The transitioning of armed actors into political parties following a peace accord is not a new phenomenon and the debate for how we can facilitate such a transition is well explored. A grey area of the debate, however, concerns transitioned actors’ long-term commitment to peace, as relapses are known to have occurred on many occasions. How are successful transitions sustained and what are the facilitating mechanisms? Through a case study of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, this thesis aims to contribute to the very limited debate on the facilitation of peace continuity of transitioned actors. Interviews were conducted in Belfast during the fall of 2018. The present-time contextual changes posed by the United Kingdom exiting the European union, which endangers the 1998 peace agreement that helped facilitate Sinn Féin’s transition, provides a good case for studying the institutional resilience to violent relapse of a transitioned actor. The findings show that Sinn Féin display strong levels of institutional resilience, which can help the institution to abstain from relapses into violence caused by contextual changes such as Brexit.

Transgenic plant systems have been proposed as bioreactors in the production of pharmaceutical and industrial proteins. The economic benefits of inexpensive plant production systems could be erased if the downstream processing ends up being expensive. To avoid monoclonal antibody (mAb) modification or fouling of chromatography resins, removal of phenolics from plant extracts is desirable. Removal of major phenolics in Lemna extracts was evaluated by adsorption to PVPP, XAD-4, IRA-402 and Q-Sepharose resins. Analysis of phenolics adsorption to XAD-4, IRA-402 and Q-Sepharose showed superior dynamic binding capacities at pH 4.5 than at 7.5. The economic analysis using SuperPro Designer 7.0 indicated that addition of a phenolics adsorption step would increase mAb production cost only 20% by using IRA-402 compared to 35% for XAD-4 resin. The overall mAb processing cost can be reduced by implementing a phenolics removal step. To understand phenolics-resin interactions, adsorption isotherms of phenolic compounds (chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, rutin, syringic acid and vitexin-2-O-rhamnoside) from different phenolic classes on three resins (IRA-402, PVPP, XAD-4) at pH 4.5 and 7.5 were determined. Differences in adsorption with the type of phenolics were observed, and PVPP was not efficient for phenolics removal. Screening of sugarcane lines for bovine lysozyme (BvLz) accumulation indicated that expression levels are still inadequate for commercial development. To maximize BvLz extraction, pH and ionic strength were evaluated; five conditions resulted in equivalent BvLz/TSP ratio. Membrane filtration process using BvLz extracts attained partial removal of native proteins by the 100 kDa membrane step, but also BvLz loss (21-29%). Regardless of the extraction condition, at least 47% of the starting BvLz was lost during the membrane processing. None of the evaluated extraction conditions caused a substantial recovery of BvLz in the concentrate. Alternative purification options for the IEX+HIC process, which achieved 95% BvLz purity, were tested. Direct loading of sugarcane extract concentrate on HIC and XAD-4 pretreatment of juice did not recovered BvLz as effectively as the IEX chromatography. Pure BvLz was obtained by the XAD+HIC process, but higher purification fold and HIC yield were achieved by the IEX+HIC process, due to the complete separation of BvLz and 18-kDa protein.

The optimum ordering strategies for the coded V-BLAST system with capacity achieving temporal codes on each stream are studied in this thesis. Mathematical representations of the optimum detection ordering strategies for the coded V-BLAST under instantaneous rate allocation (IRA), uniform power/rate allocation (URA), instantaneous power allocation(IPA) and instantaneous power/rate allocation (IPRA) are derived. For two transmit antennas, it is shown that the optimum detection strategies are based on the per-stream before-processing channel gains. Based on approximations of the per-stream capacity equation, closed-form expressions of the optimal ordering strategy under the IRA at low and high signal to noise ratio (SNR) are derived. Necessary optimality conditions under the IRA are given. Thresholds for the low, intermediate and high SNR regimes in the 2-Tx-antenna system under the IPRA are determined, and the SNR gain of the ordering is studied for each regime. Performances of simple suboptimal ordering strategies are analysed, some of which perform very close to the optimum one.

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Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2008. / Thesis Advisor(s): Lee, Doowan. "December 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 28, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-133). Also available in print.

The intravascular administration of iodine-based contrast media is a common cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). This study investigated whether changes in the urinary concentration of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL) before and after coronary angiography they are able to predict the development of AKI independently of previously established absolute cut-off values. A total of 125 outpatients undergoing elective coronary angiography were enrolled and divided into 2 subgroups: G1 (n = 103), patients with changes in their serum creatinine after coronary angiography of < 0.3 mg/dL, and G2 (n = 22), patients with changes in their serum creatinine after coronary angiography &#8805; 0.3 mg/dL. The primary study endpoint was AKI defined as AKI network stages 1. uNGAL was measured before coronary arteriography and 2 and 4 hours afterwards. To determine the sensitivity and specificity for the absolute and relative variations of uNGAL, a receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed. Based on the ROC curve for the relative difference in uNGAL before and after coronary angiography, a 50% increase in the uNGAL value over baseline was 60% sensitive and 81% specific for AKI. The area under the curve for relative differences 2 hours after coronary angiography was 0.82. The percentage variations in the concentration of uNGAL detected the early stages of AKI regardless of the absolute cut-off established. / A administração intravascular dos meios de contraste à base de iodo é uma causa comum da injúria renal aguda. Este estudo investigou se mudanças na concentração da Lipocalina Urinária Associada com Gelatinase de Neutrófilos Humanos (NGALu), antes e após angiografia coronariana eletiva, são capazes de prever o desenvolvimento da injúria renal aguda, independentemente de pontos de corte previamente estabelecidos. Foram avaliados 125 pacientes ambulatoriais submetidos a cinecoronariografia eletiva. Os pacientes foram divididos em dois subgrupos; G1 (n=103), pacientes com alterações nos valores da creatinina sérica < 0,3 mg/dL e G2 (n=22), aqueles em que a creatinina sérica se elevou &#8805; 0,3 mg/dL. O endpoint primário dessa pesquisa foi a injúria renal aguda definida pelo acute kidney injury network estágio 1. Foram realizadas dosagens da Lipocalina urinária Associada com Gelatinase de Neutrófilos imediatamente antes, 2 e 4 horas após a cinecoronariografia. Para determinar a sensibilidade e especificidade das variações absolutas e relativas de NGALu utilizamos receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Com base na curva ROC para diferença relativa no NGALu antes e após a angiografia coronariana eletiva, um aumento de 50% no valor do NGALu após o procedimento, foi 60% sensível e 81% específico para detecção da injúria renal aguda. A área sob a curva para diferença relativa 2 horas após a cinecoronariografia foi 0,82. Variações percentuais na concentração de NGALu foram capazes de prever a injúria renal aguda 2 horas após a angiografia coronariana independentemente de pontos de corte estabelecido em valores absolutos. / Mestre em Ciências da Saúde

[pt] Em países como Irã e China, alguns grupos religiosos tem enfrentado diversas dificuldades no que tange a sua liberdade religiosa, em especial os cristãos, alvo desta pesquisa. Tais restrições envolvem o impedimento de culto, detenções, prisões entre outros, todas estas devido a escolha do cristianismo como religião. Ser cristão nesses países, significa ter muitos direitos básicos privados. Por este fator, o tema direitos humanos também ganha destaque neste estudo. Tais grupos são vistos como ameaças do ponto de vista dos dois governos. Eles representam valores distintos aos expostos pelos líderes. Através dos estudos produzidos pela Escola de Copenhague é possível analisar como os grupos minoritários cristãos se tornaram uma ameaça. Esses estudos, dentro do campo de Segurança Internacional, nos permite analisar a ameaça como um conceito mutável. Ou seja, é possível avaliar como os cristãos se tornaram uma ameaça para os governos iraniano e chinês. Logo o objetivo central é avaliar quando e porque esses grupos se tornaram uma ameaça para esses governos. Através dos estudos da Escola de Copenhague, o caso dos grupos minoritários cristãos no Irã e na China serão abordados como exemplos que comprovem as perspectivas teóricas. / [en] In countries like Iran and China, some religious groups have faced many difficulties regarding their freedom of religion—particularly Christians, the subject of this research. Such restrictions include the forbiddance of worship, detention, and imprisonments among others, all of these because the choice of Christianity as a religion. Being a Christian in these countries means being private of many basic rights. For this factor, the human rights issue is also emphasized in this study. Such groups are seen as threats from the point of view of the both Chinese and Iranian governments. They represent different values than the ones exhibited by their leaders. Through the studies produced by the Copenhagen School is possible to analyze how the minorities Christians groups have became a threat to those governments. These studies, in the fields of International Security, allow us to analyze the threat as a mutable concept. Therefore the main objective is to assess when and why these groups became a threat to those governments. Through the studies of the Copenhagen School, the case of minority Christians in Iran and China are discussed as examples to prove the theoretical perspectives.

Instagram är ett socialt medium med ett stort antal användare, inklusive flera professionella och kända fotografer. Det har dock många begränsningar och egenheter som gör att det skiljer sig en del från en del mer konventionella kanaler. Målet med undersökningen är att svara på frågan: Hur skiljer sig fotografierna som två professionella fotografer publicerar på Instagram kontra på sina egna hemsidor?   Den här undersökningen fokuserar på fotograferna Ira Block och Mattias Klum och analyserar fotografier som de publicerat på Instagram samt fotografier som publicerats på deras egna hemsidor. Analyserna görs ur semiotisk synpunkt samt med Gert Z Nordströms metoder för bildanalys, både på makro- och mikronivå. Totalt har 120 bilder analyserats på makronivå och fyra bilder på mikronivå.   Analyserna visar att båda fotografer har gjort skillnader i vilka bilder de väljer att publicera på Instagram och på sina hemsidor – i många fall föredras bilder som är lättare att ta till sig på Instagram. Fotograferna har dock använt sig av olika metoder för detta, bland annat genom att ta fler närbilder eller undvika att ha för många individer i sina bilder. / Instagram is a social medium with a large number of users, including several professional and famous photographers. However, the medium has several limitations, which makes it stand out from other more conventional channels. The goal of this study is to answer the question: How do the photographs that two professional photographers publish on Instagram versus on their websites differ?   This essay focuses on the photographers Ira Block and Mattias Klum and analyses photographs that they have published on Instagram and photographs published on their websites. The analyses are performed from a semiotic point of view and with Gert Z Nordströms methods of image analysis, both on a macro and micro level. A total of 120 photographs have been analysed on a macro level and four photographs on a micro level.   The analyses show that both photographers have made differences in what images they choose to publish on Instagram and on their websites – in many cases images that are easier to comprehend are preferred on Instagram. Nevertheless, the photographers have used different methods to accomplish this, for instance by publishing close-ups or making sure that there aren’t too many individuals present in their photographs.

The optimum ordering strategies for the coded V-BLAST system with capacity achieving temporal codes on each stream are studied in this thesis. Mathematical representations of the optimum detection ordering strategies for the coded V-BLAST under instantaneous rate allocation (IRA), uniform power/rate allocation (URA), instantaneous power allocation(IPA) and instantaneous power/rate allocation (IPRA) are derived. For two transmit antennas, it is shown that the optimum detection strategies are based on the per-stream before-processing channel gains. Based on approximations of the per-stream capacity equation, closed-form expressions of the optimal ordering strategy under the IRA at low and high signal to noise ratio (SNR) are derived. Necessary optimality conditions under the IRA are given. Thresholds for the low, intermediate and high SNR regimes in the 2-Tx-antenna system under the IPRA are determined, and the SNR gain of the ordering is studied for each regime. Performances of simple suboptimal ordering strategies are analysed, some of which perform very close to the optimum one.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:11:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este estudo investiga o papel do uso da seqüência Iniciação – Resposta – Avaliação & Iniciação – Resposta – Follow up (doravante IRA & IRF), bem como o papel dos fantoches em promover o uso da língua alvo e contribuir para o desenvolvimento de novas identidades na sala de aula de língua estrangeira pesquisada. Para tanto, adotam-se princípios e procedimentos da pesquisa-ação e, por isso, da metodologia qualitativa de análise. A professora-pesquisadora utilizou, em sala de aula, material didático elaborado por ela mesma em um estudo anterior. As aulas de inglês gravadas para este estudo ocorreram em uma turma de educação infantil de uma escola particular do Vale dos Sinos. A geração de dados, que ocorria uma vez por semana, durante três meses e meio, foi realizada em uma turma composta por 20 alunos, sendo que 10 eram meninas e 10 eram meninos. À primeira vista, as filmagens pareciam revelar grande recorrência de seqüências IRA nas interações. Contudo, a análise empreendida sugere outra interpretação das ações / This study seeks to investigate the role of using the Initiation – Response – Evaluation & Initiation – Response – Follow up sequences (hereafter IRE & IRF), as well as the role of puppets in fostering the use of the target language and the development of new identities in the second language classroom researched. In order to do so, principles and procedures of action-research, and therefore, from qualitative methodology of analysis were adopted. The researcher-teacher applied, in her classroom, didactic material that she had elaborated in a previous study. The classes of English recorded for the present study took place in a kindergarten class of a private school located in Vale do Rio dos Sinos. The recordings, which occurred once a week, during three months and a half, were made in a class composed by 20 students, of whom 10 were boys and 10 were girls. In a preliminary analysis, the recordings seemed to disclose a great deal of IRE sequences in the interactions. However, upon closer inspection, the analys