ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to describe parents’ experiences of the Brain Balance Program, as revealed in their online writing. This study provides a description of parents’ experiences in a way that highlights what participating in the program was like, asserts their judgements about this program, describes the impact of the program on the parent and child and describes the parents’ motives for doing the program and motives for writing about the experience. Six online documents were chosen that were information rich and showed a maximum variation of viewpoints. The sample of online documents were written by parents and retrieved from online sources in November, 2012. Basic Qualitative Descriptive research (Merriam, 2009) was used to design the study and qualitative content analysis was used to produce the findings. Content analysis is “a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005, p. 1278). The findings provide a thick description of parents’ perspectives on their experience of helping their child through a multimodal program for neurobehavioral disorders. Limitations, implications and areas of future research pertaining to the study are discussed. This study can inform parents’ decision making around interventions and provides support for further research in biomedical and cognitive rehabilitative approaches for neurobehavioral disorders.

The LD-process, called after the cities Linz and Donawitz, is used to convert pig iron into crude steel by blowing oxygen on top of the pig iron. A LD-LBE converter, Lance Bubbling Equilibrium, also stirs the melt trough a bottom stirring system. The bottom stirring in a LD-LBE converter is believed to have a positive effect alone on the phosphorous removal. Previous studies have shown that the temperature and slag composition are the main factors affecting phosphorus removal. Phosphorus binds to the slag easier at low temperature and to slag with certain levels of dissolved calcium (a process additive). Different praxes were tested and a better dephosphorisation was reached. The bottom stirrings effect on the dissolution of calcium additives is a possible explanation to the results and mechanisms presented in this study. The study also aimed to investigate the use of nitrogen as stirring gas instead of argon. Nitrogen is removed from the steel during the formation of carbon oxide gases. Nitrogen was used in varying amounts as stirring gas during the first half of the oxygen blow. It proved to be safe to use as long as there was a high content of carbon in the melt. However using nitrogen beyond half of the blow showed to be risky for nitrogen sensible steels; even in small amounts since there is not enough carbon left to degas the steel from nitrogen. Slopping happens when formed gas from the LD-process is trapped in the slag. The slag level rises and sometimes it floods the converter resulting in yield losses. The influence of the bottom stirring on slopping was studied, which resulted in the conclusion that slopping cannot be avoided by simply improving the bottom stirring. Although some verification studies remains to be done, if the suggestions based on the results of this thesis were employed, savings in the oxygen and stirring gas economies could be made. Not least improvements on the iron yield. / En järnmalmsbaserad stålproduktion börjar med att järnmalm matas i en masugn tillsammans med koks, kalk och tillsatsämnen. Ut kommer råjärn med höga kol och svavelhalter. Råjärnet transporteras till stålverket i så kallade torpedvagnar. I vissa stålverk, t.ex. SSAB Special Steels i Oxelösund, renas råjärnet från svavel i torpedvagnen. I andra stålverk svavelrenar man i separata skänkar. Svavelreningen sker med bland annat kalciumkarbid som binder till svavlet. Det svavelfattiga råjärnet måste sedan renas från kol för att bli stål. Det görs i en LD-konvertern (Linz Donawitz). LD-konvertern laddas med flytande råjärn som har en kolhalt på 4,5 procent och som är runt 1350 grader varmt. Råjärnet kyls genom att cirka 20 procent skrot tillsätts. En syrgaslans sänks sedan in i konvertern ovanför smältan och reningen startar.  Syrgaslansen blåser syrgas i ultraljudsfart vilket oxiderar en del av järnet, så väl som kol, kisel, mangan, fosfor and andra föroreningsämnen i råjärnet. Kol försvinner ur konvertern i form av kolmonoxidgas. Andra oxiderade föroreningar och järnoxid bildar tillsammans en så kallad slagg som flyter ovanpå smältan. Det tillsätts även så kallade slaggbildare som förbättrar upptaget av föroreningar i slaggen. Processen varar i cirka 17 minuter och är mycket beroende av slaggen som bildas. Kol försvinner ur konvertern i form av kolmonoxidgas. Under processens gång rör man om smältan med hjälp av gaser som spolas genom botten av konvertern. Omröringen jämnar ut smältans sammansättning och temperatur. När man inte länge behöver avlägsna kol stoppas processen. Stålets temperatur är då cirka 1700 grader och kolhalten ligger nära 0,05 procent. Stålet överförs sedan till en skänk för att skilja det ur slaggen. Stålet förädlas vidare i olika processer där sammansättningen justeras så att det möter kundens krav. Sedan gjuts stålet i strängar för transport till valsverk eller kunder. Denna studie behandlar bottenomrörningen under LD-processen i SSAB Special Steels's stålverk i Oxelösund. Omrörningen sker genom åtta porösa stenar i botten av konvertern som blåser med argon eller kväve. Gasflödet genom stenarna justeras genom ett ventilsystem. Under blåsningen rör man om med hjälp av förinställda program. Omrörningens primära funktion är att avlasta syrgaslansen. I fallen där ingen bottenomrörning finns måste syrgaslansen blåsa ”hårdare” på stålet för att avlägsna kol. Avlastningen som bottenomrörningen bidrar med gör att processen även kallas för LD-LBE, där LBE står för Lans Bubbling Equilibrium. Bottenomrörningen tros ha en positiv effekt på stålets rening från fosfor. Sedan tidigare vet man att temperatur och slaggsammansättning är de största faktorerna som påverkar fosforreningen. Fosfor tas lättare upp i slaggen vid låga temperaturen samt i slagg med högre kalkhalter. Olika omrörningsprogram testades och en bättre fosforrening nåddes. Bottenomrörningen visade sig ha positiva effekter som är teoretisk kopplade till kalksmältning. Två möjliga förklaringsmekanismer hittades. Studien undersökte även användningen av kväve som omrörningsgas istället för argon, då kväve är ekonomisk fördelaktig gentemot argon. Kväve finns inlöst i råjärnet som sätts in i konvertern. Kvävgasen försvinner ur stålet under och med hjälp av kolreningen. Det visade sig vara säkert att använda kväve från start fram till halva syrgasblåset på kvävekänsliga stålsorter, var efter man sedan byte till argon. Kväve som används sent under blåset visade ge högre kvävehalter. Urkok är en kraftig volymökning av slaggen som sker när bildad gas från reningen av smältan fångas i slaggen och får slaggen att ”koka över”. Urkok resulterar i ekonomiska förluster då slaggen som lämnar konvertern vid urkok är rik på järn. Bottenomrörningens eventuella påverkan på urkok studerades. Det visade sig att urkok inte kan undvikas genom att enbart optimera bottenomrörningen.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2017-03-02T18:02:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ivone de Bem Oliveira - 2014.pdf: 5118960 bytes, checksum: 75535d885a75770e65014835502cc8cb (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-03-03T11:33:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ivone de Bem Oliveira - 2014.pdf: 5118960 bytes, checksum: 75535d885a75770e65014835502cc8cb (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-03T11:33:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ivone de Bem Oliveira - 2014.pdf: 5118960 bytes, checksum: 75535d885a75770e65014835502cc8cb (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Linkage disequilibrium (LD) is a genetic phenomenon, since it directly interferes in the genetic dynamics of populations. Its effect is observed in the non independent segregation of alleles of different loci, resulting in a correlation between them during the haplotype formation. Any factor that alters allele frequencies can interfere in its dynamics. Both evolutionary factors considered in population genetics and the events used in breeding programs affect the linkage equilibrium/disequilibrium balance. As the microevolutionary factors are specific for each population (natural or from breeding), the LD should be assessed specifically in each population. Specific measures of LD were developed considering the different factors involved in order to mitigate their bias during measurement. Aiming to measure the LD in Ridesa breeding populations a model to predict the LD in polyploids was implemented, using the R platform, based on the Raboin et al. (2008) equations, that considers the sugarcane genome inherent attributes (polysomy and polyploidy). By using this model the LD decay profile was obtained for two breeding populations from Ridesa, the first one composed by 91 individuals from the cross between the RB97327 and RB72454 elite clones and the second from the 81 individuals derived from the selfing of the RB97327 clone. A total of 850 and 470 loci of DArT markers, respectively, were evaluated for each population. The populations showed a high LD, suggesting the existence of linkage disequilibrium even between loci that are 30cM apart. Based on the values found and on other sugarcane LD studies found in literature, the possible effect of the processes of genetic improvement on the dynamics of sugarcane LD were discussed. A second study was carried out associating the mendelian segregation analysis of loci and their effect on the LD pattern, that showed that the LD profiles over increasing distances between loci can be associated to the allelic dosage. Furthermore, aiming to illustrate one of the uses of LD in breeding programs a genomewide selection (GWS) study was developed using RR-BLUP methodology. This study was carried out as a proof of concept, in order to study the feasibility of the method of genome-wide selection in sugarcane. For this, the 132 genotypes were characterized for six different characters, namely: stalk weight (kg), stalk diameter (mm), stalk length (m), soluble solids concentration (Brix), internodes number and stalk number per plot. In addition to demonstrate the great potential of these studies in sugarcane using DArT, the results suggest the existence of a strong effect of intrapopulation structure and of the spurious associations between the loci in the accuracy of the model. These factors, usually ignored in this kind of analysis, should be further investigated in future studies. / O desequilíbrio de ligação (LD) é um fenômeno genético que interfere diretamente na dinâmica genética das populações. Seu efeito é observado na segregação não independente dos alelos dos diferentes locos, resultando na correlação entre eles durante a formação dos haplótipos. Qualquer fator que altere as frequências alélicas interfere no LD. Assim, tanto os fatores evolutivos considerados em genética populacional, como a maioria dos eventos utilizados no melhoramento interferem na dinâmica equilíbrio/desequilíbrio de ligação. Como os fatores microevolutivos são específicos para cada população (natural ou de melhoramento), o LD deve ser avaliado em cada população, de maneira específica. Medidas de LD são desenvolvidas considerando os diferentes fatores evolutivos, afim de diminuir o viés gerado por eles durante sua mensuração. Com o intuito de mensurar o LD em populações de melhoramento da Ridesa foi implementado, no ambiente R, o modelo descrito por Raboin et al. (2008), que considera como fatores controlados para a diminuição de viés na mensuração do LD a polissomia e a poliploidia, características inerentes ao genoma da cana. Com o uso da modelagem implementada no ambiente R foram obtidos o perfil de decaimento para duas populações de melhoramento da Ridesa, a primeira compostas por 91 indivíduos provenientes do cruzamento biparental entre os clones-elite RB97327 e RB72454 e a segunda por 81 clones gerados por autofecundação do clone RB97327, a partir da análise de 850 e 470 locos DArT para cada população, respectivamente. As populações estudadas apresentaram alto LD, mostrando a existência de desequilíbrio mesmo entre locos separados por 30cM. Com base nos valores encontrados e nos estudos sobre LD existentes para cana na bibliografia foram discutidos os possíveis efeito dos processos de melhoramento sobre a dinâmica genética da cultura. Um segundo estudo foi realizado associando o padrão de segregação mendeliana dos locos e seu efeito no padrão de decaimento do desequilíbrio. Esta análise mostrou que os perfis de decaimento do desequilíbrio ao longo de distâncias crescentes entre locos pode estar associado à dosagem dos alelos sob análise. Além disso, afim de ilustrar um dos usos do LD no melhoramento de cana foi desenvolvido um estudo de seleção genômica ampla (GWS) com o uso da metodologia RR-BLUP. Esta análise foi realizada como uma prova de conceito, com o intuito de verificar a viabilidade do desenvolvimento do método de seleção genômica ampla para cana-de-açúcar. Para isto, os 132 genótipos foram caracterizados para seis diferentes caracteres, sendo eles: peso do feixe de colmos (Kg), diâmetro médio do colmo (mm), comprimento médio de colmo (m), concentração de sólidos solúveis (oBrix), número médio de internódios e número de colmos/touceira. Além de evidenciar o grande potencial de desenvolvimento de modelos desta natureza utilizando marcadores DArT em cana-de-açúcar, os resultados obtidos sugeriram a existência de forte efeito de estruturação intrapopulacional e existência de associações espúrias nas acurácias obtidas nos modelos. Mostrando que os efeitos desta estruturação, normalmente negligenciado durante as análises de calibração de modelos de seleção genômica ampla, devem ser melhor investigados em estudos posteriores.

Abstract A procedure is defined for commercializing slags arising as by-products of steelmaking, and this is used to develop certain products. The outcome of the present work comprised three products or groups of products: 1) slag-based binding agents, 2) a road structure improved by means of stabilization with such binding agents, and 3) a procedure for designing stabilized structures. The commercialization procedure was drawn up by examining the technical properties of the initial materials, excluding environmental acceptability and the mechanisms of their chemical reactions. The research proceeded in stages, of which the first was a reconsideration of the results presented in the author's licentiate thesis concerning factors affecting the stabilization of road construction aggregates with blast-furnace slag-based binding agents and their significance. This was followed by a series of experiments designed to test the validity of these results. At the third stage the selection of slag-based binding agents was extended to include LD steel slag products, while the final stage consisted of the implementation of a set of test structures and associated preliminary experiments and monitoring measurements. The binding properties of three blast-furnace slag products and three LD steel slag products, used separately or in various combinations, were examined in the course of this work, taking cement as a reference material. Materials were then eliminated as the research proceeded, either on account of their poor binding properties or on economic grounds. The final construction experiments were performed with three combinations: cement-activated granulated blast-furnace slag, LD steel slag-activated granulated blast-furnace slag and a mixture of ground granulated blast-furnace slag and cement. The actual novel product among the slag-based binding agents to be introduced here is LD steel slag-activated granulated blast-furnace slag, which was found to be similar in its technical properties to cement-activated granulated blast-furnace slag. Structural layers stabilized with these two binding agents showed very similar bearing capacities, although the former did not reach the same compression strengths at an age of 91 days. The reasons for these similarities lay in a larger amount of binding agent used when activated with LD steel slag and the greater thickness of the stabilized layer, factors which both tended to compensate for the poorer compression strength. The new information gained on the properties of cement-activated granulated blast-furnace slag and the mixture of ground granulated blast-furnace slag and cement opens up fresh opportunities for selecting binding agents and designing road structures. Formulae were developed here for predicting the uniaxial compression strength at 91 days, used as a stabilization criterion, from the value for a sample taken at 28 days, a technique which will speed up the assessment of stabilization results, especially when using slowly reacting slag-based binding agents.

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) controls the assembly of focal adhesion sites and transduces signals from several membrane receptors. Controlled activation and localization of FAK functionally links cell adhesion, migration and survival. FAK is overexpressed in many cancer types, promoting tumor invasiveness and metastasis. The molecular mechanisms allowing FAK to fulfil numerous different functions and act as versatile ‘nanomachines’ are poorly understood. We have previously revealed that ligand-induced dimerization along with intramolecular interactions control FAK activation and localization where the C-terminal focal adhesion targeting (FAT) domain is strictly involved. In this study, we combine NMR with X-ray crystallography, as well as biophysical and computational methods to understand the molecular mechanisms that link the large-scale dynamics and intramolecular and intermolecular interactions of FAT into FAK’s capacity to integrate various stimuli into a site-specific function. Our results reveal FAT-mediated dynamical interplays between binding of known and newly discovered FAT ligands, and multimerization and autoactivation of FAK. Additionally, we investigate the impact of neuronal alternative splicing on FAT dynamics and interactions. Collectively, our results elucidate FAT’s role in allosterically controlling various FAK functions, and might inspire allosteric protein-protein interaction inhibitors against FAK-dependent cancer cell proliferation.

Regulation and function of protein-coding genes are increasingly well-understood, but no comparable evidence exists for non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes, which appear to be more numerous than protein-coding genes. We developed a novel machine-learning model to distinguish promoters of long ncRNA (lncRNA) genes from those of protein-coding genes. This represents the first attempt to make this distinction based on properties of the associated gene promoters. From our analyses, several transcription factors (TFs), which are known to be regulated by lncRNAs, also emerged as potential global regulators of lncRNAs, suggesting that lncRNAs and TFs may participate in bidirectional feedback regulatory network. Our results also raise the possibility that, due to the historical dependence on protein-coding gene in defining the chromatin states of active promoters, an adjustment of these chromatin signature profiles to incorporate lncRNAs is warranted in the future. Secondly, we developed a novel method to infer functions for lncRNA and microRNA (miRNA) transcripts based on their transcriptional regulatory networks in 119 tissues and 177 primary cells of human. This method for the first time combines information of cell/tissueVspecific expression of a transcript and the TFs and transcription coVfactors (TcoFs) that control activation of that transcript. Transcripts were annotated using statistically enriched GO terms, pathways and diseases across cells/tissues and associated knowledgebase (FARNA) is developed. FARNA, having the most comprehensive function annotation of considered ncRNAs across the widest spectrum of cells/tissues, has a potential to contribute to our understanding of ncRNA roles and their regulatory mechanisms in human. Thirdly, we developed a novel machine-learning model to identify LD motif (a protein interaction motif) of paxillin, a ncRNA target that is involved in cell motility and cancer metastasis. Our recognition model identified new proteins not previously known to harbor LD motifs and we experimentally confirmed some of our predicted motifs. This novel discovery will expand our knowledge of cancer metastasis and will facilitate therapeutic targeting linking specific ncRNAs via paxillin proteins to diseases. Finally, through bioinformatics approaches, we identified lncRNAs as markers that distinguish classical from alternative activation of macrophage. This result may have good use in the diagnosis of infectious diseases.

Research has shown self-concept to be a significant influence of later success in life, yet studies have rarely focused on the perceptions of students in all educational placements and achievements – specifically, those identified as gifted and with a learning disability (G/LD) (Rudasill, Capper, Foust, Callahan, & Albaugh, 2009). Adopting a qualitative case study approach, and guided by the Marsh/Shavelson model of self-concept (1985) and the Social Identity Theory (1986), this study explored 1) how G/LD students perceive the development of his or her self-concept over time and 2) how labelling and educational placement interact with the development of self-concept. A Body Biography and a discussion/ semi-structured interview were used to explore these questions with eight English-speaking post-secondary G/LD students. During the discussion/ semi-structured interview, participants discussed their completed Body Biography and responded to questions focused on self-perceptions of educational placement, labels, social identity, group membership, and self-concept. Findings of the study revealed that participants tended to perceive the gifted and LD components of the G/LD identification as separate components, rather than as a whole identification; participants appeared to consider themselves as part of a gifted in-group when reflecting upon their strengths and within a LD in-group when reflecting upon their weaknesses; and educational placement experiences exerted a strong influence upon participants’ self-concepts, depending on how well they perceived their educational placement experiences met their academic needs. Overall, the domains of self-concept were very closely related to one another, with academic, social, and emotional self-concepts being the most influenced by identification, labels, and educational placement. The findings from this study support the notion that each G/LD student is unique and there is no singular best method of identification, nor is there one specific educational path that meets the educational needs of all G/LD students.

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