No description available.

Organic nitrates, such as nitroglycerine (NTG), are widely used for their potent vasodilator capacity in the management of coronary artery disease and heart failure. Unfortunately, their beneficial effect is rapidly lost due to the development of nitrate tolerance, which is translated by an impaired vasorelaxation to NTG and an increased oxidative stress production. Although the mechanisms of the development of nitrate tolerance are still not fully elucidated, much interest has been focused in treating nitrate-receiving patients together with other drugs in order to overcome the development of nitrate tolerance. The Nitric Oxide generating enzyme, eNOS, and the superoxide anion generating enzyme, NAD(P)H oxidase, have been suggested to play a role in the development of nitrate tolerance. The aim of this study was to analyse the underlying mechanism by which ramipril, an ACE inhibitor and rosuvastatin, a new molecule of the statin class, are able to protect against the development of nitrate tolerance in the aortas isolated from rats, wild-type (wt) and eNOS-/- mice. These results show that ramipril as well as rosuvastatin are able to protect against the development of nitrate tolerance in the wt and eNOS-/- mice aortas suggesting that eNOS is not necessary for their protective effect. The aortas from nitrate tolerant rats and mice showed a significant increase in the NAD(P)H oxidase activation compared to the aortas from the control and from the co-treated ramipril+NTG or rosuvastatin+NTG animals. In line with these findings were the results obtained by RT-PCR analysis: the mRNA expression of the different subunits of the NAD(P)H oxidase, such as gp91phox, p22phox, were significantly decreased after rosuvastatin or ramipril treatment in wt and eNOS-/- mice aortas. Apocynin, the NAD(P)H oxidase inhibitor was also able to inhibit the development of nitrate tolerance in the rat and mouse aortas. In conclusion, these results suggest that rosuvastatin and ramipril are able to protect against the development of nitrate tolerance by counteracting the nitrate-induced oxidative stress. The mechanism of protection involves a direct interaction with the NAD(P)H oxidase pathway and seems to be completely independent of the eNOS pathway.

The insertion of the bathroom into the floor plan of the traditional gentry house at the end of the seventeenth century disrupted the established sequence of rooms and the social order embodied in it. The gradual and uncoordinated trend towards bathroom ownership partook of the evolution of ideas about privacy, comfort and the specialisation of rooms in the grand house, and culminated in the compact bathroom. The revival of bathing took place against the backdrop of the Scientific Revolution, and was initiated by physicians. At first, the benefits of different methods of bathing were hotly contested. However, by the end of the century, physicians were beginning to believe that cleanliness, rather than cold water, was the key to good health. Although the rich often continued to build large plunge baths, this shift paved the way for the eventual dominance of the compact bathroom. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a specialised bathing room within the house was out of reach for people of ordinary means. Changes to the plumbing trade were intertwined with developments that were to bring bathroom ownership within reach. In eighteenth-century Scotland, increasing numbers of bathroom projects might have been expected to expand the work of plumbers, but technological, commercial and legislative change—in particular the separation of design from construction—undermined their monopoly on their craft. Goods that had been manufactured on site and with local materials at the beginning of the eighteenth century were, by the beginning of the nineteenth, designed by a new breed of entrepreneur–inventor, manufactured by less skilled workers, and could be purchased in a shop and installed by a handyman with no particular trade identity. However, knowledge about the health benefits of bathing and technical advances are, in themselves, inadequate to account for the growing importance of bathrooms. The explanation lies in social, not technological or scientific change. Visiting public bathhouses exposed bathers to physical, moral and social pollution, at a time when failure to comply with the dictates of bodily cleanliness could provoke the disgust of one’s peers. Disgust constructed and policed the boundaries between social groups. Private bathing facilities met the requirements of bodily propriety without the risk of contamination. Moreover, a privately owned bathhouse in the grounds provided a focus for tourists or a site for intimate sociability. Bathhouses were a means of displaying wealth, taste and the fruits of the Grand Tour. Visitors could identify themselves with owners through the consumption of culture, improve their aesthetic skills through writing and drawing, and make claims to gentility through their appreciation of what they saw. As owners began to withdraw from the ever-increasing numbers of tourists, and from the formal sociability of the country seat, their bathhouses became a place for sociability in retirement which offered all kinds of entertainments, from boating and fishing, to cards and music.

Synthetic cathinones represent threatening and high abuse-potential designer drugs. These are analogs of cathinone (the b-keto analog of amphetamine (AMPH)) a naturally occurring stimulant found in the plant Catha Edulis. Methcathinone (MCAT) was the first synthetic analog of cathinone to be identified in 1987 by Glennon and co-workers and it exerted its action primarily through the dopamine transporter (DAT). Most central stimulants exert their action via monomaine transporters by causing either the release (e.g. cathinone analogs such as MCAT) or by preventing the reuptake (e.g. cocaine) of the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) thus increasing the extracellular synaptosomal concentration of this neurotransmitter. In 2010, a new class of designer cathinone-like drugs called ‘bath salts’, initially a combination of methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), methylone (methylenedioxymethcathione, MDMC) and mephedrone (MEPH), soared to popularity. It caused extremely detrimental side effects; it was exceedingly popular for its recreational use and posed a threat to public health. At the time, their mechanisms of action were unknown. Our group identified that MDPV produced actions distinct from other cathinone analogs (i.e., it was identified as the first cathinone-like compound to act as a reuptake inhibitor at the dopamine transporter (DAT)). These findings suggested that not all cathinone-like compounds act uniformly and this insinuated that unique structural features on the cathinone scaffold might contribute to different effects at the transporter level. The overall goal of this project was to study the mechanisms of action of synthetic cathinones (including ‘bath salts’) at the monoamine transporters. We investigated the contribution of each of various structural features on the cathinone scaffold (i.e, the terminal amine, a and b positions, and the phenyl ring). We also constructed homology models of the human dopamine and serotonin transporters (hDAT and hSERT respectively) to help explain differences in selectivity between the neurochemical and behavioral aspects of DAT and SERT. Overall we found that structural features contributed to similar or distinctive mechanisms of action and also contributed to selectivity at monoamine transporters. Our studies provide information that can be useful to drug and health regulatory agencies to help prevent, treat, or curb the future abuse of such drugs.

The purpose of the present PhD research project was to evaluate the feasibility of the electrodeposition of novel thin Ni composite coatings with lubricant particles from an additive-free Watts bath and their application as diffusion barrier layers in journal bearings for medium-speed diesel engines. Overall, the main objective was to develop thin Ni composite coatings with the following characteristics: • Improved tribological performance. • Good adhesion properties. • Good ‘anti-diffusion’ performance. Ultrasound was used in the preparation of pure Ni coatings and Ni composite coatings with lubricant particles under different conditions in order to understand how ultrasonic cavitation influences electrodeposition and characteristics of said Ni-based coatings. Two main studies were conducted related to this: 1. Study of the effect of ultrasonic power on the electrodeposition of pure Ni coatings to understand the influence of cavitation phenomena near the surface of the cathode on the properties of Ni deposits 2. Study of the effect of ultrasound on the production of Ni composite coatings to understand the influence of ultrasound in the dispersion of particles, the electrodeposition of Ni composite coatings and the properties of said Ni composite coatings. The influence of ultrasound on the dispersion of particles in the Watts bath was evaluated by observing the visual appearance of the resulting dispersions and analysing the particle size distribution of diluted solutions by laser diffraction-based particle sizing methods. The effect of ultrasound on the characteristics of Ni deposits and Ni composite coatings electrodeposited from the additive-free Watts bath was evaluated by different material characterization techniques: Abstract • X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis was employed to observe the orientation of the Ni crystals that formed the coatings. • Field Ion Beam – Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) was employed to analyse the surface morphology and microstructure of the coatings. • Microhardness tests were performed to observe how the modification of the grain structure and the presence of particles may affect the hardness of the coatings. • Glow Discharge – Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GD-OES) was also employed to estimate the particle content in the Ni composite coatings.

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é aplicar complexos de cobre(II), níquel(II), zinco(II) e nióbio(V) como fontes de metais em banhos de eletrodeposição. Os íons metálicos foram coordenados aos ligantes íon oxalato, íon citrato, etilenodiamina (EDA) ou tetraetilenopentamina (TEPA), os quais são aditivos orgânicos típicos em banhos de eletrodeposição. Os complexos foram caracterizados por análise elementar, espectroscopias nas regiões do infravermelho e ultravioleta-visível e voltametria cíclica. Foram realizadas eletrólises em presença de dois complexos de coordenação em ausência de quantias adicionais de aditivos, usando aço 1010 como substrato a pH = 4.5 (H2SO4/Na2SO4), resultando em depósitos com dois elementos metálicos. Os depósitos apresentaram aspectos morfológicos com boas qualidades e sem falhas. Em adição, os depósitos foram analisados por EDX, reflectância difusa e espectroscopia de raio-X e também foram realizadas medidas de curvas de polarização. Os depósitos obtidos a partir dos complexos gerados ex-situ mostraram morfologias melhores do que depósitos obtidos de soluções preparadas com os sais dos metais na presença dos aditivos, mediante as mesmas condições de trabalho. É sugerido que os metais de partida, coordenados a aditivos influenciam o processo de eletrodeposição, propiciando depósitos com potenciais de corrosão deslocados por até +200 mV em 0.5 mol.L-1 NaCl (1 mV.s-1). / The main goal of this work is to use copper(II), nickel(II), zinc(II) and niobium(V) complexes as metal plating source in electrodeposition baths. The metal ions were coordinated with oxalate, citrate, ethylenediamine (EDA) or tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) as ligands, which are typical organic additives in electroplating. The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopies and cyclic voltammetry. The electrolyses in presence of two coordination complexes in the baths were carried out in absence of extra amount of additive, using 1010 steel as substrate at pH = 4.5 (H2SO4/Na2SO4). Deposits with two metal elements from the ex-situ generated complexes showed good quality morphologic aspect without crashes. Further, the deposits were analyzed by EDX, diffuse reflectance and X-ray spectroscopy and polarization curves were recorded. The deposits showed better morphologies than deposits obtained from the metal salt solutions in presence of additives under similar conditions. It is suggestive that the starting metal plating coordinated with additives influences the electrodeposition processes, affording deposits with corrosion potentials shifted over +200 mV in 0.5 mol.L-1 NaCl (1 mV.s-1).

Apresentamos um estudo sobre o fenômeno da decoerência durante a evolução temporal de um estado atômico ao interagir com o campo eletromagnético de uma cavidade não ideal. Apresentamos um modelo em que o campo da cavidade esta acoplado a um banho externo e mostramos os efeitos dissipativos que este acoplamento pode gerar na decoerência para um sistema átomo campo. Discutimos as grandezas relevantes para analise da decoerência através de modelos analíticos e numéricos, principalmente entre os acoplamentos átomo campo e campo banho. Sugerimos que o retardamento observado no processo de decoerência seja uma característica geral em sistemas analisáveis como constituídos de três subsistemas acoplados sequencialmente, com propriedades espectrais e acoplamentos suficientemente assimétricos. / We present a study of the phenomenon of decoherence in the time evolution of an atomic state with the electromagnetic field of a non-ideal cavity. We present a model where the cavity field is coupled to an external bath and show the dissipative effects this coupling can generate in the decoherence of the atom field system. We discuss the relevant variables for the analysis of decoherence in terms of analytic and numerical models, especially the atom-field and field-bath couplings. We suggest that the observed hindrance of the decoherence process may be a general property in systems which can be considered as formed by three subsystems coupled sequentially, with spectral properties and sufficiently asymmetric coupling.

No description available.

Strategin Big Bath Accounting betecknar situationer då VD upprättar externredovisning efter förutbestämda mål och medvetet ändrar företagetsredovisningsmetoder. Artiklar som ifrågasätter företags externa redovisningförekommer regelbundet i svensk affärspress. Journalister diskuterar med storskepsis sanningen kring vissa börsbolags redovisade resultat. Uppsatsen syftartill att undersöka om denna strategi förekommer bland företag påStockholmsbörsen. Big Bath Accounting operationaliseras i denna studie tillnedskrivning av goodwill vid VD-byte eller vid negativt resultat. Studiengenomförs med ett positivistiskt angreppssätt och genom en hypotetisk-deduktivmetodologi undersöks de för studien fyra uppställda hypoteserna. Empirisktmaterial utgörs av årsredovisningar för perioden 2001-2006. Studiens analysvisar tydliga statistiska samband mellan nedskrivning av goodwill vid VD-byterespektive negativt resultat. De resultat som erhålls genom statistisk analysstyrker den teori som finns för området angående kreativ redovisning. / Uppsatsnivå: C

Traditionellt sätt har det varit svårt för forskare att dokumentera förekomsten ochomfattningen av manipulering av redovisningsmått. Big Bath Accounting är ett fenomen sominnebär att tveksamma redovisningsmetoder tillämpas i syfte att förvränga företagets verkligasituation, vilket ofta sker i samband med VD-byte och när företag redovisar ett för periodennegativt resultat. Intresset för ämnesvalet väcktes utifrån en tidigare studie om Big BathAccounting, som påvisade statistiska samband mellan nedskrivning av goodwill vid VD-byterespektive negativt resultat. I denna studie är syftet att utreda om statistiska sambandföreligger mellan företagets avsättningar vid VD-byte och negativt resultat enligt teorin BigBath Accounting. I studien undersöks inte alla avsättningar, utan endastomstruktureringsutgifter och övriga avsättningar, då de är svåra att kontrollera och utrymmekan finnas för kreativ tolkning. Studien avser att undersöka samtliga företag noterade påOMX Stockholmsbörs Large Cap, kreditinstitut exkluderas dock. Studien är av positivistiskoch kvantitativ karaktär. En statistisk analys har genomförts för att undersöka studiensuppställda hypoteser. Studiens insamlade data utgörs av sekundärdata, vilka hämtatselektroniskt från företagens årsredovisningar för åren 2001-2008. Det empiriska materialetutgör grund för de statistiska testerna i studiens analys. Den statistiska analysen påvisar etttydligt samband för mer frekventa avsättningar vid VD-byte och negativt resultat som inte ärslumpmässigt betingat. Vi kan med hänvisning till studiens tester påvisa statistiska belägg föratt fenomenet Big Bath Accounting förekommer.