Publications “Playwrights’ Progress: The Evolution of the Play Cycle, from Shaw’s ‘Pentateuch’ to Angels in America

Traces the development of playwright George Bernard Shaw\u27s play cycles. Analysis of his plays Man and Superman , Heartbreak House , and Back to Methuselah ; His belief about the importance of lengthy works; Production difficulties of his plays; Comparison of Shaw\u27s views with play cycles

Evolution of the wall shear stresses during the progressive enlargement of symmetric abdominal aortic aneurysms.

The changes in the evolution of the spatial and temporal distribution of the wall shear stresses (WSS) and gradients of wall shear stresses (GWSS) at different stages of the enlargement of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are important in understanding the aetiology and progression of this vascular disease since they affect the wall structural integrity, primarily via the changes induced on the shape, functions and metabolism of the endothelial cells. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were performed in in vitro aneurysm models, while changing their geometric parameters systematically. It has been shown that, even at the very early stages of the disease, i.e. increase in the diameter ≤ 50%, the flow separates from the wall and a large vortex ring, usually followed by internal shear layers, is created. These lead to the generation of WSS that drastically differ in mean and fluctuating components from the healthy vessel. Inside the AAA, the mean WSS becomes negative along most of the aneurysmal wall and the magnitude of the WSS can be as low as 26% of the value in a healthy abdominal aorta. Two regions with distinct patterns of WSS were identified inside the AAA: the proximal region of flow detachment, characterized by oscillatory WSS of very low mean, and the region of flow reattachment, located distally, where large, negative WSS and sustained GWSS are produced as a result of the impact of the vortex ring on the wall. Comparison of the measured values of WSS and GWSS to an analytical solution, calculated for slowly expanding aneurysms shows a very good agreement, thus providing a validation of the PIV measurements

Cloning and Cell Cycle Analysis of NuMA, a Phosphoprotein That Oscillates Between the Nucleus and the Mitotic Spindle

The overall objective of this study was to identify novel proteins of the nuclear matrix in order to contribute to a better understanding of nuclear structure and organization. To accomplish this, a monoclonal antibody specific for the nuclear matrix was used to screen a human λgt11 expression library. Several cDNAs were isolated, cloned, sequenced, and shown to represent NuMA, the nuclear mitotic spindle apparatus protein. Further characterization of the gene and RNA was undertaken in an effort to obtain information about NuMA. The NuMA gene was present at a single site on human chromosome 11q13. Northern and PCR analysis of NuMA mRNA showed a major 7.2 kb transcript and minor forms of 8.0 and 3.0 kb. The minor forms were shown to be alternatively spliced although their functional significance is not yet understood. Immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrated that NuMA oscillates between the nucleus and the microtubule spindle apparatus during the mitotic cell cycle. NuMA appeared as a 200-275 kDa protein detectable in all mammalian cells except human neutrophils. To determine whether NuMA\u27s changes in intracellular distribution correlated with post-translational modifications, the protein\u27s phosphorylation state was examined through the cell cycle using highly synchronized cells. NuMA was a phosphoprotein in interphase and underwent additional phosphorylation events in mitosis. The mitotic phosphorylation events occurred with similar timing to lamin B (G2/M transition) and were concomitant with NuMA\u27s release from the nucleus and its association with the mitotic spindle. However, the mitotic phosphorylation occurred in the absence of spindle formation. Dephosphorylation of NuMA did not correlate with reassociation with the nuclear matrix but occurred in two distinct steps after nuclear reformation. Based on the timing of these events, phosphorylation may playa role in nuclear processes. In conclusion, the work in this dissertation identified NuMA, a nuclear matrix protein and showed that it is phosphorylated during the cell cycle and may be important for nuclear events such as nuclear organization, transcription, or initiation of DNA replication at G1/S

A COMPREHENSIVE HDL MODEL OF A LINE ASSOCIATIVE REGISTER BASED ARCHITECTURE

Modern processor architectures suffer from an ever increasing gap between processor and memory performance. The current memory-register model attempts to hide this gap by a system of cache memory. Line Associative Registers(LARs) are proposed as a new system to avoid the memory gap by pre-fetching and associative updating of both instructions and data. This thesis presents a fully LAR-based architecture, targeting a previously developed instruction set architecture. This architecture features an execution pipeline supporting SWAR operations, and a memory system supporting the associative behavior of LARs and lazy writeback to memory