There is a paucity of research into the effect of stress on the dietary behaviour of undergraduate students in non-western societies, particularly middle-eastern countries. This is in spite of the seeming importance of culture and ethnicity as potential moderating factors of the stress- diet relationship. Consequently, there is limited knowledge and understanding of the factors that influence the stress-diet relationship in these societies. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of academic stress on the dietary behaviour of female undergraduate students in King Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia and how it is influenced by the lifestyle choices and coping strategies adopted by students. A longitudinal survey of a convenient sample of undergraduate students was carried out using several instruments. These included a self-completed questionnaire (to collect data on socio-demographics, lifestyle choices), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS14), Brief COPE instrument, and 24hour recall interviews. Data were collected when no examinations were scheduled (T1), and again during examinations (T2). The participants were drawn from the female undergraduate student population in six different faculties at the university with a median age of 21.6 years. 491 participants were recruited to the study (T1), of whom 322 completed the follow-up study (T2) during the examination period. The results showed that students reported significantly higher levels of stress during examinations (p < 0.001) and that age and smoking were the two discriminating factors of students’ perception of stress. The analysis of food data revealed that there wasn’t a significant difference in the nutrient intake of students during (T1) and (T2). Nonetheless, results showed that during examinations the frequency of food intake was significantly lower (t(320) = 6.195; p=0.001), as with fast food intake (t(320) = -3.439; p=0.001). Whereas the intake of healthy food by students who reported significantly higher levels of stress decreased significantly. The study results also indicated that students reported significantly higher emotion focused coping scores (t (321) = 4.559; p < 0.001) during examinations. The findings from this study corroborate existing evidence linking changes in eating behaviour with the increased use of emotional coping strategies. The research equally identified concerns about body image and weight gain as other possible moderators of changes in the frequency of food intake by students during examinations. The key indicators of these concerns include students stated desire to lose weight, actively taking actions to lose weight, skipping meals and self-reported ideal BMIs less than their current BMI. Future work would be usefully directed towards investigating further the paradox between observed increase in emotional coping and reduced frequency in food intake. The influence the food environment (both availability and cultural values) and its impact on dietary behaviour during high stress periods should be explored further.

It is common practice in psychophysical studies to investigate speech processing by manipulating or reducing spectral and temporal information in the input signal. Such investigations, along with the often surprising performance of modern cochlear implants, have highlighted the robustness of the auditory system to severe degradations and suggest that the ability to discriminate speech sounds is fundamentally limited by the complexity of the input signal. It is not clear, however, how and to what extent this is underpinned by neural processing mechanisms. This thesis examines the effect on the neural representation of reducing spectral and temporal information in the signal. A stimulus set from an existing psychophysical study was emulated, comprising a set of 16 vowel-consonant-vowel phoneme sequences (VCVs) each produced by multiple talkers, which were parametrically degraded using a noise-vocoder. Neuronal representations were simulated using a published computational model of the auditory nerve. Representations were also recorded in the inferior colliculus (IC) and auditory cortex (AC) of anaesthetised guinea pigs. Their discriminability was quantified using a novel neural classifier. Commensurate with investigations using simple stimuli, high rate envelope modulations in complex signals are represented in the auditory nerve and midbrain. It is demonstrated here that representations of these features are efficacious in a closed-set speech recognition task where appropriate decoding mechanisms are available, yet do not appear to be accessible perceptually. Optimal encoding windows for speech discrimination increase from of the order of 1 millisecond in the auditory nerve to 10s of milliseconds in the IC and the AC. Recent publications suggest that millisecond-precise neuronal activity is important for speech recognition. It is demonstrated here that the relevance of millisecond-precise responses in this context is highly dependent on the brain region, the nature of the speech recognition task and the complexity of the stimulus set.

The paint market of today is a jungle whit an enormous range of different paint types; there all has different properties and different compositions, some with big influence on the environment and some whit less influence on the environment. It could even be difficult for an expert to always know what should be used on which surface and what would be the best out of the environmental point of view. This work is not intended as a total review of all the manufactures range of colours; only as a deeper dissertation about distemper paint in general, in particular Falu Red Paint. Whit focuses on the environmental issues. The work is especially for those who are ready to paint but don’t know what paint they should chose and people that has a interest in paint and environment, perhaps it also could be of interest for professional painters even when there probably isn’t any big news for them. The information is compiled from the Internet and downloaded brochures from the Internet.

Dietary fiber is a component in the structure of plants which is an important aspect of diet and nutrition. The demand of fiber has increased significantly, as consumers recognize its health benefits such as reduction of risk of colon cancer, cholesterol lowering affect, regulating blood glucose levels and low calorie intake. Therefore food manufacturers pay more attention to develop new products containing high fiber content. Of all the categories of food products, bakery products are the most common fiber-enriched products. In this research two different wheat bran fibers (coarse and fine fibers) that are produced by microfluidization method are utilized in one of the highly consumed bakery product &ldquo / cracker&rdquo / . In this thesis study coarse and fine wheat bran fibers were utilized in different amounts with replace to wheat bran (0,15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75 g). The effects of wheat bran fiber on crackers were determined by rheological measurements of dough samples and it was found that as the amount of wheat bran fiber increases / elasticity increases as well. Textural analysis were conducted for both dough and cracker samples and these analysis demonstrated that wheat bran fiber containing dough had higher hardness values than non/less containing ones. In addition to the above analysis, HPLC analyses were done for ferulic acid determination which is a significant nutritive compound in wheat bran. It was concluded that ferulic acid amount in fiber was much higher than wheat bran. This research demonstrated that more nutritive and much fiber containing crackers could be made by using wheat bran fiber instead of wheat bran.

<p>The paint market of today is a jungle whit an enormous range of different paint types; there all has different properties and different compositions, some with big influence on the environment and some whit less influence on the environment. It could even be difficult for an expert to always know what should be used on which surface and what would be the best out of the environmental point of view.</p><p>This work is not intended as a total review of all the manufactures range of colours; only as a deeper dissertation about distemper paint in general, in particular Falu Red Paint. Whit focuses on the environmental issues.</p><p>The work is especially for those who are ready to paint but don’t know what paint they should chose and people that has a interest in paint and environment, perhaps it also could be of interest for professional painters even when there probably isn’t any big news for them. The information is compiled from the Internet and downloaded brochures from the Internet.</p>

This thesis is concerned with the relationships between physiological changes and subjective and behavioural responses to stress. The effects of noise stress were examined under laboratory conditions, and retrospective studies of stress induced by life events were also carried out. Changes in blood glucose levels were of particular significance under stressful conditions and interesting relationships were found between changes in blood glucose levels and performance at experimental tasks under stressful conditions. Performance and the experience of stress were shown to be affected by the experimental manipulations of blood glucose levels. The effects of stressful conditions on diabetic subjects with impaired control of blood glucose levels were of particular interest. The poor control of blood glucose levels in the 'high glucose diabetics' was exaggerated when working under noise stress. Studies of life events demonstrated that diabetic subjects' experience of life events was associated with physiological disturbance of diabetic control. Diabetics' subjective experiences of stressful conditions were also examined and compared with the experiences of control subjects. Previous research showed considerable evidence to suggest that stress was a promoting factor in ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Subjects with IHD and controls were included in the present research. Experiments similar to those with diabetic subjects were carried out. The IHD subjects had enhanced physiological responses to noise stress which were associated with significantly low levels of reported stress. Subjective experiences of stress were further examined with investigations of the degree of stress associated with life events by Myocardial infarction patients. Differences in subjective experience of stress by patient groups and their controls were discussed in relation to the concept of alexithymia. Experiments with healthy subjects were carried out in order to examine the mechanisms involved in the relationships found between glucose, performance and the perception and experience of stress. The effects of glucose preloading were shown to be primarily of physiological rather than of psychological origin, and a vagal-insulin model was proposed to account for the relationship between glucose preloading and performance efficiency. Experimenter effects were examined in the studies of healthy subjects and the implications of such effects discussed in relation to the results of the experiments with hospital subjects in this work and with reference to other psychophysiological research. The experimental findings were evaluated and suggestions made for further research. In particular research directed towards the possibility of developing a more flexible, individual approach to diabetic management, taking account of unavoidable sources of stress, was outlined.

Epithelial crypts isolated from normal colon mucosa have been cultured in vitro in the form of organoids. These organoids have been shown to have regenerative potential when implanted in mouse models of denuded colon mucosa. However, a major limitation in the translation of these studies to a clinical setting is the use of Matrigel, which is clinically unsuitable due to its undefined composition and potential for tumourigenicity. Additionally, enclosed organoids do not fully reproduce the structure and function of native tissue, and do not lead to full integration into the host. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis was to investigate different scaffolds for their ability to support growth of primary colon epithelial cells in order to form an open monolayer structure that resembles native epithelium. It was anticipated that in vitro culture of primary colon cells would be more efficient with isolated stem cells than with an entire heterogeneous epithelial cell population. Therefore, the side population technique was explored using established cell lines as a method of isolating a population enriched in stem cells, based on their ability to efflux the Hoechst 33342 dye. This was found to be irreproducible and unreliable so was not pursued further. Various scaffolds were manufactured, characterised and seeded with colon epithelial cell lines to investigate how their morphological and biochemical characteristics influenced cell proliferation and differentiation. Electrospun nanofibre and microfibre scaffolds made from the synthetic material PET, and the natural polymer gelatin were fabricated. All electrospun scaffolds supported proliferation, and cells on gelatin nanofibre scaffolds differentiated to form tight junctions that are typical of epithelial cells, while also expressing increased levels of the stem cell marker ABCG2. Thereby, gelatin nanofibres demonstrated the ability to support appropriate cell differentiation while maintaining a pool of stem cells. Gelatin in the form of hydrogel scaffolds was also investigated for its ability to support cell proliferation and influence cell differentiation. Moreover, a novel method of rapidly 3D printing scaffolds using unmodified gelatin was presented. Both planar and 3D gelatin scaffolds were able to support proliferation and tight junction formation in Caco2 cells. Thus, it was concluded that gelatin hydrogels are a suitable substrate for proliferation and differentiation of colon carcinoma cell lines, and that the addition of the printed topography did not have any negative effects on cell growth and behaviour. Epithelial crypts were isolated from human colon mucosa and expanded in vitro in the form of organoids, as previously published. It was found that the precise nature and source of organoid media components are critical for successful primary cell culture. A method in which the Wnt signalling cascade is indirectly activated by GSK3β inhibition was found to be partially successful for growing organoids and may be a potential alternative culture method. Primary organoid cells were seeded onto gelatin nanofibre and hydrogel scaffolds, however the cells did not proliferate in these preliminary experiments. Overall, it was concluded that although the gelatin scaffolds demonstrated promising results with colon carcinoma cell lines, more research would be required in order to produce scaffolds that can support growth of primary colon epithelial cells.

Le coût de la maintenance aéronautique pourrait être réduit en proposant des stratégies d’inspection « intelligentes » intégrant des outils prédictifs de l’évolution des défauts, comme la vitesse de propagation de la corrosion intergranulaire.Dans cette thèse, nous avons cherché à quantifier les deux modes d’endommagement associés à la corrosion intergranulaire sur un alliage 2024 : la composante « perforante » (dissolution des pointes de joint de grain) et la composante « émoussante » (dissolution des parois des grains dans les cavités intergranulaires). Pour évaluer la composante « perforante », nous proposons une nouvelle variante de la méthode TFP (méthode OTFP) plus complète car elle ne se limite pas à caractériser le défaut le plus rapide mais permet de suivre l’ensemble des défauts perforants grâce à la nature optique de la détection. Dans cette méthode, le dispositif expérimental laisse libre la face de détection, ce qui permet de prélever l’électrolyte issu des cavités intergranulaires et de procéder à son analyse chimique. Cette donnée, peu connue à ce jour, a été utilisée pour valider des modèles de « transport réactif » qui pourront servir de base à des simulations prédictives intégrant l’effet de la nature de l’environnement. La porosité au sein du matériau induite par la corrosion intergranulaire et amplifiée par la dissolution « émoussante » a été suivie en temps réel par mesure de la conductivité électrique avec une sonde à courants de Foucault. D’abord calibrées en régime potentiostatique, ces méthodes se sont par la suite révélées efficaces pour évaluer l’endommagement associé à la corrosion intergranulaire lors d’une corrosion de type atmosphérique. / Costs of aeronautical maintenance can be reduced by implementation of “smart” inspection strategies integrating predictive data on the evolution of defects such as the propagation rate of intergranular corrosion.In this work, intergranular corrosion damage on 2024 aluminium alloy was characterized by two modes : the “perforating” damage (dissolution of the grain boundary tips) and the “blunting” damage (dissolution of the grain walls in the intergranular cavities). To evaluate the “perforating” damage, a new version of the TFP method (OTFP method) which is more complete, was designed. The OTFP method allows to detect all the intergranular corrosion defects and not only the fastest full penetrating grain boundary thanks to the optical nature of the detection. In this method the detection backside of the thin foil is free, which makes possible the collection of the trapped electrolyte in the intergranular cavities to carry out its chemical analysis. This not well-known data, was used to validate “mass-transport” models which could be implemented in predictive simulations considering the effect of the environmental conditions. The porosity inside the foil induced by the intergranular corrosion and enhanced by the “blunting” dissolution was followed in real-time by measuring the electrical conductivity using an eddy current probe.These methods were first calibrated in potentiostatic tests and then successfully applied to evaluate the intergranular corrosion damage in atmospheric corrosion conditions.

Diante das diversas modificações ambientais que o mundo vem experiênciando, incluindo as transformações do espaço urbano, essa dissertação teve como objetivo estudar o lugar da técnica moderna no fenômeno das desapropriações em uma comunidade pobre e suas repercussões no existir humano. Num primeiro momento apresenta-se brevemente o percurso percorrido pela Psicologia Ambiental, vertente da Psicologia que busca compreender o ser humano frente ao ambiente, em diálogo com outras disciplinas como a Geografia, Arquitetura e Urbanismo, e Biologia. O segundo momento é composto por uma apresentação de fragmentos da obra de Heidegger que, ao perguntar pelo sentido de ser também pergunta pelo sentido de seu habitar e como esse habitar se faz importante para o próprio constituir-se do ser- aí enquanto ser-no-mundo. O trabalho foi realizado a partir da experiência de desapropriação vivida por um grupo de moradores do canal Ibiporã, na comunidade do Coque, localizada na região central da cidade do Recife. Esses moradores, enquanto colaboradores desse trabalho, foram entrevistados com o objetivo de compreender o fenômeno de serem deslocados de suas casas para que uma obra pública fosse executada. Para isso, foi feita uma observação participante em encontros desse grupo a fim de encontrar os cinco colaboradores para essa pesquisa. A partir daí foi utilizada a entrevista narrativa proposta por Flick, assim como o diário de bordo trabalhado por Aún para somar a experiência da pesquisadora à investigação. Como resultados foram encontrados alguns núcleos de sentido como a importância da história da comunidade na vida dos entrevistados, assim como a importância da rede de apoio encontrada no lugar. Também emergiu como núcleo da trama de sentidos os sentimentos de impotência e vergonha diante de uma situação de remoção imposta, o que também foi visto como um incentivo à ocupação irregular dos espaços, configurando um tipo de ciclo vicioso. O apego ao lugar ficou bem marcado nas entrevistas, assim como as dúvidas e a angústia que surgem com relação a um futuro que se torna ainda mais incerto, a partir de diversas mudanças de hábito. Mas, para além de todos esses sentimentos, também é possível ver como essa história de descaso com as pessoas e os lugares tem incentivado esses moradores do Coque a se envolverem com suas existências, formando-se politicamente e/ou valorizando seus espaços. / In face of several environmental changes the world has been experiencing, including the urban spaces variation, this dissertation studied the modern techniques place in expropriations in a poor community and their repercussions for mankind. In the first moment, it will be presented a journey faced by Environmental Psychology, strand that analyses the human beings according to their environment, in dialog with other disciplines like Geography, Architecture and Urbanism, and Biology. The second moment is composed by Heideggers work pieces, which asks about the sense of being, also asks about the sense of living and how this sense is important for this being as part in the world. This work has been done from an expropriation experience lived by Canal do Ibiporã inhabitants, located in Coque community, Recife downtown. These inhabitants were contributors in this work and they were interviewed in order to comprehend the phenomenon of being displaced from their houses so that a public work sector could be executed in this place. For this purpose, a meeting observation had been done in this group with a view to find five contributors for this research. Thereafter, a narrative interview proposed by Flick had been used, as well as a logbook worked by Aún to add the researcher background in the investigation. As results, were found some meaning cores like the importance of the community history on the interviewers lives, in addition to the importance of a support net in that place. It also loomed the impotence and shame feelings as a core plot sense facing a removal imposed situation, which had also been seen as an irregular space occupation incentive, shaping a kind of vicious circle. The place of affection had been intensively marked in the interviews, as well as the doubts and anguishes that appeared towards a future that becomes even more uncertain, because of the several habit changes. Even with all of these feelings and emotions, it was also possible to determine how these people carelessness story has contributed Coque inhabitants to involve themselves in their own experiences, becoming more politically active and valuing assets.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:09:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 maria_jose_heraclio_aquino_oliveira.pdf: 908796 bytes, checksum: 1b3632dc6d31ca9e59a4ae7316bbb6c5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-01 / In face of several environmental changes the world has been experiencing, including the urban spaces variation, this dissertation studied the modern technique s place in expropriations in a poor community and their repercussions for mankind. In the first moment, it will be presented a journey faced by Environmental Psychology, strand that analyses the human beings according to their environment, in dialog with other disciplines like Geography, Architecture and Urbanism, and Biology. The second moment is composed by Heidegger s work pieces, which asks about the sense of being, also asks about the sense of living and how this sense is important for this being as part in the world. This work has been done from an expropriation experience lived by Canal do Ibiporã inhabitants, located in Coque community, Recife downtown. These inhabitants were contributors in this work and they were interviewed in order to comprehend the phenomenon of being displaced from their houses so that a public work sector could be executed in this place. For this purpose, a meeting observation had been done in this group with a view to find five contributors for this research. Thereafter, a narrative interview proposed by Flick had been used, as well as a logbook worked by Aún to add the researcher background in the investigation. As results, were found some meaning cores like the importance of the community history on the interviewers lives, in addition to the importance of a support net in that place. It also loomed the impotence and shame feelings as a core plot sense facing a removal imposed situation, which had also been seen as an irregular space occupation incentive, shaping a kind of vicious circle. The place of affection had been intensively marked in the interviews, as well as the doubts and anguishes that appeared towards a future that becomes even more uncertain, because of the several habit changes. Even with all of these feelings and emotions, it was also possible to determine how these people carelessness story has contributed Coque inhabitants to involve themselves in their own experiences, becoming more politically active and valuing assets. / Diante das diversas modificações ambientais que o mundo vem experiênciando, incluindo as transformações do espaço urbano, essa dissertação teve como objetivo estudar o lugar da técnica moderna no fenômeno das desapropriações em uma comunidade pobre e suas repercussões no existir humano. Num primeiro momento apresenta-se brevemente o percurso percorrido pela Psicologia Ambiental, vertente da Psicologia que busca compreender o ser humano frente ao ambiente, em diálogo com outras disciplinas como a Geografia, Arquitetura e Urbanismo, e Biologia. O segundo momento é composto por uma apresentação de fragmentos da obra de Heidegger que, ao perguntar pelo sentido de ser também pergunta pelo sentido de seu habitar e como esse habitar se faz importante para o próprio constituir-se do ser- aí enquanto ser-no-mundo. O trabalho foi realizado a partir da experiência de desapropriação vivida por um grupo de moradores do canal Ibiporã, na comunidade do Coque, localizada na região central da cidade do Recife. Esses moradores, enquanto colaboradores desse trabalho, foram entrevistados com o objetivo de compreender o fenômeno de serem deslocados de suas casas para que uma obra pública fosse executada. Para isso, foi feita uma observação participante em encontros desse grupo a fim de encontrar os cinco colaboradores para essa pesquisa. A partir daí foi utilizada a entrevista narrativa proposta por Flick, assim como o diário de bordo trabalhado por Aún para somar a experiência da pesquisadora à investigação. Como resultados foram encontrados alguns núcleos de sentido como a importância da história da comunidade na vida dos entrevistados, assim como a importância da rede de apoio encontrada no lugar. Também emergiu como núcleo da trama de sentidos os sentimentos de impotência e vergonha diante de uma situação de remoção imposta, o que também foi visto como um incentivo à ocupação irregular dos espaços, configurando um tipo de ciclo vicioso. O apego ao lugar ficou bem marcado nas entrevistas, assim como as dúvidas e a angústia que surgem com relação a um futuro que se torna ainda mais incerto, a partir de diversas mudanças de hábito. Mas, para além de todos esses sentimentos, também é possível ver como essa história de descaso com as pessoas e os lugares tem incentivado esses moradores do Coque a se envolverem com suas existências, formando-se politicamente e/ou valorizando seus espaços.