In this expository thesis, I will attempt to clarify my fragmentary interests and pursuits within the realm of my painting practice, interest in Expressionism, experimentation, autobiography, and art history. I will contextualize early work and my formal experimentation in graduate school as a narrative link to my most recent paintings, concluding with discussions of the work I presented for the graduate thesis exhibition.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / The aim of this study was to establish if there is a relationship between Self-Esteem, Network Orientation and the student-supervisor working alliance and if that working alliance in turn influences the perception of thesis work as being stressful. Student throughput and retention at universities is a worldwide problem creating issues for public reputation and financial viability. Successful completion of a thesis is an important part of a Masters degree, but has been identified as the most stressful element of the course. Understanding of the student-supervisor working-alliance may shed some light on ways in which universities may increase throughput and retention. Permission to conduct the study and ethics clearance was obtained from the Senate Research Committee of the University of the Western Cape and all relevant ethics principles were adhered to. An incentivized, online survey using established measures of Self-Esteem (Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale), Network Orientation (Network Orientation Scale), Working Alliance (The Working Alliance Inventory) and Perceived stress (The - Perceived Stress Scale) was conducted with a sample of 73masters-level students in the Community and Health Sciences Faculty of a Historically Disadvantaged University. The survey had a response rate of 24.5% (n=83/ 338) after 4 follow-up mailings. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to establish the predictive relationships between these variables. Self-esteem and Network Orientation were found to be reciprocally determining; and both could significantly predict working alliance as independent criterion variables. When combined, Self-Esteem dominated Network Orientation as a significant predictor of Working Alliance controlling for Race. The findings indicated that the perception of thesis work as stressful was found to be a function of Network Orientation controlling for Race, Working Alliance and Self-Esteem. More notably Network Orientation only had an influence on Perceived stress in the presence of Working Alliance that suggests a mediative relationship

Perfect Teeth is a collection of poems.

El presente trabajo busca evaluar y analizar la regulación de las contribuciones que son aportadas por los operadores de telecomunicaciones por el uso del espectro radioeléctrico, el denominado canon por uso del espectro radioeléctrico. El trabajo se inicia con la descripción del espectro radioeléctrico, el cual es el medio natural que brinda el soporte para establecimiento de las comunicaciones inalámbricas, al conducir las señales electromagnéticas emitidas entre los equipos electrónicos de comunicaciones. Con este desarrollo se logra prestar los servicios públicos de telecomunicaciones como el de telefonía móvil. El espectro por su importancia requiere de una gestión eficiente, al ser un recurso escaso y por tanto sujeto a una posible mayor demanda que disponibilidad de frecuencias. En el Perú la gestión del espectro se encuentra dentro de las competencias del Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones – MTC, que incluye el cobro del canon por su uso. Es sobre este canon donde se han desatado controversias entre el MTC y operadores, manteniendo el primero la posición de desconocer la naturaleza tributaria de dicho aporte. Por ello el presente trabajo realiza un primer comparativo en las contraprestaciones pagadas al Estado por otros recursos naturales como el agua, los litorales y los recursos mineros donde no necesariamente su contraprestación tiene carácter tributario. El espectro al formar parte del Patrimonio del Estado se encuentra bajo su dominio. Por ello el Estado tiene el derecho de recabar una compensación por la cesión del espectro para su explotación por parte de los privados, que serían utilizados para financiar las actividades de gestión. Al respecto, el Estado cuenta con dos mecanismos para recabar los recursos económicos por uso del espectro: uno sería los concursos públicos, que son las licitaciones por el acceso al recurso; y el otro es el canon por uso del espectro radioeléctrico, que es la retribución periódica por su uso. Para determinar el valor de la contraprestación primero se debe valorizar el espectro, la cual debe estar en función al costo de oportunidad y factores intrínsecos (como su naturaleza) y extrínsecos (como el contexto del país) del espectro. Ahora bien, la controversia se ha centrado en la naturaleza de la contraprestación, donde tanto el Tribunal Fiscal como INDECOPI han señalado que la misma tiene naturaleza tributaria, al ser una contraprestación exigida en virtud del uso de un bien de dominio público, como se define a los recursos naturales, al amparo de lo dispuesto por la Norma II del Título Preliminar del Código Tributario. El MTC niega esa naturaleza y considera que es un pago administrativo. Ahora en el derecho comparado no existe una posición unánime, en Colombia la Corte Constitucional señaló que la contraprestación por uso del Espectro Radioeléctrico no tiene naturaleza tributaria al ser un precio público. En cambio el Tribunal Constitucional Español declaró que las tasas cobradas por explotación de bienes Públicos, incluido el espectro radioeléctrico, tienen naturaleza tributaria. De acuerdo al análisis realizado en esta tesina se concluye que el canon por uso del espectro, se encontraría dentro de los tributos de acuerdo a la jurisprudencia y normativa peruana como una Tasa en la modalidad de derecho, siendo el hecho imponible (cesión de uso del espectro radioeléctrico), el sujeto pasivo (el operador) y el sujeto activo (el MTC). / Tesis

I’ve Been Reading About Disaster Lately is a collection of original poetry which focuses on how identity and agency are shaped through personal and public circumstance, through the intersection of the human and animal, and through the development of language and personal mythology. This collection is preceeded by a critical introduction which analyzes how poets mediate public and private disaster. The introduction specifially focuses on the eight poems written by Bob Hicok in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech Shooting, and examines how language, either in its presence or absence, functions to resolve the disconnect between pre-disaster and post-disaster.

No description available.

Duracion del estudio: 6 semanas (Del 15 de Julio al 5 de Septiembre)

Novel electrocchemical and chemical strategies have been developed for the fabrication of functional nanocomposites. New scientific and engineering contribution of this work to colloidal nanotechnology included the development of advanced chelating dispersing agents, such as various small organic molecules and chelating polymers. The unique feature of such dispersion agents is their strong adsorption on the surface of different materials, which allows superior dispersion. The chelating monomers of chelating polymers, such as PAZO and PMSS provided multiple adsorption sites for bonding to metal atoms on the particles surface. We analyzed and developed new fundamental adsorption and dispersion mechanisms. An important finding was the possibility of co-dispersion and co-deposition of advanced materials such as oxides, nitrides, complex oxides and minerals using universal dispersing agents and formation of composites by EPD method. It was found that Caffeic acid (CA) can be used as an efficient dispersing agent for the synthesis of ZnO nanorods of reduced size and a dispersing agent for the EPD of ZnO films. Another important achievement of this work was the application of tannic acid as an efficient capping and dispersing agent for synthesis and EPD of inorganic materials and composites. An important discovery was the use of lauryl gallate dispersant as a reducing agent for the synthesis of AgNp and a vehicle for particle dispersion and extraction in the liquid-liquid extraction method. Further advancements in our new technologies allowed us to develop composite films using anodic EPD using weak polyelectrolytes, such as alginate. The composite coatings exhibited protective and flame retardant properties. We analyzed the deposition mechanisms and kinetics as well as microstructure of the coatings. In another strategy, we developed electrochemical strategies for the deposition of composites, based on strong polyelectrolytes. The approach is based on the EPD of the polyelectrolyte molecules and electrosynthesis of EPD of ceramic particles. The electrostatic heterocoagulation mechanism was proposed for the deposit formation. We investigated the deposition kinetics, composition and microstructure of the composites prepared by the new strategies. The new electrochemical strategies can be used for the deposition of other composites, based on functional polymers with pH independent charge. New methods have been developed for the chemical synthesis of PPy based composites, using PMSS, PMSS–SR11 and PMSS–SR31 as anionic dopants for chemical polymerization and dispersants for MWCNT. The composites showed promising performance for application in electrodes of electrochemical supercapacitors. Good electrochemical performance was achieved at high active mass loadings. The electrodes showed high capacitance, large voltage window and low impedance. The analysis of electrochemical testing results and chemical structure of PMSS, PMSS–SR11 and PMSS–SR31 provided an insight into the influence of the anionic functional groups on the capacitance and capacitance retention a high charge-discharge rates. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The naturally occuring polyamines play an essential role in cell growth and proliferation. N8-Acetylspermidine is excreted in rat urine in significant levels (75 nmole/24 hours) but tissue levels of this compound are very low (1.0 nmole/gram), close to the limits of detection. This may be due to rapid degradation of N8-acetylspermidine by an enzyme in the cytoplasm of virtually all rat tissues. This enzyme N8-acetylspermidine deacetylase catalyzes the deacetylation of N8-acetylpermidine to spermidine and acetic acid. In order to study the physiologicalf unction of N8-acetylspermidine, we need a means of altering tissue levels of this compound, and inhibition of this deacetylation reaction could produce such an alteration. In our study, we have used an in vitro deacetylase assay to determine the types of compounds which can inhibit this reaction. The Km for this reaction was 10.5 microM. Studies on the structural requirements for the inhibitory activity indicated that: (1) increasing the size of the acetamido group leads to a decrease in inhibitory activity, (2) separation of the two primary amine groups with (CH2)8 produces the best inhibitory activity, and (3) removal of the nitrogen in the 4-position decreases the inhibitory activity slightly but increases the stability with respect to a competing enzyme, polyamine oxidase. Studies on the nature of the active site indicated that: (1) a sulfhydryl group is apparently essential for optimal activity as shown by inhibition with N-ethylmaleimide and also by dithiothreitol and 5,5'-dithio-bis-(nitro-benzoic acid), (2) a seryl hydroxyl group does not appear to be an essential part of the active site since diisopropyl-fluorophosphate has a relatively high Ki. (However, the organophosphate echothiophate is a very effective inhibitor. It has a quartarnary nitrogen which may orient this molecule to its site of action.), and (3) a divalent metal ion may be involved in the enzyme activity as is shown by inhibition with the chelating agents, EDTA and diethylmalonate.

No description available.