Recent research of a cohort of HIV exposed sero-negative (HESN) female commercial sex workers in Nairobi has revealed an Immune Quiescent phenotype; characterized by reduced T cell activation and higher regulatory T cells (Tregs) in peripheral blood. HESN women also express lower levels of interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1), a critical regulator known to negatively impact Treg development in mice. In this study, we analyzed the functional capacity of Tregs by an in vitro depletion assay and measured functionality by flow cytometry. Data showed Tregs suppressed CD4+ and CD8+ proliferation responses. We characterized the link between Tregs and IRF-1 in HESN and observed an inverse correlation between IRF-1 expression and Treg proportions. We also established reduced expression of IRF-1 in Tregs of healthy donors by flow cytometry. In a separate study, flow cytometric analysis of high-risk sex-workers revealed that CTLA-4 expression in memory CD4+cells, not Treg frequency, was associated with HIV seroconversion. / February 2017

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / Note: the appendix file for this item is not available. / As the number of computer users continues to grow, attacks on assets stored on computer devices have increased. Despite an increase in computer security awareness, many users and policy makers still do not implement security principles in their daily lives. Ineffective education and the lack of personal experience and tacit understanding might be a main cause. The CyberCIEGE game can be used to convey requisite facts and to generate tacit understanding of general computer security concepts to a broad audience. This thesis asked if a Scenario Definition File (SDF) for the CyberCIEGE game could be developed to educate and train players in Information Assurance on matters related to information integrity in a networking environment. The primary educational concern is the protection of stored data. Another goal was to test whether the game engine properly simulates real world behavior. The research concluded that it is possible to create SDFs for the CyberCIEGE game engine to teach specifically about integrity issues. Three specific SDFs were developed for teaching purposes. Several SDFs were developed to demonstrate the game engine's ability to simulate real world behavior for specific, isolated educational goals. These tests led to recommendations to improve the game engine. / Lieutenant, German Navy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis explores Benders decomposition for solving interdiction problems on electric power grids, with applications to analyzing the vulnerability of such grids to terrorist attacks. We refine and extend some existing optimization models and algorithms and demonstrate the value of our techniques using standard reliability test networks from IEEE. Our implementation of Benders decomposition optimally solves any problem instance, in theory. However, run times increase as Benders' cuts are added to the master problem, and this has prompted additional research to increase the decomposition's efficiency. We demonstrate empirical speed ups by dropping slack cuts, solving a relaxed master problem in some iterations, and using integer but not necessarily optimal master-problem solutions. These mixed strategies drastically reduce computation times. For example, in one test case, we reduce the optimality gap, and the time that it takes to achieve this gap, from 16% in 75 hours to 5% in 16 minutes. / FUNDED BY: 2002-GT-R-057 / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

Detta är en rapportering av ett examinationsprojekt inom högskoleingenjörsprogrammet i innovationsteknik och design. Uppdragsgivaren och projektbeställaren var Stefan Bäckström, VD för Roofac AB. Syftet med projektet var att göra en förundersökning om möjligheten att applicera RSS (Roof Safety Systems) fallskyddssystem på tak med fotrännor genom en tillbehörsprodukt. Denna förundersökning skulle därmed leda till en kunskapsbank och material som skulle kunna vara till nytta för vidare utvecklingsarbete av tillbehörsprodukten. Syftet var också att göra en bedömning kring potentialen att erhålla en prototyp som är tillräckligt bra att användas som en tillbehörsprodukt. Metoden att uppfylla syftet med projektet och uppnå de uppsatta målen har varit att använda PU-processen som har präglats i utbildningens olika projektarbeten. I planeringen av projektet har verktyg som WBS, PERT-schema, Gant-schema och projektmodell använts för att strukturera projektet. I förstudien har research, användarundersökning och analyser utförts för att samla kunskap och underlag till konceptframtagningsarbetet. Analyserna resulterade i en kravspecifikation som kan användas som ett underlag för utvärdering av genererade koncept. Även en mockup-modell av tak med fotränna har konstruerats för att underlätta testning och utvärdering av fysiska koncept-prototyper. Konceptframtagningsarbetet har utgjorts av idégenerering, konceptgenerering och konceptutvärdering. Idégenereringen baserades på tre idégenereringssessioner, en med ett gäng studenter, en med produktutvecklingsingenjörer på Semcon i Karlstad och en med uppdragsgivaren och kollega på Roofac. Utifrån idéerna genererades sedan CAD-modeller som användes till att generera koncept. Koncepten utvärderades sedan med hjälp av för- och nackdelslista och matris. Resultatet av utvärderingen blev tre slutgiltiga koncept. För att uppnå målet med att leverera en fysisk modell/prototyp att använda som uppvisningsmaterial under utställningen av projektet, avgränsades prototypframtagnings- och testningsarbetet med att gå vidare med den lämpligaste av de tre slutgiltiga koncepten. Från prototypframtagningen och testningen erhölls en fysisk modell av det koncept som valdes att gå vidare med efter konceptframtagningen. Denna modell användes tillsammans med en mockup-modell vid utställningen av projektet. Baserat på resultatet från förstudien, konceptframtagningen, prototypframtagningen samt mockupbygget har en kunskapsbank samt material erhållits att kunna använda i vidare arbeten. Utifrån detta anses därför att syftet med projektet vara uppfyllt.

This thesis is the study of the perception and management of pollution risks in Taiwan's electric utility in terms of a social science paradigm of risk. It represents the first examination of Feng Shui belief impact on Taiwanese risk behaviour in electric risk settings. The deep seated culture and widespread practice of Feng Shui in traditional Chinese society would lead to the assumption that Feng Shui belief should strongly influence Taiwan risk behaviour. This empirical study research revealed that Feng Shui belief is much less important to Taiwanese risk behaviour than might have been thought. Most of the variation in electric risk acceptability resulted from the influence of social equity and justice. This study also examined the literature between Feng Shui and risk. What emerged from this is the notion that Feng Shui can be regarded as helpful complementary thinking in a social science paradigm of risk. This study suggests a number of important implications for Taipower Company and risk regulators. The choice about siting of a power plant should take account of the concept of Feng Shui the boundary rather than the concept of the fixed and administrative boundary. Implication also emerged in relation to social trust and the understanding of local residents' risk perception

This work is on the history of copyright law in two jurisdictions: the United Kingdom and the Republic of Cameroon. It traces the origin and development of copyright protection in these jurisdictions, laying emphasis on the influence of international copyright on the development of copyright law in these two countries. It also focuses on the extent to which copyright laws in both countries have been amended over the years to enable it to catch up with advances in science and technology. As far as the development of copyright law in the United Kingdom is concerned, the major areas discussed include the system of royal copyright privileges in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and its role in the birth of the concept of literary property; the role of the Stationers' Company in the early development copyright; the historic Copyright Act of 1709 and its application in England and Scotland; the landmark case of Donaldson v. Beckett and its importance in the formulation of the concept of authors' rights and the demolition of common law copyright; the proliferation of copyright legislation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the consolidation of statutory copyright by the 1911 Copyright Act and, subsequently, the Copyright Act, 1956 and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts, 1988. Also discussed is the UK's adhesion to certain conventions in the area of copyright and neighbouring rights and the extent to which these conventions have influenced the development of its copyright law.

Le commerce électronique B to C se popularise de plus en plus et le nombre de ses adeptes ne cesse de croître d'année en année. Ses avantages, pour les consommateurs, en termes de rapidité, de commodité et de proximité ne sont plus à prouver. Néanmoins, la particularité du medium utilisé pour effectuer des transactions en ligne et les spécificités de l'environnement électronique, notamment l'immatérialité, l'interactivité et l'internationalité influent considérablement sur la confiance des cyberconsommateurs en même temps qu'elles accroissent leur vulnérabilité, d'où la nécessité d'un cadre juridique adapté afin que l'essor du commerce électronique B to C ne néglige pas la protection des cyberconsommateurs. Conscients de cet impératif, les législateurs communautaire, français et tunisien, ont mis en place un certain nombre de mesures de nature à rassurer ces derniers et leur permettre de s'engager dans des transactions de commerce en ligne en toute confiance. Ces mesures sont de deux ordres : les unes sont destinées à assurer au cyberconsommateur une protection intrinsèque au processus de la transaction en ligne ; cette protection se manifeste en amont de la transaction, lors de la phase précontractuelle, mais également pendant la période contractuelle, c'est-à-dire au moment de la finalisation de la transaction en ligne et de son exécution. Les autres ont pour objectif de garantir au consommateur une protection extrinsèque au processus de la transaction du commerce électronique. Deux aspects sont, à cet égard, pris en compte : la protection des données à caractère personnel traitées dans le cadre d'une transaction en ligne et les aspects du droit international privé de la protection du cyberconsommateur. / B to C e-commerce is increasingly gaining popularity. The number of its followers has seen a drastic surge throughout the few recent years. Its advantages in terms of speed, convenience and proximity are not any more questionable by consumers. Nevertheless, the characteristic of this medium used to carry out online transactions as well as the specificities of the electronic environment - in particular the immateriality, the interactivity and internationality - influence considerably cyber-consumers confidence. Simultaneously, they increase their vulnerability. Thus, the need for an appropriate legal framework to regulate the rise of B to C e-commerce and protect cyber-consumers. Taking into account these requirement, community, French and Tunisian legislators set up a number of measures to reassure the latter and allow them to engage confidently in online commerce transactions. These measures have two targets: some of them were intended to grant cyber-consumers an intrinsic protection in the process of the online transaction. This protection is set to be an upstream transaction protection at the pre-contractual phase as well as during the contractual period; i.e. at the level of on line transaction finalization and execution. The others aim to guarantee the consumer an extrinsic protection throughout the process of e-commerce transaction. In this respect, two aspects are taken into account, namely: personal data processed during transactions and the aspects of private international law of cyber-consumer protection.

1 Consumer protection in tourism - abstract The purpose of my thesis is to analyse consumer protection in tourism in European Union law and in the Czech law. The reason for my research is the fact that tourism is currently one of the most important components of the economy of Member States and European Union institutions engaged more and more attention to tourist protection. The thesis is composed of four chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of consumer protection in tourism. Chapter One is introductory and contains a description of the objectives of this thesis. Chapter Two deals with the sources of the law of consumer protection in the European Union and in Czech Republic. The chapter consists of two Subchapter. Subchapter One consist of two parts. Part One briefly describes the history of consumer protection in European Union and it focuses on the sources of primary law of European Union and the importance of consumer protection as one of the fundament policies of European Union. Part Two presents the sources of secondary law of European Union, therefore, directives and regulation governing consumer protection in different sectors. Subchapter Two describes the sources of Czech consumer protection law. Chapter Three is focused on costumer protections. The chapter consists of four...

Noise and vibrations belong under the sources of endangerment of the environment and can cause permanent damage of human health therefore it is necessary to legally control them. A protection is provided by a regulation by international and domestic law. The most influence on Czech law have the legislation of the European union. The foundation of the domestic public law regulation is the Public Health Protection Act and the order of the government Nr. 272/2011 Coll. which sets the highest admissible limits of noise and vibrations. The regulation of the private law is centered to the instruments of the Civil Code. The so called new Civil Code brings many changes into this legal area.

IN ENGLISH There are many things which cause damage to the environment involving noise, although the damage caused to the environment by noise is not one of the most discussed topics in area of environmental protection. The negative effect caused by noise is as bad as the negative effect caused by other sources of damage. For this reason the extent of noise made by using devices and providing services have to be regulated by law. The legislative regulation is the only possible way to provide effective protection to the human health and well-being as well as the environment. Creation of appropriate legislation for the issue of noise, and its effect on the environment and ensuring that this legislation will be followed, and exacted should be a priority in trying to protect the environment against noise.