Environmental issues increasingly demonstrate local-global linkages in driving forces and effects. Policy responses are initiated at local, national and global levels. The successful management of such cross-level environmental issues involves co-ordinated and co-operative policies and action among stakeholders at several levels of governance. Pesticide use in the South-which is a potential driving force for environmental and health problems-has in this dissertation been analysed in relation to such multilayered governance. The theoretical framework from studies on common property resource (CPR) management is applied, facilitating the cross-level analysis of pesticide use in the South as being a global common. The study looks into problem structuring, risk reduction policies and decisionmaking with respect to pesticide use in the South at the local, national and global levels, with Kenya and Costa Rica as cases for the national and local levels. The degree of common understanding among stakeholders across governance levels on what the problems with pesticide use in the South are and how the problems should be addressed and why, is limited but not entirely absent. Mismatches ininformation flows and knowledge, institutions, and values between governance levels hamper the prospect of establishing multilayered governance. These mismatches can be addressed by giving more attention to the level at which institutions are functional, by involving more stakeholders in the generation of knowledge, and by adopting more inclusive values. One approach to achieve these required changes is to embrace a systems perspective on this issue as a global common, a global environmental concern.

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is associated with significant cardiovascular morbidity. While late-stage valve disease is well-described, there remains an unmet scientific need to elucidate early pathobiological processes. In CAVD, pathological differentiation of valvular interstitial cells (VICs) and lesion formation occur focally in the fibrosa layer. This VIC pathological differentiation has been shown to be influenced by matrix stiffness in vitro. However, little is known about the focal layer specific mechanical properties of the aortic valve in health and disease and how these changes in matrix moduli may influence VIC pathological differentiation in vivo. In this thesis, micropipette aspiration (MA) was shown to be capable of measuring the mechanical properties of a single layer in multilayered biomaterial or tissue such as the aortic valve, if the pipette inner diameter was less than the top layer thickness. With MA, the fibrosa of normal porcine aortic valves was significantly stiffer than the ventricularis; stiffer locations found only within the fibrosa were comparable to stiffnesses shown in vitro to be permissive to VIC pathological differentiation. Early CAVD was induced in a porcine model, which developed human-like early CAVD lesion onlays. Extracellular matrix remodeling occurred in the absence of lipid deposition, macrophages, osteoblasts, or myofibroblasts, but with significant proteoglycan-rich onlays and chondrogenic cell presence. These early onlays were softer than the collagen-rich normal fibrosa, and their proteoglycan content was positively correlated with Sox9 chondrogenic expression, suggesting that soft proteoglycan-rich matrix may be permissive to chondrogenic VIC differentiation. The findings from this thesis shed new light on early disease pathogenesis and improve the fundamental understanding of aortic valve mechanics in health and disease.

The aim of the thesis was to elucidate the effect of confinement of amorphous phase of apolymer above its glass transition temperature being in contact with another polymer in a rigid state.Confinement is unavoidably connected with surfaces enforcing confinement. It is very difficult to separate theeffect of confinement from the effect of interfaces because both effects arise parallel and coincide. Multilayeredfilms were chosen as the base material for the studies because they contain multifold number of confined layerand response from confinement and interfaces is multifold increased. Hoping that some of experimentaltechniques are more sensitive to interfaces while others to confinement we selected the following:microcalorimetry, SSNMR, direlectrical spectroscopy and dynamic shear rheology. We have searched for theinfluence of PS on dynamics of phenyl rings of PC for PC/PS film with ratio 70/30 in the temperature rangefrom 296 K to 393 K employing PILGRIM pulse sequence. .We show that above the glass transition temperatureof PS, the PC component became more flexible. It is at the first glance the effect of the interface because there isno significant confinement of thicker PC layers. Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy measurements in our studyclearly provide evidence for deviations from a simple 2-phase structure in multilayered films PC/PS that is worthto be analyzed more in the future. The dielectric response of the multilayer samples was also modeled andcompared with experimental results. We obtained again discrepancies between the simulated spectra and themeasured spectra for multilayer films. Knowing the exact composition and viscoelastic behaviour of eachcomponent, the theoretical viscoelastic behavior of composites has been predicted numerically. Then,rheological tests have been made, and confronted with numerical predictions, to detect the confinement effect.The upper limit of thickness beyond which PS in confined layers at rubbery state becomes stiffer than in bulk isabout 150/200 nm. It appeared that the shear modulus of the thinnest PS layers (10 nm) is nearly 2.5 times largerthan that for bulk PS sample. We can note that Tg of PS layers also begins to increase beyond this upper limit ofthickness.. None of the experiment could clearly deliver the information about the effect of confinement orinterface on the behavior of PS layers alone. The results obtained here point out that separation of the effects ofconfinement and interfaces remains very difficult.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-202). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-202). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed June 26, 2009). PDF text: xxvii, 209 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 17 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3350440. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:15:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alex Kraisch.pdf: 2282404 bytes, checksum: 128e624fc8b71f2bc7d95efb2b375527 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / There is a relevant potential for multilayered films in many areas of technological interest once they may combine in just one sample convenient mechanical, optical, electrical and magnetic properties, resulting in an upgrade of the original monolayer films. However, it is quite important to take into account that its production evolves chemical and crystallographic compatibility of the materials and a correct understanding of the stresses and deformations that result from the contact between different materials with quite different characteristics. The objective of this work is to build a three-dimensional model that may describe the relation between the stress in a multilayered film deposed on a thick substrate and the curvature of the sample. It is used the minimization of the deformation energy of the sample in elastic regime. This method is quite simple which is a advantage when compared with tensor procedures, allowing an easier identification of the terms as well as the reduction of the complexity of the calculations. The work starts by the motivation for the study of the stress in monolayer and multilayered films, followed by a presentation of the theoretical and experimental implications of the theme. Then, a more complete description of the methodology used and of the model itself is presented, including the identification of the corrections terms for the well-known Stoney equation. Finally, it is presented a validation of the model, by means of a comparison between its results and the values obtained by other theoretical models, taking as standard results obtained by finite element simulation that favors the model presented in this work. / Filmes compostos por múltiplas camadas de diferentes materiais possuem um potencial considerável para aplicações de interesse tecnológico, na medida em que a combinação dos materiais pode produzir coberturas com propriedades mecânicas, ópticas ou magnéticas superiores às obtidas com uma única camada de um único material. Também é evidente que sua produção envolve questões importantes como a compatibilidade cristalográfica e química, bem como uma correta caracterização das tensões e deformações em cada camada, evitando assim fissuras e delaminação entre as camadas. O objetivo desse trabalho é a construção de um modelo tridimensional que descreva a relação entre tensões e deformações em filmes finos depositados em multicamadas sobre substratos espessos. O método utilizado é o da minimização de energia de deformação da amostra em regime elástico. Esse método possui como vantagem significativa sua maior simplicidade em relação a abordagem tensorial, o que reduz a complexidade dos cálculos e permite uma mais fácil identificação dos termos envolvidos. Após a apresentação da motivação ao estudo do problema, bem como das diversas questões que envolvem a análise experimental e teórica do mesmo, é feita uma descrição mais completa da metodologia utilizada e do modelo teórico que é o foco deste trabalho. A seguir, é feita aplicação do modelo para amostras que se deformam como uma casca esférica e cilíndrica, com a identificação dos termos de correção à equação de Stoney. Finalmente, é feita uma comparação entre os valores obtidos pelo modelo e outros modelos teóricos, tomando-se como padrão os valores obtidos segundo uma simulação por elementos finitos, com um resultado favorável ao modelo proposto neste trabalho.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse, design and implement a system to present business objects. These objects are accessible through an existing RESTful API of an integration system. The system combines various sources and publishes them together with information how these data are stored. The task of the thesis is to create data views that meet the following requirements - they can react to metadata changes, they support multiple output formats and these views can be customized. The application should be easily modifiable and connectable to already existing web systems.

L’anisotropie des propriétés mécaniques et acoustiques des matériaux poro-élastiques est un facteur déterminant dans le comportement de panneaux utilisés dans différents domaines de l’ingénierie. La compréhension des différents mécanismes physiques conditionnant la réponse en fréquence de ces structures est alors nécessaire. L’anisotropie intrinsèque des matériaux poreux visco-élastiques présente un potentiel particulier pour l’optimisation multi-fonctionnelle de parois multicouches. En effet, ces parois doivent souvent respecter des contraintes de raideur et isolation sonore et thermique de manière simultanée. Une méthode par superposition d’ondes planes dans des parois composées de matériaux poro-visco-élastiques est présentée afin d’analyser la sensibilité de la réponse acoustique de structures multicouches à l’alignement relative des couches poreuses anisotropes dans celles-ci. La méthode est validée et appliquée à l’étude d’un système composée d’une mousse de mélamine située entre deux parois métalliques. Cesystème permet d’illustrer des phénomènes intrinsèques aux couche poro-élastiques anisotropes, tel que le décalage en fréquence de la résonance fondamentale du système, et les couplages de compression-cisaillement dans le milieu poro-élastique. Ce phénomène de couplage est particulièrement intéressant puisqu’il n’est caractérisable que par la polarisation des ondes dans le milieu poro-élastique anisotrope. En fin, la méthode est appliquée afin d’optimiser un système multicouche pour des performances acoustiques. Les variables d’optimisation sont les orientations relatives des couches poro-élastiques anisotropes par rapport au système de coordonnées globales. Les solutions aux problèmes d’optimisation sont analysées en termes de comportement mécanique, ce qui permet d’établir une corrélation entre performances acoustiques et comportement dynamique. / The mechanical and acoustic anisotropy of media is a governing factor in the behaviour of multilayered systems including such media. The understanding of the mechanisms conditioning the dynamic behaviour of multilayered systems is of paramount importance. In particular, the intrinsicanisotropy of poroelastic media presents a potential for the optimal design of systems for multifunctional performances. Indeed, these multilayered systems are bound by stiffness, thermal and acoustic performance constraints in simultaneously. A plane wave method is presented to study theinfluence of material orientation in the dynamic behaviour of multilayered systems composed of anisotropic poroelastic media. The method is applied to a system composed of an anisotropic open-celled melamine foam core in between two metal sheets. This particular multilayered configuration allows to shed light on phenomena intrinsic to layers composed of anisotropic poroelastic materials, such as the frequency shift of the fundamental resonance of the panel, or the compression-shear coupling effects taking place in the poroelastic core layers. The latter phenomena is of particular importance, as it is evidenced on the unconventional polarisation of waves in anisotropic poroelastic media. Finally, the method is adapted to the optimisation of multi-layered systems for acoustic performance. the design variables are consequently the core material orientations with respect to the global coordinate system. The solutions to the optimisation problem are analysed in terms of dynamic behaviour, thus allowing to correlate acoustic performanceof the overall structure, and the response of each individual layer.

The high resolution structure of protein molecules and protein-protein complexes is important to investigate their functions. Today, large 3D or 2D crystals are required to obtain protein structures by X-ray crystallography or conventional Electron Microscopy, respectively. However, production of such crystals of good quality is a solely empirical procedure, which relies on screening numerous crystallization conditions. At the same time, multilayered protein crystals are often a by-product of attempts to grow 3D or 2D crystals and could be obtained more easily. So far, multilayered protein crystals have not been used in electron microscopy for structure determination, as the interpretation of an electron diffraction pattern is rather complicated. In this thesis we present the first protein structure bovine liver catalase at 4 Å resolution solved using electron diffraction data from multilayered crystals. 55 diffraction patterns (17 tilt series) were recorded and used for the reconstruction. The tilt geometry of each individual diffraction pattern was determined by a least-squares algorithm or Laue zone analysis to perform spot indexing. The phase problem was solved by molecular replacement. The influence of the missing data cone on the self-rotation function and interpretation of reconstructed map is discussed.