The intent of this study is to reveal essential elements learned by reflecting and analyzing the applied design process in developing a specialized garment for a child with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). I researched and determined the clothing needs of one child with SMA, designed and created a pair of adaptive pants based on the needs of the child, tested the final product through a trial wear of the adaptive pants, and I evaluated and revised the adaptive pants. Through this study I also determined ways in which my design process can inform my teaching of applied design in my elementary art classroom.

No description available.

Integral membrane proteins represent nearly 25% of protein encoding genes yet account for less than 2 percent of solved structures in protein databases. This underrepresentation is due to the difficulty in membrane protein isolation with the use of detergents. The difficulty in structural characterization following isolation has been alleviated by use of amphipathic polymers that stabilize proteins by maintaining the native protein environment. Of these amphipathic copolymers, SMA2000—a commercially available styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer with a 2:1 styrene to maleic anhydride ratio—has demonstrated broad utility in the isolation and subsequent characterization of a wide range of integral membrane proteins. However, there are some limitations to the use of SMA2000 that may arise from a lack of control of polymer parameters such as sequence, composition, and dispersity. Methyl substituted stilbene and maleic anhydride copolymers with controlled sequences and compositions demonstrated membrane solubilization and protein isolation activity at levels comparable to SMA2000, with several advantages that include an increase in the useable pH range and the size and homogeneity of polymer-lipid particles. Regrettably, the synthesis of methyl substituted stilbene-maleic anhydride copolymers is not without challenges that would make laboratory scale-up difficult. The use of anisole as a polymerization solvent mitigates gelation during poly((E)-4-methylstilbene-alt-maleic anhydride) synthesis. Additionally, unsymmetrical dimethyl-substituted stilbenes and monosubstituted stilbenes ((E)-4-tert-butylstilbene, (E)-4-methoxystilbene, (E)-2-methoxystilbene, methyl (E)-4-carboxylatestilbene, and (E)-4-trifluoromethylstilbene) copolymerize with maleic anhydride without gelation. Rates of conversion reveal that stilbenes with donor substituents copolymerize with maleic anhydride faster than stilbenes with acceptor substituents. The reversible addition–fragmentation transfer (RAFT) controlled radical polymerization technique afforded poly((E)-4-methylstilbene-alt-maleic anhydride) copolymers with controlled sequence, composition, molecular weight, and dispersity. Amphipathic copolymers with fluorescent activity are also desired for membrane protein solubilization. A series of donor-acceptor di-substituted stilbene and maleic anhydride copolymers with fluorescence activity have been synthesized and characterized. These copolymers possess electron-donating and electron accepting substituents on each phenyl ring of the stilbene monomer. These copolymers exhibit red-shifts that vary in position and width with changes in substituent. / Doctor of Philosophy / Proteins embedded in biological membranes—integral membrane proteins—are valuable drug targets due to their significance in a variety of essential cellular functions such as signaling and transport. Structural and functional characterization of integral membrane proteins is necessary to develop drugs that target them. However, despite their importance, integral membrane proteins remain a challenging target for structural characterization. Integral membrane proteins must be removed or solubilized from the lipid bilayer for structural characterization and the typical detergent extraction process often results in protein destabilization or irreversible protein deactivation. Polyanions have emerged as suitable alternatives to the solubilization of integral membrane proteins. Unlike detergents, polyanions solubilize integral membrane proteins with a small portion of the lipid bilayer intact. In this way, the integral membrane protein is removed from the lipid bilayer, but it maintains its structural and functional integrity allowing for structural and functional characterization. Hydrolyzed poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) is the most widely used polyanion for integral membrane protein solubilization, however, the sequences and compositions of poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) copolymers are not uniform and these inconsistencies have been shown to effect isolated integral membrane protein yield and purity. Hydrolyzed strictly alternating copolymers of substituted-stilbene and maleic anhydride have uniform sequences and compositions and have demonstrated integral membrane protein extraction activity at levels comparable to or greater than the commonly used hydrolyzed poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) copolymers. The work described in this dissertation focuses on optimized syntheses and characterization of several substituted-stilbene and maleic anhydride copolymers for the solubilization of integral membrane proteins. The choice of stilbene substituent is shown to affect poly(substituted-stilbene-alt-maleic anhydride) properties such as solubility and fluorescence activity.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:55:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo2286_1.pdf: 1818614 bytes, checksum: bde38ef39500718996aa2511dab57905 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Apesar de sistemas multiagentes estarem se tornando cada vez mais comuns no desenvolvimento de software, há ainda que se chegar a um consenso sobre como modelar e comparar diferentes soluções de sistemas multiagentes para um mesmo problema. Em outras palavras, os pesquisadores de tal área ainda estão à procura de benchmarks que sirvam de referência para a comparação de abordagens distintas. Dada a importância do estabelecimento de benchmarks para sistemas multiagentes, uma questão que surge entre os pesquisadores da área de patrulhamento é a possibilidade e o potencial do problema do patrulhamento como um destes benchmarks. Apesar da quantidade de trabalho produzido até este ponto, tem-se encontrado dificuldades para comparar precisamente as soluções propostas para o patrulhamento. Estas dificuldades remetem principalmente à ausência de ferramentas (em especial um simulador unificado) que permitam aos estudiosos se concentrarem na solução do problema em si, e não na sua representação. Partindo deste cenário, este trabalho tem como objetivo discutir o estabelecimento do patrulhamento enquanto um benchmark para sistemas multiagentes. Adicionalmente, como um primeiro passo no sentido de preencher as lacunas que dificultam tal estabelecimento, introduz-se o SimPatrol, um novo simulador voltado para a tarefa de patrulhamento, fortemente inspirado pelos simuladores da RoboCup e TAC. Novos resultados são produzidos a partir de uma avaliação de parte das técnicas propostas pelas pesquisas anteriores frente às novas funcionalidades implementadas pelo simulador, em especial a inédita medida de ociosidade dos vértices, que leva em consideração o tempo de raciocínio gasto pelos patrulheiros

No description available.

No description available.

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are a class of alloys that display the unique ability to undergo nonlinear deformations and return to their original shape when heat is applied or the stress causing the deformation is removed. This unique shape memory characteristic is a result of a martensitic phase-change, which can be temperature induced (shape memory effect) or stress induced (superelastic effect). In this study, the cyclical behavior of NiTi, a binary shape memory alloy, is compared to the cyclical behavior of NiTiCr, a ternary SMA. The purpose of this study is to compare the behavior of a 0.085-in. diameter NiTiCr wire with the behavior of the same size NiTi wire to determine whether ternary SMAs are more viable ways to take advantage of the unique properties of SMAs for seismic applications. The experimental results showing the superelastic behavior of these alloys under cyclical tensile loading are summarized with attention to the effects of annealing temperature, strain rate, and cyclical training on the stress-strain hysteresis, maximum recoverable strain and equivalent viscous damping.

The autosomal recessive disorder spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) causes motor neuron degeneration and muscle wasting, progressing to paralysis and death in severe cases. The disease is caused by deficiency of survival motor neuron protein (SMN) due to deletion or mutation of the SMN1 gene. We seek to develop a protein-based therapy for SMA using an adenoviral vector which encodes a secretable form of SMN fused to a protein transduction domain (PTD) derived from the trans-acting activator of transcription (TAT) from HIV. We generated secretable GFP proteins using transient transfection in mammalian cells and determined that the secretory peptide was inefficient when paired with the native PTD. We generated TAT-GFP proteins in bacteria and observed that the variant TAT3 most reliably tranduced cells in vitro. We did not observe uptake of the therapeutic protein following infection with an adenoviral vector and subsequent secretion of the protein from infected cells.

En el presente tema de Memoria se estudió el comportamiento mecánico de una aleación superelástica Cu-11,8%p.Al-0,5%p.Be, dentro del rango de temperatura y frecuencia propias de un fenómeno sísmico (0,1 a 5 [Hz]; -20 a + 50 [ºC]). Para esto, se realizaron ensayos de tracción de tipo tradicional (monotónicos) y cíclico. Este trabajo es parte de una línea de investigación relacionada con la caracterización de materiales, particularmente de materiales Superelásticos, pertenecientes a las aleaciones con Memoria de Forma, que puedan servir para la fabricación de dispositivos de disipación de energía sísmica en estructuras civiles. Las características relevantes de los materiales superelásticos, es que ellos presentan, en ciclos de carga-descarga, valores relativamente importantes de deformaciones recuperables y de energía disipada por ciclo. Este comportamiento se relaciona con la transformación de fase Austenita-Martensita. Para esta memoria se contó con una aleación CuAlBe, fabricada por Trefimétaux, bajo la forma de barras de 3 [mm] de diámetro; ensayos preliminares a temperatura ambiente indican que este material es superelástico. Los parámetros considerados en los ensayos son los siguientes: Tamaño de Grano Austenítico (64, 95 y 250 [ µm]); Frecuencia (0.1 y 1 [Hz]); Amplitud de Deformación de los ensayos cíclicos (hasta 4% aprox.); y Temperatura del ensayo (20 y 50 [ºC]). El comportamiento del material se caracterizó bajo los términos siguientes: • En ensayos de tracción uniaxial se caracterizaron algunas propiedades mecánicas del material (Módulo Elástico, Esfuerzos de Fluencia, Esfuerzo Máximo y de Rotura, Deformación Máxima, Ductilidad). • En ensayos de tracción cíclicos, se determinó: el esfuerzo y la deformación asociados a la máxima deformación superelástica alcanzable; los esfuerzos asociados al inicio de las transformaciones martensíticas directa e inversa; módulo elástico de la austenita; módulo secante; y coeficiente de amortiguamiento. Finalmente, los resultados se discutieron en la perspectiva de las relaciones microestructura-propiedades pertinentes y de la aplicación considerada.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Departamento de Ciências da Computação, 2014. / Submitted by Ana Cristina Barbosa da Silva (annabds@hotmail.com) on 2015-03-26T16:59:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_DanieldaSilvaSouza.pdf: 2076331 bytes, checksum: a87184e0f162b276c6b8666762b41e35 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana(raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2015-05-20T18:02:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_DanieldaSilvaSouza.pdf: 2076331 bytes, checksum: a87184e0f162b276c6b8666762b41e35 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-20T18:02:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_DanieldaSilvaSouza.pdf: 2076331 bytes, checksum: a87184e0f162b276c6b8666762b41e35 (MD5) / Identificar funções biológicas das sequências é uma atividade chave em projetos genomas. Esta tarefa é realizada na etapa de anotação, que possui duas fases. Na fase manual, biólogos utilizam seu conhecimento e experiência determinar a função de cada sequência, baseada nos resultados produzidos pela fase automática, onde ferramentas e bancos de dados são utilizados para predizer uma anotação funcional. Esta dissertação propõe BioAgents-Prot, uma ferramenta multiagente baseada em conhecimento, que simula o conhecimento e experiência dos biólogos para anotação de proteínas. BioAgents-Prot foi definido com uma abordagem de agentes cooperativos, onde diferentes agentes especializados trabalham em conjunto na tentativa de sugerir uma anotação manual adequada. A arquitetura proposta em três camadas foi desenvolvida com Java Agent DEvelopment Framework - JADE e Drools, um motor de inferência baseado em regras. Para avaliar o desempenho do BioAgents-Prot, as anotações dos transcritos do fungo Saccharomyces cerevisiae foram comparadas com as anotações sugeridas pelo sistema. Usando regras básicas que representam o raciocínio de anotação, obtemos 95.84% de sensibilidade, 93.22% de especificidade, 98.40% de F1-score e 0.80 de MCC, que demonstram a utilidade do BioAgents-Prot na etapa de anotação em projetos transcritoma. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / Identifying biological function of sequences is a key activity in genome projects. This task is done in the annotation step, which has two phases. In the manual phase, biologists use their knowledge and experience to determine the function for each sequence, based on the results produced by the automatic phase, where tools and data bases are used to predict functional annotation. This dissertation presents BioAgents-Prot, a knowledge based multiagent tool, which simulates biologists expertise to annotate proteins. BioAgents-Prot is defined with an approach of cooperative agents, where specialized intelligent agents work together to suggest proper manual annotation. The proposed three-layer architecture was implemented with Java Agent DEvelopment Framework-JADE and Drools (a rule-based inference engine). To assess performance, transcript annotations of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae fungus were compared to the annotations suggested by BioAgents-Prot. Using basic rules that represents the annotation reasoning, we obtained 95.84% of sensitivity, 93.22% of specificity, 98.40% of F1-score and 0.80 of MCC, which shows the usefulness of BioAgents-Prot in annotation step of transcriptome projects.