University of Alabama

About: University of Alabama is a education organization based out in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 27323 authors who have published 48609 publications receiving 1565337 citations. The organization is also known as: Alabama & Bama.

Protein-rejecting ability of surface-bound dextran in end-on and side-on configurations: comparison to PEG.

Abstract: There is much interest in attaching polyethylene glycol (PEG) and other hydrophilic, neutral polymers to surfaces to reduce the extent of protein and cell adsorption. Interestingly, these same surface-bound polymers are effective in masking surface charge and reducing electrokinetic effects such as particle electrophoretic mobility, streaming potential, and electroosmosis. It is apparent that similar molecular properties are responsible for both protein and cell rejection and reduction of electrokinetic effects. In this work we compared the fibrinogen-rejecting ability and the effect on electrophoretic mobility of three polymer coatings bound to polystyrene. The three polymers were side-bound dextran, end-bound dextran, and end-bound PEG. The results of these measurements were used to elucidate the importance of polymer packing density and polymer layer thickness on protein adsorption and reduction of electrokinetic effects. Protein adsorption appears not to be sensitive to polymer layer thickness or the presence of dilute polymer tails in a surface coating, while electrokinetic effects are. Protein adsorption is, however, very sensitive to the availability of exposed surface. Finally, the unique effectiveness of PEG is apparent in this research as in previous studies. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Exploring a governance theory of supply chain management: barriers and facilitators to integration

Abstract: Supply chain management is rapidly growing as both a strategic initiative and an academic discipline. As firms increasingly include their supply chain partners in the development of business strategy, researchers will have to constantly reevaluate the underlying themes and emergent theories of strategic logistics, management, and marketing by introducing new topics and revisiting seminal extant results. As such, this research was developed to explore the important concept of supply chain integration through strategic governance theory development. Since supply chain governance is a relatively new topic, a grounded study of both new and existing integration facilitators and barriers is presented. The study was initiated with a qualitative “managerial” development of scale items followed by a full empirical analysis. The result is an industry based returning to the source methodology for testing current governance related issues in industry. Contributions include the development of multiple dimensions of supply chain governance across facilitators and barriers, an explanation of the interplay between governance facilitators of, and barriers to, integration, a discussion of strategic level managerial implications, and a call for the future extension of governance research into the theory wanting domain of logistics and supply chain management.

Pronunciation Proficiency in the First and Second Languages of Korean-English Bilinguals.

Abstract: This study examined pronunciation proficiency in both the first (Korean) and second (English) languages of bilinguals. The participants were adult immigrants whose age of arrival in the USA ranged from 1–23 years. English and Korean sentences were rated by native listeners to obtain measures of pronunciation proficiency. English pronunciation of participants with ages of arrival of 1–5 years was close to monolinguals, heavier accents were noted as ages of arrival increased from 6 to 23 years. Korean pronunciation of participants with ages of arrival of 1–7 years was distinctly accented, while those with ages of arrival of 12–23 years were rated the same as monolinguals. Participants with ages of arrival of 1–9 years pronounced English better than Korean, whereas the reverse was true for ages of arrival of 12–23 years. Overall, the results were more consistent with the view that deviations from native pronunciation result from interactions between the languages of bilinguals rather than with the view of a maturationally defined critical period for language learning.

Protein levels in nonstimulated and stimulated tears of normal human subjects.

Abstract: Atraumatically collected nonstimulated (less than 1 microliter/min) and stimulated (greater than 50 microliters/min) tears from 30 clinically normal subjects were fractionated by size exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and kinetic assays were applied to relevant HPLC fractions to quantitatively identify 12 tear proteins. Secretory IgA levels were much higher in nonstimulated than in stimulated tears, and a similar disparity was seen also with IgA1 and IgA2 in the HPLC fraction containing secretory IgA. IgM levels were also higher in nonstimulated tears. Levels of the primary lacrimal gland proteins, lactoferrin, tear specific prealbumin, and lysozyme were similar in both types of tears. Significantly higher concentrations of the major serum proteins, IgG, transferrin, and serum albumin were measured in nonstimulated tears. Overall, 8 of the 12 proteins assayed were present at significantly higher concentrations in nonstimulated tears. These results show that tear flow rate strongly influences the protein profile obtained. Therefore, to allow valid comparisons of tear protein profiles within and between studies that use atraumatic collection procedures, an indication of flow rate during collection should be reported.