In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde das Wachstum der planaren aromatischen Moleküle Perylen-3,4,9,10-tetracarbonsäure-3,4,9,10-dianhydrid (PTCDA) und Peri-Hexabenzocoronen (HBC) auf verschiedenen einkristallinen Oberflächen von Gold und Graphit untersucht. Zur Abscheidung der Moleküle und zur Herstellung dünner hochgeordnerter organischer Schichten wurde eine Molekularstrahlepitaxieanlage mit mehreren Kammern aufgebaut. Bei den Untersuchungen des Wachstums von PTCDA auf der Au(111)- und Au(100)-Fläche wurden drei Klassen von Strukturen gefunden: Eine Fischgrätenstruktur, deren Gitterparameter und molekulare Anordnung der (102)-Ebene des PTCDA-Kristalls entsprechen, eine quadratische Struktur, sowie eine Stabstruktur, die der (010)-Ebene des PTCDA-Kristalls zugeordnet werden kann. Während die Stabstruktur auf Au(100) ein inkommensurables Wachstum zeigt, konnten alle anderen PTCDA-Strukturen sowohl auf Au(111) als auch auf Au(100) als point-on-line epitaktisch klassifiziert werden. Die HBC-Schichten auf Au(111), Au(100)hex und Graphit zeigen abweichend von der Kristallstruktur eine hexagonale Symmetrie. Auf Graphit wächst HBC in einer kommensurablen Struktur. Auf den beiden Au-Oberflächen existieren mehrere Strukturen, die sich in ihrer Orientierung und ihren Gitterkonstanten unterscheiden. Neben einer dominierenden HBC-Struktur lassen sich auf den Au-Flächen weitere Strukturen beobachten, deren Auftreten durch den Bedeckungsgrad und die Substratmorphologie, d.h. die Stufenzahl und Terrassengröße des Substrates bestimmt wird. Alle diese HBC-Strukturen konnten als kommensurabel klassifiziert werden. Die Anordnung der HBC-Moleküle in Multilagen wurde für das System HBC auf Au(100)hex mit Hilfe molekularmechanischer Berechnungen modelliert. Die HBC-Moleküle sind in der zweiten Lage gegenüber denen der ersten Lage so verschoben, dass die C-Atome der Moleküle eine graphitähnliche Anordnung zeigen. Wie die STM Untersuchung der organischen Heteroschichten aus HBC und PTCDA zeigen, ist es möglich, epitaktische organische Heteroschichten auch von Molekülen herzustellen, die sich in ihren Gitterkonstanten und in der Symmetrie unterscheiden. Erstmals ließen sich derartige Schichten mittels Rastertunnelmikroskopie direkt und durch LEED auch im reziproken Raum abbilden. Aus dem in den STM Bildern sichtbaren Moirékontrast wurde die Orientierung der beiden organischen Gitter bestimmt. PTCDA wächst bezüglich des HBC-Gitters weder kommensurabel noch point-on-line koinzident, zeigt jedoch eine feste Winkelorientierung. Es handelt sich in diesem Fall um eine inkommensurable Struktur bezüglich des HBC-Gitters, die jedoch bezüglich des zugrundeliegenden Graphitgitters point-on-line Koinzidenz zeigt. Das Versagen der einfachen geometrischen Epitaxiemodelle kann in diesem Fall auf die Existenz mehrerer, energetisch nahezu gleichwertiger Adsorptionsplätze innerhalb der Einheitszelle des Substrates zurückgeführt werden.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-04T21:42:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Heloiza.pdf: 504743 bytes, checksum: 4fde6c28fc11e48070d8c696d00b78e9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-23 / Este estudo epidemiológico foi realizado com o objetivo de definir a soroprevalência das hepatites virais B e C em escolares que freqüentavam regularmente as escolas municipais de Ensino Fundamental no município de Santos, no período de novembro de 2008 a março de 2009,. Foram analisadas 98 amostras de sangue de escolares com idade entre 4 e 14 anos, através da técnica de ELISA, para detecção da presença de anticorpos anti-HVC, anti-HBc anti-HBs e HBsAg, Setenta e duas amostras foram positivas para a detecção do anti-HBs, mostrando uma eficácia na vacinação contra hepatite B de 75%. Em duas crianças foi detectada a presença do HVC, demonstrando uma prevalência de 2,8%. A pesquisa do anti-HBc foi positiva em duas crianças (prevalência de 2,8%) e o HBs-Ag foi detectado em uma criança (prevalência de 1,3%).

Malaria is a major health problem and an effective vaccine is essential for the eradication of the disease. Despite extensive efforts, a malaria vaccine remains elusive due to the parasite's complex life cycle, diverse morphology, and immune system evasion mechanisms. Antibodies against C terminal domain of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1-19), a highly conserved protein and the main vaccine candidate for blood-stage malaria, can inhibit erythrocyte invasion by the parasite and alleviate the disease symptoms. However, MSP1-19 is poorly immunogenic and classic protein-in-adjuvant MSP1-19-based vaccine formulations failed to induce strong immune responses due to low immunogenicity and generation of ineffective antibodies. The aim of this study was to use hepatitis B virus core (HBc) particles to increase the immunogenicity of MSP1-19. HBc forms particles with protruding spikes and induces a strong and specific immune response against foreign epitopes inserted at the tips of the spikes. In addition, positioning of MSP1-19 on the particle can influence the accessibility of certain antibody binding sites, possibly altering elicited antibody fine specificity and vaccine efficiency. MSP1-19 domain was inserted into the middle of the HBc sequence so that it is displayed at the tips of the HBc particle. Two HBc-MSP1-19 constructs, having different insert flanking linkers, displayed soluble particle formation after bacterial expression and lysis optimization. The particles were purified and the suitability of these two constructs as malaria vaccine candidates was assessed. Firstly, binding of the conformational anti-MSP1-19 antibodies indicated that MSP1-19 domain in the chimeric proteins has the correct disulphide bond pattern which is crucial for the protective properties of an MSP1-19-based vaccine. Furthermore, electron microscopy imaging and determination of initial 3D structures confirmed that both HBc MSP1-19 constructs form particles resembling the wild-type HBc particles, meaning the insertion of MSP1-19 did not heavily distort the overall HBc particle structure. In addition, it was shown that MSP1-19 domains are displayed at the tips of the particle spikes. Particle formation and foreign epitope display are important for the epitope's immunogenicity improvement. The immunogenicity of the chimeric particles was then assessed in mice. Both constructs elicited similar high antibody titres without the use of additional adjuvants, but no difference was observed between the particulate constructs and a non-particulate control (an MSP1-19-based protein). Interestingly, although both HBc-MSP1-19 and non-particulate MSP1-19-elicited antibodies recognized native malarial parasite, only the particulate construct antibodies demonstrated a moderate parasite growth inhibition while the antibodies from the control group did not show parasite inhibition above the background levels. In conclusion, it was shown that MSP1-19 can be expressed in bacteria as a soluble correctly folded protein fused to HBc. More importantly, the fusion protein is capable of forming immunogenic particles which generate antibodies that recognize native MSP1 and inhibit parasite growth more effectively than the protein without the HBc. Therefore, this work lays grounds and supports further chimeric HBc-MSP1-19 research and development.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Ever since United Nations’ declaration of 1994 as the Year of the Family, the study and understanding of families has taken center stage, albeit with constant references to ‘normal’ versus ‘deviant’ families based on structural functionalism theory’s rigid definitions of what a ‘normal’ family should be. On the other hand HIV/AIDS has attracted much attention too because of its life threatening traits, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where Zimbabwe lies. Efforts to fight the epidemic have seen the mushrooming of innovative programs, which include home–based care (HBC) services for those infected with HIV. However, although HIV and AIDS has clearly had adverse impacts on families, it is rarely discussed within perspectives that integrate family dynamics. To fill this gap this study has explored how HBC, as a response to HIV and AIDS, may change our understanding of families. Research data was gathered within the participatory action research design through methods such as focus group discussions by 35 HBC volunteers and patients, interviews of 26 of these, review of relevant family policies and other interactive participatory exercises by which research participants expressed their opinions through drawings. The evaluation showed that households were not always synonymous with families, although a thin line divided the two. Further, survival considerations are the leading priority why people find themselves in families within HBC settings. However, survival options available to women are exploitative and this has kept those in HBC settings reeling under the burden of demanding but unrewarded care work and domestic household jobs. The study teaches that families cannot be understood in aggregated terms and that individuals dictate what families become, not the other way round. The research essentially recommends policy revisions to reflect unique realities found in HBC settings, and among female HBC volunteers. This should be coupled with awareness campaigns in communities and further research on families.

Connected Me is a Human Body Communication (HBC) system, which is used fortransferring data through human body. The working principle is based on theorycalled Body Coupled Communication (BCC), which uses electrostatic couplingfor transferring data between device and human body. Capacitance between bodyand electrode acts as an electrical interface between devices. BCC has become aprominent research area in the field of Personal Area Network (PAN), introducedby Zimmerman in 1995. Until now there have been significant amount of paperspublished on human body models and Analog Front End (AFE), but only fewreports are available in digital baseband processing. The proposed Human Body Communication (HBC) system consists ofdigital baseband and AFE. Digital baseband is used for transferring data packets.AFE is designed for reconstructing signal shape after signal degradation causedby the human body. This thesis implements high speed serial digital communicationsystem for a human body channel. Available modulation schemes andcharacteristics of the Physical layer (PHY) with respect to human body channelare analyzed before implementing the system. The outcome of this thesis is aFPGA demonstrator that shows the possibility of communication through thehuman body. / Connected Me

This thesis is an investigation of the self-reported health behaviour changes made by adults in the Canadian Community Health Survey 2007, categorized by BMI category. Descriptive analyses and forward stepwise regression were performed to determine variables associated with HBC. The final sample n = 111,449. Overall, 58% of individuals had made a HBC in the past year. Increased exercise was the most common HBC (29%), followed by improved eating habits (10%) and losing weight (7%). Only 51% experienced barriers to HBC; lack of will power was most commonly cited. Overweight and obese individuals were more likely to undertake HBC. In the regression model, opinion of own weight was the strongest predictor of HBC, followed by fruit and vegetable consumption, number of consultations with doctor, smoking status, and perceived health.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T18:31:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo8085_1.pdf: 956174 bytes, checksum: 81cf93e65ab504a80ac0e917913226bf (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / O anticorpo contra o antígeno do centro (ou do core), o anti-HBc, do vírus da hepatite B (VHB) é considerado o mais sensível e duradouro marcador sérico da infecção pelo VHB. Algumas vezes o anti-HBc é encontrado na ausência de outros marcadores como por exemplo o anti-HBs ou o HBsAg. O significado clínico do encontro isolado do anti-HBc permanece incerto. Existem algumas explicações para este achado: primeiro, o encontro do anti-HBc pode ser um resultado apenas falso-positivo. Segundo, o indivíduo pode ter ficado imune após contato com o VHB, porém não possui anti-HBs detectável. Terceiro, estes indivíduos com anti-HBc isolado podem ser portadores crônicos do VHB com ausência ou não detecção de HBsAg. Além do que o encontro isolado do anti-HBc pode ser pelo fato do indivíduo se encontrar na fase de janela imunológica quando o HBsAg desapareceu mas o anti-HBs ainda não está detectável. Uma última hipótese menos provável é que a presença do anti-HBc possa ter sido devida a uma passagem passiva deste anticorpo. Exceto a situação de janela imunológica todas as outras explicações hipotéticas teriam teoricamente esclarecimento com o uso de técnicas de biologia molecular. Porém, como é cara e laboriosa não é utilizada de rotina. Haja vista a importância tanto do ponto de vista do indivíduo como para os serviços de saúde de elucidar se o anti-HBc isolado é falso-positividade do teste ou contato prévio com o VHB alguns serviços de saúde têm utilizado a vacinação contra o VHB nestes indivíduos para distinguir entre estas duas situações. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a resposta contra vacina recombinante para VHB em doadores sanguíneos portadores de anti-HBc e negativos para HBsAg e anti-HBs. O modelo do estudo foi do tipo quasi-experimental sem grupo controle, não randomizado. Vinte e quatro doadores entre 22 e 76 anos receberam três doses de 20 mcg de Engerix®-B nos meses 0, 1 e 6. Amostras sanguíneas foram coletadas 30 dias após primeira e terceira dose de vacina e testadas para anti-HBs pela técnica imunoenzimática por fluorescência. Os resultados mostraram que após a primeira e terceira dose de vacina a taxa de soroproteção (anti-HBs >10 miliUI/ml) foi de 61,9% e 87,5%, respectivamente. A taxa de resposta tipo anamnéstica com produção rápida de anticorpos foi de 38% e tipo primária ou lenta foi de 47,6%. A taxa de não respondedores ao final do esquema vacinal foi de 12,5%. Doadores estes potencialmente suspeitos de serem portadores inativos de VHB e que foram submetidos à pesquisa de DNA do VHB pela PCR sendo todos negativos para este teste. O uso da vacina recombinante contra VHB ajudou a elucidar a situação imunológica da maioria dos indivíduos do presente estudo. Portanto, a estratégia da vacinação parece ser prática e pouco laboriosa para esclarecimento diagnóstico neste grupo de doadores

This thesis examines through a micro-historical lens the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Langley and its early period (1827-1830) covered by the surviving post journals. Through a close reading and analysis of the journal entries, I will argue that the establishment of Fort Langley was part of a process of Europeanization, which was in turn expressed through the physical construction, the labour of the Langley contingent, and the ways that the H.B.C. servants interacted with new and existing foodways. I will argue that, although the journal entries provide only a limited window into the historical reality of Fort Langley’s early years, they are a useful source for understanding complex social, class, and racial relationships that permeated life and labour at Fort Langley. I demonstrate that even the crafting of a nail is a critical part of contextualizing the complex processes which would eventually form a distinctly European system of control on the banks of the Fraser River. / Graduate

The main objective of this thesis is to define the term "trade marketing" and evaluate its role within the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company. With the use of internal resources and relevant literature, I will describe the use of trade marketing from both theoretical and practical point of view. I will also introduce the Coca-Cola HBC and its position on the carbonated soft drinks market in the Czech republic.

The motivation of this research is to carry out the control and operation of smart inverters and voltage source converters (VSC) for distributed energy resources (DERs) such as photovoltaic (PV), battery, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The main contribution of the research includes solving a couple of issues for smart grids by controlling and implementing multifunctions of VSC and smart inverter as well as improving the operational scheme of the microgrid. The work is mainly focused on controlling and operating of smart inverter since it promises a new technology for the future microgrid. Two major applications of the smart inverter will be investigated in this work based on the connection modes: microgrid at grid-tied mode and autonomous mode. \indent In grid-tied connection, the smart inverter and VSC are used to integrate DER such as Photovoltaic (PV) and battery to provide suitable power to the system by controlling the supplied real and reactive power. The role of a smart inverter at autonomous mode includes supplying a sufficient voltage and frequency, mitigate abnormal condition of the load as well as equally sharing the total load's power. However, the operational control of the microgrid still has a major issue on the operation of the microgrid. The dissertation is divided into two main sections which are: 1- Low-level control of a single smart Inverter. 2- High-level control of the microgrid. The first part investigates a comprehensive research for a smart inverter and VSC technology at the two major connections of the microgrid. This involves controlling and modeling single smart inverter and VSC to solve specific issues of microgrid as well as improve the operation of the system. The research provides developed features for smart inverter comparing with a conventional voltage sourced converter (VSC). The two main connections for a microgrid have been deeply investigated to analyze a better way to develop and improve the operational procedure of the microgrid as well as solve specific issues of connecting the microgrid to the system. A detailed procedure for controlling VSC and designing an optimal operation of the controller is also covered in the first part of the dissertation. This section provides an optimal operation for controlling motor drive and demonstrates issues when motor load exists at an autonomous microgrid. It also provides a solution for specific issues at operating a microgrid at autonomous mode as well as improving the structural design for the grid-tied microgrid. The solution for autonomous microgrid includes changing the operational state of the switching pattern of the smart inverter to solve the issue of a common mode voltage (CMV) that appears across the motor load. It also solves the issue of power supplying to large loads, such as induction motors. The last section of the low-level section involves an improvement of the performance and operation of the PV charging station for a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) at grid-tied mode. This section provides a novel structure and smart controller for PV charging station using three-phase hybrid boost converter topology. It also provides a form of applications of a multifunction smart inverter using PV charging station. The second part of the research is focusing on improving the performance of the microgrid by integrating several smart inverters to form a microgrid. It investigates the issue of connecting DER units with the microgrid at real applications. One of the common issues of the microgrid is the circulating current which is caused by poor reactive power sharing accuracy. When more than two DER units are connected in parallel, a microgrid is forming be generating required power for the load. When the microgrid is operated at autonomous mode, all DER units participate in generating voltage and frequency as well as share the load's power. This section provides a smart and novel controlling technique to solve the issue of unequal power sharing. The feature of the smart inverter is realized by the communication link between smart inverters and the main operator. The analysis and derivation of the problem are presented in this section. The dissertation has led to two accepted conference papers, one accepted transaction IEEE manuscript, and one submitted IET transaction manuscript. The future work aims to improve the current work by investigating the performance of the smart inverter at real applications.