Carotenoid pigments in W. dermatitidis, the first pathogenic, dematiaceous fungus in which carotenoid pigments nave been reported, are located primarily (81%) in lipid organelles which floated on the surface of the supernatant fraction of lysed cells. Pigment in this fraction could be extracted with ethyl ether without prior treatment with acetone indicating the pigment is unbound in the lipid organelle. Eight percent remains after exhaustive ether extraction and is recovered after the sample is treated with acetone indicating this fraction is non-covalently bound to proteins in the membranes associated with the lipid organelle. The remaining pigment (about 12%) represents contamination of the supernatant with the lipid organelles.

Orientador: Mônica da Costa Serra / Resumo: Em casos de necessidade do estabelecimento da identidade de uma pessoa, quando não há suspeição de quem possa ser o indivíduo, e não há registros ante-mortem para comparação, necessários para aplicação de método de identificação, pode ser realizada a estimativa do perfil biológico (sexo, idade à morte, estatura e ancestralidade). A estimativa da origem geográfica pode auxiliar, reduzindo as possibilidades da origem mais provável do indivíduo, e facilitando nas buscas por identidades. Essa estimativa pode ser feita por meio de análises isotópicas de tecidos biológicos. O esmalte dentário é o tecido mais rígido do corpo humano, e praticamente não sofre alterações quanto às razões isotópicas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi caracterizar a assinatura isotópica de esmalte dentário de indivíduos residentes no estado de São Paulo. Também foi objetivo fazê-lo por regiões ao longo do mencionado estado e por níveis socioeconômicos. Cento e quarenta e dois terceiros molares foram utilizados para extração de esmalte dentário. As amostras foram preparadas e analisadas para carbono e oxigênio em um espectrômetro de massas de razão isotópica (IRMS) acoplado a um analisador do tipo Gas Bench II; para estrôncio, em um espectrômetro de massas de ionização térmica Triton-plus Thermo Finnigan (TIMS). Os valores encontrados de δ18O, δ13C e 87Sr/86Sr estimados para a população do estado de São Paulo foram respectivamente: -5,82‰ ± 0,09, -9,04‰ ± 0,16 e 0,712067 ± 0,000162. Diferenças foram observada... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Doutor

Although regulations and requirements for water quality source monitoring have increased, drinking water distribution systems can still be considered vulnerable to purposeful or accidental contamination. This study analyzes the transport of the hypothetical contaminant Cryptosporidium through the distribution system of a city with a population of 30,000 to 50,000 in an attempt to locate the optimal monitoring locations in the distribution system. Cryptosporidium was selected due to its resistance to chlorine and it’s conservative properties for vulnerability assessments. The method for selecting the optimal monitoring locations was taken from Chastain (2004) which developed and examined the method for a virtual city. However, Chastain did not apply the method to an actual city. This study looks to use Chastain’s method conjunctively with WaterCAD® and Excel in an attempt to accommodate to the small scale systems which are more vulnerable relatively speaking. The results of the analysis, shown in Appendices A and B, are grouped into zones of significance which contain a cluster of optimal points for placing water quality sensors. These zones of significance are to be taken as a guide for mitigating potential terrorist initiated events on the water distribution system.

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Purpose – The purpose with this study is to increase the understanding of how storage locations should be named along with an understanding of how planning of change could influence a change process. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, two research questions were formulated. ▪ How should storage locations be named in a distribution center?▪ How could planning affect the introduction of a new location addressing system? Method – The study has been executed as a case study and has been incused by a deductive approach. To the study, a central warehouse that distributes spare parts to private cars has been selected as case company. In order to answer the study ́s research questions, a literature study has been accomplished and empirical data has been collected. All the empirical data has been collected through interviews and observations at the case company. Furthermore, all empirical and theoretical data has been processed and analysed in order to answer the study ́s purpose and research questions. Findings – To create a location addressing system in a distribution center and thereby name storage locations, three factors should be considered. The first factor to consider is regarding which system that should be used in the specific environment, numerically, alphabetically or alphanumerically. The second factor is that the storage locations names should be as short as possible, maximum between five and seven symbols. The third factor that should be considered is that the location addressing system should have an underlying logic to support an uncomplicated learning process. When the storage locations are being labelled in the business, the chosen colour combinations should support clearness. In order to achieve clearness, the chosen colours need to have a great contrast between each other. In order to simplify a change in a distribution center, a well thought out planning strategy should be used. There are two factors according to this study that should be considered during changes in a distribution center. First off, it ́s important to have a clear information flow during the change process. Without a clear information flow to everyone that are being affected by the change, the risk of resistance towards the change increases. It ́s also important to formulate a clear planning and an understanding of the change ́s consequences in an early stage of the change process. This to prepare for the consequences that other elements in the business environment could be affected by the change as well. Implications – The study combines already proven theories and apply these in a distribution environment. No new theories have been created, but how the proven theories have been combined could give a new angle of how changes of storage locations in a distribution environment should be implemented. The study ́s empirical contribution was to give an increased understanding of how storage locations should be named and identify which factors affecting the naming of storage locations. The empirical contribution was also to give an increased understanding of how employees could be affected by a change. Changing a namingsystem could result in reduced loading of the employee’s memory, both the long-term memory and the short-term memory. By using a well thought out planning process, the outcome of a change in a location addressing system would be benefited. Limitations – The study has been executed as a one case study. It ́s not possible to exclude that a multiple case study would have generated a different result. In the study ́s empirical data, seven interviews were conducted. These seven interviews represent the employees of the case company. A larger quantity of interviews could have increased the study ́s quality. No quantitative data has been collected. With quantitative data, the study ́s generalizability could have increased. At last, the study has been limited by the space of time. With a longer amount of time, all parts of this study would have been further developed and by that, created a more generalized result.

The theoretical part of this thesis defines the process of social exclusion and its elements - spatial, economic, cultural, social, political and symbolic. These interconnected elements give rise to crucial areas that are substantially affected by social exclusions - living conditions, employment or ways of making a living, education and medical condition. The following chapters describe the initial situation in the Plzeň locations in 2006 and the situations in the mentioned areas in relation to excluded individuals. The objective of the thesis presented is to describe the development in seven socially excluded locations in Plzeň including their current situation. A qualitative survey was carried out addressing particularly workers in self-administration and non-governmental non-profit organisations, who come in contact with individuals from socially excluded locations. A method of document analysis by means of content analysis of the data was used along with a questioning method via a dialogue. The situation of socially excluded locations in Plzeň has significantly changed in the last five years, as the location labelled as the most problematic one by all informers perished at the end of 2009 and another location suffered changes as a result of the sale of the property. Maintaining or on the other hand cessation of the described localities considerably depend on the town´s housing policy, since the town of Plzeň owns the houses in all remaining locations. Owing to the increasing indebtedness of the population and growing problems in the housing or employment areas, there is a threat of an origination of new socially excluded locations. This thesis contributed to the evaluation of the development in the situation of socially excluded locations in Plzeň, which can give a base to implementing direct measures resulting in joining the inhabitants of these locations as well as in creating preventive measures.

This thesis investigates the feasibility and performance of an inertial based positioning system for dairy cows in a barn environment. The investigated positioning method is pedestrian dead reckoning using inertial navigation with MEMS sensors. While this method is well known for human positioning applications, there has not been a lot of studies of its use on terrestrial animals. Since inertial based positioning systems are dependent on drift correction, the focus of the research is drift correction methods. Two methods, zero velocity update (ZUPT) and sparse locations, are compared with regards to positioning accuracy, energy consumption and sensor placement.  The best positioning estimates are achieved by using ZUPT corrections at a sample rate of 10 Hz, resulting in a mean position drift of 0.2145 m=m. Using a proposed equidistant sample time based sleep mode scheme, this would require a theoretical supply current of 0.21 mA. It is also seen that better position estimates are obtained for sensors that are placed low and on the front legs. The sparse locations method suffers from severe position drift between the locations, resulting in unusable positioning data. A combination of ZUPT and sparse location yields less accurate positioning than ZUPT only. / Denna masteruppsats undersöker genomförbarhet och prestanda av ett tröghetsbaserat positioneringsssystem för mjölkkor i en lada. Den undersökta metoden är död räkning för fotgängare mha. tröghetsnavigering med MEMSsensorer. Denna metod är välkänd för positionering av människor, men få studier har gjorts kring dess användbarhet för djur. Eftersom tröghetsbaserad navigering är beroende av driftkorrigering är detta fokuset för forskningen. Två olika metoder utvärderas, zero velocity update (ZUPT) och sparse locations, och en jämförelse görs med avseende på positionsnoggrannhet, energiförbrukning och sensorplacering.Bäst positionering uppnås med ZUPT-korrigeringar vid en samplingsfrekvens på 10 Hz, vilket ger ett medelvärde av positionsdrift på 0.2145 m=m. Om ett föreslaget ekvidistant samplingstidsbaserat schema för viloläge används skulle 10 Hz kräva en teoretisk matningsström på 0.21 mA. Vidare fås bättre positioneringsresultat för sensorer som är placerade lågt och på frambenen. Korrektionsmetoden med sparse locations ger en svår positionsdrift mellan platserna, vilket resulterar i oanvändbar positionsdata. En kombination av ZUPT och sparse locations ger sämre precision än om endast ZUPT används, samt ökar energiförburkningen på grund av behovet av ytterligare sensorer.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is an emerging field in civil engineering in recent years. The main objectives of the SHM are to identify structural integrity issues at early stage and improve the structural safety through measuring and analyzing structural behaviors. Sensing systems for SHM can be used to identify applied vehicle loads for bridge structures. Bridge weigh-in-motion (BWIM) is one type of such vehicle load identification. As a tool to monitor the vehicle weight moving on the bridges, BWIM uses the structural responses induced by moving vehicle on the bridge to back-calculate vehicle information. In this thesis, optimized BWIM systems using multimetric measurements will be investigated. In Chapter 1, the concept and background of BWIM systems will be introduced. The objective of this research will be also demonstrated in this chapter. Chapter 2 is the literature review section. In Chapter 3, the finite element bridge model adopted for this study will be described. In this section, the moving-load time history analysis, sectional properties for bridge members, and other structural parameters of bridge model will be introduced. The methodology of BWIM systems used in this study will be demonstrated in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, optimized sensor locations for BWIM using normal and shear strain measurements and acceleration measurement will be discussed for the case without measurement noise. In Chapter 6, sensor location optimization for the case considering measurement noises will be investigated. A new acceleration-based BWIM method is proposed in this section. Non-drift displacement reconstruction technique using acceleration measurement and FIR filtering is applied for BWIM. Finally, Chapter 7 is the conclusion part of this thesis.

我們考慮連鎖商店有兩個不同的網路效果：地理位置的網絡與不同連鎖品牌之間的效果。在給定的道路結構下，我們去計算不同商店之間的距離，在這些不同的距離下，可以得出每連鎖品牌的單位矩陣，由這個矩陣去判別不同連鎖品牌之間，互相影響的效果與需求。最後我們得出均衡下的利潤與價格，以及討論均衡價格如何被網路效果影響。 / We consider a chain store model involving two levels of networks: the geographic street networks and the chain store networks. We then calculate each shop's geographic distances between other shops, for a given street network. The distances, together with the chain store identity matrix, will determine the cross-shop substitution effects in each shop's demand function. We characterize the equilibrium price, and discuss how the prices are affected by these two networks.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Michael A. Boland / The purpose of this thesis is to identify Greenfield grain facility sites within 100 miles of Holdrege, Nebraska and to evaluate the feasibility of these sites. CHS Agri Service Center currently has facilities that are within 50 miles of Holdrege, Nebraska. However there are no Greenfield sites in this area that would be feasible due to a large number of competitors already operating in this area. This problem was broken down into two components. The first is site selection and the second is a financial model using net present value to determine if the sites selected would be profitable to the standards that CHS, Inc. requires (12% or better return on assets). In order to determine where Greenfield sites might be located supply and demand factors were evaluated to determine surplus and deficit grain areas. The areas where there were large surpluses of grain have the greatest potential for a Greenfield facility to succeed. Then a feasibility analysis of the chosen sites is conducted using net present value and internal rate of return analysis to determine if there is enough grain volume to operate the grain facility above the 12% return on assets criterion. After a detailed review of the supply and demand factors of grain in the region, two locations were determined to be good candidates for further study. Based on recent projects completed at CHS, Inc. two model facilities were created as tools to determine if a certain facility type is more profitable than another. The cost structures for these two model facilities are based on costs that are currently incurred at CHS Agri Service Center locations. It was found that neither facility at either location was profitable enough to meet the minimum performance criteria required by CHS, Inc. As a result of these findings it may be possible to move ahead with a Greenfield facility at one of these sites if a higher volume can be obtained. A merger with another grain company in the immediate area of the proposed facility may be the best way to increase volume.