The knowledge on the conformations of amino acids is essential to understand the biochemical behaviors and physical properties of proteins. Comprehensive computational study is focused to understand the conformational landscape of three aromatic amino acids (AAAs): tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. Three different density functionals (B3LYP, M06-2X and wB97X-D) were used with two basis sets of 6-31G(d) and 6-31+G(d,p) for geometry optimizations of the conformers of AAAs followed by the vibrational frequencies. The goal was to identify the right choice of density functional theory (DFT) level for conformational analysis of amino acids by comparing the computational data against the available experimental results. Calculated infrared (IR) frequency values indicated that wB97X-D/6-31+G(d,p) level is less favorable than other DFT levels in case of O-H and N-H stretching frequencies for the conformers of AAAs. The C=O stretching frequencies at different computational levels were in good agreement with the experimental results. Interactions of AAAs (tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine) and two cyclic amino acids (histidine and proline) individually with two finite-sized graphene sheets (C62H20 and C186H36) were explored using M06-2X/6-31G(d) level. Computational investigations of the binding of amino acids with graphene provide knowledge for designing of new graphene-based biological/biocompatible materials. Selected conformers for each amino acid with different orientations on the surface of graphene were examined. The purpose of computational study on graphene-amino acids interactions was to identify the preferred conformer of amino acid to bind on graphene as well as to find the influence of amino acid binding on the band gap of graphene. Different conformers of AAAs generally prefer parallel orientation through π-π interactions to bind with graphene. However, bent orientation is more preferred over parallel to bind on the surface of graphene in case of conformer having relative energy approximately equal to 5 kcal/mol for all three AAAs. Histidine generally exhibits higher binding affinity than proline to form complex with graphene. The binding energies in the aqueous medium were slightly lower than those obtained in the gas phase with some exceptions. The adsorption of amino acids did not affect the band gap of graphene.

With the change in behaviour from the customers’ side, due to the increased use of digital environments, marketers have seen a value in customer related data. In order to fully benefit from the data, many marketing efforts have been brought back in to the own organisation. This study aims to further explain how the marketing department have been affected by the changing in-house trend and give practical suggestions on how to cope with the challenges. Previous research in the area has been reviewed and a summary has been conducted. The data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with marketers from various industries. Respondents with insightful information in the modern marketing department was interviewed and the findings later analysed. The analysis was conducted with support of categories established from the findings in the literature review. The study resulted in a confirmation of the in-house trend in modern marketing departments and the challenges facing them. The findings of the study have contributed to previous literature by confirming and adding insights in a field where most research is made by trade organisations. An independent academic study in the field could be seen as an important addition to the existing literature in the area. For marketers in the area, a greater understanding of the problem will help make the marketing efforts more effective. Key findings include the importance in understanding the customer and what is required in order to make best use of the in-house marketing department.

Organic solar cells have been showing promise as a way of producing renewableenergy with the help of light, flexible, and production effective materials.The efficiencies and lifetimes reached in organic solar cells have steadily beenincreasing over the years as more research in the field is being conducted.One way of increasing the efficiency in organic solar cell devices is introducingan interlayer between the photoactive material and the anode, referred toas the ’hole transport layer’. Most commonly used as a hole transport layer isthe material PEDOT:PSS, which offers desired properties such as transparency,simple processing and good ohmic contact between anode and photoactive material.PEDOT:PSS is also known to be a degradation site in organic solar cells,as it will corrode the electrode in the presence of water.This project has consisted of investigating PEDOT:PSS along with two othercandidates that may one day come to replace PEDOT:PSS as the most commonlyused material, molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) and phosphomolybdic acid(PMA). The aim was to investigate how the different materials energy bandstructure would be affected upon exposure to sunlight, air and annealing, byobserving the work function under different conditions.

Magister Legum - LLM / The prominent role of cities in contemporary developing countries, especially in South Africa, purposively cannot be overstated. Home to 40 per cent of South Africa’s population and accounting for 63 per cent of the national gross domestic product (GDP), cities, in the words of the former Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba, ‘are at heart of the national economy.’ Yet, despite being at the epicentre of the national economy, cities in the form of metropolitan municipalities (Category A), also known as ‘self-standing municipalities', face a significant mismatch between their expenditure responsibilities and revenue sources.5 Not unique to South African cities, this mismatch, notoriously known as the ‘fiscal gap’ or ‘fiscal imbalance’, arises when own revenue sources such as, property rates, user charges, levies and other taxes available to cities, are inadequate to meet their expenditures.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / District leaders are under tremendous pressure to narrow disparities in achievement in an effort to close the achievement gap without tremendous guidance from policy makers, researchers or literature. Rorrer, Skrla, and Scheurich (2008) proposed a theory that district leaders enact four essential roles when engaging in systemic reform that improves achievement and equity: (1) providing instructional leadership which consists of building capacity and generating will, (2) reorienting the organization, (3) establishing policy coherence, and (4) maintaining an equity focus. This research examined the essential role of maintaining a focus on equity as a complex multiple construct. This qualitative case study explored how leaders in a Massachusetts public school district that made gains in improving achievement, attempted to maintain a focus on equity when enacting the role of instructional leadership. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews and a review of documents, this study concluded that leaders enacted the role to varying degrees in some ways that were consistent with Rorrer, et al. (2008). Data revealed that leaders attempted to address inequities through responsive leadership practices that connected with their notion of equity as it related to language, special needs, emotional wellness and poverty. Recommendations include how leaders can enact the role in a more informed, intentional, and deliberate manner through the development of Culturally Responsive Instructional Leadership. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Eric Dearing / Emerging research in developmental psychology and neuroscience suggests that childhood poverty is associated with high levels of exposure to multiple contextual risks, which cumulatively lead to persistent elevated stress levels that have a direct, as well an indirect (e.g., through parental processes), impact on child cognitive, academic, and socioemotional functioning (Evans & Kim, 2013). Such research has begun to change the way that scholars and practitioners envision the context of poverty, the persistence of the income-achievement gap, and the types of interventions that may be most effective in addressing disparities in children’s long-term educational success. However, research on the relations between poverty-associated stress and child outcomes is still in its infancy and many questions remain. In particular, it is unclear whether changing family economic circumstances matter, a question of concern for developmental science and public policy. Moreover, there is little work on moderators of relations between income, stress, and child outcomes, which could help identify factors that buffer children from the harm of stressful home environments. With longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics’ Child Development Supplement, the present study used fixed effects models to examine within-child associations between changes in family income, cumulative risk exposure (as measured by an index that includes a range of poverty-related stressors, such as economic strain, neighborhood crime, and physical and psychological home environments), and children’s cognitive, academic and socioemotional functioning. In addition, moderators of these associations were investigated in order to identify potential protective mechanisms and crucial levers for interventions and policy development. On the whole, findings were consistent with the cumulative stress model. On average, the estimated direct effects of changes in family income (i.e., prior to examining mediation or moderators) were not significant for changes in child outcomes. Yet, changes in income were, for the sample as a whole, indirectly related via changes in cumulative risk exposure: increases in income predicted decreases in cumulative risk exposure which, in turn, predicted improvements in achievement and declines in externalizing behavior. Additionally, these relations were moderated by child age, initial level of family income, and initial level of cumulative risk. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

MASTERS FACULTY OF HUMANITIES SCHOOL OF LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE STUDIES STUDENT NO: 0111542N / The study deals with term creation in translation comparing isiXhosa and isiZulu in relation to paraphrasing, borrowing, compounding, semantic transfer and derivation as five major processes used by translators in African Languages to compensate for terminology gap. The study is conducted within the Descriptive Translation Studies approach and it deals with how translator’s strategies are influenced by norms. The extracted source text terms in this study are from the English Constitution as the source text whilst the isiXhosa and isiZulu terms are extracted from the isiXhosa and isiZulu Constitutions respectively. The study has indicated that out of the five selected processes, paraphrasing is the most frequently chosen strategy in African Languages. With regard to borrowing, it has been shown that not all types of borrowing (as discussed by Cluver 1989) are possible in these languages and that every borrowed term has to be modified according to phonological, morphological and orthographical rules of these two languages. The study is concluded by arguing that term creation processes in translation are universal features of translated texts in African languages and they are effective translation strategies in languages of limited diffusion. In addition, translated texts are sources/ depositories of terminology and consequently they can play a role in language development activities.

This is an action research study which focuses on a didactical model founded on base ten decomposition as an algorithm for performing division on naturals. Base ten decomposition is used to enhance the algebraic structure of division on naturals in an attempt to cross the cognitive divide that currently exists between arithmetic long division on naturals and algebraic long division on polynomials. The didactical model that is proposed and implemented comprises three different phases and was implemented over five one hour lessons. Learners’ work and responses which were monitored over a fiveday period is discussed in this report. The structure of the arithmetic long division on naturals formed the conceptual basis from which shorter methods of algebraic long division on polynomials were introduced. These methods were discussed in class and reported on in this study.

As junções comunicantes medeiam a comunicação entre células e são fundamentais para o desenvolvimento e homeostase em organismos multicelulares. Nos invertebrados as junções são formadas por proteínas transmembrana denominadas inexinas. As junções permitem a passagem de pequenas moléculas através de um canal intercelular, entre uma célula e outra adjacente. O díptero Rhynchosciara americana tem contribuído para o estudo da biologia dos invertebrados, bem como para o estudo da interação entre genes, regulação gênica e desenvolvimento biológico. A partir de um banco de ESTs foram identificadas algumas mensagens com homologia as inexinas. Deste modo, o presente trabalho pretende estudar a inexina-2 de R. americana pela: caracterização molecular; análise do perfil expressão; e localização celular. Os nossos resultados de caracterização confirmam que a mensagem é de uma proteína de junção comunicante e as análises do perfil de expressão e localização celular mostram que a inexina-2 pode participar de diversos processos fisiológicos ao longo do desenvolvimento de R. americana. / The gap junctions mediate communication between cells and are fundamental to the development and homeostasis in multicellular organisms. In invertebrates the gap junctions are formed by transmembrane proteins called innexins. The gap junctions allow the passage of small molecules through an intercellular channel, between a cell and other adjacent. The dipteran Rhynchosciara americana has contributed to the study of the biology of invertebrates, as well as for the study of the interaction between genes, gene regulation and biological development. As from a ESTs bank identified some messages with homology connexins. Therefore, this paper aims to study the innexin R. americana by: molecular characterization; analysis of the expression profile; and cellular localization. Our molecular characterization results confirm that the message is from a gap junction protein and analysis of the expression and cellular localization profile show that innexin can participate in many physiological processes during the development of R. americana.

Research Questions: “What knowledge do Generation Y consumers’ have about sustainability in the fast fashion industry?” and “How do the factors of the attitude-behavior gap influence the Generation Y consumers in their decision making for fast fashion clothes?”       Problem Formulation: Sustainability as a topic has regained great attention over the last couple of years. Generation Y consumers’ demand for more sustainable actions, especially in fast fashion, puts increasing pressure on the industry. As the biggest consumer cohort, it is important for fast fashion companies to meet their needs and demands for more sustainable actions to stay competitive. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the perception of sustainability of Generation Y consumers’ in the fast fashion industry by looking at eight factors that influence the attitude-behavior gap, namely Price Sensitivity, Ethical Obligation, Lack of Information, Subjective Norm, Quality, Inertia, Cynicism and Guilt. Additionally, the previous knowledge about sustainability in the fast fashion industry of this generation will be investigated by using the triple-bottom line approach of economic, environmental and social aspects. Methodology: This thesis utilized a qualitative methodology by conducting semi-structured interviews. The research consists of 6 participants from the Generation Y. The interviews were performed personally face-to-face. Findings/Conclusions: The findings indicate that the factors of the attitude-behavior gap still influence Generation Y consumers’ in their purchase decisions for fast fashion brands. They are more hesitant to invest in acquiring clothes from fast fashion retailers, as they see them as violating to the society and the environment. Therefore, Generation Y consumers would rather purchase sustainable clothes from sustainable companies that are behaving and producing their clothes in a right, sustainable and ethical way. Hence, their attitude indicates to be similar to their potential purchasing behavior. Furthermore, Generation Y consumers’ hold a broad, detailed knowledge about sustainability of all three parts of the triple bottom line.