Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Candidate: Ioannis Mouratidis Supervisor: Doc. PharmDr. Petr Pávek Ph.D. Testing of newly synthesized compounds with constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) Interactions of a diverse array of nuclear receptors with numerous isolated compounds (ligands) have been extensively investigated during the last years. The reason of this intense research activity is, of course, the wide therapeutic potential of the nuclear receptors super- family. It is known that they interact with the metabolism and excretion of various compounds, endogenous or exogenous that interfere with the homeostasic mechanisms of the living organisms. In my study, I tested the activation of a specific orphan nuclear receptor known as constitutive androstane receptor (CAR). I tested 11 structurally different compounds as well as a known inhibitor of CAR (clotrimazole) and an activator (CITCO). To test these interactions between these compounds and CAR, I used the method of the mammalian two- hybrid system, a method where ligand-protein interactions are studied in an environment close to that in vivo. The method is based on the Dual-Luciferase Reporter kit, which made the quantification of the CAR responsive luciferase reporter...

This article has as objective, to show and analyzing how the customer satisfaction in function of the Kano Model is used to take a competitive advantage within the car industry. Some results show that the impact of the customer satisfaction surveys account for 8 to 10% of the turnover of the major European car companies. In fact, in the 5 past years, the profitability of the leaders in customer satisfaction have surpassed the laggards. Leaders had a cumulative total return of + 22.5%, the SP 500 experienced a decline of -1.3% during the same period, latecomers lost - 46.3%. Therefore, these figures demonstrate how it’s important to set up a good strategic customer listening in order to take advantage on competition.

This article has as objective, to show and analyzing how the customer satisfaction in function of the Kano Model is used to take a competitive advantage within the car industry. Some results show that the impact of the customer satisfaction surveys account for 8 to 10% of the turnover of the major European car companies. In fact, in the 5 past years, the profitability of the leaders in customer satisfaction have surpassed the laggards. Leaders had a cumulative total return of + 22.5%, the SP 500 experienced a decline of -1.3% during the same period, latecomers lost - 46.3%. Therefore, these figures demonstrate how it’s important to set up a good strategic customer listening in order to take advantage on competition.

The transport sector is a major end-user of energy. As consumers are becoming aware and conscious of their environmental footprint making the enviromental footprint of automobile components one of the requirements in new product design development. The purpose of the study is to identify environmental impacts of a plastic panel. The main objective of the study is to perform an environmental life cycle assessment (E-LCA) of an existing panel regarding four scenarios with a nonbio-based plastic and a bio-based plastic. The first two scenarios have the same production and use phase, but different end-of-life treatments. The plastic in these scenarios is non-biobased. The last two scenarios have the same bio-based plastic and use phase, but different end-of-life-treatments. The first three scenarios have a surface material covering the plastic. The environmental impacts analyzed are global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, primary energy demand and particulate matter. The analysis is carried out according to the ISO14040/44 with the four steps of LCA: 1) Goal and Scope Definition, 2) Inventory Analysis, 3) Impact Assessment, and 4) Interpretation. The functional unit of the anaysis is a plastic panel. The inventory was collected by literature, the LCA software GaBi, and the commissoner of the study. The environmental impact assessment was conducted in GaBi 8 with the method of CML2015, Primary Energy, and IMPACT2002+. A dominance and a contribution analyses were applied to identify the hotspots of the life cycle. The hotspot of the life cycle was identified to be the production phase. The main contributor within the scenarios was the plastic production, specifically the granulates and the fiber fillings. The bio-based plastic reduced the impacts compared to the non-bio-based in five out of six cases. However, the photochemical ozone creation potential for both plastics were the same. The bio-based plastic reduced the GWP 16%, AP by 1%, EP by less than 1%, and PED by 19%. If the surface cover in aluminum was removed, the GWP was reduced by 46%, AP by 35%, EP by29%, POCP by 36%, PED by 42%and PM by 40%.  The transportation contributed most to impacts in the acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and particulate matter. The transportation’s impacts were greater in the bio-based plastic than the non-bio-based. The granulates of the plastic along with the injection molding are the main contributors due to usage of coal-based electricity for the injection molding and oil for the plastic production. The values used in the study are based on country averages which may differ depending on geographic location and its development as China is a country with a large area. The GWP is the highest value of the impacts analyzed, but even though the other are small fractions these may cause great damages. These damages can irritate eyes, damage lungs and destroy photosynthesis. By using recycled material for products instead of new materials, as done in the study, the impacts could be lower. As some previous studies agrees, the usage of bio-plastics lowers the environmental impact by a few percentages.  The bioplastic is an environmentally sustainable option to the current plastic as the location of the panel is not sensitive to excessive heat.

There is a need to improve the JU Solar Team's new solar cell powered electric car's driving capabilities for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2019. Partly to improve the car's safety and the ability to meet the competition requirements, but also to minimize effects that contribute to increased rolling resistance. The work is carried out at Jönköping Institute of Technology with support from ÅF Automotive in Trollhättan. The work aims to parameterize driving characteristics with engineering requirements, evaluate how the rolling resistance can be minimized, how negative driving characteristics can be minimized and a weight comparison with wheel suspension from 2017. This is the basis for the construction of the 2019 wheel suspension adapted for new body designed and manufactured in parallel with this work. The study includes performed measurements of the side force impact on steering angle change and camber change, calculation of load case, concept generation and evaluation, computer-aided strength evaluations. The results of the survey show great weaknesses in the 2017 solar car. In the case of an applied side force in the front wheel, a large wheel angle change occurs. This is largely due to under-dimensioned steering arms and the geometric design of the points. The influence of the side force on the steering angle has theoretically been reduced by at least 44% verified in CAD environment. In addition to this improvement, the entire wheel suspension system's attachments and sub-components are stiffer, which should contribute to an even greater improvement. The study also shows that the steering angle was insufficient to meet the competition requirements, which could be improved by 21.2% greater steering angle on the wheels. The spring and damper's operating ratio in comparison with the wheel has also been evaluated and has been able to be increased from 31% to 51.5%. This leads to reduced forces on the link arms and body by 20.5% during the same external load case. The study is limited to evaluating the hard points of the wheel suspension as well as the strength and design of the link arms, steering arm, suspension and damping attachment.

Children are more vulnerable in vehicles compared to adults in collisions. Two main reasons are the different body structure between these two and vehicles are more designed to fit adults. Children’s head is larger relative to their body mass and their neck muscle ligaments are still not fully developed. Children are therefore in need of a restraint system that match their anatomy to make them protected during transportation in vehicles. Crash tests have shown that if children up to the age of five use rear-facing child car seats are the chances reduced of injuries by five times compared to front-facing. This report describes the development project of a concept which enables to fasten a rear-facing child car seat with the car seat belt. The objective was to design the fastening components for a rear-facing child car seat that suits children up to five years and considering the regulations, ECE R44, and the Swedish Plus test. This is a Master thesis that has been in collaboration with Company Xand Havd Group in Gothenburg. The project aimed to deliver a digital concept of the fastening components with information about the material, manufacturing methods, product costs, and design form. Also, was the aim to gather information through the project on what it takes to develop a rear-facing child car seat. The project consisted of five phases: planning, pre-study, ideation, detailed design and at last presentation of the result. The first phase was to plan and coordinate the project. A pre-study was then made investigating the products on the market, interviews with both users and experts regarding safety for children in vehicles, relevant literature for developing a child car seat was also collected and regulations were studied. The ideation phase developed ideas and three concepts were taken forward for development. One concept was chosen after decision making and the concept was more detailed designed in CAD.The result is presented through a CAD model which illustrates the design form and chosen material. The result is a concept that fastens the car seat belt with two hooks which can be connected to the child car seat base. In the base is two buckles designed to connect with the hooks, which uses the same fastening way used in the vehicles to fasten passengers. This is supposed to increase the usability of the installation. Material, manufacturing methods and product costs have been considered and are presented with the result.

Na última década, para atender à demanda de aço requerida pelo aquecimento da economia mundial, aliado ao aumento da produtividade dos altos fornos, as usinas siderúrgicas vêm enfrentando problemas de disponibilidade de equipamentos, principalmente para escoar a produção do gusa dos Altos Fornos para a Aciaria realizada por Carros Torpedo. Estudos sobre mecanismos de corrosão em refratários utilizados em carro torpedo mostraram que a presença de espinélio, MgAl2O4, melhora a resistência à erosão e à penetração de escória, em refratários de alta alumina. Considerando que a corrosão em refratários é governada pela área de interface com o metal/escória, a diminuição da porosidade dos refratários contribui para a diminuição desta área. Portanto, para que a resistência à corrosão do revestimento refratário seja melhorada, é necessário que os caminhos que conduzem à penetração do banho (gusa/escória), sejam preenchidos ao máximo, sem comprometer a microestrutura diante de possíveis variações volumétricas, resultantes de expansão térmica diferencial. O objetivo desse trabalho é avaliar o comportamento ao desgaste por corrosão gusa/escória em refratários formados a base de Al2O3/SiC/C/MgAl2O4 incorporados com espinélio de alumínio magnésio na porosidade aberta do material refratário. Para análise da formação e estabilidade química do espinélio, a partir das soluções mistas de nitratos de magnésio e alumínio foram utilizadas análises termogravimétrica, (TG), análise térmica diferencial, (DTA), difratometria de raios X, (DRX). Após as impregnações dos corpos de prova e ensaios de corrosão e escorificação, realizados em Forno Tamman foram utilizadas as técnicas de microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV), porosimetria de mercúrio, difratometria de raios X, DRX, para avaliar os mecanismos de desgaste do refratário. / In the last decade to get the demand of steel required for the global economy warming, coupled with the increasing blast furnaces productivity, steel mills have had problems of equipment availability, mainly to transfer hot metal productionl from blast furnaces to Steelmaking by Torpedo Cars. Studies of corrosion mechanisms in refractory materials used in torpedo cars showed that the presence of spinel, MgAl2O4, improves the erosion resistance and slag penetration in high-alumina based refractories. Considering that the refractories corrosion is controlled by the interface with the hot metal or slag, the decrease of refractories porosity contributes to the reduction in this surface area. Therefore, the refractory lining corrosion resistance improved when the pathways lead to penetration of the bath (hot metal/slag) are filled up to the maximum, without jeopardizing the microstructure, avoiding volumetric changes by differential thermal expansion. The goal of this study is to evaluate the corrosion wear behavior by hot metal/slag of Al2O3/C/SiC/MgAl2O4 based materials incorporated with aluminum magnesium spinel into open porosity of this refractory materials. Thermal analysis (TG/DTA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were simultaneously study used the formation and chemical stability of spinel obtained from mixed solutions of b using magnesium and aluminum nitrates. After impregnation and corrosion tests Tammann furnace materials samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mercury porosimetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD) to evaluate the wear mechanisms of refractory.

This thesis analyzes the interior of the solar car, used by the JU Solar Team, to improve the user experience in terms of user interaction and ergonomics. Following the Design Thinking methodology, it starts with a research phase to understand how the user interacts with the car and the elements required for this interaction during the race. It also studies the dimension of the actual interior and the anthropometric factors, some changes are proposed for a more efficient use of the space. The next phase explores new buttons and configurations for the steering wheel. The use of prototypes and sketches leads the development of the ideas, which are further developed and defined, including the graphical design and the dimensions of the interior. In the findings, the redesign of the steering wheel and interior is shown in several renders with an explanation of the final design decisions, which can be summarized in: A new shape for the steering wheel where most of the buttons have been added with new shapes and colors. The emergency buttons and light indicators have been allocated on a central control panel. The user has access to the buttons without releasing the steering wheel and the dimension of the canapé has been reduced thanks to a more efficient use of the space. As a part of the thesis a full scale model of the steering wheels and a 1:10 scale model of the interior is provided. This thesis solves some of the problems in the actual design of the solar car and explore some of the important factors in user interaction. A human-centered design approach to a project usually driven by the performance of the car and not the user experience. / Denna avhandling omfattar utveckling av interiör för solbilar med inriktning mot att förbättra för användaren. Arbetet avser att appliceras på Ju Solar teams solbil som ska delta för Högskolan i Jönköping i World Solar Challenge 2017. Forskningen i projektet fokuserar på att förstå hur användaren interagerar och samspelar med bilen och de faktiska problem som föraren har att hantera under tävlingen. Studien omfattar också antropometriska mått där förslag på ändringar gjorts för att optimera utrymmet. Utvärdering av idéer har gjorts med hjälp av skisser och prototyper, som inkluderar den grafiska designen Designbesluten kan sammanfattas med följande: • De viktiga knapparna är alla samlade i ratten. • Användning av form och färg samt position för att enkelt kunna skilja mellan knappar och dess funktioner. • Ny form för ratten med en extra grepp-zon i den övre delen. Ny utformning av knappar, former och konfiguration för ratten. • En central manöverpanel med ljusindikatorer för föraren. • Nya dimensioner av interiören för att minska förarhuvens storlek och därmed minska luftmotståndet. Som en del av avhandlingen finns en fullskalemodell av ratten och en modell i skala 1:10 av interiören tillhandahålls. Solbilar utvecklas vanligen med prestanda som prioritet men denna avhandling utforskar de problemområden som finns i anslutning till solbilens förarmiljö med människan i centrum.

Na última década, para atender à demanda de aço requerida pelo aquecimento da economia mundial, aliado ao aumento da produtividade dos altos fornos, as usinas siderúrgicas vêm enfrentando problemas de disponibilidade de equipamentos, principalmente para escoar a produção do gusa dos Altos Fornos para a Aciaria realizada por Carros Torpedo. Estudos sobre mecanismos de corrosão em refratários utilizados em carro torpedo mostraram que a presença de espinélio, MgAl2O4, melhora a resistência à erosão e à penetração de escória, em refratários de alta alumina. Considerando que a corrosão em refratários é governada pela área de interface com o metal/escória, a diminuição da porosidade dos refratários contribui para a diminuição desta área. Portanto, para que a resistência à corrosão do revestimento refratário seja melhorada, é necessário que os caminhos que conduzem à penetração do banho (gusa/escória), sejam preenchidos ao máximo, sem comprometer a microestrutura diante de possíveis variações volumétricas, resultantes de expansão térmica diferencial. O objetivo desse trabalho é avaliar o comportamento ao desgaste por corrosão gusa/escória em refratários formados a base de Al2O3/SiC/C/MgAl2O4 incorporados com espinélio de alumínio magnésio na porosidade aberta do material refratário. Para análise da formação e estabilidade química do espinélio, a partir das soluções mistas de nitratos de magnésio e alumínio foram utilizadas análises termogravimétrica, (TG), análise térmica diferencial, (DTA), difratometria de raios X, (DRX). Após as impregnações dos corpos de prova e ensaios de corrosão e escorificação, realizados em Forno Tamman foram utilizadas as técnicas de microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV), porosimetria de mercúrio, difratometria de raios X, DRX, para avaliar os mecanismos de desgaste do refratário. / In the last decade to get the demand of steel required for the global economy warming, coupled with the increasing blast furnaces productivity, steel mills have had problems of equipment availability, mainly to transfer hot metal productionl from blast furnaces to Steelmaking by Torpedo Cars. Studies of corrosion mechanisms in refractory materials used in torpedo cars showed that the presence of spinel, MgAl2O4, improves the erosion resistance and slag penetration in high-alumina based refractories. Considering that the refractories corrosion is controlled by the interface with the hot metal or slag, the decrease of refractories porosity contributes to the reduction in this surface area. Therefore, the refractory lining corrosion resistance improved when the pathways lead to penetration of the bath (hot metal/slag) are filled up to the maximum, without jeopardizing the microstructure, avoiding volumetric changes by differential thermal expansion. The goal of this study is to evaluate the corrosion wear behavior by hot metal/slag of Al2O3/C/SiC/MgAl2O4 based materials incorporated with aluminum magnesium spinel into open porosity of this refractory materials. Thermal analysis (TG/DTA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were simultaneously study used the formation and chemical stability of spinel obtained from mixed solutions of b using magnesium and aluminum nitrates. After impregnation and corrosion tests Tammann furnace materials samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mercury porosimetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD) to evaluate the wear mechanisms of refractory.

Estágio realizado na Bosch Car Multimedia e orientado pelo Eng.º Rui Braz / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009