the first completely sequenced dinoflagellate genome is explored to answer two questions: The first question is whether self-extending symbiosis has a role in the ability of Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 to adapt to thermal stress and other environmental perturbations. The second question is how endosymbiotic / horizontal gene transfer (E/HGT) affects dinoflagellates and the Tree of life (TOL). Using a large scale comparative and phylogenomic analysis, here I am addressing the extent of horizontal and endosymbiotic gene transfer in Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 and in dinoflagellates in general. Two model organisms that do not live in mutualistic relationships with other organisms were used as controls for Stylophora pistillata and Symbiodinium microadriaticum. These two organisms are Nematostella vectensis and Alexandrium tamarense, respectively. Furthermore, because the monophyly of the chromalveolate, the eukaryotic supergroup the dinoflagellates belong to, is in controversy, this key relationship in the Tree of life is investigated in the second part of the thesis. The sequencing of the genome of Symbiodinium microadriaticum A1 (CCMP2467) provides a great opportunity to conduct a genome-wide analysis of the phylogenetic affiliation on a gene-by-gene basis. Trees that show monophyly of the stramenopile-alveolate-Rhizaria (SAR) clade were sorted out and the positions of cryptophytes and haptophytes in relation to the SAR clade were manually reviewed. In addition, trees were further sorted to address which clades are more highly involved in E/HGT to dinoflagellates and how E/HGT from these clades affects dinoflagellates. Results showed that most genes obtained from other unicellular eukaryotes encoded proteins that take part in: response to oxidative stress, signal transduction, cell adhesion, and arginine and proline metabolic pathway, besides other proteins that take part in other metabolic pathways. On the other hand, HGT genes from bacteria encoded proteins involved in signal transduction pathways such as the MepB permease, cyclic nucleotide binding domain. In addition, genes transferred to/from Symbiodiniummicroadriaticum A1and either Acropora digitifera or Stylophora pistillata mainly encoded transporters and proteins involved in cell adhesion and in peroxisome synthesis. Moreover, results showed that enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of essential amino Acids such as L-glutamate, glycine and threonine were missing from Stylophora pistillata although they are available, as expected, in Nematostella vectensis and other Metazoa species. Furthermore, contradicting the long-accepted chromalveolate hypothesis and the well-established monophyly of chromalveolates, my results suggest that cryptophytes and haptophytes are not in monophyly with the rest of the chromalveolate clade in most of the analyzed trees. Results also showed that E/HGT from bacteria to dinoflagellates transferred several methyltransferase genes, besides the RuBisCO encoding gene from proteobacteia and the Histone acetyltransferase HPA2 encoding gene that was also transferred from bacteria. To sum up, results identified the proteins that are putatively involved in adapting to environmental stress and where they have evolved from. Further studies can be done to understand their mechanisms of action and hence investigate if their actions can be enhanced to prevent the loss of the symbiont-host mutualistic relationship and to prevent coral bleaching. Also, this thesis challenges the monophyly of the chromalveolate clade and the position of cryptophytes and haptophytes in relation to this clade.

Assessment of Triangular Fibro-cartilaginous Complex Injuries of The Wrist Using High Resolution Ultrasound versus Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background: Triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) may be assessed using ultrasound (US) because of its wide availability, mobility, low cost, and lack of radiation. When it comes to TFCC imaging, MRI is the gold standard, although US can provide a more detailed picture of the disease. Objective: Comparing and contrasting the use of ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the detection of triangular fibrocartilaginous complex injuries of the wrist. Patients and Methods: The study was conducted at the Radiodiagnosis Department, Zagazig University Hospital, Egypt. Wrist discomfort or reduced wrist mobility was reported by 35 individuals with a mean age of 39 ± 13.18 years old. Both radiologists who performed the ultrasound and the MRI were blinded to each other's results in order to minimize bias. Results: 82.9 % of patients showed normal ulnar variance while 11.4 % of patients showed positive variance and 5.7% with negative variance. The ultrasound detected 18 positive cases with TFCC injury with a percentage of 51.4%. The MRI detected 24 positive cases with TFCC injury with a percentage of 68.6%. The ultrasound detected TFCC cases with a sensitivity of 75%, specificity 100%, PPV 100 and NPV 64.7. Conclusion: It is very suggested that tendons and inflammation of the wrist could be examined by ultrasonography. In recent investigations, it was shown that US had the ability to identify injuries in the TFCC and intrinsic ligament

Pharmacokinetics, metabolism and excretion of celecoxib, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, in horses

Celecoxib, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, is frequently used to treat arthritis in humans with minimal gastrointestinal side effect compared to traditional NSAIDs. The primary aim of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetic profile of celecoxib—a selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor in horses. Six horses were administered a single oral dose of celecoxib at 2 mg/kg (body weight). After oral dosing, the drug reached a maximum concentration (mean ± SD) in blood of 1,088 ± 324 ng/ml in 4.58 hr. The elimination half-life was 13.60 ± 3.18 hr, and the area under the curve was 24,142 ± 1,096 ng hr ml−1. The metabolism of celecoxib in horses was via a single oxidative pathway in which the methyl group of celecoxib is oxidized to a hydroxymethyl metabolite and is further oxidized to form a carboxylic acid metabolite. Celecoxib is eliminated mainly through faeces as unchanged drug and as metabolites in urine. Therefore, instructions for a detection time following therapeutic dosing of celecoxib can be set by the racing practitioner and veterinarians to control illegal use in horse racing based on the results of this study

Design, Synthesis and Antibacterial Evaluation of some new 3,5-Diphenylcyclohex-2-en-1-one Derivatives

The moiety of cyclohexene has been showed highly antibacterial activity. New compounds were synthesized from diphenylcyclohexenone via reaction with a variety of reagents to afford branched chain of 1,3-diphenylcyclohexene or fused heterocyclic systems including pyrazole, chromen and pyrrole derivatives. Cyclic ketoketene s,s-acetal can be prepared by reaction with CS2/MeI under PTC conditions which in turn used as starting material for the synthesis of pyrazolyl and benzothiszolyl derivatives. Most of new synthesized compounds were characterized by using spectral data and were screened for their antibacterial activity

Early Recognition of Alzheimer’s Disease using Brain MRI

Abstract—Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a brain disease that causes a slow decline in memory, thinking and reasoning skills. It represents a major public health problem.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have shown that the brains of people with (AD) shrink significantly as the disease progresses. This shrinkage appears in specific brain regions such as the hippocampus which is a small, curved formation in the brain that plays an important role in the limbic system also involved in the formation of new memories and is also associated with learning and emotions.  Medical information on brain MRI is used in detecting the abnormalities in physiological structures. Structural MRI measurements can detect and follow the evolution of brain atrophy which is a marker of the disease progression; therefore, it allows diagnosis and prediction of AD.  The research’s main target is the early recognition of Alzheimer’s disease automatically, which will thereby avoid deterioration of the case resulting in complete brain damage stage.  Alzheimer’s disease yields visible changes in the brain structures. The aim is to recognize if the patient belongs to Alzheimer’s disease category or a normal healthy person at an early stage. Initially, image pre-processing and features extraction techniques are applied including data reduction using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Cropping, then traditional classification techniques like Euclidean Distance, Chebyshev Distance, Cosine Distance, City Block Distance, and Black pixel counter, were applied on the resulting vectors for classification. Image pre-processing includes noise reduction, Gray-scale conversion and binary scale conversion were applied for the MRI images. Feature extraction techniques follow including cropping and low spatial frequency components (DCT). This paper aims to automatically recognize and detect Alzheimer’s infected brain using MRI, without the need of clinical expert. This early recognition would be helpful to postpone the disease progression and maintain it at an almost steady stage. It was concluded after collecting a dataset of 50 MRI , 25 for normal MRI and  25 for AD MRI that Chebyshev Distance classifier yielded the highest success rate in the recognition of Alzheimer’s disease with accuracy 94% compared to other classification techniques used where, Euclidean Distance is 91.6%,  Cosine Distance is 86.8%, City block Distance is 89.6%, Correlation Distance is 86.4% and Black pixels counter is 90%

Evaluation of Two Bone Anchored Appliances During En Masse Distalization of Maxillary Buccal Segment with Class II Patients; A Comparative Clinical Study

Objective: to assess quality of orthodontic tooth movement during distalization by two different skeletally anchored distalizing appliances. Patients and methods: the current study was applied on 22 orthodontic patients with class ΙΙ molar relationship. Patients were divided into two active groups; group Ι: include 11 patients treated by modified sagittal screw distalizer and group ΙΙ: include 11 patients treated by modified distal jet distalizer. Quality of distalization was assessed by the following measurements; first and second premolars root horizontal distance (mm), first and second molars root horizontal distance(mm), SNA, SNB, U1 to FH. Results: The highest change (%) in first molar root horizontal distance (mm) was recorded in group II with a decrease by -11.5 % in the left side and -11.4 % in the right side. Conclusion: Bone anchored Distal Jet and modified Sagittal screw distalizer provide an effective tool for treating mild to moderate class II malocclusion. But the modified distal jet produces high quality of distalization than the modified Sagittal screw distalizer

Impact of sustainable energy savings in Nigerian telecoms industry

The efforts towards mitigating the effects of climate change should be more focused towards reducing CO2 and greenhouse gases emissions within the current regulations. One of the ways to achieve this is through encouraging more energy saving practices and reduction of carbon footprint within all production, commercial and service related functions within organisations. Nigeria has been identified with higher emission of greenhouse gases due to downstream gas flaring combined with rapid industrialisation, urbanisation and commercialisation activities. This research paper examines the potential impacts of energy saving within Nigerian telecoms industry, and highlights how telecoms base stations have great challenges and threats towards the climate change from the amount of energy generated within the system. The paper conducts a literature study on energy savings with key focus towards energy usage, its impacts, and concepts and towards the benefits of energy saving practices. The research also investigates within the concept of energy saving towards using sustainable methods for addressing the climate change issues. Further investigations towards the prospect of using renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and others are presented within the paper. Finally, sustainability assessment of these renewable technologies had been conducted towards providing recommendations for more suitable, alternative and affordable strategies for replacing or complementing conventional methods of powering telecoms industries in future

Jednonukleotidni polimorfizmi gena za β-laktoglobulin, k-kazein i DGAT1 kao kandidati za stroge selekcijske kriterije holštajnskih krava s obzirom na sastav i proizvodnost mlijeka

The aim of this study was to investigate β-Lactoglobulin, k-casein and DGAT1 gene polymorphism and to associate this polymorphism with milk composition and performance traits in Holstein cattle using the PCR-DNA sequencing approach. On the basis of farm records, accurate phenotypic data for milk composition and performance traits were obtained for seventy Holstein dairy cows. Blood samples were collected from each animal into tubes containing disodium EDTA as an anticoagulant for DNA extraction. PCR was carried out for amplification of fragments of exon 4 (301-bp) of β-Lactoglobulin, exon 4 (373-bp) of k-casein, and exon 7 (321-bp) of DGAT1 genes. DNA sequencing assessment elaborated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the investigated genes amongst the enrolled dairy cows. On the basis of the dairy cows that harbored identified SNPs in each gene, the animals were allocated into different groups. The least square means of the groups revealed a significant association (P ≤ 0.05) between SNPs and milk production and performance traits. Logistic regression model confirmed a highly significant effect of the identified SNPs on the studied traits, where a moderate to strong relationship was detected between the predictor (SNPs) and the grouping variable (Milk composition and performance traits). Consequently, the identified SNPs in β-Lactoglobulin, k-casein and DGAT1 genes could be used as candidates for developing marker assisted selection (MAS) for milk composition and performance traits in Holstein dairy cattle.Cilj rada bio je, primjenom PCR-DNA metode i analize sljedova, istražiti polimorfizme gena za β-Lactoglobulin, k-kazein i DGAT1 te procijeniti njihovu povezati sa sastavom mlijeka i svojstvima proizvodnosti goveda holštajnske pasmine. Na temelju evidencija s farmi dobiveni su točni fenotipski podaci o sastavu mlijeka i proizvodnosti 70 muznih krava. Za ekstrakciju DNK prikupljeni su uzorci krvi pojedinačnih krava u epruvete koje su sadržavale dinatrijev EDTA kao antikoagulans. PCR je proveden za amplifikaciju fragmenata egzona 4 (301-bp) β-laktoglobulina, egzona 4 (373-bp) k-kazeina i egzona 7 (321-bp) gena DGAT1. Analiza sljedova DNK prikazala je jednonukleotidne polimorfizme (SNPs) u istraženim genima. Uzevši u obzir krave kod kojih su utvrđeni SNP-ove u svakom genu, životinje su raspoređene u različite skupine. Srednje vrijednosti (LSM) skupina pokazale su znakovitu povezanost (P<0,05) između SNP-ova i svojstava proizvodnosti mlijeka. Model logističke regresije potvrdio je visoko znakovit učinak identificiranih SNP-ova na istraživana svojstva, pri čemu je ustanovljena umjerena do jaka povezanost između prediktora (SNP-ovi) i varijabli grupiranja (sastav mlijeka i proizvodnost mlijeka). Posljedično, identificirani SNP-ovi u genima β-Lactoglobulina, k-kazeina i DGAT1 mogli bi se koristiti kao kandidatni pri razvoju postupaka selekcije uz pomoć markera (MAS) za sastav mlijeka i svojstva proizvodnosti u mliječnih goveda pasmine holštajn

Platinum 1,10-phenanthroline: Photosensitizer for photocatalytic degradation of 4-chlorophenol

It is more economic to apply photodegradation of organic pollutants in presence of the visible light irradiation (sunlight) than applying more costfull ultraviolet lamps. Hence, platinum 1,10-phenanthroline complex has been prepared and tested as a photosensitizer for photodegrading 4-chlorophenol in water, which has been found almost completely achieved (98.5 %) after three hours of visible irradiation. Nevertheless, irradiation at 364 and 254 nm exhibits lower efficiencies. At visible irradiation, the platinum complex gives the highest activation of singlet state oxygen formation (1O2) compared to 364 and 254 nm irradiation as supported by electron para-magnetic resonance data. On the other hand, the behavior of formation and disappearance of photodegradation intermediates: hydroquinone, benzoquinone, hydroxybenzoquinone, using the platinum complex applying the three current irradiations are found to supports these findings. However, organic acids have accumulated as a function of irradiation time and hence considered to be rate-controlling