FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / A composiÃÃo quÃmica de oito marcas comerciais de cones de guta-percha foi determinada e seus resultados correlacionados com a capacidade de selamento apical. As marcas investigadas foram: (AnalyticÃ, DenstplyÃ, DiadentÃ, MetaÃ, ObturaÃ,OdusÃ, Tanarià e UltimateÃ). Os componentes dos cones de guta-percha (ZnO, BaSO4, guta-percha e ceras ou resinas) foram inicialmente obtidas pelo mÃtodo de Friedman at al 38. A composiÃÃo dos cones foi obtida por anÃlise gravimÃtrica, microanÃlise de energia dispersiva de raios-X, difraÃÃo de raios-X e anÃlise elementar. O polÃmero guta-percha foi caracterizado por analise tÃrmica (TGA e DSC), viscosidade intrÃnseca, cromatografia de permeaÃÃo em gel, infravermelho e ressonÃncia magnÃtica nuclear. O mÃtodo descrito por Friedman et al 38 foi apropriado para quantificar os componentes do cone como a guta-percha e ceras/resinas, mas superestimou a quantidade de sulfato de bÃrio e Ãxido de zinco. Um aumento na mÃdia de sulfato de bÃrio de 3,5% em relaÃÃo ao valor correto de sulfato de bÃrio e de 43,6% em relaÃÃo a massa do cone foi observado. Os cones de guta-percha contem em torno de 14,5 a 20,4% de guta-percha e de 62,8 a 84,3% de Ãxido de zinco. Sulfato de bÃrio nÃo foi determinado em trÃs dessas marcas (DentsplyÃ, Odusà e TanariÃ). As anÃlises de TGA mostraram que os resÃduos inorgÃnicos obtidos por essa tÃcnica à similar aos resÃduos inorgÃnicos observados na anÃlise gravimÃtrica. As fases cristalinas do polÃmero guta-percha foram identificadas por DSC. As marcas AnalyticÃ, DiadentÃ, MetaÃ, ObturaÃ, Odusà e Tanarià apresentaram picos endotÃrmicos caracterÃsticos da b guta-percha. Nas duas outras marcas o polÃmero esta presente na fase a. A determinaÃÃo da massa molar por anÃlise viscosimÃtrica mostrou valores similares para sete marcas variando de 1,0 x 105 a 1,6 x 105 g/mol, entretanto o polÃmero presente na marca Tanarià apresenta uma menor massa molar (5,6 x 104 g/mol). Resultado similar foi obtido por GPC. / The chemical composition of eight commercially available of gutta-percha cones brands was determined and the results correlated with the apical seal ability. These brands were: (AnalyticÃ, DentsplyÃ, DiadentÃ, MetaÃ, ObturaÃ, OdusÃ, Tanarià and UltimateÃ). The gutta-percha cones components (ZnO, BaSO4, gutta-percha, wax and resins) were initially obtained by Frideman et al 38 method. The composition of cones was obtained by gravimetric analysis, energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis, X-ray diffraction and elemental analysis. The gutta-percha polymer was characterized by thermal analysis (TGA and DSC), intrinsic viscosity, gel permeation chromatography, infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance. The method described by Friedman et al 38 was appropriated to quantify gutta-percha and resin/wax components of cones, but led to overestimation of barium sulphate and zinc oxide. An average increase in the amount of barium sulfate of 3.5% in relation to the corrected BaSO4 mass value and of 43.6% in relation to cone mass was observed. Gutta-percha content range from 14.5 to 20.4% and zinc oxide from 62.8 to 84.3%. Barium sulphate was not detected in three of these brands (DentsplyÃ, Odusà and TanariÃ). TGA analysis shows that the inorganic residue obtained in this technique is similar of the inorganic residues observed in the gravimetric analysis. Crystal phases of gutta-percha polymer were identified by DSC. AnalyticÃ, DiadentÃ, MetaÃ, ObturaÃ, Odusà and Tanarià brands presents endothermic peak characteristic of b-guttapercha. In the other two brands the polymer is present in the a-phase. Molar mass determination by viscometric analysis shows similar values of seven brands in the average of 1.0 x 105 to 1.6 x 105 g/mol, however the polymer present in the Tanarià brand has lower molar mass (5.6 x 104 g/mol). Similar results were obtained by GPC. 11 The polymer present in the eight brands were analysed by IV and NMR, transpolyisoprene was identified as the main polymer component in the gutta-percha cones. The infiltration results of five brands (DentsplyÃ, TanariÃ, ObturaÃ, Odusà and Analyticà ) indicates that the small amount of gutta percha and also the presence of the a-phase in the Dentsplyà brand may be responsible for the high infiltration observed. A poor sealing ability was observed for brands with gutta-percha content lower than 16%.

Notre objectif a été d'analyser l'influence de la variabilité spatio-temporelle de la réflectance des cônes sur le comptage des cônes par imagerie à haute résolution par optique adaptative plein champ, et de proposer des méthodes pour pallier ces difficultés. La première partie des travaux porte sur l'étude de la variabilité temporelle des cônes. Nous avons confirmé la présence d'un phénomène de scintillement des cônes à une fréquence au moins égale à celle de notre système d'acquisition. Nous avons proposé une procédure d'analyse d'images incluant restauration par déconvolution myope, recalage rigide, fusion d'images pour la construction de cartographies de cônes. Nous avons montré que dans le cas des sujets sains, la procédure de fusion d'image permet de rapprocher la mesure de la densité des cônes des références histologiques. La directionalité de la réflectance des cônes est appelée effet Stiles-Crawford optique. Nous en avons identifié une nouvelle manifestation clinique, à travers une étude portant sur l'analyse d'images d'optique adaptative en périphérie de la rétine. Nous avons montré, à travers l'alternance des mosaïques positive/négative, que la réflectance des cônes peut devenir inférieure à celle des bâtonnets. La comparaison avec les données de la tomographie de cohérence optique a montré une forte corrélation de cette commutation avec la couche des segments externes des cônes. Nous avons proposé une procédure d'intégration de la variabilité spatiale pour la construction des cartographies. Cette procédure a été évaluée sur des sujets sains et pathologiques et a montré un gain significatif (en termes de dénombrement des cônes) chez les cas pathologiques. / Our objective was to analyze the importance of spatial and temporal variability of the reflectance of cones in counting for adaptive optics high resolution imaging, and propose ways to overcome these difficulties.The first part of the work focuses on the study of the temporal variability of cones. We confirmed the presence of a scintillation phenomenon at a frequency at least equal to that of our acquisition system. We have proposed an image analysis process including restoration by deconvolution, rigid registration, and image fusion for cone mapping. To validate this approach, we conducted a validation test for two deconvolution methods. We have shown that in the case of healthy subjects, the image fusion procedure to bring the measurement of cone density and histological references. The angular variation of cone reflectance is called optical Stiles-Crawford effect. We have identified a new clinical manifestation of this phenomenon, through a study on the analysis of adaptive optics images periphery). We have shown, through the alternation of the positive / negative mosaics, that the reflectance of the cones may become lower than that of rods. Comparison with the data of the optical coherence tomography showed a strong correlation of the switching with the outer segment layer. We then proposed a procedure of integration of spatial variability for cone mapping. This procedure was evaluated in healthy and diseased subjects and showed a significant gain (in terms of cone enumeration) in pathological cases.

Vision studies and visual acuity investigations are an ongoing and progressive field in veterinary ophthalmology. These independent studies all help to contribute to a combined and collective knowledge in our understanding of this truly complex matter. Understanding retinal morphology and physiology is an integral factor in piecing together overall function of the eye. Many of these studies have been done in both medical and veterinary ophthalmology using behavioural factors, electrophysiology, special staining and scanning techniques on a histological level. In the veterinary field many species have been studied pointing out similarities or differences among them. This study hopes to contribute to the understanding of the retinal ultrastructure of the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Twenty-five pairs of African buffalo eyes were obtained, but only forty-eight eyes were included in this investigation. The globes of one donor appeared to have chronic intraocular disease and were phthisical. Since this is a descriptive study of normal anatomy and function, these eyes were excluded. Globe dimensions were recorded and statistically analysed, revealing an average horizontal diameter of 32.91mm and a vertical diameter of 33.04mm. The median age of the donor group was 4 years with Using scanning electron microscopy it was established that African buffalo retinas, like other domestic species, have a specialised region a few millimetres dorsolateral to the optic disc, synonymous to the well described area centralis. In this region a higher concentration of cones is found as opposed to other rod-rich regions. In a concurrent investigation, the contralateral globes were processed for immunohistochemical antibody staining. Colour specific anti-bodies were used to identify the cone population present in the African buffalo retina. The conclusion of this investigation reveals that this species like other domestic animals has dichromatic colour vision, recognising short and medium to long colour wavelengths. / Dissertation (MMedVet)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Companion Animal Clinical Studies / unrestricted

Résoudre le Problème de Plateau signifie trouver la surface ayant l’aire minimale parmi toutes les surfaces avec un bord donné.Une partie du problème réside dans le fait de donner des définitions appropriées aux concepts de “surface”, “aire” et “bord”. Dans notre contexte les objets considérés sont ensembles dont la mesure de Hausdorff est localement finie. La condition de bord glissant est donnée par rapport à une famille à un paramètre de déformations compactes laquelle permet au bord de glisser le long d'un ensemble fermé. La fonctionnelle à minimiser est liée aux problèmes de capillarité et de frontière libre.On s'est intéressé aux cônes minimaux glissants, c'est à dire les cônes tangents aux surfaces minimaux glissantes dans des points sur son bord. En particulier on a étudié les cônes contenus dans un demi-espace dont le bord peut glisser le long l'hyperplane bornant le demi-espace. Après avoir donné une classification des cônes minimaux de dimension un dans le demi-plan on a présenté quatre nouveau cône minimaux de dimension deux dans le demi-espace (lesquels ne peuvent pas être obtenus comme un produit cartésien d'un des cône précédents avec la droite réelle). La technique utilisé c'est les calibrations couplées, qui dans un cas on a pu généraliser en grands dimensions.Afin de montrer que la liste des cônes minimaux est complète on a entamé la classification des cônes qui satisfont les conditions nécessaires pour la minimalité, pour lesquels on a obtenu des meilleurs compétiteurs à l'aide des simulations numériques. / Solving the Plateau problem means to find the surface with minimal area among all surfaces with a given boundary. Part of the problem actually consists of giving a suitable definition to the notions of “surface”, “area” and “boundary”. In our setting the considered objects are sets whose Hausdorff area is locally finite. The sliding boundary condition is given in term of a one parameter family of compact deformations which allows the boundary of the surface to moove along a closed set. The area functional is related to capillarity and free-boundary problems, and is a slight modification of the Hausdorff area.We focused on minimal boundary cones ; that is to say tangent cones on boundary points of sliding minimal surfaces. In particular we studied cones contained in an half-space and whose boundary can slide along the bounding hyperplane. After giving a classification of one-dimensional minimal cones in the half-plane we provided four new two-dimensional minimal cones in the three-dimensional half space (which cannot be obtained as the Cartesian product of the real line with one of the previous cones). We employed the technique of paired calibrations and in one case could also generalise it to higher dimension.In order to prove that the provided list of minimal cones is complete, we started the classification of cones satisfying the necessary conditions for the minimality, and with numeric simulations we obtained better competitors for these new candidates.

Axon pathfinding is an important process required for the establishment of proper neuronal connections during development. An increasing number of secreted and membrane-anchored molecules have been identified as axon guidance cues, which can act as positive or negative factors to increase or decrease the growth of axons and influence the direction of axonal growth. These axon guidance factors present in the extracellular environment interact with receptors present on the growth cone, a structure located at the tip of the axon which functions as the motor unit for the axon. Upon binding to their receptors on the growth cone, the guidance factors then elicit an intracellular signaling cascade within the axon that ultimately influences the direction of axon growth, often through a direct, non-transcriptional mechanism. In this dissertation, we show that Sonic hedgehog (Shh) acts as an axon guidance factor for chick retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons in a concentration-dependent manner. At a low concentration, Shh functions as a positive factor that induces axon growth and attractive turning while, at a high concentration, Shh functions as a negative factor that induces axon retraction and repulsive axon turning. We further characterized the effects of Shh on macropinocytosis, a fluid-phase type of endocytosis, in the axons. A high concentration of Shh significantly increased macropinocytosis in the axons. Macropinocytosis resulted in the generation of large, dextran-positive, clathrinindependent vesicles in the axonal growth cones, prior to growth cone collapse, axon retraction and repulsive axon turning. These vesicles were found to require dynamic F-actin, nonmuscle myosin II and dynamin for their formation but were formed independently of PI3 kinase signaling. Interestingly, a low concentration of Shh had an opposite effect on macropinocytosis. A low concentration of Shh and soluble laminin decreased macropinocytosis and additionally increased the turnover of these vesicles within the axons, suggesting positive axon guidance factors can additionally regulate downstream processing or maturation of these vesicles. The effect of Shh on regulating the motility of macropinosomes within the axons was investigated. A low concentration of Shh appeared to increase the motility of these vesicles along axonal microtubules in a cAMPdependent manner. However, a high concentration of Shh did not appear to affect the motility of the macropinosomes, suggesting that it likely plays a more predominant role in the formation of these vesicles within the growth cone. When we began this work, a large body of research existed describing the effects of guidance factors on regulating the cytoskeleton during axon motility. However, the role of membrane trafficking events during axon growth and guidance were very poorly characterized. Since we began this project, an increasing number of reports have shown that endo- and exocytosis are important for axon growth and, here, we show that macropinocytosis induced by negative axon guidance factors plays a critical role in growth cone collapse, axon retraction and repulsive axon turning. Positive axon guidance factors also affect macropinocytosis within the axons and additionally regulate their maturation, suggesting that membrane trafficking events mediated by axon guidance factors are important for regulating axon growth and pathfinding.

Pinus prekesiya Xing, Liu et Zhou sp. nov. was described as a new species on the basis of two well preserved ovulate cones from the upper Miocene of central Yunnan, southwestern China. It is the first fossil record of three dimensionally preserved Pinus ovulate cones from China. Morphological comparisons with 15 previously published Cenozoic cones and seven related extant pine species reveal that the fossil cones are identified as a new species, P. prekesiya sp. nov., which belongs to subsection Pinus of subgenus Pinus. The new species shows a combination of characters of P. kesiya and P. yunnanensis, but has a closer affinity with P. kesiya which occurs in the humid region of Yunnan and therefore suggests a more humid climate in central Yunnan during the late Miocene than today. The general cooling trend during the late Neogene and topographic change due to the dramatic Tibetan uplift might have caused a vicariant origin of P. kesiya and P. yunnanensis from the ancestral P. prekesiya.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第18444号 / 理博第4004号 / 新制||理||1577(附属図書館) / 31322 / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 加藤 毅, 教授 堤 誉志雄, 教授 小野 薫 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第20886号 / 理博第4338号 / 新制||理||1623(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 長谷川 真人, 教授 向井 茂, 准教授 照井 一成 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

The debate on whether water exists on Mars has been resolved by recent data from the Mars Phoenix Polar Lander. The lander found water ice just below the surface in the high northern latitudes of Mars. The questions to be answered now are: how much water was present in the past, how much water is currently present, what was the state the water in the past, and what is the current state of water on Mars. The morphology and spatial relationships are examined between three different landforms (pitted cones, giant polygons, and putative shorelines) considered to be the result of water-related processes. At two locations, Utopia Planitia and Cydonia Mensae, these three features exhibit the same topographic relationship. Non-water-related features adjacent to or nearby the landforms, such as the Dichotomy Boundary, multi- ringed basins, and locations of recent methane release, are examined for possible relationships to the formation of these 3 landforms. My results support previous work that indicates a large water body existed in the northern lowlands of Mars at some time in the past. In addition large amounts of sediment must have been shed from the highlands to the lowlands during this period to support the mud volcanism and giant polygon formation. Evidence also exists that mud volcanism was a common phenomenon during, and possibly after, the existence of the water body.