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Objetivo: Determinar cuál fue la incidencia y la distribución de los factores de riesgo para hepatitis C entre los militares en actividad en el Hospital Militar Central durante el periodo Enero 2004 – Diciembre 2005. Material y métodos: Se utilizó un diseño observacional, descriptivo, trasversal, retrospectivo, identificándose todos los pacientes militares en actividad que acudieron a consulta sea por examen médico de rigor, hemodonadores o que acudieron o fueron referidos al Hospital Militar Central para descarte de hepatitis, que resultaron Ac-VHC+ y ARN-VHC+ (PCR+), para luego determinar la incidencia anual del servicio y la presencia de factores de riego para hepatitis C. / Objective: To assess incidence and risk factors distribution of hepatitis C between the active military at the Central Military Hospital during the January 2004 - December 2005 period. Method: A retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive, observational design was used, identifying all the active military patients who went to ambulatory consultation by regular medical examination, as blood-donors or were referred to the Central Military Hospital for hepatitis discarding, that were Ac- HCV+ and RNA-HCV+ (CPR+), to determine the annual incidence and the presence absence of hepatitis C risk factors between them.

The multifunctional exoribonuclease protein PNPase is implicated as a potential target for cancer therapy as well as causing mitochondrial disorders in humans, but there has yet to be a whole animal knockdown model created. In this study, C. elegans was used to investigate the effect of knocking down pnpt-1, the gene that encodes PNPase. It was discovered that pnpt-1 knockdown significantly extends lifespan via an increase in superoxide production similar to other known mitochondrial lifespan extension pathways. Additionally, mitochondrial networks, size and respiration are affected indication of other mitochondrial dysfunction.. PNPase is also known to transport small RNAs into the mitochondria which in turn can affect mitochondria RNA splicing and translation of proteins involved in respiration. Further investigation showed a significant accumulation of polycistronic mitochondrial transcripts in knockdown animals. Lastly, this model has shown that PNPase knockdown is functionally comparable across species and is a viable model for future studies.

James Shirley's The Dukes Mistris was licensed in 1636 and published in 1638. The play has not previously been edited in accordance with modern bibliographical standards; the only available text outside copies of the original Quarto is the modernised edition prepared by William Gi'fford and Alexander Dyce for The Dramatic Works and Poems of 1833. This edition aims to revive critical and dramatic interest in the play itself while establishing a text which will provide a sound basis for scholars and students of Renaissance drama alike. My edition is based on a collation of twenty copies of the 1638 Quarto (at least six of each of the three variant states which exist). All variant readings deriving from press correction are recorded. The original spelling has been retained and punctuation is emended sparingly. All emendations are included in the textual footnotes, and substantive emendations are discussed in the commentary. The commentary includes interpretive comments, glosses, textual notes, dramatic analogues and explanation of contemporary references. The Dukes Mistris, a tragicomedy, was written during a period when Charles I was ruling without Parliament and when prlciosite was flourishing at court. One of the most significant aspects of the play, I believe, is its relevance to the contemporary political and social situation.' The introduction to the edition discusses in some detail the thematic concerns of the play and their context: love and service, the royal prerogative and Platonic love. While the ideas of the play add considerable interest, they are set in a chain of love entanglements which are conventional in tragicomedy. Shirley's dramatic craftsmanship is approached from the perspective of tragicomedy and its conventions since the language, characterisation and structure of the play reflect his skilful blending of tragic and comic modes. The Dukes Mistris makes no profound statements but it is successful tragicomedy and effective theatre. In play-text, introduction and commentary, the staging of the play receives consideration in the hope that this edition will encourage production on the modern stage.

This thesis contains analysis of currently available Objective-C run-time libraries (GCC, Apple and Étoilé run-times), their prerequisites and dependencies on the particular platform and operating system. The result of the analysis is a design of a modular run-time library that allows dynamic configuration of each component for the particular need (e.g. disabling run-time locks in a single-threaded environment). The resulting design can also be easily ported to other atypical platforms (e.g. kernel, or an experimental OS) and extended feature-wise (e.g. adding support for Objective-C categories, or associated objects). A prototype implementation of such a modular run-time for Objective-C also is included.

Problema de Investigación Hay mucha dificultad en implementar la interfaz ICallbackEventHandler cuando se desea agregar varias llamadas asíncronas en una misma página web. Existen una serie de pasos que se deben realizar cada vez que se quiera ejecutar un evento que tenga las características asíncronas utilizando ICallbackEventHandler, esto demanda un exceso de tiempo y esfuerzo que podría ser reducido. A continuación se describen los pasos: a) Implementar la interface b) Implementar los métodos de la interface c) Colocar el script del servidor d) Colocar el script del lado del cliente e) Modificar los métodos de la interface según el funcionamiento que se desea obtener. f) Realizar llamada asíncrona Este es justamente el problema que se ha encontrado y se atacará, para reducir los pasos y dar facilidad para implementar más eventos en una misma interfaz de una manera más fácil y rápida. Objetivo General Bajar la dificultad de uso de ICallbackEventHandler al desarrollar páginas Web. Se reduce la implementación a un mínimo de 4 pasos que además son más óptimos. Objetivos Específicos a) Usar varios métodos personalizables en la aplicación, ocultando los métodos en el lado del servidor: RaiseCallbackEvent y GetCallbackResult. b) Permitir que los métodos personalizables tengan varios parámetros de tipos numéricos y tipo String. c) Facilitar la tarea de implementar más de una llamada asíncrona. Se cuenta con métodos indefinidos en el servidor d) Permitir controlar las Excepciones e) Utilizar la función estándar “ICallBackFunction” para la comunicación con el servidor

The C programming language offers a high degree of control and freedom to programmers. This makes it a powerful tool, but it also gives the language a steep learning curve. One difficulty that many new C programmers face is in figuring out how to analyze and debug their code, as well as the output. There exists a variety of tools that can be used to assist in debugging. They can offer aid by identifying certain types of errors and by providing meaningful output that helps the user understand and correct those errors. The following seven debugging tools have been tested and analyzed in order to ascertain when and how each one of them might be most useful: Valgrind, GCC Address Sanitizer, Clang Address Sanitizer, Mtrace, Memwatch, Electric Fence, and Dmalloc. They have been tested using anonymous code submitted by actual students for C programming labs in order to see how many errors, and of which sort, each tool catches. The results of these tests, as well as their implications, are presented here.

Cette thèse est composée de quatre chapitres autonomes visant à contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de la formation et de la dynamique des prix des actifs dans un modèle d’évaluation des actifs financiers fondé sur la consommation (C-MEDAF). Le chapitre 1 examine la structure par terme du rendement des actions dans les principaux modèles C-MEDAF et montre que permettre aux flux de consommation et de dividendes d’être affectés négativement par les chocs de volatilité comme observés empiriquement (“effet de levier”) pourrait rendre les actifs de court terme plus risqués que les actifs de long terme comme on l’a récemment découvert dans certaines études empiriques. Cette modification donne plus de souplesse à ces modèles pour saisir différentes formes de la structure par termes des taux de rendement d’actifs risqués tout en respectant les niveaux observés de la prime de risque et du taux de rendement sans risque. Le chapitre 2 propose un modèle à changement de régimes pour s’adapter au comportement changeant de la pente de la structure par termes des rendements d’actifs risqués tel qu’observé dans les données. Nous montrons qu’un tel modèle permet de combiner les propriétés spécifiques à chaque régime des modèles à un régime telles qu’une pente en moyenne positive ou négative de la structure par termes des rendements, et donne plus de flexibilité dans la forme de la structure à terme des rendements d’actifs risqués. Le chapitre 3 étudie l’hypothèse d’anticipation sur le marché d’actions. Selon cette hypothèse, les rendements courant sur les actifs de long terme sont une moyenne pondérée de l’espérance des rendements futurs de court terme. Ce test a principalement été réalisé sur le marché des bons du trésor et dans beaucoup de cas rejeté. Cette hypothèse n’est pas rejetée sur le marché d’actions mais les rendements futurs sont aussi prévisibles. Le chapitre 4 examine l’estimation et l’inférence dans le modèle de risques de long terme en utilisant la méthode généralisée des moments. / This thesis is made of four self-contained papers aiming at contributing to the better understanding of asset prices formation and dynamics in a Consumption-based Capital Asset Pricing Model (CCAPM). Chapter 1 looks at the term structure of equity return in leading CCAPM models and show that allowing the cash flows to be negatively affected by volatility shocks, as observed in the data (“leverage effect”), could make the short-term assets riskier than long-term assets as recently found in some empirical papers. This modification gives more flexibility to those models in capturing various shapes of the term structure of equity returns while still matching the observed level of the equity premium and the risk free rate. Chapter 2 proposes a regimes switching model to accommodate for the changing behavior of the term structure of equity returns as observed in the data. We show that such a model allows to combine the properties of the one regime models and it gives more flexibility in the shape of the average term structure of equity returns. Chapter 3 studies the Expectation Hypothesis on equity markets. This test has mainly been done for the bonds market. We find that the EH is not rejected but the future returns are also predictable. Chapter 4 examines the estimation and the inference in the LRR model using the Generalized Method of Moments.

A research report Submitted to the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics 15 June 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa / Introduction: Worldwide, cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death with a three-quarter of cardiovascular disease deaths occurring in low-middle income countries. Childhood social adversity as a proxy of psychosocial stress has been found to be associated with later adult risk of cardiovascular diseases, with studies investigating the mechanisms linking early exposure to social adversity and later risk of cardiovascular diseases. CRP has been a biomarker that is found to be associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases in adults, however, the association between CRP levels in adolescence and social adversity in children (prenatal and postnatal periods) is not well documented. Assessing the association between childhood social adversity and CRP levels in late adolescent period will encourage further studies to explore whether high levels of CRP tracks from adolescence to adulthood and ultimately increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in the South African context. Aim: This study aims to determine the association between social adversity from the prenatal period to two years of age and the level of CRP in the same cohort at the age of 18 (from 1990 to 2008) Methods: The study was a secondary data analysis of the Birth to Twenty longitudinal study which recruited 3273 singleton children. Four measures (prenatal and postnatal (0-2 years)) of social adversity in children (which are maternal prenatal stress, maternal prenatal general feeling, maternal postnatal depression and household socioeconomic status) were used. The high-sensitivity C-reactive protein was grouped into tertiles (1st tertile: hs-CRP<0.48 mg/l, 2nd tertile: 0.48<hs-CRP<1.16, 3rd tertile: hs-CRP>1.16) and multinomial logistic regressions were therefore used to assess the association between childhood social adversities and tertiles of high sensitivity C-reactive protein. Results: The primary Birth to Twenty longitudinal study had more than 35% loss to follow-up at 18 years. No statistically significant difference (p>0.05) was found on demographic variables of those included in the analysis compared to those not included (due to current study criteria and loss to follow-up). A unit increase in maternal marital stress score during pregnancy was associated with an increase by 2.23 (p=0.03) in the relative risk of the youth being in the 2nd high sensitivity C-reactive protein tertile in comparison to being in the 1st high sensitivity C-reactive protein tertile. For a unit increase in maternal family stress score, the relative risk of the youth being in the 3rd high sensitivity C-reactive protein is 1.61 (p=0.04) times greater in comparison to being in the 1st high sensitivity C-reactive protein tertile. No statistically significant associations were observed among the other categories of social adversity (p>0.05) and high sensitivity C-reactive proteins. Low social support to mothers during pregnancy was associated with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in adolescents. Conclusion: A positive association was observed between a prenatal measure of social adversity and elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein; In particular, increased levels of family and relationship-related prenatal stress during pregnancy is a predictor of elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in children. This study contributes to the empirical evidence from studies done in animals suggesting that early development of adult health complication starts during the intrauterine period. The findings of this study will further guide intervention research to target conditions during intrauterine period in preventing adult health complications. / MT2017

PtBi/C e PdBi/C foram preparados em diferentes razões atômicas (100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 e 50:50) pelo método de redução via borohidreto de sódio (com adição total da solução de borohidreto em uma única etapa) utilizando H2PtCl6.6H2O, Pd(NO3)2, (BiNO3)3.5H2O como fonte de metais, Vulcan® (XC72-Cabot) como suporte de carbono e com uma carga metálica correspondente a 20% em massa. Os eletrocatalisadores obtidos foram caracterizados por difração de raios-X (DRX), microscopia eletrônica de transmissão (MET) e voltametria cíclica (VC). A atividade dos diferentes materiais preparados para a oxidação eletroquímica do ácido fórmico foi realizada em eletrólito ácido e alcalino utilizando-se as técnicas de voltametria cíclica, e cronoamperometria. Para estes estudos foi utilizado a técnica do eletrodo de camada fina porosa. A caracterização eletroquímica permitiu comparar o desempenho eletroquímico da platina e paládio, além de avaliar o benefício da presença do bismuto nas razões atômicas propostas. Os difratogramas de raio-X (DRX) confirmaram para todos os compostos de PtBi/C e PdBi/C a formação da estrutura cúbica de face centrada (cfc) característicos da rede cristalina da platina e do Paládio respectivamente. Outros picos encontrados foram associados a presença de fases de óxido de bismuto em ambos os compostos, PtBi/C e PdBi/C. A microscopia eletrônica de transmissão (MET) indicou que a presença de maiores teores de bismuto não acarretaram em aumento do tamanho médio da partícula. Os resultados eletroquímicos em meio alcalino indicaram que ainda é necessário uma otimização da concentração de ácido fórmico para que possamos observar melhores resultados quanto à adição de bismuto na platina ou paládio, no entanto os estudos em meio ácido mostraram o efeito benéfico da adição de bismuto tanto para platina quanto para o paládio. / PtBi/C and PdBi/C were prepared with different atomic ratios (100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50) by sodium borohydride reduction method (with total addition of the borohydride solution in just one step) using H2PtCl6.6H2O, Pd(NO3)2, (BiNO3)3.5H2O as source of metals, Vulcan® (XC72-Cabot) as carbon support and a metallic charge correspondent to 20% mass. The obtained electrocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The activity of the different materials used for the formic acid electrochemical oxidation was performed in acid and alkaline electrolyte through cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry, using the porous thin-film electrode technique. The electrochemical characterization allowed for the comparison between the platinum and palladium electrochemical performance, as well as the evaluation of the benefit of having bismuth in the proposed atomic ratios. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) diffractograms confirmed, for every PtBi/C and PdBi/C compounds, the formation of the face-centered cubic structure (fcc) distinctive to platinum and palladiums crystalline net, respectively. Other peaks were found associated to the presence of bismuth oxide phases in both compounds, PtBi/C and PdBi/C. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that a higher bismuth presence did not result in a larger particle size. The electrochemical results in alkaline medium indicated that an optimization on formic acid concentration is still necessary so that better results concerning bismuth addition to platinum or palladium could be observed, although the studies done in acid medium presented the beneficial effect of bismuth addition to both platinum and palladium.