Best Selling Books by Andrew David

This analysis allowed for the construction of a comprehensive architectural framework connecting the aforementioned basins and the generation of detailed stratigraphic correlations and cross sections. Hand-contoured isochore maps were created for each of the six Niobrara lithofacies intervals, as well as for all Cretaceous units from the Cloverly Formation to the top of the Lower Cody Shale. Gamma ray logs were then digitized, allowing shale volume calculations for each of the six Niobrara lithofacies. The resulting data are presented as contour maps that denote different lithofacies within each interval. Results indicate that the mechanisms by which the Niobrara interval thickens from east-to-west are controlled by a regional west-to-east depositional trend with localized variation in depositional strike over time.

Methods: An extensive search of peer-reviewed literature focusing on the collection, quantification, and analysis of normal and abnormal meibum and tear lipids was performed by searching PubMed.

Drug-eluting stents have emerged as the most effective method for treating restenosis following percutaneous coronary interventions. This thesis investigates how drugs with similar physiochemical properties but different specific binding targets yield drastically different tissue transport, retention and ultimately efficacy independent of their putative biological effects. Our central hypothesis is that both specific and general binding of drugs to tissue proteins, as mediated by drug-specific physiochemical properties, plays a central role in arterial transport and distribution. We define and compare the kinetic and transport properties of clinically implemented compounds with different binding modes. While hydrophilic compounds are rapidly cleared, hydrophobic ones are retained with an arterial transmural distribution dependent upon the distribution of specific and general binding sites. Common systemically administered cardiac drugs compete with locally delivered agents through displacement of general binding sites. Exploration of drug binding in thrombus indicates significant specific and general binding capacity. Stent-to- arterial wall drug transfer is acutely sensitive to stent strut position in clot relative to the wall due to thrombus binding capacity. A poorly controlled microthrombotic environment around a stent strut can drastically enhance systemic washout while reducing delivery to the tissue. Together this body of work implies that specific and general binding plays a critical role in the clinical efficacy of locally delivered drugs, and must be a consideration in the rational design of stent-based delivery devices.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Summit Learning Platform, a type of Intelligent Tutoring System, has a positive association with mathematics achievement of high school students in grades nine through eleven. The study was conducted in a Midwest suburban school district among three high schools within the same district. Further, a quasi-experimental research design was used with a sample size of 2000 students in the control group and 450 students in the treatment group. Data were compiled from the 2018-2019 school year and applied a combination of t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the mean scores of the two groups. As comparison points, the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), pre-ACT, and ACT were used in this Midwest district as measures among all students. The results demonstrated that students using the Summit Learning Platform showed significant gains when using their pre-test and post-test scores, but there was not statistical significance when analyzing the measures between the control and treatment groups. As more school districts utilize technological tools in far-reaching efforts to raise achievement levels in math, the intent of the study was to demonstrate potential benefits of the Summit Learning Platform for districts across the nation.

Furthermore, lcla1 was resistant to treatment with cerulenin, a plastid fatty acid synthesis inhibitor, in high light suggesting the high light sensitivity was due to lipotoxicity. The insertional cassette in lcla1 was mapped to Cre07.g329861, predicted to encode a large protein with numerous low complexity regions but without any conserved domains suggestive of a biological function. Introduction of an epitope tag facilitated detection of the encoded isoforms at the expected sizes and the gene renamed LCLA1 for Low Complexity protein in Lipid Accumulation. The N-terminus of one isoform was sufficient to direct a chimeric reporter to the ER in mixotrophic conditions (light plus acetate), the site of de novo peroxisome biogenesis. Shifting cultures to respiratory conditions, the reporter redistributed to puncta resembling peroxisomes. Due to these observations and the compartmentation of glyoxylate cycle and fatty acid oxidation enzymes in peroxisomes, an intriguing possibility is for a role of LCLA1 in peroxisome biogenesis. Indeed, only ~1/3 of the proteins involved in peroxisome biogenesis are conserved in Chlamydomonas. While the precise function of LCLA1 remains to be elucidated, here we provide support for a role in lipid metabolism, indirectly through peroxisome function. In summary, from an insertional mutagenic screen for mitochondrial CI deficiency, two nuclear mutants encoding subunits of CI were obtained as well as two additional mutants disrupted for novel genes. The first, AMC1, was shown to encode a novel CI biogenesis factor controlling expression of the mitochondrial-encoded nd4 transcript. The second, LCLA1, encoding at least two isoforms that participate in lipid homeostasis, possibly through peroxisome biogenesis, an organelle central to lipid metabolism and acetate assimilation. Interestingly, from this screen we have identified two novel genes encoding large, low complexity proteins participating in diverse biological processes.

Describes the refinements, modifications and additions to a prototype Very High Frequency Boundary Layer Spaced Antenna radar initially installed at the University of Adelaide's Buckland Park site in 1997. Overall shows the success of the VHF BL to obtain measurements as low as 300m. The validation of this prototype radar provides an alternative and, in certain situations, a superior device with which to study the lower troposphere.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly lethal malignancy characterized by unchecked expansion of immature myeloid blasts. While certain genetic and cytogenetic aberrations have been associated with chemotherapy response and disease risk, clinical outcomes remain heterogeneous. AML harbors relatively few somatic mutations compared to other cancers, however, it shows marked enrichment for epigenetic regulator alterations, and has been shown to harbor DNA methylation defects. My focus has been to dissect these epigenetic defects using high-throughput DNA methylation data. I first characterized two genome-wide hypermethylation signatures in AML: AML-CpG island methylator phenotype (A-CIMP+), and IDH-associated CIMP (I-CIMP+). While I-CIMP+ leukemias showed significant enrichments for mutations in IDH1 or IDH2, A-CIMP+ cases were mutation independent, and were best defined by their epigenetic defects, and associated transcriptomic changes. Importantly, A-CIMP+ leukemias had relatively favorable clinical outcomes, while I-CIMP+ patients did not. I next sought to characterize epigenetic defects involving demethylation of normally methylated genomic regions. I identified two distinct demethylator phenotypes (DMPs): DMP.1+ and DMP.2+. DMP.1+ AML was largely defined by mutations in DNMT3A, FLT3, and NPM1, while DMP.2+ leukemias harbored favorable-risk genomic rearrangements and a distinct gene expression profile. Both DMPs also carried prognostic information in AML; DMP.1+ cases had poor outcomes, while DMP.2+ patients tended to have favorable survival. Using both CIMP and DMP signatures, I then built an integrated epigenetic model for AML prognosis I termed MethylScore. The MethylScore algorithm was prognostic independent of age and cytogenetic risk in multivariate Cox regression models, suggesting that DNA methylation defects may augment existing clinical tools for risk stratification, and/or treatment selection. Finally, I explored whether DNA methylation signatures and genetic mutations could serve as biomarkers of response to epigenetic therapy, and found that DNA hypermethylation correlated with poor overall survival, and a gene mutation profile was associated with lack of complete remission after treatment with a DNA methylation inhibitor. These data provide evidence of distinct epigenetic signatures in AML that define transcriptionally, genetically, and clinically distinct populations that should be evaluated in future translational/clinical studies.

Initial margin requirements are becoming an increasingly common feature of derivative markets. However, while the valuation of derivatives under collateralisation (Piterbarg, 2010, 2012a), under counterparty risk with unsecured funding costs (FVA) (Burgard and Kjaer, 2011a, 2011b, 2013) and in the presence of regulatory capital (KVA) (Green, Kenyon and Dennis, 2014) are established through valuation adjustments, hitherto initial margin has not been considered. This paper further extends the semi-replication framework of Burgard and Kjaer (2013), itself later extended by Green, Kenyon and Dennis (2014), to cover the cost of initial margin, leading to Margin Valuation Adjustment (MVA). Initial margin requirements are typically generated through the use of VAR or CVAR models. Given the form of MVA as an integral over the expected initial margin profile this would lead to excessive computational costs if a brute force calculation were to be used. Hence we also propose a computationally efficient approach to the calculation of MVA through the use of regression techniques, Longstaff-Schwartz Augmented Compression (LSAC).

The body of a Muslim boy is found in a synagogue, mutilated in what looks like a ritual sacrifice, and Inspector Eberard Februarie is called in to solve the case. As news of the murder quickly becomes public, a storm of religious violence threatens to engulf Cape Town. Eberard, however, suspects that the case is not as clear cut as it seems. But can he prove this before the storm breaks?