The deterministic microasperities play a vital role in reducing the coefficient of friction and wear of thrust surfaces and improve the tribological properties of the surfaces. Deterministic microasperities have a specific pattern in terms of size, shape and spacing. These specified geometries are controllable and repeatable. The microasperities are micron scaled asperities and cavities on a surface that form the surface roughness. The present thesis shows the detailed process to fabricate the deterministic microasperities on thrust surfaces, i.e. stainless substrate, using micro-fabrication processes such as lapping and ultra-violet photolithography in combination with an electroplating (nickel) process. A Novel alignment technique is used to align the photomask with the substrate to get repeatable and aligned patterns on the thrust surface. Deterministic microasperities are characterized by using precision instruments such as an Optical profilometer, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Optical microscope to study the various surface parameters such as Average roughness (Ra), Root mean square value (rms) and Peak value (PV) of the thrust surface.

Spinal muscle atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease which is characterized by the loss of α motor neurons from the anterior horn of the spinal cord, resulting in progressive muscle atrophy. The loss of functional Survival motor neuron (SMN) protein due to mutations or deletion in the SMN1 gene is the cause of SMA. A potential treatment strategy for SMA is to upregulate levels of the SMN protein originating from the copy gene SMN2 which can compensate in part for the absence of the functional SMN1 gene. I have shown a novel therapeutic strategy for SMA treatment through the activation of the p38 pathway by the bacterial antibiotic anisomycin which stabilizes and increases SMN mRNA levels in vitro. Activation of the p38 pathway by anisomycin leads to cytoplasmic accumulation of HuR protein which binds to the 3’UTR of SMN transcript resulting in increased SMN levels. This opens up a novel potential therapeutic strategy for SMA. I have also identified and demonstrated a significant induction of SMN protein levels in vitro and in vivo upon treatment with FDA approved drug celecoxib, which also activates the p38 pathway. Celecoxib mitigates disease severity along with increasing the lifespan of SMA mice. Sodium valproate, trichostatin A and aclarubicin, all agents which effectively enhance SMN2 expression, have been recently shown to activate STAT5 in SMA-like mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human SMN2-transfected NSC34 cells. Given that prolactin is also known to activate the STAT5 signalling pathway, can cross blood brain barrier and is FDA approved, we elected to assess its impact on SMN levels. In this manner, I have demonstrated a significant induction in SMN mRNA and protein levels in neuronal NT2 and MN-1 cells upon treatment with prolactin. I have also demonstrated that activation of the STAT5 pathway by prolactin is necessary for this transcriptional upregulation of the SMN gene. I have found that prolactin treatment induces SMN expression in brain and spinal cord samples and that it ameliorates the disease phenotype, improving motor neuron function and increasing survival in the SMA mouse model. Presently there is no cure for SMA. This study will help in the identification and characterization of potential therapeutic compounds for the treatment of SMA.

This dissertation examines how Victorians used the word “queer” as associated with senses of “counterfeit” and “eccentricity” in selected Victorian novels. The word was popularly used, by Victorian writers of both genders and in various and diverse circumstances, to mean the unfamiliar, the unconventional, the incomprehensible, and the non-normal. Unlike the contemporary uses of the word, which are oriented toward a relatively particular meaning, the non-normal sexual, Victorian uses of the word had been fluid, unstable, and indeterminate, yet referring to or associating with the non-normal aspects in things and people. Knowing how the Victorians used the word helps us to understand that a concept of marginality can be extended to the extent of tolerating Otherness in marginalized positions and minority identities. Victorian novels including Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Aurora Floyd (1863), Wilkie Collins’s Hide and Seek (1854), and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) demonstrate how the word “queer” is indeterminately used and also represent how queer marginality is appreciated or rejected, and tolerated or discriminated against. As queerness is defined as the status of counterfeitabilty, a counterpart of authenticity, queer subjects are described to provoke a feeling of repulsion and tend to be criminalized or pathologized. On the other hand, as queerness is defined as the status of eccentricity, queer subjects are sympathized and defended in the narrative. Manifestations of eccentricities in queer subjects are occasionally reprimanded, but admired for queer subjects’ uncommon or distinguished individuality. Victorian novels demonstrate that queer marginality can be employed as a self-fashioning identity or social status for any non-normal individual to deal with social pressure of conformity.

Sketch is a fictional novella that explores themes of love, absence, sexual violence, and coincidence. It is a result of two years of extensive writing as a Michener fellow at the University of Miami, and is my first attempt at a longer work. Though a few of the character names are slightly fantastical, the story is firmly rooted in New York City, and the characters themselves are realistic.

Twelve porphyrin dyads linked by an ethene bridge were synthesised as model systems for conjugated polymers. The extent of interporphyrin interaction was investigated for meso-meso and meso-β linked homo- and heterobimetallo-porphyrin dyads. To complement these dyads, model monomers with alkenyl substituents were also studied. Once the synthesis of these compounds was achieved, the extent of interaction was studied using UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular modelling. In order to gain a true indication of the extent of interaction in a dyad, the effect of the bridge as a substituent must be accounted for. This was achieved by studying the series of monomers by UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. The increased conjugation resulting from mono- and bis-alkenyl substituents results in a red shift of the origin of transition energies in the absorption spectrum which is accompanied by a broadened and less intense Soret band and an increase in the intensity of the Q bands. The emission of these compounds also displays an increase in Stokes shift and a loss of vibronic coupling due to the increased conjugation. The serendipitous synthesis of three asymmetric meso-β ethene-linked porphyrin dyads was achieved by the use of palladium-catalysed Heck coupling of mesoethenyl- with meso-bromoporphyrins. A possible mechanism for this meso to β rearrangement was proposed. A series of nine meso-meso ethene-linked dyads was synthesised by palladium-catalysed Suzuki coupling of meso-(2-iodoethenyl)- with meso-borolanylporphyrins. All of these dyads were characterised by 1D and 2D NMR as well as MS analysis. The absorption spectra of ethene-linked dyads exhibit a split Soret band and a red-shifted and intensified HOMO-LUMO band. In the meso-β dyads, the degree of splitting in the Soret band is sufficient only to generate a shoulder on the red edge, whereas in the meso-meso dyads two separate bands appear. The extent of splitting is believed to be an indication of the amount of porphyrin-porphyrin interaction. The fluorescence profiles of the dyads change dramatically depending upon the central substituents in the porphyrins and the wavelength used for irradiation, which suggests that different conformations of these compounds give rise to different parts of their absorption and emission profiles. The fluorescence profiles of the dyads also do not reflect their absorption profiles, and therefore the excitation of the dyad is believed to be accompanied also by a change in geometry. All ethene-linked dyads exhibited an anti-Stokes shift, and the excitation spectra of the different parts of the fluorescence envelope also support the possibility of different conformers contributing to the fluorescence spectra. Molecular mechanics and time-dependent quantum mechanical calculations were performed on seven ethene-linked porphyrin dyads. These calculations further support the proposal of different conformations contributing to the physical properties of ethene-linked dyads. Electronic structure calculations also show considerable electron density on the alkene for the meso-meso ethene-linked dyads, which highlights the important influence of this bridge upon the electronic nature of these conjugated diporphyrins.

Creative practitioners, undertaking practice-led research, theorise their practice within an academic domain. Within a three-tiered, performative research paradigm, this project researched writerly identity during the writing of a novel and exegesis. Firstly, based on the writer’s experience with creative and academic writing, the differences were explored through two first-person narratives in a frametale novel, The Fragility Papers, a process documented by critical and reflective journaling. Secondly, the insights gained during the writing of the novel were theorised within the domain of creative writers. Thirdly, the understandings embedded in the novel were considered in the light of these insights and those gained during writing of the exegesis and further theorised within the areas of voice, the writing process and ontological change. Novel writing, it was found, drew not only on the imagination, research, in-flow stream of consciousness writing and serendipitous occurrences but also on personal embodied inscriptions, linguistic play, logic and reason in the development of narrative coherence, forward planning, previously unidentified editing values based in the sonority of language, and a knowledge of the expectations associated with the literary genre. Acknowledging this breadth of experience led to changes in the writer’s creative-writing process, a questioning of the theorised sole influence of language based texts as proposed in intertextual theory, and the proposal to italicise ‘text’ within intertextual to accommodate this breadth. The theorising of insights and emerging, experiential knowledge during the writing of the exegesis was realised in a series of evolving drafts in which interiorised knowledge was increasingly drawn upon in stream of consciousness writing. Further, in both genres, the dialogic engagement of the writer in conscious and unconscious activity at different stages of the writing process was found, suggesting that unconscious activity has a larger than envisaged role to play in academic writing.

Zugl.: Köln, Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (M.A.)--Edith Cowan University, 2006. / Submitted to the Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Zürich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-181).

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University.