Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Prepared for: Dept. of Biochemistry. Bibliography : leaves 84-91.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Prepared for: Dept. of Biochemistry. Title from thesis description page. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Radhakrishna, Harish, Committee Member ; Zhu, Cheng, Committee Member ; LaPlaca, Michelle C., Committee Member ; Garca, Andrs J., Committee Chair ; Kowalczyk, Andrew P., Committee Member.

O estudo investiga as dinâmicas que orientam as interações entre homossexuais e bissexuais femininas no ambiente escolar, analisando no âmbito da escola aspectos de vulnerabilidade e de potencialidades das ações educativas relacionadas à homossexualidade humana, em especial, a lesbianidade. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa é de caráter qualitativo e tem como procedimento metodológico a realização de grupos focais com educandas de turmas do ensino médio do curso de formação de professores do ensino público. Foram realizados três grupos focais com a participação de vinte e uma adolescentes do sexo feminino e, desses grupos, foram analisados os relatos das sete jovens com experiências de vida mais significativas para as temáticas de interesse deste estudo. Conclui-se que há uma grande resistência por parte de educadores em discutir as questões da sexualidade com seus alunos, assim como por parte dos pais com relação a seus filhos. As jovens mencionaram vivenciar freqüentemente experiências de discriminação pelo fato de serem homoafetivas. É possível compreender este fenômeno a luz do preconceito e do machismo existentes nas sociedades heteronormativas que finda por dificultar o diálogo quando se pretende tratar das questões voltadas às diferentes orientações sexuais na família e no ambiente escolar. / The study investigates the dynamics that guide the interactions among homosexual and bisexual women in the school environment, looking within the school aspects of vulnerability and potential of educational practices related to human homosexuality, in particular, to lesbianism. The methodology used in this research is qualitative and its methodological approach to conducting focus groups with students of high school classes of the training course for teachers of public education. Three focus groups were conducted with the participation of twenty-one female adolescents, and these groups, we analyzed the stories of seven young people with life experiences more meaningful to the themes of interest for this study. We conclude that there is great resistance from educators to discuss issues of sexuality with their students, as well as by parents regarding their children. Young women often experience cited experiences of discrimination because they are homoafetivas. You can understand this phenomenon the light of prejudice and sexism exist in societies heteronormative ending by hindering dialogue when attempting to address the issues facing the different sexual orientations in family and school environment

A criação, concepção e produção de normas jurídicas não possuem uma metodologia de análise da sua dinâmica e dos efeitos que projetam no tecido social ao qual são direcionadas, pois a visão clássica das leis está vinculada à sua dimensão coercitiva ou normativa. Um modelo conceitual da dinâmica das instituições a partir dos efeitos provocados nas interações sociais dos agentes representa uma proposta de tratamento sistemático e integrado destes temas. A tese consiste na suposição de que efeitos estratégicos e comportamentais interferem dinamicamente na eficácia institucional dos regulamentos formais propostos para organizar a ação social, devendo, portanto, ser incluídos entre os elementos essenciais na sua concepção, pois representam fonte de incerteza nas interações entre os agentes, não contempladas nas dimensões clássicas de análise. O trabalho é constituído de três partes principais. Na primeira é caracterizado o problema da concepção e produção de normas jurídicas e sua importância e impacto em termos de eficiência, custo social e coordenação das interações sociais. Na segunda parte são revisados os principais referenciais teóricos relacionados ao tema, com ênfase na conexão dinâmica entre o ambiente institucional e o mecanismo de interação social estratégico dos agentes. Na terceira parte são definidos a metodologia e o modelo conceitual da tese com base na relação estabelecida entre os preceitos da economia institucional e da teoria dos jogos. Adicionalmente, introduz-se o conceito de ponto focal da norma jurídica como elemento fundamental de coordenação das estratégias dos agentes na ação social. Com o objetivo de testar a adequação da proposta foi desenvolvido um modelo computacional com base em sistemas multiagentes, consistindo no mecanismo de validação experimental da tese apresentada. Neste sentido, foram realizados experimentos computacionais na direção de comprovar empiricamente a metodologia proposta e a necessidade de englobar aspectos estratégicos e comportamentais na dinâmica das instituições e, portanto, no processo de análise, concepção, estruturação e produção de normas jurídicas. / There is no specific methodology that deals with the process of conceiving and producing legal rules and analyses its effects and dynamics within the social structure they are directed for. A conceptual methodology and a multiagent model represent a systematic and integrated attempt to address the issue. The thesis proposes that strategic and behavioral effects affects institutional dynamics playing an important role in terms of the efficiency of legal commands towards social action, adding extra uncertainty to agents’ interaction. This work is segmented in three main parts. The first one deals with the problem of legal rules conception and production, analyzing its importance and impact in terms of the efficiency, social cost and coordination of social interaction. The second part is a literature review with a special attention to micro-macro dynamics. In the third part the conceptual model of the thesis is formalized, establishing the connection between the theoretical framework of institutional economics, game theory and the law. This chapter introduces the concept of focal point of law as a key element to enable agents’ coordination. A multiagent model has been designed to test the adequacy of the conceptual model as proposed in the thesis. A computational experiment has been performed as an attempt to empirically validate the thesis arguments.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os fatores críticos de sucesso no gerenciamento da cadeia de suprimentos, tendo como centro as relações da empresa focal e seus fornecedores. A amplitude dos assuntos tratados direciona a pesquisa para uma área com boas possiblidades de ganho, tanto em termos de custos, quanto em melhoria de processos, uma vez que as estratégias envolvidas neste contexto podem estabelecer grande diferencial competitivo no mercado atual (SCHOREDER, 2007). Para a construção do modelo de pesquisa e do instrumento de coleta de dados, foram utilizados como ponto de partida os estudos de Roldan, Hansen e Dalé (2011) e Teixeira e Lacerda (2009). O primeiro identifica e pesquisa doze dimensões que são consideradas fatores críticos de sucesso para a cadeia de suprimentos, o segundo é uma revisão bibliográfica dos principais assuntos abordados em pesquisas sobre cadeias de suprimentos e apresentados em um modelo que classifica, também, as revistas internacionais onde os artigos são publicados. Como forma de estruturar os constructos no instrumento de coleta de dados, foram agregados elementos retirados do referencial teórico e que servem como base para cada uma das questões. Para a verificação dos fatores utilizados, realizou-se uma pesquisa tipo survey com 159 gestores e analistas de logística de empresas do setor metal mecânico da Serra Gaúcha. As confirmações dos atributos do instrumento de coleta de dados e dos constructos utilizados foram realizadas por meio de análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória. A análise de dados foi feita através de estatística descritiva, sendo verificado cada constructo separadamente e as questões de forma individual. Nesta etapa da pesquisa foram identificadas as percepções dos respondentes, onde resultados apontam como sendo, a agilidade nos processos, o fator mais importante para o sucesso da cadeia de suprimentos. Na sequência, os assuntos ligados ao compartilhamento de informações, confiança nos fornecedores e integração de métodos, também aparecem com destaque na opinião dos respondentes. Foi realizada ainda uma comparação entre duas amostras destacadas a partir dos perfis de entrevistados. Assim, analisou-se a percepção dos respondentes para as variáveis da pesquisa, sendo separados os indivíduos que trabalham em empresas de grande porte e empresas de porte inferior. Nesta análise observou-se que os respondentes vinculados às empresas de menor porte percebem os fatores apresentados na pesquisa com maior importância, do que os das empresas de grande porte. / This paper aims analyze the success critical factors in managing of the supply chain management, centered on the focal company actions and their suppliers. The range of treated subjects directs the search to an area with good possibilities of gain, both for terms of costs, as for processes improvement, since the involved strategies in this context may provide great competitive advantage in the current market (Schroeder, 2007). For the construct research model and the instrument of data collection constrution, as a first point the studies Roldan, Hansen and Dalé (2011) and Teixeira and Lacerda (2009) were used. The first identifies and researches twelve dimensions that are considered success critical factors for the supply chain, the second is a literature review of the main topics in research on supply chains and presented a model that also classifies international magazines where articles are published. As a way of structuring constructs in the instrument of data collection, elements taken from the theoretical reference were added and serve as basis for each of the questions. For the verification the factors used, a survey research with 159 managers and logistics analysts companies from the metal mechanic from Serra Gaúcha was conducted. The confirmations of the attributes of the data collection instrument and the used constructs were performed by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, with each issue and construct checked individually. At this stage of the research were the perceptions of the respondents identified, where the results point the agility process, as the most important factor for the success of the supply chain. Then, other the issues related to information sharing, trust in suppliers and integration methods, also featured prominently in the respondents opinion. It was also performed a comparison between two samples detached from the profiles of respondents. So, the perception of respondents to the survey variables was analyzed, with individuals from large and small companies separated. It was observed that respondents from to smaller companies perceive the factors presented in the survey with greater importance than those from large companies.

Wound healing in the corneal epithelium is an essential process to maintain corneal clarity and organism health. The earliest events of cellular injury response include the release of nucleotides and the activation of P2 purinergic receptors. While the purinergic receptor P2X7 has been shown to promote cell migration, its role in corneal epithelial wound healing is still poorly understood. The goal of this work is to better understand the role of P2X7 in the injury response. We analyzed P2X7 expression after epithelial injury in rat corneal organ cultures and found that the receptor localizes to the leading edge of the corneal epithelium. However, overall mRNA and protein expression of P2X7 decreased after injury. Inhibition of P2X7 activation significantly delayed wound closure and prevented the leading edge-localization after injury. We found that P2X7 inhibition altered the wound-induced calcium wave in epithelial cells and altered the number and distribution of focal adhesions in the migrating cells. Live cell imaging of epithelial cells showed that P2X7 inhibition led to altered actin rearrangement, with thick actin bundles in the treated cells. In order to determine the importance of P2X7 in epithelial differentiation and stratified cell migration, we developed a stratified culture model. The cells in the stratified model expressed proliferative and differentiation markers similar to organ cultured corneas, as well as similar P2X7 expression and localization after injury. Together, these results show the importance of P2X7 in the overall purinergic response to injury, and provide tools to study P2X7 in stratified corneal cell migration. To determine if P2X7 may contribute to pathologic delayed wound healing in diseases such as type 2 diabetes, we analyzed P2X7 expression in diabetic human corneas and diabetic model rodent corneas. We showed that P2X7 expression is significantly elevated in unwounded diabetic corneas, and that wound healing is delayed in the rodent model. These data show that elevated P2X7 expression may contribute to the delayed healing in disease and may be a possible therapeutic target.

Bacterial motility, and in particular repulsion or attraction towards specific chemicals, has been a subject of investigation for over 100 years, resulting in detailed understanding of bacterial chemotaxis and the corresponding sensory network in many bacterial species including Escherichia coli. E. Coli swims by rotating a bundle of flagellar filaments, each powered by an individual rotary motor located in the cell membrane. When all motors rotate counter-clockwise (CCW), a stable bundle forms and propels the cell forward. When one or more motors switch to clock-wise (CW) rotation, their respective filaments fall out of the bundle, leading to the cell changing orientation. Upon switching back to CCW, the bundle reforms and propels the cell in a new direction. Chemotaxis is performed by the bacterium through prolonging runs by suppressing CW rotation when moving towards nutrients and facilitating reorientation by increasing CW bias when close to a source of a harmful substance. Chemicals are sensed through interaction with membrane bound chemosensors. These proteins can interact with a very specific set of chemicals and the concentrations they are able to sense are in the range between 10-⁶ and 10-² M. However, experiments have shown that the osmotic pressure exerted by large (> 10-¹ M) concentrations of solutes, which have no specificity for binding to chemosensors (e.g. sucrose), is able to send a signal down the chemotactic network. Additionally, clearing of bacterial density away from sources of high osmolarity has been previously observed in experiments with agar plates. This behaviour has been termed osmotaxis. The aim of this doctoral thesis work is to understand how different environmental cues influence the tactic response and ultimately, combine at the network output to direct bacterial swimming. As tactic responses to chemical stimuli have been extensively studied, I focus purely on the response to non-specific osmotic stimuli, using sucrose to elevate osmolarity. I monitor the chemotactic network output, the rotation of a single bacterial flagellar motor, using Back Focal Plane Interferometry over a variety of osmotic conditions. Additionally, in collaboration with Vincent Martinez, I studied the effect of elevated osmolality on swimming speed of large (104) bacterial populations, using differential dynamic microscopy (DDM). I have found that sudden increases in media osmolarity lead to changes of both motor speed and motor clockwise bias, which is the fraction of time it spends rotating clockwise. Changes in CW Bias proceed in two phases. Initially, after elevating the osmolarity, CW Bias drops to zero, indicating that the motor is exclusively in the ‘cell run’ mode. This phase lasts from 2-5 minutes depending on the magnitude of the change in solute concentration. What follows then is a distinct second phase where the CW Bias is elevated with respect to the initial levels and this phase lasts longer than 15-20 minutes. In comparison, for defined chemical stimuli, the motor output resets after several seconds, a behaviour termed perfect adaptation. For changes of 100 mOsm/kg and 200 mOsm/kg in magnitude the motors speed up, often by as much as a factor of two, before experiencing a gradual slow down. Despite the slow down, motors still rotate faster 15-20 minutes after the change in osmolarity, than they did before. For changes of 400 mOsm/Kg in magnitude the motors decrease sharply in speed, coming to a near halt, recovering after 5 minutes and eventually, on average, speeding up. DDM studies of free swimming bacteria have shown that elevated osmolality leads to higher swimming speeds, in agreement with single motor data. Using theoretical models of bacterial swimming from the literature, it is discussed how this motor output, although different to what is expected for chemotaxis, is able to drive bacteria away from regions of space with high osmolalities. Additionally, I have started extending the work done with sucrose, to another solute often used to elevate osmolality, sodium chloride. While sucrose is outer membrane impermeable, NaCl can cross the outer membrane into the periplasmic space. Another layer of complexity is that NaCl has some specificty for the chemoreceptors. The preliminary results are shown and qualitatively agree with those obtain with sucrose.

Föreliggande studie undersökte skillnader i straffrättsliga beslut och skillnader i hur olika rättsliga faktorer värderas för män och kvinnor i Sverige som begått samma typ av brott. En enkät med en vinjett av ett fiktivt misshandelsbrott där en förövares kön manipulerades mellan två versioner av enkäten, besvarades av 220 personer bestående av domare (n=68), nämndemän (n=61) och juriststudenter (n=91) från 12 olika län i Sverige. Huvudresultatet visade att män rekommenderas signifikant längre fängelsestraff än kvinnor med en skillnad på 1,5 års fängelsestraff. Resultatet indikerade också att oavsett om en man eller en kvinna ger en straffrekommendation skiljer sig inte rekommendationerna, och inga interaktionseffekter mellan kön på respondenten och kön på förövaren kunde säkerställas. Vidare visade resultatet att en kvinnlig förövare värderades signifikant lägre på rättsliga faktorer än en manlig förövare. Resultatet diskuterades utifrån tidigare forskning och teori och särskilt betonades vikten av att arbeta aktivt mot helt objektiva bedömningar inom rättssystemet, inte minst för att kunna arbeta brottsförebyggande då längre fängelsestraff resulterar i högre återfall i kriminalitet. / The present study examined differences regarding sentencing outcomes and how legal factors are valued for men and women who committed the same crime in Sweden. A questionnaire with a fictitious assault case, where the perpetrator's gender was manipulated between the two versions of the questionnaire was completed by 220 participants, consisting of judges (n = 68), the Swedish counterpart of a jury (n = 61) and law students (n = 91) from 12 different regions in Sweden. The main result showed that men were recommended significantly longer sentences than women, with a difference of 1.5 years of imprisonment. The result indicated that whether a man or woman handed down a sentence recommendation, the recommendations did not differ and there were no interaction effects between the participant’s gender and the gender of the perpetrator. The result further showed that a female perpetrator is valued significantly lower on legal factors than males. The result is discussed in view of previous research and theory, and emphasizes the importance of working actively towards a completely objective judicial judgment in order to prevent crime, as longer prison sentences result in a greater propensity to recidivism.

Submitted by Gian Aquino (tubamore@gmail.com) on 2017-12-14T17:07:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Memorial Gian_Final.pdf: 3635036 bytes, checksum: d911008bf370d9394d8bc27b2cbd0f6b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Nilson Nascimento Souza (nilson@ufba.br) on 2018-02-01T14:28:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Memorial Gian_Final.pdf: 3635036 bytes, checksum: d911008bf370d9394d8bc27b2cbd0f6b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-01T14:28:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Memorial Gian_Final.pdf: 3635036 bytes, checksum: d911008bf370d9394d8bc27b2cbd0f6b (MD5) / A Distonia Focal em Músicos (DFM) tem sido pesquisada principalmente pela área da Ciências da Saúde, isto é, Neurologia e Fisioterapia. Na área da Música, poucos são os estudos que abordam esse distúrbio neurológico do movimento devido às limitações dos músicos em tratar com propriedade sobre a sintomatologia da DFM e suas especificações. Este projeto de pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar o estudo dos exercícios específicos para a embocadura e de técnicas expandidas como estratégias de tratamento paralelo da DFTEE a fim de não suscitar os sintomas e possibilitar o domínio e controle técnico-musical do tubista. Esse pressuposto está fundamentado nos estudos de Fletcher (2008) e Ferreira (2013) que juntos, apresentam diferentes possibilidades de retreinamento para o tratamento da DFTEE baseadas em suas próprias experiências musicais. A DFTEE é um distúrbio neurológico do movimento que atinge instrumentistas de sopro por meio da musculatura que envolve a embocadura e que ocasiona perda do controle muscular. / The Focal Dystonia in Musicians (FDM) has been investigated primarily by the health sciences area, i.e. Neurology and Physiotherapy. In the area of music, there are few studies that address this neurological disorder of movement due to the limitations of the musicians in dealing with property on the symptomatology of the FDM and its specifications. This research project aims to investigate the study of specific exercises for the embouchure and expanded techniques such as parallel treatment of FDE strategies in order to evoke the symptoms and allow the domain technical and musical control of a tuba player. This assumption is based on studies of Fletcher (2008) and Ferreira (2013) that together present different possibilities of retraining for the treatment of FDE based on their own experiences. The FDE is a neurological disorder that affects movement wind instrumentalists through muscles that surrounds the mouth and which causes loss of muscle control.