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Title: Electronic kits in physics education Author: Michal Hnyk Department: Department of physics education Supervisor: RNDr. Peter Žilavý, Ph.D., Department of physics education Abstract: This diploma thesis named Electronic kits in physics education contains five main parts. It deals with the use of electronic kits in the physics education and references a research of literature discussing this problem in the first part. Thesis offers a brief overview of types of electronic kits, which are being used in education in schools of the Czech republic in the second part. The third fundamental part then describes the design of the prototype of kit suitable for education and documents the construction including the experience, which author acquired during the work, and technological processes. Fourth part of the work documents the piloting of the kit. The Builder's guide, which is a part of the kit and serves as a source of knowledge and suggestions for the user, is presented in the last part. Keywords: electronics, kit, education

Introdução: O melanoma mucoso de cabeça e pescoço (MMCP) é mais agressivo do que o melanoma cutâneo, marcadores prognósticos desta patologia não foram completamente esclarecidos devido a sua raridade. Em recentes estudos, algumas vias moleculares foram descritas na fisiopatologia destes tumores. Entre estas vias, existe a via da MAPK (Mitogen Activated Protein Quinase). Esta via de sinalização está envolvida no controle do crescimento celular, proliferação e migração, com um papel no desenvolvimento e progressão do melanoma. Além disso, a mutação do gene KIT foi identificada em melanomas, indicando a possibilidade de benefícios terapêuticos com o uso dos inibidores de tirosino-quinase. Objetivos: descrever a prevalência e características de mutações ativadoras do gene KIT em 28 pacientes com MMCP tratados no Instituto Nacional do Câncer-INCa; avaliar a relação entre a presença de mutação ativadora do gene KIT e evolução clínica dos pacientes tratados em relação ao estadiamento, sobrevida livre de doença e sobrevida global. Métodos: Estudo retrospectivo de coorte, foram incluídos 28 pacientes com MMCP tratados no INCA, entre 1998 e 2009. Foram analisados: estadiamento, tratamento primário, sobrevida livre de doença (SLD) e sobrevida global (SG). As curvas de sobrevida foram analisados utilizando o método de Kaplan-Meier, com software SPS 11.0. Análise KIT: O DNA foi extraído a partir de tecido incluído e fixado em parafina. O procedimento consiste de múltiplas etapas de desparafinização com xilol. Os restos celulares são precipitados por centrifugação e o DNA, no sobrenadante é utilizado nas reações de PCR (direto ou diluído). A análise mutacional do gene foi realizada utilizando-se a amplificação por PCR seguida pelo sequenciamento genômico. As análises são iniciadas pelo éxon 11, seguidas do éxon 9, 17 e 13. Resultados: Os pacientes eram predominantemente do sexo feminino (57%). A idade de apresentação variou de 27 a 85 anos. A região nasossinusal foi o sítio primário mais frequente (75%). Todos os pacientes foram submetidos a ressecção cirúrgica. Dezessete pacientes receberam radioterapia adjuvante (37%). As recorrências ocorreram em 82% dos pacientes. Presença de mutação de KIT foi encontrada em 7 casos (25%), três no éxon 9, 3 no éxon 11 e 1 no éxon 13. Fatores preditivos de recorrência foram índice mitótico (p = 0,05), invasão vascular (p = 0,043), e a disseminação perineural (p = 0,034). Não houve diferenças significativas na SLD e SG de acordo com a mutação KIT. Conclusão: A presente série incluiu 28 casos tratados. Sete casos (25%) tinham mutações ativadoras KIT. Esta descoberta sugere que existe um grupo de pacientes que poderiam se beneficiar com a terapia-alvo adequado com inibidores de tirosino-quinase / Unlike their cutaneous counterparts, head and neck mucosal malignant melanomas (HNMM) behave much more aggressively and their prognostic markers have not been fully elucidated. In recent studies, some molecular pathways have been found to be involved in the pathogenesis of melanomas. Among these, there is a proliferative MAPK pathway (\"Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase\"). This signaling pathway is involved in controlling cell growth, proliferation and migration, with a role in the development and progression of melanoma. In addition, KIT gene mutation has been identified in melanomas, indicating that there may be potential therapeutic benefits of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Objectives: Evaluation of KIT mutation prevalence in a subset of 28 patients with HNMM treated at a single institution, establishing the relationship between different mutations and outcome (DFS and OS). The primary end-point of the study was to define the incidence of KIT mutations in HNMM, including the relationship between KIT mutations with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in HNMM. Secondary end-points were correlation among therapeutic options, histopathological findings, demographic data and clinical response. Methods: This retrospective study comprised data of 28 patients with HNMM treated at Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) between 2000 and 2011. Clinical analysis included patients characteristics, staging, primary and palliative treatments, disease free survival and overall survival. Progression-free survival and overall survival were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method, with SPS 11.0 software. KIT analysis: paraffin blocks were selected following analyses of histologic preparations, enabling DNA extraction. Different DNA concentrations were employed in PCR amplifications, based on DNA integrity. PCR amplification of exon, 9, 11, 13 and 17 was performed. . Results: Patients were predominantly females (57%). The age of presentation ranged from 27 to 85 years. The sinonasal region was the most frequent primary site (75%). All patients underwent surgical resection. Seventeen patients received adjuvant radiotherapy (37%). Recurrences occurred in 82% patients. Oncologic mutations in KIT were found in 7 (25%) of seven tumors, 3 in exon 9, 3 in exon 11 and 1 in exon 13. Predictive factors for recurrence were mitotic rate (p=0.05), vascular invasion (p=0.043), and perineural spread (p=0.034). There were no significant differences in DFS and OS according to KIT mutation. Conclusion: HNMM remains a rare disease. The present single-institution series includes 28 cases treated in single institution. Seven cases (25%) had activating KIT mutations, which is an increased prevalence of activating KIT mutations in this specific subset of mucosal melanomas. This finding suggests that there is a group of patients who might benefit with appropriate targeted therapy with kinase inhibitors

Evolutionarily conserved Pumilio (Pum) RNA-binding proteins act as translational repressors during embryo development and cell fate specification. Previous work in the lab has shown that over-expression of Pum2 (Pum2-EML) supports maintenance and suppresses mutilineage differentiation of murine multipotent HSC/MPP-like cell line EML. The subsequent analysis of HSC markers and functional analysis has revealed that wt EML cells share the LKS CD34 positive phenotype, whereas the majority Pum2-EML cells are similar to LKS CD34 negative. The CD34 positive wt EML cells can be divided into CD34low, CD34med and CD34high subpopulations, whereas Pum2-EML CD34 positive cells correspond to CD34low subpopulation. Colony forming assays have revealed that the overall multilineage differentiation of wt EML and Pum2-EML cells strongly correlates with the CD34 expression levels. Multiple experiments have revealed that purified CD34 negative and CD34 positive wt EML cells can generate each other and among CD34 positive wt EML cells the CD34low cells have the highest capacity to give rise to CD34 negative EML cells. We have proposed a model in which CD34 negative EML cells are more primitive cells in an "inactive" (differentiation inhibited) state, that give rise to CD3low "active" (differentiation ready) EML cells. The CD34low EML cells can revert back to the CD34 negative state or give rise to CD34med/high cells that can readily differentiate into multiple lineages. Based on that model, the over-expression of Pum2 leads to increased maintenance of cells in inactive CD34 negative state, and blocks development of CD34 positive cells past the CD34low stage. Cumulatively, these results support the notions that Pum2 could be involved in maintaining the balance between inactive and active state of multipotent hematopoietic cells. The c-kit receptor plays a vital role in self-renewal and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and multipotent progenitors (MPPs). We have discovered that besides c-kit, the murine multipotent HSC/MPP-like cell line EML expresses the transcript and protein for a truncated form of c-kit, called tr-kit. Notably, the tr-kit transcript and protein levels were down-regulated during cytokine induced differentiation of HSC/MPP-like cell line EML into myelo-erythroid lineages. RT-PCR results show tr-kit is transcribed solely in cell populations enriched for LTR-HSC, STR-HSC and MPPs. The observation that tr-kit is co-expressed with c-kit only in more primitive, HSC and MPP-enriched cell populations raises an exciting possibility that tr-kit functions either as a new component of SCF/c-kit pathway, or is involved in a novel signaling pathway, present exclusively in HSC and MPPs. These findings necessitate functional characterization of tr-kit, and analysis of its potential role in the self-renewal, proliferation and/or differentiation of HSC and multipotent progenitors.

Background: Renacimiento, Mexico in the state of Nuevo Leon is home to approximately 1,000 families who currently experience a host of social, health, and community challenges that span both rural and urban Mexico. The state has committed to initiate the construction of a community health clinic. Methodology: In preparing for the clinic, a needs assessment instrument and associated materials were developed for community members and volunteers to administer to residents within Nuevo Leon. Results: A culturally sensitive survey instrument and associated documents were created with consideration for low-literacy participants and with a wide variety of topics in the areas of individual, women’s, children’s and community health. Conclusions: The creation of this needs assessment survey provide insight to stakeholders in Mexico and abroad who stand to benefit from learning what community residents’ perceive as their greatest needs. The results from the survey will provide the first ever documentation of this unique community’s health status and will demonstrate areas of need within which the community health clinic can focus their efforts.

This report is a bachelor thesis work in the field of product development and design. The assignment has been to develop a solution for roof racks, normally used for cars, to fit on the open trailer models FS1425 and Alugance. The project was implemented by Johan Andersson and Victor Karlsson, students at the Mechanical Engineering program with a focus on product development and design at Jönköping’s school of Engineering, in spring 2012. The client wants to use transport solutions in the same way as roof racks on cars. The user of such a product is assumed to desire simplicity, safety and an attractive design with an appealing price, which has been a challenge during the thesis work. Pre-studies have been conducted to examine the potential competitors and gain knowledge in the research area. Concepts have been generated by the method of brainstorming and evaluated and screened by the method Go/No-Go and Pugh’s decision matrix. In modeling the concepts, the CAD program Solid Works is used. The work resulted in one solution for FS1425 and one for Alugance where both solutions are based on a standard approach/kit. Each kit consists of a rubber component and two plates that produce a clamping force to the trailer profile using two screws. Concepts prototypes have been made by modifying the current plates and 3D printing. For further development of the concepts, the focus should be on production optimization and testing of functional prototypes. / Denna rapport presenterar ett examensarbete inom området produktutveckling och design. Uppdraget har varit att utveckla en lösning för hur takräcken som används för bilar ska kunna monteras på de öppna släpvagnsmodellerna FS1425 och Alugance. Examensarbetet har genomförts av Johan Andersson och Victor Karlsson, studenter på maskintekniksprogrammet med inriktning mot produktutveckling och design på Jönköpings tekniska högskola under våren 2012. Uppdragsgivaren vill öka släpvagnarnas möjligheter för användning av transportlösningar på samma sätt som takräcken gör för bilar. Användaren för en framtida produkt antas att önska enkelhet, säkerhet och en attraktiv design till ett tilltalande pris, vilket har varit utmaningen i arbetet. Förstudier har genomförts för att undersöka eventuella konkurrenter och erhålla kunskap inom området. Koncept har genererats genom metoden brainstorming och utvärderats och sållats med metoderna Go/No-Go samt Pughs beslutsmatris. Vid modellering för koncepten har CAD-programmet Solid Works använts. Arbetet resulterade i en lösning för FS1425 och en för Alugance, där båda utgår från en standardlösning/kit. Varje kit består utav en gummikomponent och två bleck vilka skapar en klämkraft mot släpvagnsprofilen med hjälp av två skruvar. Konceptprototyper har tillverkats genom modifiering av befintliga bleck samt 3D- printing. För vidareutveckling av koncepten bör fokus ligga på produktionsoptimering och tester av funktionsprototyper.

Software testing is a very time-consuming and tedious activity and accounts for over 25% of the cost of software development. In addition to its high cost, manual testing is unpopular and often inconsistently executed. Software Testing Environments (STEs) overcome the deficiencies of manual testing through automating the test process and integrating testing tools to support a wide range of test capabilities. Most prior work on testing is in single-thread applications. This thesis is a contribution to testing of distributed applications, which has not been well explored. To address two crucial issues in testing, when to stop testing and how good the software is after testing, a statistics-based integrated test environment which is an extension of the testing concept in Quality Programming for distributed applications is presented. It provides automatic support for test execution by the Test Driver, test development by the SMAD Tree Editor and the Test Data Generator, test failure analysis by the Test Results Validator and the Test Paths Tracer, test measurement by the Quality Analyst, test management by the Test Manager and test planning by the Modeller. These tools are integrated around a public, shared data model describing the data entities and relationships which are manipulable by these tools. It enables early entry of the test process into the life cycle due to the definition of the quality planning and message-flow routings in the modelling. After well-prepared modelling and requirements specification are undertaken, the test process and the software design and implementation can proceed concurrently. A simple banking application written using Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) and Java DataBase Connectivity (JDBC) shows the testing process of fitting it into the integrated test environment. The concept of the automated test execution through mobile agents across multiple platforms is also illustrated on this 3-tier client/server application.

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This project is an investigation of melodic drum-kit practices in popular and contemporary music. The development of melodic drum-kit playing techniques has helped create a more inclusive role for drum-kit players within ensembles and has increased the potential for drum-kit players to present solo elements in performance. The project artefacts of my research are six compositions presented on CD. They demonstrate performance and compositional techniques that encourage a melodic approach to drum-kit performance. My research involved several methodological approaches these included: a) professional practice-based research, b) music composition and transcription, c) interviews with significant musicians familiar with drum-kit melodic practices and d) elements of autoethnography. I refer to particular drum-kit performance techniques and practices such as mirroring, thinking melodically, spatial relationships between drum-kit instruments and ensemble players, as well as, internalising melodic and harmonic ideas and being in the moment. I have shown in my compositional project that melodic elements in drum-kit performance and composition encourage a broader and more inclusive role for drummers in improvised performance. This is evident in the ensemble versions of compositions submitted as part of this study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, January, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.