A number of innovative techniques were developed for the extra-vascular delivery of insulin, of which oral delivery of insulin being one of the most active fields of study in pharmaceutics. Interest in this domain is due to two factors: the therapeutic potential of the approach and lack of delivery systems which demonstrate promising results for clinical implementation. Oral delivery of insulin is of a particular challenge due to highly evolved and complex barriers presented by the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Long-term s.c. injections are invasive and are associated with major drawbacks such as pain, weight gain, hypoglycaemia, hyperinsulinemia, leading to low patient compliance and adherence. The present work aims to develop novel insulin-loaded chitosan (CS) and pegylated chitosan (CS-O-mPEG) based nanoparticles (NPs) and investigate them for potential colonic delivery. PEG-Chitosan was chemically conjugated using low molecular weight chitosan and mPEG-2000. Insulin loaded pegylated chitosan (CS-O-mPEG) NPs were prepared via the iontropic gelation technique by cross-linking with tripolyphosphate (TPP). The characteristics of the NPs i.e. particle morphology, particle size and zeta potential was evaluated. The effect of pH and the polymer:TPP wieght ratios on NP characteristics was also evaluated. An HPLC analytical method to quantify insulin was developed and validated. In vitro release and entrapment studies of the nanoparticles were conducted using the Franz diffusion cells. Prepared nanoparticle formulations were assessed for biocompatibility using the MTT (Tetrazolim dye) assay and permeability studies on the Caco-2 and MDCK monolayers. Successful CS-O-mPEG conjugation was confirmed by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. SEM revealed the spherical nature of CS and CS-O-mPEG NPs. A mean diameter ranging from 50 - 250 nm was recorded for the NPs. Characterisation of NPs for zeta potential was carried out for both the CS and CS-O-mPEG formulations. Particle size measurements for the NPs revealed size ranges between 110-250 nm, in accordance to the hydradynamic diameter measured by DLS. RP- HPLC analytical method was developed and validated according to ICH guidelines to quantify Insulin. The data showed presence of well-defined single insulin peak, being successfully recovered at retention time between 7.5 - 9 minutes. CS-O-mPEG NPs demonstrated maximum release in simulated intestinal fluids (SIF). There was some encouraging data obtained in regard to the biocompatibility studies for the prepared Insulin loaded NP formulations using MTT assay. Permeability studies were also conducted for the prepared NP formulations on Caco-2 and MDCK monolayers, revealing better permeation of insulin through the CS-O-mPEG NPs. Insulin-loaded NPs of CS and CS-O-mPEG were successfully formulated. CS-O-mPEG NPs demonstrated superior in vitro characteristics over the conventional CS NPs in terms of aqueous solubility, particle size, entrapment efficiency and drug release profile, In addition, permeation studies revealed that CS-O-mPEG NPs enabled a significantly higher insulin transfer across Caco-2 and MDCK cell monolayer models compared to the CS NPs making the former a promising candidate for oral delivery of insulin.

Thesis Msc.(Clinical Psychology))--University of Limpopo, 2009. / The overall scope of the study was to explore reasons why couples do not present themselves for premarital counselling. Research indicates that despite the high divorce rates and dissatisfaction with the institution of marriage, most engaged couples are reluctant to participate in premarital counselling, in spite of its demonstrated efficacy. To understand the reasons for this lack of participation, five (5) couples who were in the process of getting married were interviewed. The results of the analysis indicate that engaged couples experience high levels of relationship satisfaction. This may result in the low participation rate as they do not perceive themselves as being susceptible to marital problems and divorce. However, due to the small sample size, it is difficult to generalize the findings. As a result further research is suggested. It is also recommended that research be conducted to determine the connection between the lack of awareness surrounding premarital counselling and participation in premarital counselling. Lastly, it is also recommended that the structure and format of the program should be made to appear more appealing and socially acceptable.

This thesis argues that the practice and discourse of Montessori education should be explicitly concerned with the creation of a culture of response rather than with the implementation of a method. It is argued that in order for a culture of response to occur there must be within Montessori discourse and practice an explicit recognition of the need for teachers to engage critically and continuously with the assumptions that underpin Montessori thought and practice. This is difficult, however, because there is a tension between Montessori as a method and Montessori as response. An attempt is made to examine Montessori discourse in order to understand the nature of this tension. This involves looking at Montessori discourse from a perspective that borrows from Poststructuralist thinking. It is suggested that in Montessori discourse there exists a relationship between certain elements of the discourse and its practices that may bind tightly together the subjectivity, or identity, of the teacher; the claims to legitimacy and truth of the discourse itself; and particular, positivist, notions of the individual, of truth, nature, change, society, and knowledge. From a Postructuralist perspective this constellation of relationships begins to unravel when Montessori discourse is seen to arise from specific beliefs and assumptions that underpin apparently common sense understandings regarding children, learning, society and change. These understandings may result in the maintenance of the dichotomy between the observer and the observed, the teacher and the child, the knower and the known and the inevitable power relations that accompany such dichotomies. This Poststructuralist concern with the issue of power is thus a significant issue for educators who are attempting to provide a learning environment that is responsive to children's diverse attempts to make sense of the world and to find a voice. A critical engagement with Montessori discourse, and practice, thus requires an engagement with the ways in which it may construct a relationship between teacher and child that may be inimical to the development of a culture of response in Montessori schools.

Étude d'un point de vue philologique de trois manuscrits du début du 15e s. contenant des œuvres latines de Pétrarque et des annotations ou gloses tracées de la même main anonyme. Les trois manuscrits ont différents éléments en commun : l'origine (espagnole ou de la France méridionale comme on le déduit par le type d'écriture, la décoration et par le contenu des gloses), l'époque de transcription (premières vingt années du XV siècle) et un imposant corpus de gloses. La première partie de la thèse (chapitres 1, 2 e 3) est entièrement consacrée à l'examen et à l'édition des gloses dans chacun des manuscrits. Je donne d'abord une description paléographique, j'étudie aussi l'écriture, je présente brièvement les textes de Pétrarque et enfin, je transcris toutes les gloses, pour que le corpus soit facilement accessible et qu'il puisse être étudié dans le détail. L'édition complète est d'une étendue imposante : il s'agit bien, au total, de plus de 5000 interventions. Aussi souvent que possible, l'identification des sources figure dans l'édition. L'étude du contenu du corpus suit l'édition des gloses. C'est la deuxième partie du travail (chapitres 4,5 e 6). J'y ai commenté les données en ma possession, en procédant d'abord à une classification des notes d'après divers niveaux. La troisième partie de la thèse (chapitre 7 e 8) concerne l'identité de l'annotateur, son profil culturel, sa méthode de travail, sa bibliothèque. À travers ce travail philologique, réalisé sur un corpus limité mais original, j'espère avoir écrit un chapitre significatif de l'histoire de la lecture, dans le délicat moment de transition entre le moyen-âge et l'humanisme. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riassunto: Studio di tre manoscritti di opere latine di Petrarca dell'inizio del secolo XV. I tre codici hanno vari elementi in comune: l'origine (spagnola o del sud della Francia), l'epoca di trascrizione (primi venti anni del secolo XV), ma soprattutto un interessante corpus di postille ai testi petrarcheschi tracciato sui margini dei fogli da un ignoto e colto glossatore. La prima parte della tesi è interamente consacrata allo studio dei manoscritti da un punto di vista materiale (capitoli 1, 2 e 3). Alla descrizione paleografica di ogni codice segue una breve presentazione dei testi petrarcheschi in esso contenuti e la trascrizione di tutte le glosse marginali. Essa è completata dalla identificazione delle fonti citate dall'erudito. La seconda parte del lavoro è dedicata all'analisi delle postille (capitoli 4, 5 e 6). L'edizione integrale delle chiose permette di scorgere le tracce di una peculiare lettura delle opere di Petrarca. Dallo studio di questo inedito corpus emerge con chiarezza la singolare personalità dell'amanuense, uno zelante erudito. Egli tracciò una ininterrotta serie di interventi sui tre codici, specchio per noi fedele dei suoi interessi culturali. L'annotazione risulta nel complesso particolarmente impegnata e si sviluppa a vari livelli: dalla semplice e fedele ripetizione di uno o più lemmi, alla minuziosa correzione filologica fino alla estesa citazione di loci similes tratti da altri autori, classici e medievali. Nella terza parte della tesi (capitoli 7 e 8) ricostruisco il profilo culturale e il metodo di lavoro dell'antico lettore e affronto la difficile questione della sua identità. Quale scopo lo incitò ad occuparsi con tanta cura dei testi latini di Petrarca? Che tipo di biblioteca e di ambiente poteva frequentare? La sua è una lettura delle opere petrarchesche ancora tutta medievale o egli mostra connotati culturali già indubbiamente preumanistici? L'analisi delle postille permette di fissare i poli, tra originale gusto letterario ed erudizione, entro i quali si mosse l'ignoto annotatore e si realizzò la cultura del suo ambiente, nel delicato periodo di passaggio dal medioevo all'umanesimo.

Johann Sebastian Bach is considered the foremost organist and composer of organ music of his time. His vast knowledge of the instrument and his ability to reveal the organ?s brilliance were unparalleled, taking the organ to its peak in the Baroque era. Bach perfected many musical styles and forms of the day, and also became well-known for his improvisational skills. However, by the end of Bach?s life, the styles and forms began to change. The forms Bach knew so well slowly gave way to new ideas, signaling the beginning of what music historians label the ?Classical? period. It was during this time that the popularity of the organ began to decline. Bach?s children left behind their father?s musical styles to try new, emerging styles. Although several did continue to compose for the organ, they composed mainly for other keyboard instruments or orchestras. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment changed not only the role of the church, but also people?s view of the church as well. Liturgical changes were made and the organ was viewed as part of the old style. Orchestras replaced the organ and, for the most part, organists either improvised or took a step back from their duties. However, the decline of organ music in the classical period did not equate to its complete disappearance. Bach?s compositions lost favor with the general public after his death, and his successors were left to carry on his legacy and the art of the organ. While Bach?s contributions to the organ world are vast and well-documented, the works of his successors are less familiar. This thesis will focus primarily on the organ repertoire of Bach?s successors during the period of change, the Pre-Classical period. The contributions of Bach?s best-known pupil, Johann Krebs, have been well documented, and research on Krebs is the starting point for this thesis. Research on Bach?s children and his other pupils is available, but one would be hard-pressed to find more than one or two articles of any length on their individual contributions. This thesis will attempt to combine the research on Bach?s sons and students, and reveal their contributions to organ literature as a bridge between Baroque and Classical periods. The first chapter will discuss Bach?s keyboard contributions, as well as styles prevalent in the Pre-Classical period. The second through fourth chapters will discuss Bach?s sons ? Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Christian, respectively. The fifth and sixth chapters will include Johann Ludwig Krebs and Bach?s last two pupils. Research for this thesis primarily relies on books and scholarly articles about the Bach family and organ literature of the time period. Databases such as JStor, WorldCat, and the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians have been used to locate articles and recent findings. Research on this particular subject is not adequately covered in English. Most are written in Bach?s native language, German, with very few translated into the English language. This thesis covers both German and English articles, books, and journals on the topic.

Anaerobic co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), with thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) and primary sludge (PS) has the potential to enhance (biodegradation) of solid waste, increase longevity of existing landfills and lead to more sustainable development by improving waste to energy production. This study reports on mesophilic batch anaerobic biological methane potential (BMP) assays carried out with different concentrations and combinations (ratios) of OFMSW, TWAS (microwave (MW) pre-treated and untreated) and PS to assess digester stability and potential improved specific biodegradability and potential increased specific biogas production by digestion of OFMSW with PS and TWAS in various tri-substrate mixtures. Results indicated improvements in specific biogas production with concomitant improvements in COD and volatile solid (VS) removal for co-digestion of OMSW, TWAS and PS vs. controls. In terms of improvements in biogas production and digester stability the OFMSW:TWAS:PS:50:25:25 ratio with or without TWAS MW treatment was deemed best for further continuous digester studies. At a 15d HRT which is the regulatory policy in the province of Ontario for municipal mesophilic anaerobic TWAS:PS treatment, co-digestion of OFMSW:TWAS:PS, and OFMSW:TWASMW:PS resulted in a 1.38 and 1.46 fold relative improvement in biogas production and concomitant waste stabilization when compared to TWAS:PS and TWASMW:PS digestion at the same HRT and volumetric VS loading rate respectively. Treatment of OFMSW with PS and TWAS provides beneficial effects that could be exploited at MWWTP that are being operated at loading rates less than design capacity.

VecTor© is a suite of computer programs developed for nonlinear finite element analysis of reinforced concrete. A graphics-based pre-processor (FormWorks) was developed for 2D concrete membrane structures, greatly contributing to the software’s utility and success. However, modeling other types of structures is a time consuming process, requiring manual definition of the finite element mesh, loads and analysis parameters in standard text files. A user-friendly pre-processor is required for the entire suite of programs if they are to be of greater use to design engineers. The purpose of this study is to develop an updated version of FormWorks, FormWorks 3.5, which is more user-friendly and compatible with the improvements made in VecTor2 over the past ten years. In addition, an extended version of FormWorks, FormWorks-Plus, will be created for the remaining VecTor programs with a wide range of viewing features, and facilities for specification of node coordinates, elements, loads and material properties.

VecTor© is a suite of computer programs developed for nonlinear finite element analysis of reinforced concrete. A graphics-based pre-processor (FormWorks) was developed for 2D concrete membrane structures, greatly contributing to the software’s utility and success. However, modeling other types of structures is a time consuming process, requiring manual definition of the finite element mesh, loads and analysis parameters in standard text files. A user-friendly pre-processor is required for the entire suite of programs if they are to be of greater use to design engineers. The purpose of this study is to develop an updated version of FormWorks, FormWorks 3.5, which is more user-friendly and compatible with the improvements made in VecTor2 over the past ten years. In addition, an extended version of FormWorks, FormWorks-Plus, will be created for the remaining VecTor programs with a wide range of viewing features, and facilities for specification of node coordinates, elements, loads and material properties.

No description available.

As more and more services are provided via WWW, how to reduce the perceived delay in WWW interaction becomes very import to the service providers to keep their users. Pre-fetching is an important technique for reducing latency in distributes systems like the WWW. Page pre-fetching takes advantage of local machine idle period of user viewing current page to deliver pages that user like to access in the near future. Being motivated by pre-fetching ideas and its practical bothers, we propose a server-initiated page pre-fetching method: XML enabled page-grouping to reduce Web latency. In our page-grouping scheme, we anticipate the page that user will like to access in the near future based on hyperlink and referral access probabilities of each page. The predictive pages are grouped and converted into a XML file embedding in the page that user currently requests. If the user clicks the predictive linked page, the corresponding HTML is regenerated directly from the embedded XML document. The proposed scheme allows alternative of batch grouping or on-line grouping. For the reason of avoiding server extra load, we suggest that the task of grouping static pages is performed periodically at server off-peak loading time. Beside static pages, we also hope to group dynamic page generated by CGI and illustrate the feasibility with an example of Web-based database query. When compared to previous page pre-fetching techniques, our page-grouping method has simplicity and practicability. By using XML document, add-on application modules are no more needed because that the XML processor is supported in new generator browsers like Microsoft IE 5.0. Furthermore, the way of converting grouping pages into embedded XML document makes predictive pages transparent to the proxy servers and the server side speculative service can work no matter whether there are proxy servers between the server and clients. Using trace simulations based on the logs of HTTP server http://www.kcg.gov.tw, we show that 67.84% URL request is referral request. It means that the probability is about 2/3 that users retrieve next Web page by clicking hyperlinks on currently viewing page. The logs are categorized according to the kind of official service. And the statistical results of every class of logs indicate that page always has a persistent referral access probabilities for a few days. It encourages us to get high hit rate of a predictive page by selecting it according to its high referral access probability. Considering bandwidth tradeoff, we discuss hit rate, traffic increase due to grouping and traffic intensity based on M/M/1 model. For online grouping of dynamic page, we take an example of database querying page on our simulating HTTP server. The experiment result leads to the conclusion that page grouping of pages of Web-based database querying can reduce server load of CGI processing, as the hit rate of the next page is about 18.48%.