The centuries under discussion in this thesis, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were a time of great change in practice of the rituals of the Christian church in Europe as well as in the development of their underlying theology. And the society that this thesis will investigate, the French speaking people of north western Europe, was the theatre in which much of that debate and change took place. The opinions and arguments of the erudite from that time and place are well known. Studies of their interactions illustrate the existence of many schools and individuals whose deliberations were written down, and which supply ample material to modern scholars who research the theological development of the time. However, what is not so abundantly documented is the impact that religion had on the lay and sometimes illiterate Christians of the day. If, in fact, they did debate their religious beliefs and practices, their debates were not written down for posterity to read. Their opinions can only be accessed obliquely. This thesis takes the form of small social history, history from the lower echelons of society rather than the higher, that plumbs the experiences of ordinary people whose opinions were not important enough to occupy the scholars and administrators of the day. In this case a branch of their literature in the vernacular will be used as source material. I propose drawing out a picture of what the people of the time believed, and how they expressed that belief in action, through a close reading of the popular medieval genre of the chanson de geste. The subject has been broached before, by Carl Josef Merk in 1914, Adolphe Jacques Dickman in 1926, Marianna Gildea in 1943 and J-L. Roland Bélanger in 1975. This study will differ from previous studies in its concentration on only one cycle of poems and the depth of examination of those poems. Where Merk, Gildea and Dickman used many poems, almost the entire available corpus, and Bélanger used a mixture of the poems of the Loherain Cycle and other earlier chansons, this study will be confined to the poems of the Charlemagne Cycle. The poems of one cycle grew out of a common store of subject matter, in this case stories surrounding the great eighth and ninth century king, Charlemagne. By the time of the production and recording of chansons, Charlemagne had acquired legendary status and been credited with conquests and journeys that he never made in his lifetime. He represented an ideal of kingship and his actions were the actions of the ideal Christian conqueror, a monarch who, with his people, was loved by God and guided and assisted by God in all he undertook. For the most part the stories about him involved the conquest and conversion of non-Christian people. Consequently, although the poems are not overtly concerned with religious teaching or religious practice, their subject matter is imbued with religious language and significance. It is the religious significance of the language and subject matter of these poems and the similarity of the hierarchical structure of the society described to the conjectured celestial structure that makes these poems suitable as subject matter for this study. Eleven poems have been chosen for study, nine concerned with conquest of non- Christian people and two with the existence of traitors among the followers of the king. These two poems add the dimension of loyalty to one’s monarch and preservation of the status quo to that of warfare against non-Christians. The findings are set out in two sections, one concerned with rituals that mark the milestones in the protagonists’ lives and the other with more spontaneous expressions of faith. Conclusions are drawn from each section and then melded to give an overall picture of the faith of the laity of the time. Where parallels or contrasts with the practice accepted and prescribed by the ecclesiastical establishment are detected, these are examined in the relevant chapters.

The centuries under discussion in this thesis, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were a time of great change in practice of the rituals of the Christian church in Europe as well as in the development of their underlying theology. And the society that this thesis will investigate, the French speaking people of north western Europe, was the theatre in which much of that debate and change took place. The opinions and arguments of the erudite from that time and place are well known. Studies of their interactions illustrate the existence of many schools and individuals whose deliberations were written down, and which supply ample material to modern scholars who research the theological development of the time. However, what is not so abundantly documented is the impact that religion had on the lay and sometimes illiterate Christians of the day. If, in fact, they did debate their religious beliefs and practices, their debates were not written down for posterity to read. Their opinions can only be accessed obliquely. This thesis takes the form of small social history, history from the lower echelons of society rather than the higher, that plumbs the experiences of ordinary people whose opinions were not important enough to occupy the scholars and administrators of the day. In this case a branch of their literature in the vernacular will be used as source material. I propose drawing out a picture of what the people of the time believed, and how they expressed that belief in action, through a close reading of the popular medieval genre of the chanson de geste. The subject has been broached before, by Carl Josef Merk in 1914, Adolphe Jacques Dickman in 1926, Marianna Gildea in 1943 and J-L. Roland Bélanger in 1975. This study will differ from previous studies in its concentration on only one cycle of poems and the depth of examination of those poems. Where Merk, Gildea and Dickman used many poems, almost the entire available corpus, and Bélanger used a mixture of the poems of the Loherain Cycle and other earlier chansons, this study will be confined to the poems of the Charlemagne Cycle. The poems of one cycle grew out of a common store of subject matter, in this case stories surrounding the great eighth and ninth century king, Charlemagne. By the time of the production and recording of chansons, Charlemagne had acquired legendary status and been credited with conquests and journeys that he never made in his lifetime. He represented an ideal of kingship and his actions were the actions of the ideal Christian conqueror, a monarch who, with his people, was loved by God and guided and assisted by God in all he undertook. For the most part the stories about him involved the conquest and conversion of non-Christian people. Consequently, although the poems are not overtly concerned with religious teaching or religious practice, their subject matter is imbued with religious language and significance. It is the religious significance of the language and subject matter of these poems and the similarity of the hierarchical structure of the society described to the conjectured celestial structure that makes these poems suitable as subject matter for this study. Eleven poems have been chosen for study, nine concerned with conquest of non- Christian people and two with the existence of traitors among the followers of the king. These two poems add the dimension of loyalty to one’s monarch and preservation of the status quo to that of warfare against non-Christians. The findings are set out in two sections, one concerned with rituals that mark the milestones in the protagonists’ lives and the other with more spontaneous expressions of faith. Conclusions are drawn from each section and then melded to give an overall picture of the faith of the laity of the time. Where parallels or contrasts with the practice accepted and prescribed by the ecclesiastical establishment are detected, these are examined in the relevant chapters.

The primary purpose of this thesis was to design and create an Interactive Audit to conduct Environmental Site Assessments according to American Society of Testing Material's (ASTM) Phase I Standards at the Wagner Creek study area. ArcPad and ArcIMS are the major software that were used to create the model and ArcGIS Desktop was used for data analysis and to export shapefile symbology to ArcPad. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an effective tool to deploy these purposes. This technology was utilized to carry out data collection, data analysis and to display data interactively on the Internet. Electronic forms, customized for mobile devices were used to survey sites. This is an easy and fast way to collect and modify field data. New data such as land use, recognized environmental conditions, and underground storage tanks can be added into existing datasets. An updated map is then generated and uploaded to the Internet using ArcIMS technology. The field investigator has the option to generate and view the Inspection Form at the end of his survey on site, or print a hardcopy at base. The mobile device also automatically generates preliminary editable Executive Reports for any inspected site.

The two main attributes of seating in auditoria have been investigated. Tle first is random incidence absorption. The second is the low-frequency selective attenuation which seating can impart to sound travelling over it at grazing incidence: the so-called "seat dip" effect. It was found that there was a need for a more accurate laboratory measurement method to predict auditorium seat absorption. The traditional method tended to overpredict the absorption of the exposed front and sides of seating blocks. A new method was studied which involves the use of barriers to obtain realistic measurements of front and side absorption. The new method was validated by comparing measurements of seats made in a reverberation chamber with in-situ absorption data for the same seats, calculated from reverberation time measurements in ten auditoria with and without the seats present. The accuracy of the new method was found to be satisfactory in all cases, although a severe lack of diffusion in two of the halls hindered the validation process. The important physical factors affecting seat dip attenuation were investigated by measurements in a concert hall and on scale model seats. A scheme for reducing the attenuation with resonant absorbers was evaluated, and a simple theoretical model developed. 'Ibe subjective significance of the effect was established with a panel of ten subjects and a fully simulated auditorium sound field. The absolute threshold of perception of the seat dip effect was found to be 7.1 ± 0.6 dB attenuation in the 200 Hz octave band of the early field. It was found that seat dip attenuation might be made less audible in a hall by: (i) supplying early energy along paths remote from the seating, (ii) increasing the vertical angle of incidence of the direct sound and (iii) installing resonant absorbers in the floor between seat rows.

A numerical treatment of the full equations of the flow of an inviscid incompressible fluid through a shaped gauze-screen in two-dimensional and axisymmetric ducts is presented. The method although inviscid is aimed at the treatment of high Reynolds number flows in which significant regions of inviscid core flow exist. Viscosity is neglected except in the immediate vicinity of the gauze in which the highly viscous nature of the flow processes at the screen is introduced through gauze resistance and deflection coefficients obtained empirically. Two inviscid, rotational flow methods are used based respectively on Poisson and Euler equations in general curvilinear coordinates. The final form of the governing equations is fully elliptic and the equations are solved by an iterative technique requiring boundary conditions on both inlet and outlet boundaries and the duct walls. The numerical methods match the flow upstream and downstream of the gauze using formulation of the boundary conditions at the screen applied in the form of continuity equation, total pressure coefficient across the gauze and the deflection coefficient relationship. The numerical solutions based on both the Poisson and Euler methods have been achieved without linearization. Validation has been achieved using different methods of solution and comparison with experiment. Comparisons with the first-order solutions of the earlier linearized models have also been made. An inverse method (i.e. flow given, find the gauze shape) to determine the detailed shape of a gauze-screen based on the Poisson formulation is presented. The boundary conditions at the gauze are formulated inversely such as to satisfy the continuity equation, the loss in total pressure across the gauze and the deflection of the flow through the screen. The matching between the flow regions upstream and downstream of the screen has been achieved by using the inverse formulation of the gauze boundary conditions. The numerical technique of the inverse method used is able to deal with the common practical problems of calculating the gauze shape required to produce a particular downstream velocity distribution. The present work is simple to apply in two-dimensional and axisymmetric inviscid incompressible rotational flow situations. Extension of the present methods to include fully three-dimensional flows, viscous-inviscid interaction and applications to duct design are outlined in the suggestions for future work included in the thesis.

The behaviour of pigment dispersions containing high solid concentrations has been studied when the dispersions settled in such a manner that the classical Stokes' Law was inoperative. The sedimentation of the solid particles in such suspensions occurs with the movement of an interface, and this is termed "hindered settling" when above the interface is the clear supernatant liquid and below the interface is the suspended solid. The properties of the suspensions were judged in terms of the interface's behaviour as a function of time. The observation of the interface's behaviour as a function of time, was used to determine the effect of adsorbed alkyd resin (a polyester) from xylene onto the surface of iron oxide, titanium dioxide and alpha copper phthalocyanine had on hindered settling parameters. The measurement of the mass of polymer absorbed was undertaken by infrared spectroscopy and a radio-active tracer method. The work was concerned with the inorganic and organic pigments in the same bulk solution and provided information about each pigment in the same solution. The hindered settling experiments took place at specific points on each pigment's alkyd resin adsorption isotherm to provide an understanding of parameters involved in sedimentation equations in chemical and physical terms.

The number of organisations with ISO 9000 certification over the world has increased dramatically in the last decade in developed and developing nations. The new standard ISO 9001:2000 is a way for an organisation to manage internal and external customer satisfaction and demonstrate continuous improvement. In Libya four Manufacturing Public Sector Organisations (LMPS0s) have got ISO 9000 certification, for exporting their products to reduce Libya's reliance on oil revenue. The low number of certified LMPSOs suggests that there are barriers affecting these organisations achieving ISO 9000 certification. In similar countries, for example, UAE they have more than nine hundred organisations registered with the certification. Therefore the aim of this research was "to identify and analyse the barriers that affect the implementation of a quality management system (QMS-ISO 9000 in Libyan Manufacturing Public Sector Organisations (LMPS0s))". From the literature review many barriers faced by many organisations, from different countries around the world, in their implementation process, were identified. Also, a conceptual framework was developed. There is a lack of empirical research on barriers affecting the new standard implementation, and the number of studies in Arabic countries is very limited with respect to the available literature in Western countries. To get an in-depth understanding of the barriers affecting LMPS0s, two case studies were carried out. A comprehensive list and in-depth understanding of barriers was identified by this research. Some of them (19) were identified as being unique to the Libyan culture in that they have not been reported before in the literature. Some of them are similar to barriers reported in Arabic (20), Islamic (19), Western (20) and other countries (32) such as Asian and South American countries. Therefore, this research makes a contribution to this area by adding to the limited literature. Another contribution of this research is that it has specifically filled the gap in knowledge in Libyan studies and in Arabic studies in general. Some recommendations for further research have been derived from this research.

Microsatellite markers were developed for Cannabis sativa L. (marijuana) to estimate the level of polymorphism, usefulness for DNA typing (genotype identification), and to measure the genetic relationships between the different plants. Twelve different oligonucleotide probes were used to screen an enriched microsatellite library of Cannabis sativa in which 49% of the clones contained microsatellite sequences. Characterization of microsatellite loci in Cannabis revealed that GA/CT was the most abundant class of isolated microsatellites representing 50% overall. Eleven polymorphic SSR markers were developed, derived from dinucleotide motifs and eight from trinucleotide motifs. A total of 52 alleles were detected averaging 4.7 alleles/locus. The expected heterozygosity of the eleven loci ranged between 0.368 and 0.710 and the common probability of identical genotypes was 1.8 x 107. The loci identified 27 unique profiles of the 41 Cannabis samples. The eleven microsatellite markers developed in this study were found to be useful for DNA fingerprinting and for assessing genetic relationships in Cannabis.

Protein folding is essential for all cellular life. While some proteins are able to reach their folded state reliably using nothing but their amino acid sequence, a great number of essential proteins are unable to do so without the aid of molecular chaperones. One family of molecular chaperone, the Hsp70 family, is found in virtually all cell types and across all domains of life. Certain to the function of Hsp70s are how they bind their client proteins. Substantial effort has been expended to study how Hsp70s work on model peptides as a substrate mimic, but relatively little work has been performed using full-length protein substrates. This work examines how the E. coli Hsp70, DnaK, binds a full-length unfolded client protein, the pro-form of E. coli alkaline phosphatase, or proPhoA. I use a combination of biophysical techniques to under how DnaK binds proPhoA with regards to affinity, stoichiometry, and binding site selection. I find that DnaK binds each vii of the potential binding sites within proPhoA with roughly equal affinity. In addition, DnaK for a complex with proPhoA with a 1:1 stoichiometry and is selective for a single binding site on proPhoA.

This research effort examined the read rate differences in a passive ultra high frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) doorway portal as a function of antenna placement, doorway size and composition, reader manufacturer, tag type, and tag orientation. In this analysis of a RFID system, the response observations were modeled under an ordinal logistic regression model. The selection of a categorical analysis method was due to the flaws associated with the initial design of the experiment, which resulted in high valued observations which would have skewed the results of a quantitative model. The ordinal regression analysis of the data indicates that out of the parameters studied, system performance is increased when a Sirit reader system, setup in a double doorway, with an antenna at the top of the door frame as well as the sides are used in conjunction with Sirit NXP tags.