Submitted by Israel Vieira Neto (israel.vieiraneto@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-04T18:57:34Z No. of bitstreams: 2 TESE Letícia Chinglino Mendizábal.pdf: 6158345 bytes, checksum: db330a328ce998d184840c64a1611c7d (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-04T18:57:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 TESE Letícia Chinglino Mendizábal.pdf: 6158345 bytes, checksum: db330a328ce998d184840c64a1611c7d (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-29 / CAPES / O Grupo Ubajara localiza-se no Domínio Médio Coreaú, nordeste da Província Borborema, constitui uma sequência de plataforma marinha rasa, conformada a base ao topo por arenitos da Formação Trapiá, pelitos da Formação Caiçaras, calcários e margas subordinadas da Formação Frecheirinha, e no topo arenitos e guarvacas da Formação Coreaú. Os carbonatos da Formação Frecheirinha apresenta valores negativos de (δ 13C -3.5 ‰ e +3.7 ‰) em direção ao topo, e razão de 87Sr/86Sr entre 0.7075 e 0.7080. Pela primeira vez, são descritos para uma sequência do nordeste do Brasil, micorfossies de parede orgânica que se caracterizam pela baixa diversidade, compreendendo espécimens de Leiosphaeridia e Bavlinella subordinada. Esses dados, combinados com restrições de idade mínima de 560 ± 19 Ma determinada para diques máficos que cortam a unidade, sugerem uma idade de deposição Ediacarana entre 635 e ca. 580 Ma, para a Formação Frecherinha. A diferença de outras unidades carbonáticas Ediacaranas no Brasil, a Formação Frecherinha não tem depósitos glaciais associados, ou características sedimentares típicas das capas carbonaticas pósglaciais. Os valores negativos de δ 13C refletem a bioprodutividade e as alterações do nível do mar no momento de deposição. Os carbonatos da Formação Frecheirinha são importantes para a compreensão da biota e as concomitantes mudanças na composição isotópica da água do mar, como também na reconstrução paleogeográfica entre os episódios de quebra do supercontiente Rodinia e a fusão do Gondwana.

M.A.(African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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This thesis examines the effect of combined vitamin E succinate and Asc supplementation on the in vitro growth of a non-malignant monkey kidney (LLCMK) and a malignant melanoma (BL6) cell line, with nutritional concentration ranges of 5-20µg/ml and 25-50µg/ml respectively. Vitamin E and C are thought to interact synergistically to inhibit tumour cell growth by virtue of their antioxidant properties, whereby they quench free radicals and terminate lipid peroxidation. Furthermore vitamin E and C are thought to modulate the biosynthetic pathways in arachidonic acid metabolism at a number of different points. This may also offer a means of regulating tumour cell growth. It is well documented that vitamin E and C are distributed in the lipid and aqueous phases in the cell respectively. However, the cells need to obtain the vitamins from the environment in which they are found in order to exert a growth inhibitory effect. Supplementation of combined vitamin E succinate and Asc on BL6 and LLCMK cells resulted in a significant increase in LLCMK cell growth, and a significant decrease in cell growth was observed in BL6 cells. Vitamin E succinate in its esterified form cannot function as an antioxidant and requires the cleavage of the succinate to become an active antioxidant. The metabolism of vitamin E succinate to form free vitamin E in LLCMK and BL6 cells resulted in the cleavage of the succinate group from the vitamin E molecule in BL6 cells only, thus suggesting that an esterase may be present in BL6 cells. This would allow for a synergistic interaction between the two vitamins. The arachidonic acid cascade generates a family of bioactive lipids that modulate diverse physiological and pathological responses including tumour growth and promotion. The enzyme prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase (PGHS) or cyclooxygenase (Cox) is the key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway leading to the formation of prostaglandins. Two enzyme isoforms of Cox have been identified, Cox 1 and Cox 2. Supplementation with vitamin E succinate and Asc at a combination 20:25µg/ml respectively resulted in a trend of increasing Cox activity over 12 hours suggesting that vitamin E and Asc have a stimulatory effect on Cox activity in BL6 cells. The inhibitors of Cox 2, dexamethasone, showed a decreasing trend in Cox activity at the 20:25µg/ml combination, while cycloheximide showed an initial stimulatory effect and then a gradual decrease in Cox activity. The elimination of the Cox activity by dexamethasone suggests that transcriptional regulation may be occurring in BL6 cells. We examined by Northern blot analysis whether combined supplementation of vitamin E succinate and Asc caused an elevation of Cox 2 RNA expression in BL6 cells. An inducible effect of Cox 2 was observed after 2 hours of supplementation with a combination of vitamin E succinate and Asc in BL6 cells, however the results are inconclusive and further studies are required to substantiate this finding.

The thesis reports the use of electrospun nanofibres as a platform for the development of colorimetric probes. Three colorimetric probes in the form of electrospun nanofibre test strips were developed for the selective detection of ascorbic acid and dopamine because they are crucial biomolecules for physiological processes in human metabolism and usually coexist in biological samples. The simultaneous detection of the biomolecules is very important as their abnormal concentration levels would lead to diseases such as Parkinson's and schizophrenia. Different methods of incorporating detector agents into the nanofibre were exploited for the detection of the biomolecules. The methods included physical incorporation of nanoparticles, covalent bonding of ligand/dyes through surface modification of the fibres. The first colorimetric test strip for ascorbic acid was based on copper-gold alloy nanoparticles prepared in-situ and hosted in nylon6. The test strip showed selectivity in detecting ascorbic acid in the pH range 2 – 7. The suitability of fibres in hosting copper-gold alloy nanoparticles for the colorimetric detection of ascorbic acid was investigated using nylon6, poly(vinyl benzyl chloride)-styrene and cellulose acetate based test strips. All the test strips exhibited leaching and the nylon6 based test strip was found to be thermally stable up to 60 ˚C. The colorimetric performance of the test strips was maintained and neither was colour decay exhibited after 10 months of storage in a shelf. The test strip achieved an eye-ball limit of detection of 1.76 x10-2 mg L-1 and its suitability was demonstrated by the determination of ascorbic acid in fruit juices, urine, serum, and vitamin C tablets. The second colorimetric test strip for ascorbic acid and dopamine employed prussian blue synthesised in-situ in nylon6. Ascorbic acid turned the deep blue test strip to light blue at pH 3, and a faded navy blue colour at a pH range of 6 - 7 while dopamine changed the strip to purple at the same pH range. The versatility of the test strip was demonstrated by detecting ascorbic acid in commercial fruit juices as well as by detecting ascorbic acid as well as dopamine in fortified urine. The eye-ball detection limit of the Prussian blue test strip for ascorbic acid and dopamine was 17.6 mg L-1 and 18.9 mg L-1, respectively. The third method involved a covalent approach, where poly(vinylbenzyl chloride) nanofibers were post functionalised with 2-(2′-pyridyl)-imidazole and iron(III) for the selective detection of ascorbic acid and dopamine. The eye-ball detection limit for ascorbic acid and dopamine was 17.6 mg L-1 and 18.9 mg L-1, respectively. The test strip was selective for dopamine, but the detection of ascorbic acid suffered from interference by glutathione. The application of the test strips was nevertheless demonstrated by the detection of ascorbic acid in fruit juices and dopamine in fortified urine. The developed test strips employing the three approaches were applied without sample pre-treatment and use of supporting equipment.

Les composites 3D C/C sont utilisés, entre autres, comme bouclier thermique dans le domaine aérospatial en raison de leurs propriétés thermomécaniques et de leur résistance à l’ablation à haute température. Si leur comportement macroscopique a déjà été largement étudié par le passé, aucun modèle ne permet actuellement de relier de manière satisfaisante le comportement des constituants au comportement effectif du composite. En particulier, les modèles phénoménologiques ne permettent pas d’anticiper l’effet d’un éventuel changement de constituant. De plus, le rôle des interfaces dans le comportement hors-axe du composite reste à déterminer. L’objectif de ce travail est donc d’établir un modèle multi-échelle du comportement thermomécanique d’un 3D C/C en s’intéressant plus particulièrement au rôle des interfaces à haute température. Ce travail s’articule autour de la caractérisation de la morphologie et du comportement thermomécanique du matériau et de ses constituants. Le développement d’un dispositif original de push-out a notamment permis de mesurer les propriétés des interfaces baguette/baguette et fibre/matrice en température. Ces données expérimentales ont été intégrées à un modèle numérique du matériau à l'échelle mésoscopique. Un modèle de zone cohésive ad hoc a été développé afin de prendre en compte le comportement spécifique des interfaces. Les simulations éléments finis ainsi réalisées ont permis de reproduire avec succès le comportement non-linéaire du matériau de même que l'évolution de ses propriétés effectives avec la température. Ce modèle permet ainsi de relier les mécanismes d’endommagement observés aux échelles inférieures au comportement macroscopique du 3D C/C. / C/C composites are used as shield for aerospace applications since they display beneficial thermo-mechanical properties at high temperature, as well as high resistance to ablation. Though the macro-scale behavior was thoroughly studied in the past, no model can efficiently tie the properties of the constituents at the meso-scale to the effective macroscopic behavior. In addition, the phenomenological models proposed so far cannot predict a change in the composition. Besides, the interfaces influence on the out-of-axis mechanical behavior of the composite is yet to be evaluated. Thus, the goal of this work is to build a multi-scale model for the thermo-mechanical behavior of a 3D C/C, with a particular focus on the interfacial properties and its evolution with temperature. This study is based on the morphological and thermo-mechanical characterization of the material and its constituents. An original push-out test device has been developed to conduct high-temperature interfacial characterization at two scales (yarn/yarn and fiber/matrix interfaces). Collected experimental data were used for modeling purposes at the meso-scale. A cohesive zone model has been developed to take into account the specific behavior of the interfaces. Finite element simulations were successfully performed to reproduce the non-linear behavior of the material including the effective properties evolution with temperature. This model allowed to effectively link the damage mechanisms observed atthe lower scale to the 3D C/C macro-scale behavior.

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This Dissertation shows how the theory of C*-algebra of graphs relates to the theory of C*-algebras of sofic shifts. C*-algebras of sofic shifts are generalizations of Cuntz-Krieger algebras [8]. It is shown that if X is a sofic shift, then the C*-algebra of the sofic shift, Oₓ, is isomorphic to the C*-algebra of a directed graph E, C *(E). The graph E is shown to be the well known past set presentation of X constructed in [13]. We focus on the consequences of this result: In particular uniqueness of the generators of Oₓ, pure infiniteness, and ideal structure of the algebra Oₓ. We show the existence of an ideal I ⊂ Oₓ such that when we form the quotient, Oₓ/I, it is isomorphic to C*( F), and F is the left Krieger cover graph of X—a well known, canonical graph one can associate with a sofic shift. The dual cover, the right Krieger cover, can also be related to the structure of Oₓ, and we illustrate this relationship. Chapter 6 shows what happens when we label a directed graph E in a left resolving way. When the graph E and the labeling satisfy certain technical conditions, we can generate a C*-algebra Lₓ ⊂ C*(E), with Lₓ ≅ Oₓ provided that X an irreducible sofic shift. / Graduate

No description available.

A hydraulic model of Alberni Harbour was built to study the mixing of fresh and salt water, the disposal of industrial sewage, and the result of proposed physical changes in the Harbour. The model was built to a scale of 1/1000 horizontally, and 1/84 vertically. A modified form of Lord Kelvin's tide predicting machine is used to compute the tides and thus control a pair of valves which add salt water and remove mixed water. River discharge is manually adjusted. A method of removing water samples from the operating model for chemical analysis was developed as a means of observing salinity distribution. At present the model is ready for verification and experiment. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mechanical Engineering, Department of / Graduate