Esta Tese investiga a constituição de sujeitos-jovens assembleianos na contemporaneidade, ancorando-se nas interlocuções dos referenciais teóricometodológicos dos Estudos Culturais em Educação, dos estudos sociológicos e antropológicos sobre juventudes e religião. A primeira parte da Tese permite compreender a juventude enquanto categoria contingencialmente construída, colocando em pauta como irrompe uma série de discursos e práticas que passam a assumir os jovens como front de diferentes investimentos, inclusive religiosos. Traz um panorama do campo religioso, percebendo a emergência ou re-apropriação de valores éticos e morais em tempos de encurtamento das fronteiras e alargamento da diversidade de opções que impulsionam sucessivos fluxos migratórios e movimentos de missionação evangélico. O tema assume relevância de estudo diante do crescimento da população evangélica e de seu promissor mercado cultural, os quais criam investimentos sobre os jovens a fim de interpelá-los em seus discursos. A segunda parte da Tese analisa a constituição de sujeitos-jovens mediante suas trajetórias de inserção à crença que, resguardadas suas especificidades, parte das seguintes condições: crescer no Evangelho ou converter-se ao longo da vida. As análises incidem sobre dois eixos centrais: os investimentos institucionais da igreja e, no caso dos crescidos no Evangelho, da família na orientação de determinados modos de viver e se constituir como sujeito imbricado a crença; concomitantemente, analisa os investimentos dos próprios sujeitos sobre si, interpelados por outras formas de experimentar a condição de ser/estar jovem presentes em tempos de fluidez e provisoriedade. Metodologicamente, a pesquisa desenvolveu-se mediante a inserção etnográfica junto a jovens da Igreja Evangélica Assembleia de Deus no município de Novo Hamburgo, no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, entre os anos de 2011 e 2012. Desdobrou-se junto a jovens da comunidade assembleiana de Lisboa, Portugal, em 2013. Foram realizadas observações-participantes em espaços institucionais com forte investimento sobre jovens e dos próprios jovens – como congressos, encontros de louvor e oração, cultos e demais espaços de estudos – e nas incursões em outras instâncias do cotidiano, buscando aproximação às culturas, sociabilidades, lazeres, consumos, relações nos espaços escolares, trabalho – em seus trajetos e projetos de vida. A Tese infere que há reconfigurações nos modos de constituição dos sujeitos na contemporaneidade, percebidos nos modos de pertencimentos e sentidos de vivenciar a condição de ser evangélico, o que não remete a formas de resistência juvenil, mas novos modos de existência evocados pela condição de ser/estar jovem, afinal, ao mesmo tempo em que buscam se manter portadores da promessa de salvação, os jovens ensejam ser portadores da condição juvenil. / This PhD thesis investigates the constitution of the young at Assemblies of God church in contemporary world, based on interlocutions of theoretical and methodological references of Cultural Studies in Education and sociological and anthropological studies in youth and religion. The first part displays the concept of youth as a category built contingently, and tables the origin of a series of discourses and practices that assume youth as a front of different investments, even religious ones. It brings a view of the religious field through the awareness of the emergency of regaining ethical and moral values in times of shortened frontiers and enlarged diversities of options that impulse successive migratory flows and evangelical missionary movements. This subject assumes the relevance of the study in the face of the growth of evangelical population and its promising cultural market that has invested in the young in order to be able to question their discourses. The second part of the thesis analyses the constitution of the young through the insertion trajectories to their faith that arise out of the following conditions considering their specificities: being raised according to the Gospel truth or being converted along their lives. The analyses incur two central topics. The first focuses on the institutional investments of the Church. And the second focuses on the faithful who raised according to the Gospel truth and on the guidance of their families on how to live and constitute themselves as individuals committed to their faith. Concurrently it analyzes the investments of the individuals in themselves, who are tempted by other ways of experiencing the condition of being young in a time of fluidity and temporariness. The research was developed methodologically through the ethnographical insertion next to the youth of Evangelical Assemblies of God church in Novo Hamburgo, a city located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2011 and 2012. Another part of the research was developed in the Assemblies of God community in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2013. Participant observations have been done in institutional spaces with a strong investment in the young, who have also been agents in this process – such as conferences, worship and prayer meetings, services and other study meetings – and in other kinds of daily incursions. These observations aim the approximation of culture, sociability, entertainment, consumption, relationships in scholar environments and work in the life trajectories and projects of the faithful. The thesis infers that there are reconfigurations in the ways of the constitution of subjects in contemporary world, perceived in the ways of belonging and experiencing the condition of being evangelical. This fact does not remit the ways of juvenile resistance, but new ways of existence evoked by the condition of being young, since the young aim to live according to their juvenile condition and, at the same time, to keep on being carriers of the salvation promise.

abstract: This thesis concerns the role of geometric imperfections on assemblies in which the location of a target part is dependent on supports at two features. In some applications, such as a turbo-machine rotor that is supported by a series of parts at each bearing, it is the interference or clearance at a functional target feature, such as at the blades that must be controlled. The first part of this thesis relates the limits of location for the target part to geometric imperfections of other parts when stacked-up in parallel paths. In this section parts are considered to be rigid (non-deformable). By understanding how much of variation from the supporting parts contribute to variations of the target feature, a designer can better utilize the tolerance budget when assigning values to individual tolerances. In this work, the T-Map®, a spatial math model is used to model the tolerance accumulation in parallel assemblies. In other applications where parts are flexible, deformations are induced when parts in parallel are clamped together during assembly. Presuming that perfectly manufactured parts have been designed to fit perfectly together and produce zero deformations, the clamping-induced deformations result entirely from the imperfect geometry that is produced during manufacture. The magnitudes and types of these deformations are a function of part dimensions and material stiffnesses, and they are limited by design tolerances that control manufacturing variations. These manufacturing variations, if uncontrolled, may produce high enough stresses when the parts are assembled that premature failure can occur before the design life. The last part of the thesis relates the limits on the largest von Mises stress in one part to functional tolerance limits that must be set at the beginning of a tolerance analysis of parts in such an assembly. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Mechanical Engineering 2012

A existência de uma maior variedade de aminoácidos codificados pelo código genético tem estimado estudos sobre os mecanismos de síntese, reconhecimento e incorporação desses resíduos nas cadeias polipeptídicas nascentes. Um exemplo é a via de incorporação de selenocisteína evento cotraducional dirigido pelo códon UGA. Em bactérias, essa via conta com uma complexa maquinaria molecular composta por: Selenocisteína Sintase (SelA), Fator de Elongação Específico de Reconhecimento (SelB), Selenofosfato Sintetase (SelD), tRNA específico (SelC ou tRNAsec), sequência específica no mRNA (Sequência de Inserção de Selenocisteínas - SECIS) e Aminoacil tRNA Sintetase (aaRS). Pelo fato do selênio ter uma toxicidade elevada em ambientes celulares, é fundamental a compreensão do mecanismo catalítico e razão estequiométrica na formação dos complexos da via na etapa de incorporação junto ao tRNAsec, bem como sua caracterização estrutural foram os objetivos deste trabalho. A proteína SelA foi expressa e purificada para utilização em análises envolvendo microscopia de força atômica, microscopia eletrônica de transmissão com contraste negativo e em gelo vítreo foram realizadas nos complexos SelA e SelA-tRNAsec, visando obter um modelo estrutural e a razão estequiométrica dos complexos. A fim de compreender o mecanismo de passagem do selênio, ensaios de anisotropia de fluorescência e de microcalorimetria, corroborados pelas análises de troca de hidrogênio-deutério acoplado a espectrometria de massa e espectroscopia de infravermelho, elucidaram a formação e estequiometria do complexo ternário SelAtRNA sec-SelD. Tentativas de cristalização e análises cristalográficas também foram realizadas, no entanto, sem sucesso. Com os resultados obtidos foi possível propor que o reconhecimento de SelD e, consequentemente, a entrega do selenofosfato, seja uma etapa crucial da via de incorporação de selenocisteínas. / The existence of a greate variety of amino acids encoded by the genetic code has stimulated the study of the mechanisms of synthesis, recognition and incorporation of these residues in the nascent polypeptide chains. An example of genetic code expansion is the selenocysteine incorporation pathway an event cotraducional by the UGA codon. In bacteria, this pathway has a complex molecular machinery comprised: Selenocysteine Synthase (SelA), Specific Elongation Factor (SelB), Selenophosphate Synthetase (SelD), tRNA-specific (SelC or tRNAsec), Specific mRNA Sequence (SElenocysteine Insertion Sequence - SECIS) and Aminoacyl tRNA Synthetase (aaRS). Because selenium has high toxicity in cellular environments; it is essential for cell survival the association of this compound with proteins, in this case, selenoprotens and the associated proteins involved in the selenocysteine synthesis. Therfore the understanding of the catalytic mechanism, stoichiometric ratio, protein complex formation with the tRNAsec, and its structural characterization were the objectives of this work. The SelA protein was expressed and purified to used in analyzes involving atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy with negative stain and in vitreous ice were performed in the complex SelA and SelA-tRNAsec in order to obtain a structural model of the complex and the stoichiometric ratio of its components. To study the selenium association with protein of the synthesis pathway, fluorescence anisotropy assays and isothermal titration calorimetry corroborated by the analysis hydrogen-deuterium exchange coupled to mass spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy were employed.Crystallization attempts were made and preliminary crystallographic analyzes were also performed, however, so far unsuccessfuly. The results obtained were possible to develop the hypothesis about the SelD recognition and, consenquently, the selenophosphate delivery, a crucial stage of the selenocysteine incorporation pathway.

A presente dissertação tem como objeto de problematização as práticas das assembléias escolares (de classe) e os discursos teórico-acadêmicos que lhes dão sustentação. Por meio de um enfrentamento teórico de inspiração foucaultiana, as práticas escolares entendidas como democrático-participativas são aqui analisadas como mecanismos constituintes de jogos de verdade bastante presentes nos fazeres escolares contemporâneos. Trata-se de tomar as assembléias de classe como fomentadoras de determinadas tecnologias do eu. Consoante à teorização foucaultiana, a noção de eu é aqui reputada como uma construção histórica e social, e as atuais práticas de subjetivação, tendo como lócus a escola e como foco as assembléias de classe, são entendidas como formas de exercício do poder por meio de tecnologias de cunho pastoral. A partir de um deslocamento nas formas de exercer a condução das condutas do poder disciplinar ao biopoder ou psicopoder , tais tecnologias intentam forjar novas subjetividades, denominadas autônomas, críticas e reflexivas. Daí o objetivo principal da pesquisa levada a cabo: colocar em pauta o governo contemporâneo das almas escolares, assim como propor uma reflexão acerca, por um lado, das vicissitudes de uma escola dita democrática, e, por outro, dos limites daquilo que vem sendo denominado democracia escolar. Para tanto, realizou-se um dupla entrada investigativa: de um lado, a observação empírica das assembléias de classe realizadas em uma instituição de ensino da rede pública da cidade de São Paulo e, de outro, a problematização de alguns discursos teórico-acadêmicos sobre a temática das assembléias escolares. Nesse encontro, os acontecimentos empiricamente observados foram organizados de acordo com sete atos analíticos, por meios dos quais tornou-se possível tecer uma analítica das formas de exercício do poder aí em curso. As produtividades escolares contemporâneas e as relações de força que se estabelecem entre os exercícios do poder e da liberdade são retomadas, ao final, como núcleo de nossa argumentação central para questionarmos como atuam as novas modalidades de governo escolar sobre a subjetividade do alunado. / The current dissertation was focused on questioning the practices of school assemblies (classroom) and the theoretical and academic discourses that give them support. Through a theoretical confrontation inspired by Michel Foucault, school practices understood as democratic-participatory are discussed here as basic mechanisms of true games quite present in the contemporary school accomplishments. It is taking the classroom assemblies as fueling of certain technologies of the self. Corresponding to the foucaultian theorizing, the notion of self is deemed here as a social and historical construction, and current practices of subjectivity are understood as the exercise of pastoral power. From a shift in ways of perform the conduction of conducts from disciplinary power to bio-power or psycho-power - such technologies intent on forging new subjectivities, called autonomous, critical and reflective. Hence the main objective of the research carried out: to highlight the contemporary government of scholastic souls, as well as to propose a reflection around the theme, in on hand, the way of conduct of a school called democratic, and in the other hand, the limits of what has been called scholastic democracy. Therefore, there was a double investigative entry: the empirical observation of classroom assemblies held in an institution of public education in the city of Sao Paulo and the questioning of some theoretical and academic discourse on the school assemblies. At this intersection point, some events empirically observed were organized according to seven analytical acts, by means of which it became possible to make an analytical review of the exercise of power. The contemporary school productivities and power relations established between the exercise of power and freedom are included at the end as the core of our central argument for questioning how the act the new forms of school government on the subjectivity of students.

Esta tese trata da análise da participação das organizações sociais nas assembleias legislativas no período 2003-2010. Em todos os parlamentos estaduais há previsão, nos seus regimentos internos, de mecanismos e instâncias participativas, os quais são classificados em dois grupos. O primeiro é integrado por instâncias voltadas para propiciar a manifestação das organizações sociais e mesmo de indivíduos. Fazem parte desse grupo as audiências públicas, fóruns temáticos, seminários, discurso em tribunas populares durante as sessões legislativas e participação em reuniões de comissões legislativas. O segundo grupo de processos participativos incorpora a apresentação de proposições, incluindo projetos de lei de iniciativa popular, propostas e sugestões legislativas. Em 2002 inicia o processo de criação das comissões de legislação participativa nos parlamentos estaduais dos estados do Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraíba, São Paulo e Minas Gerais. O estudo também abrange a análise do conteúdo da produção legislativa dos deputados estaduais das assembleias legislativas do Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo e Minas Gerais, nos quais houve o registro de proposições enviadas às suas respectivas comissões de legislação participativa, incluindo o período anterior à formação das comissões (1995-1998 e 1999-2002) e o período após o início das suas atividades (2003-2006 e 2007-2008). A apresentação de proposições pelas organizações sociais, mesmo após a formação das comissões de legislação participativa, não se efetivou. Mesmo no caso da Comissão de Legislação Popular de Minas Gerais, onde ocorre um grande número de proposições, mais da metade, entre 2003 e 2010, tem origem em estruturas coordenadas pelo Poder Executivo. O conteúdo da produção legislativa, nos estados com as comissões, também não mudou de maneira efetiva. / This thesis is an analysis of the participation of social organizations in the legislative assemblies in the period 2003-2010. In all state parliaments is forecast in its internal rules, and participatory mechanisms, which are classified into two groups. The first is composed of instances aimed at providing the manifestation of social organizations and even individuals. This group of public audiences, thematic forums, seminars, popular discourse on tribunes during legislative sessions and attending meetings of legislative committees. The second group of participatory processes incorporates the presentation of proposals, including bills of popular initiatives, legislative proposals and suggestions. In 2002 starts the process of creating commissions participatory legislation in state parliaments of the states of Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraiba, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. The study also includes an analysis of the content of legislative output of the state representatives of the legislatures of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, where there was a record of proposals sent to their respective commissions participatory legislation, including period before the formation of committees (1995-1998 and 1999-2002) and the period after the beginning of its activities (2003-2006 and 2007-2008). The presentation of proposals by social organizations, even after the formation of committees of participatory legislation, failed to materialize. Even in the case of the Committee on Legislation Popular de Minas Gerais, where there is a large number of propositions, more than half between 2003 and 2010 originated in structures coordinated by the Executive Branch. The content of legislative production in states with commissions also did not change effectively.

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Esta Dissertação de Mestrado pretende a partir de uma análise sobre a representatividade quantitativa e qualitativa dos mandatos das deputadas estaduais negras brasileiras, pensar as relações entre poder, gênero e raça em uma sociedade patriarcal. Para tanto, utilizaremos como amostra quatro mandatos de deputadas negras das Assembleias Legislativas dos estados da Bahia e São Paulo, durante o período de 2011 a 2014. O objetivo desta Dissertação é primeiro demonstrar que o cenário da democracia parlamentar brasileira mantém traços similares de gênero e raça que não coincidem com a real diversidade étnica/racial e de gênero que compõe a sociedade brasileira e em segundo, constatar que os mandatos das deputadas estaduais negras influenciam e resultam na implementação de mais políticas transversais que buscam a promoção da igualdade racial e de gênero e de combate ao racismo e ao sexismo / This Master\'s Dissertation intends to reflect upon the relationship between power, gender and race in a patriarchal society from an analysis of the quantitative and qualitative representativeness of the terms of the black female deputies from Brazilian states. To this end, we will use as a sample four terms of black female deputies of the Legislative Assemblies of the states of Bahia and São Paulo during the period from 2011 to 2014. The purpose of this dissertation is to first demonstrate that the setting of the Brazilian parliamentary democracy holds traits of gender race that are similar but that do not match the real ethnic/racial and gender diversity that makes up the Brazilian society, and secondly, to verify that the mandates of black female state deputies influence and result in the implementation of more crosscutting policies that seek to promote racial and gender equality and to fight racism and sexism

The advantages of cold-formed thin-walled steel studs are many and their applications in building constructions continue to grow. They are used as load-bearing members. An example is lightweight wall panel assemblies which consist of channel steel studs with gypsum plasterboard layers attached to the two flanges, often with interior insulation. At present, expensive fire tests or advanced numerical modelling methods are necessary in order to discover the fire resistance of such wall assemblies. For common practice this is not effective and a simplified method, suitable for use in daily design, is necessary. The aim of this research is to develop such simplified methods. The first main objective of this study is to develop a simple approach to calculate the temperature distributions in the steel section, in particular the temperatures on both the exposed and unexposed sides when the panel is exposed to fire exposure from one side. These two temperatures are the most influential factors in the fire resistance of this type of wall assembly. The proposed method calculates the average temperatures in the flanges of the steel section and assumes that the temperature in the web is linear. The proposed method is based on a simple heat balance analysis for a few nodes representing the key components of the wall panel. The thermal resistance of these nodes are obtained by the weighted average of thermal resistances in an effective width of the panel within which heat transfer in the panel width direction is assumed to occur. The proposed method has been extensively validated by comparison with numerical parametric studies. In order to calculate the ultimate capacity of steel studs, the traditional method is by using effective width. However, this method is now being questioned as it considers elements of section in isolation and does not consider interaction between the elements. In addition, this method is not appropriate to be extended to steel studs under fire conditions. The cross-section under fire conditions has non-uniform temperature distribution which results in the non-uniform distribution of mechanical properties. Using an effective width method to deal with this problem will require many assumptions whose accuracy is uncertain. Recently, the direct strength method (DSM) has been developed and its accuracy for ambient applications has been comprehensively validated. This method calculates cross-sectional plastic resistance and elastic critical loads for local, distortional and global buckling modes with the aid of simple computer programs. The elastic and plastic resistances are then combined to give the ultimate resistance of the structure using interaction equations. This method is suited to steel studs with non-uniform temperature distribution in the cross-section. The second main objective of this study is to extend the direct strength method for application to thin-walled steel studs having non-uniform elevated temperature distributions in the cross-section. It has been found that the DSM concept is applicable, but the interaction equations should be modified to allow for the effects of elevated temperature (non-uniform temperature distribution and changes in stress-strain relationships). Also the effects of thermal bowing should be included when calculating the plastic resistance and the elastic buckling loads of the cross-section. This research has proposed new interaction equations and has developed design tools. By comparing the results of the proposed method with validated Finite Element simulations over a very large range of parametric studies, the proposed method has been demonstrated to be valid. The validation studies include both standard and parametric fire exposures and are generally applicable.

Les travaux de thèse s'inscrivent dans le cadre du projet de recherche européen MAAXIMUS (More Affordable Aircraft through eXtended, Integrated and Mature nUmerical Sizing) et portent sur la simulation numérique de problèmes d'assemblages de composants en matériaux composites stratifiés. Ces assemblages sont sources de deux types de non-linéarités. D'une part, l'interface entre les pièce conduit au traitement de non-linéarités fortes (contact, frottement). D'autre part, dans les composants de l'assemblage, le comportement du matériau stratifié est complexe, du fait des nombreux phénomènes de dégradations interagissant entre eux. Ces deux aspects ont une influence forte sur la réponse globale de l'assemblage, ce qui implique la résolution de systèmes de très grandes tailles, nécessitant généralement l'utilisation de moyens de calcul parallèles.Le couplage entre ces deux problématiques nécessite donc l'utilisation d'algorithmes de calcul parallèle dédiés et robustes, à même de traiter de nombreuses non-linéarités très fortes. Pour cela, la méthode LATIN (pour LArge Time INcrement) présente de nombreux avantages, déjà mis en évidence dans le cas de calcul d'assemblages de pièces élastiques lors de travaux précédents. Le but de ces travaux est donc d'élargir le cadre de la méthode au cas des pièces au comportement endommageable et anélastique.Un dernier aspect, qui sera abordé au sein de ces travaux, traite des fortes variabilités des coefficients intervenant dans les lois non-linéaires. Par conséquent, il est nécessaire de pouvoir traiter un très grand nombre de problèmes affectés de valeurs de coefficients différents. Pour cela, la stratégie multiparamétrique, intimement liée à la méthode LATIN, doit être étendue au cas de comportements matériau non-linéaires. Elle sera alors appliquée au travers de plusieurs paramètres variables : coefficients de frottement, précharges des éléments de fixation, seuil d'endommagement des matériaux... / The presented work, within the framework of the European research project MAAXIMUS (More Affordable Aircraft through eXtended, Integrated and Mature nUmerical Sizing), is dedicated to the numerical simulation of assemblies with components made of laminated composites. These assemblies involve two types of high non-linearities. First ones are linked to the interfaces between parts (unilateral contact and friction). Second ones are linked to the constitutive material behaviour, from its initial properties to the complex evolution of degradations. These two non-linearities have a strong influence on the response of the assembly, which involves solving systems with a high number of degrees of freedom and generally requires the use of parallel computing resources.The coupling between the two sources of non-linearities requires dedicated and robust algorithms, able to run on parallel architectures and to deal with many very strong non-linearities. The efficiency of the LATIN method (LArge Time INcrement) has already been highlighted in the case of assemblies with elastic components. A first aim of this work is thus to extend the method to the case of damageable and anelastic components' behaviour.A second aim is to deal with the variability of the coefficients involved in the non-linear laws. Each set of parameters (friction coefficients, preload of fasteners, damage threshold of material laws...) requiring a given calculation, the multiparametric strategy of the LATIN method must be extended to the case of non-linear materials in order to efficiently reduce the computation time.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) among other fuel cells are considered the best candidate for commercialization of portable and transportation applications because of their high energy conversion and low pollutant emission. Recently, there has been significant interest in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs), due to certain advantages such as simplified system and better tolerance to CO poisoning. Cost, durability and the reliability are delaying the commercialization of PEM fuel cell technology. Above all durability is the most critical issue and it influences the other two issues. The main objective of this work is to study the durability of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for HT-PEMFC. In this study the investigation of commercial MEAs was done by evaluating their performance through polarization studies on a single cell, including using pure hydrogen and hydrogen containing various concentrations of CO as fuel, and to study the performance of the MEAs at various operating temperatures. The durability of the MEAs was evaluated by carrying out long term studies with a fixed load, temperature cycling and open circuit voltage degradation. Among the parameters studied, significant loss in the performance of the MEAs was noted during temperature cycling. The effect of temperature cycling on the performance of the cell showed that the performance decreases with increasing no. of cycles. This could be due to leaching of acid from the cell or loss of electrochemically active surface area caused by Pt particle size growth. For example at 160°C, a performance loss of 3.5% was obtained after the first cycle, but after the fourth cycle a huge loss of 80.8% was obtained. The in-house MEAs with Pt-based binary catalysts as anodes were studied for CO tolerance, performance and durability. A comparison of polarization curves between commercial and in-house MEAs illustrated that commercial MEA gave better performance, obtaining 0.52 A/cm² at 0.5V and temperature of 160°C, with in-house giving 0.39A/cm² using same parameters as commercial. The CO tolerance of both commercial and in-house MEA was found to be similar. In order to increase the CO tolerance of the in-house MEAs, Pt based binary catalysts were employed as anodesand the performance was investigated In-house MEAs with Pt/C and Pt-based binary catalysts were compared and a better performance was observed for Pt/C than Pt-alloy catalysts with Pt-Co/C showing comparable performance. At 0.5 V the performance obtained was 0.39 A/cm2 for Pt/C, and 0.34A/cm²,0.28A/cm²,0.27A/cm² and 0.16A/cm² were obtained for Pt-Co/C, Pt-Fe/C, Pt-Cu/C and Pt-Ni respectively. When the binary catalysts were tested for CO tolerance, Pt-Co showed no significant loss in performance when hydrogen containing CO was used as anode fuel. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed delamination between the electrodes and membrane of the tested and untested MEA's. Membrane thinning was noted and carbon corrosion was observed from the tested micro-porous layer between the gas diffusion layer (GDL) and catalyst layer (CL).