Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Geography, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Iron-tannate dyes have been used for thousands of years and on many continents to colour materials that are now part of our cultural heritage shades of black, grey, or brown. Cellulosic and proteinaceous yarns and woven textiles have been dyed with iron-tannate dyes to form objects or components of objects for domestic and ceremonial use. Unfortunately, the longevity and useful lifetime of iron-tannate dyed objects is threatened by the dye itself which accelerates the degradation of organic materials through metal-catalysed oxidation and acid-catalysed hydrolysis. The accelerated degradation causes weakening, discolouration, and embrittlement of the organic materials at a faster rate than undyed equivalents and if left unimpeded, weakens the objects to the point that they are no longer able to be exhibited without damage. In some cases the degradation is so great that the dyed areas of the objects have crumbled to dust. At present there is no suitable chemical stabilisation method available with which to inhibit this degradation. An aqueous treatment is available for successfully stabilising paper containing iron gall ink; iron gall ink is chemically similar to iron-tannate dye. However, the aqueous nature of this treatment makes it unsuitable for weakened fibres, water soluble components, and water sensitive materials which may be part of a composite material containing iron-tannate dye. Non-aqueous treatments are therefore urgently needed in order to preserve our iron-tannate dyed cultural heritage for future generations.In this project a range of non-aqueous antioxidants and a non-aqueous deacidifier (described in Chapter 8) were tested alongside existing aqueous treatment in order to establish their ability to slow down the degradation of a range of model iron-tannate dyed textiles (Chapters 9 and 10). Model textiles were developed as part of the project (Chapters 3-5) to be substitutes for historic materials in these stabilisation studies. Validation of the model textiles for this purpose (Chapter 6) involved the comparison of the model textiles with selected historic iron-tannate dyed objects within the British Museum’s collection (Chapter 6). The historic objects and the properties of the model textiles before and after accelerated ageing (Chapters 5 and 6) and before and after treatment application (Chapters 9 and 10) have been characterised using a variety of analytical techniques (Chapter 2). In order to determine which accelerated ageing conditions were the most suitable for this project various combinations of elevated temperature and either cycling or stable relative humidity were tested for their ability to produce noticeable changes in the properties of the dyed model textiles within four weeks of ageing (Chapter 7). This project is an AHRC/EPSRC funded Science and Heritage Programme PhD in which the British Museum has been a collaborative institution. Among other wider dissemination methods, research from this project has been presented to the public on numerous occasions at gallery tours and Science Day events at the British Museum.

Submitted by Carlos Eduardo Makoul Gasperin (carlosgasperin@gmail.com) on 2018-10-23T16:49:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MP - DISSERTACAO - Carlos Eduardo Gasperin_pos banca.pdf: 1129459 bytes, checksum: d24f6dd8deed6cac935f776c5acdc093 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Thais Oliveira (thais.oliveira@fgv.br) on 2018-10-23T17:18:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MP - DISSERTACAO - Carlos Eduardo Gasperin_pos banca.pdf: 1129459 bytes, checksum: d24f6dd8deed6cac935f776c5acdc093 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-10-23T17:42:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MP - DISSERTACAO - Carlos Eduardo Gasperin_pos banca.pdf: 1129459 bytes, checksum: d24f6dd8deed6cac935f776c5acdc093 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-23T17:42:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MP - DISSERTACAO - Carlos Eduardo Gasperin_pos banca.pdf: 1129459 bytes, checksum: d24f6dd8deed6cac935f776c5acdc093 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-09-27 / Os Shopping Centers são um importante modelo de negócios na economia brasileira, gerando um grande fluxo financeiro de recursos, os quais transitam em um complexo emaranhado de relações jurídicas compostas por diversos atores e instrumentos contratuais. Em que pese a importância econômica que esses centros de compras adquiriram no mercado consumidor nacional, não se tem ainda uma visão doutrinária clara da sua estrutura jurídica nem, muito menos, dos impactos tributários daí advindos. Esse trabalho pretende contribuir para o esclarecimento dessas questões, sem ter, obviamente, a pretensão de esgotar o debate. O estudo proporá um novo enfoque na conceituação jurídica dos shopping centers, com especial atenção para a definição dos limites da tributação sobre eventuais receitas e rendas que possam existir nesse setor. O ponto central do debate será a qualificação jurídico-tributária dos chamados ‘encargos comuns ou condominiais’ e das ‘contribuições ao fundo de promoção e propaganda’, elementos financeiros comuns e relevantes para esse modelo de negócios. Seriam esses valores receita/renda tributáveis? Na pessoa de quem? Para responder tais questões, primeiramente será feita uma análise do modelo de negócios e do debate doutrinário acerca da sua qualificação jurídica. Na sequência, será proposta uma nova perspectiva de análise, a partir das teorias das redes empresariais e das coligações contratuais. Essa base teórica nos dará condição para analisar os impactos tributários daí advindos e para fornecer a seguinte resposta àquelas indagações: cumpridos determinados requisitos os ‘encargos comuns’ e as ‘contribuições ao fundo de promoção e propaganda’ não podem ser imputados como renda ou receita do empreendedor, já que deverão ser encarados como despesas dos lojistas e do próprio empreendedor. Com base nas conclusões alcançadas, algumas recomendações práticas serão propostas ao setor para mitigar eventuais riscos tributários atinentes à discussão aqui posta. / Shopping Malls are an important business sector in the Brazilian economy, generating a huge flow of money throughout a variety of complex legal relationships composed of many actors and contractual instruments. Despite the economic importance of these commercial centers, the legal doctrine has not defined yet a clear view of the legal structure of such enterprise, neither the tax impacts derived from it. This essay intends to enlighten such subjects, without the intentions of exhaust them. This research will propose a new approach to conceptualize the legal arrangement that supports shopping malls. It discusses whether there are any incomes or revenues in the so-called 'common costs' fees and the 'contributions for the promotion and advertising fund', bearing in mind that they are common and relevant financial components on this kind of business. The central question that drives the essay is that: Would these fees be taxable income or revenue; and on whose economic agent? To address this question firstly an analysis will be made of the business model named shopping malls and the doctrinaire debate over its legal qualification. Subsequently, a new economic and legal analytical perspective to this business model will be proposed, based on business and contractual networks theories. With these it will be possible not only to achieve eventual tax impacts of those fees mentioned above, but also to answer the question posed herein by affirming that since some requirements are accomplished, the fees known as 'common costs' and the 'contributions for the promotion and advertising fund' should not be attributed as entrepreneur’s revenues, since they shall be faced as store owners’ own expenditures and, in some cases, as entrepreneurs’ own expenditures. In addition, the research intends to provide some practical recommendations to the economic sector for mitigating possible tax liabilities risks linked to the subject herein discussed.

This diploma thesis investigated thermal stability and the degradation of hyaluronan (HA) in HA with a molecular mass of 90–130 kDa and in HA with a molecular mass of 1 500–1 750 kDa. The following methods were used for the research: rheology, SEC-MALLS, TGA and DSC. Low-molecular HA was subject to time dependency of degradation investigation, where it was dried at a temperature of 90 °C for a period of 30 minutes and 60 minutes prior to the preparation of the solutions itself. High-molecular HA was investigated not only from the point of view of time but from the point of view of temperature dependency of degradation as well. In the case of investigating the time dependency of degradation, high-molecular HA was dried at a temperature of 75 °C at a time range from 15 minutes to 120 minutes prior to the preparation of the solutions. During the preparation of the solutions for discovering the temperature dependency of degradation, the high-molecular HA was then dried for a period of 30 minutes at a temperature range from 60 °C to 90 °C. For low-molecular HA, thermal stability was proven. Therefore, there is no decrease in the molecular mass and the solutions did not demonstrate a significant decrease of viscosity. For high-molecular HA, thermal stability was not proven. Degradation due to the temperature of drying as well as the time of drying occurred, which was demonstrated by a significant decrease in molecular mass and viscosity of the solutions. While in the case of using a drying temperature of 60 °C, a decrease in the molecular mass occurred by approximately 5 %, the molecular mass decreased by approximately 20 % at a drying temperature of 90 °C compared to undried HA. Due to this reason, high-molecular HA was also further investigated by means of the TGA method, where the decrease of humidity of HA samples in relation to the drying temperature was observed. The DSC method was also used. The objective of the DSC method was to find out temperatures, at which evaporation of humidity contained in an HA sample in relation to its form (undried HA, dried HA and lyophilized HA) occurs. This method further finds out the heat necessary to evaporate humidity from an HA sample. To conclude this research, the results obtained for high-molecular HA were compared with the results of other drying processes – lyophilized proved to be a very gentle drying method because a decrease in the molecular mass for lyophilized HA compared with undried HA almost did not occur.

This master thesis deals with study of chitosan-lignohumate, chitosan-polystyrenesulfonate, chitosan-alginate and chitosan-carrageenan polyelectrolyte complexes. The work was motivated by research of finding suitable alternative substance for lignohumate. The molecular weights of substances were characterized using SEC-MALLS. A degree and a character of the interactions between polyelectrolyte were studied by isothermal titration calorimetry and dynamic light scattering method. The calorimetric experiments proved that decreasing concentration of samples causes decreasing of heat flow. The best calorimetric measurements were provided by adding chitosan into polymer solution. The interactions between chitosan and polyanions and influence of mixing order were proved also by measuring intensity of zeta potential, Z-average of particle size and turbidity. New chitosan-based materials have a big potential in agriculture and medicine.

Technological innovations are one of the most impactful occurrences in our lives nowadays. Almost every product or service is being transformed into a more ubiquitous one due to the expectation of offering a better experience or becoming economically more viable. One of the most recent common instances is cities that transforms into smart ones. Many functions of smart cities are upgraded digitally in order to improve their service. This study is inspired by this aspect to focus on the shopping side of the cities. The most common type of retailing is shopping malls and there is evidence to lead this paper to point out how smartness could be impactful for the shopping malls. Furthermore, there is strong evidence that shows that online shopping is getting popular and shopping malls are in their maturity stage in terms of the Life-Cycle concept. Shopping malls’ customer turnover is increasing every year and smartness could be the spark to overcome this obstacle. Therefore, this paper’s research focus has formed into the possible determinant factors that could be significant in the case of adoption of smartness into shopping malls and possible facts that could create value for the shopping malls in the purpose of eliminating the current obstacles that shopping malls are facing.

El presente estudio de investigación tuvo como objetivo principal determinar el impacto del principio de negocio en marcha en la liquidez bajo el contexto de COVID-19 en los centros comerciales de Lima Metropolitana, año 2020. El trabajo de investigación está compuesto de cinco capítulos: Capítulo I: Marco Teórico, comprende el desarrollo de principales fuentes, antecedentes nacionales e internacionales a través de los cuales hemos podido delimitar las principales definiciones de las variables de estudio, así como también establecer sus dimensiones y distinguir el sector que se va a analizar. Luego, el Capítulo II Plan de Investigación, está conformado por el planteamiento del problema, la justificación del estudio, los objetivos e hipótesis generales y específicas. Enseguida, en el Capítulo III Metodología de la Investigación, se define que el estudio se desarrolla con un enfoque mixto en el que se desarrollan los estudios cualitativo y cuantitativo por medio del estudio de instrumentos como la entrevista en profundidad y encuestas, determinando previamente la población y muestra para la recolección de datos. Después en el Capítulo IV Desarrollo de la Investigación, se expone la aplicación de instrumentos detallados con antelación y se plantea un caso práctico para analizar la problemática del principio de negocio en marcha y el impacto en la liquidez. Por último, en el Capítulo V: Análisis de Resultados, se examinan y explican los resultados recabados en el proceso de investigación basados en los instrumentos de estudio para validar de la hipótesis general y específicas a través de un análisis que nos permita dar a conocer las conclusiones y recomendaciones para la presente investigación. / The main objective of this research study was to determine the impact of the going concern principle on liquidity in the context of COVID-19 in shopping malls in Metropolitan Lima, year 2020. The research work is composed of five chapters: Chapter I: Theoretical Framework, comprises the development of main sources, national and international background through which we have been able to delimit the main definitions of the study variables, as well as to establish their dimensions and distinguish the sector to be analyzed. Then, Chapter II, Research Plan, is made up of the problem statement, the justification of the study, the general and specific objectives and hypotheses. Then, in Chapter III Research Methodology, it is defined that the study is developed with a mixed approach in which qualitative and quantitative studies are developed through the study of instruments such as in-depth interviews and surveys, previously determining the population and sample for data collection. Then, in Chapter IV, Research Development, the application of the instruments detailed above is presented and a practical case is presented to analyze the problem of the going concern principle and the impact on liquidity. Finally, in Chapter V: Analysis of Results, we examine and explain the results obtained in the research process based on the study instruments to validate the general and specific hypothesis through an analysis that allows us to present the conclusions and recommendations for this research. / Tesis

D. Tech. (Department of Process Control and Computer Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Technology), Vaal University of Technology. / In this research study, a scheme to minimise interference in converged mobile cellular networks (MCNs) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) was designed and implemented. The focus was the mitigation of interference that arises when proximity service (ProSe)-enabled sensors engage in a device-to device (D2D) communication to alert smartphone users upon the detection of explosives at highly crowded areas like shopping malls. D2D is a technology that academia and industry experts believe will play a prominent role in the implementation of the next generation of mobile networks, specifically, the fifth generation (5G). However, the full roll out of D2D is being impeded by the interference that the technology introduces to the cellular network. D2D devices cause a significant amount of interference to the primary cellular network especially when radio resources are shared. In the downlink phase, primary user equipment is likely to suffer from interference emanating from a D2D transmitter. On the other hand, the immobile base station is affected by interference caused by the D2D transmitter in the uplink phase. This type of interference can be avoided or reduced if radio resources are allocated intelligently under strict coordination of the base station. An NP-hard optimisation problem was formulated and finding a solution to this problem in 1 ms is not possible. 5G has a frame structure duration of 10 ms with 10 subframes of 1 ms each. Heuristic algorithms were then developed to mitigate the interference affecting the primary network that could carry out resource allocation within the fast-scheduling period of 1 ms. Smartphones have progressed into devices capable of generating massive volumes of data. The challenge is that battery technology is not keeping up with the pace of smartphone technology, so any additional feature that designers want to add, is met with a lot of contempt from customers who are concerned about their smartphone batteries depleting rapidly. In this context, the strategy must be energy-efficient for smartphone users to embrace it. A system level simulator was developed using MATLAB to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed design. Extensive simulation results showed that ProSe-enabled sensors can safely be integrated into cellular networks participating in D2D communication with smart phones, without introducing significant harm to the primary cellular network. The results showed that after implementing the proposed strategy, overall user throughput decreased by 3.63 %. In cellular networks, this is a modest figure since a reduction of up to 5% is acceptable to both users and network providers. The figure generally capped in service level agreements signed between network providers and users is 5%. The proposed technique also resulted in a 0 % reduction in SINR of CUEs in a cellular network, according to the findings. In terms of D2D link throughput for different D2D transmit levels, the method proposed in this research work surpassed a similar scheme proposed in literature by an average of 18.3%.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Masters Degree of Technology: Public Relations Management, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / In South Africa, the competition between shopping centres has increased significantly over the years due to the increase in the number of shopping centres and the changing shopping behaviour. The success of any shopping centre depends on the revenue generated by customers who frequent the mall to make purchases or use the services of the retail/entertainment outlets. To attract customers to shopping centres, management has to ensure that malls are effectively promoted to relevant stakeholders. Communication is important in any promotional, public relations or marketing activity and should be effective, persuasive and managed in a formal and structured way which fits into the overall goals of the mall. Shopping centre management may use a number of communication tools such as (and are not limited to) advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling and sponsorship. However, do these strategies play a role in generating revenue to promote the overall success of a shopping centre? This dissertation, therefore, sets out to identify and examine the communication tools used by shopping centre managers within the greater Durban area in South Africa. It does so by interviewing marketing managers and the tenant mix of five competitive shopping centres within the greater Durban area in South Africa. Data will be collected from the respondents through questionnaires and an interview schedule. One of the significant results emerging from this study is that the function of tenant relations; promotions; publicity; and public relations plays an integral part in the effective functioning of a shopping centre.

In this Thesis, from the disciplinary vantage point of English Studies, I explore some of the complex meanings that may be attributed to several forms and practices of South African consumer culture: magazines, malls and themed leisure. While these contemporary cultural 'texts' are often ephemeral, and people's attachments to them fractured, transient or at least ambivalent rather than unproblematic, my argument takes issue with the pessimism that informs much local and international criticism of consumer culture. My Thesis turns to concepts of affect, image, sign and discourse which have become features of current English Studies in order to generate readings of commercial culture more nuanced than the 'hard analyses' favoured by dominant practitioners of 'radical' South African cultural studies. At the same time, though, my analyses have learnt through disparate forms of local cultural study the necessity of grounding textuality in the structures of political economy. By means of manageable yet conceptually-suggestive South African instances, I consider how commodities and commodified experiences - generated in the first instance by the vested interests of Capital and related ideologies - may nevertheless be experienced by people in a plethora of ways not directly tied to the commercially-expedient construct of the 'target audience'. This experiential process entails a rampant volatility typical of a mass-mediated lexicon which challenges boundaries between high and low, formal and unofficial, propriety and the improper. While advertising and promotion, for instance, function as corporate attempts to contain proliferating signifiers and to secure a preferred, 'authorised' meaning for cultural goods or services, it is also the case that consumers themselves, perhaps creatively and certainly in clandestine ways that escape the supposed authorities of either market researcher or academic intelligence, author meanings that rework the limitations of what still tends to be construed within the university as a culture industry at once banal and insidious. The meanings of the contemporary cultures with which I deal, then, are highly mediated and many-layered, rather than constituting the mere surface announcement often imagined by scholars of both literary culture and of media- and cultural studies. The contexts of my Thesis are particular: it was completed in 1998, and has been produced from a university in KwaZulu-Natal by an academic formally trained in English Studies. In some respects, then, the interpretations I offer are narrow: geographically, historically and disciplinarily focussed. Yet in working on South African examples of commoditised forms and practices that derive from metropolitan vectors and have convoluted international genealogies, I have also sought to theorise the shifting interrelations of regional and national, local and global, discipline-specific and interdisciplinary knowledge. Drawing widely on studies into consumer relations - and at apposite points identifying conceptual connections and differences between 'foreign' figures like Michel de Certeau and influential South African thinkers such as Njabulo S. Ndebele - I suggest that for all its shortcomings consumerism needs to be understood as active process rather than as passive effect. My argument implies that such a rethinking of the conventional binaries of production and consumption is appropriate in a South Africa which is gradually giving substance to a democratic social order. Even within a politics premised on the individual, forms of consumption such as magazine reading and shopping need not necessarily be scorned as the selfish, even hedonistic pursuits caricatured by ideological purists: the Thesis seeks to demonstrate that people are at once citizens and consumers, individuals searching after distinctive identity and style as well as desirous of achieving a variety of community inflected bonds. Overall, the commercial culture examined in the Thesis is represented not as inevitably marred by cultural deficiency and degraded value - despite the dissatisfactions, irritations and deferred pleasures which for many of us form at least one facet of consumption - but as an everyday spectacle which is available for symbolic interpretation and aesthetic investment. This investment may be emotional as well as cognitive, sensuous as well as critical, mundane as well as exceptional, since individuals come to commodity culture with a range of longings, dreams, fears and sedimented allegiances. As my readings demonstrate, it is such diversity of response - provisional and elusive rather than predictable and guaranteed - which gives the lie to theories which are 'always-already' premised on the prior inscription and encoding of consumerism as manipulation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1998.