Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1978. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND LINDGREN. / Bibliography: leaves 56-58. / by William Charles Corea. / B.S.

This dissertation presents applications of machine learning and statistical approaches to infer protein-DNA bindings in the presence of epigenetic modifications. Epigenetic modifications are alterations to the DNA resulting in gene expression regulation where the structure of the DNA remains unaltered. It is a heritable and reversible modification and often involves addition or deletion of certain chemical compounds to the DNA. Histone modification is an epigenetic change that involves alteration of the histone proteins – thus changing the chromatin (DNA wound around histone proteins) structure – or addition of methyl-groups to the Cytosine base adjacent to a Guanine base. Epigenetic factors often interfere in gene expression regulation by promoting or inhibiting protein-DNA bindings. Such proteins are known as transcription factors. Transcription is the first step of gene expression where a particular segment of DNA is copied into the messenger-RNA (mRNA). Transcription factors orchestrate gene activity and are crucial for normal cell function in any organism. For example, deletion/mutation of certain transcription factors such as MEF2 have been associated with neurological disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. In this dissertation, different computational pipelines are described that use mathematical models to explain how the protein-DNA bindings are mediated by histone modifications and DNA-methylation affecting different regions of the brain at different stages of development. Multi-layer Markov models, Inhomogeneous Poisson analyses are used on data from brain to show the impact of epigenetic factors on protein-DNA bindings. Such data driven approaches reinforce the importance of epigenetic factors in governing brain cell differentiation into different neuron types, regulation of memory and promotion of normal brain development at the early stages of life. / Doctor of Philosophy / A cell is the basic unit of any living organism. Cells contain nucleus that contains DNA, self replicating material often called the blueprint of life. For sustenance of life, cells must respond to changes in our environment. Gene expression regulation, a process where specific regions of the DNA (genes) are copied into messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules and then translated into proteins, determines the fate of a cell. It is known that various environmental (such as diet, stress, social interaction) and biological factors often indirectly affect gene expression regulation. In this dissertation, we use machine learning approaches to predict how certain biological factors interfere indirectly with gene expression by changing specific properties of DNA. We expect our findings will help in understanding the interplay of these factors on gene expression.

This thesis investigates the role of prior use in common and statutory trade mark law. In the United States a pertinent requirement is priority of use. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a reputation must be present. In the United Kingdom a plaintiff is required to have goodwill in the country, but in the United States and South Africa it is not required. The conception of a mark does not qualify for protection. It is not required that a business must have actually entered the market. In the United States the general approach is that a plaintiff will not receive protection in a remote area, but regard must be had to zones of natural expansion. British and South African law is the same, and protection may be obtained in areas where there is no trading. Where a dual reputation exists, neither party will be able to act against the other. The mere fact that the user of a mark was aware of the use thereof by another person, does not exclude protection. A trade mark application can be opposed on the basis of another application, combined with use of a mark, or on the ground of prior use. In some instances the fact that a mark has been filed will influence the burden of proof. In general, a registration can be expunged on the same grounds as would constitute grounds of opposition. The concurrent use of a mark can form the basis for the registration of a mark. In the United States, the use must have taken place prior to the filing date of the other party, but in the United Kingdom and South Africa, prior to the own filing date. In the latter two countries, knowledge of a mark is not necessarily exclusionary. Prior use is generally accepted as a defence to an infringement action. It is, however, noted that in various countries, it is only use prior to the relevant date that will be protected, and there is not necessarily a right to extend the scope of use concerned. / Mercantile Law / LL.D. (Mercantile Law)

This thesis investigates the role of prior use in common and statutory trade mark law. In the United States a pertinent requirement is priority of use. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a reputation must be present. In the United Kingdom a plaintiff is required to have goodwill in the country, but in the United States and South Africa it is not required. The conception of a mark does not qualify for protection. It is not required that a business must have actually entered the market. In the United States the general approach is that a plaintiff will not receive protection in a remote area, but regard must be had to zones of natural expansion. British and South African law is the same, and protection may be obtained in areas where there is no trading. Where a dual reputation exists, neither party will be able to act against the other. The mere fact that the user of a mark was aware of the use thereof by another person, does not exclude protection. A trade mark application can be opposed on the basis of another application, combined with use of a mark, or on the ground of prior use. In some instances the fact that a mark has been filed will influence the burden of proof. In general, a registration can be expunged on the same grounds as would constitute grounds of opposition. The concurrent use of a mark can form the basis for the registration of a mark. In the United States, the use must have taken place prior to the filing date of the other party, but in the United Kingdom and South Africa, prior to the own filing date. In the latter two countries, knowledge of a mark is not necessarily exclusionary. Prior use is generally accepted as a defence to an infringement action. It is, however, noted that in various countries, it is only use prior to the relevant date that will be protected, and there is not necessarily a right to extend the scope of use concerned. / Mercantile Law / LL.D. (Mercantile Law)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:47:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luanda Alvariza Gomes Ney_Dissertacao.pdf: 1302951 bytes, checksum: 0084930b669bff09e5270f2e21767a98 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-13 / This research describes and analyses, in data extracted from spontaneous texts, the use of acute accent marks by young primary students. It is debated the relations established, in initial writing, between acute accent marks and children s knowledge about the language prosody. The proposal for attribution of acute accent marks by Bisol (1992, 1994) is the basis of this study. The analyzed corpus is comprised of 3161 words (not verbs) which receive acute accent marks, according to spelling norm, and 222 words where the words received acute accent marks when, according to the norm, it is not necessary. The resulting data were obtained by research made with 987 texts produced by children in two schools, a private and a public in the city of Pelotas/RS. The data were submitted to qualitative and quantitative analysis having into account two categories: correct answers and mistakes. The results demonstrate that: i) the majority of correct answers referring to acute accent marks occur in oxytone words and tonic monosyllables, mainly when the stressed vowels are the medium o and e ; ii) when stressing inadequately, children end up revealing coherent hypothesis related to phonetics and also to language prosody, because, in most of these cases, the acute accent marks, besides coinciding with the tonic syllable of the word, it is used for indicating open vowels; iii) the data of omission of acute accent marks represent 84% of the mistakes registered; iv) when the acute accent mark takes place in the changed syllable, it is verified a tendency in stressing as tonic the penultimate syllable, which characterizes the general rule of prosodic acute accent mark in Portuguese. The data confirm also that the progress in education constitutes an important factor for appropriation of rules of acute accent marks use by young learners, mainly, in private schools. Keywords: acute accent marks, prosodic accent marks, writing acquisition. / Esta pesquisa descreve e analisa, em dados extraídos de textos espontâneos, o uso da acentuação gráfica por crianças das séries iniciais. Discutem-se as relações estabelecidas, na escrita inicial, entre o acento gráfico e o conhecimento que as crianças possuem sobre a prosódia da língua. A proposta para atribuição do acento de Bisol (1992, 1994) serve de base para o estudo. O corpus analisado é constituído de 3161 palavras (não-verbos) que devem ser grafadas com acento, conforme a norma ortográfica da língua, e 222 palavras em que houve a grafia do acento quando este, segundo a norma, não é necessário. Os dados foram obtidos a partir do levantamento feito em 987 textos produzidos por crianças de duas escolas, uma pública e outra particular, da cidade de Pelotas/RS. Os dados foram submetidos à análise quali-quantitativa, considerando-se duas principais categorias: acertos e erros. Os resultados mostram que: i) o maior número de acertos referentes à grafia do acento ocorre em palavras oxítonas e monossílabos tônicos, principalmente quando as vogais acentuadas são as médias o e e ; ii) ao grafarem acentos indevidos, as crianças acabam por revelar hipóteses coerentes com a fonética e com a prosódia da língua, pois, na maioria desses casos, o acento, além de coincidir com a sílaba tônica da palavra, é utilizado para indicar vogais abertas; iii) os dados de omissão do acento representam 84% dos erros registrados; iv) quando ocorre grafia do acento na sílaba trocada, verifica-se uma tendência em marcar como tônica a penúltima sílaba, o que caracteriza a regra geral do acento prosódico do português. Os dados atestam ainda que o avanço na escolarização constitui um fator importante para a apropriação das regras de utilização do acento gráfico pelas crianças, sobretudo, na escola particular.

Linker histone H1 plays a key role in facilitating folding of higher order chromatin structure. Previous studies have shown that deletion of three somatic H1 subtypes together leads to embryonic lethality and that H1c/H1d/H1e triple knockout (TKO) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) display bulk chromatin decompaction. Following this initial work, we investigated the role of H1 and chromatin compaction in stem cell pluripotency and differentiation, as well as the regulation of Hox genes expression. We find that H1 TKO ESCs are more resistant to spontaneous differentiation, impaired in embryoid body differentiation, and largely blocked in neural differentiation. We present evidence that H1 contributes to efficient repression of the expression of pluripotency factors, Oct4 and Nanog, and participates in establishment and maintenance of DNA methylation and histone modification necessary for silencing pluripotency genes during stem cell differentiation and embryogenesis. In addition, we find reduced expression of a distinct set of Hox genes in embryos and ESCs, respectively. Furthermore, by characterizing H1c−/−; H1d−/−; and H1e−/− single-H1 null ESCs established in this study, we showed that individual H1 subtypes regulated specific Hox genes in ESCs. Finally, we demonstrate that the levels of H3K4me3 were significantly diminished at the affected Hox genes in H1 TKO- and single-H1 KO- ESCs, whereas H3K27me3 occupancy is modestly increased at specific Hox genes. Our results suggest that marked reduction of H1 levels and decondensation of bulk chromatin affect the expression of pluripotency genes and Hox genes in embryos and ESCs, which may be in part mediated through establishment and maintenance of epigenetic marks.

Résumé Trademarks The topic of my diploma thesis is trademarks. The purpose of this work is to discuss the fundamental issues concerning trademarks including types of trademarks especially non- traditional ones, trademark registration application procedure in the Czech Republic and other related topics. A trademark is a designation which serves to differentiate products or services on the market. The purpose of a trademark is to distinguish goods and services of one producer from those of another. This designation helps consumers to find goods and services and to select the product that they want. Trademarks therefore become an integral part of our lives. Trademarks in the Czech Republic are governed by Act No. 441/2003 Coll., on Trademarks, Regulation No. 97/2004 Coll., concerning implementation of the Trademark Act and the protection of trademarks is ensured by Act No. 221/2006 Coll., on Enforcement of Industrial Property Rights. A trademark can only be a designation which can be graphically represented and which is capable of distinguishing products or services for which it is protected from other identical products or services on the market. A trademark therefore cannot exist on its own, but always in connection with certain products or services which it designates. An applicant submits a trademark...

Church leaders must know how to create healthy culture in their churches. Organizational culture has been a trending topic over the last three decades. In more recent years, church culture has developed out of the greater organizational culture discussion. Much research exists that addresses both organizational and church culture. Despite the prevalence of this research, there was still a lack of empirical research that addressed the creation of healthy culture in local churches. This study addressed the need that was present for churches and church leaders. This research was qualitative in nature, utilizing case study and content analysis as the two primary components of the instrumentation. Through this study of three local church cases seven practices emerged that can help church leaders intentionally create healthy culture in the churches where they serve.

Orientador: Letícia Marcondes Rezende / Banca: Eliane Hércules Augusto Navarro / Banca: Ademar da Silva / Resumo: Este trabalho visa a apresentar uma proposta alternativa para o ensino de inglês, usando como base alguns princípios da teoria enunciativa de Antoine Culioli, tais como o aspecto, a modalidade, a noção, a léxis e a construção da significação. Para esse fim, iniciamos com uma descrição dos principais métodos e abordagens na história do ensino de línguas a fim de apresentarmos alguns dos principais conceitos que norteiam as práticas em sala de aula. Em seguida apresentamos a teoria das operações enunciativas e, sob o viés dessa teoria, realizamos uma extensiva e detalhada análise das marcas lingüísticas de 22 enunciados extraídos do corpus do verbo to get. Os resultados advindos dessa análise serviram para fundamentar nossa proposta para uma aula de língua inglesa de cunho menos mecanicista. / Abstract: Our goal is to present an alternative approach to English teaching based on some principles of Antoine Culioli's enunciative theory, such as aspect, modality, notion, lexis and meaning construction. For that purpose, we describe the most relevant teaching methods and approaches in the history of language teaching in order to present some of the most important concepts behind classroom practice. Next we present Culioli's theory and, under its perspective, we carried out an extensive and detailed analysis of the linguistic marks of 22 sentences from the corpus of the verb to get. The results of this analysis were used to support our proposal for a less mechanicist English class. / Mestre

RESUMO As marcas de mordidas têm sido relatadas na literatura como elementos periciais fundamentais para a identificação de agressores, vítimas e criminosos. Assim, o papel da Odontologia Legal é cada vez mais importante. O objetivo do presente estudo foi comparar quatro metodologias de levantamento e identificação de marcas de mordidas, além do aprimoramento e aperfeiçoamento das técnicas existentes, analisando as vantagens e desvantagens de cada metodologia aplicada e adequando-as ao tipo de suporte em que a mordida ficou impressa. A amostra foi composta por 50 (cinqüenta) modelos de gesso de alunos da Faculdade de Odontologia da Universidade de São Paulo mediante consentimento livre e esclarecido. Foram utilizadas quatro gomas de mascar, maçãs e barras de chocolate. Através de sorteio, os alimentos foram mordidos pelos participantes sem conhecimento do pesquisador. A avaliação foi feita por meio da comparação entre as metodologias para estudo de marcas de mordidas humanas. Os resultados mostraram que a técnica mais segura e indicada para esse estudo foi a Análise Métrica. De doze alimentos mordidos, foi possível identificar os autores de dez. Em dois casos não foi possível indicar os principais suspeitos, mas excluir quarenta e cinco em um dos casos, e quarenta e seis no outro. De acordo com os dados obtidos, foram elaboradas propostas de protocolos para a análise de impressões dentárias nos três tipos de suportes. Ficou comprovado que a análise de impressões dentárias em alimentos pode ser utilizada como uma prova pericial a mais, facultando a sua incorporação ao conjunto probatório da investigação criminal, com a possibilidade de conferir um grande poder incriminatório ou excludente / ABSTRACT The bite marks has been described in scientific literature like a fundamentals elements of burglars and victims identification. The Forensic Odontology has shown each more contributions in this area of investigation. The aim of this study was to compare four analysis methodologies of bite marks, moreover improvement of the actual techniques, observing advantages, disadvantages and adapting to each kind of support. The sample was composed by fifty stone models of odontology students from Dental Faculty of University of São Paulo. It was used three kinds of food: four apples, chewing gums and chocolate bars. The foods were bitten for volunteers randomly choose without knows of the scientist. The valuation was made through the comparison of methodologies to collect and study of human dental impressions. The results showed that the more secure and indicated technique for these foods was Metric Analysis. From twelve foodstuffs, it was possible to identify ten of then. Two cases it wasn’t possible indicate the main suspects, but exclude fourty-five in one of the cases and fourty-six in the other. Based on the results, it was proposed a protocol to bite marks analysis for the three foodstuffs. It was proved that the study of bite marks in foods can be used like more one investigation proof, faculting your incorporation in the probatory amount of a criminal investigation, with the possibility of confer a significant incriminatory or excludent power.