As digitalization and technology has quickly advanced over the recent years, marketers are becoming increasingly reliant on collecting user data, and targeted advertising has therefore come to be viewed as a form of data surveillance. Due to marketers' ability to analyze online behavior and target consumers with personalized advertising, users are becoming more concerned about their online privacy. Therefore, the main purpose of this research study is to examine different perceptions, attitudes, and experiences towards online privacy, specifically towards the aspect of targeted advertisement. Furthermore, the fast-developed technological world is constantly changing people's perspectives. Hence, this paper seeks to investigate whether different generations of media users have different perceptions. The empirical material for this study was gathered through a qualitative approach and was collected through two focus group interviews conducted from a comparative angle. The findings revealed that both generations were very negative and critical of data collection and showed mistrust of digital media platforms. Furthermore, despite both generations expressing strong privacy concerns and claiming to value privacy highly, their actions demonstrated the opposite, which is consistent with the theoretical concept of privacy paradox. Moreover, the findings revealed that certain attitudes and perceptions towards online privacy differ between digital natives and digital immigrants. The most significant distinction between the generations is the substantial lack of knowledge and awareness of digital immigrants. The findings suggest that digital immigrants need to be more enlightened regarding the function of new technological aspects, such as targeted advertisements. This is required for them to be more informed, hence reducing the risk of them feeling misled, concerned, and monetized. For users to feel secure using the internet, more laws and regulations are needed. / I takt med att digitaliseringen och tekniken har utvecklats snabbt under de senaste åren, blir marknadsförare alltmer beroende av att samla in användardata, och riktad reklam har på grund av detta kommit att ses som en form av dataövervakning. På grund av marknadsförares förmåga att analysera onlinebeteende och rikta in sig på konsumenter med personlig reklam, blir användarna mer oroade över sin integritet online. Således är det huvudsakliga syftet med denna forskningsstudie att undersöka olika uppfattningar, attityder och erfarenheter av integritet på nätet, särskilt när det gäller aspekten av riktad reklam. Dessutom förändrar den snabbt utvecklade teknologiska världen ständigt människors perspektiv. Därför försöker denna artikel undersöka om olika generationer av medieanvändare har olika uppfattningar. Det empiriska materialet för denna studie samlades in genom ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt, och samlades in genom två fokusgruppsintervjuer genomförda in en jämförande vinkel. Resultaten avslöjade att båda generationerna var mycket negativa och kritiska till datainsamling och visade misstro mot digitala medieplattformar. Dessutom, trots att båda generationerna uttryckte stark oro över sin integritet online och hävdade att de värderade integritet högt, visade deras handlingar motsatsen. Detta går i linje med det teoretiska konceptet om integritet paradoxen. Dessutom avslöjade resultaten att vissa attityder och uppfattningar om integritet på nätet skiljer sig åt mellan digitala natives och digitala immigrants. Den viktigaste skillnaden mellan generationerna är den betydande bristen på kunskap och medvetenhet hos digitala immigrants. Resultaten tyder på att digitala immigrants behöver bli mer upplysta om funktionen av nya tekniska aspekter, såsom riktade annonser. Detta krävs för att de ska vara mer informerade, vilket minskar risken för att de känner sig vilseledda, oroliga och övervakade. För att användarna ska känna sig säkra på internet behövs fler lagar och förordningar.

The aim of this thesis is to answer the question whether the U.S. policy on targeted killings with combat drones is compatible with the legal doctrine of just war theory, applicable international law, and human rights law. Moreover, this paper intends to examine the legal issues arising from the U.S. practice of international law in relation to the justification of targeted killings. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the practice of targeted killings can be considered lawful and, if not, to provide knowledge about how the method violates applicable international law and the ethics of war. The focus is placed on relevant treaties and customary international law, and just war theory is used as a theoretical complement to explain the meaning and purpose of selected laws in order to determine their applicability to the research problem. Furthermore, this procedure has been conducted by using a legal method to identify the legal problem and interpret relevant sources of law in order to determine their applicability to the research problem. The thesis has determined that the U.S. policy on targeted killings with combat drones is not consistent with applicable international law and fundamental human rights law. In particular, the practice of targeted killings violates the principle of distinction.

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This thesis aims to analyse the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) potential violation of the right to a fair trial in placing alleged terrorists on the infamous ‘kill list’ without due process. The CIA has operated a targeted killing program using Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAV) over ‘areas outside active hostilities’, such as Yemen, since 2002. Due process is inherent to modern democratic societies and shapes their rule of law. The doctrinal legal analysis makes use of the key principles of due process to analyse the relevant Presidential Policy Guidance, its compliance with International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Art. 14, and a case study. These key principles and analyses will result in a clear overview of the program’s violations of the right to a fair trial. Concluding that the CIA’s AUAV program for targeted killing, particularly in Yemen, constitute extrajudicial executions.

Actuellement le polyéthylènimine (PEI) est l’agent de transfection transitoire le plus utilisé par l’industrie pharmaceutique pour la production de protéines recombinantes à grande échelle par les cellules de mammifères. Il permet la condensation de l’ADN plasmidique (ADNp) en formant spontanément des nanoparticules positives appelées polyplexes, lui procurant la possibilité de s’attacher sur la membrane cellulaire afin d’être internalisé, ainsi qu’une protection face aux nucléases intracellulaires. Cependant, alors que les polyplexes s’attachent sur la quasi-totalité des cellules seulement 5 à 10 % de l’ADNp internalisé atteint leur noyau, ce qui indique que la majorité des polyplexes ne participent pas à l’expression du transgène. Ceci contraste avec l’efficacité des vecteurs viraux où une seule particule virale par cellule peut être suffisante. Les virus ont évolués afin d’exploiter les voies d’internalisation et de routage cellulaire pour exprimer efficacement leur matériel génétique. Nous avons donc supposé que l’exploitation des voies d’internalisation et de routage cellulaire d’un récepteur pourrait, de façon similaire à plusieurs virus, permettre d’optimiser le processus de transfection en réduisant les quantités d’ADNp et d’agent de transfection nécessaires. Une alternative au PEI pour transfecter les cellules de mammifèreest l’utilisation de protéines possédant un domaine de liaison à l’ADNp. Toutefois, leur utilisation reste marginale à cause de la grande quantité requise pour atteindre l’expression du transgène. Dans cette étude, nous avons utilisé le système E/Kcoil afin de cibler un récepteur membranaire dans le but de délivrer l’ADNp dans des cellules de mammifères. Le Ecoil et le Kcoil sont des heptapeptides répétés qui peuvent interagir ensemble avec une grande affinité et spécificité afin de former des structures coiled-coil. Nous avons fusionné le Ecoil avec des protéines capables d’interagir avec l’ADNp et le Kcoil avec un récepteur membranaire que nous avons surexprimé dans les cellules HEK293 de manière stable. Nous avons découvert que la réduction de la sulfatation de la surface cellulaire permettait l’attachement ciblé sur les cellules par l’intermédiaire du système E/Kcoil. Nous démontrons dans cette étude comment utiliser le système E/Kcoil et une protéine interagissant avec l’ADNp pour délivrer un transgène de manière ciblée. Cette nouvelle méthode de transfection permet de réduire les quantités de protéines nécessaires pour l’expression du transgène. / Pharmaceutical industry often employs polyethylenimine (PEI) for large scale protein production processes by transient transfection of mammalian cells. PEI condenses plasmid DNA (pDNA) by spontaneously forming positive nanoparticles known as polyplexes. Condensed pDNA is favoured for cell surface binding, internalization and protection from intracellular nucleases. While most of the cells efficiently uptake polyplexes, only 5 to 10% of captured pDNA reaches the nucleus for transgene expression. This suggests that polyplexes are hampered in their ability to route and to translocate to the nucleus necessitating large amounts of polyplexes to achieve high expression levels. By contrast, many viruses can efficiently transduce cells with only one or a few viral genome copies. Viruses have evolved to exploit cellular internalization and routing properties to express their own genetic material. We hypothesized that less pDNA would be used in an optimized transfection process if we exploited the internalization and routing properties that viruses use. DNA binding proteins could be used as an alternative to PEI to transfect mammalian cells. However, their usage is marginal due to the large protein quantities required to bind pDNA for transgene expression. If less pDNA is used less binding protein is needed. In this study, we used the E/Kcoil system to target a membrane receptor to deliver pDNA in mammalian cells. The Ecoil and Kcoil are two repeated heptapeptides which interact with a high affinity and specificity to form coiled-coil structures. We fused the Ecoil with a recombinant pDNA-binding protein. The Kcoil was fused to a stably-expressed membrane receptor in HEK293 cells. We discovered that low sulfation of the cell surface reduced non-specific binding of the pDNA:protein complex and permitted targeted binding via the E/Kcoil interaction. We demonstrate how to use recombinant pDNA-binding protein and the E/Kcoil system for targeted transgene delivery. This newly developed system provides a new transfection method, with reduced pDNA-binding protein quantities needed to achieve transgene expression.

Polymer-based drug delivery systems represent one of the promising strategies for successful tumor treatment. Conjugation of a low-molecular-weight drug to a syn- thetic polymer carrier enables targeted drug delivery to tumor tissue/cells and limited systemic toxicity of the drug. The conjugates show extended circulation time, and preferentially accumulate in tumor tissue due to the Enhanced Permeability and Re- tention (EPR) effect. The EPR effect depends on a structural anomaly in tumor neovasculature, and vasodilators were shown to enhance the EPR effect via an in- crease of blood supply in the tumor. Polymer drug carriers based on water-soluble N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) benefit from variable architecture, drug loading and controlled release. HPMA-based conjugates with cancerostatics have al- ready proved high anti-tumor activity, inducing complete tumor regression followed by resistance to a second tumor challenge in experimental murine models. Three HPMA-based conjugates with organic nitrates (labeled 1, 2, and 3) were pre- pared as polymer donors of nitric oxide (NO) with the aim to intensify the EPR effect, thereby enhancing accumulation of co-administered macromolecular cancerostatics in the tumor. In this study, the conjugates were non-toxic to cancer cells and did not potentiate...

Gliomas are the most common form of primary intracranial malignancy, among which astrocytomas are the most frequent. Ectodermal-cortex protein 1 (ENC 1), also known as Nuclear Restricted Protein/Brain (NRP/B), was first characterized as a protein which interacts with the cytoskeleton by binding to actin through Kelch-like domains, being related to neural fate specification during development of the nervous system. The first chapter of this thesis confirms ENC1 as a tumor suppression properties by a genomic edition approach, analyses ENC1 expression in a set of patient glioma samples and describes the correlation these data with patients survival and progression-free survival, concluding that ENC1 expression may constitute a biomarker for glioma aggressiveness. The second chapter refers to the identification and in vitro characterization of the LHTNELQ peptide, which was selected by the Phage Display method using human glioblastoma cells. This new peptide is able to be internalized by these cells and features as a new tool for the development of glioma therapeutics. The third chapter report an alternative method to generate growth curves of adherent cell cultures, which is based on the CFSE fluorescence decay over time. It is an alternative method to determine growth curves of cultured cells, with smaller variation among technical replicates than that of counting-based methods. / Gliomas são a forma mais comum de malignidades primárias intracranianas, dentre os quais os astrocitomas são os mais frequentes. A proteína Ectodermal-neural cortex 1 (ENC1), também conhecida como Nuclear Restricted Protein/Brain (NRP/B), foi primeiramente caracterizada como uma proteína que interage com o citoesqueleto por meio de ligação à actina através de domínios Kelch-like, sendo relacionada com diferenciação neuronal durante o desenvolvimento do sistema nervoso. O primeiro capítulo desta tese descreve confirmação da capacidade supressora tumoral de ENC1 por abordagem de edição genômica, analisa a expressão de ENC1 em um conjunto de amostras de pacientes com gliomas e correlaciona esses dados com tempo de sobrevida geral e sobrevida livre de progressão tumoral nos pacientes, concluindo que a expressão de ENC1 pode ser utilizada como um biomarcador da agressividade do glioma. O segundo capítulo apresenta a identificação e caracterização in vitro do peptídeo LHTNELQ, que foi selecionado pela metodologia de Phage display utilizandose de células de glioblastoma humano. Este novo peptídeo é capaz de internalizar-se nestas células e figura como uma nova ferramenta para o desenvolvimento de estratégias terapêuticas para glioblastomas. No terceiro capítulo propõe-se um método alternativo para gerar curvas de crescimento celular de cultura aderente, o qual é baseado no decaimento da fluorescência do reagente CFSE ao longo do tempo. Tratase de um método alternativo para a determinação de curvas de crescimento de culturas aderentes, com menor variação entre as réplicas técnicas do que os métodos baseados em contagem das células.

Thesis title: Effect of targeted training of the lower scapular fixators on the shoulder girdle function of rugby players The concept of the problem: Rugby is one of the toughest ball sports and there is no shortage of injuries. In addition, injuries in the shoulder area are among the most common and any possibility of reducing these injuries is beneficial. There is not much time left for compensation and targeted intervention; moreover, it is not usually led by physiotherapists but by fitness coaches and only in larger clubs. The consequence is a muscle imbalance in the shoulder girdle, which can result in the so-called scapular dyskinesis. This is turn affects the function and stability of the shoulder joint not only by the overhead athletes. It is possible to influence scapular dyskinesis in various ways. One of them is the inclusion of targeted training of lower scapular fixators into fitness training and thus their stability is improved. Objectives: The main aim of this thesis is to verify whether rugby players with painful shoulder have sufficiently scapular fixation based on kinesiological and biomechanical knowledge. Another aim of this thesis is to create such an exercise unit that would ensure the correct activity of the lower scapular fixators and verify this by measurement. The final...

This bachelor thesis is a qualitative, small-n, empirically driven comparative study that examines the relationship between rebel group ideology and targeted violence against the LGBTIQ+ community. Two rebel groups in the Syrian Arab Republic, with different ideological beliefs, are examined and compared in relation to their level of violence against LGBTIQ+ individuals. Findings in this study suggest that religious groups are keener to use extreme violence against sexual minorities, and to target them explicitly, but further studies are needed to fully understand this targeting of sexual minorities in armed conflicts.

A prevalent morphology in the microscopic world of artificial microswimmers, bacteria and viruses is that of a helix. The intriguingly different physics at play at the small scale level make it necessary for bacteria to employ swimming strategies different from our everyday experience, such as the rotation of a helical filament. Bio-inspired microswimmers that mimic bacterial locomotion achieve propulsion at the microscale level using magnetically actuated, rotating helical filaments. A promising application of these artificial microswimmers is in non-invasive medicine, for drug delivery to tumours or microsurgery. Two crucial features need to be addressed in the design of microswimmers. First, the ability to selectively control large ensembles and second, the adaptivity to move through complex conduit geometries, such as the constrictions and curves of the tortuous tumour microvasculature. In this dissertation, a mechanics-based selective control mechanism for magnetic microswimmers is proposed, and a model and simulation of an elastic helix passing through a constricted microchannel are developed. Thereafter, a theoretical framework is developed for the propulsion by stiff elastic filaments in viscous fluids. In order to address this fluid-structure problem, a pertubative, asymptotic, elastohydrodynamic approach is used to characterise the deformation that arises from and in turn affects the motion. This framework is applied to the helical filaments of bacteria and magnetically actuated microswimmers. The dissertation then turns to the sub-bacterial scale of bacteriophage viruses, 'phages' for short, that infect bacteria by ejecting their genetic material and replicating inside their host. The valuable insight that phages can offer in our fight against pathogenic bacteria and the possibility of phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics, are of paramount importance to tackle antibiotics resistance. In contrast to typical phages, flagellotropic phages first attach to bacterial flagella, and have the striking ability to reach the cell body for infection, despite their lack of independent motion. The last part of the dissertation develops the first theoretical model for the nut-and-bolt mechanism (proposed by Berg and Anderson in 1973). A nut being rotated will move along a bolt. Similarly, a phage wraps itself around a flagellum possessing helical grooves, and exploits the rotation of the flagellum in order to passively travel along and towards the cell body, according to this mechanism. The predictions from the model agree with experimental observations with respect to directionality, speed and the requirements for succesful translocation.