UNT Theses and Dissertations - 234 Matching Results

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Morphological and physiological developmental consequences of parental effects in the chicken embryo (Gallus gallus domesticus) and the zebrafish larva (Danio rerio).

Description: Cardiac, metabolic and growth response of early-stage chicken embryos to perturbations in yolk environment was investigated. Also, effects of parental hypoxia exposure on hypoxia resistance, thermal tolerance and body length of zebrafish larvae were investigated. In the first study, thyroxine, triiodothyronine and testosterone produced differential effects on heart rate and development rate of chicken embryos during the first 4 days of development. Triiodothyronine caused a dose-dependent inc… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Ho, Dao H.
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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Genomic Island Discovery through Enrichment of Statistical Modeling with Biological Information

Description: Horizontal gene transfer enables acquisition and dissemination of novel traits including antibiotic resistance and virulence among bacteria. Frequently such traits are gained through the acquisition of clusters of functionally related genes, often referred to as genomic islands (GIs). Quantifying horizontal flow of GIs and assessing their contributions to the emergence and evolution of novel metabolic traits in bacterial organisms are central to understanding the evolution of bacteria in genera… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Jani, Mehul
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Environmental Modulation of the Onset of Air-breathing of the Siamese Fighting Fish and the Blue Gourami

Description: This study determined the effect of hypoxia on air-breathing onset and physiological and morphological characters in larvae of the air breathing fishes Trichopodus trichopterus and Betta splendens. Larvae were exposed intermittently (12/12 h daily) to 20, 17, and 14 kPa of PO2 from 1 to 40 days post-fertilization. Survival, onset of air breathing, wet body mass, O2, Pcrit were measured every 5 dpf. Hypoxia advanced by 4 days, and delayed by 9 days, the onset of air breathing in Betta and Trich… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Mendez Sanchez, Jose Fernando
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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Thresholds and Legacy Effects of Tropical Floodplain Fish Assemblages in Response to Flood Attributes

Description: Natural flow regimes are critical for sustaining biodiversity and river integrity. Floods and droughts form an important component of river systems and control population sizes and species diversity across space and time. Modification of flow regimes, including disruption of the timing, magnitude and duration of flooding, is a global problem, and many new impoundments are planned for large river-floodplain ecosystems in the tropics. Flow modifications may cause dramatic non-linear responses … more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Hoeinghaus, Ana Paula Ferrari
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Characterizing the Molecular Changes of Austrofundulus limnaeus As It Develops Towards and Enters Diapause II

Description: Austrofundulus limnaeus is a species of annual killifish which inhabits ephemeral ponds in South America. The species is able to survive seasonally desiccating ponds due to their ability to produce robust embryos. The embryos of this species are capable of entering a developmental arrest, termed diapause II, which precedes the onset of drought. While in this arrested state embryos exhibit the greatest tolerance to anoxia of any characterized vertebrate at 25ºC. Furthermore, when raised at 30ºC,… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Toni, Lee S.
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Effect of Acute Alcohol Ingestion on Resistance Exercise Induced mTORC1 Signaling in Human Muscle

Description: The purpose of this project was to further elucidate the effects post-exercise alcohol ingestion. This project had many novel aspects including using a resistance exercise (RE) only exercise design and the inclusion of women. To our knowledge, we are the first to investigate the effect of post-RE alcohol ingestion in women. In the first chapter of this project, information on the prevalence of alcohol use and the importance of skeletal muscle as a dynamic and metabolic tissue was provided. In c… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Duplanty, Anthony A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Glucose Induces Sensitivity to Oxygen Deprivation and Alters Gene Expression in Caenorhabditis Elegans

Description: An organisms’ diet represents an exogenous influence that often yields colossal effects on long-term health and disease risk. The overconsumption of dietary sugars for example, has contributed to significant increases in obesity and type-2 diabetes; health issues that are costly both economically and in terms of human life. Individuals who are obese or are type-2 diabetic often have compromised oxygen delivery and an increased vulnerability to oxygen-deprivation related complications, such as i… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Garcia, Anastacia M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Impact of a Genetically Engineered Probiotic Therapy and IGF-1 Genomics in the PAHenu2 Mouse Model of PKU

Description: Absence of functional phenylalanine hydroxylase results in phenylketonuria (PKU). Viable treatments remain few, expensive and secondary conditions such as osteopenia occur in most PKU patients. Objective 1: Given the recently described roles of gut microbes to aid host digestion, an orally administered genetically engineered probiotic as the delivery vehicle for enzyme replacement therapy was created. The engineered probiotic, pHENOMMenal, produced phenylalanine ammonia lyase with significant… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Durrer, Katherine Elaine
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Field and Laboratory Fish Tissue Accumulation of Carbamazepine and Amiodarone

Description: The goals of this dissertation work were to assess the bioaccumulation potential of carbamazepine and amiodarone, two widely used ionizable pharmaceutical compounds that possess mid-range and high LogD values, respectively, and to evaluate alternative methods to assess chemical accumulation in bluntnose minnows, catfish, and tilapia. Results indicated that carbamazepine does not appreciably bioaccumulate in fish tissue with BCFk and BAF carbamazepine values < 10. Amiodarone, however, with a log… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: García Martínez, Santos Noé
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Relationships of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Structure with Land-use, Habitat, In-stream Water Chemistry, Depositional Sediment Biofilm Fatty Acids, and Surfactants in the Effluent Dominated Texas Trinity River

Description: The Trinity River is an urbanized, effluent-dominated river, and is heavily relied upon for drinking water. The benthic macroinvertebrate community has been monitored for over 20 years, with the focus of this dissertation on three studies (1987-88, 2005, and 2011). Water quality improvement following dechlorination resulted in increased benthic metrics. Overall habitat quality, in-stream cover, surface water total organic carbon, sediment total organic carbon, near-field urban land-use, near… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Slye, Jaime L.
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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Endocrine Disruption of Levonorgestrel in Early-life Stages of Fathead Minnows, Pimephales Promelas

Description: Pharmaceuticals have routinely been detected in the environment resulting in a growing concern about whether these drugs could elicit effects on aquatic organisms. The concerns are centered on the highly conserved nature of mammalian therapeutic targets in fish. These pharmaceuticals are found at very low levels in the environment, which can result in sub-lethal effects in aquatic organisms. Therefore, 28 d early-life stage studies were conducted on six pharmaceuticals to assess their impact… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Overturf, Matthew D.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

Neurotoxic Effects of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Vertebrates, from Behavioral to Cellular Levels

Description: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental toxicants found in anthropogenic mixtures such as crude oil, air pollution, vehicle exhaust, and in some natural combustion reactions. Single PAHs such as benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) also impact fish behavior when animals are exposed in early life stages and for short periods of time. Aquatic animals such as fish may encounter BaP through road runoff and oil spills, but few studies have examined the impact of aqueous exposure on adul… more
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Date: July 2023
Creator: Dunton, Alicia D.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Impact of Invasive Salmonids on Ecosystem Functioning in South America's Sub-Antarctic Inland and Marine Waters

Description: Invasions from coho salmon were first reported in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR) in 2019 which is the most southern distribution registered to date. The CHBR is known for its high number of endemic species and unique biodiversity, such as the native fishes Galaxias maculatus and Aplochiton taeniatus. There are now three invasive salmonid species in the rivers of CHBR and are a potential threat to the native fish taxa. Stable isotope and gut content analysis were used to understand resou… more
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Date: May 2023
Creator: Moore, Sabrina
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Detection and Classification of Cancer and Other Noncommunicable Diseases Using Neural Network Models

Description: Here, we show that training with multiple noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is both feasible and beneficial to modeling this class of diseases. We first use data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to train a pan cancer model, and then characterize the information the model has learned about the cancers. In doing this we show that the model has learned concepts that are relevant to the task of cancer classification. We also test the model on datasets derived independently of the TCGA cohort and s… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Gore, Steven Lee
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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Characterization of Aspartate Transcarbamoylase in the Archaebacterium Methanococcus Jannaschii

Description: Asparate transcarbamoylase catalyzes the first committed step in the de novo synthesis of pyrmidine nucleotides UMP, UDP, UTP, and CTP. The archetype enzyme found in Escherichia coli (310 kDa) exhibits sigmodial substrate binding kinetics with positive control by ATP and negative control with CTP and UTP. The ATCase characterized in this study is from the extreme thermophilic Archaebacterium, Methanococcus jannaschii. The enzyme was very stable at elevated temperatures and possessed activity fr… more
Date: December 1996
Creator: Stewart, John E. B. (John Edward Bakos)
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Bobwhite Population Decline: Its History, Genetic Consequences, and Studies on Techniques for Locating and Assessing Current Populations

Description: The northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) population decline is a severe, rangewide phenomenon beginning >150 years ago and continuing today. In this investigation, I: 1. document the timeline of bobwhite population decline and unintended genetic consequences of attempted remedies, 2) develop a model useful for predicting possible locations of potentially sustainable bobwhite populations in semiarid rangeland in Texas and Oklahoma, and 3) examine the relationship between population monitoring… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Whitt, Jeffrey Glen
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Maternal Transfer of Dietary Methylmercury and Implications for Embryotoxicity in Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas)

Description: Mercury (Hg) is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant, which is capable of global atmospheric transport. As a result, even the most pristine aquatic ecosystems are affected by atmospheric Hg deposition, following which microbial transformation yield organic Hg forms, the most concerning of which is methylmercury (MeHg). Methylmercury is capable of bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food webs, resulting in potentially toxic body burdens due to regular dietary exposure in long-lived organ… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Bridges, Kristin N.
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Optimization of In Vitro Mammalian Blastocyst Development: Assessment of Culture Conditions, Ovarian Stimulation and Experimental Micro-Manipulation

Description: Factors currently at the forefront of human in vitro fertilization (IVF) that collectively influence treatment success in the form of blastocysts development were investigated during early mammalian embryology with concentration on infertile patients presenting with diminished ovarian reserve or preliminary ovarian failure. A novel experimental technique, Graft Transplant-Embryonic Stem Cells (GT-ESC) was introduced in the mouse model, as the first inclusive approach for embryo selection in IVF… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Sadruddin, Sheela
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Estimating Postmortem Interval Using VNIR Spectroscopy on Human Cortical Bone

Description: Postmortem interval (PMI) estimation is a necessary but often difficult task that must completed during a death investigation. The level of difficulty rises as time since death increases, especially with the case of skeletonized remains (long PMI). While challenging, a reliable PMI estimate may be of great importance for investigative direction and cost-savings (e.g. suspect identification, tailoring missing persons searches, non-forensic remains exclusion). Long PMI can be estimated by assessi… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Servello, John A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Population Genetic Structure of Quadrula aurea (Bivalvia: Unionidae), A Threatened Freshwater Mussel in Central Texas

Description: The anthropogenic alteration of riverine ecosystems has led to declines in the abundance and diversity of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida) worldwide. Central Texas is home to a diverse freshwater mussel fauna including three candidates for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act. Surveys conducted over the last few decades suggest many of the endemic freshwater mussel species in Texas exist in small isolated populations that may be vulnerable to the deleterious effects of genet… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Mabe, Jeffrey A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Identification of the Neurobiological Basis of Hemodynamic Responses Correlated with Cognitive Stroop Task Performance After an Acute Bout of Aerobic Exercise

Description: Cardiovascular activities may increase the brain blood flow improving neuronal activities leading to improved cognition. Consequently, the effects of an acute bout of moderate intensity aerobic exercise on brain hemodynamics and its correlation with cognitive color-word Stroop task performance were tested. The Stroop tasks were congruent (color matches word) and incongruent (color does not match word). Prefrontal (PFC) and motor cortex (MC) blood flow was recorded by fNIRS (functional near-infr… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Pal, Amrita
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Biogeographic Distribution of Caddisflies (Insecta: Trichoptera) within the South-Central United States

Description: Through the use of natural history records, published literature, and personal sampling (2011-2016) a total of 454 caddisfly species represented by 24 families and 93 genera were documented from the south-central United States. Two Hydroptilidae species were collected during the 2011-2016 collection efforts that are new to the region: Hydroptilia scheringi and Mayatrichia tuscaloosa. Eightteen species are endemic and 30 are considered species of concern by either federal or state agencies. The … more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Perry, Heather Ann
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Partner: UNT Libraries
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Antimicrobial and Anti-Platelet Activity in Botanical Extracts of Plants Collected in Northern Thailand

Description: The purpose of my research work was to assess a variety of Northern Thailand plants tissue extracts for antibacterial and anti-platelet aggregation activity. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration assay method was used to assess antimicrobial activity of plant extracts, while the Zebrafish Platelet Aggregation Assay and the in vitro Whole Human Blood Impedance Aggregation Assay were used to study anti-platelet activity. Forty one plant extracts harvested from the tissues of 26 plants collected fr… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Patcharapinyopong, Thanasan
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Partner: UNT Libraries

The Consequences of Early Life Stage Thyroid Suppression on Immune Function in the Fathead Minnow (Pimephales promelas)

Description: Current evidence suggests that thyroid hormones (THs) may impact development of the immune system. However, studies that explore the role of THs in immune development are limited, and the mechanisms leading to alterations in immune function are poorly understood. It is important to elucidate the role of THs in immune development given that many environmental contaminants have been shown to disrupt TH homeostasis and may also have negative impacts on the immune system. As such, the main goal of … more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Thornton Hampton, Leah Marie
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
Partner: UNT Libraries
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