Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that may follow exposure to severe emotional trauma and presents with various symptoms of anxiety, hyperarousal and cognitive anomalies. Interestingly, only 10-30% of an exposed population will go on to develop full-blown PTSD. Cholinergic neurotransmission is implicated in anxiety as well as other typical manifestations of PTSD, particularly cognitive changes. The frontal cortex and hippocampus regulate and in turn are affected by stress, and have also been implicated in the underlying neuropathology of PTSD. These areas are densely innervated by cholinergic neurons originating from the basal forebrain. In this study, the time dependent sensitization (TDS) model was used to induce symptoms of PTSD in animals. The study was designed to determine the long-term effects of an intense, prolonged aversive procedure on central muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) characteristics and the correlation if any of those findings to cognitive aspects and general arousal as characteristics associated with PTSD. In order to achieve this goal, male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to the TDS stress paradigm with behavioral/neuro-receptor assessments performed on day 7 post re-stress (duration of each experiment in whole is 14 days). Acoustic startle reflex (ASR) was used to determine emotional state (hyperarousal), while the conditioned taste aversion (CTA) paradigm was implemented in order to assess aversive memory. Muscarinic receptor binding studies were performed in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. Moreover, both the stress-exposed and control animals were pre-tested in the acoustic startle chamber in order to attempt to separate stress sensitive from stress-resilient animals based on predetermined ASR criteria. The ASR niodel was previously validated in our laboratory, while the CTA model was validated in this project before application. In the CTA model, an i.p. injection with lithium chloride (LiCl) (associated with digestive malaise), was used as unconditioned stimulus (US) and was paired with a saccharinlcyclamate drinking solution as conditioned stimulus (CS) to induce aversion to the novel taste (CS) when presented in the absence of the US. Population data of animals tested in the ASR experiment indicated no statistical significant difference between stressed and control animals. However, when each animal was assessed individually, 22.5 % of the exposed population displayed all increase above the predetermined criteria of 35 % in startle response, indicating a state of heightened arousal. In contrast, only 4.2 O h of control animals (no stress) displayed an increase in arousal based on the above mentioned criteria. Muscarinic receptor densities (Bm,) in the total population of animals exposed to stress showed a statistical significant increase in both the hippocampus and frontal cortex when compared to controls, with no changes in & values observed in either one of the areas. In the CTA experiment, TDS stress was implemented as US paired with a saccharinlcyclamate drinking solution as CS. An acute session of prolonged stress (as used in the TDS model) effectively induced aversion to a novel taste and a subsequent reminder of the stress (restress) paired with the CS sustained the acquire adversive memory. Furthermore, LiCl was reintroduced as US in order to assess the effect of prior exposure to two types of stress (acute and TDS) on subsequently acquired CTA memory. Prior exposure to acute stress had no significant effect on subsequently acquired aversive memory when measured either 3- or 7 days post-conditioning (CS-US). Stress-restress (TDS) exposure, however, indicated a significant decrease in aversive memory from 3- to 7 days post-conditioning (CS-US) as well as a significant decrease in aversive memory between the control- and the TDS group 7 days post-conditioning. The mAChR density (B,,) in the frontal cortex; but not in the hippocampus, was elevated at the same point in time (7 days post CS-US pairing) that CTA memory was impaired following TDS stress (stress-restress). Ultimately, these data support an association between altered cholinergic receptors and hyperarousallanxiety in an animal model of PTSD. The data also support the phenomenon of individual susceptibility to stress in animals that parallels that observed in humans exposed to severe trauma. Impaired aversive memory (CTA) is a consequence of prior exposure to TDS stress, but not acute stress, and is likewise mediated by an altered central cholinergic transmission displayed as an increase in mAChRs in the frontal cortex. The lack of studies regarding the influence of the cholinergic system in PTSD related behavior earns ,this project value as inimitable PTSD research. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmacology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis presents a detailed, two-dimensional analysis of the performance of multi-element guard-heated hot-film wall shear stress microsensors for turbulent flows. Previous studies of conventional, single-element sensors show that a significant portion of heat generated in the hot-film travels through the substrate before reaching the fluid, causing spectral and phase errors in the wall shear stress signal and drastically reducing the spatial resolution of the sensor. Earlier attempts to reduce these errors have focused on reducing the effective thermal conductivity of the substrate. New guard-heated microsensor designs proposed to overcome the severe deficiencies of the conventional design are investigated in this thesis. Guard-heaters remove the errors associated with substrate heat conduction, by forcing zero temperature gradient at the edges and bottom face of the hot-film, and hence, block the indirect heat transfer to the flow. Air and water flow over the sensors are studied numerically to investigate design, performance and signal strength of the guard-heated sensors. Our results show, particularly for measurements in low-conductivity fluids such as air, that edge guard-heating needs to be supplemented by a sub-surface guard-heater, to make substrate conduction errors negligible. With this two-plane guard-heating, a strong non-linearity in the standard single-element designs can be corrected, and spectral and phase errors arising from substrate conduction can be eliminated. / Graduate / 0548 / etrati@uvic.ca

In this thesis I describe the development of a compact camera for ground-based multi TeV gamma-ray astronomy, using the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) technique. The camera is based on multi-anode photomultipliers (MAPM) and is designed for use on the Gamma Cherenkov Telescope (GCT), which is proposed to be part of the Small Size Telescope (SST) array of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). GCT achieves high performance with a compact and cost efficient design via a Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) dual-mirror optical system. The GCT optical design allows the use of a compact camera of diameter roughly 0.5 m. The curved focal plane is equipped with 32 tiles of 64-pixels MAPM for a total of 2048 pixels of ~0.2° angular size, resulting in a field of view of ~9°. The GCT camera is designed to record the flashes of Cherenkov light from electromagnetic cascades, which last only a few tens of nanoseconds. I give a detailed description of the design, the challenges encountered during testing in the lab, and the performance of the most critical components. I give details on the custom front-end electronics modules that provide the required fast electronics, facilitating sampling and digitization, as well as first level of triggering. The camera-level triggering system is a custom backplane, developed to reject spurious triggers on the night sky background, which typically is of the order of few tens of millions of photons per pixel per second. This is to be compared with the rate of the astrophysical signal, which is of the order of few hundreds of events per second at the relevant energies. Additionally I provide a detailed description of all the software needed for the data acquisition and control of the camera, from the very low level drivers to high level and user friendly processes. I follow the commissioning of the camera, from the individual core components to the integration of the system. I then describe the integration of the camera on the GCT prototype telescope structure, and the achievement of "first light", validating for the first time the full proof-of-concept of an IACT with SC optics. I also report a study I performed on expectations for an extragalactic survey for blazars with CTA. The cumulative source count distribution of blazars is presented, including implications from two different phenomena: axion-like particle (ALP) to gamma-ray oscillations in the intergalactic magnetic field, and secondary gamma rays from hadronic origins. I conclude that a shallow and wide survey will provide the best science return for CTA, that the impact of ALP is modest and that the secondary mechanism of gamma-ray production would allow detection of blazars up to redshift of 1 in the multi-TeV energy band.

Submitted by Emanuel Varela Cardoso (emanuel.varela@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-28T20:29:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TONY CARLOS MOURA CAVALCANTI – TESE (PPGEEI) 2016.pdf: 4469755 bytes, checksum: 884382b3c566b4aca499dc522be900ab (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-28T20:29:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TONY CARLOS MOURA CAVALCANTI – TESE (PPGEEI) 2016.pdf: 4469755 bytes, checksum: 884382b3c566b4aca499dc522be900ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-12 / CNPq / O objetivo neste trabalho é propor um sistema para a hidrometria na faixa de submedição utilizando a anemometria térmica. O objetivo de medir vazão está presente em muitos campos da ciência, sendo necessário sabermos quais os valores de um material foram consumidos com o menor erro possível. Na primeira parte da pesquisa foram realizadas simulações em ambiente multifísico para identificar as condições de trabalho e possíveis pontos de localização do sensor. Para poder usar o sensor, é necessário conhecer valores limítrofes de trabalho do mesmo, ou seja, a faixa de operação, indicando assim a vazão mínima e máxima de operação do sensor anemométrico. Portanto, na segunda etapa do trabalho, foi proposta uma plataforma com um sistema de bombeamento para testar o sistema de medição proposto. A plataforma foi construída de modo a permitir que um fluído flua através de uma tubulação e, assim, determinar qual é a velocidade do fluído e, portanto, a vazão. / The objective of this work is to propose a system for the hydrometry in the sub-measurement range using thermal anemometry. The objective of measuring flow is present in many fields of science, it is necessary to know what values of a material were performed using COMSOL software to identify working conditions and maximum flow rate of the anemometric sensor. Therefore, in the second stage of the work, a platform with a pumping system was proposed in order to test the proposed measurement system. The platform was constructed so as to allow a fluid to flow through a pipeline, and thereby determine what the velocity of the fluid, and hence the flow, is.

La pollution de l'air est l'un des principaux problèmes de santé publique de notre siècle et surtout de l'air intérieur alors que nous passons environ 90% de notre temps dans des environnements fermés. Parmi les polluants les bioaérosols ont été peu étudiés. Cependant des études épidémiologiques ont déjà montré une relation entre les bioaérosols et la santé. Le but de cette thèse est d’étudier les virus respiratoires dans les milieux clos via les systèmes de ventilation. A l’issue d’un état de l’art des polluants de l’air, il est important de définir ceux nécessitant d’être traités, les systèmes de ventilation, les procédés de filtration par médias fibreux et les procédés de traitement pouvant être mis en oeuvre. Les effets des bioaérosols viraux dans les environnements intérieurs sur la santé publique ont été discutés dans une revue bibliographique. Une méthodologie a été mise en oeuvre pour étudier le comportement des virus dans une centrale de traitement de l’air (CTA). Les virus respiratoires, mengovirus (virus nu à ARN de la même famille que les rhinovirus responsables du rhume) et adénovirus (virus respiratoire nu à ADN), ont été choisis et étudiés dans un système expérimental miniature représentatif des systèmes de traitement d’air. La performance de filtration d’un filtre de CTA vis-à-vis des aérosols viraux a été évaluée avec une validation du système expérimental utilisé. Cette étude a montré la capacité des virus de passer à travers le filtre tout en restant infectieux. Peu de littérature existant sur le sujet, ce projet a permis d’ajouter de nouvelles données pertinentes quant à la persistance des virus respiratoires dans l’air intérieur et plus précisément au niveau des filtres dans les centrales de traitement d’air. / Air pollution is one of the major public health problems of our century and especially of indoor air as we spend about 90% of our time in closed environments. Among pollutants bioaerosols have been poorly studied. However, epidemiological studies have already shown a relationship between bioaerosols and human health. The aim of this PhD work is to learn about respiratory viruses in closed environments via ventilation systems in order to study indoor air quality. At the end of state of the art of air pollutants, it is important to define those present in the air that need to be treated, ventilation systems, filtration processes by fibrous media and the processing methods being able to be implemented. The effects of viral bioaerosols on public health in indoor environments were discussed and drafted in a bibliographic review. The methodology of the study was to assess the fate of respiratory viruses, mengoviruses and adenoviruses, in a miniature experimental system similar to air treatment systems used in closed environments. The experimental system used was validated and the filter performance against viral aerosols was investigated. This study presented originality for the characterization and the fate of two non-enveloped respiratory viruses, mengovirus (RNA) and adenovirus (DNA), in indoor environments and their fate on fiber glass filter. This study showed the ability of viruses to pass through the filter and to remain infectious upstream and downstream the filter. There is scarce literature on this subject, and this project allowed us to add new relevant data on the persistence of respiratory viruses in indoor air and more precisely at the level of filters in air handling units.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Marcelo Augusto Leigui de Oliveira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Física, Santo André, 2018. / O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir a distorção do fluxo de raios gama de altas energias (250 GeV ¿ 25 TeV) devido a processos de atenuação desde a fonte até sua chegada na Via Lactea. Entre esses processos estão a produção de pares pela interação com a radiação cósmica de fundo, principalmente EBL, e a oscilação de fótons em bosons pseudoescalares leves, chamados de partículas tipo áxion (ALPs). Também é discutido como será o sinal do fluxo detectado pelo Cherenkov Telescope Array, explicitando suas especificações técnicas e principais melhorias em relação aos detectores atuais, o que nos levará a uma nova geração de telescópios de raios gama. / The purpose of this research is to discuss the distortion of VHE gamma-ray flux (250 GeV - 25 TeV) due to attenuation processes along its path from the source to our galaxy, namely: pair production as a result of the interaction with the background cosmic radiation, especially EBL, and gamma-ray mix with a light pseudoescalar fundamental boson called axion-like particle (ALP). It is also discussed how this signal should appear at Cherenkov Telescope Array, emphasizing its technical specifications and major improvements over current IACTs, which will lead us to a new generation of gamma-ray telescopes.

In object oriented programming, a Call Graph represents the calling relationships between the program’s methods. To be more precise, a Call Graph is a rooted directed graph where each node of the graph represents a method and each edge (u, v) represents a method call from method u to method v. Focus of this thesis is on building a framework for Call Graph construction algorithms which can be used in program analysis. Our framework is able to be initialized by different front-ends and constructs various Call Graph algorithms. Here, we instantiate framework with two bytecode readers (ASM and Soot) as front-ends and implement three Call Graph construction algorithms (CHA, RTA and CTA). At first, we used two above mentioned bytecode readers to read the bytecode of a specific Java program, then we found reachable methods for each invoked method; meanwhile we kept obtained details on our own data structures.  Creating data structures for storing required information about Classes, Methods, Fields and Statements, gives us a great opportunity to implement an independent framework for applying well known Call Graph algorithms. As a result of these data structures, Call Graph construction will not depend on bytecode readers; since, whenever we read the bytecode of a program, we accumulate all necessary points in pre-defined data structures and implement our Call Graphs based on this accumulated data. Finally, the result is a framework for different Call Graph construction algorithms which is the goal of this thesis. We tested and evaluated the algorithms with a variety of programs as the benchmark and compared the bytecode readers besides the three Call Graph algorithms in different aspects.

This thesis consists of four independent essays that deal with several measurement aspects within the field of international trade. The measurement problems addressed are related to measuring the human capital content of trade in exports relative to imports or measuring tax evasion Essay 1, The Human Capital Content of Trade and its Measurement. Evidence from Swedish Data, deals with various measurement problems related to calculations of the human capital content of trade in exports relative to imports. This builds on the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek extension to the Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory. Essay 2, Product Quality Adjustment and the Human Capital Content of Trade. A New Computational Framework, builds on the same theoretical background, but introduces a quality-adjustment in the calculations of the human capital content of trade in exports relative to imports, which builds on the idea underlying vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT). Quality adjustment is performed, first, by assuming that a product sold at a higher price has a higher quality than the same product sold at a lower price and, second, by assuming that a highquality product implies a higher content of skilled labour than a low-quality product. Essay 3, Estimation of commodity-by-commodity input–output matrices, focuses on a new method in constructing symmetric input-output tables (SIOTs), which has been termed the Bohlin and Widell model, using data contained within supply- and use-tables (SUTs). One key contribution is that it makes it possible to estimate SIOTs in cases when the underlying SUTs are rectangular. The method also addresses the problem of negative coefficients, a long-standing issue encountered in the derivation of SIOTs. Essay 4, Tax evasion in Kenya and Tanzania: Evidence from missing imports, focuses on estimating the amount of tax evasion in trade between Kenya and Tanzania. The study is empirically focused, and the measurement errors in reported trade flows between both countries are correlated with tax rates, to determine whether the measurement error increases with the tax rate.

Diploma thesis deals with a research of the flow in front of three different automotive vents. The velocity field and intensity of the turbulence was measured in detail, using thermoanemometry. After that the same data was measured with PIV method and validation was performed. The difference between achieved data was investigated. The design among the vents was also investigated, because it’s fundamentally affects the air flow. The purpose of this thesis is to obtain data about the velocity field using two methods and their subsequent use to validate numerical simulations, which will be performed in the future. The diploma thesis also contains the calculation of measurement uncertainty.

The diploma thesis deals with research of the jet issuing from the defrost duct of Skoda Octavia car. Components of velocity and turbulence intensity were measured using hot wire anemometry. Obtained data were presented in graphs and contour maps. Results were confronted with previous research.