Escherichia coli group 1 K antigens form a tightly associated capsule structure on the cell surface. Although the general features of the early steps in capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis have been described, little is known about the later stages that culminate in assembly of a capsular structure on the cell surface. Group 1 capsule biosynthesis gene clusters (cps) in E. coli and Klebsiella ...

Aeromonas hydrophila secretes a number of degradative enzymes and toxins into the external milieu via the type II secretory pathway or secreton. ExeA is an essential component of this system and is necessary for the localization and/or multimerization of the secretin ExeD. ExeA contains two sequence motifs characteristic of the Walker superfamily of ATPases. Previous examination of substitution...

Cell-penetrating peptides and proteins (CPPs) are important tools for the delivery of impermeable molecules into living mammalian cells. To enable these cells to internalize proteins fused to common oligohistidine affinity tags, we synthesized an artificial cell surface receptor comprising an N-alkyl derivative of 3beta-cholesterylamine linked to the metal chelator nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA). ...

This document reviews and applies recently developed techniques for Bayesian estimation and model selection in the context of Time Series modeling for Stochastic Volatility. After the literature review on Generalized Conditional Autoregressive models, Stochastic Volatility models, and the relevant results on Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods (MCMC), an example applying such techniques is shown. ...

Freud wrote over three and a half million words. He was a master of style and presentation and had something worthwhile to say on every page. Frequently he was magnificent, as for example in his First Introductory Lectures, but it would be expecting too much of anyone to suppose that in such a large volume of writing he would always be clear. Moreover, he was introducing new and difficult conce...

Acknowledgements I'd like to thank Jochen Triesch for his supervision over the last year, during which he introduced me to the field of computational neuroscience. I thoroughly enjoyed his lectures (for instance on Reinforcement Learning) and his insights and advice whenever we discussed my work. Many thanks to Max Murakami. Having (in his master thesis) developed the original speech acquisitio...

the political approach of shaykh zāhid gīlānī paved the way for shaykh ṣafī al-dīn ardabīlī’s political thinking and his closeness to the power-holders of the time. in addition to acquiring the rules and manners of sufism, shaykh ṣafī al-dīn learned from his master the political approaches for expanding his sufi order, as well. these approaches turned into a political movement in the safavid or...

Director ___________________ I certify that this thesis meets all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. ____________________ This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that we find it fully adequate in scope, quality and content, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is dedicated to my parents for their patience an...