Academic literature on the topic 'Biology PhD Thesis'
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Journal articles on the topic "Biology PhD Thesis"
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Skjenneberg (ed.), Sven. "Nicholas Tyler; Natural limitation of the abundance of the high arctic Svalbard reindeer." Rangifer 7, no. 2 (1987): 59. http://dx.doi.org/10.7557/2.7.2.718.
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Nicholas Tyler successfully defended his PhD thesis at Cambridge University on 21 May 1987. Nicholas Tyler was born in Oxford, educated at Cambridge and now works at the University of Tromsø, Department of Arctic Biology.
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Grapin-Botton, Anne. "Antero-posterior patterning of the vertebrate digestive tract: 40 years after Nicole Le Douarin's PhD thesis." International Journal of Developmental Biology 49, no. 2-3 (2005): 335–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.041946ag.
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Cabezas Fernández del Campo, José Antonio, and Mariano Esteban Rodríguez. "RELATIONSHIP OF THE VIROLOGIST PROFESSOR ADOLFO GARCÍA SASTRE WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA AND THE ROYAL NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PHARMACY." Anales de la Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia, no. 87(01) (2021): 09–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.53519/analesranf.2021.87.01.001.
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We give some biographical details of the virologist Professor Adolfo Garcia Sastre, as a Graduate student (1981-1986) in the Biology School of University of Salamanca and during his PhD Thesis (1986-1990) in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Chairman Prof J.A. Cabezas), under the supervision of Prof. Enrique Villlar and obtaining the highest academic marks. The research lines that he established in collaboration with his Thesis director, with Prof. J.A Cabezas and others, as well as his results during his stay at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, are also highlighted. His findings in this period were published in prestigious Virology and Biochemistry journals and presented at national and international meetings. Thereafter, when he moved to Mount Sinai in New York, he met Prof Mariano Esteban, then working at Downstate Medical Center in New York, SUNY, and both, in collaboration with the group of Prof. Ruth Nussenzweig and Fidel Zavala at New York University, set up seminal immunological studies that are the basis for combined vaccination approaches, prime/boost and activation of CD8+ T cells, now widely used in preclinical and clinical studies. The scientific research contributions of Prof. García Sastre are growing at an exponential rate, opening new horizons in understanding the molecular biology of emerging viruses, their pathology, virus-host cell interactions and strategies of virus control.
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Benzon, Benjamin, Katarina Vukojevic, Natalija Filipovic, Snježana Tomić, and Merica Glavina Durdov. "Factors That Determine Completion Rates of Biomedical Students in a PhD Programme." Education Sciences 10, no. 11 (2020): 336. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci10110336.
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Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study is to identify potential predictors of academic success or failure in Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes in the field of biomedicine. Based on these, the policies and structure of academic programmes granting PhD degrees in biomedicine might be improved. Literature review (State of the art): At the present moment, most European and all of the EU doctoral education systems in biomedicine are regulated by the Salzburg principles of the Bologna process. Almost all the programmes formally comply with regulations, but the degree to which rules are applied varies greatly. The European Research Council (ERC) and various stakeholders’ associations, such as the Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System (ORPHEUS), have recognised this and in their policies, they recommend regular evaluation of PhD programme structures. One such evaluation that was conducted at our institution motivated us to search for quantifiable factors that can help the process of PhD programme structural reform. Since the literature is scarce on this matter, we decided to conduct analysis of our own data and thus study the relationships between recommended EU policies and real-world data. Methods: Biology of Neoplasms is a PhD programme founded under Bologna process rules. It enrols students with Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) or similar degrees in the biomedical field. A large portion of enrolled PhD students work full time in medical practices. A retrospective analysis was conducted on students who enrolled between 2006 and 2017. In order to quantify academic success, outcome measures of graduation (completion) rate, time to graduation, average impact factor of published papers comprising a PhD thesis and the ratio of the latter two were formed. Age, sex, employment institution, mentor experience and tuition subsidy were considered as potential predictors. Results: A total of 124 students were enrolled in the study—38% male. Out of the total, 21 (16.94%) students discontinued the study programme and 22 students graduated (17.7%). The average impact factor (IF) of published papers was 2.66 ± 1.51. Mentor experience (Odds ratio (OR) = 6.7) and student employment in academia (OR = 11.7) were significant predictors of successful graduation. Stricter criteria for graduation had no effect on graduation in newly enrolled students. Likewise, sex, tuition subsidy and age did not affect graduation rates. Surprisingly, time to graduation was not affected by any of the considered predictors. On the other hand, students that were mentored by experienced mentors and employed in academia outperformed their peers in terms of impact factors of publications related to their thesis. Conclusion: Characteristics such as gender, age at enrolment and even tuition paid by the institution do not have a significant impact on completion rate. Experienced mentors and employment in academic institutions seem to be the factors that predict a successful completion of a PhD programme. Furthermore, our results give a quantifiable support to the ORPHEUS and ERC recommendations and policies. These conclusions can be easily applied to any PhD programme formed under the tenets of the Bologna process.
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Vida, Zsófia Viktória, István Péter Járay, and Balázs Lengyel. "PhD students in life sciences can benefit from team cohesion." F1000Research 10 (July 29, 2021): 692. http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.53743.1.
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Background: Scientific progress during doctoral studies is a combination of individual effort and teamwork. A recently growing body of interdisciplinary literature has investigated the determinants of early career success in academia, in which learning from supervisors and co-authors play a great role. Yet, it is less understood how collaboration patterns of the research team, in which the doctoral student participates, influences the future career of students. Here we take a social network analysis approach to investigate this and define the research team as the co-authorship network of the student. Methods: We use the Hungarian Scientific Bibliography Database, which includes all publications of PhD students who defended theses from the year 1993. The data also include thesis information, and the publications of co-authors of students. Using this data, we quantify cohesion in the ego-network of PhD students, the impact measured by citations received, and productivity measured by number of publications. We run multivariate linear regressions to measure the relation of network cohesion, and publication outputs during doctoral years with future impact. Results: We find that those students in life sciences, but not in other fields, who have a cohesive co-author network during studies and two years after defence receive significantly more citations in eight years. We find that the number of papers published during PhD years and closely after the defence correlates negatively while the impact of these papers correlates positively with future success of students in all fields. Conclusions: These results highlight that research teams are effective learning environments for PhD students where collaborations create a tightly knit knowledge network.
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AB Marais, Gabriel, Rebecca Shankland, Pascale Haag, Robin Fiault, and Bridget Juniper. "A Survey and a Positive Psychology Intervention on French PhD Student Well-being." International Journal of Doctoral Studies 13 (2018): 109–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.28945/3948.
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Aim/Purpose: The present work focuses on French PhD students’ well-being: an understudied working population thus far, which impedes the development of evidence-based policies on this issue in France.The focus of this work is the well-being of French PhD students, on which almost nothing has been published thus far, impeding any evidence-based policy on this issue to be carried out in France. Background: Research studies from several countries have shown that carrying out a PhD can be a difficult experience resulting in high attrition rates with significant financial and human costs. Methodology: The two studies presented in this article focus on biology PhD students from University Lyon 1, a very large French university (~40,000 students). A first study aimed at measuring the mental health and well-being of PhD students using generalist and PhD-specific tools. In a second study, we carried out and assessed a positive psychology intervention (PPI) aimed at improving PhD students’ well-being. Contribution: Our work is one of the first characterizations of French PhD students’ mental health and well-being. As with other recent studies conducted in Western coun-tries, we found a high level of mental distress among PhD students. Our work also underlines the importance of taking many dimensions of the PhD (not only supervisor behaviour) in order to understand PhD student well-being. Cultural specificities are highlighted and can help inform the design of interventions adapted to each situation. The PPI showed pre-to-post positive changes on PhD students’ well-being. Further research is needed on a larger sample size in order to detect more subtle effects. However, these results are promising in terms of interventions that help reduce PhD student distress. Findings: Study 1 involved 136 participants and showed that a large fraction of the PhD students experiences abnormal levels of stress, depression, and anxiety. We found that career training and prospects, research experience, and the impact of carrying out a thesis on health and private life have more impact on PhD students’ mental health than the supervisors’ behaviour. French PhD students’ well-being is specifically affected by career uncertainty, perceived lack of progress in the PhD, and perceived lack of competence compared to UK PhD students well-being, which suggests cultural differences about the PhD experi-ence in France compared to other countries. In study 2, the scores of the test and control groups (N = 10 and N = 13, respectively) showed a clear effect of the intervention on reducing anxiety. Impact on Society: The high levels of mental health issues and reduced well-being in French PhD students reported in this study underline the importance of developing interventions in this field. Improving the supervisor-student relationship is one possibility but is not the only one. Interventions aimed at learning how to cope with the research experience and with the uncertainty with career pathways, and a good balance between PhD work and personal life present other promising possibilities
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Bodin, P., and D. F. Jackson. "A Comparison of the Intertidal Harpacticoid Copepod Assemblages of Sandy Beaches in Galway Bay (Ireland) And Northern Brittany (France)." Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 69, no. 3 (1989): 573–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315400030988.
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The comparative research programme on harpacticoid copepod assemblages of the west coast of Ireland and northern Finistere began in 1982. During 1981 in Galway, D. Jackson sampled three sandy beaches around Galway Bay (Figure 1), Grattan Road Strand, Silver Strand and An Poll Brean (on Mweenish Island) near Carna (simply called Carna in the following text) and was preparing his PhD thesis (Jackson, 1985). Between 1978 and 1984 in Brittany, P. Bodin had been conducting a long-term ecological survey (Bodin, 1988) of three sandy beaches polluted by the 'Amoco Cadiz' oil spill; Brouennou, Corn ar Gazel and Kersaint (Figure 2). As these six beaches shared common characteristics of granulometry, salinity, temperature and hydrodynamics, it was decided to undertake a comparative study of the systematics, ecology and biology of their harpacticoid copepod assemblages.
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Schreiber, Jürg V., Jens Frackenpohl, Frank Moser, Thomas Fleischmann, Hans-Peter E. Kohler та Dieter Seebach. "On the Biodegradation of β-Peptides Part of the PhD thesis of J.V.S. Dissertation no. 14298, ETH Zürich, 2001." ChemBioChem 3, № 5 (2002): 424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1439-7633(20020503)3:5<424::aid-cbic424>3.0.co;2-0.
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Chorazewski, Mirosław. "In Memoriam. Professor Stefan ERNST." Archives of Acoustics 39, no. 4 (2015): 665–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/aoa-2014-0072.
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Abstract It is with great sadness that we inform our readers about the recent death of Professor Stefan Ernst. Stefan Ernst was born in Piaśniki, Upper Silesia, on November 03, 1934, to parents of Polish-German descent. His primary education started during the war at a German-speaking school in Wirek and continued in Olesno, where he also got his secondary education. As chemistry studies were not yet available at the University ofWrocław in 1953, he started studying biology and switched to chemistry a year later. He received his master’s degree in chemistry in 1959, as one of the first graduates in that major. Then, he started his work on application of thermodynamics and molecular acoustics in investigation of liquid phases under the guidance of the Prof. Bogusława Jeżowska-Trzebiatowska. On 28 November 1967, he defended his PhD thesis entitled “Association-Dissociation Equilibria and the Structure of Uranyl Compounds in Organic Solvents” at the University of Wrocław. Professor Stefan Ernst was a linguist, a polyglot, a renowned thermodynamisist and a researcher of molecular acoustics. With great regret and shock we have learned of his sudden and unexpected death on August 03, 2014, in a hospital in Kraków.
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Murthi, P., M. D. Bates, G. Sankaran, S. P. Brennecke, and B. Kalionis. "271.Role of homeobox gene HLX expression in normal placental development." Reproduction, Fertility and Development 16, no. 9 (2004): 271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/srb04abs271.
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In a screen for homeobox genes in the human placenta, we cloned and characterised HLX1 (also known as HB24) (1). Furthermore, we provided evidence that HLX1 may be a regulator of human placental develolpment (2). We have since shown that the mouse homologue of HLX1, called Hlx, is expressed in the murine placenta. In situ mRNA hybridisation studies and antibody localisation of Hlx revealed expression in the labyrinth layer (LL), secondary giant cells (GC) and in the spongiotrophoblast layer (STL) (3). The STL is required for structural support of the placenta. Targeted gene mutation of Hlx resulted in embryonic defects in the developing gut and the liver (4) but the effects on placental development were not investigated. Histological preparations of placental tissues collected from Days 10.5, 13.5 and 19.5 from Hlx mutant mice were investigated for morphological changes. Our preliminary observations reveal that by haematoxylin and eosin staining the STL of the mutant murine placenta is severely disrupted but the overlying GC layer appears to be unaffected. Endogenous alkaline phosphatase staining of the LL further confirmed that the highly vascularised LL where fetal- maternal exchange occurs, is disorganised and expands into the region normally occupied by the STL. These observations indicate that Hlx is essential for normal placental development. (1) Quinn LM, Kalionis B. (1997) Gene 187, 55–61. (2) Quinn LM, Kalionis B. (1997) Repro. Dev. 9, 617–623. (3) Johnson B (1999) PhD Thesis, University of Adelaide. (4) Hentsch B, Harvey RP (1996) Gene Dev. 10, 70–79.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Biology PhD Thesis"
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Harris, Linda Rozanne. "An ecosystem-based spatial conservation plan for the South African sandy beaches." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1007920.
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An ecosytem-based spatial conservation plan for the South African sandy beaches. Sandy beaches are valuable ecosystems. They support a collection of species that is unique, comprising many endemic species, and provide a number of key ecosystem goods and services, including scenic vistas for human recreation, nesting sites for turtles and birds, and important areas for biogeochemical recycling, water filtration and purification. However, sandy beaches have not been well understood or appreciated as ecosystems, and consequently have a legacy of poor coastal management. In many instances this has lead to a "tyranny of small decisions", where multiple, seemingly insignificant management decisions and actions have resulted in complete transformation and degradation of the shoreline in several places. In addition to inappropriate management strategies, beaches are also poorly represented in conservation areas. Further, where they are recognised as being "conserved" in marine protected areas, this often is a false sense of protection because the far more sensitive dune portion of the littoral active zone is invariably not included in the reserve. In short, there is a need for a new way to approach sandy beach conservation and management that includes the system (dunes, intertidal beaches and surf zones) as a whole. On one hand, the approach should make provision for use of the abundant natural resources and opportunities associated with sandy shores in ways that are sustainable and contribute to biodiversity stewardship - through ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning. But, on the other hand, it must simultaneously contribute to securing a sufficient amount of the key ecological attributes of beaches (habitats, biodiversity and processes) in a network of reserves, to ensure that the ecosystem, natural resources, and services all persist in perpetuity - through systematic conservation planning. The aim of this Thesis is to integrate these into a single approach, which I call ecosystem-based spatial conservation planning for sandy beaches, using the South African sandy shores as a case study. To achieve this broad aim, the Thesis is divided into three parts. Part 1 deals with establishing baseline information by quantifying spatial patterns in sandy beach habitats (Chapter 1), biodiversity, key assemblages and processes, and outstanding physical features (Chapter 2). First, mapping sandy beach habitats is a challenge given the vast, linear extent of shorelines and significant resources required to complete the project. Therefore, a novel approach was derived using statistical techniques (conditional inference trees) to identify physical features of beaches that can be observed on Google Earth (or similar) imagery, and that can provide good predictions of beach morphodynamic (habitat) types. Based on the results of this analysis, sandy beaches (and all other coastal habitat types) were mapped digitally in ArcGIS. Second, spatial patterns in sandy beach biodiversity (vertebrates, macrofauna, microflora and foredune plants) were mapped by compiling existing data on the distributions of key species that have been well studied or mapped previously (vertebrates and foredune plants), and by niche modelling (macrofauna and microflora). For the latter, data from all previous sandy-beach sampling events in South Africa were compiled from published and unpublished sources, and supplemented with additional sampling of 23 beaches along the national shoreline, targeting macrofauna and phytoplankton. Altogether, the macrofauna database comprised data from 135 sites and 186 sampling events, and the microflora (phytoplankton and microphytobenthos) database comprised data from 73 sites and 510 samples. The probabilistic distribution of each "resident" species (present at 10 or more sites) was modelled in MaxEnt version 3.3.3k, probability thresholds were determined statistically (to convert the data into predicted presence-absence), and displayed as a digital map. A composite biodiversity map was compiled, and key trends in species richness and endemism along the national shoreline were quantified. To supplement biodiversity proper, additional valued-features of sandy beaches were mapped, including: important assemblages; unique habitat features; and sites associated with key ecological processes. Part 2 considers threats to sandy beaches in the context of deriving an appropriate management strategy that seeks to provide for use of the coast, but in a way that has least overall impact to the ecosystem. A method for assessing cumulative threats to sandy beaches is adapted from an existing framework (Chapter 4). This entailed compiling a list of threats to beaches, and scoring these (out of 10) in terms of the severity of their respective impacts to beaches, and how long it would take the ecosystem to recover should the threat be removed. The scoring was based on the collective expert opinion of the scientific community working on sandy beaches, at a workshop during the VIth International Sandy Beach Symposium 2012. To standardize the scores and ensure broad applicability, a base case scenario of a pristine beach was established, and maximum theoretical scores were provided for this context. The method for integrating these scores into a spatial, cumulative threat assessment was then determined. In Chapter 5, the maximum theoretical scores (from Chapter 4) were down-scaled to suit the current threat regime to the South African sandy beaches, and the cumulative threat assessment methodology was applied. From this analysis, the most threatened beaches in South Africa, and the most important threats were highlighted. A decision-support tool for managers was derived from the site-specific cumulative threat-impact scores, based first on the degree of permanent habitat transformation, and second on the cumulative impact of other stressors where the impacts these stressors have could potentially be mitigated or ameliorated. Part 3 concerns conservation of beaches explicitly. It addresses how much of which valued features of beaches is required to ensure their long-term persistence, and the design of a network of beaches in South Africa that are of ecological importance and should be set aside as reserves. Conservation targets are set in Chapter 6, using species-area curves to determine a baseline percentage-area required to protect sandy beach habitats, which is modified using heuristic principles based on habitat rarity and threat status (from a recent national assessment). A fixed target was applied to all species, also modified by heuristic principles, and another fixed target was applied to key assemblages and processes.
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Ferrari, Nicola. "Macroparasite transmission and dynamics in Apodemus flavicollis." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/105.
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This thesis examines the parasite dynamics and the mechanisms affecting parasite load and transmission focalising on the role played by host and habitat heterogeneities. This study is based on the gastrointestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus and the small mammal yellow necked mouse and uses data gathered from experimental field manipulations of parasites intensities and data gathered from trapping monitoring. Initially the parasite community of yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis) was explored in North-Eastern Italian Alps with the aim to describe the major patterns and identify the factors affecting parasite community structure. Despite the observed spatial variability it has been found that differences within the host population such age and secondly sex and breeding conditions, were the major factors acting on parasite occurrence and intensity. Habitat differences had a less apparent effect on parasite community structure. The consequences of H. polygyrus infection on other parasite species infections have been analysed, in specific the infestation of the tick Ixodes ricinus in populations of A. flavicollis. H. polygyrus load and tick infestation were monitored as well as were carried out field manipulations of H. polygyrus intensity and were monitored changes in tick infestation. It has been found that H. polygyrus load was negatively related to I. ricinus infestations. Host factors mediated the H. polygyrus-I. ricinus interaction such that young and non-breeding mice exhibited higher I. ricinus to H. polygyrus intensity respect breeding adults. The role of host sex on parasite abundance was then investigated carrying out a field experiment where the H. polygyrus intensity were manipulated in relation to mice gender. In specific, H. polygyrus was removed alternately from either sexes and the parasite load was analysed in the untreated sex. It was found that males mice were responsible to drive parasite transmission in the host population and this was observed in absence of sex-bias in parasite infection, suggesting that this pattern was not a mere consequence of quantitative differences in parasite loads between sexes. To disentangle the possible mechanism causing this sex bias in parasite transmission mathematical simulations based on parameters obtained for the field experiment were used. Two non mutually exclusive hypotheses causing sex bias in parasite transmission were tested: a- males immune response is less efficient and this causes the development of more successful parasite infective stages or b-males behaviours allow them to be more efficient is spreading in more exposed areas parasite infective stages. Multi-host models were developed and simulations were compared with field results. While it was not disentangled the most dominant mechanism causing sex bias in parasite transmission this study underlined the importance of host sexes in affecting parasite dynamics and host-parasite interaction. In conclusion this thesis highlighted the importance of considering host and environmental differences when investigating host parasite interactions. This finding could be extremely important when planning measured of disease control or to avoid disease outbreak. Controlling target group of individuals host could avoid economical losses and a more effective measure of intervention.
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Chabalengula, Vivien Mweene Lorsbach Anthony W. "The nature and extent of scientific literacy themes coverage in Zambian high school biology curriculum." Normal, Ill. : Illinois State University, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1251867051&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1178198735&clientId=43838.
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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006.<br>Title from title page screen, viewed on May 3, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Anthony W. Lorsbach (chair), Karen K. Lind, Cynthia J. Moore, Thomas P. Crumpler. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-176) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Kumar, Sumit. "Regulation of hCLCA2 by PI3K-Akt signaling and its role in anoikis." Available to subscribers only, 2009. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1791982191&sid=4&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Warhurst, Billy Christopher. "Effects of Elevated Salinity and Oxidative Stress on the Physiology of the Toxigenic Cyanobacterium Microcystis Aeruginosa." UNF Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/523.
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Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are found worldwide, particularly in places where warm, well-lit, and stagnant waters are common. HABs can have negative effects on aquatic plants and wildlife due to the reduction in light availability associated with turbidity, decrease in O2 availability, and the production of secondary metabolites that can harm or even prove lethal. Aquatic ecosystems are regularly being affected by elevated salinity because of recent water management strategies, episodes of drought, and salt water intrusion. This research focused on how salinity levels ranging from 0-10ppt affected physiological attributes such as cellular growth and abundance, cell mortality, toxin release, and oxidative stress in the toxigenic cyanobacterium, Microcystis aeruginosa. It was determined that salinity treatments of 7ppt and above caused a decrease in both cellular growth and abundance, as well as an increase in toxin release due to cell mortality. M. aeruginosa was able to survive in salinities up to 7ppt. A pattern of caspase activity in response to elevated salinity was shown, but whether cellular mortality was due solely to programmed cell death (PCD) was not definitive. A strong antioxidant response, measured through catalase activity, was noted when salinity was enhanced to 7ppt. Above this value, the damaging effects of salinity caused elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and cell death. It was determined that the maximum amount of hydrogen peroxide that M. aeruginosa could withstand without significant impact to growth and abundance was below 250µM. Salinities of 7ppt and above had a negative impact on the physiology of M. aeruginosa, leading to cell death and an increase in microcystin release into the environment. These two factors can lead to fish kills, poor drinking water, and other recreational and commercial problems for an aquatic ecosystem. By determining the precise salinity that HAB cellular mortality is imminent, predictive models can be employed to predict the impacts of salt intrusion and groundwater management.
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Saikia, Sanjay. "Functional analysis of Penicillium paxilli genes required for biosynthesis of paxilline : this thesis is presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biochemistry at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand." 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/1489.
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Paxilline belongs to a large, structurally and functionally diverse group of indole-diterpenes and is synthesised by the filamentous fungus Penicillium paxilli. A gene cluster for paxilline biosynthesis in P. paxilli has been identified and characterised. However, none of the steps proposed in the biosynthesis of paxilline or paxilline-like indole-diterpenes have been validated. In some diterpene-producing filamentous fungi, including P. paxilli, two distinct copies of geranylgeranyl diphosphate (GGPP) synthase, that catalyses the committed step in diterpene biosynthesis, have been identified. However, the biological significance of the presence of two distinct GGPP synthases is not known. In this study, biochemical analysis of the paxilline gene products in P. paxilli and subcellular localisation of the two P. paxilli GGPP synthases, Ggs1 and PaxG, were carried out. Transfer of constructs containing different combinations of pax genes into a pax cluster negative deletion derivative of P. paxilli identified four Pax proteins that are required for the biosynthesis of a paxilline intermediate, paspaline. These proteins are PaxG, a GGPP synthase, PaxM, a FAD-dependent monooxygenase, PaxB, a putative membrane protein, and PaxC, a prenyltransferase. Using precursor feeding experiments, it was confirmed that the indole-diterpenes paspaline and β-PC-M6 are substrates for the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, PaxP, and are converted to 13-desoxypaxilline. Further, it was confirmed that the indole-diterpene 13-desoxypaxilline is a substrate for PaxQ, a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, and is converted to paxilline. Unlike PaxQ, PaxP is specific for indole-diterpene substrates that have a β-stereochemistry. The detection of the indole-diterpene products was related to the expression of the transgene in the pax cluster negative background. Reporter fusion studies of the two P. paxilli GGPP synthases, Ggs1 and PaxG, showed that the Ggs1-EGFP fusion protein was localised to punctuate structures whose identity could not be established, and the EGFP-GRV fusion protein, containing the C-terminal tripeptide GRV of PaxG, was localised to peroxisomes.
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Cosi, Filippo Giovanni. "Impact of Structure Modification on Cardiomyocyte Functionality." Doctoral thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/21.11130/00-1735-0000-0005-13B6-8.
Full textBooks on the topic "Biology PhD Thesis"
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Panosyan, Hovik. Molecular bacteriology laboratory works. YSU Publishing House, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.46991/ysuph/9785808424623.
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The training manual includes information about total nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) from pure soil water samples, genomic RNA and plasmid DNA separation from pure bacterial cultures, quantitative DNA testing, quantitative phylogenetic testing. Methods of cloning, sequencing, bioinformatics analysis of the obtained sequences are presented. The manual includes brief theoretical information covering the topic, laboratory works, as well as tasks for their implementation. This unique manual of molecular microbiology laboratory works in Armenian language is intended for students, PhD students specialized in the field of Biology.
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Weekes-Shackelford, Viviana A., and Todd K. Shackelford, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Parenting. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190674687.001.0001.
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The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Parenting provides a comprehensive resource for work on how our evolutionary past informs current parenting roles and practices. It features chapters from leaders in the field covering state-of-the-art research. The handbook is designed for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in psychology, anthropology, biology, sociology, and demography, as well as many other social and life science disciplines. It is the first resource of its kind that brings together empirical and theoretical contributions from scholarship at the intersection of evolutionary psychology and parenting. Each of the authors has a PhD in evolutionary psychology, and much of their research focuses on violence and conflict in families and romantic relationships.
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Mastroeni, Diego F. An Epigenetics Perspective on Diseases of the Central Nervous System. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190233563.003.0011.
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In the next two decades epigenetics could revolutionize understanding and treatment of diseases of the central nervous system. New research already demonstrates that manipulation of epigenetic mechanisms in vivo and in vitro can ameliorate a host of pathogenic processes associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s (HD), and multiple sclerosis (MS), among others. These advances have come relatively rapidly for a field that is still in its infancy compared to the much longer history of epigenetics in developmental biology. Epigenetic modifications are all-encompassing, from nucleotides to amino acids. They are capable of altering transcriptional to biochemical activity in a consistent manner across thousands of genes and hundreds of biologic pathways, yet they can do so differentially even in individuals or cells with identical gene codes. As such, epigenetic modifications are likely to touch on virtually all the mechanisms described in this book.
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Calabrò, Fabio, and Cora N. Sternberg. Treatment of metastatic bladder cancer. Edited by James W. F. Catto. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199659579.003.0079.
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Although bladder cancer is considered a chemosensitive malignancy, the prognosis of patients with metastatic disease is poor, with a median survival of approximately 12–14 months in good prognosis patients and with cure in only a minority. The addition of new drugs to the standard cisplatin-based regimens has not improved these outcomes. In this chapter, we highlight the role of chemotherapy and the impact of the new targeted agents in the treatment of metastatic bladder carcinoma. A better understanding of the underlying biology and the molecular patterns of urothelial bladder cancer has led to clinical investigation of several therapeutic targets. To date, these agents have yet to demonstrate an improvement in overall survival. Urothelial cancer is extremely sensitive to checkpoint inhibition with both anti PD-1 and anti PDL1 antibodies. The future seems brighter with the advent of these new therapies.
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Schindler, Thomas E. A Hidden Legacy. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531679.001.0001.
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This biography of Esther Zimmer Lederberg highlights the importance of her research work, which revealed the unique features of bacterial sex, essential for our understanding of molecular biology and evolution. A Hidden Legacy relates how, she and her husband Joshua Lederberg established the new field of bacterial genetics together, in the decade leading up to the discovery of the DNA double helix. Their impressive series of achievements include: the discovery of λ bacteriophage and of the first plasmid, known as the F-factor; the demonstration that viruses carry bacterial genes between bacteria; and the elucidation of fundamental properties of bacterial sex. This successful collaboration earned Joshua the 1958 Nobel Prize, which he shared with two of Esther’s mentors, George Beadle and Edward Tatum. Esther Lederberg’s contributions, however, were overlooked by the Nobel committee, an example of institutional discrimination known as the Matilda Effect. Esther Lederberg should also have been recognized for inventing replica plating, an elegant technique that she originated by re-purposing her compact makeup pad as a kind of ink stamp for conveniently transferring bacterial colonies from one petri dish to another. Instead, the credit for the invention is given to her famous husband, or, at best, to Dr. and Mrs. Lederberg. Within a few years of winning the Nobel Prize, Joshua Lederberg divorced his wife, leaving Esther without a laboratory, cut off from research funding, and facing uncertain employment. In response, she created a new social circle made up of artists and musicians, including a new soulmate. She devoted herself to a close-knit musical ensemble, the Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra, an avocation that flourished for over forty years, until the final days of her life.
Book chapters on the topic "Biology PhD Thesis"
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Rojeski, Maria, and Jesse Roth. "Receptors for Insulin and Insulin-Like Growth Factors I and II in PCD Mice and Diabetic Rats are Unaltered: An Autoradiographic Study." In Molecular and Cellular Biology of Insulin-like Growth Factors and Their Receptors. Springer US, 1989. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5685-1_36.
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Walters, Dale. "Small but Deadly." In Chocolate Crisis. University Press of Florida, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5744/florida/9781683401674.003.0005.
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This chapter looks at the first of several major diseases of cacao, black pod, which is responsible for huge losses in cacao production every year. It deals with the pathogens responsible, Phytophthora palmivora and Phytophthora megakarya, looking at their biology, and how understanding their biology and ecology can help in devising methods to control the disease and minimize its impact. The chapter takes us through the history of black pod research and the people involved in trying to understand this devastating disease. The need for vigilance is highlighted, since P. megakarya, which causes large losses in cacao production in West Africa, has not yet spread to other cacao-growing regions of the world.
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Walters, Dale. "Cacao Borers." In Chocolate Crisis. University Press of Florida, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.5744/florida/9781683401674.003.0011.
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The minute moth Conopomorpha cramerella is a dainty insect that poses a serious threat to the cacao industry in Southeast Asia – the cocoa pod borer. This insect is responsible for losses to the Indonesian cacao industry of some $500 million annually, and unfortunately, it has been reported from northern Australia. Cacao is also attacked by two lepidopterans (Eulophonotus myrmeleon and Zeuzera coffeae) and a weevil (various Pantorhytes species), which bore through the stem of the tree, causing considerable damage. This chapter examines the life cycles of these cocoa pod borers and cocoa stem borers and looks at how an understanding of their biology and ecology can help to manage these pests.
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Gough, Laura. "Bridging Community and Ecosystem Ecology at the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research Site via Collaborations." In Long-Term Ecological Research. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0014.
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My research in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program helped to shape me into the ecologist that I am, working at the interface between communities and ecosystems on a variety of questions. As a university educator and public speaker, I incorporate examples of LTER site-based empirical and theoretical research, as well as cross-site meta-analyses in my teaching and presentations. My awareness of long-term research, in particular the response of North American ecosystems to global change, is heightened by my interactions within the LTER network. Working in the LTER program has provided me with opportunities for collaborations both within the Arctic site and across the network. The LTER program has thus inadvertently provided the framework for all of my current and recently funded research projects. These collaborations assisted in sustaining me through major life events, particularly having children, by helping me maintain my research productivity when my family required more of my time and attention. Currently, I am a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Texas at Arlington. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in botany and ecology, and I also supervise MS and PhD students working in the tundra at the Arctic (ARC) LTER site and locally on urban ecology questions. I earned my PhD in plant biology from Louisiana State University and have been affiliated with ARC site since 1996, when I was hired as a postdoctoral scientist by Gus Shaver on a related grant. Since 1999, when I started my first faculty position, I have been an independently funded researcher affiliated with the ARC site, and for the past few years I have served as a member of the ARC Executive Committee. My research at ARC site is at the interface between the community and the ecosystem. My contributions to site-specific understanding have focused on the factors (abiotic and biotic) that control tundra plant species diversity, including the role of consumer species (Figure 7.1). In addition, I have been involved in a cross-site working group in the LTER network (now called PDTNet: Productivity-Diversity-Traits Network) since 1996.
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Orr, David W. "Education, Careers, and Callings." In The Nature of Design. Oxford University Press, 2002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195148558.003.0024.
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In the past decade I have received several hundred letters of inquiry from students asking for advice about education and careers. Most want to know how to combine their passion for the natural world with formal education in order to craft a useful life. The letters and e-mails are often written in a tone of frustration. An undergraduate biology major, for example, writes: “I have been researching my options, and I have come to the conclusions [sic] that there are quite a number of programs labeled ‘conservation biology’ or ‘environmental studies’ around the country. It is fairly easy to become lost in a sea of them. I attended the Society for Conservation Biology meeting in Maryland, but failed to find any prospective advisors. Would you have any advice to offer on this topic?” Similarly, a recent Ph.D. in wildlife biology writes: “I am struggling to translate my professional training into a life well lived that in some way might contribute to preserving the natural world and not just documenting its decline. . . . My professional training did not prepare me well for these tasks.” Dozens of other letters have the same plaintive themes. The problem is not simply that there are many more students who want practical careers in environmental work than those who find them. The deeper problem has to do with the experience of students as they pass through the system of higher education. Whatever they once may have been, institutions of higher education have become vast and expensively operated machines much like any for-profit corporation. Students are fed through a conveyor belt of requirements, large classes, deadlines, and general busy-ness. What they learn seldom adds up to anything like a coherent, ecologically solvent worldview. The scale of most institutions is not conducive to humane interaction. Seldom encouraged to discern an inner calling, students are more often counseled to find secure careers that pay well. Nonetheless, many students still feel a calling toward service that runs counter to the incentives, values, and structure of their formal education.
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Fisher, David. "Dating the Spreading Seafloor." In Much Ado about (Practically) Nothing. Oxford University Press, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195393965.003.0016.
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In 1912 a German Meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, took the drastic step of moving into another science altogether by publishing the shocking geologic theory that our continents have been sailing across the surface of the earth like leaves on a lake blown by—what? The geologists laughed at the suggestion of an impossible wind and scorned the man who had insolently crossed the boundaries of the sciences. But truth be told, it wasn’t unheard of in those early years to do just that. Rutherford, a physicist, had won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, and Marie Curie had already won twice, once in physics and once in chemistry. Wegener himself had done his PhD work in astronomy before switching over to meteorology, and at the same time was a renowned arctic explorer. The separation between the sciences are useful and real—a biology student has enough to learn without spending years on tensor analysis or relativity— but at their boundaries they blur. Today nearly everyone pays lip service to what we call interdisciplinary research, but in practice they fight hard against it. I did my PhD course work in the chemistry department of the University of Florida and my research in the physics group at Oak Ridge, then had a postdoc appointment in the chemistry department at Brookhaven before going to physics at Cornell and ending up in geology at Miami, but I had to fight along the way. A chemistry professor at Florida tried to insist that I take his colloid course instead of relativity (which was taught at the same time). I won that fight but lost at Cornell when I tried to have my students take chemistry courses instead of the required engineering and physics courses. The fact that Wegener wasn’t a geologist gave them an easy way out: it’s easier to laugh at new ideas than to confront them, and easier still to laugh at new ideas from those whom you can consider amateurs.
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Schindler, Thomas E. "Introduction." In A Hidden Legacy. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0001.
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This chapter relates how one day in 1950, Esther Zimmer Lederberg cleverly re-purposed her compact makeup pad and invented replica plating. This whimsical experiment led to an elegant technique for duplicating many bacterial clones in one step, a clever invention that epitomized her experimental creativity. The chapter shows how the Lederbergs established the field of bacterial genetics years before the birth of molecular biology and together discovered bacterial sex (or horizontal gene transfer, HGT) the peculiar processes that enable bacteria to rapidly spread their genes, leading to antibiotic resistance and the evolution of new species. The stellar reputation of her brilliant husband and collaborator, however, diminished Esther Lederberg’s legacy. The systematic bias against giving due credit for achievements of women scientists whose work is misattributed to their scientific colleagues is known as the Matilda Effect. Esther Lederberg’s story is sadly similar to those of many exemplary women scientists.
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Peters, Debra P. C. "Tales from a “Lifer” in the Long-Term Ecological Research Program." In Long-Term Ecological Research. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0033.
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As a long-time member of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network, first as a graduate student and scientist at the Shortgrass Steppe (SGS) site (1984–1997), then as a scientist at the Sevilleta (SEV) site (1996–present) and now as principal investigator at the Jornada Basin (JRN) site (2003–present), my professional career has been shaped almost entirely by my LTER experiences. My experiences in the LTER program directly contributed to my individual-based approach to ecosystem dynamics combined with the knowledge that the dominant ecological processes can change as the spatial extent increases, and that long-term data are critical to disentangle how these pattern–process relationships change across scales. The LTER program has provided me with international experience and exposure that are valuable to my career. My opportunity to travel overseas has led to bonding experiences and new insights into other ecosystems. My appreciation for the value of K–12 education and the amount of work that is involved in “doing it right” has been shaped by my experiences with the Jornada Schoolyard LTER Program. One of the key challenges that I face in working at an LTER site is the tension between continuing to collect long-term observations with the need and desire to test new ideas that often result from the long-term data but then compete for resources with the collection of those data. Another challenge is in mentoring young scientists to become principal investigators, and in cultivating new relationships with potential co–principal investigators. Currently, I am the principal investigator at the JRN LTER program at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I am also a collaborating scientist at the SEV LTER program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I received my BS in biology at Iowa State University in 1981 and my MS in biology from San Diego State University (SDSU) in 1983. My LTER experiences began as a PhD student at Colorado State University (CSU) through the SGS LTER program in 1984, and these continued while I was a postdoctoral fellow (1988–1989).
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koertge, Noretta. "Contingencies in Chemical Explanation." In Essays in the Philosophy of Chemistry. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190494599.003.0013.
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“Chemistry has a position in the center of the sciences, bordering onto physics, which provides its theoretical foundation, on one side, and onto biology on the other, living organisms being the most complex of all chemical systems” (Malmström et al.). Thus begins a recent essay on the development of modern chemistry. Philosophers have long wrestled with how best to describe the exact relationship between chemistry and physics. Is it an example of a classic reduction? But before we ask whether chemistry could in principle be derived from physics, there is a prior question: How well integrated is the science of chemistry itself? This chapter argues that although there is a coherent explanatory core within chemical theory, contingency plays a larger role than is usually recognized. Furthermore, these phenomena at the boundaries of traditional chemistry education are where some of the most important current research is occurring. I will first adopt a quasi-historical approach in this essay, including anecdotes from my own educational trajectory. I then briefly discuss how our current understanding of the explanatory structure of chemistry should be reflected in education today. The professor of quantum chemistry at the University of Illinois in the 1950s told us a story from his PhD defense. His director, Linus Pauling, walked into the room and said something to this effect: “Well, Karplus, you’ve done a bunch of calculations on the hydrogen molecule ion (H2 +). Very nice. But you claim to be a chemist. So please write the Periodic Table on the board for us.” Who knows exactly what point Pauling was actually trying to make, but it reminds us of this basic point. The periodic table with its horizontal and vertical trends is still the basis of the classification of enormous amounts of information about the formulae and properties of chemical compounds. Mendeleev would not have understood talk of strontium-90, but he would have realized immediately that this product of nuclear testing would enter the body in a manner similar to calcium.
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Mitchell, Peter. "Ancestors." In Horse Nations. Oxford University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198703839.003.0007.
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In Greek myth the winged horse Pegasus was actually ridden by the hero Bellerophon rather than by Perseus, yet Shakespeare’s words neatly capture the striking combination of supernatural power and tractability that is the horse. This chapter picks up these themes by developing three topics: it describes the evolution of the modern horse, Equus caballus, identifies key features of its biology relevant to subsequent discussions, and reviews the history of human–horse interaction in the Old World, emphasizing the horse’s domestication and subsequent spread. Horses and their relatives, the wild asses and zebras, were once seen as an almost paradigmatic example of how evolution works, although more recent research has shown that their history is more complex and multi-branched than originally thought. Along with tapirs and rhinoceroses, they belong to the taxonomic order Perissodactyla, the odd-toed division of the ungulates or hoofed mammals. The superficial similarities that they share with even-toed antelopes, which belong to the order Artiodactyla, are thus largely the result of evolution converging on similar body plans. In fact, some genetic studies suggest that perissodactyls are closer to carnivores than to the artiodactyls. Like modern tapirs and rhinoceroses, the earliest horses were three-toed, but for the past 40 million years or so all have borne their weight on just the third toe, with ligaments, rather than a fleshy pad, for support. Subsequently, the central metapodial (the bones connecting the digits to the wrist or ankle) was considerably elongated to form a long, slender lower limb and the second and fourth digits were minimized, though still giving support when galloping and jumping. Beginning around 10 million years ago, in the late Miocene period, the remaining side toes were reduced to splints and the animal’s weight came to be carried entirely on a single enlarged hoof. The first perissodactyls were browsers, not grazers. Some 45–34 million years ago, however, temperatures fell at higher latitudes and climate became more seasonal: successful ungulates evolved new adaptations, including the first appearance of both ruminants (which ferment their food in a specialized foregut) and new kinds of ancestral horses such as Mesohippus and its successor Miohippus.