Deciphering the untranslated message in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) patients currently present with an overall favorable prognosis achieved through intense chemotherapy regimens. Additional challenges that are still posed today concern those patients that present with therapy resistance or relapse. In this per-spective it will be crucial to further unravel the molecular basis of T-ALL biology and identify novel targets for development of innovative therapy protocols. Technological advances in the field have opened new possibilities to dissect the T-ALL transcriptome and recent findings un-derscore the importance of noncoding RNA molecules, such as miRNAs and lncRNAs, next to protein coding genes in various cancer entities and also T-ALL. In this thesis, my aim was to landscape the expression of these noncoding RNAs in T-ALL to complement the previously published protein coding gene expression profiles. In this way, nov-el oncogenic aspects in T-ALL could be unraveled, for example when an lncRNA or miRNA is de-tected in a known T-ALL oncogenic pathway or when it could point at complete novel oncogen-ic mechanisms

FeS corrosion products formation and hydrogen uptake in a sour environment for quenched & tempered steel

Surface corrosion product formation is one of the important factors affecting the corrosion rate and hydrogen uptake in a H2S environment. However, it is still unclear how the base material composition will affect the corrosion products that are generated, and consequently their impact on the corrosion rate. In this paper, corrosion product formation and the impact of the Mo content of the base material on the composition of the corrosion products and hydrogen absorption in a sour environment was investigated. The corrosion layer was composed of a double layered mackinawite (FeS1−x) structure, which was enriched with molybdenum and chromium. The layers were formed via two different mechanisms, i.e., the inner layer was created via a general oxide film formation corrosion mechanism, whereas the upper layer was formed by a precipitation mechanism. The presence of this double corrosion layer had a large influence on the amount of diffusible hydrogen in the materials. This amount decreased as a function of contact time with the H2S saturated solution, while the corrosion rate of the materials shows no significant reduction. Therefore, the corrosion products are assumed to act as a physical barrier against hydrogen uptake. Mo addition caused a decrease in the maximal amount of diffusible hydrogen

If These Ivory Tower Walls Could Talk: Examining the Experiences of Ph.D. Students in Education

The Ph.D. is the pinnacle of education. The Ph.D. produces scholars who impact a discipline, the institution, and society. Expectations of scholars include demonstrating intellectual mastery in the field, conducting research, and creating new or expanding current knowledge. It is within the context of doctoral education socialization, where attitudes and values of the professoriate are firmly shaped. Faculty and administrators, considered the foundational socialization agents, facilitate teaching and learning of Ph.D. students into the culture of education programs and academia. The Ph.D. experience is wrought with challenges and successes within and beyond the ivory tower. Experiences within academia highlight supervisor/advisor relationships, coursework, comprehensive exams, and the dissertation process. Experiences outside of academia, include family responsibilities, career obligations, and managing physical and mental health. Informed by constructionism, the study highlighted the experiences of Ph.D. students in education programs. Leaning on three theoretical frameworks of human capital, cultural capital and role identity theory, Ph.D. student experiences in and outside of academia were examined through interviews, documents, and photo essays. Mission statements of the institution, the college, and the program were examined to highlight the (mis)alignment of the statements with doctoral student experiences. Three research questions guided the study: 1) How do Ph.D. students experience doctoral education? 2) How do Ph.D. students’ experiences align with their institution/college/program mission statements? 3) How do Ph.D. students’ academic and life experiences align with the historical purpose of doctoral education? The research study, employing heuristic inquiry and narrative inquiry, examined the experiences of fifteen doctoral students in education programs in the United States. Composite characters and narratives represented the stories of the fifteen study contributors. Findings indicated Ph.D. students experience socialization differently based on location and program. Ph.D. students’ experiences highlighted the hegemony within doctoral education. Doctoral students negotiated complex identities, noting the importance of these in relation to their doctoral experiences. The policy implications for this study included a revision of the socialization process, an introduction of a new form of capital, and policy changes to the hegemony within doctoral education

T-ALL and thymocytes : a message of noncoding RNAs

In the last decade, the role for noncoding RNAs in disease was clearly established, starting with microRNAs and later expanded towards long noncoding RNAs. This was also the case for T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is a malignant blood disorder arising from oncogenic events during normal T cell development in the thymus. By studying the transcriptomic profile of protein-coding genes, several oncogenic events leading to T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) could be identified. In recent years, it became apparent that several of these oncogenes function via microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs. In this review, we give a detailed overview of the studies that describe the noncoding RNAome in T-ALL oncogenesis and normal T cell development

The shear strength of A325 and alloy steel structural bolts

The objective of this study was to determine the performance and behavior of single, high-strength bolts under static shear loadings

Reducing Smoking Among Distracted Individuals: A Preliminary Investigation

INTRODUCTION: According to the attentional myopia model, salient cues that serve to inhibit behavior can be especially effective under conditions of limited attention. A small field study tested the implications of this model for smoking reduction. METHODS: Twenty-three undergraduate smokers were exposed to a prominent health warning for 2 5-day experimental phases, with phase order counterbalanced across participants. During one phase, participants simply viewed the warning at regular intervals. During the other phase, participants viewed the warning for the same duration but also simultaneously performed a distracting cognitive load task. RESULTS: Participants in the phase that combined a health warning with cognitive load reported smoking significantly fewer cigarettes and taking significantly fewer puffs of smoke as compared to a baseline comparison phase-a reduction in smoking not observed in the absence of cognitive load. CONCLUSIONS: Sources of attentional distraction may heighten the impact of salient smoking warnings, resulting in significant reductions in smoking