Acredita-se que diferenças hodológicas e diferente padrão de expressão gênica ao longo do eixo dorso/ventral do hipocampo seriam responsáveis pela distinta função entre a porção dorsal (HD) e ventral do mesmo (HV). HD seria responsável por processos cognitivos, tais como memória e aprendizagem espacial, e o HV pelas respostas neuroendócrinas e emocional-motivacionais ao estresse. No entanto, não há muitos estudos acerca de diferenças entre HD e HV na modulação de comportamentos relacionados à neurobiologia da depressão. Há, contudo, dados indicando que o bloqueio de receptores glutamatérgicos do tipo NMDA ou da síntese de NO no HD induz efeito semelhante ao dos antidepressivos (i.e. do tipo antidepressivo) no teste do nado forçado (TNF). Quanto ao HV, a função da neurotransmissão glutamatérgica/nitrérgica na neurobiologia da depressão permanece não investigado. Dessa forma, o objetivo do presente estudo foi realizar o bloqueio reversível do HD ou do HV, em diferentes momentos, em animais submetidos ao TNF. O próximo passo foi realizar a micro-injeção intra-HD ou intraHV do antagonista NMDA AP-7 ou do inibidor da óxido nítrico sintase neuronal (nNOS), N-PLA, ou do inibidor da guanilato ciclase solúvel (sGC), ODQ. Os resultados mostram que o bloqueio do HD ou do HV com cloreto de cobalto (CoCl2, bloqueador da neurotransmissão sináptica dependente de cálcio) não modificou o comportamento dos animais no TNF. No entanto a administração de AP-7 ou N-PLA ou ODQ no HV antes do teste, reduziu o tempo de imobilidade no TNF. Por outro lado, a injeção dessas drogas no HD foi capaz de reduzir o tempo de imobilidade quando administradas tanto depois do pré-teste quanto antes do teste. Estes resultados sugerem que as vias NMDA-NO do HD e do HV, estariam envolvidas na modulação da resposta comportamental frente ao estresse do nado forçado. Além disso, os dados indicam que a participação dessas estruturas é importante em diferentes momentos após a exposição ao estresse. / It is believed that hodological and genetic pattern of expression differences along dorsal/ventral hippocampal axis would be responsible for distinct functions attributed to its dorsal (DH) and ventral (VH) poles. DH would be responsible for cognitive process, such as spatial memory and learning, whereas the VH would be responsible for neuroendocrine and emotional-motivation responses to stress. However, there is no many studies about possible differences between DH and VH in the modulation of behavioral responses related to the neurobiology of depression. Though, there are data showing that the blockade of glutamatergic NMDA receptors blockers or NO synthesis inhibition within the DH induces similar effect to that of antidepressant drugs (like antidepressant effect) in the forced swimming test (FST). On the VH, The role of the glutamatergic/nitrergic neurotransmission remains to be investigated. Thus, the aim of this work was to perform the reversible blockade of DH or VH, at different times, in animals subjected to FST. Additionally, the next step was to perform a microinjections into the DH or the VH of NMDA antagonist (AP-7), inhibitor of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS, N-PLA), or the inhibitor of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC, ODQ). The results show that blocking the VH or the DH (cobalt chloride, calcium dependent neurotransmission inhibitor) did not modify the behavior of animals during the TNF. However administration of AP-7, N-PLA or ODQ intra-HV, before testing, caused antidepressant-like effects. Moreover, injection of such drugs, intra-HD, was able to induce similar results when administered both after the pre-test and before testing. These results suggest that NMDA-NO pathway of both VH and DH is involved in the modulation of emotional responses to the forced swim stress, although there may be an interest differential participation of these structures at different times after exposure to stress.

Forced convective drying using a wind turbine mechanically connected to a ventilation fan was hypothesized for low cost and rapid grain drying in developing countries. The idea was tested using an expandable wind turbine blade system with variable pitch, at low wind speeds in a wind tunnel. The design was based on empirical and theoretical models embedded in a graphical user interface (GUI) created to estimate airflow-power requirements for drying ear corn. Output airflow (0.0016 - 0.0052 m3kg-1s-1) increased within the study wind speed range (2.0 - 5.5 m/s). System efficiency peak (8.6%) was observed at 3.5 m/s wind speed. Flow resistance was overcome up to 1m fill depth in 0.5 m x 0.5 m wide drying bin. Drying study at different airflow rates (no forced convection, 0.002 m3kg-1s-1 and 0.008 m3kg-1s-1) were conducted in a controlled environment at 35oC and 45% relative humidity with mean drying time; 40.3, 37.9 and 22.9 h respectively, that reduced with increasing airflow while drying the ear corn from 22% to 15% moisture content. The overall result supports the hypothesis that the wind convection system increased grain drying rates and should be further developed.

Ces travaux ont pour but d’étudier le comportement au mouillage spontané (statique et dynamique) ainsi que le mouillage forcé, sous l’effet de la compression, de différentes structures textiles hydrophobes. Le mouillage forcé a permis d’évaluer la robustesse de l’hydrophobicité des structures textiles. En parallèle, un nouveau dispositif automatisé et plus approprié à l’étude du mouillage forcé a été mis au point. Les principaux résultats ont montré qu’une bonne hydrophobicité ne conduit pas forcément à une bonne robustesse : spontanément, la structure floquée est la seule à favoriser une configuration de Cassie-Baxter, cependant, sa robustesse est plus faible que celle des tissus. Les différents essais ont mis en évidence l’influence importante et majeure de certains paramètres, appropriés à chaque structure textile, sur son hydrophobicité et sa robustesse comme la densité et la finesse des poils pour les tissus floqués. Ils ont également montré que certains facteurs pouvaient améliorer l’hydrophobicité mais pas sa robustesse ou inversement. Ainsi, la robustesse de l’hydrophobicité n’est pas prévisible à partir des mesures du mouillage spontané. / This work aims to study the spontaneous (static and dynamic) and the forced (under the effect of compression) wetting behaviour of different water-repellent textile structures. Forced wetting allowed to evaluate the robustness of the hydrophobicity of textile structures. In parallel, a new automated and more suitable device was developed for the study of forced wetting. The main results showed that a good hydrophobicity does not necessarily lead to a good robustness: spontaneously, the flocked structure is the only one to foster the Cassie-Baxter state, however, its hydrophobicity’s robustness is lower than that of the tissue. The different tests have highlighted the important and major influence of some parameters, adapted to each textile structure, on its hydrophobicity and its robustness such as the density and fineness of bristles for flocked fabrics. They also showed that some factors can improve the hydrophobicity but not its robustness or vice versa. Thus, the robustness of the hydrophobicity is not predictable from the measures of spontaneous wetting.

Human trafficking crime is rising globally at an alarming rate, and Vietnam is one of the nations with the highest prevalence of trafficking female victims for forced sex services and forced marriages. This study explored human trafficking awareness in remote communities of central Vietnam and the factors for young girls dropping out of school for work at an early age. The study also investigated the link between gender inequality and the child labor problem in these communities. There is no extant empirical research pertaining to human trafficking awareness in the remote communities of central Vietnam. This research fills this gap and highlights the importance of awareness strategies to combat human trafficking. Gender inequality, human motivation theory, vulnerability, and victimology provided theoretical constructs to explain the findings of this research study. The data collection process was conducted through semistructured face-to-face interviews with 19 villagers, mothers of the child labor victims, teachers, human services workers, members of the Vietnam Women's Union, and village leaders in the research sites. The coding technique was used for the data analysis process. Participants had (a) little knowledge about human trafficking crime; (b) no awareness of the ramifications; and (c) the effects of a culture of gender inequality on the lives of people in the remote communities of central Vietnam. Findings of this study have implications for assisting policy makers and law enforcement officials and offer guidance that may help to protect people in the communities and bring offenders to justice. The findings also encourage the Vietnamese government to bridge the gender inequality divide so that young girls in these remote communities can achieve an equal voice and equal justice that they deserve.

Human trafficking is a criminal act that occurs globally. It affects both women and men, but most studies have focused on female victims; few have explored trafficked men or their related health issues. Though there are many forms of trafficking, it is believed that most male victims are trafficked as forced labor. Using gender schema theory as a framework, this quantitative study examined archival data to identify the types of trafficking men are subjected to, their health ailments, and how these differ from the health ailments of trafficked women. Archival data from 124 individuals subjected to human trafficking in Florida were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis, one-way ANOVA, Mann Whitney U, and Fisher's exact tests. Findings indicated that males were more likely to have been labor trafficked compared to other forms of trafficking, and that labor trafficked persons were not more susceptible to health ailments than were sex trafficked persons. Also, there was a significant difference in health conditions between male and female victims, with females reporting more issues such as malnourishment, skin rash, and anxiety. These findings help to alter the misperception that men are traffickers only by recognizing them to be victims as well. Implications for social change include increased awareness of male trafficking in health care policies and human trafficking prevention efforts.

This project examines the landscape of the farming community of Beagle, Oregon prior to and during the Second World War and the effect on it due to the construction of Camp White, a World War II training facility. The Beagle landscape is examined through the prism of current theory that suggests that landscapes are not discrete units of analysis but are, instead, symbiotic relationships between land and people. Utilizing archives, contemporary newspaper accounts, photographs, oral histories, and archaeological investigation, the history of the construction of Beagle landscape, the effects of the construction of Camp White, the subsequent removal of Beagle residents, and postwar renewal are examined. The project concludes that the Beagle landscape was, and is, a holistic entity that, though dramatically changed in 1942, continues to exist and inform the lives of surviving original residents as well as the history of the Beagle area. / Graduation date: 2007

The dynamics wetting of fiber is of crucial importance in the fields, such as composites, optical fiber or textile industries. It is therefore valuable to acquire a clear understanding of the fundamental physical mechanisms which govern this phenomenon. In the case of partial wetting, it is assumed that the loss of energy due to the change in shape of the liquid-fluid interface (surface tension) is balanced by two channels of dissipation. One is associated with the viscosity of the liquid (hydrodynamics), whereas the other is due to the friction between the liquid and the solid (molecular-kinetic theory). Translated into equations, this original approach leads to the conclusion that the friction regime should precede the hydrodynamic one for a low viscosity liquid. The crossover time between the two regimes is calculated and shown to be material dependent. To validate these theoretical predictions, both experiments and large scale molecular dynamics simulations of the spontaneous spreading of a liquid along a fiber are run. The experiments consist in capturing images of meniscus formation around the fiber via a high speed camera. For each image, the liquid-air profile is extracted and fitted to a solution of the Laplace equation yielding the contact angle and the height of the meniscus as a function of the time. For low viscosity liquid it is found that the measured dynamic contact angle follows the friction regime, whereas for higher viscosity liquid the viscous regime is recovered as presented theoretically. The same kind of procedure is followed to study the wetting of a nanofiber by molecular dynamics. The properties of the liquid are first assessed (viscosity, shape of the molecule, molecular volume). Because of the very low viscosity of the model liquid, it is expected that the friction between the liquid and the solid is the dominant channel. Indeed, the data from the simulation validates this assumption. Moreover, according to the results of the simulation, it is also confirmed that for a given equilibrium contact angle, a maximum of speed wetting occurs. Actually, a low (or high) equilibrium contact angle involves both a strong (or weak) driving force and adhesion of the liquid molecules to the solid atoms. These opposite effects do not simply cancel out and therefore lead to the existence of a maximum rate at which a liquid can wet a solid. To examine in detail this last statement, the forced wetting of fiber is studied by molecular dynamics. The fiber, at a constant velocity, goes through the meniscus of a liquid which is consequently elongated. Stationary receding and advancing contact angles are then measured as a function of the fiber velocity. It is found that the contact angle dependence on the fiber velocity follows the molecular-kinetic theory, thereby confirming the existence of a maximum. Moreover, a comparison between the values of the microscopic parameters obtained via the adjustement of the theory and a direct measurement of these parameters permits us to check the validity of the chosen theory as well as the reliability of the simulation tool. Finally in order to study the wetting of fibrous materials like fabrics, an effective system is studied via molecular dynamics. It is shown that the measurements of capillary imbibition and droplet spreading are well modelled by a set of equations taking into account the conservation of the volume of the liquid, the influence of a dynamic contact angle inside the pore and the spreading on top of the surface. This single pore geometry is extended theoretically to the case of multiple non-interconnected pores. The time required to absorb the droplet completely is then calculated.

The design parameters axial gap and stator count of highpressure turbine stages are evaluated numerically towards theirinfluence on the unsteady aerodynamic excitation of rotorblades. Of particular interest is if and how unsteadyaerodynamic considerations in the design could reduce the riskofhigh cycle fatigue (HCF) failures of the turbine rotor. A well-documented 2D/Q3D non-linear unsteady code (UNSFLO)is chosen to perform the stage flow analyses. The evaluatedresults are interpreted as aerodynamic excitation mechanisms onstream sheets neglecting 3D effects. Mesh studies andvalidations against measurements and 3D computations provideconfidence in the unsteady results. Three test cases areanalysed. First, a typical aero-engine high pressure turbinestage is studied at subsonic and transonic flow conditions,with four axial gaps (37% - 52% of cax,rotor) and two statorconfigurations (43 and 70 NGV). Operating conditions areaccording to the resonant conditions of the blades used inaccompanied experiments. Second, a subsonic high pressureturbine intended to drive the turbopump of a rocket engine isinvestigated. Four axial gap variations (10% - 29% ofcax,rotor) and three stator geometry variations are analysed toextend and generalise the findings made on the first study.Third, a transonic low pressure turbine rotor, known as theInternational Standard Configuration 11, has been modelled tocompute the unsteady flow due to blade vibration and comparedto available experimental data. Excitation mechanisms due to shock, potential waves andwakes are described and related to the work found in the openliterature. The strength of shock excitation leads to increasedpressure excitation levels by a factor 2 to 3 compared tosubsonic cases. Potential excitations are of a typical wavetype in all cases, differences in the propagation direction ofthe waves and the wave reflection pattern in the rotor passagelead to modifications in the time and space resolved unsteadypressures on the blade surface. The significant influence ofoperating conditions, axial gap and stator size on the wavepropagation is discussed on chosen cases. The wake influence onthe rotorblade unsteady pressure is small in the presentevaluations, which is explicitly demonstrated on the turbopumpturbine by a parametric study of wake and potentialexcitations. A reduction in stator size (towards R≈1)reduces the potential excitation part so that wake andpotential excitation approach in their magnitude. Potentials to reduce the risk of HCF excitation in transonicflow are the decrease of stator exit Mach number and themodification of temporal relations between shock and potentialexcitation events. A similar temporal tuning of wake excitationto shock excitation appears not efficient because of the smallwake excitation contribution. The increase of axial gap doesnot necessarily decrease the shock excitation strength neitherdoes the decrease of vane size because the shock excitation mayremain strong even behind a smaller stator. The evaluation ofthe aerodynamic excitation towards a HCF risk reduction shouldonly be done with regard to the excited mode shape, asdemonstrated with parametric studies of the mode shapeinfluence on excitability. <b>Keywords:</b>Aeroelasticity, Aerodynamics, Stator-RotorInteraction, Excitation Mechanism, Unsteady Flow Computation,Forced Response, High Cycle Fatigue, Turbomachinery,Gas-Turbine, High-Pressure Turbine, Turbopump, CFD, Design

Allergic asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways and is characterized by eosinophilic inflammation and increased airway reactivity. In the studies presented in this thesis, lung mechanics and measurements of airway reactivity were assessed in anaesthetized tracheostomized mice by using an animal ventilator (flexiVent®). A forced oscillation technique makes it possible to measure of both airway and tissue mechanics with a potential to distinguish between central and peripheral airways. The results of the experiments on lung mechanics imply that it is important to understand how altered lung mechanics can affect the airway physiology in order to assess the relevance of different animal models of asthma. We have investigated the effects of changing different components of the lung mechanical measurements, such as administering bronchoconstrictive agents via inhalation or intravenously and implementing deep inhalation in animals with airway inflammation. We have also investigated the relation between airway inflammation and oxidative stress. We found that the formation and time-course of F2-isoprostanes, a marker of oxidative stress, and tissue damage were associated with the degree of inflammation and with the degree of heterogeneous airway airflow. Finally we wished to investigate the hypothesis that nitric oxide (NO) may interact with glucocorticoid (GC) treatment because we see a potential for finding new strategies to increase the therapeutic effect in poor responders or patients resistant to GC treatment. NO plays a central role in physiological regulation of the airway function, and is involved in asthma. We found that the concomitant administration of NO and GC attenuated the airway reactivity more than either treatment alone. In conclusion, with the information presented in this thesis, we hope to contribute to the development of better experimental tools and to improved understanding of murine models of asthma for investigating and understanding the underlying pathophysiology of asthma.

<p>This research paper is an analysis of the case United States v Flick et al which took place in 1947 in Nuremberg, Germany. Friedrich Flick, a powerful German industrialist, and several high ranking officials of his firm were tried by a United States military tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Third Reich. The&nbsp / proceedings and the decision itself are the subject of a critical examination, including an investigation of the factual and legal background. The trial will be regarded in the historical context of prosecutions against German industrialists after World War II. Seen from present-day perspective, the question will be raised whether any conclusions can be drawn from the Flick case in respect of the substance of present-day international criminal law. <br /> &nbsp / </p>