Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plants (RO-WTPs) create potable water and a briny concentrate that must be disposed; often it is discharged into nearby surface waters. Currently, there is no published research to examine ...

The genus Brachycybe Wood, 1864 (Platydesmida: Andrognathidae) belongs to an ancient millipede lineage that has persisted since the Miocene. The group displays a Holarctic distribution with species in the eastern Nearctic, ...

"Decadent Afterlife" has been a way for me to harness and channel my personal responses to the experiences in my life and display them. This thesis can be viewed as two series of work about control, mortality, and the ...

Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing amount of research devoted to the study of intron evolution and its relationship to eukaryotic phylogeny. Previous studies have shown that a large percentage of ...

Activation of the insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 is necessary for proper transduction of the insulin signal. IRS-1 serine312(human)/307(rodent) phosphorylation, however, results in disruption of this signal and subsequent ...

The dusky salamanders (Desmognathus) constitute a large, species-rich group, and although a considerable body of literature exists on systematic relationships and adaptive trends, these issues have heretofore been approached ...

Predators are known to cause prey to alter their morphology, life history or behavior in ways that reduce the likelihood of the prey being consumed by the predator. Seldom considered, however, are the consequences of ...

Over the last two decades, serpentinizing environments have been studied with regards to the biogeochemistry of these habitats, but significantly less is known about the microbiology within these environments. Serpentinization ...

Subcritical water chromatography (SBWC) and subcritical water extraction (SBWE) are two green techniques that use subcritical water as the sole solvent for separations, thus eliminating the use of toxic and expensive organic ...

The nuclear transcription factor Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a negative regulator of macrophage activation and inflammatory mediators. Alveolar macrophages of healthy individuals constitutively express PPARgamma Decreased activity and expression of PPARgamma are observed in the alveolar macrophages from patients suffering from inflammatory conditions such as pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) and sarcoidosis. These finding suggest that PPARf× activity may have an integral role in maintaining lung homeostasis. This study tested the hypothesis that microRNA expression would be dysregulated in murine alveolar macrophages deficient in PPARgamma. microRNA (miR) are small non-coding RNA molecules that post-transcriptionally regulate the expression of messenger RNA.   Evaluation of microRNA in the murine model of PAP, the GM-CSF-KO mouse, demonstrates the elevation of miR-27a and miR-27b which target PPARgamma. The deficiency of PPARgamma and the lipid transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1 have been shown to contribute to the pathology of PAP. The microRNA miR-33-3p and miR-33-5p, which target these lipid transporters, were also elevated in GM-CSF-KO mice. Pulmonary granulomas comparable to those observed in pulmonary sarcoidosis are induced by instillation of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in C57Bl/6 mice. These animals have decreased PPARgamma activity and show elevated expression of miR-27a and miR-27b. It was also observed that the expression of the transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1 were decreased in MWCNT instilled mice. Expression of miR-33-3p and miR-33-5p was elevated in MWCNT instilled animals. The expression of microRNA that affects the activity of NF-£eB is also elevated in both murine models.  We next investigated the use of PPARgamma agonist rosiglitazone on the expression of microRNA and messenger RNA. The use of rosiglitazone altered the expression of microRNA in both GM-CSF-KO and C57Bl/6+MWCNT mice. Rosiglitazone treatment altered the expression of the lipid transporter ABCA1and ABCG1 in C57Bl/6+MWCNT mice. The elevation of proinflammatory cytokines was also observed.   Taken together, these observations support the hypothesis that PPARgamma activity effects the microRNA and gene expression in alveolar macrophages which is critical to overall lung homeostasis. Understanding the relationship between PPARgamma and microRNA in alveolar macrophage biology will provide insight into the regulation of the lung environment and possible therapeutic targets.  ...