No description available.

Modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) has been used extensively as a recombinant vector for delivery of antigens from diverse pathogens. Its ability to generate strong antigen specific CD8+ T cell responses in humans has been shown in clinical trials of novel vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis, HIV I AIDS, influenza and cancer. The work in this thesis describes the use of BAC recombineering technology to harness the endogenous regulatory signal (promoter) that drives the expression of non-essential open reading frames (ORFs) in MVA for immunogenic expression of a recombinant antigen. Replacement of the ORFs of four non-essential genes in MVA; C11R, F11l, A44L and B8R with an epitope tagged luciferase positioned to use the same endogenous promoter showed early transgene expression equal to or slightly higher than traditional p7.5 and short synthetic promoter (SSP) constructs. The frequency of antigen-specific CD8+ T cell induced in mice by single dose MVA or adenovirus-prime, rMVA-boost vaccination showed equivalent or slightly higher responses by the endogenous promoters compared to the traditional p7.5 and SSP constructs. Assessment of the growth rate of these viruses showed they were unimpaired and the insertions were genetically stable. Furthermore, the endogenous promoter driven insertion loci of B8R and C11R were used for the construction of a bivalent MVA expressing an epitope tagged luciferase (rLucPb9) and a Photinus pyralis (pLuc) luciferase. The frequency of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells induced in mice by bivalent MV A was equivalent to single-pLuc and single-Pb9 recombinants co-administered as a mixture, at separate sites or administered alone following single dose MV A vaccination but slightly lower for Pb9-specific CD8+ T cell following adenovirus-prime, rMVA-boost.

Seit der Strukturaufklärung der grünen Blattpigmente Chlorophyll a und Chlorophyll b sowie des roten Blutfarbstoffes Häm durch Richard Willstätter und Hans Fischer zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts stehen tetrapyrrolische Naturstoffe weltweit im Fokus unzähliger biologischer, medizinischer, physikalischer und chemischer Forschungsarbeiten. Heute spielen insbesondere Porphyrine – die prominentesten Vertreter der synthetischen Tetrapyrrol-Makrocyclen – eine bedeutende Rolle in der modernen angewandten Chemie, etwa als metallorganische Katalysatoren, als Photosensibilisatoren in der photodynamischen Krebstherapie oder auf dem Gebiet der Materialwissenschaften. Neben monomeren Porphyrinen sind dabei v.a. Multiporphyrine mit maßgeschneiderten photophysikalischen Eigenschaften und definierter dreidimensionaler Struktur höchst attraktive Syntheseziele. Im Gegensatz zum immensen Forschungsinteresse an achiralen Porphyrin-Systemen wurde der Darstellung und stereochemischen Charakterisierung chiraler Porphyrinoide bislang vergleichsweise wenig Beachtung geschenkt. Insbesondere optisch aktive Vertreter mit stereo-genen Porphyrin-Aryl-Achsen und intrinsisch axial-chirale Oligoporphyrine wurden bislang kaum untersucht. Aufgrund eines Mangels an geeignet funktionalisierten tetrapyrrolischen Vorläufern sind hierbei Strukturmotive mit β-Verknüpfung besonders unterrepräsentiert. Die generell spärliche Beschreibung axial-chiraler Porphyrin-Systeme und ihrer chiroptischen Eigenschaften liegt hauptsächlich in der oft extrem schweren Zugänglichkeit entsprechender Verbindungen – insbesondere in optisch reiner Form – begründet. Aufgrund der derzeit rapide ansteigenden Bedeutung chiraler Porphyrinoide sind die Synthese und stereochemische Analyse sowie eine Erweiterung des bis dato mehr als begrenzten methodischen Repertoires zur stereoselektiven Darstellung von chiralen Porphyrin-Derivaten von größtem Interesse. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war daher die Etablierung effizienter und vielseitig ein-setzbarer Verfahren zum Aufbau komplexer axial-chiraler Mono- und Multiporphyrine mit maßgeschneiderten chemischen, physikalischen und chiroptischen Eigenschaften sowie unter-schiedlicher räumlicher Anordnung der Chromophore. Desweiteren sollten erstmals verschiedene Konzepte zur stereoselektiven Synthese axial-chiraler Porphyrin-Systeme entwickelt und vergleichend erprobt werden. Bei allen bearbeiteten Fragestellungen standen ein tieferes Verständnis stereochemischer Aspekte sowie die eingehende Untersuchung der chiroptischen Eigenschaften (z.B. unter Anwendung moderner HPLC-Kopplungstechniken) der neuartigen synthetisierten Verbindungen im Vordergrund. / Since the structural elucidation of the green leaf pigments chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b and the red blood dye heme by Richard Willstätter and Hans Fischer in the early 20th century, the broad area of tetrapyrrole research has become one of the most exciting, stimulating, and rewarding for scientists from most diverse disciplines like biology, medicince, and chemistry. Today in particular porphyrins – the most prominent representatives amongst synthetic tetrapyrroles – play a crucial role in modern applied chemistry, e.g., as metalorganic catalysts, as photosensitizers in photodynamic cancer therapy or in the field of material science. Besides monomeric porphyrins predominantly multiporphyrin arrays with tailor-made photophysical properties and well-defined three-dimensional structure display highly attractive synthetic targets. In contrast to the tremendous research interests in achiral porphyrin systems comparatively little attention has been paid to the synthesis and stereochemical characterization of chiral porphyrinoids. Especially optically active representatives with stereogenic porphyrin-aryl axes and intrinsically axially chiral oligoporphyrins have hardly been investigated so far. Due to a lack of suitably functionalized tetrapyrrolic precursors, structural motifs based on β-coupled subunits are particularly underrepresented. The fact that axially chiral porphyrins and their chiroptical properties have in general attracted only low attention can be ascribed to the extremely difficult accessibility of such compounds – especially in optically pure form. Be-cause of the nowadays rapidly increasing importance of chiral porphyrinoids, their synthesis and stereochemical analysis as well as an expansion of the – so far greatly limited – methodological repertoire for the stereoselective construction of chiral porphyrin derivatives is of highest interest. Thus, the aim of the present work was to establish efficient and widely applicable procedures for the construction of structurally complex axially chiral mono- and multiporphyrins with taylor-made chemical, physical, and chiroptical properties and well-defined spatial arrangement of the chromophores. In addition, different concepts for the stereoselective synthesis of axially chiral porphyrin systems were to be developed and comparatively evaluated for the first time. For all investigations the main focus concentrated on gaining detailed knowledge of stereochemical aspects and on closely studying the chiroptical behavior (e.g., by using modern HPLC hyphenation techniques) of the newly synthesized compounds.

No description available.

The project to design a CD transport (CD player) in conjunction with Perreaux Industries came about from the need for a source component in their Silhouette series of products. This project describes the design a high quality CD player, at a low price, to compliment Perreaux's Silhouette series. A CD drive is selected over a proprietary optical pickup due to the former's low cost and the standardisation of the interface. The control circuitry includes a micro controller and discrete logic to provide the correct data and clock signals to the SPDIF transmitter and DAC circuits. These two circuits provided a high quality analogue output, and facilitate an upgrade path by connecting the SPDIF output to an external DAC. After three board iterations, a final production ready revision was achieved. The design includes a high quality toroidal transformer, low jitter crystal oscillator, and a very high quality SPDIF pulse transformer output. The design also allows a remote input to control the player, and an optional digital cable via an RJ45 connector to provide synchronisation with a future design of the SXD2 DAC module, or to transmit SPDIF to a remote location. The specifications of the final design were higher than expectations. The digital output boasts equal or superior performance to competitive products in the same price range, with the analogue output attaining exceptionally high performance.

Detta examensarbete vid Stora Enso Skoghalls bruk utreder gångtiden på en CD-raffinörs lagerpaket som endast går halva den av leverantören angivna drifttiden. CD-raffinören är av modell RGP 82 och används för mekanisk bearbetning av träflis till fibrer, vilket i slutändan av processen blir till kartongpapper. Denna maskin är en kritisk del av tillverkningsprocessen och medför stora kostnader vid haveri, både i form av produktionsbortfall och reparationer. Under utredningens gång har det framkommit att den korta drifttiden är ett lokalt problem på Skoghall då andra bruk inte har liknande problem. Vi har därför valt att koncentrera oss på de driftförhållanden som råder på Skoghalls bruk. En förutsättning för att erhålla angiven drifttid är att underhållet och dokumentationen på maskinen fungerar på ett tillfredställande sätt. Det har visat sig att kommunikationen mellan olika underhållsfunktioner inte alltid fungerat optimalt, vidare har det saknats uttalade underhållsrutiner för t.ex. olje- och filterbyten samt regelbundna oljeanalyser. En avgörande parameter för ett lagers livslängd är smörjsystemet, oljan skall uppfylla en rad kriterier för att man ska uppnå maximal lagerlivslängd. På grund av bristerna i underhållet misstänkte vi att den korta drifttiden kunde härledas till oljans kondition. Efter flera oljeanalyser kunde vi konstatera att oljans partikelinnehåll var betydligt högre än rekommenderat. Detta kan med stor sannolikhet bero på att djuprengöringsfiltret troligen varit ur funktion en längre tid samt att tryckfiltrens filtreringsgrad inte följde den nya rekommendationen. Det finns heller ingen som har någon information om att det skett något oljebyte eller rengöring av systemet på väldigt lång tid. För att på ett enkelt sätt kunna övervaka renheten på oljan har vi undersökt möjligheten till att använda ett on-line system för partikelräkning. För att undersöka lagrens nuvarande kondition har vi utfört ett antal vibrationsmätningar på maskinen. Mätningarna utfördes med VMI:s mätinstrument EasyViber och bestod av FFT-analyser och Envelopemätningar. Resultatet från dessa mätningar visade att det fanns en begynnande skada i något av lagrens rullkroppar. Detta resultat parallellt med FU-avdelningens egna mätningar ledde till ett byte av lagerpaketet. För att få en uppfattning om hur systemet rör sig utfördes även en Vibshape analys som grafiskt demonstrerar systemets rörelser. När ett haveri inträffar går händelseförloppet väldigt snabbt, ofta handlar det endast om någon dag. Detta ställer till stora bekymmer kostnadsmässigt då bytet ofta måste ske oplanerat och kan därmed störa hela processen. Det vore därför önskvärt att kunna få en tidigare förvarning för att lättare kunna planera bytet. Vi har därför utrett ett par olika lösningar på ett fast on-linesystem för kontinuerlig övervakning av lagrens kondition. / This paper at Stora Enso Skoghalls Mill investigates the lifetime of a CD-refiner bearing unit that only operates half of the mention lifetime. The CD-refiner is a RGP 82 model and is used for mechanical manufacturing of wood chips to fiber, which in the end of the process becomes carton paper. This machine is a critical part of the process and results in great cost in invent of a failure, both in lost of production volumes and repairs. During the investigation it has been revealed that the short lifetime is a local problem at Skoghall because no other Mills has similar problems. We have therefore chosen to concentrate on the production parameters that are used at Skoghall Mill. A condition to obtain the mentioned lifetime is that the maintenance and documentation is working properly. It has been revealed that the communication between different maintenance departments does not always work accurate, further more is pronounced maintenance routines missing for example regarding oil- and filter exchange and regular oil analysis. A crucial parameter for a bearing lifetime is the oil grease system, the oil have to fulfil a number of criteria’s fore the bearing to reach maximum lifetime. Because of the flaws in the maintenance routines we suspected that the short lifetime is caused by the oil’s condition. After several oil analyses we came to the conclusion that the particle contamination was higher than recommended. A plausible cause to this could be that the deep filtering unit probably had malfunctioned for a long period of time, further more did not the pressure filters follow the new recommendation. Neither is there anybody with information about if there has been any oil chance or cleaning of the system for a very long time. One easy way to monitor the particle contamination is to use an on-line system for particle counting, therefore we have examined one of the existing systems on the market. To examine the present condition of the bearings did we conduct a series of vibration measurements on the refiner. The measurements was conducted with VMI:s instrument EasyViber and contained FFT-analyses and Envelope measurements. The result from these measurements indicated an early injury in one of the bearings rolling elements. This result together with measurements conducted by the FU-department resulted in a change of bearing unit. To get an idea how the system moves we conducted a Vibshape analyses that graphically demonstrates the systems movements. When a failure occurs the chain of events is very rapidly, often it is a matter of days. This causes great problems and costs because the machine has to be changed during an unplanned stop and can therefore affect the whole process. It would therefore be desirable to get an earlier warning and have the possibility to make a planed stop. We have investigated a few possible solutions for continues on-line monitoring system of the bearings condition.

Extension programs across the nation have been given the task of education and outreach to citizens of their respective states. Master Gardener programs have been seen as a way to provide horticultural education, while also providing outreach using the program’s service requirement. Extension professionals have used a variety of training methods throughout the years. These methods include face-to-face workshop trainings, interactive television, and more recently World Wide Web methodologies. This study sought to test the effectiveness of CD-based training materials versus a traditional face-to-face training. Turfgrass management modules chosen for testing in this study included nutrient, water, and pest topics. Participants’ knowledge levels were measured using a pre-test/post-test design. Student satisfaction with the learning materials and their perceptions of lawn care also were measured during the study. Results indicated that CD-based materials were more effective than were face-to- face workshops for teaching difficult turfgrass material to the Master Gardener trainees. Community development is one of the four focus areas for Texas Cooperative Extension. A secondary purpose was to determine if the Master Gardener program affected community development. Descriptive statistics were used to compare participants’ past experiences with their anticipated experiences after completion of the Master Gardener program. Results indicated that community development activities were being completed, but the extent and type of development could not be measured. This study revealed several surprising and far-reaching implications for extension programming. These implications and recommendations for improvement of extension programs are discussed further. Recommendations for additional research also are included.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 1989. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Mercury is a toxic metal that has been released to the environment through numerous industrial activities. It can exist in various solid, aqueous, and gaseous forms. Volatile Hg(0) is frequently present at the source of a spill where it behaves as a dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) contaminant that can change oxidation state and speciation via chemical or biological reactions. Mercury speciation is a key factor determining the mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity of Hg in the environment. Previous research has demonstrated that In Situ Thermal Desorption (ISTD) can be used in various modes to treat soil contaminants including Hg(0). The application of ISTD and other remediation processes must incorporate potential speciation during remediation and assess mobility of any mercury remaining in the soil post-remediation. However, research examining the impact of mercury speciation on ISTD processes is limited. The goals of this research are to investigate the fate and transport of mercury in soils from the source where concentrations are expected to be high to dilute solutions associated with down gradient groundwater, lakes, and rivers. For high concentrations of mercury, equilibrium speciation has been investigated to identify potential transformations at high temperatures consistent with those applied in ISTD processes. A model has been developed that describes mercury speciation over a range of environmental conditions. At low mercury concentrations, competitive Hg(II) adsorption on the soil minerals, goethite and gibbsite, has been evaluated over a range of experimental conditions. Models describing Hg(II) adsorption and aqueous speciation have been developed to provide a tool for predicting the fate and transport of residual mercury after thermal remediation applications. The results of these studies demonstrate that ISTD is feasible, but the off-gas speciation will depend on both the applied temperatures and the soil composition and redox conditions of the site. Pure phase mercury was predicted to be vaporized at temperatures well within the range of typical ISTD processes. The adsorption of trace levels of Hg(II) remaining after ISTD was successfully modeled on goethite and gibbsite using the 1-pK CD-MUSIC model. / text