In this thesis project, a building in Vegagatan 12, Gävle has been analysed. The main objective has been to find why it consumes more energy than it was expected and to solve theoretically the problems.This building is a low energy building certified by Miljöbyggnad which should use less than 55kWh/m2 year and nowadays it is using 62.23 kWh/m2. In order to find why the building is using more energy than the expected several different things has been measured and analyzed.First of all, the heat exchanger of the ventilation unit has been theoretically examined to see if it works as it should and it does. This has been done using the definition of the heat exchangers.Secondly, the heating system has been analysed by measuring the internal temperature of the building and high temperatures have been found (around 22°C) in the apartments and in the corridors. This leads to 5-10% more use of energy per degree.Thirdly, the position and the necessity of all the heaters have been checked. One of the heaters may not make sense, at least in the way the building has been constructed. This leads to bigger heating needs than the expected.Fourthly, the taps and shower heads have been checked to see if they were efficient. Efficient taps and shower heads, reduce the hot water use up to 40%. The result of this analysis has been that all taps and shower heads are efficient.Fifthly, the hot water system has been studied and some heat losses have been found because the lack of insulation of several pipes. Because of this fact 8.37kWh/m2 are lost per year. This analysis has been carried out with the help of an infra red camera and a TA SCOPE.Sixthly, the theoretical and real U values of the different walls have been obtained and compared (concrete and brick walls). As a conclusion, the concrete wall has been well constructed but, the brick wall has not been well constructed. Because of this fact 1 kWh/m2 of heat are lost every year. Apart from that, windows and thermal bridges have also been checked.

No description available.

No description available.

The rational design of an HIV-1 vaccine immunogen able to induce potent, cross-reactive, neutralising antibodies remains one of the single greatest challenges in the field of vaccine research today. Roughly a dozen broadly neutralising monoclonal antibodies have been isolated to date, and their epitopes represent important vaccination targets. Interestingly, apart from three that identify over-lapping epitopes in gp41, all of the broadly neutralising monoclonal antibodies target epitopes apparent on different conformations of gp120 (including the epitopes of PG9/PG16). Thus the gp120 monomer remains the most ideal template for immunogen design. Recently, epitopes in the C3-V4 region of gp120 have been shown to be major targets for early strain-specific neutralising antibodies in subtype C infected individuals. Autologous neutralising antibodies identify vulnerable sites on the envelope, and understanding the nature of antigenic “hotspots” on gp120 will help to guide rational vaccine design. This study sought to confirm in four individuals that the C3-V4 epitope was in fact apparent on monomeric gp120, and thereafter to better characterise the nature of viral escape from these antibodies. Using magnetic beads coated with one of 16 different recombinant gp120 proteins it was confirmed that the C3-V4 response was aimed at a monomer-specific epitope in all four cases. In two instances these antibodies were shown to contribute to autologous neutralisation, while in a third the existence of quaternary structure specific antibodies that could not be adsorbed with monomeric gp120 made this link impossible. In the forth instance transfer of the C3-V4 region was shown to expose a normally occluded epitope in the CD4 binding site. This research also provided evidence for other epitopes for autologous neutralising antibodies in C3, overlapping with the CD4 binding site and V5. Lastly, by introducing relevant escape mutations into the parental recombinant gp120s and then comparing the ability of these proteins to adsorb out anti-C3 antibodies, it was shown that while these mutations conferred complete resistance to neutralisation they did not prevent the antibodies from binding to their respective epitopes. The extensive characterisation of C3-related epitopes such as those described in this research should no doubt contribute to the rational design of a gp120 based vaccine immunogen aimed at eliciting broad and potent neutralising antibody responses.

The design of envelope-constrained (EC) filters is considered for the time-domain synthesis of filters for signal processing problems. The objective is to achieve minimal noise enhancement where the shape of the filter output to a specified input signal is constrained to lie within prescribed upper and lower bounds. Traditionally, problems of this type were treated by using the least-square (LS) approach. However, in many practical signal processing problems, this "soft" least-square approach is unsatisfactory because large narrow excursions from the desired shape occur so that the norm of the filter can be large and the choice of an appropriate weighting function is not obvious. Moreover, the solution can be sensitive to the detailed structure of the desired pulse, and it is usually not obvious how the shape of the desired pulse should be altered in order to improve on the solution. The "hard" EC filter formulation is more relevant than the "soft" LS approach in a variety of signal processing fields such as robust antenna and filter design, communication channel equalization, and pulse compression in radar and sonar. The distinctive feature is the set of inequality constraints on the output waveform: rather than attempting to match a specific desired pulse, we deal with a whole set of allowable outputs and seek an optimal point of that set.The EC optimal filter design problems involve a convex quadratic cost function and a number of linear inequality constraints. These EC filtering problems are classified into: discrete-time EC filtering problem, continuous-time EC filtering problem, and adaptive discrete-time EC filtering problem.The discrete-time EC filtering problem is handled using the discrete Lagrangian duality theory in combination with the space transformation function. The optimal solution of the dual problem can be computed by finding the limiting point of ++ / an ordinary differential equation given in terms of the gradient flow. Two iterative algorithms utilizing the simple structure of the gradient flow are developed via discretizing the differential equations. Their convergence properties are derived for a deterministic environment. From the primal-dual relationship, the corresponding sequence of approximate solutions to the original discrete-time EC filtering problem is obtained.The continuous-time EC filtering problem (semi-infinite convex programming problem) is handled using the continuous Lagrangian duality theory and Caratheodory's dimensionality theory. Several important properties are derived and discussed in relation to practical engineering requirements. These include the observation that the continuous-time optimal filter via orthonormal filters has the structure of a matched filter in cascade with another filter. Furthermore, the semi-infinite convex programming problem is converted into an equivalent finite dual optimization problem, which can be solved by the optimization methods developed. Another issue, which relates to the continuous-time optimal filter design problem, is the design of robust optimal EC filters. The robustness issue arises because the solution of the EC filtering problem lies on the boundary of the feasible region. Thus, any disturbance in the prescribed input signal or errors in the implementation of the optimal filter are likely to result in the output constraints being violated. A detailed formulation and a corresponding design method for improving the robustness of optimal EC filters are given.Finally, an adaptive algorithm suitable for a stochastic environment is presented. The convergence properties of the algorithm in a stochastic environment are established.

Curvic couplings have been widely applied to various industrial applications. Presently the Gleason No.120 special grinding machine developed by Gleason Works Co. is one of the commonly used machine tool for the curvic coupling manufacturing. On the other hand, in response to the issue of improving the domestic design and manufacturing ability, an alternative manufacturing method of curvic coupling is introduced in this study. In this study the geometrical characteristics of the novel gear profile are investigated. Firstly, applying the spatial transformation matrix theorem to the relationship between the cutting tool path and the cutting tool position, the cutting tool profile equation of curvic coupling is successfully derived. Secondly, the mathematical model of the envelope surface of the generating tool, or generally being called the gear surface, is constructed based on the trajectory equation of the generating tool motion and the tool-workpiece meshing equation. Finally, the solid model is established based on the obtained mathematical model, and the comparison works with the conventional curvic coupling are also carried out. The analysis of gear surface is graphically depicted with respect to the various machining parameters. It is believed that this thesis provides a useful tool for the following studies of curvic couplings for the different demand of application fields.

The carrier envelope (CE) phase of a femtosecond laser was stabilized. The laser produces an ultra stable comb of frequency spanning the visible region and basically is an optical frequency synthesizer and ready for the frequency domain applications. In this context, the CW stability of the Ti:sapphire laser is discussed to provide a procedure for the femtosecond laser adjustments. In addition, the pulse trains emitted by the femtosecond laser are described analytically to provide a theoretical basis for carrier envelope phase stabilization. An f to 2f interferometer was used to detect the carrier envelope offset frequency, and a fast photo diode was employed to measure the repetition rate. Two similar designed phase lock loops are used to stabilize both the carrier envelope offset frequency and the repetition rate to the respective reference frequencies. The stability reaches 100mHz for the carrier envelope offset frequency and 10mHz for the repetition rate for a period of up to an hour. Doppler free iodine saturation spectroscopy was set up to provide a precise frequency reference to which a CW dye laser can be locked on. The near future goal is to accurately measure this frequency stabilized dye laser with the optical frequency synthesizer.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-120).

abstract: Infections caused by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) are very common worldwide, affecting up to 3% of the population. Chronic infection of HCV may develop into liver cirrhosis and liver cancer which is among the top five of the most common cancers. Therefore, vaccines against HCV are under intense study in order to prevent HCV from harming people's health. The envelope protein 2 (E2) of HCV is thought to be a promising vaccine candidate because it can directly bind to a human cell receptor and plays a role in viral entry. However, the E2 protein production in cells is inefficient due to its complicated matured structure. Folding of E2 in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is often error-prone, resulting in production of aggregates and misfolded proteins. These incorrect forms of E2 are not functional because they are not able to bind to human cells and stimulate antibody response to inhibit this binding. This study is aimed to overcome the difficulties of HCV E2 production in plant system. Protein folding in the ER requires great assistance from molecular chaperones. Thus, in this study, two molecular chaperones in the ER, calreticulin and calnexin, were transiently overexpressed in plant leaves in order to facilitate E2 folding and production. Both of them showed benefits in increasing the yield of E2 and improving the quality of E2. In addition, poorly folded E2 accumulated in the ER may cause stress in the ER and trigger transcriptional activation of ER molecular chaperones. Therefore, a transcription factor involved in this pathway, named bZIP60, was also overexpressed in plant leaves, aiming at up-regulating a major family of molecular chaperones called BiP to assist protein folding. However, our results showed that BiP mRNA levels were not up-regulated by bZIP60, but they increased in response to E2 expression. The Western blot analysis also showed that overexpression of bZIP60 had a small effect on promoting E2 folding. Overall, this study suggested that increasing the level of specific ER molecular chaperones was an effective way to promote HCV E2 protein production and maturation. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Biological Design 2011

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-02T00:02:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_8270_Esequiel da Veiga Pereira.pdf: 3346629 bytes, checksum: 93f59e00699e0e6a07833af81dafa75a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-30 / Para acompanhar a crescente demanda por capacidade de canal das redes de transporte ópticas (backbone), a investigação de formatos de modulação suportando uma enorme capacidade de transmissão ganha interesse especial. A multiplexação por divisão de frequências ortogonais (OFDM) aplicado em sistemas ópticos com detecção coerente (COOFDM) tem sido apontado como um dos fortes candidatos para a atualização dos sistemas fotônicos convencionais. Devido ao espectro óptico compacto, os sinais CO-OFDM são pouco influenciados pela degradação linear, tais como dispersão de velocidade de grupo (GVD) e dispersão de modo de polarização (PMD). No entanto, o alto valor da relação entre a potência de pico e a potência média (PAPR) torna-o vulneráveis à não linearidade da fibra e degrada seu desempenho de transmissão. Apresenta-se neste trabalho uma proposta de utilização de técnica Constante envelope aplicado a sinais OFDM transmitidos em redes ópticas com detecção coerente, denominado de CO-CE-OFDM, que reduz o valor do PAPR para apenas 3 dB, como uma forma de combater não só as não linearidades geradas pelo modulador Mach-Zehnder, mas também, as próprias não linearidades geradas pela fibra óptica, devido a altos valores de PAPR e elevados valores de potência óptica. Resultados de simulações feitas em ambiente Matlab, para 1200 km de fibra SSMF, mostraram que quando a transmissão é feita em regime linear (baixa potência na entrada da fibra), em algumas situações, CO-CE-ODFM apresenta um desempenho superior aos apresentados pelo sistema óptico com detecção coerente convencional. Por exemplo, para 100 ��/� de taxa, níveis de mapeamento de 16 QAM e índice de modulação óptica (OMI) igual a 2, 5, o sistema proposto com índice de modulação de fase elétrica (2�ℎ) igual a 3 apresentou ganhos medidos relação sinal-ruído óptico (OSNR) superiores a 12 dB, para uma taxa de erro de bits de 10−3. Em regime n~ao linear, decorrente do aumento da potência óptica, mesmo para baixos valores de OMI e altos valores de relação sinal-ruído óptico (OSNR), CO-CE-OFDM apresentou ganhos de desempenhos de aproximadamente 26 dB, quando a potência óptica na entrada é de 10 dBm. Para altos valores de OMI esse ganho de desempenho é cerca de 12 dB, para 16 QAM e 100 Gb/s de taxa. Além disso, para o sistema proposto, foi desenvolvido um modelo analítico que permite avaliar de forma rápida e a um baixo custo computacional, a variação da taxa de erro de bits em função da variação da relação sinal-ruído. Apesar do ganho de desempenho apresentado, CO-CE-OFDM apresenta um alargamento espectral, o que pode ser um problema em sistemas multicanais. Keywords: Constante envelope, Detecção coerente, Fibra Óptica, Mitigação de não linearidades, OFDM óptico, PAPR.