2015 MU theses - Access restricted to MU
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The items in this collection are theses that are available only to members of the University of Missouri--Columbia campus. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Transgene expression can be influenced by the sequences within transgene constructs and the chromosomal position effect. To minimize the influence between adjacent genes, one possibly effective method would be the use of a genetic insulator between adjacent genes. The palindromic insulator is one of the few plant insulators that has been studied. Here we designed and tested several synthetic palindromic insulators derived from MARs (matrix attachment region sequence) with repeated sequences that can form hairpin structures. The results show that these synthetic insulators have good utility to minimize the interactions between the adjacent genes. Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world as an important crop. Genetic transformation is an important tool in maize research and genetic improvement. Nevertheless, there's still no report of successful B73 transformation or regeneration to date. The bottleneck has been the lack of a somatic embryogenesis system in B73. Here we have applied RNA-Seq to reveal potential candidate genes involved in somatic embryogenesis in maize inbred B73 and to provide transcriptome landscape of cells during maize B73 somatic embryogenesis process. Genes that were expressed differentially between embryogenic and nonembryogenic calli were screened and transcript levels of some top candidate genes were validated through real-time PCR. Gene clusters, especially transcription factors and kinase gene clusters, were identified as potential key genes that could promote maize somatic embryogenesis.Item Controlled loading of cryoprotectants (CPAS) with cell volume constraints(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015) Jasim, Ibrahem Hashim Mahmood; Almasri, Mahmoud[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Oocyte cryopreservation techniques are considered very important aspects in biomedical research for oocyte and embryo cryopreservation to be used in future in In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedure. Oocyte cryopreservation is an important aspect in many applications that involves deffering the time of pregnancy to future due to many reasons such as chemo therapy for the ones who have cancer or failed IVF cycles that reduce the cost for future cycles. The definition of optimal cryopreservation protocols highly depends on knowing the permeability of the cell membrane to water and cryoprotective agents. Due to the large size of oocytes that requires microscopy methods which could be difficult to implement, micro fluidic device is presented in this study based on Coulter-principle to simultaneously control and measure the volume of a single cell. In this thesis we designed and fabricated a micro fluidic device to monitor the cell volume change to allow the implementation of state-space optimized CPA equilibration strategies without prior knowledge of cell membrane transport parameters.Item Mobile image analysis for seed phenotyping(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015) Gao, Ke; Palaniappan, K. (Kannappan)[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Shape and size are among the most important seed characteristics measurements. This work presents an Android-based smartphone and tablet application named MUSeed that utilizes image processing techniques for seed morphometry. Unlike most of the existing tools, MUSeed does not impose restrictions on arrangement of seeds in an image since it is capable of handling touching seed instances. Firstly, RGB color space is converted to RG-chromaticity space to reduce the influence of shadows and illumination variations. Then K-means is used to segment the seeds from the background. To split touching seeds in the image, a Modified Marker-Controlled Watershed (MMCW) algorithm and Concave Point Analysis (CPA) are developed. Finally, the most appropriate result from two methods is selected by a fitness function and each seed is then labelled and measured. The proposed app used Android Studio as the Android application IDE. The program was implemented in Java with the help of OpenCV computer vision library. MUSeed was benchmarked against several similar tools on 7 cultivars of American elderberry (Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis.) seeds: Bob Gordon, Marge, Ocoee, Ozark, Ozone, Wyldewood, and York.Item Insights into media messaging on Tobacco 21 health policy(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2015) Chadwick, Ginny; Yu, Mansoo[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] To effectively diffuse Tobacco 21 policy to raise the minimum sale age of tobacco products to 21, health professionals need to gain the acceptance and support of policymakers. Well researched, powerful messaging must be created to capture the target's attention. Although preliminary surveillance data and modeling find this policy decreases tobacco use among high school students, American's value of civil liberties is dominating the opposition's argument to resist policy diffusion. This research explores policy descriptors and the difference in attitudes and beliefs towards Tobacco 21 policy in local policymakers exposed to news media containing different pro-tobacco control frames and source of knowledge. No differences were found between framing or source of knowledge of media on attitudes and beliefs toward Tobacco 21. When policymakers turn to media to get policy information they look to newspapers, both print and online, as their primary news source. Compared to other policies, tobacco policy rates low as a priority by local officials. Tobacco 21 is in the early stages of diffusion, with over half of policymakers unaware, and currently gaining knowledge to form favorable or unfavorable attitudes towards the policy. A large majority of policymakers believe Tobacco 21 will benefit the health of the community, but just over a third were willing to vote in support. Almost equal portions were undecided or unsupportive. This is an important time for health professionals to share knowledge through news media on the benefits of Tobacco 21 with these decision makers.