Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1986.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Dresden.

This overview relates to a research programme conducted over some eight years. The research concerns exhibitions and trade fairs, and examines the communications issues thereof from both the exhibitors' viewpoint and the visitors' viewpoint. The research was conducted from an interpretive viewpoint, using interviews and questionnaire surveys, and has both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The results of the research were mapped against models of communication and against traditional marketing models to assess the extent to which exhibitors are being realistic in their approach to exhibiting, given the characteristics and behaviour of visitors. This does not, of course, provide a definitive answer as to the effectiveness or potential effectiveness of exhibitions as communications tools. What it does show is that exhibitors are, in many cases, setting inappropriate objectives and harbouring unrealistic expectations. The conclusion of the research outlines a model of how exhibitions work as a communications device, and provides evidence that miscommunication is occurring between exhibitors and visitors due to a failure on the part of exhibitors to understand how exhibitions can be used to best effect. The model is almost certainly relevant to other areas of marketing communication, and offers a new way of understanding the communications process, particularly in business-to business contexts. The overall finding of the research is that the majority of exhibitors are almost certainly harbouring unrealistic expectations, in particular regarding selling objectives, and that exhibitors do not always evaluate their activities as effectively as they might (particularly SMEs). These unrealistic expectations of what exhibitions can do for them are likely to lead many of them to the conclusion that exhibitions are ineffective. From the visitor research it appears that exhibitions could be extremely effective in terms of communication objectives, but probably less so in terms of selling objectives: the overwhelming conclusion is that most exhibitors are directing their efforts in the wrong direction, and should (instead of concentrating on sales) be concentrating on other elements of the marketing mix.

The input stage of a TV-computer reading system has been built using state-of-the-art integrated circuits. A stroboscopic sampling method is used. Programs are developed to rearrange the input data for later processing. The system is also available to work as an image enlarger for people with low-vision. Judging from the appearance of the final displays, the signal-to-noise ratio is acceptable. The possibility of incorporating an automatic focus device is examined and an algorithm is developed to this end. Best focus is obtained by adjusting the camera's lens to maximize the ‘T’ function which is related to the differences in the greyness between samples. The hardware and software are developed for the TV camera to work with a PDP-12 computer as an input system. Suggestions for further improvements of the system are also included. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Diffusion tensor images and higher-order diffusion images are the foundation for neuroscience researchers who are trying to gain insight into the connectome, the wiring scheme of the brain. Although modern imaging devices allow even more detailed anatomical measurements, these pure anatomical connections are not sufficient for understanding how the brain processes external stimuli. Anatomical connections constraint the causal influences between several areas of the brain, as they mediate causal influence between them. Therefore, neuroscientists developed models to represent the causal coherence between several pre-defined areas of the brain, which has been measured using fMRI, MEG, or EEG. The dynamic causal modeling (DCM) technique is one of these models and has been improved to use anatomical connection as informed priors to build the effective connectivity model. In this paper, we present a visualization method allowing neuroscientists to perceive both, the effective connectivity and the underlying anatomical connectivity in an intuitive way at the same time. The metaphor of moving information packages is used to show the relative intensity of information transfer inside the brain using a GPU based animation technique. We provide an interactive way to selectively view one or multiple effective connections while conceiving their anatomical connectivity. Additional anatomical context is supplied to give further orientation cues.

L’ingénierie métabolique est une discipline qui vise à modifier artificiellement le métabolisme d’un organisme afin de lui faire produire un composé chimique d’intérêt. L’une des problématiques fréquemment rencontrées pour la production de nouvelles molécules est l’impossible diffusion du produit formé dans le cytoplasme vers l’extérieur de la cellule. Ce phénomène engendre une accumulation de ce dernier à l’intérieur du micro-organisme qui limite sa capacité de production pour des raisons de cinétiques chimiques et de toxicité pour l’hôte. Enfin, cela complique fortement la récupération et la purification de la molécule d’intérêt, ce qui peut réduire à néant le rendement économique du procédé industriel.Durant cette thèse, nous avons exploré la possibilité de réaliser les dernières étapes de synthèse de composés imperméables pour la membrane à l’extérieur de la cellule en utilisant des enzymes accrochées à la surface de la levure par la technique de “yeast surface display”.Dans une première partie, nous avons regardé l’intérêt industriel de la bioéconomie, puis nous nous sommes intéressés aux problématiques liées à la perméabilité des membranes plasmiques. Dans un second temps, nous avons évalué les méthodes de mesures de la perméabilité des membranes biologiques et exploré la possibilité de développer une méthode prédictive en utilisant une technique de relation structure-propriété. Dans un troisième temps, nous avons évalué les systèmes de “yeast surface display” disponibles et cherché à en découvrir de nouveaux, adaptés à nos problématiques. Dans l'objectif de construire ces bibliothèques nous avons aussi réalisé un outils informatique, permettant de calculer de grands nombres de primers. Enfin, nous avons réalisé différents circuits de production de molécules modèles pour évaluer la pertinence de l’approche pour la production de composés imperméables. / Sustainable chemical production is one of the endeavour of the post-oil era. Amongst the possible techniques, metabolic engineering which aims at producing novel compounds through genetic engineering of micro-organism is seen as one of the most promising techniques. One of the problem met by metabolic engineers is often the absence of diffusion or pumping mechanism expelling the compound of interest produced in the cell cytoplasm towards the outer environment, which reduces the process efficiency because of kinetic and toxicity concerns.During this PhD, we explored the possibility of producing impermeable compounds on the surface of a cell by anchoring the last reaction enzyme using « Yeast surface display » techniques.As PhD disputation we first looked at the industrial interest of metabolic engineering in the whole bioeconomy framework. We then looked at the membrane permeability issues met for the production of some compounds. We evaluated the different membrane permeability techniques and explored the possibility realizing a predictive technique using quantitative structure-property relationship (QSAR). We evaluated the different yeast-display systems available and paved the way for the discovery of new systems more suitable for metabolic engineenering. We developped a dedicated program tool for large PCR fragment library design. Finally we built several toy metabolic pathways in yeast in order to evaluate the interest of the technique.

No description available.

There are many different techniques to display 3D information. However, not many of them are able to provide sufficient depth cues to the observers to sense or feel the images as real three-dimensional objects. Volumetric three-dimensional displays generate images within a real 3D space, so they provide most of the depth cues automatically. This thesis discusses the basic notions required to understand three-dimensional displays. Also discussed are different techniques used to display 3D information and their advantages and disadvantages as well as their current limitations. Several rare-earth doped fluoride crystals that are excited to emit visible light by sequential two photon absorption have been investigated as display medium candidates for static volumetric three dimensional displays. A scalable display medium is suggested to enable large 3D displays. This medium is a dispersion of particles of the rare earth doped fluoride crystals in a refractive index-matched polymer matrix. Detailed experiments are described to prepare such a scalable display medium using a wide variety of polymers. The scattering problem in such a medium was greatly reduced by index-matching the polymer to the crystalline particles. An index-matching condition that optimizes the performance was identified and demonstrated. A potential near-future solution is demonstrated and improvements are suggested.

The smallest display while indistinguishable from the larger three displays in the 3000 ms condition has significant accuracy diminution in the 700 ms and 300 ms conditions when compared to the three larger displays. Understanding the effects of the visual display size of a task on human performance has long been a goal of research in the United States Military. The present work is a series of three studies which focus on distinguishing which specific aspects of display size each affect performance response capacity. The three sequential studies represented here manipulated viewing conditions and task type. These studies were derived from a code substitution cognitive battery using four display sizes and three viewing conditions. The first viewing condition is controlled distance to the display. The second viewing condition allowed the participants to choose their own viewing distance. Free movement, the second viewing condition, provided the data for the third viewing condition where the participant was held to a constant visual angle and changing distance. In summary the three sequential experiments are free movement to and from the display, controlled distance to the display, and controlled visual angle while changing display distance. The four display sizes were in part selected in association with SME's from UCF and the United States Army (PDA--320x280, Tablet--800x600, Small - LCD 1280x1024, Large LCD--1600x1200). These four displays are representative of the four display sizes widely used by our armed forces. Three workload levels were manipulated by restricting the viewing time to 300ms on target at the shortest interval through 700ms on target, to finally 3000ms on target. The 3000ms represents the standard amount of time used in a code substitution task, while 700ms and 300ms are present as a result of the pilot studies and thus representing higher workloads. Results indicate all displays sizes suffered performance diminution in the 700 ms and 300 ms condition. The three largest displays had indistinguishable performance results.

Human serpins belong to a superfamily of serine protease inhibitors involved in the regulation of essential physiological processes, including coagulation via thrombin inhibition by AT. Inhibitory serpins undergo a remarkable folding mechanism to a thermodynamically unstable (i.e. metastable) conformation, highlighted by a long and flexible RCL, prior to secretion as soluble proteins into circulation. The serpin alpha-1-proteinase inhibitor (API) normally protects tissues from proteases released from inflammatory cells (e.g., neutrophil elastase). Importantly, a variant of API (i.e. API-Pittsburgh or API-M358R) was reported to be the cause of a fatal bleeding disorder in a young patient in the late 1970`s; the point mutation M358R at P1 of the RCL resulted in a dramatic shift in function toward thrombin inhibition. This dissertation summarizes the results from experiments performed with serpins expressed as membrane proteins tethered to the surface of mammalian cells. Serpins API-M358R, AT, HCII, and the non-inhibitory double mutant API-M358R/T345R were anchored to 293 and COS cell plasma membranes with N-terminal non-cleavable protein sequences derived from either the human asialoglycoprotein (AR) or transferrin (TF) receptors. Sub-cellular fractionation (with or without monolayer exposure to thrombin) immunoblots confirmed serpin localization to the integral membrane fraction using either anchoring approach or cell type. The blots also revealed that tethered API-Pittsburgh in particular, and AT to a lesser extent formed serpin-enzyme complex (SEC) with thrombin, while HCII and API-M358R/T345R (as expected) did not. While tethered API-M358R maintained inhibitory function, kinetic studies revealed that the rate of SEC formation was less rapid compared to its soluble counterpart. Additional testing by immunofluorescence microscopy, and flow cytometry confirmed the status of tethered API-M358R as a robust inhibitor of thrombin. That tethered serpins maintained the ability to inhibit thrombin provided the underlying rationale for the thesis hypotheses: surface displayed serpins can be used in gene therapy to temper thrombogenicity associated with certain diseased tissues (i.e. cancer), and tethered serpins can be used as a platform for screening RCL mutant libraries to identify “better” protease (i.e. thrombin) inhibitors. The potential gene therapy scheme was tested by expressing tethered API-Pittsburgh on the surface of T24/83 cancer cells constitutively co-expressing tissue factor (TF), and then measuring endogenous thrombin generation in the presence of re-calcified, and defibrinated human plasma by either discontinuous or continuous fluorescence-based thrombin generation assays (TGA). Unexpectedly, the displayed API-Pittsburgh did not appear to reduce discontinuous TGA thrombin suggesting that the difference may have been too low for accurate measurement by this method. Moreover, the results were identical when the same reaction was continuously monitored by fluorescence-based TGA, indicating that the levels of API-Pittsburgh expression were simply insufficient to effectively counter thrombin generation. The high levels were confirmed when up to 1 µM of hirudin variant 3, or soluble API-M358R, were required to completely abolish the thrombin profile. With this in mind, a measureable reduction in TGA was achieved when 293 cells were co-transfected with DNA ratios of API-M358R: TF adjusted to 9:1. Mammalian cell display, in combination with FACS/flow cytometry, has previously been employed to successfully develop improved monoclonal antibodies. However, there was never any certainty that the technique was applicable to the screening of displayed serpin mutant RCL libraries. The method was tested with a modest library degenerate only at P1; the rationale was that successful sorting would generate the expected wild-type (WT) P1 Arg (i.e. API-Pittsburgh). Unfortunately, repeated attempts did not result in enrichment, and flow cytometry was abandoned. An alternate protocol based on bacterial expression, and previously developed in our lab, was implemented in order to perform the library screens. This technique involved incubating lysates, containing soluble serpin RCL mutant candidates, with immobilized thrombin. Encouragingly, the P1 library screen identified the WT candidate at the expected frequency (5 in 150 lysates) as well as the more rare P1 mutant Lys (1 in 150 lysates). A kinetic comparison between mutant proteins containing the three basic residues revealed that P1 Arg (k2 ~ 105 M-1sec-1) was approximately two orders of magnitude more efficient than either Lys or His (both with k2 ~ 103 M-1sec-1) at inhibiting thrombin. The bacterial expression technique was then enhanced through kinetic optimization in order to facilitate the screening of more complex libraries. Analysis of the P7 to P1 (always Arg) library returned a selection of anticipated non-polar residues (5 in 100 lysates; 2 x Pro, 2 x Leu and Met) at P2. Extensive screening (~ 1300 colonies) of a second expanded library with the repeated VNN nucleotide sequence (i.e. no stop codons to eliminate truncated proteins) at P7 to P2 and P1 Arg, identified 7 x Pro mutants at P2 further confirming the results from the original library screen. Importantly, the assay also identified the novel mutant TLSATPR which registered the largest kinetic response (k2 ~ 5 x 105 M-1sec-1), and even exceeding API- M358R by a factor of ~ 3 (k2 ~ 1.5 x 105 M-1 sec-1). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (Medical Science)