Inflammatory Response to Sleep Fragmentation in Skeletal, Cardiac, and Smooth Muscle Tissues in Female Mice

Sleep is a critical process that the body undergoes. When sleep is interrupted, so that an individual is awakened for some period before going back into sleep, the sleep can be described as fragmented. Studies in the past have shown that sleep fragmentation (SF) promotes an inflammatory environment, especially in the brain and peripheral tissue. However, studies have not been conducted to observe inflammatory responses in muscle. To examine this, C57BL/6J female mice were subjected to either a control group (no SF) or a SF group which involved using an automated SF chamber to disrupt sleep every 2 min over a 24-h period. Afterwards, mice were euthanized, and tissues were collected from different types of muscle (skeletal (pectoralis and gastrocnemius), smooth (uterus), and cardiac muscle). Total RNA was then extracted by a fibrous tissue extraction method using RNeasy kits. The total RNA was then reverse transcribed into cDNA. Proinflammatory cytokine gene expression (tumor necrosis factor-alpha) was measured using RTPCR. We predicted that an inflammatory response would occur in cardiac and skeletal muscle, but not smooth muscle. Data collection and analysis later showed that there was an inflammatory response observed in cardiac tissue based on a significant difference of TNF-α expression between fragmented and control groups, but there were no significant differences observed in other tissues. Results of this study will increase our understanding of how sleep loss can affect multiple tissues and organ systems

Supporting and Securing Personal Mobile Devices Within an Existing Information Technology Environment

Personal mobile devices are becoming integrated into the daily operations of business. Managers are realizing that employees who are allowed to use personal mobile devices to access corporate information systems may reduce costs as users buy their own devices. The problem was that managers have a limited understanding of the need to secure or support personal mobile devices. The purpose of this survey study was to examine the relationship between employees\u27 desire to use personal mobile devices and corporation needs for security and support. Hypotheses were tested by examining the relationships between the requirement to support and secure personal mobile devices as the independent variables and the desire to use personal mobile devices as the dependent variable. The theoretical framework for the study included the IT product life-cycle management theory, IT security-management theory, and IT strategic-management theory. Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 108 employees at the study-site organization from an estimated population of 170. Basic linear regression analyses performed found a correlation coefficient of 0.905 indicating the variables are highly correlated. This finding indicates that if personal mobile devices are given access to corporate information systems, then support and security will be necessary for successful operations. If the relationship between internal factors and operational success is clearly documented, organizations may be able to use the data to justify incorporating personal mobile devices within their own corporate information system to reduce costs, improve productivity, and increase employee satisfaction, thereby making a positive contribution to society

The Sound and Color Will Translate . . . to the Visual : Sound in the Adaptations of John Huston

My thesis focuses on the relationship between sound and adaptation in the work of American filmmaker John Huston. By focusing on three films, from three distinct periods of Huston’s career, I demonstrate how Huston’s use of sound in his adaptations evolved throughout his career. Each chapter focuses on one particular aspect of Huston’s use of sound but also comments on other auditory elements present in each film. My introduction serves as an overview of Huston’s adaptive process. The main focus of the first chapter centers on Huston’s use of speech throughout his adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The second chapter focuses on Huston’s adaptation of Moby Dick and the use of diegetic song throughout the film. The final chapter centers on Huston’s adaptation of Flannery O’ Connor’s Wise Blood and focuses on Alex North’s non-diegetic score’s adaptive elements. My conclusion centers on Huston’s final film, The Dead. In one scene, Huston combines the elements that have been discussed throughout the thesis and illustrate the power of Huston’s use of sound in his adaptations. While Huston is not the first director to use sound as an adaptive element in his work, I believe the critical discussion of his film adaptations has neglected his use of sound in adapting literary texts. I hope my project will lead to more work being done on Huston’s use of sound since my study only focuses on three of Huston’s thirty-seven films

SCI-INDUCED MORPHINE TOLERANCE IS ASSOCIATED WITH DOPAMINE PATHWAY EXPRESSION

Opioids are commonly prescribed to relieve neuropathic pain after a spinal cord injury (SCI),4 but often fail to be effective due to an injury-induced state that mimics opioid tolerance.22 Previous studies have shown that the analgesic effects of morphine can be restored if morphine is administered in combination with a dopamine D3 receptor agonist or a dopamine D1 receptor antagonist, demonstrating that dopamine receptor activity modulates the response to opioids after SCI.5 Therefore, it was hypothesized that SCI alters levels of dopamine and expression of its receptors in the brain and spinal cord and that these changes are associated with injury-induced morphine tolerance. Baseline nociceptive (pain) thresholds were measured in 8 uninjured and 16 spinal cord injured rats before and after injection of morphine (2mg/kg) or saline (control). Rats were then randomized to have thresholds re-assessed after injection of morphine + pramipexole (PPX, D3 agonist), morphine + SCH 39166 (SCH, D1 antagonist), pramipexole, or SCH. Lumbar spinal cord and striatal brain tissue were collected from each animal and processed for metabolomics, targeted mass spectrometry (MS) and Western blot to identify, quantify and compare levels of dopamine and its metabolites and receptors across groups. Morphine alone increased sensory thresholds in all uninjured but only 33% of injured rats. Based on this data, animals were categorized as morphine responders (n=5) or nonresponders (n=10). Morphine + PPX and morphine + SCH increased sensory thresholds in all injured animals, while PPX and SCH alone had no effect. Striatal dopamine levels in injured morphine nonresponders were significantly decreased compared to uninjured animals. Dopamine levels in injured morphine responders compared to injured morphine nonresponders are currently being analyzed further. Metabolomics principal component analysis (PCA) of lumbar cord identified three clusters that corresponded to injured morphine responders, injured morphine nonresponders, and uninjured animals. Preliminary pathway analysis points to differences in phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan biosynthesis between these groups. Full pathway analysis is ongoing, but data suggests that differential dopaminergic pathway expression in the CNS following SCI is associated with morphine responsiveness. This provides early evidence that the dopamine system may provide a target for intervention in opioid resistant pain states

An Examination of the Doctrine of Death and the Afterlife from a Biblical and Historical Theology Perspective Compared to the Level of Sophistication among the Laity

Several key aspects of eschatology and their treatment appear to be under-explored in contemporary preaching. Within the context of individual eschatology, notions of death, the intermediate state, and the eternal state vary widely. A clearer understanding of these facets of the faith are necessary to fully understand the full measure of the work of Christ, the hope Christians have in Him, and the ability to convey these essentials to the lost. In this project, the writer will seek to discover and examine the key aspects of this doctrine and measure the level of sophistication among a sample of the laity. The measurement will be conducted via a confidential online survey of professing believers. At a practical level the goal of the project is that both pastors and laity would be edified on the central issues of the doctrine and that per its content pastors could utilize the data to craft sermons and lessons that take into consideration the identified weaknesses in knowledge as expressed by the participants

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: The connection between close pairs and asymmetry; implications for the galaxy merger rate

We compare the use of galaxy asymmetry and pair proximity for measuring galaxy merger fractions and rates for a volume limited sample of 3184 galaxies with -21 < M(B) -5 log h < -18 mag. and 0.010 < z < 0.123 drawn from the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue. Our findings are that: (i) Galaxies in close pairs are generally more asymmetric than isolated galaxies and the degree of asymmetry increases for closer pairs. At least 35% of close pairs (with projected separation of less than 20 h^{-1} kpc and velocity difference of less than 500 km s^{-1}) show significant asymmetry and are therefore likely to be physically bound. (ii) Among asymmetric galaxies, we find that at least 80% are either interacting systems or merger remnants. However, a significant fraction of galaxies initially identified as asymmetric are contaminated by nearby stars or are fragmented by the source extraction algorithm. Merger rates calculated via asymmetry indices need careful attention in order to remove the above sources of contamination, but are very reliable once this is carried out. (iii) Close pairs and asymmetries represent two complementary methods of measuring the merger rate. Galaxies in close pairs identify future mergers, occurring within the dynamical friction timescale, while asymmetries are sensitive to the immediate pre-merger phase and identify remnants. (iv) The merger fraction derived via the close pair fraction and asymmetries is about 2% for a merger rate of (5.2 +- 1.0) 10^{-4} h^3 Mpc^{-3} Gyr^{-1}. These results are marginally consistent with theoretical simulations (depending on the merger time-scale), but imply a flat evolution of the merger rate with redshift up to z ~1.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, emulateapj format. ApJ, accepte

Eyes wide shut? UK consumer perceptions on aviation climate impacts and travel decisions to New Zealand

The purview of climate change concern has implicated air travel, as evidenced in a growing body of academic literature concerned with aviation CO2 emissions. This article assesses the relevance of climate change to long haul air travel decisions to New Zealand for United Kingdom consumers. Based on 15 semi-structured open-ended interviews conducted in Bournemouth, UK during June 2009, it was found that participants were unlikely to forgo potential travel decisions to New Zealand because of concern over air travel emissions. Underpinning the interviewees’ understandings and responses to air travel’s climate impact was a spectrum of awareness and attitudes to air travel and climate change. This spectrum ranged from individuals who were unaware of air travel’s climate impact to those who were beginning to consume air travel with a ‘carbon conscience’. Within this spectrum were some who were aware of the impact but not willing to change their travel behaviours at all. Rather than implicating long haul air travel, the empirical evidence instead exemplifies changing perceptions towards frequent short haul air travel and voices calls for both government and media in the UK to deliver more concrete messages on air travel’s climate impact

Feedback effects and the self-consistent Thouless criterion of the attractive Hubbard model

We propose a fully microscopic theory of the anomalous normal state of the attractive Hubbard model in the low-density limit that accounts for propagator renormalization. Our analytical conclusions, which focus on the thermodynamic instabilities contained in the self-consistent equations associated with our formulation, have been verified by our comprehensive numerical study of the same equations. The resulting theory is found to contain no transitions at non-zero temperatures for all finite lattices, and we have confirmed, using our numerical studies, that this behaviour persists in the thermodynamic limit for low-dimensional systems.Comment: 6 pages, 2 eps format figure

Central localization of gustatory perception: An experimental study

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49988/1/901210309_ftp.pd