No description available.

No description available.

Background: Intestinal fibrosis is a serious complication of IBD, with more than a third of Crohn’s disease (CD) patients developing a fibrostenosing phenotype with formation of strictures that will require surgical intervention. Remarkably, SAMP1/YitFc (SAMP) mice, a spontaneous model of CD, develop gut fibrosis; similar to IBD patients, the pathophysiology of SAMP fibrosis is unknown. IL-33 is a member of the IL-1 cytokine family and increased expression is associated with IBD. Emerging evidence suggests its potential role in liver and cutaneous fibrosis, as well as myofibroblast-associated colonic ulcerations . Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of IL-33 as a potential mediator of profibrotic events leading to intestinal fibrosis and possible stricture formation. Methods: A detailed histologic time course study, with collagen-specific Masson trichrome staining and IHC for ST2 (IL-33 receptor), was performed on SAMP and control AKR (parental strain) mice. qRT-PCR was done on full-thickness ilea for the profibrogenic genes, collagen (coll)-1, coll-3, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Exogenous IL-33 (33 μg/kg, i.p.) or vehicle was administered daily for 7d to SAMP and AKR mice (N=6/exp group), and ileal tissues evaluated as above. Finally, microarray analysis was performed on full-thickness ilea from SAMP and AKR mice, and IL-33 stimulated subepithelial myofibroblasts (SEMFs). Results: SAMP mice displayed ileal skip lesions with randomly distributed strictures, preceded by typical pre-stricture dilations of the ileum. Ileal wall was visibly thickened with hypertrophy of the serosa, muscularis mucosa, muscularis propria, within which intense collagen deposition was observed, and inflammatory infiltrates in segments showing strictures. Interestingly, intense ST2 staining was present within the inflamed lamina propria of SAMP, notably localized to SEMFs. Fibrosis was first observed at 20 wks, and reached its peak by 50 wks of age. mRNA expression of coll-1 (4.74±0.69-fold; P=0.001), coll-3 (4.92±1.05-fold; P=0.01), IGF1 (12.9±3.45; P=0.006), and CTGF (3.29±0.69; P=0.004) was dramatically elevated in SAMP vs. AKR ilea. IL-33 treatment of AKR mice induced a marked increase in muscle fiber/myofibroblast cellularity and hypertrophy of the muscularis propria (4.13±0.74-fold; P<0.0001), and mRNA expression of coll-1 (5.16±0.89-fold; P=0.0009), coll-3 (1.97±0.14-fold; P=0.01), IGF-1 (9.32±2.27-fold; P=0.004), and CTGF (1.43±0.31-fold; P=0.006) vs. vehicle controls. Microarray data from SAMP ilea and IL-33-treated SEMFs confirmed these trends, displaying a global increase in profibrogenic gene expression. Conclusion: These data suggest an important role for IL-33 in intestinal fibrosis, and may represent a potential target for the treatment of IBD-associated fibrosis and stricture formation.

This PhD thesis reports on car fluff management, recycling and recovery. Car fluff is the residual waste produced by car recycling operations, particularly from hulk shredding. Car fluff is known also as Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR) and it is made of plastics, rubbers, textiles, metals and other materials, and it is very heterogeneous both in its composition and in its particle size. In fact, fines may amount to about 50%, making difficult to sort out recyclable materials or exploit ASR heat value by energy recovery. This 3 years long study started with the definition of the Italian End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) recycling state of the art. A national recycling trial revealed Italian recycling rate to be around 81% in 2008, while European Community recycling target are set to 85% by 2015. Consequently, according to Industrial Ecology framework, a life cycle assessment (LCA) has been conducted revealing that sorting and recycling polymers and metals contained in car fluff, followed by recovering residual energy, is the route which has the best environmental perspective. This results led the second year investigation that involved pyrolysis trials on pretreated ASR fractions aimed at investigating which processes could be suitable for an industrial scale ASR treatment plant. Sieving followed by floatation reported good result in thermochemical conversion of polymers with polyolefins giving excellent conversion rate. This factor triggered ecodesign considerations. Ecodesign, together with LCA, is one of the Industrial Ecology pillars and it consists of design for recycling and design for disassembly, both aimed at the improvement of car components dismantling speed and the substitution of non recyclable material. Finally, during the last year, innovative plants and technologies for metals recovery from car fluff have been visited and tested worldwide in order to design a new car fluff treatment plant aimed at ASR energy and material recovery.

Atmospheric aerosol particles directly impact air quality and participate in controlling the climate system. Organic Aerosol (OA) in general accounts for a large fraction (10–90%) of the global submicron (PM1) particulate mass. Chemometric methods for source identification are used in many disciplines, but methods relying on the analysis of NMR datasets are rarely used in atmospheric sciences. This thesis provides an original application of NMR-based chemometric methods to atmospheric OA source apportionment. The method was tested on chemical composition databases obtained from samples collected at different environments in Europe, hence exploring the impact of a great diversity of natural and anthropogenic sources. We focused on sources of water-soluble OA (WSOA), for which NMR analysis provides substantial advantages compared to alternative methods. Different factor analysis techniques are applied independently to NMR datasets from nine field campaigns of the project EUCAARI and allowed the identification of recurrent source contributions to WSOA in European background troposphere: 1) Marine SOA; 2) Aliphatic amines from ground sources (agricultural activities, etc.); 3) Biomass burning POA; 4) Biogenic SOA from terpene oxidation; 5) “Aged” SOAs, including humic-like substances (HULIS); 6) Other factors possibly including contributions from Primary Biological Aerosol Particles, and products of cooking activities. Biomass burning POA accounted for more than 50% of WSOC in winter months. Aged SOA associated with HULIS was predominant (> 75%) during the spring-summer, suggesting that secondary sources and transboundary transport become more important in spring and summer. Complex aerosol measurements carried out, involving several foreign research groups, provided the opportunity to compare source apportionment results obtained by NMR analysis with those provided by more widespread Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometers (AMS) techniques that now provided categorization schemes of OA which are becoming a standard for atmospheric chemists. Results emerging from this thesis partly confirm AMS classification and partly challenge it.

In this work, new tools in atmospheric pollutant sampling and analysis were applied in order to go deeper in source apportionment study. The project was developed mainly by the study of atmospheric emission sources in a suburban area influenced by a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI), a medium-sized coastal tourist town and a motorway. Two main research lines were followed. For what concerns the first line, the potentiality of the use of PM samplers coupled with a wind select sensor was assessed. Results showed that they may be a valid support in source apportionment studies. However, meteorological and territorial conditions could strongly affect the results. Moreover, new markers were investigated, particularly focusing on the processes of biomass burning. OC revealed a good biomass combustion process indicator, as well as all determined organic compounds. Among metals, lead and aluminium are well related to the biomass combustion. Surprisingly PM was not enriched of potassium during bonfire event. The second research line consists on the application of Positive Matrix factorization (PMF), a new statistical tool in data analysis. This new technique was applied to datasets which refer to different time resolution data. PMF application to atmospheric deposition fluxes identified six main sources affecting the area. The incinerator’s relative contribution seemed to be negligible. PMF analysis was then applied to PM2.5 collected with samplers coupled with a wind select sensor. The higher number of determined environmental indicators allowed to obtain more detailed results on the sources affecting the area. Vehicular traffic revealed the source of greatest concern for the study area. Also in this case, incinerator’s relative contribution seemed to be negligible. Finally, the application of PMF analysis to hourly aerosol data demonstrated that the higher the temporal resolution of the data was, the more the source profiles were close to the real one.

Investigating the peculiarities of 11 – 12 form students’ professional purposefulness in Moletai region is aimed at determining the links between students’ professional intentions and expectations with the social conditions of their families, parents’ education. In educating senior students, the importance of perceiving professional purposefulness of individuals and controlling is exposed. Taking it into consideration it is possible to control the process of upbringing in a more qualified way and, thus, achieve better results . Having evaluated the social context of the region we can forecast the needs, values and expectations of the members of the community, link them to the possibilities of the school, and knowing the dominating tendencies of professional purposefulness, to take them into account when determining strategic landmarks of the activity of the organization. The object of the research – professional purposefulness of the students of 11 – 12 forms of Moletai region. The aim of the research – to reveal the peculiarities of professional purposefulness 11 ���� 12 forms students in the social context of the region. The tasks of the research. Having analyzed pedagogical, psychological, sociologic and other scientific literature from the point of view of the problem under discussion, to research the influence of family’s social condition to students’ professional purposefulness; having determined the tendencies of students’ professional expectations and... [to full text]

This work presents the design, fabrication, calibration and testing of a pressure-based three-component anemometer capable of measuring accurate wind speeds in extreme weather conditions. The groundwork, at the outset, covers the development of a 12-hole omni-directional flow-velocity measurement probe capable of measuring flows up to 155° from the probe axis. The new 12-hole design is optimal in the sense that the calculation of the four unknown flow quantities, i.e., two flow angles, flow speed and static pressure, is achieved with the minimum necessary number of holes/ports on the probe tip. The fact that this design has 33% lesser number of holes compared to an earlier design, has significant implications in the instrument’s spatial resolution, frequency response as well as cost of interfacing and usage. A prototype 12-hole probe with a spherical tip diameter of 3/8 inches was fabricated and tested. Good flow prediction accuracy was obtained. Further groundwork on multi-hole probe technology was carried out, developing new methods for correcting and refining the calibration and reduction procedures. When calibrating multi-hole velocity probes in a wind-tunnel, offset (or bias) errors often exist in the recorded flow angles due to errors in aligning the traverse system exactly with the flow direction and due to the angularity of the tunnel flow itself. These offset angles are hard to quantify from direct measurements with any degree of accuracy. Although usually small (less than 0.5° in most good calibrations), these errors still need to be corrected to increase the flow measurement accuracy of the probe. In this work, a method is developed that computes offset errors in all types of multi-hole probes – from the traditional 5- and 7-hole probes to the omni-directional 18-hole probe and the nextgeneration 12-hole probe – using simply the pressure data obtained during their calibration. The algorithm doubled the measurement accuracy for most probes. Other issues related to post-processing of the pressure data from flow studies, when the multihole probe encountered unsteady and reversed flow conditions, were also examined. The design of the anemometer (herein called a Weatherprobe) builds on that of the 12- hole probe and is capable of measuring wind velocities up to ±45° to the horizontal plane and 360° around the horizontal plane. Due to the non-conventional arrangement of its pressure ports, newly developed calibration and data-reduction algorithms were used. The probe was calibrated and its measurement accuracy assessed in a calibration facility. All associated instrumentation was assembled from the ground up and ruggedized for harsh-weather applications. Field tests performed over many days next to a 3-D sonic anemometer showed good agreement in measured flow properties, thus validating the entire Weatherprobe system. This probe has widespread applications in weather monitoring, wind energy potential estimations and structural wind load evaluations.

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Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / Background: Low back pain (LBP) is the most prevalent musculoskeletal condition experienced by human beings and the most common cause of disability in developed nations. Psychosocial factors, involving aspects of social and psychological behaviour, have previously been documented as potential risk factors in the development of adult LBP. However, more research is required to fully understand the role of psychosocial risk factors on the prevalence of LBP amongst adolescents. Objective: To determine the prevalence of LBP and to identify selected psychosocial risk factors associated with LBP amongst Grade 12 learners in the Greater Durban area. Methods: A population-based study was conducted amongst a stratified random sample of 20 public secondary schools in all three educational districts in the Greater Durban area. Data was collected by means of a structured questionnaire administered to the sample population consisting of Grade 12 learners. Using an exploratory research design, the individuals reported on demographics as well as prevalence, severity, frequency and chronicity of LBP. In addition, data was obtained regarding various psychosocial risk factors including depression, exam stress and anxiety, socio-economic status, family history of LBP, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse amongst the respondents. Results: The prevalence of LBP was 57.42% with a median frequency of 8 times a month. About a third (33.9%) of the respondents experienced difficulty bending whilst 35% reported that their LBP spread down to the legs below their knees. The daily activity most affected by LBP was having a good night‟s sleep (50.6%), followed closely by playing sports (47.4%) and concentrating in class (46.6%). The majority of the respondents that suffered from LBP had taken pain relief medication (47.1%) whilst only 21% of the respondents had missed school because of LBP. With regards to the psychosocial risk factors under investigation, three of the risk factors did not show any association to LBP. They included socio-economic status, smoking and recreational drug use. In contrast, five psychosocial risk factors showed an 6 association to LBP. They included alcohol abuse, family history, exam stress, anxiety and depression. Finally, after adjusting for all other risk factors for adolescent LBP, depression and high exam stress showed the strongest correlation with the occurrence of LBP amongst Grade 12 learners in the Greater Durban area. Conclusion: LBP amongst adolescents is a common problem that increases with age, representing a risk for LBP in adulthood. The researcher is of the opinion, that this illustrates the need for further investigations with more profound studies on the risk factors so that more light can be shed on how to manage this ever-growing problem.