Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING / Bibliography: leaf 60. / by Susan Russell Stapleton. / B.S.

Estudaram-se as perdas fetais ocorridas no distri to de São Paulo, no período de dois anos (1 de junho de 1968 a 31 de maio de 1970) e cuja residência da mãe se localizasse também no distrito de São Paulo. O trabalho objetivou o estudo das mesmas segundo as variáveis fornecidas pelos atestados dos nascidos mortos, que se constituiram em seu material básico. O ponto de vista social foi focalizado através dos aspectos referentes à cor, filiação, naturalidade e profissão dos pais. Os itens relativos a sexo, duração da gestação, local onde ocorreu o evento, história obstétrica, idade da mãe e causa da perda constituiram o conjunto de dados para análise do ponto de vista médico-estatístico. Quanto ao problema da causa, é de se destacar que esta é a primeira vez que tal aspecto é analisado entre nós. Utilizando dados obtidos atravês da \"Investigação Interamericana de Mortalidade na Infância\", foi possível obter o coeficiente corrigido de mortalidade perinatal. A pesquisa visou ainda ao estudo das implicações que as perdas fetais acarretam no campo Jurídico. Quanto aos resultados, devem ser destacados o problema do registro de perdas por local de ocorrência e não de residência, a maior proporção de ilegitimidade nas perdas fetais precoces e a maior proporção de pais naturais da região leste do Brasil. A razão de masculinidade se mostrou maior quanto menor fosse o tempo de gestação. Alguns dados permitiram inferir que existe uma sub-enumeração de perdas precoces e intermediárias. Verificou-se ainda que, aproximadamente, 86% das perdas ocorreram em hospitais,que a quarta parte dos casos estudados foi produto de primeira gestação e que em 85% das perdas o parto foi normal. Relativamente à idade da mãe, foi verificado que o risco de vir a ter uma perda - excetuando-se o grupo de mulheres de menos de vinte anos - aumenta com a idade materna. Em face de erros e imperfeições quanto ao preenchimento do atestado e da ausência de alguns dados de grande interesse para a Saúde Pública, foi sugerida a adoção de novo modelo de atestado de óbitos perinatais. / Foetal loss of resident women of the district of Sao Paulo that occurred in this area, were studied for a two years period, from June 1st, 1968 to May 31st, 1970. The objectives of this study were: - analysis of the foetal mortality differentials according to the available information in the certificates of stillbirths; - analysis of legal involvements pertinent to the foetal deaths. The variables considered were: - social: color, legitimacy, parents birth place and their occupation; - medical-demographic: sex, lenght of pregnancy, birth-order, single or plural deliveries, age of mother, and cause of death. Data available in the Inter American Investigation in Childhood permitted the calculation of the Perinatal Mortality rate. The conclusions were: - a large proportion of illegitimacy observed among the early foetal deaths - the sex-ratio (x 1000 women) was higher in the early pregnancy\'s foetal loss; - there is an under-registration of foetal loss occurred before 28 weeks of gestation; - 86% of the foetal loss occurred in hospitals; - 25% of foetal loss occurred in women pregnant for the first time; - 11% of the foetal loss were delivered by Caesarean section; - the risk of having a foetal loss increases with the increasing of the mother\'s age. The recommendations were: - the tabulation of the stillbirth certificate data should be done by local of residence instead of by occurrence; - a new model of Perinatal death certificate was proposed in order to provide more complete data that are important from the point of view of Public Health.

This thesis situates Matthew's interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures within a Jewish setting. I argue that Matthew uses a Jewish technique that I call 'thematic association'. The technique involves using scriptural quotations to point to themes in the quotations' original scriptural contexts. Evoking the themes facilitates implicit interpretations of the unquoted scriptural contexts. I begin by identifying examples of thematic association in the Dead Sea Scrolls to show how thematic association is used. This discussion not only illustrates the process of implied interpretation, but it also shows that thematic association was used by Jewish sources before the Gospel of Matthew. It is, of course, one matter to show a precedent, but another to demonstrate that Matthew actually uses the technique. To that end, I will attempt to show that Matthew's narrative exhibits the same technique. I argue that Matthew uses thematic association when quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures to point to themes in unquoted parts of the scriptures, implying that these themes are relevant to events during Jesus' life. I analyze Matthew's quotations of Isa 7:14, Mic 5:2, Hos 11:1, Jer 31:15, Deut 8:3, Isa 9:1-2, Isa 53:4, Isa 42:1-4, Ps 78, and Ps 22. Comparing themes in these quotations' contexts to themes in Matthew reveals Matthew's use of thematic association.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes acute nosocomial infections as well as chronic infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. P. aeruginosa utilizes a type III secretion system (T3SS) during acute infections to promote host cell cytotoxicity and inhibit phagocytosis. Regulation of T3SS expression can be classified into two distinct categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. T3SS intrinsic regulation involves the well-characterized ExsECDA cascade that controls T3SS gene transcription. Extrinsic regulation involves global regulatory systems that affect T3SS expression. Despite general knowledge of global regulation of T3SS expression, few specific mechanisms have been elucidated in detail. The overall goal of my thesis work was to provide clarity to global regulatory mechanisms controlling T3SS expression. One well-documented observation is that P. aeruginosa isolates from CF patients commonly have reduced T3SS expression. In chapter II, I describe how the MucA/AlgU/AlgZR system, commonly activated in CF isolates through mutation of the mucA gene, inhibits T3SS gene expression. My experiments demonstrate that the AlgZR two-component system inhibits ExsA expression through two separate global regulatory systems. First, as previously described, AlgZR inhibits ExsA expression by reducing activity of the cAMP/Vfr signaling pathway. Vfr, a homolog of Escherichia coli Crp, regulates T3SS gene expression through an unknown mechanism. Second, AlgZR alters the activity of the RsmAYZ system to specifically reduce ExsA expression. The RNA-binding protein RsmA, a homolog of E. coli CsrA, activates ExsA expression at a post-transcriptional level. Previous studies in our laboratory identified several transposon insertion mutants that appeared to be novel extrinsic regulators of T3SS gene expression. One of those candidates, named DeaD, is a putative ATP-dependent RNA helicase. My experiments in chapter III reveal that DeaD regulates T3SS expression by directly stimulating exsA translation. Mutants lacking deaD have reduced exsA translational reporter activity and ExsA expression in trans fails to complement a deaD exsA double mutant for T3SS gene expression. I demonstrate that purified DeaD stimulates ExsA expression in a coupled in vitro transcription/translation assay, confirming our in vivo findings. In chapter II, I observed that RsmA activates the transcription of RsmY and RsmZ, two small non-coding RNAs that act to sequester RsmA from target mRNAs. My experiments in chapter IV begin to dissect the RsmA-activation mechanism of RsmY/Z expression. I show that RsmA activation requires the previously described Gac/Lad/Ret system that controls RsmY/Z expression. RsmA, however, does not alter Gac/Lad/Ret gene transcription or translation. Interestingly, an RsmA variant deficient in RNA-binding, RsmA R44A, was able to complement an rsmA mutant for RsmY/Z expression. I hypothesized that RsmA interacts with an unknown protein to activate RsmY/Z expression and identified several potential interaction partners using co-purification assays. Together, my combined experiments elucidate novel global regulatory pathways controlling T3SS gene expression during acute and chronic P. aeruginosa infections, and provide a foundation towards the goal of developing future treatment options.

Since the invention of the World Wide Web in 1990 and the commercialization of the internet, numerous scholars and cultural critics have interrogated the cultural and economic role of attention, as both a psychobiological ability and a psychosocial good. In particular, commentators from many disciplines posit contested theories of an attention economy, a socioeconomic regime in which, since information and communications technologies make information abundant, the attention needed to acquire information becomes the world's most scarce economic resource. This dissertation argues that a parallel body of postmodernist narratives has emerged from the same conditions, in which technologies of attention enmesh individuals in illegible systems of production, consumption, surveillance, and thought management. Intensified strategies for focusing individual and collective attention are essential components of these narratives, and thus attention, as a means and an end, plays a central role in dramatic tensions between power and resistance. At a time of increased concern for what happens to the long narrative in the age of the text and tweet, my analyses of the film The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998), novels Glamorama (Bret Easton Ellis, 1998) and Dead Stars (Bruce Wagner, 2012), and graphic novel series Transmetropolitan (Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson, 1998-2003), explore both continuities and disjunctions in how different media represent this narrative, since diverse institutional codes dictate conditions of production and reception. Despite the different physiological, technological, temporal, and spatial demands these texts place upon their readers' attention, in the main they share an emblematic suspicion of attention's relationship to the governing institutions of American life, which ask subjects to attend to their bodies, minds, schedules and life objectives according to a digitized ideology of perpetual labor, consumerism, and efficiency. This dissertation also intervenes in debates about the value of close textual analysis, arguing that paying attention to narrative forms and themes forces readers to pay attention to the act of paying attention, increasingly important at a time when large institutions find new ways to monetize attention as a form of unpaid labor.

No description available.

<p>To make driving easier and safer, modern vehicles are equipped with driver support systems. Some of these systems, for example navigation or curvature warning systems, need the global position of the vehicle. To determine this position, the Global Positioning System (GPS) or a Dead Reckoning (DR) system can be used. However, these systems have often certain drawbacks. For example, DR systems suffer from error growth with time and GPS signal masking can occur. By integrating the DR position and the GPS position, the complementary characteristics of these two systems can be used advantageously. </p><p>In this thesis, low cost in-vehicle sensors (gyroscope and speedometer) are used to perform DR and the GPS receiver used has a low update frequency. The two systems are integrated with an extended Kalman filter in order to estimate a position. The evaluation of the implemented positioning algorithmshows that the system is able to give an estimated position in the horizontal plane with a relatively high update frequency and with the accuracy of the GPS receiver used. Furthermore, it is shown that the system can handle GPS signal masking for a period of time. </p><p>In order to increase the performance of a positioning system, map matching can be added. The idea with map matching is to compare the estimated trajectory of a vehicle with roads stored in a map data base, and the best match is chosen as the position of the vehicle. In this thesis, a simple off-line map matching algorithm is implemented and added to the positioning system. The evaluation shows that the algorithm is able to distinguish roads with different direction of travel from each other and handle off-road driving.</p>

<p>The recognition that supportive mechanical ventilation can also damage the lung, the so called ventilation induced lung injury (VILI), has revived the more than 40 year long debate on the optimal level of PEEP to be used. It is established that the prevention of VILI improves patient outcome and that PEEP exerts protective effects by preventing unstable diseased alveoli from collapsing. Therefore, the term “open lung PEEP” (OL-PEEP) has been introduced as the end-expiratory pressure that keeps the lung open after its collapse has been eliminated by an active lung recruitment manoeuvre. The determination of such an optimal level of PEEP under clinical circumstances is difficult and remains to be investigated.</p><p>The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of breath by breath monitoring of dynamic compliance (Cdyn) as a clinical means to identify OL-PEEP at the bedside and to demonstrate the improvement in lung function resulting from its application.</p><p>In a porcine lung lavage model of acute lung injury PEEP at maximum Cdyn during a decremental PEEP trial after full lung recruitment was related to the onset of lung collapse and OL-PEEP could be found 2 cmH₂O above this level Ventilation at OL-PEEP was associated with improved gas exchange, efficiency of ventilation, lung mechanics and less than 5% collapse on CT scans. In addition, dead space, especially its portion related to alveolar gas changed characteristically during recruitment, PEEP titration and collapse thereby helping to identify OL-PEEP.</p><p>The beneficial effects of OL-PEEP on lung function and mechanics was demonstrated in a porcine model of VILI. OL-PEEP improved lung function and mechanics when compared to lower or higher levels prior to or after lung recruitment. By using electrical impedance tomography it could be shown that PEEPs within the range of 14 to 22 cmH₂O resulted in a similar redistribution of both ventilation and perfusion to the dorsal regions of the lung. OL-PEEP resulted in the best regional and global matching of ventilation and perfusion explaining the drastic improvements in gas exchange. Also regional compliance was greatly improved in the lower half of the lung as compared to all other situations.</p><p>In ARDS patients OL-PEEP could be identified applying the same protocol. The physiological changes described could now be reproduced and maintained during a four hours study ventilation period in real patients at four study centres.</p><p>In conclusion, the usefulness of dynamic compliance for identifying open lung PEEP during a decremental PEEP trial was demonstrated under experimental and clinical conditions. This PEEP should then be used as an essential part of any lung protective ventilation strategy. The impact of ventilating ARDS patients according to the principles described in these studies on outcome are currently being evaluated in an international randomized controlled trial.</p>

La Dystrophie Myotonique de type 1 (DM1) est cause par l'expansion anormale d'un triplet CTG dans la partie 3'UTR du gène DMPK, entrainant l'agrégation du transcrit mutant dans des inclusions ribonucléoprotéiques appelées foci. D'après plusieurs études structurales sur des courtes répétitions CUG, il a été proposé que les expansions CUG se replient en une structure en tige-boucle qui interfère avec l'activité de plusieurs facteurs lié au métabolisme de l'ARN et altère leur fonction cellulaire. Le facteur d'épissage muscleblind-like 1 (MBNL1) a été identifié par sa capacité à interagir avec les répétitions CUG. In vivo, ces répétitions entrainent la séquestration de cette protéine aboutissant en une déplétion nucléaire. Un autre facteur d'épissage, la CUG Binding protein (CUGBP1), est également impliqué dans la pathologie. Au lieu d'être séquestré par les répétitions, la stabilité protéique de CUGBP1 est augmentée dans les tissus DM1 entrainant un gain d'activité pour ce facteur. La séquestration de MBNL1 et la stabilisation de CUGBP1 résultent en la dérégulation de l'épissage alternatif de plusieurs transcrits musculaires et du cerveau et la réexpression d'isoformes protéiques fœtales dans les tissus adultes. Cependant, de récentes études suggèrent que d'autres facteurs ou voies de signalisation que celles faisant intervenir MBNL1 et CUGBP1 pourraient être impliquées dans la pathologie DM1.Le but de mon travail de thèse a été d'identifier de nouveaux facteurs ayant la capacité d'interagir avec les répétitions CUG. A l'aide d'une purification sur chromatographie d'affinité utilisant un ARN contenant 95 répétitions CUG comme appât, nous avons identifié l'ARN hélicase p68/DDX5. p68 fait partie de la famille des protéines DEAD-box, caractérisée par un core protéique conservé constitué de neufs domaines hautement conservés, dont le motif DEAD, à l'origine du nom de ces protéines. p68 est impliquée dans de nombreux aspects du métabolisme de l'ARN, dont la transcription, l'épissage, l'export, la traduction et la dégradation des ARN. Nous avons montré, que p68 colocalise avec les foci CUG dans un modèle cellulaire exprimant la partie 3'UTR du gène DMPK contenant de longues répétitions CTG. Nous avons identifié que p68 augmente l'interaction de MBNL1 sur les répétitions CUG et une structure secondaire particulière d'un élément régulateur de l'ARN pré-messager cardiac Troponin T (TNNT2), dont l'épissage est dérégulé dans la pathologie. L'insertion de mutations dans le core de l'hélicase de p68 abolit l'effet de p68 sur la fixation de MBNL1 ainsi que la colocalisation de p68 avec les expansions CUG in vivo, suggérant que le remodelage des structures secondaires ARN de manière ATP-dépendante par p68 facilite l'interaction de MBNL1. Nous trouvons également que la compétence de p68 pour réguler l'inclusion de l'exon alternatif 5 de TNNT2 dépend de l'intégrité des sites de fixation de MBNL1.Nous proposons que p68 agit comme un modificateur de l'activité de MBNL1 sur ces cibles d'épissage ainsi que sur les expansions CUG à l'origine de la pathologie.

The main concern of this work is the development of methodsfor automatic condition monitoring of control loops withapplication to the process industry. By condition monitoringboth detection and diagnosis of malfunctioning control loops isunderstood, using normal operating data and a minimum amount ofprocess knowledge. The use of indices for quantifying loop performance is dealtwith in the first part of the thesis. The starting point is anindex proposed by Harris (1989). This index has been modifiedin order to cover a larger range of processes. The same conceptis then used to assess the sampling rate in control loops.Other index-based monitoring methods where some amount ofprocess knowledge is available are discussed. The evaluation of the performance indices discussed requiresknowledge of the process dead-time. Therefore a concept calledevent-triggered estimation is introduced in the second part ofthe thesis. Both automatic data selection and dead-timeestimation methods are proposed and conditions for successfulestimation are discussed. The last part of the thesis deals with the diagnosis ofoscillations. A method to automatically diagnose staticfriction (stiction) in the actuator is presented. Furthermore,two methods are proposed which allow automatic distinction ofexternally and internally generated oscillations. All describedmethods have been implemented in a MATLAB-based graphical userinterface which is briefly described.