Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 122 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-122). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-148).

Cette thèse s'attache à analyser les dynamiques suscitées par l'avènement de la décentralisation dans ces territoires. Il s'agit de réfléchir, à travers une analyse croisée des réalités du Congo et du Sénégal. / This thesis seeks to analyze the dynamics generated by the decentralization in Congo and Senegal. Consideration should be given, through a cross analysis of Congo and Senegal facts, on how some politicians are positioned to have control of their territory.

Objective. To translate and cross-cultural adapt the Lumbar Spine Instability Questionnaire (LSIQ) into Swedish and to test its validity and reliability on patients with non-specific lowback pain in primary health care. Methods. The LSIQ was translated and cross-culturally adapted into Swedish language according to accepted guidelines. Data from 15 patients were collected through a ”thinkaloud” process to test the face validity of the instrument. Together with an additional 35 patients, data from a total of 50 participants (27 men and 23 women) were thereafter subsequently collected to assess test-retest reliability and construct validity. Data were collected through the Lumbar Spine Instability Questionnaire, and the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire. Results. The Lumbar Spine Instability Questionnaire was successfully adapted into Swedish language according to recommended guidelines. The result demonstrated high test-retest reliability, and the analysis of construct validity showed consistency with the hypothesis, proving a moderate positive correlation with the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire. No floor or ceiling effects were detected. Conclusion. The Swedish version of the Lumbar Spine Instability Questionnaire (LSIQ-S) shows good psychometric properties regarding reliability and validity. To further study the usefulness of the instrument, the dimensionality also need to be investigated.

O presente estudo visa dar luz sobre fenômenos ainda pouco explorados que ocorrem durante a estratificação em leitos de jigagem, bem como sobre novas possibilidades de aplicação da técnica. Por meio de testes com misturas de agregados em jigues hidráulico e pneumático descontínuos, foi pela primeira vez examinada a ocorrência de convecção granular em jigues. Os fatores envolvidos em sua formação e a influência sobre a estratificação foram analisados em detalhes. Do mesmo modo, foi examinada a influência da granulometria do leito sobre a estratificação em jigues pneumáticos e a possibilidade de uso do mesmo como um equipamento multi-separador. Os resultados revelam a existência de um fluxo ordenado e estacionário de partículas durante a pulsação do leito, ascendente na porção central e descendente nas bordas do jigue, de modo similar ao fluxo convectivo descritos na literatura para leitos vibrados mecanicamente. Este fluxo convectivo gerou uma distorção no rearranjo do leito estratificado, dando origem a um perfil horizontal de estratificação no qual as partículas leves se concentraram nas bordas e as partículas densas se concentraram preferencialmente na zona central dos estratos. Com base nos resultados, um mecanismo de formação do fluxo convectivo e um modelo preditivo do rearranjo do leito foram propostos. Observou-se também que a diminuição da granulometria e o aumento da distribuição de tamanho dos constituintes do leito teve um efeito positivo sobre a estratificação. Os resultados sugerem que isto pode estar em parte relacionado a maior compactação do leito quando da presença de partículas de menor tamanho. Também, resultados experimentais demonstraram a possibilidade de uso do jigue pneumático para realizar a operação conjunta de separação de materiais rochosos e não rochosos em um único estágio. O desempenho global na remoção de contaminantes não-rochosos foi similar ao de separadores pneumáticos e sistemas de "sorting" automático descritos na literatura. Ainda, a quantidade inicial de contaminantes no sistema teve um efeito desprezível sobre o desempenho. Os resultados obtidos, em particular aqueles relacionados à convecção granular, fornecem novas perspectivas a respeito dos fenômenos envolvidos na estratificação em jigues. Ainda, benefícios práticos podem ser extraídos a partir dos resultados da análise do efeito da granulometria sobre a estratificação e do uso de jigues pneumáticos como multi-separadores. / This study aims to shed some light on some unclear phenomena that occurs during particle stratification in jigs as well as on new possibilities of application of jigging technique. For the first time, the occurrence of granular convection in jigging beds was analyzed by considering the case of hydraulic and pneumatic jigs operating with mixtures of aggregates. The elements involved in the pattern formation and its influence on bed stratification were analyzed in detail. The influence of particle size distribution on bed stratification and the possibility of using pneumatic jigging as a multi-separator were also examined. The experimental results reveal the existence of a steady, ordered flow of particles over bed pulsation, in which particles move upward in the center of the jig bed and downward along the walls of the jig container, similarly to the circulation patterns reported in the literature. The convection gave rise to a distortion in the particle rearrangement, engendering the formation of a horizontal stratification profile in which light particles tended to be concentrated along the walls while dense particles tended to be concentrated preferentially in the center portion of the strata. On the basis of the experimental results, a mechanism of pattern formation and a prediction model were proposed. The results also revealed that the decrease of the particle size and the increase in the particle size distribution had a positive influence on stratification extent. It was suggested by the results that this behavior can be related to the higher bed compaction due to the presence of smaller particles in the bed. Also, experimental results indicated the technical feasibility of the combined use of pneumatic jigging for the removal undesired non-stony materials together with the bed stratification in only one single stage. The reported separation efficiency in the removal of low-density materials was comparable to those of air classifiers and automatic sorting systems. Also, the initial content of contaminants seemed to have a negligible effect on the separation performance. The results obtained, in particular those related to the granular convection, provides new perspectives about the phenomena involved in stratification by jigging. Moreover, practical benefits can be obtained from the results about the influence of particle size on bed stratification and about the usage of pneumatic jigging for multi-separation.

90 pages

This dissertation examines China’s market reforms over the last few decades, and their implications for (re)shaping socioeconomic inequalities in health. Specifically, I study the effect of marketization and related structural changes at community level on individual health outcomes. The first part of this dissertation revisits the market transition theory of Nee (1989), using individual health status as the outcome variable to assess Nee’s theory. Using multiple waves of a longitudinal survey from 1991 to 2006, I compare temporal changes in the role of human capital, political capital, and state policy in determining health under marketization. In partial support of the market transition theory, the empirical results show that the significance of human capital for health increases with marketization, while the return to political capital and one’s household registration status diminishes with a growing market. Additionally, I distinguish between marketization effects on community level, and different aspects of community context in shaping the SES-health link. I find that the level of urbanization and available resources within each community exert influences on self-rated health and change the relative importance of individual socioeconomic conditions in shaping health. Overall, this study provides new longitudinal evidence from China to support the notion that health is influenced by dynamic processes moderated by the structural changes as well as the social stratification system. I discuss the findings in the context of China’s market reform, fundamental causes theory, and socio-ecological perspectives, highlighting that health is determined by a nexus of life experiences and social environment that impact individuals at different levels. / 10000-01-01

Recent large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that renal revascularization does not confer added benefit to unselected patients with atherosclerotic renovascular disease (ARVD) treated with multi-targeted medical therapy. Results suggest that contemporary medical vascular protection therapy has contributed to improved clinical outcomes in ARVD. However, patients with †̃high-riskâ€TM clinical features have largely been excluded from RCTs and there is consistent observational evidence that this specific patient subgroup may gain benefit from revascularization. Timely identification of these patients through risk stratification and prediction of outcomes post-revascularization remain important challenges. The main aims of this epidemiological research project were to explore how treatment and clinical end-points in ARVD have evolved over the past three decades, to identify the determinants of long-term end-points in ARVD, to investigate the effect of revascularization in a selected †̃high-riskâ€TM subgroup, to investigate novel biomarker association of key end-points and finally to develop a clinical risk prediction model that can aid risk stratification and patient selection for revascularization. These individual studies were all based on a local database that includes details of demographic and clinical data for patients with ARVD referred to our tertiary renal centre between 1986 and 2014. Primary end-point measures included death, progression to end-stage kidney disease, cardiovascular events and a composite end-point composed of the first of any of the above events. Management of ARVD has been influenced by RCT results, leading to a decline in the number of revascularization procedures performed. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors together with baseline renal function and proteinuria are the most important determinants of adverse events in ARVD thus advocating the use of multi-targeted medical therapy and aggressive risk factor control in all patients with ARVD. Nonetheless ARVD is a heterogenous condition and results of this research project show that revascularization can be of benefit in patients with rapidly deteriorating renal function, bilateral severe ARVD and/or < 1g/day baseline proteinuria. A panel of novel biomarkers may have incremental risk predictive value when used in conjunction with more traditional risk factors, and NT-proBNP levels may aid patient selection for revascularization. A simple clinical risk-prediction score based on easily obtainable variables may be used as a bedside tool to help risk stratification and facilitate patient selection for revascularization, thus encouraging a more patient-specific therapeutic approach.

The PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway is commonly dysregulated in cancer. The goal of this thesis project was to assess the hypothesis of a strong correlation between PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activity and the response to targeted therapies, by using a protein quantitation technique called immuno-matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (iMALDI). The use of iMALDI as a clinical tool was demonstrated by automating an established iMALDI assay for quantifying plasma renin activity. The results from the automated method gave high correlation coefficients of ≥0.98 with a clinical LC-MS/MS method and could be performed significantly faster than with manual sample preparation. The 7.5-fold faster analysis compared to LC-MS/MS, reduction in human error, and higher throughput, demonstrated the suitability of this assay for clinical use. The automated iMALDI platform was then adapted for use with cancer cell lines and tissue analysis, targeting the kinases AKT1 and AKT2 as surrogate proteins for signaling pathway activity. Using minute amounts (10 µg/capture), AKT1 and AKT2 expression and phosphorylation stoichiometry (PS) were successfully quantified via their C-terminal tryptic peptides, which encompassed key phosphorylation sites. After assay optimization, the assays were analytically validated for linear range, accuracy, and interferences. In addition, PS cut-off values based on measurement errors were established for confident PS quantitation. The functionality of the assay was demonstrated with cell lines, and flash-frozen and FFPE tissue lysates, with, on average, lower AKT1/AKT2 measurements obtained from FFPE samples. The developed assays were sensitive and precise enough to detect differences between matched normal and adjacent tumor tissues. To answer the hypothesis, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse-model tumors treated with Herceptin, Everolimus, a combination of both (E+H), or with no treatment, were assessed for molecular patterns linked to tumor response. One mouse from the E+H group showed a partial response, with elevated total and phosphorylated AKT1/AKT2. Unfortunately, overlapping values between treatment groups were obtained in this study, and the large within-group spread and the low number of biological replicates made it difficult to confirm a definite correlation between PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activity and response to treatment. A follow-up study with additional protein targets, a larger number of samples, and serial biopsies will be required to determine if there is, in fact, a correlation between PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activity and response to treatment. / Graduate / 2019-10-05

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-08-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:47:19Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 pentagna_rpp_me_bauru_prot.pdf: 1054031 bytes, checksum: c2f515f7ab29cf3aa3f199133c8d8d15 (MD5) / outros - empresas / Foi desenvolvido um modelo matemático para descrever o processo de estocagem de energia via estratificação térmica de líquido em um tanque. Neste modelo foi considerado um balanço de energia para o sistema de estocagem e proposto um modelo matemático unidimensional e transiente capaz de descrever o histórico dos perfis de temperatura do líquido e da parede do reservatório durante a operação de carregamento dinâmico. O modelo matemático foi discretizado através da técnica de diferença finitas e sua solução foi obtida numericamente através de um código computacional desenvolvido em linguagem de programação FORTRAN. Os resultados teóricos foram comparados com resultados experimentais, e estudada também a influência da relação altura/diâmetro e velocidade de carregamento no processo de estocagem de energia. / A mathematical model is developed to describe the energy storage process by thermal stratification of a liquid in a storage tank. Considering a balance of energy for the storage system, is proposed a transient and unidimensional mathematical model capable to describe the history of the liquid temperatures profile and the wall of the storage during the charging dynamic operations. The mathematical model was discretizided using a finite differences technic and its solution got numerically through a computational code developed in a FORTRAN programming language. The theorical results were compared with experimental results, and it was also studied the influence of aspect ratio and the charging velocity in an energy storage process.