The purpose of this work was to construct and analyze a THz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) system by using a nanojoule energy per pulse ultrafast laser (non-amplified ultrafast laser or oscillator) source and a non-linear optical generation method for THz generation. First a THz-TDS system, which uses photoconductive antenna (PCA) method for THz generation, was built to understand the working principles of these types of systems. This THz-TDS system which used PCA for generation and a 2mm thick &lt / 110&gt / ZnTe crystal for detection had a bandwidth up to 1 THz with a 1000:1 signal to noise ratio (S/N). Using this system, various materials were investigated to study the usefulness of the obtained bandwidth. Absorption coefficient and refractive indices of the sample materials were calculated. Results showed that the bandwidth of the system was not sufficient to obtain fingerprint properties of these materials. In order to improve the system, optical rectification method was used for THz generation. A different THz-TDS system was built with a 1mm thick &lt / 110&gt / ZnTe crystal used for the method of non-linear generation of THz radiation. Theoretical calculations of radiated intensity and electric field were done to analyze the expected bandwidth of the system. Results showed that the generation and the detection crystal thicknesses affect the obtained bandwidth of the system in that the bandwidth limiting factor is the crystal thickness and not the ultrafast laser pulse duration. Especially for detection, measurements obtained with both a 1mm thick and 2mm thick &lt / 110&gt / ZnTe crystal showed that there was not much difference in bandwidth as was predicted by theory. Also in order to increase the signal to noise ratio, the optics used in the system were optimized. It was found that by using same focal lengths for focusing and collimating optics around the generation crystal and by using a short focal length parabolic mirror, S/N could be improved. After these improvements this THz-TDS system which uses optical rectification for THz generation and electro-optic method for THz detection had a larger bandwidth up to 3 THz but with a lower 100:1 signal to noise ratio.

This thesis investigates how individuals perceive and describe the texture of solid foods. To date, minimal research has been done to investigate individual texture perception and the influence of oral physiological parameters. The current study is a three phase project. First, using Temporal Dominance of Sensation (TDS), the dynamic process of panellists’ texture perception was investigated. The results showed two very distinct groups of panellists who differed based on their texture perception response. The second phase attempted to understand these groups by testing oral physiological parameters surrounding the individuals and their bolus. Few significant results were found between the two groups indicating. The final phase of this project supported the hypothesis that vocabulary use was not a factor in the division of the two groups. To conclude, saliva, both in regard to the amount and composition, seems to have a large influence on how individuals perceive the texture of solid food. / New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) under contract C02X0807 (Food Structure Platform).

Content: Animal skins, a byproduct of the meat industry is the basic raw materials for the tanning industry. Just after flaying, animal skins have to preserve protecting it from microbiological destruction. Globally, sodium chloride is mostly used as popular preserving agents for the animal skins. It preserves the skin by its dehydrating ability. Nevertheless, sodium chloride is cost-effective, available, and easy to apply but the method suffers greatly in terms of environmental context. To reduce the pollution load, especially chloride in soaking operation several works have been carried out to preserve animal skins with various agents. This study is intended to preserve the goat skin with Sphagneticola trilobata leaf paste without sodium chloride for reducing the chloride in the soaking liquor. The plant has antimicrobial activity, widely distributed tropical and subtropical regions. The anticipated preservation method was assessed monitoring different parameters e.g., shrinkage temperature, hair slip, putrefaction, odour, moisture content, extractable nitrogen, and bacterial count on fresh (raw), 1st, 4th, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day in comparison to the conventional wet salting method. The physical properties of the processed leathers e.g., tensile strength, percentage of elongation, and ball burst of the crust leathers were fulfilled the required values. The chemical parameters like chloride, total dissolved solids (TDS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of soaking liquor were investigated. The proposed preservation method was reduced pollution loads: chloride, TDS, BOD, and COD in soaking operation by 98.04%, 92.9%, 90.2% and 85.5%, respectively. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs of both the present and conventional preservation methods processed crust leathers revealed similar texture and quality to each other. The anticipated preservation method could be a sustainable option to preserve goat skin, which could reduce the pollution loads during leather processing. Take-Away: 1. Sphagneticola trilobata leaf paste preserved goat skin up to 28 days 2. Reduction of chloride and TDS were 98.04% and 92.9% in soaking liquor 3. Lessening of BOD and COD were 90.2% and 85.5% in soaking liquor

As the amount of study into the terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum steadily increases, the parallel plate waveguide has emerged as a simple and effective fixture to perform many experiments. The ability to concentrate THz radiation into a small area or volume enables us to analyze smaller samples and perform more repeatable measurements, which is essential for future research. While the fundamental physics of PPW transmission are understood mathematically, the practical knowledge of building such a fixture for the THz domain and taking measurements on it with a real system needs to be built up through experience. In this thesis, multiple PPW configurations are built and tested. These include waveguides of different lengths and opening heights, using lenses and antennas to focus and collect radiation from the input and output, and different amounts of polish on the waveguide surface. A basic resonator structure is also built and measured as a proof of concept for future research. The two most useful propagation modes through the waveguide, the lowest order transverse magnetic (TEM) and transverse electric (TE) modes, were characterized on all of the setups. Additionally, a flexible fixture was designed and measured which will allow future work in the THz field to be much more reliable and repeatable.

Ce travail de thèse a été réalisé dans le cadre d'un contrat avec l'ANR (ANR-09-VERS-013 « THID ») et porte sur le développement d'une nouvelle génération de tags Chipless à bas coûts fonctionnant dans le domaine THz, pour des applications d'identification et/ou authentification unitaire des articles commerciaux, des papiers d'identités, des personnes pour le contrôle d'accès... Les structures proposées, constituées d'un empilement périodique de couches diélectriques d'indices de réfraction différents, utilisent les propriétés particulières des cristaux photoniques 1D de présenter une réponse électromagnétique entrecoupée de bandes interdites photoniques (BIP). Toute perturbation de la périodicité de la structure engendre des pics dans les bandes interdites qui sont utilisés pour coder une information binaire. Cette structuration particulière des matériaux permet donc de manipuler précisément une signature électromagnétique. Pour des raisons liées à l'industrialisation (facilité de fabrication en masse) et aussi de coût, nous avons retenu des matériaux de base déjà couramment utilisés dans l'industrie papetière : le papier et le polyéthylène. Le choix de ces matériaux, qui doivent allier contraste d'indice élevé et faible absorption, représente une étape cruciale dans ce travail. Ainsi, à partir des résultats expérimentaux obtenus par spectroscopie THz dans le domaine temporel (THz-TDS) sur un grand nombre de matériaux, nous avons pu concevoir deux familles de tags sur la base de ces différents matériaux. Par ailleurs, nous avons développé deux méthodes de codage d'une information binaire, toutes deux basées sur l'absence ou la présence de pics dans une BIP, pics dont la position et le nombre dépendent bien évidemment des défauts de périodicité introduits. Pour des applications liées à l'identification, des capacités de codage de près de 20 bits ont été démontrées. Nous avons aussi montré que la richesse d'information contenue dans la réponse électromagnétique de ces Tags THz peut être utilisée pour les applications liées à l'authentification unitaire, en utilisant comme critère de discrimination le coefficient d'autocorrélation. Nous avons ainsi pu évaluer les performances d'un test d'authentification basé sur ce critère dans différents domaines d'analyse : temporel, fréquentiel et temps-fréquence. Nous avons montré qu'une étude du spectrogramme (combinant temps et fréquence) est ainsi bien plus pertinente qu'une étude dans les seuls domaines temporel ou fréquentiel. / This thesis work deals with the development of a new generation of low-cost Chipless tags operating in the THz frequency domain, it has been supported by the french national agency for research (ANR-09-VERS-013 « THID » ). It covers a wide area of applications such as the identification and/or unitary authentication of commercial items, identity papers, access control…To manufacture these tags, we proposed to use a periodic stack of dielectric material layers with different refractive index and whose thickness is of the order of the wavelength, commonly known as a one dimensional photonic crystal. The electromagnetic signature of such a structure exhibits photonic bandgaps (PBG), i.e. frequency windows in which light propagation is prohibited. We suggested modifying the periodicity of the crystal to create defect levels (peaks) for example in the 1st PBG to encode binary information. This particular structure allows to precisely tuned an electromagnetic signature. To ensure a mass and cost effective industrialization, we retained basic materials which are widely used in the pulp and paper industry: paper and polyethylene. The choice of these materials, which must combine high index contrast and low absorption, represents the first and a crucial step in this work. We characterize a wide range of materials using classical THz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) and we propose two families of tags based on paper and polyethylene. Furthermore, we developed two methods to encode binary information, both based on the absence or presence of peaks in a PBG, peaks whose number and position depend on the introduced defects of periodicity. In a real identification test, a coding capacity of nearly 20-bit has been demonstrated. We also showed that the information contained in the electromagnetic response of these THz tags can be used for other applications related to the unitary authentication and by using the correlation coefficient as criterion for discrimination of the different signatures. Therefore, we evaluate the performance of an authentication test based on this criterion in various analysis domains: time, frequency and time-frequency. We showed that a study of the spectrogram (combining time and frequency representation) is much more relevant than a study in the only time or frequency domain.

A segurança alimentar é uma necessidade fundamental e de grande preocupação pública em todo o mundo. A Organização Mundial de Saúde (WHO) recomenda o Estudo de Dieta Total (EDT) como sendo o método mais adequado de estimativa para as ingestões de contaminantes e nutrientes para um país ou grandes grupos populacionais. A implantação de um estudo relacionando a ingestão de alimentos em uma Região de Elevada Radioatividade Natural (HBRA) motivou o presente estudo, uma vez que no planalto de Poços de Caldas há ocorrência de anomalias radiativas com concentrações naturais significativas de urânio e tório. O presente estudo teve por objetivo avaliar e comparar as ingestões de elementos essenciais, tóxicos e radionuclídeos, a partir dos alimentos que compõem as dietas das populações urbana e rural, da cidade de Poços de Caldas. As determinações das concentrações dos elementos essenciais e tóxicos foram realizadas aplicando-se a técnica de análise por ativação neutrônica (As, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na e Zn), espectrometria de absorção atômica com forno de grafite (Cd, Cu e Pb) e por geração de vapor frio (Hg). As determinações dos radionuclídeos foram realizadas aplicando-se as técnicas de análise por espectrometria gama (40K), separação radioquímica seguida de contagem alfa e beta total (210Pb, 226Ra e 228Ra) e espectrometria alfa (210Po, 228Th, 230Th, 232Th, 234U, 235U e 238U). Os grupos de alimentos foram estabelecidos de acordo com os dados de consumo da região sudeste do país, obtidos pela Pesquisa Orçamentária Familiar (POF) 2008-2009 do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). A lista final totalizou 82 alimentos distribuídos em 20 grupos, incluindo a água, e com massa total de 3,6180 Kg. Com o EDT aplicado para a região do Planalto de Poços de Caldas, foi possível observar que as ingestões diárias média para todos os elementos essenciais na dieta da população urbana apresentaram valores mais elevados quando comparados à dieta da população rural, porém não apresentaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas. As dietas estudadas foram deficientes nos elementos essenciais Ca, K, Mg e Se quando comparadas aos valores de ingestão diária recomendados. Os teores dos elementos tóxicos Cd e Pb no presente estudo estiveram dentro do intervalo relatado pela WHO a partir de EDT realizados em diversos países e/ou diferentes regiões no mundo. A ingestão total do elemento tóxico Hg foi encontrada muito abaixo do limite estabelecido pela WHO. Em relação aos radionuclídeos naturais, o cálculo de dose efetiva comprometida por ingestão da região rural (0,89 mSv/ano) apresentou-se 61% mais elevado quando comparado à região urbana (0,56 mSv/ano). Isto pode ser explicado pelo fato dos maiores pontos de anomalias radioativas estarem localizados na zona rural. Porém, a partir dos valores encontrados no presente estudo não apresentaram níveis que representassem ameaça à saúde da população deste planalto. / Food security is a fundamental need and a great public concern throughout the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the Total Diet Study (TDS) as the most appropriate method of estimating the intake of contaminants and nutrients for a country or large population groups. The implementation of a study relating food intake in a High Background Radiation Area (HBRA) motivated the present study, since in the Poços de Caldas plateau there are occurrences of radiative anomalies with significant natural concentrations of uranium and thorium. Therefore, the objective is to evaluate and to compare the intakes of essential, toxic elements, and radionuclides from the foods that composed the diets of the urban and rural populations of the city. The concentration determination of the essential and toxic elements was performed using the neutron activation analysis (As, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Zn) and atomic absorption spectrometry with graphite furnace (Cd, Cu and Pb) and cold vapor atomic (Hg). The determination of radionuclides was performed by gamma spectrometry (40K), radiochemical separation followed by total alpha and beta counting (210Pb, 226Ra and 228Ra) and alpha spectrometry (210Po, 228Th, 230Th, 232Th, 234U, 235U and 238U). The food groups were established according to consumption data from the southeast region of the country obtained by the Household food budget survey POF 2008-2009 by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The final list contained 82 foods distributed in 20 groups, including drinking water, and with a total mass of 3.6180 kg. The TDS applied to the region of the Poços de Caldas Plateau allowed to observe that the average daily intakes for all the essential elements in the urban population diet presented higher values compared to the diet of the rural population but did not present statistical differences. The essential elements Ca, K, Mg and Se were deficient in the diets studied compared to the recommended daily intake values. The toxic element level of Cd and Pb in the present study were within the range reported by the WHO from TDS conducted in several countries and/or different regions in the world. The total intake of the toxic element Hg was found well below the established limit by WHO. Intake effective dose compromised calculation of the rural region (0.89 mSv/year) was 61% higher compared to the urban region (0.56 mSv/year). This can be explained by the fact that the highest points of radioactive anomalies in the plateau are located in the rural zone, but the values found in the present study do not present levels that represent a threat to the health of the population in this plateau.

A segurança alimentar é uma necessidade fundamental e de grande preocupação pública em todo o mundo. A Organização Mundial de Saúde (WHO) recomenda o Estudo de Dieta Total (EDT) como sendo o método mais adequado de estimativa para as ingestões de contaminantes e nutrientes para um país ou grandes grupos populacionais. A implantação de um estudo relacionando a ingestão de alimentos em uma Região de Elevada Radioatividade Natural (HBRA) motivou o presente estudo, uma vez que no planalto de Poços de Caldas há ocorrência de anomalias radiativas com concentrações naturais significativas de urânio e tório. O presente estudo teve por objetivo avaliar e comparar as ingestões de elementos essenciais, tóxicos e radionuclídeos, a partir dos alimentos que compõem as dietas das populações urbana e rural, da cidade de Poços de Caldas. As determinações das concentrações dos elementos essenciais e tóxicos foram realizadas aplicando-se a técnica de análise por ativação neutrônica (As, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na e Zn), espectrometria de absorção atômica com forno de grafite (Cd, Cu e Pb) e por geração de vapor frio (Hg). As determinações dos radionuclídeos foram realizadas aplicando-se as técnicas de análise por espectrometria gama (40K), separação radioquímica seguida de contagem alfa e beta total (210Pb, 226Ra e 228Ra) e espectrometria alfa (210Po, 228Th, 230Th, 232Th, 234U, 235U e 238U). Os grupos de alimentos foram estabelecidos de acordo com os dados de consumo da região sudeste do país, obtidos pela Pesquisa Orçamentária Familiar (POF) 2008-2009 do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). A lista final totalizou 82 alimentos distribuídos em 20 grupos, incluindo a água, e com massa total de 3,6180 Kg. Com o EDT aplicado para a região do Planalto de Poços de Caldas, foi possível observar que as ingestões diárias média para todos os elementos essenciais na dieta da população urbana apresentaram valores mais elevados quando comparados à dieta da população rural, porém não apresentaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas. As dietas estudadas foram deficientes nos elementos essenciais Ca, K, Mg e Se quando comparadas aos valores de ingestão diária recomendados. Os teores dos elementos tóxicos Cd e Pb no presente estudo estiveram dentro do intervalo relatado pela WHO a partir de EDT realizados em diversos países e/ou diferentes regiões no mundo. A ingestão total do elemento tóxico Hg foi encontrada muito abaixo do limite estabelecido pela WHO. Em relação aos radionuclídeos naturais, o cálculo de dose efetiva comprometida por ingestão da região rural (0,89 mSv/ano) apresentou-se 61% mais elevado quando comparado à região urbana (0,56 mSv/ano). Isto pode ser explicado pelo fato dos maiores pontos de anomalias radioativas estarem localizados na zona rural. Porém, a partir dos valores encontrados no presente estudo não apresentaram níveis que representassem ameaça à saúde da população deste planalto. / Food security is a fundamental need and a great public concern throughout the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the Total Diet Study (TDS) as the most appropriate method of estimating the intake of contaminants and nutrients for a country or large population groups. The implementation of a study relating food intake in a High Background Radiation Area (HBRA) motivated the present study, since in the Poços de Caldas plateau there are occurrences of radiative anomalies with significant natural concentrations of uranium and thorium. Therefore, the objective is to evaluate and to compare the intakes of essential, toxic elements, and radionuclides from the foods that composed the diets of the urban and rural populations of the city. The concentration determination of the essential and toxic elements was performed using the neutron activation analysis (As, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Zn) and atomic absorption spectrometry with graphite furnace (Cd, Cu and Pb) and cold vapor atomic (Hg). The determination of radionuclides was performed by gamma spectrometry (40K), radiochemical separation followed by total alpha and beta counting (210Pb, 226Ra and 228Ra) and alpha spectrometry (210Po, 228Th, 230Th, 232Th, 234U, 235U and 238U). The food groups were established according to consumption data from the southeast region of the country obtained by the Household food budget survey POF 2008-2009 by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The final list contained 82 foods distributed in 20 groups, including drinking water, and with a total mass of 3.6180 kg. The TDS applied to the region of the Poços de Caldas Plateau allowed to observe that the average daily intakes for all the essential elements in the urban population diet presented higher values compared to the diet of the rural population but did not present statistical differences. The essential elements Ca, K, Mg and Se were deficient in the diets studied compared to the recommended daily intake values. The toxic element level of Cd and Pb in the present study were within the range reported by the WHO from TDS conducted in several countries and/or different regions in the world. The total intake of the toxic element Hg was found well below the established limit by WHO. Intake effective dose compromised calculation of the rural region (0.89 mSv/year) was 61% higher compared to the urban region (0.56 mSv/year). This can be explained by the fact that the highest points of radioactive anomalies in the plateau are located in the rural zone, but the values found in the present study do not present levels that represent a threat to the health of the population in this plateau.

Au cours de ces dernières années, plusieurs méthodes d’évaluation sensorielle dites « rapides » ont été développées dans le but de recueillir une caractérisation sensorielle d’un produit directement auprès du consommateur. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans cette mouvance en proposant la méthode des Déterminants Temporels du Liking (DTL) qui consiste à coupler la Dominance Temporelle des Sensations (DTS) à un suivi temporel de l’appréciation hédonique. Cette méthode permet d’identifier les déterminants sensoriels des préférences des consommateurs, et surtout dans quelles mesures leur temporalité impacte la dynamique de ces préférences. La méthode introduit le nouveau concept de « Liking While Dominant », consistant à calculer la note moyenne de liking pendant la dominance d’un descripteur dans un produit afin de quantifier son écart à la moyenne du liking de ce produit. La significativité et le signe de cet écart permettent de lister les déterminants sensoriels positifs et négatifs du liking.L’échelle de temporalité étudiée peut aussi bien être la prise (gorgée, bouchée…) que la succession de plusieurs prises du même produit constituant la consommation de tout ou partie de la portion. Dans le second cas, il est possible d’interroger de manière répétée le consommateur sur d’autres aspects que le liking, comme par exemple le wanting, l’état de faim ou de soif… Les déterminants sensoriels temporels de ces autres aspects peuvent alors être étudiés. La méthode DTL a également été déployée hors du laboratoire d’analyse sensorielle afin de se placer en situation naturelle de consommation, par exemple à domicile. Le concept DTL a été adapté à un spectromètre de masse à transfert de proton dans lequel est injectée dynamiquement la fraction aromatique capturée dans la cavité nasale du sujet lors de la mastication d’un aliment. Il est alors possible d’obtenir une dynamique de la perception sensorielle ainsi que les cinétiques de relargage des composés aromatiques ; les secondes devant expliquer la première. / Over the last years, so-called rapid methods for sensory evaluation have been developed to collect sensory description of products from consumers. Moving forward in this direction, this thesis proposes to pair Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) with dynamic liking. This new method, named Temporal Drivers of Liking (TDL), highlights sensory drivers of consumer liking and determines how the dynamic perception can impact the hedonic response. This work proposes to compute the Liking While Dominant (LWD) score as the average liking scores given to a product while a given attribute was perceived as dominant and to look at its deviation from the mean liking score of this product. When significantly higher (resp. smaller) than 0, it denotes a positive (resp. negative) TDL.TDL method can evaluate temporality within intake (bites, sips…) but also between successive intakes in order to study perception along the consumption of the full food. In this case, other parameters can be asked repeatedly to the consumers such as wanting, state of hunger or thirst… Temporal drivers of these other parameters can be computed in the same way than the TDLs. The TDL method has also been deployed outside the sensory lab to place consumers in real-life conditions, for example at home. TDL concept has also been extended where subjects did TDS while the aromas released in their nose during mastication were simultaneously collected by a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer. It makes it possible to collect simultaneously kinetics of sensory attributes and of active chemical compounds; the latter being expected to explain the former.

ermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) is a common method for surface analysis of adsorbed molecules. In chapter 1 the work deals with the theoretical background of this method and shows the principles of a desorption process influenced by subsurface diffusion. Chapter 2 first shows application of TDS for detection of surface molecules and determination of binding energy.Experiments were mainly focused on ditermination of surface adsorbents and impurities on Si wafers. The second part of chapter 2 describes desorption of atoms of a Ga layer on Si surface and their subsurface diffusion. A Ga diffusion process was also observed by with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and numerically simulated.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified as an anxiety disorder and the characteristic symptoms (re-experiencing, avoidance as well as numbing of general responsiveness and hyperarousal) of this disorder develop in response to a traumatic event. The disorder is characterised by hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis abnormalities linked with changes in cortisol moreover, the hippocampus and cortex also play a role in the neurobiology. With regard to the neurochemistry of this disorder it is known that gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) is involved however, the precise role of GABA in PTSD and how stress changes GABA concentrations in the brain are still not fully understood. Another aspect regarding PTSD that has not been clearly defined is the treatment of PTSD. Classic anxiolytics such as diazepam is expected to relieve the anxiety linked with PTSD. Studies with this group of drugs have however not produced the concrete evidence needed to establish it as a treatment of choice for PTSD and subsequently other classes of drugs have been investigated as possible treatment options for PTSD. Among these is lamotrigine, which in a clinical study was found to be effective in alleviating symptoms of PTSD. Moreover, a possible pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship for each of these drugs has also not been elucidated. In order to elude on some of these uncertainties, an animal model of PTSD, time dependent sensitisation (TDS), was used. GABA levels in the rat hippocampus and frontal cortex were determined at two different time intervals following the TDS procedure (1 day and 7 days post re-stress). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical (EC) detection was used to determine gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) concentrations. To investigate the possible anxiolytic effects of diazepam and lamotrigine in this model, as well as a possible pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship for each drug, pharmacokinetic profiles for both drugs were established in order to find the times of peak and trough levels of each drug. Blood samples were collected at different time intervals after drug administration either from the tail vein of rats (lamotrigine) or directly from the heart (diazepam). Subsequently, drug concentrations at each time interval were determined by means of HPLC with ultraviolet (UV) detection. The behaviour of rats was analysed using the elevated plus-maze (EPM) at peak or trough concentrations of the drugs and this was performed after either acute administration of the drug, or after a 14 day chronic treatment regime. GABA levels in the hippocampus were not found to change statistically significantly in response to stress at either 1 day or 7 days post re-stress. In the frontal cortex, however, GABA levels increased in response to stress at 1 day post re-stress, with a statistically insignificant, but strong trend towards an increase, at 7 days post re-stress. With regard to the pharmacokinetic profiles, the peak concentration of diazepam was found to occur at 60 minutes, with lamotrigine's peak at 120 minutes. The behavioural studies indicated that acute treatment with diazepam 3 mg/kg resulted in a statistically significant increase in both ratio open arm entries and ratio time spent in the open arms at peak level of the drug. After acute treatment with diazepam 3 mg/kg a statistically significant decrease in ratio time spent in open arms was also found when the ratio time spent in open arms at peak level of the drug and the ratio time spent in open arms at trough level of the drug was compared. In response to chronic treatment with diazepam 3 mg/kg for 14 days, test animals exhibited an increase in the ratio open arm entries at trough level of the drug, with a statistically insignificant yet definite trend towards an increase at peak level. Acute treatment with lamotrigine 10 mg/kg resulted in no statistically significant change in EPM parameters. In response to chronic treatment, however, a statistically significant increase was found in ratio time spent in open arms at peak level of the drug, with a statistically insignificant trend towards an increase at trough level. From the results of this study, we may therefore conclude that GABA-levels in the brain are definitely affected, but in different ways, following TDS-stress. A pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship between the drugs' levels and aversive behaviour could also be established. Furthermore it appears that more sustained anxiolytic effects are evident following chronic treatment with both drugs than with acute administration of these drugs. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharmacology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006