Cell Type Deconvolution and Transformation of Microenvironment Microarray Data

Transformations are an important aspect of data analysis. In this work we explore the impact of data transformation on the analysis of high-throughput -omics data. Specifically, we explore two applications where data transformation plays an important role. The first application is estimating cell types using gene expression data. Here we develop dtangle, a method that carefully considers scale transformations when estimating cell type proportion estimates. This method broadly out-performs existing deconvolution methods in a comprehensive meta-analysis. Secondly, we explore the role of simple data transformations for the analysis of microenvironment microarray data. In this section we look at simple data transformations and how they interact with visualization, discovery of latent effects, and data integration. We find that simple transformations applied alone or in sequence can make salient important aspects of the data.PHDStatisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147575/1/gjhunt_1.pd

THE SYNTHESIS OF LUBRICANT ADDITIVES FROM WASTE COMMODITY POLYMERS

Polymers are produced on an enormous scale globally and the majority of plastic waste is either incinerated - generating toxic substances - or placed in landfill sites where it can take many decades to decompose. It is estimated that 22% of the total volume of all landfill sites are occupied by waste plastics. In the United Kingdom over 100kg per person of plastic packaging waste is generated each year; this offers a potential stream of raw material that is currently not reused or recycled. In this work the synthesis of lubricant additives from waste commodity polymers is described. A degradation method using an adapted microwave reactor and selected reagents allows for the degradation of commodity polymers; polystyrene and polyethylene into terminal double bond olefin oligomers. A variety of Novel block copolymer dispersant viscosity modifiers were synthesised from polystyrene, maleic anhydride, stearyl methacrylate and various N-maleimides using Reversible Addition Chain Transfer-fragmentation (RAFT) Polymerisation. Degraded polystyrene was incorporated into the synthesis of the novel dispersant viscosity modifiers. An analytical method involving offline and online 1H and 13C NMR and FTIR spectroscopy was used to characterise the degraded polystyrene and its incorporation into the dispersant viscosity modifier along with GPC, GC-MS and MALDI-MS. The reaction kinetics at the beginning of the RAFT polymerisation of styrene and maleic anhydride was also studied and lead to the development of a method to control the placement of alternating blocks of styrene-alt-maleic anhydride within a polymer backbone, offering the potential to afford complex macromolecular architectures in one pot synthesis reactions. Finally, the novel dispersants and other potential lubricant additive synthesis products were subjected to viscometric, rheological and thermal testing by formulation into a Heavy Duty engine oil formulation. Gregory J. Hunt, Durham 201

Christian Publishing: A Panel Discussion

The 2007 conference of the Association of Christian Librarians convened in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the campus of Cornerstone University. Conference planners invited representatives of four prominent Christian publishers headquartered there (Baker, Eerdmans, Kregel, and Zondervan) to participate in a panel discussion on June 13. The panelists’ 65-minute exchange is transcribed here in slightly abbreviated form. At the beginning of the discussion, panelists were asked to reflect on general trends in the Christian publishing industry. This led naturally to a lengthy conversation about the publishers’ involvement in the creation and licensing of ebooks and other digital products. Finally, panelists were asked to address the proliferation of English Bible versions aimed at the evangelical community

Labor and Employment Law

It was a relatively quiet year in the Virginia labor and employment law arena, with no real groundbreaking cases or legislative enactments. There were developments in case law and legislative changes, but these were more subtle this year than in years past, and for the most part, the courts confirmed, affirmed, or clarified the existing state of the law. This article discusses cases and legislative activity of note in the Virginia labor and employment law arena during the past year. Part II addresses recent cases considering employment agreements under Virginia law. Part III considers cases in the continually evolving area of wrongful discharge claims. Part IV concerns employer liability for the wrongful acts of employees. Part V addresses defamation in the context of the employment relationship. Part VI discusses a recent case involving a misappropriation of trade secrets claim by an employer against its former employees. Part VII outlines recent developments in unemployment compensation law. Finally, Part VIII gives an overview of legislative developments during the 2005 Session of the Virginia General Assembl

The Montana Workers’ Compensation Court: A Status Report

Workers’ Compensation Cour

A Study of the Effectiveness of Evangelistic Techniques with Chinese Christians: with Applications for the Mission Field of Taiwan

The call of missions cries out from the ends of the earth. Many millions of people have never heard the gospel and are waiting for someone to share the good news with them. Some have responded to this call of taking the gospel to the unsaved millions of the world, and others contemplate all of the many factors involved in doing missionary work. Missionary work needs to be defined here as cross-cultural evangelism in a foreign country which opens up a whole new set of problems in analyzing missionary work. This thesis will focus on the problems and issues facing missionaries attempting to plant churches in Taiwan. Next an analysis of research done with Chinese Christians will be explored followed up with suggested applications for present day missionaries in Taiwan. Finally, projected theories for developing an evangelistic strategy for the field of Taiwan will be explored. The study done with the Chinese in this thesis will not only benefit those considering doing missionary work in Taiwan but also will aid in developing strategies for evangelizing other mission fields in the world

CydDC-mediated reductant export in Escherichia coli controls the transcriptional wiring of energy metabolism and combats nitrosative stress

The glutathione/cysteine exporter CydDC maintains redox balance in Escherichia coli. A cydD mutant strain was used to probe the influence of CydDC upon reduced thiol export, gene expression, metabolic perturbations, intracellular pH homeostasis, and tolerance to nitric oxide (NO). Loss of CydDC was found to decrease extracytoplasmic thiol levels, whereas overexpression diminished the cytoplasmic thiol content. Transcriptomic analysis revealed a dramatic up-regulation of protein chaperones, protein degradation (via phenylpropionate/phenylacetate catabolism), ?-oxidation of fatty acids, and genes involved in nitrate/nitrite reduction. 1H NMR metabolomics revealed elevated methionine and betaine and diminished acetate and NAD+ in cydD cells, which was consistent with the transcriptomics-based metabolic model. The growth rate and ?pH, however, were unaffected, although the cydD strain did exhibit sensitivity to the NO-releasing compound NOC-12. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the loss of CydDC-mediated reductant export promotes protein misfolding, adaptations to energy metabolism, and sensitivity to NO. The addition of both glutathione and cysteine to the medium was found to complement the loss of bd -type cytochrome synthesis in a cydD strain (a key component of the pleiotropic cydDC phenotype), providing the first direct evidence that CydDC substrates are able to restore the correct assembly of this respiratory oxidase. These data provide an insight into the metabolic flexibility of E. coli , highlight the importance of bacterial redox homeostasis during nitrosative stress, and report for the first time the ability of periplasmic low molecular weight thiols to restore haem incorporation into a cytochrome complex