The rule of contraction: a manuscript of sequential prose poems with an introduction

The prose poem is a hybrid form firmly rooted in 19th century French literary tradition, and later adopted by British and American poets. Questions as to genre arise when critically assessing possible formulaic divisions demonstrated by various techniques and tropes within fiction and poetry. The creative portion of this thesis consists of the complete manuscript of sequential prose poems constituting Bonné A. de Blas’s chapbook, The Rule of Contraction. The introductory essay discusses the history of the modern prose poem, as well as the questions of genre surrounding its form, and describes the influences of the New Prose Poem and elliptical poetics as they informed the writing of The Rule of Contraction

ADVERTISEMENT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT UNBUNDLING

A system described herein enables advertisement software development kits (SDKs) to be unbundled from applications that use advertisement SDKs. The system provides SDK proxy libraries and advertisement services developed based on the advertisement SDKs. The SDK proxy libraries replace original calls to advertisement SDKs with inter-protocol communication (IPC) calls. The advertisements services receive the IPC calls and, in response, generate views that include advertisements. The advertisement services provide the views to the applications. Rather than the application determining the advertisement views and/or clicks, the system described herein enables the advertisement services to validate views and/or clicks of the advertisement separately from the application. In this way, the system described in this disclosure may prevent the applications from generating fake clicks or fake views while preventing the advertisement services from accessing sensitive data collected by the applications

QTL analysis and localization of genes involved in the variation of cholesterol levels in the rat

Epidemiological studies in man and experimental studies in animals have shown that serum and liver cholesterol levels are influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. Research that aims to dissect which genetic factors are involved in the differences of blood and hepatic cholesterol levels requires standardization of both environmental circumstances and the genetic background. Therefore, genetically defined laboratory animals are indispensable for these studies. In this thesis the four rat inbred strains, BC/CpbU (BC), BN.lx/Cub (BN), LEW/OlaHsd (LEW) and SHR/OlaIpcv (SHR), selected for their response to a cholesterol-rich diet, have been used. BN and LEW are hyperresponders whereas BC and SHR are hyporesponders with respect to serum cholesterol levels. The strains differ also for liver cholesterol accumulation. The BN, SHR and the recombinant inbred (RI) strains, derived from the progenitors BN and SHR, have been used. The genetic linkage map that is based on these RI strains has been extended by using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. DNA from the BN and SHR have been used to amplify the Fabp6 gene. As no polymorphism could be detected between the BN and the SHR, the location of Fabp6 has been determined by screening a radiation hybrid (RH) panel with rat specific primers. The chromosomal location was, as expected, on rat chromosome 10, in the vicinity of a QTL for liver cholesterol concentration. The F2 progeny of a cross between BC and LEW has been used for the construction of a genetic linkage map, consisting of 258 polymorphic DNA markers. This F2 progeny has been used for QTL analysis for the parameters basal serum cholesterol levels (before a cholesterol-rich diet), and for the post-dietary (i.e. after a cholesterol-rich diet) levels of serum cholesterol, liver cholesterol, serum phospholipids and circulating steroid hormones. For basal serum cholesterol levels, QTLs has been found on chromosome 1 and 7. For post-dietary serum cholesterol levels, two significant QTLs have been found, on chromosome 2 and 16. For liver cholesterol concentrations, two suggestive associations have been found on chromosome 6 and 10. For serum phospholipids level, a QTL has been found on chromosome 11. For postdietary aldosterone levels, two significant QTLs have been found on chromosome 1 and 18. Chapters 6 and 7 deal with the chromosomal localization of genes that are involved in the biosynthesis, metabolism and transport of cholesterol by using the RH panel. In conclusion, this thesis describes the work that has been performed for increasing the marker density of the genetic map of the rat and for the localization of QTLs and genes involved in the cholesterol metabolism in this species. This contributes to the value of the rat as an animal model in studies towards the role of cholesterol in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis an other cholesterol related disease

Defining desmosomal plakophilin-3 interactions

Plakophilin 3 (PKP3) is a recently described armadillo protein of the desmosomal plaque, which is synthesized in simple and stratified epithelia. We investigated the localization pattern of endogenous and exogenous PKP3 and fragments thereof. The desmosomal binding properties of PKP3 were determined using yeast two-hybrid, coimmunoprecipitation and colocalization experiments. To this end, novel mouse anti-PKP3 mAbs were generated. We found that PKP3 binds all three desmogleins, desmocollin (Dsc) 3a and -3b, and possibly also Dsc1a and -2a. As such, this is the first protein interaction ever observed with a Dsc-b isoform. Moreover, we determined that PKP3 interacts with plakoglobin, desmoplakin (DP) and the epithelial keratin 18. Evidence was found for the presence of at least two DP–PKP3 interaction sites. This finding might explain how lateral DP–PKP interactions are established in the upper layers of stratified epithelia, increasing the size of the desmosome and the number of anchoring points available for keratins. Together, these results show that PKP3, whose epithelial and epidermal desmosomal expression pattern and protein interaction repertoire are broader than those of PKP1 and -2, is a unique multiprotein binding element in the basic architecture of a vast majority of epithelial desmosomes

The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses

The question of Jewish ancestry has been the subject of controversy for over two centuries and has yet to be resolved. The "Rhineland Hypothesis" proposes that Eastern European Jews emerged from a small group of German Jews who migrated eastward and expanded rapidly. Alternatively, the "Khazarian Hypothesis" suggests that Eastern European descended from Judean tribes who joined the Khazars, an amalgam of Turkic clans that settled the Caucasus in the early centuries CE and converted to Judaism in the 8th century. The Judaized Empire was continuously reinforced with Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman Jews until the 13th century. Following the collapse of their empire, the Judeo-Khazars fled to Eastern Europe. The rise of European Jewry is therefore explained by the contribution of the Judeo-Khazars. Thus far, however, their contribution has been estimated only empirically; the absence of genome-wide data from Caucasus populations precluded testing the Khazarian Hypothesis. Recent sequencing of modern Caucasus populations prompted us to revisit the Khazarian Hypothesis and compare it with the Rhineland Hypothesis. We applied a wide range of population genetic analyses - including principal component, biogeographical origin, admixture, identity by descent, allele sharing distance, and uniparental analyses - to compare these two hypotheses. Our findings support the Khazarian Hypothesis and portray the European Jewish genome as a mosaic of Caucasus, European, and Semitic ancestries, thereby consolidating previous contradictory reports of Jewish ancestry.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, 7 supplementary figures, 7 supplementary table

Asymmetric DNA requirements in Xer recombination activation by FtsK

In bacteria with circular chromosomes, homologous recombination events can lead to the formation of chromosome dimers. In Escherichia coli, chromosome dimers are resolved by the addition of a crossover by two tyrosine recombinases, XerC and XerD, at a specific site on the chromosome, dif. Recombination depends on a direct contact between XerD and a cell division protein, FtsK, which functions as a hexameric double stranded DNA translocase. Here, we have investigated how the structure and composition of DNA interferes with Xer recombination activation by FtsK. XerC and XerD each cleave a specific strand on dif, the top and bottom strand, respectively. We found that the integrity and nature of eight bottom-strand nucleotides and three top-strand nucleotides immediately adjacent to the XerD-binding site of dif are crucial for recombination. These nucleotides are probably not implicated in FtsK translocation since FtsK could translocate on single stranded DNA in both the 5′–3′ and 3′–5′ orientation along a few nucleotides. We propose that they are required to stabilize FtsK in the vicinity of dif for recombination to occur because the FtsK–XerD interaction is too transient or too weak in itself to allow for XerD catalysis