Les traitements simultanés des antituberculeux et de thérapie antirétrovirale (ARV) chez les patients co-infectés par le VIH et la tuberculose (TB) peut être compliqué en raison de la survenue du syndrome inflammatoire de reconstitution immunitaire associé à la TB (TB-IRIS) dont le diagnostic est basé sur les manifestations cliniques. La compréhension de l’immunopathologie de TB-IRIS est cruciale pour améliorer le diagnostic et la prise en charge des patients. L'immunité innée semble de plus en plus jouer un rôle dans le TB-IRIS. Dans la présente thèse de doctorat, j'ai étudié le rôle de l'immunité innée cellulaire, notamment des cellules NKT et γδ t, ainsi que l'implication des marqueurs soluble plasmatique : IL-1Ra, sCD14 et sCD163 liés à l’activation des monocytes/macrophages dans la survenue de l’iris chez les patients co-infectés par le VIH et TB au Cambodge.Les résultats ont montré que : 1/. Le TB-IRIS est associé a une forte activation des cellules γδ T et des sous populations γδ2+ avant l’initiation des ARV, 2/. Aucun des marqueurs IL-1Ra, sCD14 et sCD163 n’était prédictif de la survenue de l’iris. L'analyse longitudinale des taux plasmatiques d’ IL-1Ra pourrait être utile pour le diagnostic de l’iris et l’évaluation de la réponse au traitement antituberculeux. En conclusion, nos résultats révèlent l’association entre une activation importante de l’immunité innée et l’émergence de TB-IRIS dans la physiopathologie. De plus, nos données apportent des nouveaux éléments de l'iris et des marqueurs pour évaluer l'efficacité du traitement antituberculeux. / Simultaneous anti-tuberculosis and antiretroviral (ARY) therapy in HIV and tuberculosis (TB) co-infected patients can be complicated due to the occurrence of TB-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS). The diagnosis test of TB-IRIS is not yet available and mainly based on clinical data. A better understanding of TB-IRIS immunopathology is crucial to improve diagnostic test and patients’ clinical outcomes. Innate immunity seems increasingly play a role in TB-IRIS. In the present doctoral thesis, is studied the role of cellular innate immunity, including NKT and γδ t cells, and as well as the implication of IL-1Ra, sCD14 and sCD163 plasma soluble markers related to the activation of monocytes/macrophages in the development of iris in HIV and TB co-infected patients in Cambodia. The results have shown that 1/. TB-IRIS is associated with a strong activation of γδ t cells and γδ2+ subset before initiation of ARY, 2/. None of IL-1Ra, sCD14 and sCD163 markers was predictive of the onset of iris. Longitudinal analysis of IL-1Ra plasma level could be useful for the diagnosis of the iris occurrence and for the evaluation of response to TB-IRIS In conclusion, our results reveal the association between important activation of innate immunity and the emergence of TB-IRIS in the physiopathology. In addition, our data provides new element of TB-IRIS and markers for evaluation of TB treatment efficacy.

El Parque Nacional Rio Abiseo es una de las áreas naturales protegidas más importantes de la Región San Martin, creado para proteger con carácter intangible sus recursos naturales de flora y fauna silvestre; las bellezas paisajísticas, la cuenca hidrográfica del rio Abiseo, sus recursos culturales y promover la investigación científica. En los tributarios de primer orden del rio Abiseo habitan especies nativas y exóticas, entre las que se encuentran Astroblepus simonsii, Astroblepus spp y Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum 1792); predominando esta ultima en densidad y biomasa. El objetivo del presente trabajo es conocer, cuantificar y describir los componentes de la dieta y sus variaciones de Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum 1792); considerando la composición, proporción, diversidad y coincidencia alimenticia en diferentes tallas y así determinar los hábitos alimenticios de esta especie durante los inviernos 1989 y 1990 en los tributarios de primer orden del rio Montecristo en el Parque Nacional Río Abiseo, Dpto. de San Martín. Se colectaron 521 estómagos de Oncorhynchus mykiss en julio y agosto de 1989 y 1990; en el laboratorio del Museo de Historia Natural mediante la Regla de Sturges y la curva especie muestra de SOKHAL Y ROLPH (1992) con un límite de confianza al 99%, se seleccionaron 408 estómagos de las dos tallas mejor representadas en la muestra (a intervalos de 70 mm):II ( 145.1 a 215.1 mm) y III (215.2 a 285.2 mm); con los que se determino la composición, abundancia, biomasa y frecuencia de los taxa-presa. Para la tipificación de las presas principales se empleo el Índice del Alimento Principal (Main Food Index - MFI) de Zander, 1982 y para determinar el grado de coincidencia alimenticia ontogenetica e interestacional se estimó con el Índice de Coincidencia Alimenticia (ICA); con la composición de la dieta se determinó el número de presas y su diversidad según rango de talla y estaciones del año. / Rio Abiseo National Park is one of the most important regions protected in San Martin region, its purpose is to protect its untouchable resources of natural flora and fauna; the beautiful landscaping, the Abiseo river basin, their cultural resources and to promote scientific investigation. In the first order rivers that feed Abiseo river inhabit native and exotic species, including Astroblepus simonsii, Astroblepus spp. and Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum 1792); the latter predominating in density and biomass. The objective of this work is to learn quantify and describe the diet and variances of Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum 1792); considering the composition, proportion, diversity and feeding coincidence of different sizes and to determine the feeding habits of this species during 1989 and 1990 winters in the Montecristo first order river in National park Rio Abiseo, San Martin department. During July and August of 1989 and 1990 were collected 521 Oncorhynchus mykiss stomachs; in the Natural History Museum laboratory, using Sturges rule and sample curve of SOKHAL and ROLPH (1992) with a confidence limit of 99%, there were 408 stomachs selected of both sizes better represented in the sample (intervals of 70 mm): II (145.1 to 215.1 mm) and III (215.2 to 285.2 mm); with which the composition, abundance, biomass and taxa-prey frequency were determined. For the typing of the principal preys the Main Food Index – MFI (ZANDER, 1982) was employed, and to determine the grade of odontogenic feeding and inter-seasonal it was estimated with the Feeding Coincidence Index (ICA); with the diet composition it was determined the number of prey and diversity by size range and annual seasons.

La acuicultura es una de las áreas de mayor prioridad para el desarrollo de nuestro país, sin embargo, existen muchos aspectos en los cuales no se ha investigado y otros en los que se está iniciando, como es el caso del uso de inmunoestimulantes para lograr mejores resultados en la producción de algunas especies de importancia económica. Uno de los inmunoestimulantes investigados en peces dulceacuícolas es la quitina, que administrada como suplemento dietético potencia la respuesta inmune previniéndoles del ataque de agentes patógenos como Flavobacterium psychrophilum. El objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar la actividad inmunoestimulante de la quitina, administrada por vía oral a juveniles de trucha arco iris (Oncorhynchus mykiss) en condiciones de inmunocompetencia e inmunosupresión y posteriormente desafiados con la cepa estándar F. psychrophilum 1947T causante de la “enfermedad del agua fría”. Para demostrar los efectos de la quitina se evaluaron parámetros de la inmunidad innata celular (actividad fagocitaria y producción de óxido nítrico) y humoral (complemento por vía alternativa y lisozima sérica). Además, se determinó el tiempo necesario de tratamiento con quitina para lograr una adecuada inmunoestimulación. Las truchas fueron alimentadas con pienso suplementado con quitina y sin ella (n=20 en cada caso) durante 2 y 4 semanas. La quitina se incorporó a la dosis de 100g/Kg de alimento, el mismo que fue suministrado a la proporción del 1% de la biomasa. Luego del tratamiento los dos grupos fueron inmunosuprimidos con ciclofosfamida y desafiados por vía intramuscular. Se concluye que existe una mejora significativa en la producción de óxido nítrico y la actividad de lisozima sérica de los peces inmunosuprimidos y tratados con quitina en comparación con los peces inmunocompetentes y los no tratados. El complemento por vía alternativa y la actividad fagocitaria in vitro no mostraron variaciones significativas para ambos grupos desde las dos semanas de tratamiento. / The aquaculture is a field major priority than other for the development in our country; however, there exist many aspects in which it has not been investigated and others in which is beginning, as is the case of the use of immunoestimulants for to achieve better results in the production of the many species from economic importance. One of the stimulants investigated in other species of fish is the chitin that administered as dietary supplement enhances the immune response, providing them of the assault of pathogenic agents as Flavobacterium psychrophilum. The aim of the investigation was to evaluate immunostimulant activity of chitin administered by oral route to rainbow trout’s youths (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in immunocompetent and immunosupressed conditions e infected with a test strain, Flavobacterium psychrophilum 1947T, causing of the “cold water disease”. To demonstrate the immunostimulating with chitin there were evaluated parameters of the cellular (phagocytary activity and production of nitric oxide) and humoral (complement’s activity by alternative route and lysozyme serum’s) innate immunity. In addition it decided the necessary time of treatment with the immunostimulant to achieve the suitable one immunostimulation. Trouts were fed by pienso with and without chitin (n=20 in each case) for 2 and 4 weeks. The chitin was added to the dose of 100g/Kg of food and was supplied a proportion of 1% of biomass. Immediately of treatment both groups were immunosupressed with ciclophosphamide and infected by intramuscular route. I concluded that there exists a significant improvement of the production of nitric oxide and lysozyme serum’s activity in the immunosupressed fishes and treated with chitin in comparison with the immunocompetents fishes and not treated. The complement by alternative route and in vitro phagocytary activity did not show significant variations for both groups from two weeks of treatment.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Molecular Biology and Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 28, 2010). Accompanied by four supplementary video recording files. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-03-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:53:10Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ianuskiewtz_apd_me_arafcl.pdf: 2818002 bytes, checksum: fbf68e8a5d1520071e4ff57d4903c3da (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Iris Murdoch é uma figura dominante na literatura britânica do pós-guerra e também, uma filósofa notável que constantemente denunciou o interesse excessivo da filosofia moral moderna pelos temas da vontade, da deliberação e ação. Para ela, o estudo da ética deveria ter como prioridade o desenvolvimento da percepção estética, a atenção à realidade e, principalmente, a intensa apreensão de outros indivíduos. Murdoch considera a apreciação da beleza na arte e na natureza, não apenas como um exercício espiritual mas também, como uma maneira para alcançar a bondade, evitar o egocentrismo e ganhar o progresso moral. Seus romances são centrados na arte e no amor, pois Murdoch afirma que a boa arte e o amor intenso são intimações da verdade que levam o indivíduo ao aprimoramento moral. The Bell, seu romance publicado em 1958, descreve uma comunidade religiosa anglicana e os vários incidentes decorrentes da substituição do antigo sino da catedral. Esses eventos incitam reflexões em relação a várias questões morais, como por exemplo: a influência da religião e das instituições de poder na conduta moral; o modo de suplantar interesses próprios e o egoísmo em benefício do próximo, o papel das mulheres na sociedade e a maneira pela qual a sociedade é injusta e intolerante com aqueles cuja sexualidade difere da maioria. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar como certas questões da filosofia moral de Murdoch estão apresentadas nesse romance, The Bell, por meio da expressão literária, mostrando que a arte literária e visual estão amplamente relacionadas à sua teoria moral. / Iris Murdoch is a dominant figure of postwar British literature and also a remarkable philosopher who constantly denounced the excessive interest of modern moral philosophy in the themes of will, deliberation and action. According to her, the study of ethics should prioritize the development of aesthetic perception, the attention towards reality and mainly, the intense apprehension of other individuals. Murdoch considers the appreciation of beauty in arts and nature not only as a spiritual exercise but also, as a way to reach goodness, to avoid egocentrism and to gain moral improvement. Her novels are centered on art and love because she considers that great art or intense love can give intimations of truth, and move one towards moral perfection. The Bell, her novel published in 1958, describes an Anglican religious community and the incidents that happened due to the replacement of the old bell of the cathedral. These events incite moral reflections such as: the influence of religion and of the institutions of power in moral conduct; the way to supplant egoism for the benefit of others, the role of women in society and the ways society is unfair and intolerant of those whose sexuality differs from the majority. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyse in which ways some issues of Iris Murdoch moral philosophy are presented in The Bell, by means of the literary expression showing that the literary and the visual arts are closely related to ethics in her moral theory.

[pt] No presente trabalho, diversos métodos de análise são aplicados ao problema de íris em guias de onda. É feita, inicialmente, uma análise da teoria de pequenas aberturas. Uma verificação, através de comparação de resultados teóricos com experimentais, determina a faixa de validade e precisão da teoria. A seguir, aplica-se o método dos momentos, em particular para íris circulares em guias circulares e íris retangulares em guias retangulares. Para o caso da íris retangular em guia retangular, problemas de convergência relativa e séries lentas, típicos do método dos momentos, são contornados pela escolha adequada das funções de base e pela transformação de séries auxiliares de correção. Resultados experimentais mostram boa concordância com valores teóricos, para diversos valores de freqüência e dimensões de íris considerados. / [en] In this work, different methods are applied to iris - type discontinuity problems in waveguides. At first, the diffraction theory by small holes is considered. Theoretical results are compared with experimental ones and the accuracy and application range of the theory are verified. Further, the moment method is applied particularly to circular irises in circular waveguides and retangular irises in retangular waveguides. In the case of retangular irises in retangular waveguides, an acceleration procedure besides an special kind of basis functions is used to circumvent problems associated with relative convergence problem and slow convergent series. Experimental results are compared with theoretical ones and good accuracy is achieved for different frequencies and irises dimensions.

Biometric identification uses individuals' characteristics to attempt to match a sample to a database of existing samples. An increasingly commonly used characteristic is the iris section of the eye, which is valued for its uniqueness among individuals and stability over time. One key concern with iris recognition systems is the time required to find a test sample's match in a database of subjects. This work considers methods for categorizing irises within a database, so that a search for a match to a test sample can be focused on the test sample's category. The main method for categorization used in this work is texton learning. Texton learning involves creating a vocabulary of features and determining how much of each feature a given sample has. Once images are represented by textons, they are clustered in an unsupervised process. Success of the system is assessed as its ability to take a previously unseen image from a subject and classify it the same as the database reference for the subject. This work improves upon the past applications of texton learning with more thorough experiments to determine the optimal number of textons and image clusters. This system also investigates different accuracy metrics, with this work detailing two key methods and their relative benefits. Additionally, more in depth analysis is given for potential time saving impacts for finding a database match. Beyond the improvements to texton learning, symbolic features (ethnicity and gender) have been incorporated into the categorization process using a probabilistic metric. This is an innovative combination of using the numerical representation of the iris along with demographic information.

Master of Science / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / D. V. Satish Chandra / Biometric technologies are the foundation of personal identification systems. A biometric system recognizes an individual based on some characteristics or processes. Characteristics used for recognition include features measured from face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retina, vein, signature and voice. Among the various techniques, iris recognition is regarded as the most reliable and accurate biometric recognition system. However, the technology of iris coding is still at an early stage. Iris recognition system consists of a segmentation system that localizes the iris region in an eye image and isolates eyelids, eyelashes. Segmentation is achieved using circular Hough transform for localizing the iris and pupil regions, linear Hough transform for localizing the eyelids and thresholding for detecting eyelashes. The segmented iris region is normalized to a rectangular block with fixed polar dimensions using Daugman’s rubber sheet model. The work presented in this report involves extraction of iris templates using the algorithms developed by Daugman. Features are then extracted from these templates using wavelet transform to perform the recognition task. Method of extracting features using cumulative sums is also investigated. Iris codes are generated for each cell by computing cumulative sums which describe variations in the grey values of iris. For determining the performance of the proposed iris recognition systems, CASIA database and UBRIS.v1 database of digitized grayscale eye images are used. K-nearest neighbor and Hamming distance classifiers are used to determine the similarity between the iris templates. The performance of the proposed methods is evaluated and compared.

This dissertation is a study in philosophy of education and focuses on the moral dimensions of an individual’s formation, and on how reading fictional literature can contribute to the process of formation. The point of departure is the notion that education contains – or should contain – moral dimensions and thus contributes to the formation of individual life and a life shared with others. The study revolves around the philosophical works of Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) and what she calls “moral transformation” - a task and a striving towards realism and unselfishness. The study is concluded by a discussion of how Murdoch’s thinking contributes to the understanding of formation within philosophy of education. It is argued that Murdoch’s ideas about moral transformation can be summarised in four theses and that these show that transformation is a process of profound individual change. The theses are in short: 1) imagination supports moral transformation by allowing the individual to understand the world in a more realistic way, 2) attention supports transformation by directing the individual towards the good, 3) unselfing is a moral state of consciousness and a transformative process that leads towards unselfishness. The ego is subdued and the individual opens up to the influence of his or her surroundings, 4) reading fictional literature supports the moral transformation of the individual if the text has a quality of imagination. The study shows that Murdoch’s work can make an important contribution to the understanding of formation within the philosophy of education: With the idea of moral transformation as a point of departure the study develops questions of the individual’s formation by highlighting individuality and imagination. Moral transformation means gaining a deeper presence in one’s relationships, and it is a continuous process of discovering the world that the individual needs to endeavour to maintain. It is a striving towards unselfing.

Tesis para optar al Grado de Magister en Ciencias Animales y Veterinarias / Necrosis pancreática infecciosa (IPN) es una de las enfermedades más prevalentes y económicamente devastadoras en la cría de trucha arcoíris (Oncorhynchys mykiss) en todo el mundo. La vacuna como medida de control convencional ha mostrado resultados inconsistentes en las condiciones de producción. Por lo tanto, la mejora genética para resistencia a IPN representa una alternativa para la prevención de los brotes. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue estimar la heredabilidad y correlación genética para los caracteres de resistencia al virus IPN y peso corporal a cosecha (PC) en truchas arcoíris. Para determinar la resistencia genética al virus IPN se utilizaron datos de un total de 2.278 individuos de 58 familias de hermanos completos (descendencia de 30 padres y 58 madres), con una representación de 17 a 58 peces por familia en etapa de pre-smolt. Los peces fueron desafiados con virus lPN para inducir la enfermedad. También se registró PC en 13.241 individuos genéticamente relacionados de los peces desafiados de la misma población de cría. El pedigrí incluyó 20.529 individuos. El análisis se realizó definiendo la sobrevivencia a la enfermedad como día de muerte. Para el análisis genético se aplicó un modelo lineal mixto bivariado incluyendo resistencia al virus IPN y PC como variables dependientes; tanque:año:sexo como factor y edad a cosecha como covariable para PC y como covariable de peso final para resistencia a IPN, respectivamente. El efecto del animal, asociado al pedigrí de los individuos, fue incluido como efecto aleatorio para ambos caracteres. Para el peso de PC se incluyó además un efecto aleatorio asociado al ambiente común. El modelo fue ajustado mediante el procedimiento de máxima verosimilitud restringida. La heredabilidad estimada para resistencia a IPN fue de 0,39 ± 0.08 y para PC fue de 0,35 ± 0,06. La correlación genética entre resistencia a IPN y PC fue de 0,05 ± 0,25. Los resultados indican que la heredabilidad para ambos caracteres en esta población es moderada, y que no existe correlación genética significativa entre los 14 caracteres estudiados. La presencia de variación genética significativa tanto para resistencia a IPN como para PC y la no existencia de correlación genética entre ambos rasgos de interés productivo indica la posibilidad de mejorar ambos caracteres mediante selección artificial de forma simultáneo. / Infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is one of the most prevalent and economically devastating in breeding rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) worldwide diseases. The vaccine as conventional control measure has shown inconsistent results in production conditions. Therefore, breeding for resistance IPN represents an alternative for preventing outbreaks. The aim of this study was to estimate the heritability and genetic correlation for resistance characteristics virus IPN and harvest body weight (HW) in rainbow trout. To determine genetic resistance to the virus IPN data from a total of 2,278 individuals from 58 families of full siblings (offspring of 30 fathers and 58 mothers), with a representation of 17-58 fish per family in pre-smolt were used. Fish were challenged with virus lPN to induce disease. HW was also recorded in 13,241 genetically related individuals challenged fish of the same population breeding. The pedigree includes 20,529 individuals. The analysis is done by defining disease survival as a day of death. For genetic analysis bivariate linear mixed model including resistance to IPN virus and HW as dependent variables was applied; Tank: year: sex as a factor and age as covariate harvest for HW and as a covariate end weight for resistance to IPN, respectively. The effect of the animal, associated with the pedigree of individuals, was included as a random effect for both characters. For weight of HW also it includes a random effect associated with the common environment. The model was fitted by restricted maximum likelihood procedure. The estimated heritability for resistance to IPN was 0.39 ± 0.08 and HW was 0.35 ± 0.06. The genetic correlation between resistance to IPN and HW was 0.05 ± 0.25. The results indicate that the heritability for both traits in this population is moderate, and there is no significant genetic correlation between the traits studied. The presence of significant genetic variation for both resistance to IPN and HW and the absence of genetic correlation between the traits of productive interest indicates the possibility of improving both characters simultaneously by artificial selection form.