No description available.

L'amertume fait partie intégrante de notre alimentation. Elle est par exemple fortement représentée dans certaines boissons (ex: café) ou dans certains légumes tels les crucifères. Néanmoins, la perception de l'amertume varie entre les individus et certains aliments considérés comme bénéfiques pour la santé peuvent être rejetés en raison de leur goût amer. Des facteurs génétiques (ex : polymorphisme génétique des récepteurs du goût amer) ou environnementaux (ex : âge, prise de médicaments) expliquent en partie les variations interindividuelles dans la perception de l'amertume. Cependant, d'autres facteurs péri-récepteurs pourraient intervenir, notamment la composition salivaire. Afin d'investiguer dans un premier temps le lien existant entre le protéome salivaire propre à un individu et sa sensibilité à l'amertume, le seuil de détection du goût amer de la caféine a été mesuré sur 29 hommes sains. Leur salive au repos a été étudiée par électrophorèse mono- et bidimensionnelle. L'analyse par électrophorèse bidimensionnelle de la salive au repos des 6 sujets les plus sensibles et 6 les sujets les moins sensibles à la caféine a permis la détection de 255 spots, dont 26 étaient significativement différents entre hyper- et hyposensibles. L'identification de ces 26 spots a révélé la surexpression de fragments d'alpha amylase, de fragments d'albumine sérique, et de sous-unités alpha de l'immunoglobuline A ainsi que la sous-expression de cystatine SN chez les hypersensibles. Ce dernier résultat a été confirmé par Western Blot. Ceci a permis de formuler une hypothèse sur le rôle de la protéolyse en bouche sur la sensibilité à l'amertume. Dans un deuxième temps et afin d'étudier l'effet des molécules amères sur la composition salivaire, une étude in vitro a été menée sur la lignée cellulaire de glandes salivaires humaines HSG différenciées en acini ou non. Après une mise au point des conditions de différenciation (culture dite en 3D), la cystatine SN a été détectée dans les cellules HSG par Western blot après traitement des cellules à la caféine, à la quinine, et à l'urée. Après traitement à la caféine à 5, 50 ou 100µM, une quantification par ELISA a mis en évidence que la cystatine SN était toujours plus abondante dans les cellules HSG différenciées que dans les cellules non-différenciées. Spécifiquement dans les cellules différenciées, l'exposition à la caféine induisait une sur-expression de cystatine SN, la teneur maximale en cystatine SN étant observée avec la caféine à 50 µM. La présence de cystatine SN a également été détectée dans les milieux de culture

A recent model of Parkinson’s disease (PD) suggests that the neuropathological, behavioural and cognitive symptoms progress in stages. There is substantial evidence for a prodromal stage of PD, during which time pre-motor symptoms develop. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is a risk factor for developing PD and may be part of the pre-motor stage. In both disorders, neuropathological α-synuclein aggregates are thought to be a direct cause of the resulting symptoms. One model has shown that in rats, proteasome inhibition produced by systemic exposure to environmental toxins results in α-synuclein pathology and motor behaviour dysfunction that mimics the progression of PD in humans. The present study examined the hypothesis that the systemic proteasome inhibition model would produce pre-Parkinsonian RBD-like pathology in rats. It was expected that sleep disturbances would be seen prior to behavioural disturbances in rats treated systemically with PSI (a proteasome inhibitor). Following baseline sleep recording and training on the inclined beam-traverse task, rats were injected with PSI (a proteasome inhibitor) or ethanol (control), 6 times over 2 wk. Sleep recording over 8 wk and behavioural testing over 16 wk provided no evidence of sleep disturbances or motor dysfunction. Post-mortem immunohistochemical analyses of brain tissue provided no evidence of PSI-associated α-synuclein aggregates in the locus coeruleus, subcoeruleus (dorsal part), or substantia nigra (areas involved in RBD and/or PD). These results did not provide support for RBD as a prodromal phase of PD within the systemic proteasome inhibitor-based model and add to a growing body of research reporting inconsistent findings using this model. We suggest that systemic PSI exposure in rats does not produce a viable model of RBD or PD. Whether RBD is an early symptom in the progression of PD remains to be established. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-28 12:04:50.613

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-03-01Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:28:55Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 saggioro_bz_me_rcla.pdf: 2011105 bytes, checksum: 3a55198b06d17033aac4826618ba3503 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Superfícies de vidro plano comercial (flotado) e de vidros sintetizados no laboratório com diferentes concentrações em massa de SnO2 foram expostos aos vapores resultantes da decomposição de KNO3 fundido a uma temperatura um pouco abaixo da temperatura de transição vítrea. Medidas de EDS mostram um aumento da concentração dos íons K+ na superfície com o aumento do tempo de exposição aos vapores. Alguns destes íons migraram para o interior dos vidros, conforme mostram as medidas do perfil de concentração. Os coeficientes de difusão foram determinados utilizando a técnica de Bolztzman-Matano. Esta mudança na concentração de K+ provocou modificações estruturais na superfície, alterando algumas de suas propriedades físico-químicas. Espectros de reflexão no infravermelho foram realizadas nestas amostras e mostraram que as alterações mais pronunciadas ocorreram na banda em tono de 950 cm-1. A dureza Vickers aumenta com o tempo de exposição. O índice de refração foi determinado pelos métodos de Brewster e refratometria Abbe. Constatou-se que quanto maior o tempo de exposição aos vapores, maior o valor do índice de refração das amostras. Foi verificado se esta nova técnica de troca iônica, isto é, por exposição a vapores, é propicia na preparação de dispositivos baseados em guias de ondas planares, utilizando a técnica de acoplamento de prisma. Vidros sintetizados também foram submetidos a testes de dilatometria com o intuito de determinar a temperatura de transição vítrea e calcular o coeficiente de expansão térmica. Medidas de densidade foram realizadas utilizando o principio de Arquimedes. Há diversas evidências experimentais que o estanho incorporado à estrutura vítrea atua como cátion formador de vidros, e que inibe a difusão iônica. / Surfaces of commercial plane glass (floated) and glasses synthesized in laboratory with different concentrations of SnO2 were exposed to vapors resulting from the decomposition of molten KNO3 at temperatures somewhat below the glass transitions. EDS measurements show an increase of the K+ concentration at the surfaces during the time of exposition to the vapors. Some of these ions migrate into the near surface layers of the samples, according to the measured concentration profiles. Diffusion coefficients were determined using the Bolztzman-Matano technique. The changes in concentration promote structural modifications at the surfaces, changing some of the physico-chemical properties of the glasses. Reflectance spectra in the infrared were carried out in these samples and one observe that the most pronounced change occurred around 950 cm-1. The Vickers hardness increases with the exposition time. The refractive index was determined by Brewster method and by Abbe refractometry. The longer the time of exposition to the vapors, the higher was the refractive index of the samples. This new technique of ionic exchange, that is, the exposition to vapors, was tested to verify if it is appropriate to prepare planar waveguide devices, and the coupling prism method was employed. Synthesized glasses were also subjected to dilatometric tests in order to determine the glass transition temperature, Tg, and the average thermal expansion coefficient, a. Density measurements were performed using Archimedes principle. There are several experimental evidences that tin is incorporated in the glass structure as a glass former cation, and it hinders ionic diffusion.

O presente trabalho ocupa-se no desenvolvimento de um sistema computacional de gerenciamento da informação para auxiliar os estudos científicos sobre o sistema nervoso de chagásicos crônicos não-cardíacos. O objetivo é desenvolver o sistema requerido, pelo pressuposto de praticidade nas análises decorrentes da investigação. O método utilizado para desenvolver este sistema computacional, dedicado ao gerenciamento das informações da pesquisa sobre as alterações neurológicas de seus sujeitos, foi; compor o arquétipo de metas e a matriz de levantamento de requisitos das variantes do sistema; listar os atributos, domínios e qualificações das suas variáveis; elaborar o quadro de escolha de equipamentos e aplicativos necessários para sua implantação física e lógica e; implantá-lo mediante uma modelagem de base de dados, e uma programação lógica de algoritmos. Como resultado o sistema foi desenvolvido. A discussão de análise é; a saber, que a informatização pode tornar mais eficaz as operações de cadastro, consulta e validação de campo, além da formatação e exportação de tabelas pré-tratadas para análises estatísticas, atuando assim como uma ferramenta do método científico. Ora, a argumentação lógica é que a confiabilidade das informações computacionalmente registradas é aumentada porque o erro humano é diminuído na maioria dos processamentos. Como discussão de cerramento, estudos dotados de razoável volume de variáveis e sujeitos de pesquisa são mais bem geridos caso possuam um sistema dedicado ao gerenciamento de suas informações. / This is the development of a computer information management system to support scientific studies about the nervous system of non-cardiac chronic chagasic patients. The goal is to develop the required system, by assumption of the convenience in the analysis of research results. The method used to develop this computer system, dedicated to information management of research about the neurological disorders of their human subject research, were; compose the archetypal matrix of targets and requirements elicitation of the system variants; list the attributes, qualifications and domains of its variables; draw up the choice framework of equipment and required applications for its physical and logic implementation, and; deploying it through a data modeling, an adapted entity-relationship diagram and programmable logic algorithms. As a result the required system was developed. The analytical discussion is that the computerization makes the data processing faster and safer. The more practical information management processes are: the operations of registration, queries and fields\' validations, as well as the advanced and basic queries of records, in addition to table formatting and exporting of pre-treated for statistical analysis. The logical argument is that the reliability of the recorded computationally information is increased because is insured that bias of human error is absent from most of the steps, including several the data processing operations. As end discussion, scientific studies with reasonable amount of variables and research subjects are better managed if they have a dedicated system to managing their information.

This thesis uses solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study local structure and disorder in inorganic materials. Initial work concerns microporous aluminophosphate frameworks, where the importance of semi-empirical dispersion correction (SEDC) schemes in structural optimisation using DFT is evaluated. These schemes provide structures in better agreement with experimental diffraction measurements, but very similar NMR parameters are obtained for any structures where the atomic coordinates are optimised, owing to the similarity of the local geometry. The ³¹P anisotropic shielding parameters (Ω and κ) are then measured using amplified PASS experiments, but there appears to be no strong correlation of these with any single geometrical parameter. In subsequent work, a range of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are investigated. Assignment of ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR spectra, and measurement of the anisotropic NMR parameters, enabled the number and type of linkers present to be determined. For ¹⁵N, differences in Ω may provide information on the framework topology. While ⁶⁷Zn measurements are experimentally challenging and periodic DFT calculations are currently unreliable, calculations on small model clusters provide good agreement with experiment and indicate that ⁶⁷Zn NMR spectra are sensitive to the local structure. Finally, a series of pyrochlore-based ceramics (Y₂Hf₂₋ₓSnₓO₇) is investigated. A phase transformation from pyrochlore to a disordered defect fluorite phase is predicted, but ⁸⁹Y and ¹¹⁹Sn NMR reveal that rather than a solid solution, a significant two-phase region is present, with a maximum of ~12% Hf incorporated into the pyrochlore phase. The use of ¹⁷O NMR to provide insight into the local structure and disorder in these materials is also investigated. Once the different T₁ relaxation and nutation behaviour is considered it is shown that quantitative ¹⁷O enrichment of Y₂Sn₂O₇ is possible, and that ¹⁷O does offer a promising future tool for study.

The magnificent development of on-board solutions for electronics has resulted in the race towards scaling down of autonomous micro-power sources. In order to maintain the reliability of miniaturized devices and to reduce the power dissipation in high density memories like CMOS RAM, localized power for such systems is highly desirable. Therefore these micro-power sources need to be integrated in to the electronic chip level, which paved the way for the research and development of rechargeable thin film batteries (TFB). A Thin film battery is defined as a solid-state electrochemical source fabricated on the same scale as and using the same type of processing techniques used in microelectronics. Various aspects of deposition and characterization of LiCoO2/LiPON/Sn thin film battery are investigated in this thesis. Prior to the fabrication of thin film battery, individual thin film layers of cathode-LiCoO2, electrolyte-LiPON and anode-Sn were optimized separately for their best electrochemical performance. Studies performed on cathode layer include theoretical and experimental aspects of deposition of electrochemically active LiCoO2 thin films. Mathematical simulation and experimental validation of process kinetics involved in sputtering of a LiCoO2 compound target have been performed to analyze the effect of process kinetics on film stoichiometry. Studies on the conditioning of a new LiCoO2 sputtering target for various durations of pre-sputtering time were performed with the help of real time monitoring of glow discharge plasma by OES and also by analysing surface composition, and morphology of the deposited films. Films deposited from a conditioned target, under suitable deposition conditions were electrochemically tested for CV and charge/discharge, which showed an initial discharge capacity of 64 µAh/cm2/µm. Studies done on the deposition and characterization of solid electrolyte layer-LiPON have shown that, sputtering from powder target can be useful for certain compounds like Li3PO4 in which breaking of ceramic target and loss of material are severe problems. An ionic conductivity of 1.1 x10-6 S/cm was obtained for an Nt/Nd ratio of 1.42 for a RF power density of 3 W/cm2 and N2 flow of 30 sccm. Also the reasons for reduction in ionic conductivity of LiPON thin films on exposure to air have been analyzed by means of change in surface morphology and surface chemistry. Ionic conductivity of 2.8 x10-6 S/cm for the freshly deposited film has dropped down to 9.9 x10-10 S/cm due to the reaction with moisture, oxygen and carbon content of exposed air. Interest towards a Li-free thin film battery has prompted to choose Sn as the anode layer due to its relatively good electrochemical capacity compared with other metallic thin films and ease of processing. By controlling the rate of deposition of Sn, thin films of different surface morphology, roughness and crystallinity can be obtained with different electrochemical performance. The reasons for excessive volume changes during lithiation/delithiation of a porous Sn thin film have been analyzed with the aid of physicochemical characterization techniques. The results suggest that the films become progressively pulverized resulting in increased roughness with an increase in lithiation. Electrochemical impedance data suggest that the kinetics of charging becomes sluggish with an increase in the quantity of Li in Sn-Li alloy. Thin film batteries with configuraion LiCoO2/LiPON/Sn were fabricated by sequential sputter deposition on to Pt/Si substartes. Pt/Cu strips were used as the current collector leads with a polymer packaging. Electrochemical charge/discharge studies revealed discharge capacities in the range 6-15 µAh/cm2/µm with hundreds of repeated cycles. TFB with a higher capacity of 35 µAh/cm2/µm suffered capacity fade out after 7 cycles, for which reasons were analyzed. The surface and cross-sectional micrographs of cycled TFB showed formation of bubble like features on anode layer reducing integrity of electrolyte-anode interface. The irreversible Li insertion along with apparent surface morphology changes are most likely the main reasons for the capacity fade of the LiCoO2/LiPON/Sn TFB.

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden Untersuchungen der atomaren Struktur und des elektrischen Widerstands an in-situ hergestellten amorphen Na-Sn-Legierungen im Temperaturbereich 2K < T < 500K vorgestellt. Zur Herstellung der hochreaktiven duennen Schichten wird eine neu entwickelte Praeparationsmethode unter Reinstgasatmosphaere und Ultrahochvakuum benutzt. Die Messungen muessen im UHV durchgefuehrt werden. In amorphem Na-Sn gibt es zwei im Sinne von Hume-Rothery bzw. Peierls elektronisch stabilisierte Bereiche, die jeweils einer Phase zugeordnet werden koennen. In Phase I (0 <= x <= 50) koennen sich die Atome nur durch eine Erhoehung der Atomzahldichte, was einer Volumenverkleinerung entspricht, in die Friedelminima des Paarpotentials legen. Dazu gibt das Na sein aeusseres Elektron ab und verkleinert damit seinen Radius. Der zweite Peak im Strukturfaktor S(K) verschiebt hier parallel zum Durchmesser der Fermikugel und ist damit der elektronisch induzierte. Der Peak liegt sehr nahe beim Fermikugeldurchmesser. Dadurch ergeben sich starke Anomalien im elektronischen Transport, im mittleren Konzentrationsbereich macht das System sogar einen Metall-Isolator-Uebergang. In Phase II (60 <= x <= 73) liegen die Atome ohne Aenderung des Volumens in den Friedelminima. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird davon ausgegangen, dass das Na eine Umgebung aufbaut bzw. findet, die der des reinen Na nahekommt. In Phase II ist der erste Peak in S(K) der elektronisch induzierte. Das System verhaelt sich hier aehnlich wie vergleichbare Edelmetall- Polyvalentelement-Legierungen, bei einer effektiven Valenz Z = 1.8e/a fallen der Peak und der Fermikugeldurchmesser exakt zusammen. In dieser Phase tritt aber in S(K) ein Prepeak bei kleinen Streuvektoren auf. In der elektronischen Zustandsdichte ergibt sich ein Pseudogap bei der Fermienergie und das Material wird ein schlechtes Metall. Im Ueberlappungsbereich (50 < x < 60) koexistieren beide Phasen nebeneinander. Dies wird durch ein in zwei Abstaende aufgespaltenes erstes Maximum in der Atomverteilungsfunktion deutlich. Die Atome besetzen durch ihre Umverteilung von der einen zur anderen Phase scheinbar auch die Positionen zwischen den Friedelminima.

No description available.

No description available.