Ingeniero Civil de Minas / Los plegamientos en yacimientos de minerales son procesos estructurales causados por diferentes factores (esfuerzos axiales, fallas, zonas de esfuerzo trishear, entre otras). Los procesos de deformación en yacimientos minerales pueden modificar la geometría original de estos mediante mecanismos de fallamiento y/o plegamiento. En el caso de plegamientos, la utilización de las herramientas clásicas en la evaluación de recursos para estos casos no considera las distancias geodésicas producto de la deformación, lo que lleva a un resultado erróneo, poco realista y estimación con mayor incertidumbre. La metodología propuesta consiste en retornar el yacimiento a la geometría original y realizar la evaluación de recursos en estas condiciones donde las herramientas clásicas de geoestadística son aplicables dado que se basan en el cálculo de distancias euclidianas. Se están desarrollando diferentes técnicas para realizar geoestadística en estas condiciones, como estadística Multi-punto, generación de campos LVA (Locally Varying Anisotropy), transformaciones espaciales de unfolding, entre otras. El objetivo del estudio es la una metodología de reconstrucción de la geometría original de un yacimiento, previo a su deformación, para efectos de realizar estimaciones de recurso en función de las condiciones de anisotropía original, y así llevarlo nuevamente al estado actual. El ejemplo se realiza con un cuerpo de geometría original de tipo tabular. La metodología propuesta consiste en generar una superficie de referencia (triangulación) a partir de un modelo geológico interpretado. Esta superficie puede ser aplanada con métodos de proyección o utilización de técnicas más complejas como MDS, que conserva el área inicial de la superficie al aplanarla. El modelo de bloques discretizado se ancla a la superficie triangulada para ser aplanado y generar el modelo geológico tabular en las condiciones de deposición inicial (cuerpo tabular plano). Una vez aplanado tanto modelo de bloques discretizado como compósitos con su respectiva información de leyes, fino, tipo de roca, etc., se realiza la metodología convencional de evaluación de recursos (estudio exploratorio de datos, variografía, estimación y categorización) para obtener un modelo de leyes estimadas. Finalmente el modelo de bloques discretizado estimado se restituye a la geometría plegada para el posterior rebloqueo. Las ventajas de utilizar esta metodología es que la estimación de las leyes se realiza de forma verosímil, y la clasificación de recursos mejora debido al cálculo de la varianza de bloque en el espacio transformado y el aumento de la correlación espacial de los datos del variograma. Para poder validar esta metodología, se requiere conocer un modelo de referencia original con las respectivas leyes pre-deformación. Para ello, se construyó un modelo a partir de simulaciones geológicas y de leyes que considere los procesos de geología estructural que afectan a los cuerpos plegados y la correlación espacial de las leyes. Finalmente se aplicó esta metodología a un caso de estudio real, donde se aumentó la categorización de recursos medidos e indicados en 1.28 Mton, aumentando la cantidad de finos en 19.2 Kton, lo que corresponde a un 16.8 %. Esto trae importantes consecuencias en la planificación minera y en la valorización de los activos de la compañía, ya que un aumento de los recursos medidos e indicados podría implicar un cambio en el ritmo de mina y procesamiento de planta.

The purpose of this study was to utilize the graded unfolding model (GUM) (Roberts, 1995; Roberts & Laughlin, 1996) to examine the interaction between the stages of change (SOC) and the processes of change (POC) for smoking cessation (SC). Although an abundance of research has examined the transtheoretical model (TTM) and SC, the POC remains one of the least investigated dimensions of the TTM. Only one study has applied an item response theory model, the GUM, to the examination of the SOC and POC (Noel, 1999). This study attempted to replicate and extend the findings of Noel (1999) and provides additional external validity evidence for the SOC and the POC for SC.<p>The TTM posits that people undergoing change will use different processes and strategies as they proceed through the SOC and that each POC appears to reach peak use at different stages. Thus, the POC appear to follow an inverse-U-shaped pattern (Noel, 1999).<p>Responses to the SOC and 40-item POC for SC were collected from young adults. Analysis of the data using the GGUM (Roberts, 2000) demonstrated the applicability of the GUM and provides additional external validity of the POC for SC. More specifically, six POC were ordered as expected according to results of longitudinal studies. Four POC were found to be out of order, however, this could be due to sample characteristics or reduced validity of items (due to smoking law changes, some items may no longer be valid). Helping Relationships and Stimulus Control appeared together out of order. This finding replicates Noel (1999) and further research is needed to examine the ordering of these POC. The GUM was also found to fit the POC data better than other item response theory models.

The purpose of this study was to utilize the graded unfolding model (GUM) (Roberts, 1995; Roberts & Laughlin, 1996) to examine the interaction between the stages of change (SOC) and the processes of change (POC) for smoking cessation (SC). Although an abundance of research has examined the transtheoretical model (TTM) and SC, the POC remains one of the least investigated dimensions of the TTM. Only one study has applied an item response theory model, the GUM, to the examination of the SOC and POC (Noel, 1999). This study attempted to replicate and extend the findings of Noel (1999) and provides additional external validity evidence for the SOC and the POC for SC.<p>The TTM posits that people undergoing change will use different processes and strategies as they proceed through the SOC and that each POC appears to reach peak use at different stages. Thus, the POC appear to follow an inverse-U-shaped pattern (Noel, 1999).<p>Responses to the SOC and 40-item POC for SC were collected from young adults. Analysis of the data using the GGUM (Roberts, 2000) demonstrated the applicability of the GUM and provides additional external validity of the POC for SC. More specifically, six POC were ordered as expected according to results of longitudinal studies. Four POC were found to be out of order, however, this could be due to sample characteristics or reduced validity of items (due to smoking law changes, some items may no longer be valid). Helping Relationships and Stimulus Control appeared together out of order. This finding replicates Noel (1999) and further research is needed to examine the ordering of these POC. The GUM was also found to fit the POC data better than other item response theory models.

Protein mechanical responses play a critical role in a wide variety of biological phenomena, impacting events as diverse as muscle contraction and stem cell differentiation. Recent advances in both experimental and computational techniques have provided the opportunity to explore protein constitutive properties at the molecular level. However, despite these advances many questions remain about how proteins respond to applied mechanical forces, particularly as a function of load magnitude. In order to address these questions, relatively simple helical structures were computationally tested to determine the mechanisms and kinetics of unfolding at a range of physiologically relevant load magnitudes. Atomically detailed constant force molecular dynamics simulations combined with the Milestoning kinetic analysis framework revealed that the mean first passage time (MFPT) of the initiation of unfolding of long (~16nm) isolated helical domains was a non-monotonic function of the magnitude of applied tensile load. The unfolding kinetics followed a profile ranging from 2.5ns (0pN) to a peak of 3.75ns (20pN) with a decreasing MFPT beyond 40pN reflected by an MFPT of 1ns for 100pN. The application of the Milestoning framework with a coarse-grained network analysis approach revealed that intermediate loads (15pN-25pN) retarded unfolding by opening additional, slower unfolding pathways through non-native [pi]-helical conformations. Analysis of coiled-coil helical pairs revealed that the presence of the second neighboring helix delayed unfolding initiation by a factor of 20, with calculated MFPTs ranging from 55ns (0pN) to 85ns (25pN per helix) to 20ns (100pN per helix). The stability of the coiled-coil domains relative to the isolated helix was shown to reflect a decreased propensity to break flexibility restraining intra-helix hydrogen bonds, thereby delaying [psi] backbone dihedral angle rotation and unfolding. These results show for the first time a statistically determined profile of unfolding kinetics for an atomically detailed protein that is non-monotonic with respect to load caused by a change in the unfolding mechanism with load. Together, the methods introduced for analyzing the mechanical response of proteins as well as the timescales determined for the initiation of unfolding provide a framework for the determination of the constitutive properties of proteins and non-biological polymers with more complicated geometries. / text

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Mechanical unfolding of -1 frameshift signals such as RNA pseudoknots have aimed to test the hypothesis that the stability of the pseudoknot is directly correlated to the frameshifting efficiency. Here we report unfolding of the Beet Western Yellow Virus (BWYV) pseudoknot by optical tweezers experiments complemented by computer simulations using steered molecular dynamics (SMD). Seven pseudoknot scenarios were studied: the wild-type pseudoknot in the presence and absence of Mg<super>2+</super>, the wild-type pseudoknot at high pH (deprotonated C8), and C8U, C8A, A24G, G19U, and G19UC mutant constructs. The mutants were selected to probe three key structural features of the BWYV pseudoknot, a triple-stranded helix at the base of stem 1, the stem junction region of stem 1 and stem 2, and a unique quadruple base-pair interaction involving a protonated cytosine in position 8 (C8). These regions are thought to control ribosomal frameshifting by different strategies such as thermodynamic stability, kinetic influences, and dynamics involving contacts with the ribosome. In addition, the mutants have been shown to either abolish frameshifting ability of the pseudoknot (C8 mutant cases and A24G), or actually increase the frameshifting efficiency (as seen with G19U and G19UC). We find three major conclusions from the stretching of the pseudoknot constructs with optical tweezers. First, stretching in the absence of Mg<super>2+</super> results in no observed unfolding transitions. We interpret this to mean that magnesium is indispensible for the stable folding of the pseudoknot. Second, we found that frameshifting efficiency is not correlated with the force required to unfold the pseudoknots. However, we observe the unfolding of stem 1 in all of the pseudoknots stretched, where stem 2 unfolding is below our noise level. For this reason, we cannot rule out the possibility that an estimate of the thermodynamic stability of the entire pseudoknot would correlate with frameshifting efficiency. And third, we found that each pseudoknot mutant that resulted in reduced frameshifting efficiency also exhibited more off-equilibrium unfolding transitions that the wild-type pseudoknot under comparable loading rates. We conclude from these studies that the resistance of a pseudoknot to unfolding is controlled by both thermodynamic and kinetic parameters. We then suggest new technologies that would allow for greater resolution in order to correlate pseudoknot unfolding behavior with -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting events.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [153]-164).

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