With the development of the Internet, illegal copying of electronic documents has become a growing problem. There is an increasing need of prevention in the field of pirate copying. One method is to mark the document by changing some of the words to synonyms. In this way it is possible to construct legal copies which do not differ in content but still are unique. Since the copies of the documents are unique, it is possible to trace the owner of a document and accordingly call him or her to account for pirate copying if several exactly similar copies are reaching the market. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of exchanging words for synonyms in a text from a work of fiction, examining both the literary qualities of the manipulated texts and the security aspect. The conclusion of the study is that it is possible to mark texts of imaginative literature by means of the use of synonyms.

Koagulas-negativa stafylokocker (KNS) klassas som en viktig del av hudens normalflora. Vid skador på hudens barriär som en inläggning av centrala venkatetrar (CVK) innebär kan dock KNS få tillträde till normalt sterila lokaler där de kan orsaka infektion. Vid utodling av borttagna CVK från patienter resistensbestäms bara några enstaka kolonier vilket gör det lätt att missa förekomst av flera olika stafylokock-kloner. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur ofta en eller flera olika KNS-kloner förekommer på CVK från patienter, samt om det förekommer gemensamma kloner av KNS på CVK från olika patienter. Kolonier från CVK prov analyserades med den biokemiska fingerprintingmetoden Phene Plate-system (PhP). Resultatet visade 37 stycken CVK prov innehållande en klon, 23 stycken prov där det fanns 2 separata kloner, samt 6 prov med 3 kloner. Jämförelsen av kolonier ur prov från olika patienter resulterade i kluster med många gemensamma PhP-typer. I de 3 största klustren fanns 31, 15, respektive 8 kolonier representerande olika patienter. Den betydande andelen polyklonala CVK prov leder till risken att missa en mer resistent klon vilket då kan få konsekvensen felaktig antibiotikabehandling av patient. Att många patientprov hade en gemensam KNS-klon tyder på spridning av speciellt virulenta stammar inom sjukhus.

1 Abstract Fingerprinting - Past, Present and Future The objective of the presented diploma thesis is to provide a comprehensive overview of findings in fingerprints area. Fingerprinting is a unique method enabling quick, inexpensive and reliable personal identification. To provide a comprehensive understanding of the presented issue, fingerprint reputation as ever-changing and continuously developing method is put into contrast with its contradictions and current problems. The first part of the thesis describes roots and genesis of the method from its beginnings in ancient realms up to date. The process of shaping of the knowledge in the field of fingerprints into a science is presented through the works of the most prominent fingerprints personalities. Despite the difficult beginnings, fingerprints finally reached the position of trustworthy and respectful area of forensic science. Due to that; the historical part follows the journey of fingerprints evidence into the police investigation and court rooms. Final point brings an attention to the establishment of fingerprinting in Czech criminal investigation. The main part of the thesis is dedicated to the practical aspect of fingerprints expertise. To provide a deep level of understanding, particular role of fingerprints in criminal investigations and its...

M.Sc. (Botany) / The market and public demand for medicinal plants over the past few decades has increased dramatically with more than 1 000 plant species actively traded for medicinal purposes throughout South Africa. Intensive harvesting of wild material is now acknowledged as a serious threat to biodiversity in this country. Also the substitution of a valuable commodity (medicinal plant) by a cheaper alternative (other plant species), either inadvertently due to misidentification, or deliberately to cheat consumers, raises some serious concerns as these adulterants may not be as effective or may even be toxic and cause harm to consumers. To add to the problem many species are either traded as dried leaf, root, bark products, or extracts and their identification becomes problematic. Therefore, DNA barcoding can help to provide a rapid and accurate identification tool for medicinal plants. In the current study I targeted the most commonly used medicinal plants in South Africa and produced a set of barcodes for fast and easy DNA-based species identification (rbcLa & matK). I tested the efficiency of core barcodes in the identification of medicinal plants using four main analyses, in the R package Spider 1.1-1. Here the extent of specific genetic divergence, DNA barcoding gap, BLAST test, and the ability to discriminate between species were assessed. Overall, the matK region was found to be a more useful tool for the species identification of medicinal plants in South Africa.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Botany))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Plant Science / unrestricted

Positioning in environments where GPS is absent is a field currently under intensive research.Systems are currently being researched or designed for indoor use, often relying on ultra-wideband radio, ultrasound, fingerprinting or Wi-Fi.For underground mining, the problem is magnified, as installation of new equipment is expensive.Mobilaris Mining and Civil Engineering AB supplies a service, Mobilaris Mining Intelligence, using existing Wi-Fi infrastructure present in many mines for communication, and has developed two Wi-Fi-based positioning methods and one hybrid system, using dead reckoning and gyroscope.The first positioning method, Positioning Method 1, positions resources at the location of the strongest access point.The other positioning method, Positioning Method 4, uses signal strength values to construct an area where the tag is likely to be, similar to a Venn diagram. This thesis proposes a Quality of Positioning system to dynamically and select the best of all available positioning systems for every object to be positioned.This should be trained automatically by ``light vehicles'', such as service pickup trucks, equipped with the hybrid positioning system acting as reference values.Testing was done at the Kristineberg Mine in Västerbotten, Sweden, using a pickup truck equipped with the hybrid positioning system and Wi-Fi personnel positioning tags.It was found that the difference between the two positioning methods was not statistically significant, and that the hybrid positioning system was insufficiently accurate to act as a reference value. This thesis further revealed that the architecture of Mobilaris Mining Intelligence makes implementing a dynamic system impractical.Although planned for, the dynamic Quality of Positioning system was not implemented due to being deemed too impractical, complex and time-consuming compared to the benefit it would have provided.A high-level description of such an implementation is however presented, should it be motivated by future studies.

Characterization studies on the genetic diversity among cultivated cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) varieties are valuable tools to optimize the use of available genetic resources by farmers, local communities, researchers and breeders. Eight cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) genotypes ( Vegetable cowpea, Ivory grey, Okhalweni, Fahari, Fahari dark, 97K-1069-8, IT93K-73h, and 129-3) were subjected to molecular, morphological and agronomical characterization. DNA amplification fingerprinting markers were used to evaluate the genetic diversity among the eight genotypes. Nine random arbitrary primers were used to screen the eight genotypes to assess their ability to reveal polymorphisms in cowpea, and seven of them were selected for use in characterizing the total sample. A total of 43 bands were generated which are all polymorphic. On the average, the primers generated a total of 6.1 polymorphic bands. The resulting data-matrix included 43 analysed bands with a total of 344 characters. Neighbour joining analysis was used to generate the dendrogram, clustering the genotypes into two groups at an agglomerate coefficient of 0.30 irrespective of their geographical origins. The results also showed the presence of significant differences in morphological and quality traits among the genotypes. Fahari yielded the highest concentration of crude protein (46.51 mg/mg dry leaf) while Vegetable cowpea yielded the lowest (24.41 mg/mg dry leaf). The influence of manure was also found to be effective by increasing the crude protein content of the genotypes as shown by Fahari dark with an average of 53.53 mg/mg dry leaf as opposed to 39.85 mg/mg dry leaf without manure application. Although some small clusters grouped accessions of the same growth habits, a general lack of agreement between clustering and morphological features was observed. It can therefore be concluded that the significant differences between the molecular genetic analysis using DAF-PCR markers, morphologic characters and yield traits can be important tools to identify and discriminates the different cowpea genotypes.

The use of smartphones for positioning and navigation is mostly limited to outdoor settings. Indoors, where GPS signals are too inaccurate for positioning, an alternative must be used. This project aimed at producing an indoor positioning system which could be both configured and used by an end user organization without equipping its buildings with proprietary hardware. The prerequisites were that a complete digital representation of the building floors is available, and that the floors have a sufficient amount of WiFi access points. Our system measures radio signal strength from existing WiFi infrastructure using a smartphone. This data is sent to a backend and is used to position a device using two different methods: trilateration and fingerprinting. The finished system can position a user with an accuracy of approximately four meters using fingerprinting instead of trilateration as it yielded the best results. The building used for testing was scanned using a smartphone equipped with our application, something that we would expect an end user to be able to do. / Användandet av smartphones för positionering och navigering är mestadels inriktat på utomhusanvändning. Inomhus är GPS signaler inte tillräckligt noggranna för positionering, och ett alternativ måste användas. Det här projektets mål var att producera ett inomhuspositioneringssystem som kan konfigureras och användas av slutanvändarorganisationen utan att behöva utrusta sina byggnader med proprietär hårdvara. Förutsättningarna är att en komplett digital representation av byggnaden finns tillgänglig, och att våningsplanen har tillräckligt många WiFi basstationer. Vårt system mäter radiosignalstyrka från den existerande WiFi infrastrukturen. Denna data skickas till en backend och används i två olika metoder: trilateration och fingerprinting. Det slutgiltiga systemet kan positionera en användare med en träffsäkerhet på ungefär fyra meter när fingerprintingmetoden används då den producerade det bästa resultatet. Byggnaden som systemet testades i skannades av en smartphone med vår applikation, en sak som vi förväntar oss att en slutanvändare skulle kunna göra själv.

Metabolomics approaches have recently been used to understand the complex molecular interactions of biological systems. One popular area in which these methods are being developed is to understand the biochemical changes during abiotic and biotic stresses; for example, how a cell may respond to a drug. Since metabolites are the end products of gene expression, these can be used to indicate the result of the activities and interaction of the cell or organism with its environment. The investigation of the level and compositional changes of metabolites against metabolic stresses such as chemotherapeutic treatment (drug exposure) are required to understand more fully abiotic perturbation to biological systems. The aim of this project was to understand the metabolic effect that the anti-viral drugs indinavir and lopinavir (currently used by HIV patients) have on HPV-related cervical cancer cell lines by measuring changes in metabolism using a wide range of analytical techniques; including Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopies, and gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC and LC-MS). The analyses and interpretation of the large volumes of complex multidimensional data generated by metabolomics approaches were performed with a combination of multivariate data analysis techniques such as principal components analysis (PCA) and canonical variates analysis (CVA), as well as univariate approaches such as N-Way analysis of variance (ANOVA). By combining biochemical imaging, metabolite fingerprinting and footprinting, and metabolite profiling, with multi- and uni-variate analyses, the actions and effects of the anti-viral drugs were investigated. FT-IR spectroscopy was initially used to generate global biochemical finger- and foot-prints, and Raman spectroscopy was employed to investigate intracellular distribution of metabolites, and other cellular species, as well as the localisation of drug molecules within cells. FT-IR spectroscopy ascertained that the intra- and extra-cellular metabolomes were being directly influenced in a fashion that correlated with increasing anti-viral dosing; these effects were phenotypic rather than measurements of the drug level. Raman imaging spectroscopy indicated that the indinavir but not lopinavir was being compartmentalised within the cell nucleus, but only in HPV early protein 6 (E6) expressing cells. This observation was further confirmed by fractionation of cell samples into nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions and assessing the indinavir concentrations via LC-MS. Finally, LC-MS and GC-MS metabolite profiling were employed to investigate changes in the intracellular metabolome in response to the anti-viral compounds across a range of physiologically relevant concentrations and in the presence and absence of the E6 oncoprotein. General effects of both anti-viral compounds included the regulation of metabolites such as glutathione, octenedionoic and octadecenoic acids, which may be involved in stress related responses, reduced levels of sugars and sugar-phosphates indicating a potential arrest of glycolysis, and reduced levels of malic acid indicating potential decreased flux into the TCA cycle; all indicating that central metabolism was being reduced. Finally, LC-MS based quantification indicated that in the presence of E6, lopinavir was actively removed from the cell, whereas the indinavir intracellular concentration increased concomitantly with the level of dosing. These investigations have revealed that metabolomics approaches are an apt tool for the study of anti-viral effects within cell cultures, but improvements need to be made with respect to the major limitation of metabolite identification.

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