This study uses a longitudinal case study approach to observe change in ‘US and THEM-thinking’. Its purpose is to increase awareness of identity processes among participants and to test if the Attitude-Behaviour-Context-Triangle (the ABC-triangle) may be a way to achieve that. The ABC-triangle is modified as an ‘identity-analysis tool’ rather than a ‘conflict-analysis tool’.               Aspects relating to recognition of multiple identity affiliations compared to singular-identity categorisation is of interest. The traditional identity theories suggest that high identity salience increase singular-identity categorisation and thereby increase positive emotions for ingroup and negative emotions for outgroup. This study is partly based on the social identity perspective but complements it with Thoits’ identity-accumulation hypothesis and Hogg’s uncertainty-identity theory. Hogg’s theory locates uncertainty reduction as a main contributor to singular-identity categorisation together with its’ implied negative consequences. Hogg’s solutions are located both in multiple identity affiliations, as do Thoits, and in perceived cognitive ability to deal with uncertainty. This study emphasises awareness of identity processes to be the single most important factor for decreasing negative views of ‘THEM’. Overlooked in the more dominant theories of this area, it finds that recognition of multiple identity affiliations influences the perceived singular-identity terms imposed by an ‘US and THEM-situation’. Thereby, challenging imposed identity-restrictions and perceived intergroup competition. Furthermore, it questions the theoretical importance given to identity salience in previous research and theories since high identity salience, in this case, does not equal a singular-identity categorisation or increase negative views of ‘others’.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Farrell J. Webb / The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between chronic stressors-believed to be a condition present by race, sex, and social class and Well-being when mediated by individual resources and perceptions. Additionally, this study examined the utility of the proposed ABC-WB Model of Well-Being adapted from the ABC-X Model. The data used in this dissertation were gleaned from the 2004 General Social Survey which contained a weighted sample of 3,260 respondents. Several observed indicators were used to define each of the latent constructs corresponding to theoretical variables of the ABC-WB model. Each of these constructs contributed to the overall model in some way despite some inconsistent findings. The utility of the model was examined with multiple indicators for Stressor. None of the four research hypotheses were supported by the tested models. The data models were then respecified. This process did not produce any working structural models as well. Nevertheless, the findings revealed that well-being was an important factor to consider in the ABC-WB model. Despite the shortcomings of the model the stressor measurement revealed a direct but mild relationship with well-being. In all the models, Stressor was tempered by Resources and Perceptions both of which had a strong relationship with well-being. The selected models suggested that despite the lack of fit, largely to do with data restrictions rather than model specificity, the overall ABC-WB model has research potential.

Master Thesis, Master of Science in Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design with specialisation in Business Administration Field of research: Business Administration, School of Business & Economics University: Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden. Course code:5FE07E Semester: Spring 2017 Author: Juan Sebastian Duque L. Examiner: Saara Taalas Tutor: Soniya Billore Title: Social media influence Subtitle: Qualitative study of Colombian consumer attitude toward social media and its influence Background: The reason for conducting this master thesis in the field of Colombian consumer perspective and the influences on social media, was due to the realisation that there was a need for an increased understanding of the influences that social media is making on Colombian consumer. Besides, the main question is why Colombia? This country is a developing country that its level of growth in multiple sectors is remarkable. It is a market that is attracting multinational companies and expanding with prestigious national brands. The furniture industry is one of the most competitive businesses in this country, therefore using every single resource to acquire customers is a relevant aspect to take into consideration. However, the digital marketing and e- commerce are just emerging. Therefore, there is a need to understand how the Colombian consumer perceives and is influenced by the social media. Also, as Colombia is ranked number 15 with the most daily active users worldwide, meaning that the digital market on social media has a high potential. Colombian consumers are different than European consumer regarding online and social media purchase. Therefore, it is important to understand their attitudes and cognition about this subject. Research question: Q1: How do Colombian consumers perceive the purchase of furniture products through social media? Q2: In which way social media influence Colombian consumer’s attitudes toward purchasing furniture? Purpose: Identify what is the Colombian consumer’s attitude and perception toward purchase furniture through social media. Also, recognising how does social media influence Colombian consumer attitudes toward buying furniture. Method: The research design was qualitative and abductive manner. The empirical data was collected through Semi-structure interviews. It was essential for this study to settle in the ontological part as consumers’ behaviour was examined. Conclusion: This research found that Colombian consumers have a negative attitude towards social media. Nevertheless, this first attitude tends to change when it comes to the influences that social media have in their final decision making when purchasing furniture. Also, the Colombian consumer is seeking for information on social media for every purchase they make. Reviews are a key aspect that they take into consideration when purchasing an item of furniture. These reviews have the power to influences their perception of products and their final decision either to positive or negative.

Haemophilus ducreyi is a gram-negative and heme-dependent bactreia. H. ducreyi is the responsible of causing chancroid, a sexually transmitted infection forming genital ulcers. Infection with H. ducreyi is associated with an increased risk of acquiring HIV-1 as well as increasing the risk of the HIV-1 transmission. Heme acquisition in H. ducreyi occur through a receptor mediated process in which it start with binding of hemoglobin and heme to their cognate outer membrane receptors, HgbA and TdhA, respectively. The receptors are energized by the TonB complex. Following that the deposition of heme into the periplasmic area is unclear. Profiling of the periplasmic proteome of the H. ducreyi resulted in the identification of a periplasmic- binding protein that highly expressed in heme limitation conditions, and it has been called hHbp. This protein is encoded by a gene resides in a locus of four genes displaying genetic features of an ABC transporter. The gene cluster is organized as an operon comprising an internal membrane protein (IntPro), a sulphate reductase gamma subunit (dsvC), a heme dependant periplasmic bind-ing protein (hHBP), and an ATPase. The purified periplasmic binding protein, hHbp, bind heme in a dose-dependent and saturable manner. Moreover, the binding between heme and hHbp was specifically competitively inhibited by heme. The proposal planned to cre-ate an isogenic hhbp mutant by insertional inactivation using a kanamycin cassette, to genotypically and phenotypically characterize the mutant and thereby to confirm the cru-cial role of the hhbp gene in heme transport in H. ducreyi. Several attempts to ligate a kanamycin resistance cassette into hhbp to construct such a mutant were unsuccessful de-spite the systematic alteration of the ligation conditions and the use of kanamycin re-sistant genes derived from a variety of different plasmids. The explanations for this fail-ure are uncertain. In future work, two other approaches to construct an hhbp mutant in-clude the FRT-FLP recombinase technology and the use of overlapping extension PCR with a chloramphenicol cassette.

ABCB4/MDR3 est le transporteur canaliculaire de la phosphatidylcholine. Il est exprimé à la membrane canaliculaire des hépatocytes et est essentiel à la sécrétion biliaire. Un défaut d’ABCB4 entraîne des pathologies hépatobiliaires, dont la PFIC3 (cholestase intrahépatique familiale progressive de type 3), caractérisée par une cholestase précoce qui progresse vers la cirrhose et l’insuffisance hépatique avant l’âge adulte. Dans la majorité des cas, la seule thérapie efficace est la transplantation hépatique. Cette thèse s’intéresse aux rôles de l’extrémité C-terminale dans la régulation de la stabilité et l’expression de ce transporteur au canalicule biliaire. Nous avons délété le motif Q-N-L de cette extrémité et montré que cette délétion affecte la stabilité d’ABCB4/MDR3 en augmentant son endocytose. Son interaction avec des protéines à domaines PDZ est alors étudiée. Nous avons montré une interaction par le motif Q-N-L avec la protéine à domaines PDZ, EBP50. Cette interaction est nécessaire pour l’expression canaliculaire et la stabilité du transporteur. / ABCB4 is a phosphatidylcholine translocator specifically expressed at the bile canalicular membrane of hepatocytes. Mutations of the ABCB4 gene cause progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis type 3 (PFIC3), a rare genetic disease characterized by early onset of cholestasis and evolution to cirrhosis and liver failure before adulthood. Little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms which control the canalicular expression and membrane stabilization of ABCB4 in hepatocytes. The aim of this work was to study the role of the C-terminal domain of ABCB4 for its expression and stability. potential interaction with EBP50, a PDZ protein highly expressed in hepatocytes. The experimental approach consisted in the deletion of the QNL motif at the C-terminus of ABCB4. The truncation of the QNL motif leds to a reduction of ABCB4 stability by increasing its endocytosis. ABCB4 co-precipitated with EBP50, an interaction that required the QNL motif. This interaction plays a critical role in the canalicular expression and stabilization of ABCB4.

There are many costs that companies do not get paid for, i.e., none-values-added costs, waste of material in the production process also known as solid waste is an example of such a cost. Solid waste includes left over of materials that aren ́t reusable after the production process is completed and end up as cassation.  Danish Crown Jönköping AB is a meat factory that works with meat processing and retail packaging of pork and beef details throughout Sweden. The company wants to follow up the value of waste in production, for it to be implemented, the company needs to streamline the warehousing process to facilitate the follow-up of waste.  After the problem formulation has been developed where several aspects needed to be addressed, a current situation analysis and workshop were performed to get a clear view about the symptoms shown in the flow. The plant has two different shifts involved in the workflow without any standardized work presented, which leads the shifts to depend on finding the best way to perform the different tasks individually.  Where and how the articles are placed in the warehouse needed to be sorted out, that was done with a warehouse layout that shows how article are placed at present with an ABC analysis based on picking frequency from a six-weeks forecast. The ABC analysis showed that the placement of the articles can be improved to increase the efficiency level in the inventory process.  The study resulted in several proposals in the work- and information flow to increase the security in the stock balance, streamline of the inventory process and increased flexibility at the turn of the season.

Ineffektiv materialhantering ger en direkt påverkan på företagets kostnader, därför är det viktigt att kartlägga olika processer i verksamheten. Det onödiga aktiviteterna bidrar till att det behöver implementeras ständiga förbättringar. Baserat på teorierna som ligger till grund för studien består av Logistik, Lean, Materialhantering, Lagerlayout och Abc-analys. Målet är hitta förbättringsförslag som är kopplade till slöserier. I början utfördes ett materialflödesschema på godsmottagningen för att undersöka hur processerna ser ut i verksamheten med hjälp av standardsymboler och figurer som används i logistiksammanhang. Fokuset ligger på att utnyttja lagerytor samt vilka slöserier som uppkommer vid hinder. Genomförandet av studien kunde utföras med intervju och observationer som bidrog till ett mer konstruktivt arbete. Det fanns ett standardiserat arbetssätt dock var lagerytan och slöserierna som var problemet. Den studerade området i godsmottagningen hade fyra slöserier som identifierades. Dessa är följande transporter, omarbete, rörelser och lager. ABC-analys utfördes för att ge företaget en god kännedom gällande hantering av material. Med hjälp av data från företaget utformades en ABC-klassificering som hjälper med lagerstyrningen. A-klassficeringen står för 70,42% av det totala artiklarna, B står för 24,47% och C som ligger på 5,11%. Det visade sig att C-artiklarna inte har stor betydelse medan A och B är efterfrågade artiklar som snabbt försvinner ur lagret Studien avslutas med förbättringsförslag kopplat till de två frågeställningarna som möjliggör kostnadsbesparingar ur ett effektivitetsperspektiv. Författarnas slutsats av studien är att det finns goda förutsättningar för företaget att implementera förbättringsförslagen. / Inefficient material handling has a direct impact on the company's costs, so it is important to map different processes in the business. The unnecessary activities contribute to the need to implement continuous improvements. Based on the theories on which the study is based, it consists of Logistics, Lean, Materials Management, Warehouse Layout and ABC analysis. The goal is to find improvement suggestions that are linked to waste. Initially, a material flow chart was performed at the goods reception to investigate what processes look like in operations using standard symbols and figures used in logistics contexts. The focus is on utilizing storage areas and the waste that arises in the event of obstacles. The implementation of the study could be performed with interviews and observations that contributed to a more constructive work. There was a standardized way of working the doll was the bearing surface and the waste that was the problem. The studied area in the goods reception had four wastes that were identified. These are the following transports, rework, movements and warehouses. ABC analysis was performed to give the company a good knowledge of material handling. Using data from the company designed an ABC classification to help with inventory management. The A-classification accounts for 70.42% of the total articles, B accounts for 24.47% and C which stands for 5.11%. It turned out that the C-items are not very important, while A and B are in-demand items that quickly disappear from stock. The study concludes with improvement proposals linked to the two issues that enable cost savings from an efficiency perspective. The authors' conclusion of the study is that there are good conditions for the company to implement the improvement proposals.

L’appréhension des mécanismes d’action biologiques des protéines membranaires nécessite de comprendre les interactions des xénobiotiques avec ces protéines et avec les membranes lipidiques. Les méthodes expérimentales sont parfois coûteuses et ne permettent d’obtenir que des informations partielles sur les interactions xénobiotiques-membrane-protéine. La modélisation moléculaire est une sérieuse alternative. Les simulations de dynamique moléculaire et de dynamique biaisées ont ouvert de nombreuses perspectives en permettant de décrire ces interactions moléculaires à l’échelle atomique. Grâce à des simulations de dynamique moléculaire, nous avons été capables de construire un modèle de transporteur humain ABC : ABCC4/MRP4. Cette protéine a été choisie pour sa présence dans le rein, notamment, et son importance clinique. Nous avons évalué l’influence du cholestérol sur cette protéine. L’étude de domaines spécifiques et l’impact d’un polymorphisme a été reliée à l’activité de transport de cette protéine. Nous avons également étudié l’interaction de xénobiotiques avec ce transporteur humain. Le cycle de transport des transporteurs ABC a été examiné afin de comprendre leur fonctionnement. L’incorporation de cholestérol a montré un impact significatif sur la protéine humaine ABCC4/MRP4 et sur les xénobiotiques étudiés. L’importance de domaines constituant la protéine ABCC4/MRP4 ainsi que l’importance de résidus individuels a clairement été prouvée. Nous avons également pu observer des intermédiaires du cycle de transport d’un transporteur ABC conjointement avec des changements structuraux. / Understanding the biological mechanisms of action of membrane proteins requires the comprehension of the interactions of xenobiotics with these proteins and with lipid membranes. Experimental methods are often demanding and only partially respond to xenobiotic-membrane-protein interactions. In silico molecular modeling is a serious alternative to tackle these issues. Molecular dynamics (MD) and biased dynamics simulations have opened many perspectives by providing an atomistic description of these intermolecular interactions. Using MD simulations, we built a model of the human ABC ABCC4/MRP4 transporter. We explored the influence of cholesterol on this protein as well as the impact of a polymorphism known to shut down the transport activity of this protein. We also studied the interaction of xenobiotics with this human transporter. The transport cycle of the ABC transporters was investigated in an attempt to better understand how it works.Interactions between lipid membranes and xenobiotics were explored by examining their ability to incorporate lipid membranes. Lipid mixtures with cholesterol showed a significant impact on the human protein ABCC4/MRP4 and on the xenobiotics studied. The importance of regions, domains constituting the ABCC4/MRP4 protein as well as the importance of specific residues has been clearly demonstrated. We also observed intermediates in the transport cycle of an ABC transporter in conjunction with structural changes occurring during this cycle.

Implementation of behavior analytic interventions has traditionally relied on professionals possessing the required skills and expertise within controlled settings. While effective, this can be both expensive and time consuming. Research has demonstrated parent’s ability to implement a variety of interventions within the natural environment. As a result, parents are increasingly involved in treatment implementation. Getting the cooperation, support, and active participation of clients is essential to successful intervention. Therefore, buy-in at the earliest stages of treatment may result in the greatest effect. One of the earliest steps in treatment is the collection of data. Data collection methodology, validity, and reliability have been well studied. Parents as data collectors has also been reported. However, indications regarding the best data collection methods for parents to use, as well as any evident correlation between preference and accuracy, has not been reported. Through repeated measures using a multiple baseline across subjects, the study assessed the rate of acquisition of three data collection procedures by evaluating their performance accuracy before and after training. Preference rankings and perceptions for the data collection procedures were also obtained. Finally, the study examined correlations between preference for and proficiency with each data collection procedure. Results showed that training improved performance of Partial Interval Recording for 2 participants with one participant displaying skill mastery. Though training also increased participant performance using the Structured ABC method, skill mastery was not displayed. All participants achieved skill mastery using the Behavior Rating Scale method through repeated exposure.

Activation of the NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome complex causes the processing and release of mature IL-1β, with mitochondria playing key roles in its assembly. An orally active NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor would be a significant advance in therapy for IL-1β-driven diseases. To overcome both, the variability among primary immune cells and the limitations of genetic manipulation of differentiated human or murine macrophages, we developed a simplified, reliable and relevant cell-based model for studying the NLRP3 inflammasome using the undifferentiated human myelomonocytic cell line THP1. We established that undifferentiated THP1 cells are fully competent for activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and production of IL-1β, without differentiation into macrophages. CP-456,773 is a potent and selective inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome, and it is an analogue of glyburide, a sulfonylurea receptor (SUR) inhibitor. Despite the extensive experimental use of CP-456,773, its molecular target remains unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis that mitochondrial ABCb7 or ABCb10 could be the pharmacologic targets of CP-456,773. We optimized a viral shRNA transduction method for genetic manipulations in THP1 cells and generated ABCb7 and ABCb10 knockdown (KD) THP1 cells. We demonstrate that NLRP3 inflammasome activation and CP-456,773 pharmacology are not altered in ABCb7- or ABCb10-deficient THP1 cells. For ABCb10, we confirmed these results using CRISPR/CAS9-mediated ABCb10 knockout (KO) THP1 sub-lines. In studies of mitochondrial fitness, we found that a previously observed reduction in oxygen consumption rate (OCR) following nigericin treatment was completely blocked in NLRP3 KO cells. Our data demonstrating that CP-456,773 rescues the NLRP3-dependent nigericin-induced decline in OCR and protects undifferentiated THP1 cells from nigericin-induced pyroptosis are consistent with the possibility that the NLRP3 protein itself may be the molecular target of CP-456,773. Moreover, we showed that ABCb10 KO THP1 cells exhibit increased rates of basal ATP production and glycolysis, suggesting an important role for ABCb10 in mitochondrial metabolism. Finally, RNA-Seq analysis of ABCb7 and ABCb10 KD in undifferentiated THP1 cells indicate new functions for these proteins, including cell communication and migration, apoptosis and cell adhesion. Overall, our findings demonstrate that undifferentiated THP1 cells are an ideal system in which to study the NLRP3 inflammasome.