New laboratory measurements of hydrides have been carried out using terahertz direct absorption spectroscopy. Spin components of the N = 2 <- 1 transition of the free radical CrH (X (6)Sigma(+)) have been recorded in the range 730-734 GHz, as well as a new measurement of the J = 2 <- 1 line of AlH (X (1)Sigma(+)) near 755 GHz. Both species were created in an AC discharge of H-2, argon, and metal vapor. For CrH, the chromium source was Cr(CO)(6), while AlH was produced from Al(CH3)3. The J = 4.5 <- 3.5 and 3.5 <- 2.5 fine-structure components were recorded for CrH, each which consists of resolved proton hyperfine doublets. For AlH, the two main quadrupole components, F = 4.5 <- 3.5 and 3.5 <- 2.5, of the J = 2 <- 1 transition were observed as blended features. These data were analyzed with previous 1 <- 0 millimeter/submillimeter measurements with (6)Sigma and (1)Sigma Hamiltonians for chromium and aluminum hydrides, respectively, and rotational, fine-structure (CrH only), and hyperfine constants were derived. The new measurements have resulted in refined spectroscopic parameters for both species, as well as direct measurement of the respective 2 <- 1 rotational transitions. This work also resolves a 10 MHz discrepancy in the frequency of the AlH line. CrH and AlH have already been observed in the photospheres of stars via their electronic transitions. These data will facilitate their discovery at submillimeter/terahertz wavelengths in circumstellar envelopes and perhaps in diffuse clouds.

Master of Science / Department of Grain Science and Industry / Bhadriraju Subramanyam / Hulya Dogan / Stored-product insects and stored products from feed mills and swine farms contain antibiotic and potentially virulent Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus casseliflavus, Enterococcus gallinarum, and Enterococcus hirae. Stored-product insects can serve as potential vectors of these enterococci which possess antibiotic resistance genes that can be spread by horizontal transfer to more serious human pathogens. In the present study, the species and concentration of enterococci from adults and larvae of key stored-product insects and insect diets and their antibiotic resistance profile were characterized. Adults of five species out of the 15 stored-product insects were tested positive for enterococci, and these included Callosobruchus maculatus (F.), Sitophilus granarius (L.), Stegobium paniceum (L.), Lasioderma serricorne (F.), and Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky. Three enterococcal species (E. casseliflavus, E. faecalis, and E. faecium) were found in 53 to 97% of the 30 adults screened for each insect species, and the enterococcal concentrations ranged from 1.4 x 10³ to 3.1 x 10⁶ CFU/adult. About 10 to 100% of the mature larvae of the respective five insect species had these three enterococcal species with concentrations ranging from 0.3 x 10¹ to 1.4 x 10⁵ CFU/larvae. Only three of the eight insect diets screened had the same three enterococci species in addition to E. gallinarum and E. hirae at concentrations of 0.2 x 10¹ to 5.9 x 10³ CFU/g. The greatest enterococcal concentration was found in C. maculatus adults but not in their larvae or diet (cowpeas). In C. maculatus during a nine-day period after adult eclosion, the enterococcal concentrations increased exponentially from 0.6 x 10¹ to a maximum of 4.1 x 10⁷ CFU/adult. Enterococci were detected in the fecal material of C. maculatus during a four-day period with a maximum concentration of 3.3 x 10³ CFU/adult on the fourth day. A total of 298 enterococcal isolates from adults, larvae, and diets were represented by E. faecalis (51.7% of the total), E. faecium (19.1%), E. casseliflavus (18.8%), E. gallinarum (5.7%), and E. hirae (4.7%). Enterococci were phenotypically resistant to quinupristin (51.3% of the total), erythromycin (38.9%), tetracycline (30.1%), enrofloxacin (29.2%), doxycycline (11.5%), and tigecycline (2.7%). All isolates were susceptible to ampicillin and vancomycin.

Research on the various subtypes of aggression has documented differences in the experience of anger and the expression of angry aggression. Mixed proactive and reactive aggressive individuals exhibit reactive aggression but, unlike reactive aggressive individuals, fail to exhibit angry expressions or physiological arousal. Similar to the proactive group, individuals with psychopathic traits have been found to exhibit emotional underreactivity, and physiological underarousal, while still exhibiting reactive aggression. The present study examined 85 boys (ages 13 to 18) from a detention center. Three groups of aggressive boys were identified via cluster analysis based on the self-report of types of aggressive behavior: a primarily reactive aggressive group (n=29), a mixed reactive and proactive group (n=16), and a low aggressive group (n=40). The three groups were compared on aggressive responding (during a computerized provocation task with low and high provocation trials), on callous and unemotional traits (CU) and on psychophysiological indices of emotional reactivity. All aggressive groups showed greater aggressive responding to high provocation than to low provocation. The mixed aggressive group showed high aggressive responding across all provocation levels, including the no provocation condition, while the reactive aggressive group only showed high levels similar to the mixed aggressive group during low provocation. Unexpectedly, the reactive and mixed aggressive groups reported higher levels of CU traits than the other group. Although the groups did not differ on psychophysiological activity/reactivity, higher levels of CU traits were related to lower skin conductance responses to provocation. Thus, the contribution of high and low CU traits in the three groups to psychophysiological activity/reactivity was examined. Interestingly, the low and mixed aggressive groups who were high on CU traits had lower sympathetic arousal (indexed by skin conductance) and lower sympathetic reactivity to provocation. Thus, the mixed aggressive group showed a general disconnect between their angry aggression (on the provocation task) and their sympathetic reactivity to provocation. However, this was true only if they also showed high rates of CU traits. These results suggest that interventions targeted toward individuals who exhibit particular subtypes of aggression may be more beneficial if the presence of CU traits is also considered.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2003 / Dietary iron (Fe) overload, originally referred to as Bantu Visceral Siderosis, is an Reloading condition that is still prevalent in rural populations of sub-Saharan Africa. The better known Fe loading disease, hereditary haemochromatosis (HFI) is frequently complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and, in rare instances this occurs in the absence of cirrhosis. The latter, together with recent evidence that dietary Fe overload in the Black African carries an increased risk for HCC, suggests that excessive hepatic iron may itself be carcinogenic. The aim of the study was to determine if Fe alone could induce HCC in experimental rat models and, if so, to investigate possible mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis. 360 Wistar albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) were divided into 6 groups. The first group, the control animals, was designated C group. Groups 2-6 were Fe-fed alone or in combination with other chemicals: group 2 Fe alone (Fe group), group 3 (Fe + V) vitamins A & E supplementation [50 mg all trans-retinol (vitamin A) and 500 mg a-tocopherol (vitamin E) per kg diet], group 4 (Fe - V) received a diet totally devoid of vitamins A & E, group 5 (Fe + ASA) received 20 mg aspirin (ASA) per day, group 6 (Fe + Cu) received 300 mg/kg diet of copper sulphate (CuS04) supplementation for 12 months followed by 3% copper hydroxide carbonate [CuC03»Cu(0H)2] / IT2018

This study examined the effect of prolonged differential housing and/or diet following exposure to chronic restraint stress on body weight, body fat weight, body fat composition and corticosterone, glucose, insulin and leptin levels. To this end, male Wistar rats were individually-housed (IH) or pair-housed (PH) and fed a condensed milk diet (CD) or a mushy rat chow diet (MD) for twelve weeks. Subsequently, all rats underwent chronic restraint stress (CRS) for seven hours/day for four weeks. During CRS, only PH rats fed MD continued to gain weight, while growth of the other groups was stunted. Housing and diet impacted on body fat weights, where PH caused increased retrorenal fat (P<0.001) in rats fed MD, while in rats fed CD, PH gave rise to less visceral (P<0.01) and more interscapular (P<0.05) and retrorenal fat (P<0.001). The CD resulted in more retrorenal (P<0.001) and interscapular fat (P<0.05) in PH rats, with more visceral (P<0.001) and retrorenal fat (P<0.01) in IH rats. Housing influenced only the fatty acid profiles of the liver and subcutaneous fat in rats fed CD. The CD caused differing fatty acid profiles of the liver, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, interscapular fat and muscle in PH rats, while altering the fatty acid profiles of the liver, subcutaneous fat, interscapular fat and muscle in IH rats. Housing and diet did not result in differences in corticosterone, insulin and glucose concentrations, while both resulted in significantly elevated leptin levels in PH rats fed CD. Therefore the types of housing and diet have various effects on body weight and glucose and fat metabolism following chronic stress. This dissertation is dedicated to My dear parents, Jeff and Avril Ackerman, for their on-going support My loving husband, Brandon, for his encouragement, assistance and patience My children, Elazar Tzvi, Sara Esther, Yaakov Yehuda and Rossi Bear who have been my stress alleviators and Idah Rangwato and Annah Sibanda who are my right-hand ladies and have made it possible to complete this dissertation- Thank you!

In rats anaesthetised with enflurane, Iexamined.the response of coccygeal primary afferents fibres to noxious thermal and mechanical stimulation and to innocuous brushing, during transient ischaemia and reperfusion of their receptive fields on the tail. Ischaemia was induced by occluding the blood supply to the tail for 30 min using a tourniquet. I discovered four different groups of afferent fibres, distinguished by conduction velocity and modality, A{3fibres responding to both brush and pinch of their receptive fields showed decreased sensitivity to brush during both ischaemia and reperfusion; Ao fibres responding to pinch were unaffected by either ischaemia or reperfusion, C fibres responding to noxious heat (49· C) and pinch showed hypersensitivity during reperfusion, especially immediately after release of the tourniquet. Another group of C fibres, presumably chemosensitive, became more actiVA during ischaemia and exhibited a 7-fold increase in firing rate during receptive field reperfuslon in the absence of obvious stimuli. These results indicate that during reperfuslon of the rat tail following transient ischaemia, myelinated fibres do not increase their input to the CNS, while C fibres became more active and showed sensitization to noxious stimulation of their receptive fields. The enhanced CNS nociceptive activity which occurs during reperfusion consequently results from both peripheral and. central sensitization. / GR2017

Master of Science / The hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine has contributed greatly to decreasing the HBV epidemic. However, it remains unclear why 5-10% of individuals do not mount an adequate antibody response. Previous studies have shown that genetic variation influences HBV vaccine response. Since such studies are lacking in South African individuals, we examined the associations between HBV vaccine response and genetic variation in HLA-DPB1, additional candidate genes and HLA-DPB1 expression levels in a South African cohort. HLA-DPA1 and -DPB1 allele typing was performed using Luminex technology, twenty-four candidate SNPs were typed by MassArray Analysis and HLA-DPB1 mRNA expression levels were measured by qPCR. HLA-DPB1*01:01, *04:01:01G and *09:01 and SNPs and haplotypes in IL1B, IL4, IL12B, IFNG and the HLA region were significantly associated with HBV vaccine response. A trend of lower HLA-DPB1 expression associating with better anti-HBs response was observed, although this was not significant. Response to the HBV vaccine is multi-genic but HLA-DP plays an important role. / CR2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2003 / Dietary iron (Fe) overload, originally referred to as Bantu Visceral Siderosis, is an Fe- loading condition that is still prevalent in rural populations of sub-Saharan Africa. The better known Fe loading disease, hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) is frequently complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and, in rare instances this occurs in the absence of cirrhosis. The latter, together with recent evidence that dietary Fe overload in the Black African carries an increased risk for HCC, suggests that excessive hepatic iron may itself be carcinogenic. The aim of the study was to determine if Fe alone could induce HCC in experimental rat models and, if so, to investigate possible mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis. 360 Wistar albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) were divided into 6 groups. The first group, the control animals, was designated C group. Groups 2 - 6 were Fe-fed alone or in combination with other chemicals: group 2 Fe alone (Fe group), group 3 (Fe + V) vitamins A & E supplementation [50 mg all trans-retinol (vitamin A) and 500 mg a-tocopherol (vitamin E) per kg diet], group 4 (Fe - V) received a diet totally devoid of vitamins A & E, group 5 (Fe + ASA) received 20 mg aspirin (ASA) per day, group 6 (Fe + Cu) received 300 mg/kg diet of copper sulphate (CuS04) supplementation for 12 months / IT2018

A reforma curricular, no ensino superior de Química é um tema que vêm sendo muito debatido no meio acadêmico, não só por pesquisadores da área, mas também por alunos que sentem a necessidade de modificações nas grades curriculares. O currículo conteudista, que apenas disponibiliza um grande volume de informações formando profissionais despreparados deve ser substituído por um currículo que promova uma formação mais abrangente, formando profissionais que além de atender as necessidades do mercado, sejam conscientes das relações existentes entre sua área de atuação e a comunidade no âmbito cultural, social e político (formação mais humanística). Esta nova formação deve procurar formar cidadãos críticos, que questionem as interações da Química com a sociedade, que busquem respostas para problemas individuais e coletivos, e proponham soluções criativas para problemas atuais. Um espírito investigativo deve, necessariamente, ser desenvolvido no formando. Dentre vários aspectos importantes as abordagens do laboratório didático podem auxiliar esta formação designada pelo currículo, sendo algumas dessas muito divulgadas e defendidas na literatura. A didática laboratorial se bem aplicada pode contribuir para a melhor formação do aluno, tornando-o um profissional de Química ciente das suas funções, capacidades e habilidades. Sabendo das necessidades de reestruturação do currículo e da contribuição que as aulas laboratoriais podem ter na formação do profissional da Química; um dos pontos cruciais a ser considerado neste estudo é as aulas prático-experimentais que podem contribuir ou dificultar as adaptações das instituições de ensino superior às novas necessidades. Assim, busca-se neste trabalho analisar a didática aplicada nas aulas prático-experimentais, por meio de um questionário formulado com base em ferramentas de classificação da abordagem do laboratório didático. Tal questionário foi aplicado aos alunos do curso de bacharelado em Química de uma universidade pública para avaliar a contribuição das disciplinas experimentais para a aprendizagem significativa dos mesmos. Foram analisados seis diferentes laboratórios do primeiro ao terceiro ano do curso. Através do questionário observou-se que todos os laboratórios didáticos não apresentam experimentos de alto caráter investigativo. Alguns alunos têm uma concepção errada da relação entre teoria e prática, principalmente os de primeiro ano, o que pode estar diretamente envolvido com o tipo de abordagem utilizada. / The curriculum reform of the higher education in Chemistry is a matter that has been discussed at the academic by researchers and also by students. In particular, the students understand the need for changes in the curricular structure. The curriculum that emphasizes the specific aspects of Chemistry (\"content approach\") only provides a great amount of information should be replaced by a curriculum that promotes a more comprehensive learning and thus graduating professionals that besides attending the market needs are conscious of the relationship between their practice and the society at the cultural, social and politic scope (a humanistic graduation). This new graduation must search for graduated critical citizens, which question the interactions between Chemistry and society, looking for answers to individual and public problems and proposing creative solutions for current problems. An investigative approach must be developed during the instruction period. Among many important characteristics the approaches adopted in the laboratory classes should help the investigative activities in support to the curriculum according, as reported in several papers already published. If well applied, the teaching laboratorial activities can contribute for a better learning at the graduation making the chemical professionals aware of their functions, capabilities and abilities. Accepting the need for curriculum changes and the contribution that laboratory classes can promote at the graduation of Chemistry\'s professional one of the crucial points to be consider are the role of the teaching laboratory. The approaches adopted in these experimental activities are decisive in the promotion of the expected changes by the higher education institutes. Thus, this work aims to analyze the approach applied at experimental classes of the bachelor\'s program in Chemistry of a public university. To access these characteristics it was applied a questionnaire based on classification tools of laboratory didactics\' approaches. This questionnaire was applied to six different laboratory classes from 1st to 3rd year of the course to evaluate the contribution of experimental activities to their significative learning. By the questionnaire, it was observed that all the didactic laboratories do not present experiments with a high investigative level. Some students, in particular from the 1st year, have a misconception of the relationship between theory and practice and this assumption can be associated with the approach adopted in the laboratory work.

Orientador: Ildeberto Muniz de Almeida / Resumo: Introdução: No Brasil, o serviço de Reabilitação Profissional – RP é oferecido pelo Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social (INSS) e destinado aos trabalhadores contribuintes da Previdência Social com incapacidades para o trabalho, seus dependentes e pessoas com deficiência. Entende-se a prática da RP como resposta pública à questão da incapacidade, a saber, um processo para eliminar barreiras existentes ao retorno e permanência no trabalho após o estabelecimento de limitações. Porém, nas últimas décadas, transformações ocorridas na prestação do serviço de RP, pela previdência social, fizeram emergir problemas que refletem descompasso entre seus reais resultados e o que se espera como política pública de inclusão social. Objetivo: Este estudo objetiva compreender as causas sistêmicas e históricas dos distúrbios que ocorrem no serviço de reabilitação profissional desenvolvido pelo INSS na Agência de Previdência Social de Jaú/SP. Com isso, busca-se identificar as principais contradições e fontes de dificuldades percebidas pelos atores envolvidos no processo de RP e, assim, produzir informações que ajudem superar as contradições do modelo vigente. Método: Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa apoiada em intervenção segundo Laboratório de Mudança (LM). A casuística do estudo foi composta por profissionais atuantes no serviço em estudo, representantes de empresas e segurado em processo de RP. O trabalho envolveu coleta de dados etnográficos, com análise documental, entrevistas individuais,... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Introduction: In Brazil, the Professional Rehabilitation (PR) service is offered by the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and is intended for contributing workers of Social Security with work disabilities, their dependents and people with disabilities. The practice of PR is understood as a public response to the issue of disability, a process to eliminate existing barriers to return and to stay in work after the establishment of disability. However, in recent decades, changes in the provision of PR services by social security have created problems that reflect a mismatch between their actual results and what is expected as a public policy of social inclusion. Objective: This study aims to understand the systemic and historical causes of the disturbances that occur in the professional rehabilitation service developed by the INSS at the Social Security Agency of Jaú / SP. With this, it is expected to identify the main contradictions and sources of difficulties perceived by the actors involved in the PR process and, thus, produce information that helps to overcome the contradictions of the current model. Method: This is qualitative research supported by intervention according to the Change Laboratory (CM). The casuistry of the study was composed of professionals working in the PR service, representatives of companies and insured in the process of PR. The work involved the collection of ethnographic data, with documentary analysis, individual interviews, which served as m... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre