We have used ultrafast optics, primarily focused on the nonlinear processes of Polarization Gating and of Optical Parametric Amplification, one for measurement and the other for imaging purposes. For measurement, we have demonstrated a robust method of measurement to simultaneously measure both optical pulses used in a pump-probe type configuration. We refer to this method of pulse measurement as Double Blind Polarization Gating FROG. We have demonstrated this single-shot method for measuring two unknown pulses using one device. In addition to pulse measurement, we have demonstrated the processes of Optical Parametric Amplification (OPA) applicability to imaging of complex objects. We have done this where the Fourier transform plane is used during the interaction. We have amplified and wavelength converted a complex image. We observe a gain of ~100, and, although our images were averaged over many shots, we used a single-shot geometry, capable of true single-shot OPA imaging. To our knowledge, this is the first Fourier-plane OPA imaging of more than a single spatial-frequency component of an image. We observe more than 30 distinct spatial frequency components in both our amplified image and our wavelength shifted image. We have demonstrated all-optical spatial filtering for these complex images. We have demonstrated that direct Fourier filtering of spatial features is possible by using a shaped pump beam. We can isolate certain portions of the image simply by rotating the crystal.

Pagrindinis darbo tikslas buvo nustatyti ir įvertinti šunų skrandžio ir dvylikapirštės žarnos opų susirgimų dažnumą, priežastis, klinikinių simptomų pasireiškimą, efektyviausius diagnozavimo bei gydymo metodus. Pasiekti šį tikslą, pirmiausiai mes išanalizavom virškinamojo trakto ligų bei skrandžio ir dvylikapirštės žarnos opų dažnumą. Antra, mes statistiškai isanalizavome labiausiai išreikštus klinikinius simptomus, budingus kraujo morfologinių ir biocheminių rodiklių pakitimus. Galiausiai, nustatėme efektyviausia diagnozavimo metodą bei taikomą gydymą. Nustatėme, kad 2012 metais, 16,66 proc. visų šunų ligų sudarė virškinamojo trakto ligos. Iš šių virškinamojo trakto ligų 3,04 % buvo skrandžio opaligė, tuo tarpu dvylikapirštės žarnos opų nebuvo nustatyta 2012 metais. Labiausiai išreikšti skrandžio ir dvylikapirštės žarnos opų klinikiniai simptomai buvo vėmimas (90,48 % pacientų) ir viduriavimas (57,14 % pacientų). Išanalizavus kraujo morgfologinius tyrimus buvo nustatyta neutrofilija (79,31 ± 0,9875 proc.), tuo tarpu kiti kraujo morfologiniai rodikliai buvo fiziologinėse normos ribose. Išanalizavus kraujo biocheminius tyrimus buvo nustatytas nežymus bilirubino kiekio padidėjimas kraujyje (8,59 ± 0,9549 µmol/l) ir sumažėjęs ALT (67,03 ± 9,7915 U/l). Endoskopinis tyrimas buvo nustatytas kaip efektyviausias diagnozavimo metodas. Naudojant šį metodą buvo diagnozuota 90,47 proc. pacientų. Gydymui dažniausiai buvo naudojama: gastroprotektoriai (90,48 proc.), gastroprokinetikai (80... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The main goal of this thesis was to determine and evaluate the frequency, ethiology, clinical symptoms, the most effective diagnostic and treatment methods for gastroduodenal ulcers in dogs. To achieve this goal at first we analized the frequency of gastrointestinal diseases and the frequency of gastroduodenal ulcers in dogs. Secondly, we statistically analized the most expressed clinical symptoms, the characteristic morphological and biochemical abnormalities of blood in dogs with gastroduodenal ulcers. Finally, we determined the most effective diagnostic and treatment methods. We determined that during 2012 years 16,66 % of all dogs diseases were gastrointestinal diseases (3,04% gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers were not determined). The most expressed clinical symptoms for patients with gastroduodenal ulcers were vomiting (90,48%) and diarrhea (57,14%). Blood morphology showed high percentage of neutrophils (79,31 ± 0,9875 %), other morphological parameters were in physiologically normal range. Blood biochemistry showed little rise in bilirubin (8,59 ± 0,9549 µmol/l), and low ALT (67,03 ± 9,7915 U/l). We determined that the endoscopic method is the most effective method in diagnosing gastroduodenal ulcers. 90,47 % of gastroduodenal ulcers were diagnosed by using the endoscope. The most frequent treatment methods for gastroduodenal ulcers were gastro-protectors (90,48 % patients), gastroprokintetics (80,95 % patients), anti-acids (66,67 % patients), and diet (52,38 %... [to full text]

Cette thèse vise à analyser les aspects juridiques du rôle joué par les acteurs ayant une stratégie actionariale de court-terme (hedge funds,...) dans le cadre des offres publiques d'acquisition. Outre l'identification de ces acteurs et la description des méthodes employées, il s'agit aussi de s'interroger sur les moyens à disposition de la société cible pour se défendre et de se demander si des évolutions législatives ne seraient pas nécessaires. / The purpose of the Phd is to analyze questions raised by short-termism in takevoer bids. As a matter of fact, some shareholders only have short-terme strategies (such as Hedge funds,...) and takeover bids provide some fantastic arbitration opportunities. First, one should clearly identify these actors. Products which might be used in such situation will also have to be studied. Second, one should analyze which defence could provide the target. Third, a study of the opportunity or repealing or amending french legislation on these issues will be done.

O processo de isquemia-reperfusão é responsável pela geração de um dano agudo em uma série de órgãos do corpo humano, e, no coração, é o principal causador da doença crônica conhecida por insuficiências cardíaca. Atualmente não existe nenhuma opção terapêutica disponível na prática clínica contra esta injúria. Com o objetivo de desenvolver uma nova estratégia de combate a este dano, no presente trabalho investigamos a promessa da aplicação da recém-descoberta via UPRam num modelo de hipóxia reoxigenação in-vitro, sem obter sucesso. Contudo, os resultados gerados nestes experimentos forneceram pistas de que o uso do desacoplador CCCP é capaz de reduzir o dano deste insulto, porém o mecanismo celular responsável por esta proteção permanece desconhecido. Tentativas de desvendar este mecanismo utilizando a via lisossomal-autofágica ou a clivagem de OPA-1 falharam, mas produziram importantes insights a respeito do papel da protease mitocondrial OMA-1 no processo de hipóxia-reoxigenação, abrindo caminho para novos estudos subsequentes. / Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a process that occurs in many human organs including the heart, where it is the main trigger to heart failure, a chronic disease that kills over 40% patients only five years following the first diagnosis. Despite the bulky research on the subject, there is no available therapy on clinical practice against this insult. Attempting to develop a novel strategy to mitigate this damage, we investigated if the pro-survival effect of the recently discovered UPRam pathway could be protective in an in-vitro model of ischemia reperfusion. Despite the negative results regarding its conservation on mammalian cells, treatment with the mitochondrial uncoupler CCCP was proven to reduce cell death under this process, but the cellular mechanism responsible for this protection remained elusive. Aspiring to unravel this cellular response, we tested whether autophagy or OPA-1 cleavage was capable of abrogating the verified protection, but the results came back negative. Regardless of that, the behavior of OMA-/- cells over H/R stress has given new insights on novel strategies comprising I/R injury abrogation.

No description available.

Student Number : 9402348T - MSc(Med) dissertation - School of Medicine - Faculty of Health Sciences / My previous investigations have indicated that a connection exists between the state of health of specific internal organs and the electrical characteristics of related, although sometimes remote, skin areas. These skin areas are referred to as organ projection areas (OPA) and include acupuncture points. Pathology of a particular organ causes a related OPA to rectify electrical currents, once the resistance ‘breakthrough effect’ has been induced in the skin. The ‘breakthrough effect’ is a rapid reversible decrease in skin resistance which takes place under certain electrical stimulatory conditions. Only after it occurs, the skin resistance measured by means of a positively polarised point electrode is significantly higher for diseased organs’ projection areas, when compared to the resistance for the same but negatively polarised measuring electrode (rectification / diode phenomenon). For healthy organs’ projection areas, this phenomenon is not observed. The pathology of an internal organ also increases the impedance of the corresponding OPA. The location of the skin zone, where a high degree of rectification and increased impedance is observed, indicates which particular organ is diseased. The degree of rectification or difference in impedance indicates the extent of the pathological process within the organ. These findings created the basis for a new non-invasive diagnostic method – organ electrodermal diagnostics (OED). Although the electrical phenomena of the skin described above have been confirmed clinically, the resistance and impedance values involved have not been characterized statistically. Therefore, in order to determine the accuracy of OED, optimization of OED parameters was undertaken. Evaluation of electrical characteristics revealed that for AC measurements, low frequency and high amplitude were most suitable. Therefore 250Hz was selected as the measurement frequency, since lower frequencies produced uncomfortable sensations under the measuring electrode. Measuring current amplitude was chosen to be 25uA (peak) since it was observed to be below the perception threshold. For DC measurements, the highest amplitude of the measurement stimulus that does not cause uncomfortable sensations was the most suitable. Since the skin resistance is very low after the ‘breakthrough effect’, 25uA was chosen as optimal. According to these parameters the OED device ‘Diagnotronics’ was built. The device specifies the actual condition of the organ related to the investigated skin area as 'HEALTHY', 'WITHIN NORMAL LIMITS', ‘SUBACUTE’ and ‘ACUTE’. A special display graded according to percentage of the disease intensity, makes it possible to specify accurately the activity of organ pathology. The locations of skin areas corresponding to the examined organs and final results are displayed on a screen. A double-blind comparative study of OED results and clinical diagnoses, as a criterion standard, was performed on a group of 200 inpatients at Helen Joseph Hospital's surgical department. The study was restricted to the following organs: oesophagus, stomach, gall bladder, pancreas, colon, kidneys, urinary bladder and prostate. These organs are relatively easy to access clinically, and their pathologies represent a variety of aetiological and pathogenetic factors e.g. infections, inflammation, neoplasms, immunological and metabolic disorders. In total 630 true OED results were obtained from the 714 subjects considered: detection rate 88.2% (85,6-90,5%). Established OED sensitivity was 89.5% (85,2-92,8%) and OED specificity equaled 87.5% (84,0-90,4%). The predictive value for positive OED results was 81.7% (76,9-85,9%) and for negative OED results 93.0% (90,1-95,2%). There were no significant differences in the results obtained from various internal organs. Healthy organs usually display the OED result 'HEALTHY' or 'WITHIN NORMAL LIMITS’, while subacute pathology displays 'SUBACUTE' and acute pathology as an 'ACUTE'. The OED results were affected neither by the type nor the aetiology of disease i.e. OED estimates the actual extent of the pathological process activity within a particular organ but does not explain the direct cause of the pathology. The OED results were not influenced by a patient's muscle tension, emotional state, skin humidity, environmental temperature or by procedure duration. The pressure of the measuring electrode had a limited influence (up to 5%) on the OED results and did not affect the final diagnoses. No side-effects of the OED examinations were observed. The study confirmed the existence of OPA on the skin surface and proved that OED is a reliable bioelectronic method of non-invasive medical diagnostic testing, with high rates of sensitivity, specificity and predictive values. OED may detect diseased organs and estimate the activity of the pathological process.

No description available.

Neisseria meningitidis causes 500,000 cases of meningitis and septicaemia annually worldwide, with a mortality rate of approximately 10%. Most disease in developed countries is caused by serogroup B infection, against which there is no universal vaccine. Opa proteins are major meningococcal outer membrane proteins, and a limited number of Opa variants have been associated with hyperinvasive serogroup B meningococci, suggesting their use as a potential novel vaccine. Immunisation of mice with recombinant Opa elicited high levels of meningococcal-specific serum bactericidal antibody (SBA), demonstrating proof in principle of this approach. Opa proteins mediate bacterial adherence to host cells and modulate human cellular immunity, and there are conflicting data regarding their effects on CD4⁺ T cells. opa genes from N. meningitidis strain H44/76 were cloned into the plasmid vector pBluescript, disrupted using antibiotic resistance cassettes and transformed into H44/76 to sequentially disrupt the four opa genes. This produced a unique panel of 15 isogenic Opa-deficient strains, including an Opa-negative strain, which enabled investigation of the immunomodulatory role of surface-expressed Opa proteins. There was no consistent effect of Opa expressed on the surface of OMVs and inactivated bacteria on CD4⁺ T cells, with significant heterogeneity of responses between individuals. The rate of Opa phase variation was between 10^-3 and 10^-4, and increased 180-fold following transformation of bacteria with unrelated DNA. These data support further investigation of Opa as a potential meningococcal vaccine component, and highlight the importance of host and bacterial factors in the development of OMV vaccines.

Le filtre de Kalman étendu singulier évolutif (SEEK) et sa variante interpolée, appelée SEIK, ont été implémentés et testés avec succès dans plusieurs modèles océaniques. Cependant, ces deux filtres restent chers pour une océanographie opérationnelle. L'objectif principal de notre travail est de développer des formes dégradées des filtres SEEK et SEIK qui sont moins couteux mais aussi performants. Notre approche consiste essentiellement à simplifier l'évolution de la base de correction des filtres SEEK et SEIK, qui est la partie la plus chère de ces deux filtres. Pour améliorer les performances de nos filtres dans les périodes instables du modèle, nous introduisons tout d'abord les notions d'analyse EOFs locales et mixte dans le but d'augmenter la représentativité de la base de correction. Cela nous amène à construire une nouvelle variante du filtre SEEK avec une base de correction semi-évolutive partiellement locale. Nous présentons ensuite plusieurs schémas de réglage adaptatif des paramètres du filtre SEEK. Nous terminons enfin par une comparaison entre les performances des filtres SEEK et ROEK pour montrer l'intérêt de l'évolution de la base de correction, ce dernier étant aussi introduit pour compenser le caractère non-évolutif de la base EOFs locale. Nous avons implémenté tous nos filtres dans une configuration réaliste du modèle OPA dans l'océan Pacifique tropical. Leurs performances ont été étudiées avec des expériences jumelles. Le filtre SEIK est utilisé comme une référence pour la comparaison. Les résultats de ces expériences montrent que nos nouveaux filtres sont aussi performants que le filtre SEIK, mais peuvent être de 2 à 10 fois plus rapides.

La tesi ha per oggetto lo studio del fenomeno dei patti parasociali occulti nell’ambito di s.p.a. aperte al mercato del capitale di rischio e quotate. La prima parte del lavoro si concentra sulle norme dell’ordinamento italiano che prevedono obblighi di trasparenza degli accordi tra azionisti, senza trascurare gli altri principali sistemi europei e quello statunitense. Il secondo capitolo sviluppa l’analisi dei diversi profili in relazione ai quali il fenomeno del patto parasociale occulto reagisce ed influisce sull’interpretazione e sull’applicazione della disciplina dell’opa obbligatoria da concerto. Inoltre, si fornisce un’illustrazione delle modalità attraverso le quali dovrebbe essere possibile pervenire alla prova dell’esistenza di siffatti accordi. Nell’ultimo capitolo si prende in esame la responsabilità degli azionisti per la violazione del dovere di disclosure e, soprattutto, per la mancata promozione dell’opa obbligatoria da patto occulto. Si argomenta nel senso che tale condotta possa integrare altresì un’ipotesi di insider trading (o, eventualmente, di manipolazione del mercato) e si procede ad una ricostruzione del danno risarcibile e del relativo nesso causale, traendo spunto, in particolare, dai risultati emersi nell’esperienza statunitense. / The thesis concerns the shareholders’ agreements - within a corporation - that are kept secret, breaching a legally imposed duty of disclosure. The first part of the analysis focuses on the rules that contain such a duty of disclosure, mainly as regards the Italian regulation but also through a consideration of other legal systems. The second chapter develops the study by showing how the not-disclosed shareholders’ agreements could vary the way in which the regulation of the mandatory bid should be interpreted and applied. Moreover, an illustration about the possible ways to get the evidence of the existence of these agreements is provided. In the final chapter, the liability of the shareholders - mainly based on the breach of the duty to promote a mandatory bid - is taken into consideration, especially through a comparison with the American legal system as for the damages caused by an insider trading conduct and the causal connection: it is argued, in fact, that the violation of the rules regarding both the disclosure of the agreements and the mandatory bid should be also identified as a case of insider trading (or market manipulation).