The traffic signal affects the life of virtually everyone every day. The effectiveness of signal systems can reduce the incidence of delays, stops, fuel consumption, emission of pollutants, and accidents. The problems related to rapid growth in traffic congestion call for more effective traffic signalization using robust feedback control methodology. Online traffic-responsive signalization is based on real-time traffic conditions and selects cycle, split, phase, and offset for the intersection according to detector data. A robust traffic feedback control begins with assembling traffic demands, traffic facility supply, and feedback control law for the existing traffic operating environment. This information serves the input to the traffic control process which in turn provides an output in terms of the desired performance under varying conditions. Traffic signalization belongs to a class of hybrid systems since the differential equations model the continuous behavior of the traffic flow dynamics and finite-state machines model the discrete state changes of the controller. A complicating aspect, due to the state-space constraint that queue lengths are necessarily nonnegative, is that the continuous-time system dynamics is actually the projection of a smooth system of ordinary differential equations. This also leads to discontinuities in the boundary dynamics of a sort common in queueing problems. The project is concerned with the design of a feedback controller to minimize accumulated queue lengths in the presence of unknown inflow disturbances at an isolated intersection and a traffic network with some signalized intersections. A dynamical system has finite L₂-gain if it is dissipative in some sense. Therefore, the H<SUB>infinity</SUB>-control problem turns to designing a controller such that the resulting closed loop system is dissipative, and correspondingly there exists a storage function. The major contributions of this thesis include 1) to propose state space models for both isolated multi-phase intersections and a class of queueing networks; 2) to formulate H<SUB>infinity</SUB> problems for the control systems with persistent disturbances; 3) to present the projection dynamics aspects of the problem to account for the constraints on the state variables; 4) formally to study this problem as a hybrid system; 5) to derive traffic-actuated feedback control laws for the multi-phase intersections. Though we have mathematically presented a robust feedback solution for the traffic signalization, there still remains some distance before the physical implementation. A robust adaptive control is an interesting research area for the future traffic signalization. / Ph. D.

Electrification of households in rural area and isolated regions plays a significant impact on the balanced economic development. Brazil grows with a high population growth rate, but still parts of rural area and isolated regions do not have the accessibility of electric power. This study focuses on the feasibility study of a hybrid PV-wind-biomass power system for rural electrification at Nazaré Paulista in southeast Brazil. This study was performed by using the hybrid renewable energy system software HOMER. The wind and solar data was collected from Surface meteorology and Solar Energy-NASA, and the biomass data was collected and estimated from other previous studies. The result shows, the hybrid PV-wind-biomass renewable system can meet 1,601 kWh daily demands and 360 kW peak load of the selected rural area. The power system composed of 200 kW PV panels, 200 kW biomass generator, 400 battery banks, and 200 kW converter. All the calculations were performed by Homer and the selection were based on the Net Present Cost (NPC) and Levelized cost of energy (COE). Because of the fossil fuels’ negative impacts on human health and environment, all the energy sources for this system are renewable energies which have less pollution.

Solar photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) modules produce heat and power via a heat exchanger attached to the rear of the PV cells. The novel PVT collector in this study is previously untested and therefore its behaviour and thermo-electric performance due to fluid channel configuration and in various climate and operating conditions are unknown. Moreover, the working fluid flowing through the heat exchanger cause a temperature gradient across the module such that a cell near the inlet and a cell near the outlet may have significant temperature differences. PV cells are sensitive to temperature; however the most common way to simulate power output from a PVT is to use the average temperature and ignore the gradient. In this study, a single diode PV model is incorporated into a commercial thermal solver to co-simulate the thermal and electrical output of a novel PVT module design with cell level resolution. The PVT system is modelled in steady state under various wind speeds, inlet temperatures, ambient temperatures, flow rates, irradiation, convection coefficients from coolant and back of the module and two different fluid channel configurations. The results show that of the controllable variables, the inlet temperature has the highest influence of the total power output and that a parallel flow of the fluid channel configuration is preferable. The difference between the cell resolution and the module resolution simulations do not motivate the use of a higher resolution numerical simulation. / En kombinerad solcellspanel och solvärmefångare (PVT) producerar värme och elenergi på samma yta genom att en värmeväxlare upptar värmen från baksidan av solcellspanelen. Den PVT som berörs i denna studien är nyutvecklad och har aldrig tidigare testats, vilket medför att data för hur den beter sig samt dess termo-elektiska prestanda saknas för olika driftförhållanden samt flödeskonfigurationer. Vidare ger mediet som flödar genom värmeväxlaren upphov till en temperaturgradient, vilken kan innebära en påtaglig skillnad i temperatur mellan solcellerna i solcellspanelen vid mediets in- respektive utlopp. Trots solcellers temperaturkänslighet, så sker simulering i allmänhet med avseende på panelens medeltemperatur istället för att hänsyn tas till denna temperaturgradient. I den här studien implementeras en så kallad  ”single diode”-modell i en kommersiell numerisk mjukvara termiska beräkningar för att samsimulera termiskt och elektriskt effektuttag ur den nyutvecklade PVT-designen. Designen modelleras statiskt under givna variationer av vindhastighet, inloppstemperatur, omgivande temperatur, flödeshastighet, solinstrålning och konvektionskoefficienter för mediet samt baksidan av modulen. Resultaten visar att kontrollerbara variabler som inloppstemperatur har högst inverkan på den totala effekten samt att en parallell flödeskonfiguration lämpar sig bäst. Studien visar också att skillnaden mellan simulering på cellnivå och modulnivå inte motiverar en numerisk beräkningsmetod med upplösning satt till solcellsnivå.

Parkin is a cytosolic E3 ubiquitin ligase that is recruited to the mitochondria during cellular stress and has been suggested to be involved in a variety of biological processes such as mitophagy. The recruitment of Parkin (PARK2) to the mitochondria is dependent upon the kinase activity and the accumulation of PINK1 on damaged mitochondria. Mutations in either PINK1 or Parkin genes disrupt this protective pathway and lead to the accumulation of damaged mitochondria. From a clinical standpoint, mutations in the PARK2 gene have been associated with the progression and onset of autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism. Without the presence of a quality control system such as that of the PINK1/Parkin pathway, the accumulation of damaged mitochondria could lead to increased levels of oxidative stress, a decrease in ATP, and the progression towards cellular death. However, many of the details regarding the mechanism of Parkin-mediated ubiquitination and its involvement in mitophagy are not fully established. The intent of this thesis is to further explore the function of Parkin by utilizing the yeast-two hybrid system to identify novel Parkin interactors/substrates. A HeLa (cervical cell carcinoma) cDNA library was screened using Parkin124-465 as the "bait" protein. From this screening, six positive Parkin interactors were isolated and characterized. Using this approach it is possible to gain a better understanding of the function of Parkin in regulating cellular processes such as mitophagy.

Yes / Reducing the cost of fresh water has always been a major concern in the desalination industry. A solar powered hybrid multi-effect distillation and reverse osmosis desalination plant (MED+RO) has been designed and optimised from an economical point of view in a previous work by the same authors. In the present study, the possibility of coupling the desalination plant with a photovoltaic (PV) solar farm is investigated, with the aim of generating electricity at low cost and in a sustainable way. A detailed mathematical model for the PV system has been implemented from the literature. Interestingly, the model can predict the cost of the PV system in terms of capital cost and electricity cost per kWh considering the input data of solar irradiation, duration of daylight and technical specification of a real solar module. Consequently, the solar PV model has been combined with the desalination model, which enables to estimate the cost of fresh water per cubic meter. Data about four locations, namely Isola di Pantelleria (IT), Las Palmas (ES), Abu Dhabi (UAE), and Perth (AUS), have been used to economically test the feasibility of installing the proposed plant, and especially of the PV solar farm.

THAP5 is a protein which was recently isolated in the Zervos Lab as an interactor of a pro-apoptotic protein, Omi/HtrA2. THAP5 is unique because it shares no homology with mouse or rat and can only be found in humans. The only homology it shares with any other protein is its THAP domain. THAP proteins are zinc-dependent sequence specific DNA-binding factors belonging to the zinc-finger family of proteins (2). There are 12 identified members of TIIAP proteins in humans, THAP0-THAP 11. The roles of these THAP proteins include proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, chromosome segregation, chromosome modification, and transcriptional regulation (2). The function of THAP5 is still unclear and thus, a Yeast Two-Hybrid experiment will be done to further determine its function. The Yeast Two-Hybrid System is a common molecular biology technique used to identify interactors of a certain protein of interest. By identifying the protein interactors of THAP5 and their functions, it is possible to further determine the function of THAP5.

No description available.

The fast growth in the demand of freshwater due to the scarcity of natural water and increase in the world population puts more stress on the desalination sectors, which requires the installation of high-efficient thermal desalination plants. Among these desalination plants, multi effect desalination (MED) and RO processes are considered as the most reliable techniques of producing freshwater from saline water. Recently, the MED and RO process have been introduced in hybrid systems. However, this includes the development of simple superstructures of the hybrid system in spite of the improvement made beyond the individual process. To overcome this challenge, this dissertation comes to fill this gap and investigates appropriate methods of optimising the operational parameters of the hybrid system. In this regard, several innovative ideas are demonstrated for the first time to enhance the MED process, which are specifically include the improvement of key performance indicators including water production cost via a repetitive simulation based model. In line of this, the investigation of the lowest water production cost for different numbers of effects of MED system is carried out via optimisation based model. To deploy a sustainable source of energy, this research illustrates the combined system of MED-TVC and wind turbine with attaining a considerable reduction of specific energy consumption. Also, this research presents two novel designs of hybrid system of MED and single and double RO processes of different configurations that contain permeate reprocessing design and retentate reprocessing design of RO process. These layouts demonstrate a considerable reduction of total energy consumption within an accepted product salinity compared to the ones presented in the open literature. To apply the energy-water concept for a smart city, this research emphasises on the design moderation and process optimisation of the MED-TVC and double RO processes to generate different grades of water. Moreover, the structure of this dissertation introduces a revision of the steady state MED and RO modelling. This in turn provides an efficient hybrid system for seawater desalination by refining the reliability and efficiency of the associated process. The results stated the following findings; It can be stated that 17 effects of MED-TVC system is suitable to achieve the lowest fresh water production cost of 0.614 $/m3. However, the implication of particle swarm optimisation method has further introduced the freshwater production cost from 0.614 $/m3 to 0.432 $/m3 by investigating the optimal operating conditions for the 17 effects. Also, this research introduces that Dhahran is more potential compared to Jeddah in the KSA to construct an integration system of MED-TVC and a renewable energy source of wind turbine that presents the lowest specific energy consumption. This research also shows that the new proposed design of MED-TVC and single permeate reprocessing RO processes has a lower energy consumption of around 2.2% if compared to other configurations suggested in the open literature. Further reduction of this energy consumption has been conducted after optimising the inlet conditions of the hybrid system of MED-TVC and permeate reprocessing RO processes. The novel design of double RO and MED-TVC introduces an improvement of water productivity of 9%, corresponding to a reduction of brine flowrate within 5% compared to the base case of permeate reprocessing RO (PRRO) and MED-TVC. Finally, this research presents the improvement of different scenarios of MED-TVC and double RO processes to quantify the production of different types of water with fulfilling the environmental concepts.

Estudo prospectivo para identificar a presença do papilomavírus humano em gestantes adolescentes por meio da captura híbrida II e correlacionar com colpocitologia oncótica convencional, em base líquida e colposcopia. O grupo constituído por 60 gestantes entre 12 a 18 anos e idade gestacional media de 23 semanas. A captura híbrida II foi positiva em 51,7%. A colpocitocologia oncótica convencional : normal em 90% e anormal em 10%. Os achados citológicos anormais: lesão intraepitelial escamosa de baixo grau em 8,3% e carcinoma invasor em 1,7%. A colpocitologia em base líquida: normal em 90% e anormal em 10%. Os achados citológicos anormais: lesão intraepitelial escamosa de baixo grau em 8,3% e lesão intraepitelial escamosa de alto grau em 1,7%. Os achados colposcópicos normais foram o epitélio escamoso normal em 20%, epitélio glandular em 18,3% e a zona de transformação normal em 40%. A zona de transformação anormal presente em 21,7% / Study delineated to identify human papillomavirus by hybrid capture II in pregnant teenagers and to correlate with conventional, liquid-based Pap test and colposcopic findings. The study group was constituted by 60 pregnant women aged between 12 and 18 years old; mean gestational age was 23 weeks. They were submitted to anamnese, Pap smear, hybrid capture technique and colposcopy. Hybrid capture II of human papillomavirus was positive in 51,7% of the cases. Conventional Pap test was normal in 90% and abnormal in 10% of the cases. Abnormal results: low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion in 8,3% and Invasor carcinoma in 1,7%. Based-liquid Pap test was normal in 90% and abnormal in 10% of the cases. Abnormal results: 8,3% of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and 1,7% of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion. Normal results: 20% of normal squamous epithelium, 18,3%of columnar epithelium and 40% of normal transformation zone. Abnormal transformation zone was seen in 21,7% of the cases

O ambiente competitivo atual tem colocado pressão no processo de tomada de decisão no mundo corporativo. Os trade-offs das prioridades competitivas discutidos na elaboração da estratégia como custo, qualidade, serviço e flexibilidade já não são suficientes. Estes trade-offs, embora importantes no curto prazo, devem ser compatibilizados de modo que as empresas que tenham o melhor balanço entre eles devam ter resultado superior. Um dos trade-offs bastante discutido é o equilíbrio entre serviço e estoque. A percepção é que seja improvável alcançar excelência no serviço sem ter um considerável nível de estoque. Deste cenário nasce então o paradoxo do uso de sistemas MRP (Material Requirement Planning) versus sistemas JIT (Just in Time), ou melhor, sistemas empurrados versus puxados, já que a escolha por um ou outro sistema tem ligação íntima com a gestão de estoque. Se por um lado os sistemas MRP são largamente utilizados, via softwares ERP, por outro sistemas JIT têm trazido importantes melhorias nos resultados. Embora muitas empresas considerem a adoção exclusiva de um ou outro sistema, algumas delas têm adotado um processo híbrido com o objetivo de tirar o melhor de cada sistema e gerar assim desempenho superior. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar como as empresas inseridas em mercados caracterizados pela concentração de demanda no final do mês (fenômeno conhecido como hockey-stick), e baixo acerto nas previsões de demanda, estão aplicando suas estratégias de planejamento de produção e seus ERP. Se por um lado a baixa acurácia nas previsões causa um problema na aplicação de estratégias empurradas de planejamento, pois requer um alto estoque de segurança associado, por outro a concentração de embarque dificulta a adoção de uma estratégia puramente puxada, já que o sistema não tem a estabilidade necessária. Para cumprir com este objetivo seis estudos de caso foram conduzidos e os resultados encontrados, suportados pela teoria, sugerem o aparecimento de um modelo híbrido eficaz para planejamento no ambiente estudado assim como o aparecimento de um sistema DSS (Decision Support System). Outra contribuição desta pesquisa foi identificar, em um dos casos, uma empresa que conseguiu atacar de maneira eficaz o fenômeno em sua causa raiz neutralizando assim seus efeitos. / The highly competitive environment of modern times has put pressure on the decision-making process in the corporate world. The trade-offs of competitive priorities such as cost, quality, service and flexibility are no longer enough. These trade-offs, albeit important in the short term, must be matched so that companies that have the best balance between them should have superior results. One of the tradeoffs widely discussed is the balance between service level and inventory. The perception is that excellence is not likely to be achieved in service without having a significant level of inventory. From this scenario comes the paradox of using MRP systems (Material Requirement Planning) versus JIT systems (Just in Time), or rather \"pushed\" systems versus \"pulled\" systems since the option for one or the other system has a close connection with inventory management. On the one hand, MRP systems are widely used in industry through ERP software; on the other hand, JIT systems have obtained better results. While many companies consider adopting one or another system, some of them adopt a hybrid process with the goal of taking the best of each system and generate superior performance. The purpose of this research is to investigate how companies inserted in markets characterized by sales peak at the end of the month (hockey-stick phenomenon), and low accuracy in demand forecasts, are applying their production planning strategies and their ERP. Low forecast accuracy causes a problem in applying pushed strategies as it requires a high safety stock associated. Conversely, the sales peak hinders the adoption of a purely pull strategy since the system does not have the necessary stability. To meet this goal, six case studies were conducted and the results found and supported by the theory suggest the emergence of an effective hybrid model for planning in the environment studied as well as the appearance of a DSS (Decision Support System). Another contribution of this research was to identify in one of the cases a company that managed to effectively tackle the phenomenon in the root cause, neutralizing its effects.