The study of the molecular mechanisms regulating reproductive processes is crucial for increasing the efficiency of reproductive biotechnologies that are often used in animal breeding. A key part of many biotechnological methods is the cultivation of oocytes, which simulates natural conditions in the ovaries. However this simulation is still imperfect and presents a limiting factor for successful formation of mammalian oocytes.capable of fertilization. Meiotic maturation is influenced by many factors including for example gasotransmiter hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Until recently, hydrogen sulfide was known only as toxic gas polluting the environment. It was found that the hydrogen sulfide is at low concentrations important signaling molecule with a lot of physiological functions. Hydrogen sulfide is produced by enzymes CBS, CTH and 3-MPST in various tissues of the body, including the reproductive system. We hypothesised that enzymes responsible for the endogenous production of hydrogen sulfide, CBS, CTH and 3-MPST, are present in porcine oocytes and their presence varies during meiotic maturation in cellular organelles. The goal of this study was to prove this hypothesis by cultivating porcine oocytes, detection of mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and hydrogen sulfide-releasing enzymes using imunocytochemistry and colocalization analysis. Our results showed that enzymes releasing hydrogen sulfide, CBS, CTH and 3-MPST, are present in GV porcine oocytes and also in the oocytes matured to the MII stage, after 48 hours in vitro cultivation. We found that the distribution of these enzymes in cellular organelles in oocyte changed during meiotic maturation. There were significant changes in the distribution of enzymes 3-MPST and CBS in the mitochondria, levels of colocalization coefficients for enzyme 3-MPST increased, these coefficients for enzyme CBS decreased during meiotic maturation. In endoplasmic reticulum we found significant changes in the distribution of all three hydrogen sulfide-releasing enzymes. Levels of colocalitazion coefficients for CBS and 3-MPST increased, while levels of these coefficients for enzyme CTH decreased. Results of our experiments on porcine oocytes can help to clarify the role of gasotransmitter hydrogen sulfide during meiotic maturaion mammals of oocytes and are highly valueable because their possible application in breeding of farm animals and in human assisted reproduction.

As the #MeToo movement swept the nation from Hollywood to Washington, within less than a week's time in November of 2017, longstanding news anchors, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were fired from their respective news networks because of sexual harassment allegations. As a result, each network had to grapple with repairing a destroyed image while simultaneously fulfilling the duty to report on news objectively. This qualitative analysis examined NBC and CBS's response to the allegations of sexual harassment against each anchor, allegations of withholding information and allegations of ignoring complaints through the lens of image repair theory in order to identify if any of the strategies were present in the networks' response. Applications of image repair discourse to news media organizations is a relatively novel examination and it highlights the complex duality of an organization's right to uphold its image but obligation to present the news objectively, even when it has become the news. / Master of Arts / As the #MeToo movement swept the nation from Hollywood to Washington, within less than a week's time in November of 2017, longstanding news anchors, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were fired from their respective news networks because of sexual harassment allegations. As a result, each network had to grapple with repairing a destroyed image while simultaneously running business as usual. This study examined NBC and CBS's response to the allegations of sexual harassment against each anchor, the allegations of withholding information and allegations of ignoring complaints made by employees over the past two decades, all the while attempting to fulfill the duty of objectively reporting the news. This study examined each networks' response using a crisis communication theory and offers an extension to the theory that can be utilized by news network organizations and the like.

Le syndrome de Down (SD), ou Trisomie 21, est l’aneuploïdie la plus fréquente chez l’humain. Le désordre génomique est tel qu’aucun traitement unique ne peut pallier à tous les symptômes (retard mental, troubles moteurs...). C’est pourquoi l’utilisation de modèles murins permet d’étudier l’impact de régions partielles du Hsa21 dans l’apparition des déficits. Mon projet de thèse s’est orienté sur un locus télomérique encadré par les gènes Abcg1 et U2af1. Mes recherches se sont focalisées sur deux modèles, Ts1Yah et Ms2Yah, dédiés à cette région. L’étude de ces lignées, combinées à d’autres modèles transgéniques, a montré la contribution de l’intervalle génique dans l’optimisation de l’apprentissage locomoteur. Dans un deuxième temps, le gène Cbs, candidat à la perte de fonction de mémoire, a permis de mettre en évidence un sauvetage fonctionnel dans une expérience à effets de doses. Cette découverte ouvre la voie à de nouvelles perspectives thérapeutiques. / The Down syndrome (DS), or Trisomy21, is the most frequent aneuploidy in human. The genomic disorder is such an extent that any single cure could overcome all the symptoms (mental retardation, motor defects…). That’s why mouse models’ using allows studies on Hsa21 regions impact in deficits apparition. My PhD project was turned toward the telomeric locus of the Hsa21 framed between Abcg1 and U2af1. We focused our research on two models, Ts1Yah and Ms2Yah, dedicated to this region. The study of those lines, combined with several other transgenic ones, showed the contribution of the interval into the optimisation of motor learning. In a second step, the Cbs gene, candidate on memory loss of function, has highlighted a functional rescue in dose-effect experiment. This discovery paves the way to new therapeutic perspectives.

This study explored social judgment theory’s utility in a political comedy context. As a model of attitude change, social judgment theory describes attitude changes that occur in receivers of persuasive messages. Given that the type of humor used in the political comedy context requires the audience to interpret the message, audience processing of the humor is thought to resemble the processing of persuasive messages. This study explored the assumptions of social judgment theory in both a political comedy and a traditional news context. In order to explore how satiric messages impact the attitude change process, clips of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or CBS News programs were shown to participants.Participants reported their attitudes and ego involvement regarding taxes and the job market prior to and after viewing the clips, which allowed attitude change to be identified. In addition, measures of audience activity, including ego involvement and political participation, were collected to explore the interplay of audience activity in attitude change. This project offered some support of social judgment theory’s utility in a political comedy context and reinforced the active audience assumption. / Department of Communication Studies

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to develop a Life Cycle Cost model that could be used for investment, budgeting and comparing alternatives. An evaluation of existing models concluded that there was a need for a model that was easy to use and understand but in the same way economical and technical complex. Theoretical and empirical information was gathered in accordance with the purpose and made a base of the model. The model highlights operative, energy and maintenance costs. A case study to test the model has been carried out and selected company for this has been Swedwood International AB which is a part of IKEA. Swedwood currently works with pay back calculations which could lead to wrong decisions during the life length of the investment. The developed LCC model was tested on different techniques for applying an edge on a substrate. The result of the report is that the user will have a clear and structured overview of an investment during its economical life length. A final investment decision demands further tests and evaluations, for example technical test and MCDM. Further researches for the LCC model could be to investigate if the model lacks any critical aspects that should be included. A recommendation for Swedwood is to follow up the developed standards for collecting data at the factories in order to facilitate when investigating for new techniques and comparing between investment options.</p> / <p>Syftet med examensarbetet är att utveckla en livscykelkostnadsmodell som kan användas vid investeringar, budgeteringar och jämförelser. Efter en utvärdering av tillgängliga modeller konstaterades det att behov fanns för en modell som var ekonomisk och teknisk avancerad men ändå användarvänlig. Teori och empiri insamlades i enlighet med syftet och bildade en grund för modellen. Modellen belyser speciellt kostnadsaktiviteter så som operativa, energi och underhållskostnader. En fallstudie för att testa modellen har genomförts och fallföretaget var Swedwood International AB som är en del av IKEA. Swedwood arbetar nu med payback kalkyler vilket kan leda till fel beslut sett till hela investeringens livslängd. Den framtagna LCC modellen testades på olika tekniker för att applicera en kant på ett arbetstycke. Resultatet av rapporten är genom att använda modellen får man en klar och tydlig översikt av alla kostnader under en investerings ekonomiska livslängd. Ett investeringsbeslut kräver ytterligare tester och utvärderingar så som tekniska tester och MCDM. En fortsatt utveckling av modellen kan vara att undersöka om den saknar någon kritisk del som ska var inkluderad. En rekommendation till Swedwood är att följa upp de centralt utvecklade standarder på fabrikerna så att alla samlar in data på samma sätt, vilket skulle underlätta vid implementering av nya tekniker och vid jämförelser av investeringar.</p>

Autism has been declared an urgent public health concern by the U.S. government and an epidemic by some advocacy groups. Determining autism’s diagnostic criteria, prevalence, and causes have been challenging. It is important to examine how the U.S. media have contributed to the public’s understanding of autism. Previous research found that British media coverage of the theory that vaccines cause autism was shown to contribute to the decline of vaccination rates in Britain (Lewis & Speers, 2003). This study examined U.S. television news media coverage using an agenda-setting theory and media framing perspective. A content analysis was conducted of national television evening news broadcasts airing on ABC, CBS, and NBC from 1994, when autism was first recognized as a spectrum disorder through April 2010, the time of this study. Specifically, this study examined the saliency of autism stories and how autism was framed in terms of prevalence and causes.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a Life Cycle Cost model that could be used for investment, budgeting and comparing alternatives. An evaluation of existing models concluded that there was a need for a model that was easy to use and understand but in the same way economical and technical complex. Theoretical and empirical information was gathered in accordance with the purpose and made a base of the model. The model highlights operative, energy and maintenance costs. A case study to test the model has been carried out and selected company for this has been Swedwood International AB which is a part of IKEA. Swedwood currently works with pay back calculations which could lead to wrong decisions during the life length of the investment. The developed LCC model was tested on different techniques for applying an edge on a substrate. The result of the report is that the user will have a clear and structured overview of an investment during its economical life length. A final investment decision demands further tests and evaluations, for example technical test and MCDM. Further researches for the LCC model could be to investigate if the model lacks any critical aspects that should be included. A recommendation for Swedwood is to follow up the developed standards for collecting data at the factories in order to facilitate when investigating for new techniques and comparing between investment options. / Syftet med examensarbetet är att utveckla en livscykelkostnadsmodell som kan användas vid investeringar, budgeteringar och jämförelser. Efter en utvärdering av tillgängliga modeller konstaterades det att behov fanns för en modell som var ekonomisk och teknisk avancerad men ändå användarvänlig. Teori och empiri insamlades i enlighet med syftet och bildade en grund för modellen. Modellen belyser speciellt kostnadsaktiviteter så som operativa, energi och underhållskostnader. En fallstudie för att testa modellen har genomförts och fallföretaget var Swedwood International AB som är en del av IKEA. Swedwood arbetar nu med payback kalkyler vilket kan leda till fel beslut sett till hela investeringens livslängd. Den framtagna LCC modellen testades på olika tekniker för att applicera en kant på ett arbetstycke. Resultatet av rapporten är genom att använda modellen får man en klar och tydlig översikt av alla kostnader under en investerings ekonomiska livslängd. Ett investeringsbeslut kräver ytterligare tester och utvärderingar så som tekniska tester och MCDM. En fortsatt utveckling av modellen kan vara att undersöka om den saknar någon kritisk del som ska var inkluderad. En rekommendation till Swedwood är att följa upp de centralt utvecklade standarder på fabrikerna så att alla samlar in data på samma sätt, vilket skulle underlätta vid implementering av nya tekniker och vid jämförelser av investeringar.

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The estimation of demand equations provides the earliest example of the use of statistical and econometric techniques on economic data. It is possible to identify two distinct approaches to the estimation of demand equations. The first and original approach concentrated on the demand for particular goods by paying attention to any special characteristics of the single market involved. The second approach involved simultaneous estimation of complete systems containing the demand equations for every commodity group purchased by consumers. The estimation of a complete system of demand equations in principle enables us to obtain better estimates of each equation in the system than the first approach because of interaction in the demand behavior of different commodities. This study is directed towards the estimation of demand systems for agricultural products in the OECD countries. Three representatives demand systems with their extensions, namely the Rotterdam Model, An Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), and CBS model are used. These models are estimated by Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method. The procedures to estimate demand systems suggest significant empirical regularities for agricultural products in the OECD countries. The main contribution of this study is its procedure for model selection. This procedure implies the superiority of AIDS and CBS models over the Rotterdam model.

Thesis (M.S.)--Butler University, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves x-xiii).