No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "December, 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-44). Online version available on the World Wide Web. Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2006]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

Thesis (M.S.)--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-70) and index.

No description available.

I mitt examensarbete gör jag en jämförande studie mellan två verk av glasformgivarna Bertil Vallien som arbetar på Åfors glasbruk och Mats Jonasson som arbetar för Målerås glasbruk. Den frågeställning som jag har valt är: ”vad kommunicerar verken?” och ”varför ser de så olika ut?”. För att ta reda på det har jag använt mig av Bourdieus teorier om de olika kapitalen. Att deras verk ser så olika ut beror på de olika platser med sina respektive kulturer som de har växt upp med. Det finns också skillnader i utbildning hos dem. Mats Jonasson är autodidakt medan Bertil Vallien är utbildad ifrån en förberedande konstskola och Konstfack. Jag har analyserat var sitt verk av Mats Jonasson och Bertil Vallien med hjälp av Jan Gunnar Sjölins analysmetod. Den didaktiska delen består av att jag har gjort samma sorts analys av min gestaltning i glas med titeln ”Växjösjön”. Att elever lär sig att analysera och tolka bilder ser jag som en viktig del av bildundervisningen. Jan Gunnar Sjölins metod är konkret och användbar även för skolklasser. / BI/Konst

No description available.

No description available.

The incidence of falls in the elderly population is a growing concern in the healthcare industry as associated morbidity is high, particularly morbidity associated with falls from bed. Bedrails were implemented as a device intended to reduce the incidence of falls from bed; however, recent evidence may indicate that bedrails contribute to adverse events including entrapment and entanglement. As such, efforts have been madeto reduce the use of bedrails and implement alternatives including height adjustable beds and floor mats. An instrumented anthropomorphic test dummy was used in the current study to measure the deceleration profiles of the head, thorax, and pelvis upon impact onto a tile surface or floor mat. The height of the fall was varied by using a height adjustable bed, and the impact site was varied by head or feet first falls. The deceleration profiles were used to determine mean maximum values across repeated trials and to calculate injury criteria at the head (HIC), thorax (TIC), and pelvis (PIC). The mean maximum values were further used to estimate the effect of adding bedrails. Injury severity was then predicted from the injury criteria calculated for the head. From this study, the mean maximum values were found to significantly increase with an increase in height regardless of fall direction. As such, the addition of bedrails consequently increased these values. Furthermore, the use of a floor mat significantly reduced the mean maximum values at the head and pelvis during head first falls and at the head and thorax during feet first falls. Injury criteria were also calculated for each body region and found to be significantly increased with an increase in height and decreased with the use of the floor mat.

Mature microbial mats from sandy intertidal beaches of the Texas Gulf coast demonstrated substantial levels of nitrogenase activity. Two species of non-heterocystous cyanobacteria, a Hydrocoleum and a Microcoleus, dominated the upper green layer of mature mats. Subsurface layers of cyanobacteria, but not mature mats, appeared during dry seasons. These "proto-mats" contained almost exclusively Microcoleus and demonstrated neither nitrogenase activity nor detectable nitrogenase reductase (Fe-protein). Hydrocoleum, identified from its morphology and 16s rDNA, was isolated and cultivated as unialgal cultures. Similar diel patterns of nitrogenase activity and Fe-protein expression were found in intact mature mats and in isolated Hydrocoleum cultures. Primers and a probe specific for the Hydrocoleum nifH gene, along with q-rtPCR measurements, demonstrated similar levels, but slightly different patterns, of expression in intact mature mats and cultures of isolated Hydrocoleum. Increased levels of nifH transcripts and Fe-protein in Hydrocoleum cultures appeared before the end of the light period of a diel cycle, and the light period was required for nitrogenase activity in the subsequent dark period. Levels of nifH transcripts stayed very low and nitrogen fixation stopped when cultures were maintained under continuous darkness. The pattern of nitrogenase activity in Hydrocoleum cultures was not affected by elimination of ambient O₂, increasing or decreasing temperature in a range from 20 ˚C to 35 ˚C, or light intensity. However, the level of nitrogenase activity did vary with environmental conditions. Highest nitrogenase activities were observed when assays were conducted in an aerobic rather than an anaerobic environment, at 25 ˚C rather than a higher or lower temperature, and illuminated with bright (~ 900 [mu]E/m²s¹), rather than less intense light. Average levels of nifH transcripts were positively correlated with levels of nitrogenase activity. Isolated cultures of Hydrocoleum formed mat-like structures in undisturbed flasks, suggesting that Hydrocoleum may be an early colonizer of intertidal sand for mat formation. However, observations of subsurface proto-mats indicate that Microcoleus is more likely to serve as the foundation for cyanobacterial mats, with Hydrocoleum later providing structural integrity and nitrogen availability. A process of successional development of microbial mats from the South Texas Gulf Coast is hypothesized. / text

Microbial mats are important components of perennially ice-covered Antarctic lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, where they often comprise the dominant biomass in this cold, shaded environment. These lakes represent some of the most extreme lacustrine environments on Earth, including a persistent ice-cover, stable, stratified water columns, with strong salinity related density gradients. In these low-disturbance environments, the microbial consortia develop macroscopic emergent structures such as pinnacles and ridges. Such structures are speculated to confer advantageous survival traits and have also been found in the Precambrian fossil record as “conophyton” stromatolites – arguably some of the earliest evidence of life – and it has been suggested that a better understanding of the growth dynamics of modern “conophyton” will inform our understanding of what was required for these early fossils to be produced. Despite decades of research, there are few studies of the structural basis of conophyton producing microbial mats in Antarctic lakes. To help address this gap, complex microbial mats along a transect established in Lake Fryxell, one of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, were examined; with the aim of documenting the distribution of different types of photosynthetic organisms and mat morphologies along environmental gradients such as light, conductivity, oxygen concentration and depth. Microbial mat samples were taken along the transect and analysed in New Zealand using confocal laser scanning microscopy, along with conventional pigment extraction techniques. Correlations between mat morphology, pigment content and lake properties were found. The appearance of bacteriochlorophylls, characteristic of green sulfur bacteria within and below the oxycline confirm a shift from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism that was consistent with mats taking on a prostrate appearance. The cyanobacterial pigment phycoerythrin was only found in the hyperoxic, relatively well lit region of the transect, and was associated with the mats forming a distinctive macroscale morphology with dense fields of cm-scale cuspate pinnacles. Between these, a hypoxic region was characterised by a relatively flat mat within which were many cm-scale pits. Structural investigations were focussed on two distinct morphologies, pinnacle and honeycomb mat. Nearly all photosynthetic organisms were located in the upper 2 mm of both pinnacle and honeycomb mats, mainly comprising diatoms and cyanobacteria. Pinnacle mats were dominated by a narrow cyanobacterium, probably a species of Leptolyngbya, which were mostly oriented vertically, which placed trichomes parallel to the direction of pinnacle extension. The honeycomb mat contained fewer narrow trichomes, rather the bulk of photosynthetic organisms were diatoms from the genera Muellaria, Navicula and Diadesmis, together with broad-trichome cyanobacteria that formed a thin skin on the surface of the mat, though absent from the pits. The type of emergent structure that is formed appears to be related to species composition, and this in turn appears to be related to the growth conditions. A model was developed to explain how species-specific growth mechanisms are involved in emergent structure formation for honeycomb and pinnacle mats.