Nesse trabalho, a equação de estado PC-SAFT é combinada com um método de contribuição de grupos (GC) para estimação dos seus parâmetros. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados experimentais dos componentes puros (pressão de vapor e volume específico do líquido) e em mistura (equilíbrio líquido-vapor - VLE e coeficiente de atividade em diluição infinita - IDAC). Através de uma análise de sensibilidade, verificou-se que o parâmetro volume de associação poderia ser mantido constante, reduzindo o número de parâmetros a serem estimados. O objetivo principal foi estudar misturas que apresentassem associação cruzada ou forte interação entre os compostos. Com os parâmetros estimados, avaliou-se o desempenho do modelo GC-PC-SAFT no cálculo de propriedades de n-alcanos, 1-álcoois, aminas, clorofórmio e acetona. Os desvios médios obtidos no cálculo do equilíbrio líquido-vapor (VLE), entre as diferentes misturas estudadas, mostraram que a estratégia adotada para a estimação do parâmetro energia de associação apresentou bons resultados, com desvios relativamente baixos para a maioria dos casos estudados. Para IDAC, as predições foram muito semelhantes àquelas obtidas por outros modelos. Os resultados de VLE são importantes, pois fornecem informações sobre as concentrações intermediárias de uma mistura, enquanto que o IDAC fornece uma medida eficiente do grau de não-idealidade da mistura. Essas propriedades foram escolhidas com o objetivo de conseguir uma melhor representação das misturas, buscando eliminar a necessidade de parâmetros de interação binária. Os resultados obtidos revelam que o modelo GC-PC-SAFT proposto pode ser utilizado para predizer o equilíbrio líquido-vapor com uma precisão satisfatória para sistemas binários entre os diferentes compostos estudados, sem nenhum parâmetro de interação binária. / In this work, the PC-SAFT EoS is combined with a group contribution method (GC) for parameter estimation. To achieve this, experimental data for pure components (vapor pressure and liquid volume) and mixtures (vapor-liquid equilibria - VLE and infinite dilution activity coefficient -IDAC) has been used. Through sensitivity analysis, it has been found that the association volume parameter could be set constant, thus reducing the amount of parameters that needed to be estimated. The aim of this work was to study mixtures that presented cross association or strong component interaction. With the estimated parameters, GC-PC-SAFT performance in properties calculation of n-alkanes, 1-alcohols, amines, chloroform and ketone has been evaluated. The average deviations obtained in the calculation of vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE), in the different mixtures considered, have shown that the strategy for association energy parameter estimation has presented good results, with relatively low deviations for most of the cases. For IDAC, the predictions presented very similar results to those obtained by other models. VLE results are important because they provide information about mixtures’ intermediary concentrations, whereas IDAC offers an efficient measure of mixtures’ degree of non-ideality. These properties have been chosen with the aim of getting a better representation of the mixtures, seeking to eliminate the need for binary interaction parameters. The obtained results show that GC-PC-SAFT can be used to predict vapor-liquid equilibria for binary systems among the different studied components with satisfactory accuracy with no binary interaction parameter.

Os biomateriais podem ser definidos como substâncias de origem natural ou sintética que são tolerados de forma transitória ou permanente pelos diversos tecidos que constituem os órgãos dos seres vivos. Dentre esses biomateriais podemos citar o Agregado de Trióxido Mineral (ATM), que foi desenvolvido na Universidade de Loma Linda na década de 90. Desde então, não cessaram trabalhos de pesquisa envolvendo esse material e o Cimento Portland (CP); que embora não seja um material de uso odontológico direto, pode-se afirmar que possui basicamente os mesmos componentes químicos do ATM. O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi avaliar a biocompatibilidade do cimento Portland comum (CP-I) e do cimento Portland branco (CPB) não estrutural, incluídos na calvária de ratos. Foram selecionados vinte ratos, dois foram previamente utilizados como grupo piloto; os dezoito restantes foram distribuídos em três grupos de seis ratos que avaliados nos tempos experimentais de 30, 60, 90 dias foram mortos para análise histopatológica. Cada animal recebeu um implante, sendo três de Cimento Portland Comum (CP-I) e três de Cimento Portland Branco (CPB). Os resultados mostraram que não houve conseqüências de uma proliferação microbiológica em nenhum dos cimentos e tempos pesquisados. Observou-se tecido conjuntivo denso, celular e ricamente vascularizado. Também foi visualizado uma matriz óssea recém formada, adjacente aos osteoblastos ativos e que não estava ainda calcificada; apresentava-se menos mineralizada e com ausência de lamelas. Durantes os tempos histológicos de 30, 60 e 90 dias, o infiltrado inflamatório disperso no tecido apresentou-se: intenso, moderado e discreto. Sugerindo a mudança do processo inflamatório de agudo a crônico respectivamente / The biomaterials can be defined as substances of natural or synthetic origin that are tolerated on a temporary or permanent by the various tissues that make up the organs of living beings. Among these biomaterials can quote the mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), which was developed at the University of Loma Linda, in the 90s. Since then, it stopped work on research involving this material and Portland cement (PC), which although not a dental material to use direct, one can say that basically has the same chemical components of the ATM. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biocompatibility of common Portland cement (PC-I) and the white Portland cement (CPB) no structural, included in the skull of rats. Twenty rats were selected, two were previously used as a pilot group and the eighteen others were divided into three groups of six rats that were killed and evaluated in experimental stroke, 30, 60, and 90 days. Each animal received an implant, three of Common Portland Cement (PC-I) and three of White Portland Cement (CPB). The results show that there were no consequences of a microbial proliferation in any of cement and times searched. There was also the formation of bone tissue with characteristics of immaturity, showing gaps in some areas without osteocytes; presence of moderate and cell tissue, richly vascularized, showing characteristics of biocompatibility, and the potential for bone and cell differentiation.

Biological systems are driven by complex regulatory processes. Graphical models play a crucial role in the analysis and reconstruction of such processes. It is possible to derive regulatory models using network inference algorithms from high-throughput data, for example; from gene or protein expression data. A wide variety of network inference algorithms have been designed and implemented. Our aim is to explore the possibilities of using statistical independence criteria for biological network inference. The contributions of our work can be categorized into four sections. First, we provide a detailed overview of some of the most popular general independence criteria: distance covariance (dCov), kernel canonical variance (KCC), kernel generalized variance (KGV) and the Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion (HSIC). We provide easy to understand geometrical interpretations for these criteria. We also explicitly show the equivalence of dCov, KGV and HSIC. Second, we introduce a new criterion for measuring dependence based on the signal to noise ratio (SNRIC). SNRIC is significantly faster to compute than other popular independence criteria. SNRIC is an approximate criterion but becomes exact under many popular modelling assumptions, for example for data from an additive noise model. Third, we compare the performance of the independence criteria on biological experimental data within the framework of the PC algorithm. Since not all criteria are available in a version that allows for testing conditional independence, we propose and test an approach which relies on residuals and requires only an unconditional version of an independence criterion. Finally we propose a novel method to infer networks with feedback loops. We use an MCMC sampler, which samples using a loss function based on an independence criterion. This allows us to find networks under very general assumptions, such as non-linear relationships, non-Gaussian noise distributions and feedback loops.

This thesis examines exile in contemporary autobiographical narratives written in French by women from across the Francophone world. The analysis focuses on work by Nina Bouraoui (Algeria), Gisele Pineau (Guadeloupe), Veronique Tadjo (Cote d'Ivoire), and Kim Lefevre (Vietnam), and investigates how the French colonial project has shaped female articulations of mobility and identity in the present. This comparative, cross-cultural, and cross-generational study engages with postcolonial theory, gender theory, and autobiographical theory in order to create a new framework with which to interpret women's experiences and expressions of displacement across the Francosphere. The thesis posits that existing models of exile do not fully explain the complex situations of the four authors, who do not have a well-defined 'home' and 'host' country. Although marginalised by their gender, they are economically privileged and have chosen to live a rootless existence, which nonetheless renders them alienated and 'out of place'. The thesis thus argues that women's narratives of exile challenge and complicate existing paradigms of exile which have a male, patriarchal focus. By turning our attention to these women and their specific postcolonial gendered narratives, a more nuanced understanding of exile emerges: exile is experienced as a sexual, gendered, racial, and/or linguistic otherness.

This thesis re-evaluates the relationship between original text and translation through an approach that assumes the equality of source and target texts. This is based on the translation strategy expressed in the work of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges and theoretical approaches by Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault, as well as exponents of Possible World Theory. Rather than considering what may be lost in translation, this thesis focuses on why we insist on maintaining a border between the textual phenomena ‘translation’ and ‘original’ and argues for a mutually enriching dialogue between a text and its translation. The opening chapter investigates marginal cases of translation and determines where one form (original) ends and the other (translation) begins. The case studies derive from the anthology Cuentos breves y extraordinarios (edited by Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares) and include ‘pseudotranslations’: texts presented as translations even though no linguistic transfer precedes them. Another example is Borges’s self-translation of his Spanish poem ‘Mañana’ into German as ‘Südlicher Morgen’ for the Expressionist poet Kurt Heynicke. Although an original text, the pseudotranslation is judged as a translation, problematizing the boundary between the two. Since its perception changes over time, it unsettles the idea of the stable text by positing a text in progress. The analysis of the effects of the translation is supported by a discussion of Michel Foucault’s categorization expressed in Les mots et les choses (1966). Translations are regarded as coins, which gain value through their ability to represent, and create heterotopias: potentially existing non-places, which escape logic and thereby create an ‘uneasy laughter.’ Heterotopias are based on anti-logical orders, exemplified in the organisation of Antología de la literatura fantástica, collaboratively edited by Borges, Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo in 1940. This organisation invites an interpretation based on resemblance rather than comparison, the latter of which always results in the production and reproduction of hierarchies. In Chapter Two, I uncover the fraudulent assumption that an original is a stable text. I make recourse to Walter Benjamin’s definition of origin in ‘Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers’ (1923) as ‘the eddy in the stream of becoming’, and André Lefevere’s notion of the refracted text, explaining that our first encounters with a classic text are mostly made through abridged, altered, and interpreted versions. Collaborative work also unsettles the idea of the single author as source and guarantor of authenticity, exemplified through examples of Borges and Bioy Casares’s collaboration, and Borges’s collaborative translations with Norman Thomas di Giovanni. I elaborate on Possible World Theory (PWT) following Marie-Laure Ryan and Ruth Ronen, explaining key terms and concepts and showing that PWT offers an alternative to thinking about the relationship of original text and translation as hierarchical. PWT can be employed to consider source text and target text to be possible, parallel versions of a fictional world. The findings lead to a link between authenticity and the different reception of original and translated texts. I note that the term ‘authenticity’, often used in reference to the original, also has ‘murderous’ connotations. Applied to a text, ‘inauthenticity’ might therefore be a more helpful term in discussing its ‘afterlife’ (Fortleben; Benjamin) as an inauthentic text. An effective way of ensuring a text can be read as ‘inauthentic’ is to dissimulate its origin and relations, whilst also unsettling the authority of the author and translator. The theoretical examination of hierarchies and categorization is then illustrated in case studies analysing Borges’s contrasting translations of works by Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka. Chapter Three focuses on translations of Orlando and A Room of One’s Own attributed to Borges. While it remains uncertain whether Borges did in fact translate Woolf’s texts himself, the notion of ‘translatorship’ comes into focus. The continuation of claiming Borges as the translator serves to aid the publication of the translations by making use of the famous translator’s name. I give an overview over the publishing environment in Argentina of the 1930s into which the Woolf texts were translated, with particular focus on the readership of the publishing house Sur. I thereby foreground Victoria Ocampo’s particular interest in having Woolf translated into Spanish, since Ocampo considered Woolf a role model for feminism. Feminist discussions show parallels with the way in which translations and original texts are separated. Borges’s Orlando furthermore triggered controversy concerning his handling of gender issues. I offer a reading of the text along the lines of Feminist Translation Studies, as expressed by Sherry Simon, Luise von Flotow and Lori Chamberlain, amongst others. I argue that Borges’s translation can be read ‘inauthentically’ as fidelity becomes a movable factor. I regard the translations of Orlando and A Room of One’s Own attributed to Borges as texts translated in a feminist way as they offer many possible worlds of interpretation and much undecidability. The notion of ‘translatorship’ is picked up again in the final Chapter Four, as it applies equally to the translation of Franz Kafka’s ‘Die Verwandlung’ as ‘La metamorfosis.’ Since there are different versions of ‘La metamorfosis,’ the quest for the translator also questions where ‘translation’ ends and ‘editing’ begins. The popularity of Borges’s version might furthermore be particularly linked to this uncertainty, as I argue that the veneration of Kafka’s work is, at least in part, due to the fragmentary nature in which his work survived. This incompletion enables many possible interpretations of his texts, which thereby appear as perfect pieces of literature since they, like Foucault’s coin, are uncorrodable and have the ability to represent, much like inauthentic texts. The ‘inauthentic’ literary treatment of translating in collaboration, as is the case when Borges and Bioy Casares translate ‘Cuatro reflexiones’, ‘Josefina la cantora’, ‘La verdad sobre Sancho Panza’ and ‘El silencio de las sirenas’ is hence particularly adequate for these fragments. The translations in collaboration, besides undermining the authorial genius of the single author, also feature particular destructions of the perfection of the original. The concluding chapter summarises the findings concerning the questions as to why there should be a hierarchy between the reception of original texts and translations, why this hierarchy is so persistent, and what alternatives may be offered instead. I demonstrate how the selected case studies are exemplary of alternative approaches to Translation Studies and to what effect PWT and Borges have been helpful in pursuing this approach. I then suggest further routes of research, including: an increased visibility of translations in academic disciplines, through publishing books and reviews; further study on the translations of Argentine literature into an Anglo-American context and the ‘decolonized’ effect this could have; and an update of Feminist Translation Studies to expand it to Transgender Translation Studies. I finally suggest that the uncertain and unsettling effect brought about by translation in its creation of multiple worlds should be embraced as a way of reading and writing inauthentically.

Live cell imaging with FTIR spectroscopy offers a high throughput, non-damage and lab-free method to study the cells in vivo which has significant advantages in the field of cancer diagnosis and drug screening. However, due to the strong absorbance of water, using infrared spectroscopy in such field remains to be an underdeveloped topic. This project demonstrates a novel method to perform IR imaging of cells in solution. A novel water correction method, which avoids the using of water combination band, is proposed. A buffer reference and a cell reference spectra were introduced to fitting the contribution based on protein bands. This method was implemented on three types of IR spectrometers, namely conventional FTIR spectrometer, synchrotron-based FTIR spectrometer and quantum cascade laser (QCL) microscope. To date, most of the live cell imaging carried out with IR sources utilise synchrotron radiation. Recently, a new bench top system, QCL microscope, has been developed. It incorporates four tunable QCL laser sources covering the wavenumber range 900-1800 cm-1 which are many orders of magnitude brighter than conventional sources. The proposed water correction method is, therefore, capable of processing the data recorded by all three types of IR spectrometers. Three prostate cancer cell lines were employed to evaluate the water correction method and the performance of three spectrometers on imaging of cell in solution. The obtained spectra was analysed with multivariate analysis, PCA and PC-LDA which shows good separation between cell lines. The data was also examined with Random Forest algorithm to establish a classifier and the diagnostic capability of the water corrected spectra was proven.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T19:32:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniel Ilirian Carvalho.pdf: 474959 bytes, checksum: 1ee51b563f6998ca4207e2fbe7c810ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This Master's degree dissertation is about the division of PCB occurred in the early 1960 s, when the PCdoB has created as a counterpoint of that previous organization. To conduct this research, official documents of the PCB had been used. They consisted in Theses for Discussion and articles produced by the Communist leadership and published on Communist newspaper Novos Rumos (New Paths) during the V Congress held in 1960; the Declaration of March produced and published by the PCB in 1958 and the Manifesto Program produced and published by the dissidents who have created the PCdoB in February 1962. To deals with these documents, it was extract their most recurrent themes, not giving previous defined meanings to the information , but taking in account the logic that led those debates in that moment, understanding more precisely the historical context. The objective of this research was to analyze the differences and circumstances that led to the split of the Communist Party, considering the proposals contained in the debate between its leadership. These debates were related mainly to the understanding about the nationalist-development politics that was a part of the a Juscelino Kubitschek s administration, as well as the relations between Brazil and the imperialist countries and the contradictions caused by the Brazilian capitalism, from which it was surged the Party s political strategy on social relationship between the working class and the bourgeoisie, and the proposed Frente Única (Unique Front). It was observed that the difficulties to understanding the political processes and their connections with national development, as well as the controversy about the consequences of deepening the relations to the foreign capital, have led to the split of Communists at that moment, beside the suspicion about the Brazilian bourgeoisie real wishes, which even divided, simply wanted to recover its positions at the Juscelino s government, without changing social structures / Esta dissertação de mestrado trata da divisão do PCB ocorrida no início dos anos 60, quando surgiu o PC do B em contraponto àquela primeira organização. Para realizar esta pesquisa, foram utilizados os documentos oficiais do PCB, que consistem nas Teses para discussão, e os artigos produzidos pelos dirigentes comunistas, publicados no jornal comunista Novos Rumos, durante o V Congresso realizado em 1960; a Declaração de Março, produzida e publicada pelo PCB em 1958, e o Manifesto Programa, produzido e publicado pelos dissidentes que formaram o PC do B em fevereiro de 1962. Para trabalhar a documentação, buscou-se extrair suas temáticas mais recorrentes, não se atribuindo às informações significados definidos a priori, mas respeitando-se a lógica que conduziu os debates naquele momento, compreendendo de maneira mais precisa o contexto histórico. O objetivo da pesquisa foi analisar as divergências e as circunstâncias que levaram à ruptura do Partido Comunista, considerando as proposições contidas no debate entre os seus dirigentes. Tais debates disseram respeito principalmente ao entendimento sobre a política de desenvolvimentismo nacionalista que permeou o governo de Juscelino Kubitschek, bem como as relações do Brasil com os países imperialistas e as contradições provocadas pelo capitalismo brasileiro, do que decorreram as propostas de estratégia política do partido no que se referia às relações sociais entre a classe operária e a burguesia, assim como a proposta da Frente Única. Observou-se que as dificuldades no entendimento dos processos políticos e suas conexões com o desenvolvimentismo nacional, assim como as polêmicas sobre as decorrências do aprofundamento da relação com o capital estrangeiro, levaram à ruptura dos comunistas naquele momento, a que se somou a dubiedade no entendimento dos reais interesses da burguesia brasileira, a qual, mesmo que cindida, pretendia apenas retomar suas posições frente ao governo de Juscelino, sem alterar as estruturas sociais

The aim of this Diploma thesis is to get acquitained with the approaches to parallel programming and possibilities of their practical implementation, including possibilities of their usage in management. An important part of the Diploma thesis is the practical implementation of parallel program in a PC cluster environment, which was implemented in computer laboratory of Faculty of Management VŠE. The practical part consists of an example of decision-making under uncertainty (risk) which is solved with the employment of the Monte Carlo method.

This dissertation delves into re-casted, re-negotiated, and emergent U.S. and Latino perspectives that are resulting from trans-border cultural and national fusion and undocumented Mexican immigration to the U.S. between the years 2000-2015. Five cultural products-- newspaper headlines, literature, music, political cartoons, and memes-- as produced by Mexican individuals on one side of the U.S.-Mexican Border and undocumented individuals on the other, who are part of the millennial generation, are considered against fossilized notions of gender, race, class, and national identity to determine if and how millennial Mexicans and millennial undocumented individuals are leveraging specific cultural tokens to be tools of defiance and to promulgate a re-writing of self.

L’augmentation de la moyenne de vie a modifié le spectre des maladies cardiaques vers l'insuffisance cardiaque, un désordre progressif incurable, marqué par une perte massive de cardiomyocytes. En raison de la rareté des donneurs, la transplantation cardiaque, devient de plus en plus difficile. En 2003, la découverte des cellules souches cardiaques humaines (hCSC) pouvant supporter la réparation du myocarde après un infarctus a soulevé l’espoir d’approches thérapeutiques plus prometteuses. La transplantation des cellules autologues (issues du patient) a montré une efficacité limitée en raison de la mauvaise qualité des cellules après infarctus. De ce fait, l’utilisation des CPC allogéniques provenant de donneurs sains semble aujourd’hui le choix le plus réaliste et représente un potentiel produit thérapeutique abordable et disponible pour tous. Cependant les cellules allogéniques soulèvent des problèmes immunologiques importants qu’il faut résoudre avant leur utilisation clinique. Concernant la réponse immune innée, nos résultats indiquent que les hCPC allogéniques ont une susceptibilité modeste à la lyse NK et pourraient même être protégées contre cette lyse en contexte inflammatoire. Contrairement à la réponse immunitaire innée favorable contre les hCPC allogéniques, la présence des alloanticorps anti-HLA peut être néfaste. Nos résultats ont montré que les DSA-HLA I spécifiques de l’haplotype des hCPC peuvent induire leur lyse par CDC et ADCC et cette lyse est fortement augmentée par les conditions inflammatoires. L’ensemble de ces résultats indique que les hCPC allogéniques sont des cellules à faible risque immunologique en ce qui concerne la réponse immune innée, par contre une élimination rapide par CDC ou tardive par ADCC des hCPC pourrait se produire chez les patients ayant des DSA-HLA I spécifiques de l’allèle(s) exprimé(s) par les hCPC incitant ainsi le dépistage des DSA-HLA avant l’infusion thérapeutique des hCPC. / The increase in average life changed the spectrum of heart disease to heart failure, a progressive incurable disorder, characterized by a massive loss of cardiomyocytes. Due to the scarcity of donors, cardiac transplantation, only effective treatment known to date is becoming increasingly difficult. In 2003, the discovery of human cardiac stem cells (HCS/PC) can support the repair of the myocardium after myocardial raised hopes of promising therapeutic approaches. Transplantation of autologous (from the patient) showed limited efficiency because of the poor quality of the cells after infarction. Therefore, the use of stem / progenitor heart (CPC) from allogeneic healthy donors seems today the most realistic choiceand represents a potential therapeutic product available to all. However allogeneic cells raise significant immunological problems that must be resolved before clinical use. Regarding the innate immune response, our results indicate that allogeneic HCPC have a modest susceptibility to NK lysis and could even be protected against this lysis in the inflammatory context. In addition, allogeneic HCPC seem able to inhibit the activity of NK cells. Unlike the favorable innate immune response against the allogeneic HCPC, the presence of anti-HLA alloantibodies can be harmful. Our results showed that the DSA-specific HLA class I haplotype of the HCPC can induce their lysis by CDC and ADCC and this lysis is greatly increased by inflammatory conditions. However, the DSA-specific HLA II do not induce HCPC lysis. All these results indicate that allogeneic HCPC are cells with low immunological risk regarding the innate immune response. On the contrary, rapid elimination by CDC or ADCC of HCPC may occurs in patients with DSA- HLA class I specific allele (s) expressed by the HCPC thus prompting the screening of HLA-DSA prior to therapeutic infusion of HCPC.