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Background: Several environmental risk factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis ofinflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and might cause an altered barrier function, a hallmark ofIBD. Recent evidence suggests that patients with late-onset ulcerative colitis (UC) have anincreased serum level of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), one of the major chemical groupscontaminating our diet. A potential route via which PFAS might contribute to the disease is bydisrupting the intestinal barrier. However, whether intake of PFAS dose induce an increasedintestinal permeability is still unknown. Aim: The aim of the thesis is to investigate the effect of in vivo exposure toperfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOA) in mice on colon barrier function. The hypothesis is thatlong time exposure to PFOA contributes to the development of late-onset ulcerative colitis bydisrupting the intestinal barrier. Methods: This controlled laboratory study used 7 mice exposed to PFOA in vivo via thedrinking water for 3 weeks and a control group of 9 mice for reference. Colon tissue from themice were excised for assessing intestinal permeability using the Ussing chamber method.FITCH-dextran was used as a macromolecular probe in the Ussing chamber to investigate themucosal-serosal flux across the intestinal mucosa to see macromolecular permeability andelectrophysiological parameters were assessed to investigate tight junction permeability,stimulated secretory response to Carbachol and active ion transport. Results: Although there were no statistically significant results between the PFOA treated groupand the control group, a trend of increased secretory response to Carbachol was observed in thePFOA group compared to the controls. Conclusion: The study demonstrates that in vivo exposure to PFOA does not induce an alteredintestinal barrier in terms of electrophysiological parameters and macromolecular flux. Futureexperiments are needed with a larger population and potentially genetically predisposed mice.Key

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This thesis concerns the modelling of acoustical and vibrational properties of open cell porous foams in multi-layered structures, especially multi-layered panels. The object is to enable optimisation of the microscopic geometry of the foam with respect to macroscopic quantities such as sound pressure level, surface velocity, total mass or cost. The developed method is based on numerical solutions to Biot's equations were scaling laws has been used to connect the microscopic geometry of the foam to macroscopic properties such as density, flow resistivity and characteristic length. Efforts have also been made to establish a scaling law for tortuosity that allows for adaptation to different strut shapes. / QC 20101117

<p>Endocrine disrupting substances have been frequently reported to exist in potent concentrations in wastewater treatment plant effluent and other surface waters. Common techniques of wastewater treatment have varied effectiveness to remove estrogens from wastewater. A thermo-responsive smart membrane technology is investigated for its use in adsorptive removal of 17β-estradiol from a background electrolyte solution. A simplified fabrication method is adapted for hydrogel-substrate composite thermo-responsive membranes. Deposition of hydrogel occurs through aqueous polymerization in a coating process dissimilar to common grafting techniques. Acrylamide and acrylic acid monomers are polymerized in two different structures, a random copolymer as well as an interpenetrating network, to form a positive volume-phase transition hydrogel coating. Subsequent membranes experience high permeability at low temperatures with a gating mechanism reducing permeability upon heating. The effects of crosslinker content, monomer ratio, mass loading and butylmethacrylate content are investigate. Only mass loading was found to have significant influence on the behaviour of the membranes in all cases. The variations of the other factors were too little to have great influence. The membranes with the most stable permeability response function were then used in 17β-estradiol adsorption tests, investigating the binding capacity at both colder water temperatures (10oC) and warmer water temperatures (40oC). In the collapse and swelling of the volume-phase transitions, the membranes changed their solution properties which were hypothesized to also alter surface functionality. After introducing the estradiol sample, the membranes were subjected to temperature change with the expectation that any bound material would elute once the surface functionality of the membranes became adequately altered. Only some membranes produced an elution fraction while others appeared to undergo irreversible binding with a possible delayed elution. Removal of dosed 17β-estradiol is reported as adsorbed mass per area of membrane.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Yes / Silica is one of the most efficient gas barrier materials, and hence is widely used as anencapsulating material for electronic devices. In general, the processing of silica is carried out at hightemperatures, i.e., around 1000◦C. Recently, processing of silica has been carried out from a polymercalled Perhydropolysilazane (PHPS). The PHPS reacts with environmental moisture or oxygen andyields pure silica. This material has attracted many researchers and has been widely used in manyapplications such as encapsulation of organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) displays, semiconductorindustries, and organic solar cells. In this paper, we have demonstrated the process optimization ofthe conversion of the PHPS into silica in terms of curing methods as well as curing the environment.Various curing methods including exposure to dry heat, damp heat, deep UV, and their combinationunder different environments were used to cure PHPS. FTIR analysis suggested that the quickestconversion method is the irradiation of PHPS with deep UV and simultaneous heating at 100◦C.Curing with this method yields a water permeation rate of 10−3g/(m2·day) and oxygen permeationrate of less than 10−1cm3/(m2·day·bar). Rapid curing at low-temperature processing along withbarrier properties makes PHPS an ideal encapsulating material for organic solar cell devices and avariety of similar applications. / King Saud University

The objective of this research work was to understand the molecular mechanism of gas transport through amorphous glassy polymers. Especially, emphasis was placed on determining whether or not gas transport in amorphous glassy polymers is directly correlated with the free volume content. Free volume arguments are indeed commonly used to explain the gas transport process. The gas transport properties of bisphenol-A polycarbonate films were examined as a function of the cooling rate, physical aging, and orientation. Such conditions affect the free volume content and its size and shape distribution. Results obtained from permeation experiments were accompanied with dynamic mechanical and density measurements. The experimental results suggest that the diffusion coefficient of small gas molecules in glassy polycarbonate is influenced by the local dynamics or mobility of the polymer chains rather than by the overall free volume content. Indeed, the diffusion coefficient of nitrogen for instance was reduced in fast-cooled samples, despite of the fact that those samples possessed a greater overall free volume content. Fast cooling rates may generate highly restricted conformations which hinder local motions, and therefore tend to increase the activation energy of diffusion. As expected, the greater the free volume content, the greater was the solubility coefficient. The increase in the polymer relaxation times with aging time is believed to restrict the local chain motions, leading to enhanced activation energies of diffusion, and therefore to reduced diffusion coefficients. The change in the solubility coefficients with physical aging revealed that the aging process might not affect all the cavity sizes in polycarbonate equally. According to free volume arguments, one would anticipate that the physical aging of fast-cooled samples (which possess more free volume) should be enhanced compared to that of slowly-cooled samples. Quite interestingly, the decrease in the diffusion coefficient with aging was found to occur much slower in fast-cooled samples, despite of the higher initial free volume content. In contrast, properties directly related to the free volume content, such as density or isothermal DMTA measurements actually showed a greater aging rate in the sample containing the greatest amount of free volume. Slow-cooled samples that are in a low energy conformational state may loose their internal degrees of freedom more rapidly, due to the closer interchain packing and the possibly restricted segmental motions. Studies dealing with orientation and gas transport were complicated by several factors. For instance the fact that the permeation experiments were performed perpendicularly to the orientation of the chains and not along the orientation axis limited the sensitivity of the gas transport properties to orientation. This work points out that dynamic rather than static models should be developed to predict the gas transport phenomenon. / Ph. D.