865 research outputs found
An Agent-Based Model of Cryoprotectant Equilibration in Secondary Stage Preantral Ovarian Follicles
Young cancer patients have limited options for fertility treatment when facing gonadotoxic treatment. One
promising fertility treatment for young cancer patients is the cryopreservation of immature ovarian follicles
followed by maturation and subsequent reimplantation. However, preantral ovarian follicles currently have
lower post-thaw success rates compared to mature oocytes and embryos. Previous research suggests that
damage to vital intercellular connections, Transzonal Projections (TZPs), occurs during the cryopreservation
process and may account for the observed lower post-thaw success rate in this tissue. It is likely that
cryoprotective agent (CPA) equilibration is the cryopreservation step during which TZP damage occurs.
Constructing a biologically relevant model of CPA equilibration and the associated damage may allow for
improved protocols as measured by increased post-thaw success rates. Agent-based models are a promising
technique to capture steps in the cryopreservation process, such as CPA equilibration. In this thesis, I
conducted a series of experiments with typical CPAs and nonpermeating solutes at different temperatures
using preantral ovarian follicles from a non-human primate (Rhesus monkeys) to measure TZP damage. In
these experiments, I also estimated relevant permeability parameters within the tissue. I found that the
majority of TZP damage was likely the result of mechanical forces that occurred during the cell volume
reduction phase of CPA equilibration. Furthermore, through these experiments, I demonstrate that for this
tissue type, parameters collected either during monolayer or single-cell experiments can be used to construct
full tissue models. Using the derived experimental parameters and available literature values, I constructed
and validated a 3-D agent-based model to capture CPA equilibration in preantral ovarian follicles. My agent-based model utilizes parallel computing on an average desktop computer and allows for the rapid design and
testing of CPA equilibration protocols. The model I constructed can account for both mechanical and toxic
damage. Importantly, my model accurately captures the experimental damage to TZPs in the majority of
simulations. Lastly, I propose several theoretically improved cryopreservation protocols for preantral ovarian
follicles. The research presented in this thesis demonstrates that agent-based models can be utilized to
capture steps in the cryopreservation in silico and represents a non-invasive, less costly means to test and
improve CPA equilibration protocols
The Role of the Fine Arts in the Total Education of the Terminal Student in the Public Junior Colleges of Mississippi
[No abstract provided.
Circles Minimize most Knot Energies
We define a new class of knot energies (known as renormalization energies)
and prove that a broad class of these energies are uniquely minimized by the
round circle. Most of O'Hara's knot energies belong to this class. This proves
two conjectures of O'Hara and of Freedman, He, and Wang. We also find energies
not minimized by a round circle. The proof is based on a theorem of G. Luko on
average chord lengths of closed curves.Comment: 15 pages with 3 figures. See also http://www.math.sc.edu/~howard
Make It Real - Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Theme one in the Quest for Distinction is for VCU to become a leader among national research universities in providing all students with high quality learning/living experiences focused on inquiry, discovery, and innovation in a global environment. Quest is grounded in a commitment to providing students with a diversity of experiences which are available at a premiere public research university. The goal of this project is to take advantage of the wealth of research resources at the Medical College of Virginia Campus, coordinate cross campus efforts to facilitate the use of these resources and increase faculty participation in mentoring undergraduate research projects
A Mathematical Model for the Origin of Name Brands and Generics
Firms in the U.S. spend over 200 billion dollars each year advertising their
products to consumers, around one percent of the country's gross domestic
product. It is of great interest to understand how that aggregate expenditure
affects prices, market efficiency, and overall welfare. Here, we present a
mathematical model for the dynamics of competition through advertising and find
a surprising prediction: when advertising is relatively cheap compared to the
maximum benefit advertising offers, rational firms split into two groups, one
with significantly less advertising (a "generic" group) and one with
significantly more advertising (a "name brand" group). Our model predicts that
this segmentation will also be reflected in price distributions; we use large
consumer data sets to test this prediction and find good qualitative agreement.Comment: 24 pages, 11 figure
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Intentions to Move from Homelessness to Social Inclusion: The Role of Participation Beliefs, Attitudes and Prior Behaviour
A key aim of homelessness services is not only to ensure that homeless people attain a secure home, but that this is a pathway to wider social inclusion. However, relatively little is known about the psychological elements that are essential for homeless people to engage with these pathways, nor whether these elements combine in ways that are predictable from previous research. In the present work, we examined both demographic and behavioural precursors, and contemporaneous psychological predictors,of a set of 49 homeless men’s intentions to engage with a programme to move them toward long-term housing and social inclusion. Contrary to predictions based on subjective utility and rational choice theories, we found that normative pressure and did not directly predict the men’s intentions. Instead, we found that intentions were predicted by their attitudes towards the services, and their specific beliefs about the benefits of particular courses of action (efficacy beliefs), and to a more restricted extent their experience (socio demographics); and in those with high prior service use histories, only participatory beliefs guided future service use intentions. These findings suggest that it is important to focus on intentions as a highly relevant outcome of interventions, because beliefs about interventions can break the link between past behaviour or habitual service use and future service use. Such interventions may be particularly effective if they focus on the evaluative and efficacy-related aspects of behaviour over time and better understand the benefits the men evaluated the services as offering them
Plasma microRNA levels following resection of metastatic melanoma
Melanoma remains the leading cause of skin cancer–related deaths. Surgical resection and adjuvant therapies can result in disease-free intervals for stage III and stage IV disease; however, recurrence is common. Understanding microRNA (miR) dynamics following surgical resection of melanomas is critical to accurately interpret miR changes suggestive of melanoma recurrence. Plasma of 6 patients with stage III (n = 2) and stage IV (n = 4) melanoma was evaluated using the NanoString platform to determine pre- and postsurgical miR expression profiles, enabling analysis of more than 800 miRs simultaneously in 12 samples. Principal component analysis detected underlying patterns of miR expression between pre- vs postsurgical patients. Group A contained 3 of 4 patients with stage IV disease (pre- and postsurgical samples) and 2 patients with stage III disease (postsurgical samples only). The corresponding preoperative samples to both individuals with stage III disease were contained in group B along with 1 individual with stage IV disease (pre- and postsurgical samples). Group A was distinguished from group B by statistically significant analysis of variance changes in miR expression ( P < .0001). This analysis revealed that group A vs group B had downregulation of let-7b-5p, miR-520f, miR-720, miR-4454, miR-21-5p, miR-22-3p, miR-151a-3p, miR-378e, and miR-1283 and upregulation of miR-126-3p, miR-223-3p, miR-451a, let-7a-5p, let-7g-5p, miR-15b-5p, miR-16-5p, miR-20a-5p, miR-20b-5p, miR-23a-3p, miR-26a-5p, miR-106a-5p, miR-17-5p, miR-130a-3p, miR-142-3p, miR-150-5p, miR-191-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-199b-3p, and miR-1976. Changes in miR expression were not readily evident in individuals with distant metastatic disease (stage IV) as these individuals may have prolonged inflammatory responses. Thus, inflammatory-driven miRs coinciding with tumor-derived miRs can blunt anticipated changes in expression profiles following surgical resection
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