A remodelação óssea pode ser estimulada por forças mecânicas presentes nas atividades físicas normais. Mas, a diminuição dos estímulos mecânicos, observada em vôos espaciais (exposição dos astronautas ao ambiente de microgravidade), nas imobilizações ortopédicas e na permanência prolongada de pacientes no leito, pode causar danos significativos na estrutura óssea. Neste caso, aumenta o risco de fraturas, não durante o período de sub-carregamento, mas no retorno às atividades físicas normais. A contra medida mais estudada para evitar danos ou promover a recuperação da estrutura óssea, é o exercício físico. Portanto, um dos objetivos desta pesquisa surgiu do interesse em analisar mecanicamente e microscopicamente fêmures de ratos submetidos à hipocinesia e posterior treinamento em esteira. Outro objetivo surgiu da necessidade de desenvolver metodologias mais precisas de análises mecânicas em ossos longos de ratos. Foram utilizadas 66 ratas da raça Wistar. Os animais foram criados até a idade de 90 dias, para o início dos procedimentos experimentais. Eles foram divididos em cinco grupos, sendo dois controles e três experimentais. Os animais do grupo Cont I foram criados até completarem 118 dias de idade e serviu de controle para o grupo S (suspenso), que consistiu em suspender os animais pela cauda por 28 dias. Já no grupo Cont II os animais foram criados até 139 dias e foi o controle para os grupos S-L (suspenso e liberado) e S-T (suspenso e treinado). No grupo S-L os animais foram liberados por 21 dias, após o período de suspensão pela cauda. No grupo S-T os animais passaram por um protocolo de treinamento em esteira por 21 dias após a suspensão pela cauda. Foram analisadas algumas propriedades mecânicas do terço proximal do fêmur esquerdo e da diáfise do fêmur direito. Outra análise realizada foi a microscópica, por meio de fluorescência óssea da região do terço proximal do fêmur direito e da região da diáfise do fêmur esquerdo. A suspensão pela cauda provocou diminuição das propriedades mecânicas do terço proximal do fêmur dos animais, apesar de não apresentar diferença visível na análise microscópica. A liberação após a suspensão causou alterações no núcleo de ossificação, na esfericidade da cabeça e na placa de crescimento do terço proximal do fêmur, sem alterar o comportamento mecânico desta região. E o treinamento conservou o núcleo de ossificação e a esfericidade da cabeça após a suspensão, e também, não alterou o comportamento mecânico. A ossificação periosteal na diáfise do fêmur dos animais suspensos diminuiu, no grupo S-L foi mais acentuada no endósteo e, no grupo S-T o treinamento promoveu a recuperação do balanço osteogênico. A liberação promoveu a recuperação parcial do comportamento mecânico do osso cortical da diáfise do fêmur do rato e, o treinamento recuperou as propriedades e estimulou a formação de osso novo. / Bone remodeling can be stimulated by the mechanical solicitation from normal physical activities. Consequently, decreasing of mechanical stimuli as occurring during spatial flights, prolonged bed rest and orthopedic immobilization may cause significant weakening of the bone structure. In such cases there is an increased risk of fractures when the normal physical activities are resumed. Physical exercises are a way to try to strengthen the bone structure. Therefore, in the present research we investigated the mechanical behavior and microscopy analysis of long bones from rats that were previously maintained in tail suspension and later, submitted to physical exercise in a treadmill. An additional aim came up from the necessity to develop more precise technologies that mechanical testing in long bones of rats. Sixty-six Wistar rats were used. Firstly, the animals were raised until the age of ninety days and the divided into five groups (two controls and three experimental). The animals allocated to control I were killed at 118 days of age. In the groups S, the animals were tail suspended during 28 days. In the control group II the animals were killed at 139 days of age. In group S-R (suspended and released) the rats were keep free for 21 days after the tail suspension. In group S-T (suspended and trained) after the tail suspension period the rats were trained in treadmill during 21 days. The mechanical properties of the whole proximal third of the femur were analyzed in flexion-compression on one side and from the opposite side femur bone samples were harnested for three-point bending tests. Furthermore, the osteogeneses in different groups were studied at the mid-diaphysis of the femur and at the proximal femoral epiphysis with oxitetracycline. The suspension caused a decrease of the mechanical properties of the proximal femur. Resuming free activities in cage after the suspension period caused flattening of the femoral head and earlier closure of the growth plate, but no difference of the mechanical behavior was detected. Conversely, the treadmill training caused no alteration in the femoral head shape, but the mechanical properties did not change. The fluorescence studies showed that there was a decrease of the osteogenic activity at the subperiosteal level in suspended animals, but for suspended-released rats the diminished activity occurred at the endosteal level. The treadmill training caused recovering of the osteogenic balance. The post-suspension released in cage promoted partial recovery of the mechanical properties of the diaphyseal bone and the treadmill training besides recovering the normal mechanical properties did stimulate the new-bone formation.

A manutenção do metabolismo mineral normal dos ossos é um resultado de vários fatores inclusive as solicitações mecânicas que são aplicadas aos ossos pelas contrações musculares e força da gravidade. O propósito desta investigação foi estudar um modelo de suspensão de rato pela cauda que simulasse assim as alterações esqueléticas que podem acontecer em um ambiente de microgravidade. O modelo foi analisado em termos de tolerância do animal e os efeitos sobre a resistência mecânica do complexo tíbia-fíbula. Após a realização do ensaio de flexão em três pontos foram obtidos os principais parâmetros mecânicos (carga e deflexão no limite máximo, carga e deflexão no limite elástico, rigidez e resiliência). Foram utilizadas cinqüenta e três ratas fêmeas, distribuídas em quatro grupos conforme o período de suspensão (controle, 7, 14 e 21 dias). O modelo de suspensão mostrou-se eficaz com boa adaptação dos animais e promoveu um enfraquecimento significativo nos ossos principalmente no período de 21 dias / The maintenance of the normal metabolism of minerals in bone is a result of several factors including the mechanical demands that are applied to the bones by the muscle contractions and gravity force. The purpose of this investigation was to study a model of tail suspension of the rat thus simulating the skeletal alterations that may occur in a microgravity environment. The model was analyzed in terms of animal tolerance and the ensuing effects on the mechanical resistance of the tibiofibular complex. After a three-point bending test in flexion the main mechanical parameters were obtained, (load and deflection at the ultimate limit, load and deflection at the yielding point, stiffness and resilience). Fifty-three adult female rats were used and distributed in four groups according to the length of time in suspension (control, 7, 14 and 21 days). The model of suspension was efficient with well adaptation of the animals and caused a significative weakness of bones mainly in the 21 day period

Neste trabalho estudamos a dinâmica assintótica de uma classe de equações diferenciais de reação-difusão definidas em abertos de \'R POT. 3\' arbitrários, limitados ou não, com condições de fronteira de Dirichlet. Utilizando a técnica de estimativas de truncamento, como nos artigos de Prizzi e Rybakowski, mostramos a existência de atratores globais / In this work we study the asymptotic behavior of a class of semilinear reaction-diffusion equations defined on an arbitrary open set of R3, bounded or not, with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Using the tail-estimates technic based on papers of Prizzi and Rybakowski, we prove existence of global attractors

Bacteriophage MooMoo is a temperate phage that was isolated and propagated on Mycobacterium smegmatis (M. smeg). It typically produces turbid plaques, however spontaneous clear plaque mutants can be readily isolated. Both turbid (MooMoo-T) and clear plaque (MooMoo-C) formers can establish stable lysogens, but the parental turbid plaque forming phage has a higher lysogenic frequency. The phage repressor protein typically plays the central role in regulating the lysis/lysogeny decision. Therefore, we expected that the mutation responsible for the clear plaque phenotype would be located in the repressor gene. Remarkably, whole genome sequencing detected a single base pair mutation in the minor tail protein gene (gp19). The regulatory role of the repressor protein could not be excluded considering it was unclear how the mutation in gp19 was leading to the altered plaque phenotype. To locate the phage repressor, we used bioinformatics to identify several candidate genes with helix-turn-helix and DNA binding motifs (gp42, gp43 and gp44). We also cloned the parental and mutant gp19 genes. Each candidate gene was cloned into a shuttle vector. The clones of gp43, gp44 and both derivatives of gp19 did not prevent MooMoo growth, whereas the clones of gp42 inhibited phage growth. Based on these results, we concluded that gp42 is the phage repressor for MooMoo. To determine if the presence of gp19 alters lysogenic frequency, lysogeny assays of wild-type (WT) and mutant gp19 clones were evaluated. Compared to the MooMoo-C lysate, the cloned copy of the mutant gp19 showed a slight increase in lysogeny efficiency. The lysogeny frequencies on strains that carry cloned copies of gp19 (WT or mutant) were similar to those obtained on strains that lacked the plasmids. From these results, we concluded, the presence of either parental or mutant gp19 clones does not affect the lysogeny frequency. To determine if host cell physiology was affected by lysogeny, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur utilization resources were screened using high-throughput phenotypic microarrays. From these results, we concluded the presence of the WT or mutant prophage had no significant effect on the utilization of the resources tested.

A city consists of many elements such as humans, buildings, and roads. The complexity of cities is difficult to measure using Euclidean geometry. In this study, we use fractal geometry (scaling analysis) to measure the complexity of urban areas. We observe urban development from different perspectives using the bottom-up approach. In a bottom-up approach, we observe an urban region from a basic to higher level from our daily life perspective to an overall view. Furthermore, an urban environment is not constant, but it is complex; cities with greater complexity are more prosperous. There are many disciplines that analyze changes in the Earth’s surface, such as urban planning, detection of melting ice, and deforestation management. Moreover, these disciplines can take advantage of remote sensing for research. This study not only uses satellite imaging to analyze urban areas but also uses check-in and points of interest (POI) data. It uses straightforward means to observe an urban environment using the bottom-up approach and measure its complexity using fractal geometry.   Web 2.0, which has many volunteers who share their information on different platforms, was one of the most important tools in this study. We can easily obtain rough data from various platforms such as the Stanford Large Network Dataset Collection (SLNDC), the Earth Observation Group (EOG), and CloudMade. The check-in data in this thesis were downloaded from SLNDC, the POI data were obtained from CloudMade, and the nighttime lights imaging data were collected from EOG. In this study, we used these three types of data to derive natural cities representing city regions using a bottom-up approach. Natural cities were derived from open geographic data without human manipulation. After refining data, we used rough data to derive natural cities. This study used a triangulated irregular network to derive natural cities from check-in and POI data.   In this study, we focus on the four largest US natural cities regions: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The result is that the New York City region is the most complex area in the United States. Box-counting fractal dimension, lacunarity, and ht-index (head/tail breaks index) can be used to explain this. Box-counting fractal dimension is used to represent the New York City region as the most prosperous of the four city regions. Lacunarity indicates the New York City region as the most compact area in the United States. Ht-index shows the New York City region having the highest hierarchy of the four city regions. This conforms to central place theory: higher-level cities have better service than lower-level cities. In addition, ht-index cannot represent hierarchy clearly when data distribution does not fit a long-tail distribution exactly. However, the ht-index is the only method that can analyze the complexity of natural cities without using images.

During the flight of missiles, depending on the flight conditions, rotation of missiles around its centerline can cause instabilities. To override this issue, missile generally is designed in 2 sections. In the missile, the rear tail section and the front section are to rotate freely by means of bearings. Tail section on which bearings are mounted is designed according to thermal loads due to flow of hot gasses through the nozzle and mechanical loads due to inertial load, interference fit and thread preload which appear during flight of missile. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the most suitable structural parameters according to the flight conditions of missile. The geometrical and load parameters which have effect on the results were determined. Finite element model is formed by using FEA software. After that, transient nonlinear thermo-mechanical analyses are performed and the most effective parameter on VM (Von-Mises) stress and force is determined. DOE (Design of Experiments) method was used to determine the most suitable values for the structural parameters. Totally 27 different configurations are studied to achieve to the most suitable values for variable set. It is observed that VM stress and force results for all configurations are within the &plusmn / %5 ranges. So this means parameters don&rsquo / t affect the systems response very much. By taking manufacturing processes into consideration, configuration with the highest bearing inner/outer ring interference is taken. From the comparison of the results, the most suitable configuration is obtained after checking forces and VM stress on the bearings.

CYP2D6 metabolizes codeine to morphine, the active analgesic metabolite. Variation in brain CYP2D6 activity may affect brain morphine levels after codeine administration and thereby influence analgesia. We investigate the effect of inhibiting brain CYP2D on codeine-induced analgesia. METHODS: Rats received intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injections of CYP2D inhibitors or vehicle controls. Rats were then given subcutaneous codeine injections and analgesia was measured with the tail-flick test. Morphine and codeine concentrations in brain and plasma were measured. CYP2D activity in brain and liver were assessed in vitro. RESULTS: Compared to vehicle treatment, i.c.v. inhibitor treatments resulted in lower codeine-induced analgesia, lower morphine levels in brain but not in plasma after codeine injections, and lower CYP2D activity in brain membranes but not in liver microsomes. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibiting brain CYP2D reduces codeine’s metabolism to morphine, resulting in less analgesia. Variation in brain CYP2D6 activity may influence response to codeine and other CYP2D6 substrates.

CYP2D6 metabolizes codeine to morphine, the active analgesic metabolite. Variation in brain CYP2D6 activity may affect brain morphine levels after codeine administration and thereby influence analgesia. We investigate the effect of inhibiting brain CYP2D on codeine-induced analgesia. METHODS: Rats received intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injections of CYP2D inhibitors or vehicle controls. Rats were then given subcutaneous codeine injections and analgesia was measured with the tail-flick test. Morphine and codeine concentrations in brain and plasma were measured. CYP2D activity in brain and liver were assessed in vitro. RESULTS: Compared to vehicle treatment, i.c.v. inhibitor treatments resulted in lower codeine-induced analgesia, lower morphine levels in brain but not in plasma after codeine injections, and lower CYP2D activity in brain membranes but not in liver microsomes. CONCLUSIONS: Inhibiting brain CYP2D reduces codeine’s metabolism to morphine, resulting in less analgesia. Variation in brain CYP2D6 activity may influence response to codeine and other CYP2D6 substrates.

In the field of consumer goods the ecommerce industry has been growing rapidly. This rapid growth has created significant pressure on traditional retailers forcing them to institute change or risk being removed from the market. The primary objective of this study was to examine the shopping behavior of Umeå inhabitants in the Retail vs. Online Channels of the clothing sector. The goal was to identify key decision factors that cause consumers to choose a specific purchasing channel and use this information to create and test a conceptual model. The model focused on five decision factors including: (1) Loyalty (online, retail), (2) Physical Product, (3) Price, (4) Promotion, and (5) Convenience. We were also were interested in whether IT affinity (level of Internet browsing experience) had a direct relationship to the decision factors. To satisfy our research objective a deductive quantitative method was chosen. Information was tested in the form of a self-completion survey using a sample taken from 113 Umeå, Sweden residents between the ages of 18-29. This age group was specifically chosen, as almost 90% made purchases within a 4-month period (HUI, 2012 p.6). In the final analysis we concluded that all five decision factors in the Online Channel correlated whether positively or negatively, i.e., in some manner affected the final purchasing decision. The decision factors Loyalty Online, Promotion, and Physical Product were the strongest factors influencing the decision to purchase online. Price and IT Affinity correlated with Convenience, which in turn, correlated with Promotion, a decision factor contributing to online purchasing. Physical Product negatively correlated. Regarding the Retail Channel, the Physical Product was the strongest and only significant decision factor correlating positively to retail purchasing. With this understanding we conclude to a certain extent that consumers with a strong desire to try a physical product need other motivational factors to change channels toward online purchasing. Research on a larger scale would provide additional insight in this rapidly growing and interesting market.

High performance twin-tail aircraft, like the F-15 and F/A-18, encounter a condition known as tail buffet. At high angles of attack, vortices are generated at the wing fuselage interface (shoulder) or other leading edge extensions. These vortices are directed toward the twin vertical tails. When the flow interacts with the vertical tail it creates pressure variations that can oscillate the vertical tail assembly. This results in fatigue cracks in the vertical tail assembly that can decrease the fatigue life and increase maintenance costs. For many years, research has been conducted to understand this phenomenon of buffet and to reduce its adverse effects on the fatigue life of aerospace structures. Many proposed solutions to this tail buffet problem have had limited success. These include strengthening the tail, modifying the vortex flow, using an active rudder control, and leading edge extensions. Some of the proposed active controls include piezoelectric actuators. Recently, an offset piezoceramic stack actuator was used on an F-15 wind tunnel model to control buffet induced vibrations at high angles of attack. The controller was based on acceleration feedback control methods. In this thesis a procedure for designing the offset piezoceramic stack actuators is developed. This design procedure includes determining the quantity and type of piezoceramic stacks used in these actuators. The changes of stresses, in the vertical tail caused by these actuators during an active control, are investigated. In many cases, linear controllers are very effective in reducing vibrations. However, during flight, the natural frequencies of the vertical tail structural system changes as the airspeed increases. This in turn, reduces the effectiveness of a linear controller. Other causes such as the unmodeled dynamics and nonlinear effects due to debonds also reduce the effectiveness of linear controllers. In this thesis, an adaptive neural network is used to augment the linear controller to correct these effects.