Background: When a company tries to sell either products or services, it is important to consider the decision criteria on the purchasing side. Most often, there will be personal, emotional reasons that guide the purchaser’s preference in chosing suppliers, coexisting with the rational reasoning. Previous studies have shown that the emotional influence when it comes to decision making in purchasing is strongest in small businesses, however there is no information regarding what are the actual emotions experienced and in what context. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to find which basic emotions are most felt in different purchasing processes. Method: This research is based on a quantitative method where the information was gathered by sending out surveys to small businesses in Sweden. The respondents rated 27 emotions on a five point Likert scale for each of the four researched processes: Adaptive planning in purchasing, Accessing external expertise for purchasing, Similarities in attitude with supplier in evaluation and Involvement in purchasing consortia. Conclusion: Two of the four hypotheses were supported, suggesting that the basic emotion of happiness positively relates to similarity in attitude between the small business and the supplier and the emotion of fear positively relates to accessing external expertise. A descriptive statistics were also created showing the most and least felt emotions in each of the four processes.

This quantitative study intends to identify how collective meaning-making elaborates on social media in terms of a rather new swedish concept, klimatsmart. User generated content, gathered under the hashtag #klimatsmart, is analyzed through quantitative content analysis and the study focuses on which climate friendly representations is created and further maintained on the social media platform Instagram. The approach combines an understanding of climate communication as well as how affective communities is formed in social media. The results show that commercial actors and individuals contribute with most content and that visual content of food and items of everyday use are the most common. A consumptionand recycling aspect often is mentioned along with this visual content. This indicates that the ideological negotiation in terms of the hashtag #klimatsmart is focused mainly to small lifestyle changes such as behavior linked to environmentally friendly consumption.

Master of Science / Department of Biology / Theodore J. Morgan / The organismal response to temperature represents one of the most ubiquitous processes that occur in the natural world, and this response is critical for survival in most habitats. Increased attention should be focused on how organisms cope with temperature extremes, either through adaptation, plasticity, or a combination of both, as climate models predict increased variations in temperature accompanied by novel thermal extremes. Drosophila melanogaster is an excellent resource for answering questions pertaining to how organisms persist in environmental extremes because they originated in central tropical Africa and have since colonized nearly the entire globe, exposing them to many novel thermal stressors. In this work I elucidated regions of the genome contributing to phenotypic variation in cold tolerance and thermal plasticity. A quantitative trait locus (QTL) approach was used, which involved phenotyping roughly 400 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of D. melanogaster from the Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource (DSPR). The DSPR captures genetic variation from around the globe, allowing for precision mapping of cold tolerance and thermal plasticity QTL, while simultaneously determining the frequency of the QTL alleles. Upon development at both 18°C and 25°C, RILS were measured for a common cold tolerance metric, chill-coma recovery time (CCR), and a plasticity value was derived as the change in CCR between environments. Analysis of variance revealed significant effects of sex, line (RIL), treatment (temperature), and line by treatment interaction (GxE). Mapped QTL for chill-coma recovery time at 18°C and 25°C spanned the same regions as several studies previously reported, validating the automated phenotyping method used and the mapping power of the DSPR. QTL between CCR at 18°C and 25°C overlapped significantly, and QTL for thermal plasticity shared the similar regions as QTL for CCR, but also exhibited two non-overlapping QTL on the left arm of the third chromosome. This study demonstrated the tremendous amount of variation present in cold tolerance phenotypes and identified candidate regions of the genome that contribute to thermal plasticity and require further investigation.

The performance of a quadrotor can be significantly disturbed in presence of wind. In this paper, a simple-to-implement attitude controller is proposed to render a robust and accurate trajectory tracking in presence of disturbance and model uncertainties. The attitude controller design is based on Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT). A fuzzy logic controller is further employed to provide satisfactory position trajectory tracking for the quadrotor. The performances of the controllers, in terms of disturbance rejection and trajectory tracking are experimentally studied. Finally, a flight scenario is performed to compare the performances of the designed QFT-Fuzzy control scheme with the ArduCopter controller. / May 2016

<p> Social media posts are used to examine what people experience in their everyday lives. A new method is developed for assessing the situational characteristics of social media posts based on the words used in these posts. To accomplish this, machine learning models are built that accurately approximate the judgments of human raters. This new method of situational assessment is applied on two of the most popular social media sites: Twitter and Facebook. Millions of Tweets and Facebook statuses are analyzed. Temporal patterns of situational experiences are found. Geographic and gender differences in experience are examined. Relationships between personality and situation experience were also assessed. Implications of these finding and future applications of this new method of situational assessment are discussed.</p>

The interest in vegetarianism and veganism is increasing and the dietary option of abstaining from animal food products is currently a widely discussed and social relevant issue.The present study aims to provide a quantitative overview of the vegan diet, particularly the sociological aspects related to adoption, maintenance and obstacles connected with this diet. A web-based survey was conducted on facebook groups related tovegetarianism and veganism. 8531 participants (86.3% females) answered the survey, from those 6761 were vegan. Moral/ethical, animal and environmental protection, and health benefits seem to be the main reasons to adopt a vegan diet. Furthermore, demographic factors seem to have an effect on both the adoption and maintenance of a vegan diet. Younger participants appear to put more relevance on ethical/moral reasons, environmental and animal protection for adopting and maintaining a vegan diet. Living in a vegan household suggests less perceived difficulties and obstacles to the maintenance of a vegan diet and highers the relevance of moral/ethical reasons, environmental and animal protections as main motivations for a vegan diet. Also, being a female seems to higher health benefits as a source of inspiration to start a vegan diet but it also seems to increase the perceived difficulties.

In der Hämatoonkologie nimmt die Inzidenz von Pilzinfektionen in den letzten 2 Jahrzehnten deutlich zu, wobei eine frühzeitige Diagnostik und adäquate Therapie hinsichtlich einer hohen Komplikationsrate wichtig ist. Umso deutlicher wird die Notwendigkeit einer Intensivierung und Verbesserung der Diagnostik, beispielsweise durch PCR. Es soll die Wertigkeit der routinemässigen PCR-Untersuchung als frühen Indikator einer Erkrankung in einer nicht durch Studiendiagnostik verfälschten klinischen Routine untersucht werden. Ein weiterer zentraler Punkt dieser Studie ist, ein Risikoprofil für neutropenische Patienten mit Chemotherapie bei Akuter Leukämie zu erstellen. Grundlegende Zusammenhänge zwischen individuellen wie auch generellen Risikofaktoren und Diagnosestellung einer IPI sollen durch die Untersuchung von 62 Patienten geklärt werden. Die PCR-Untersuchung ist ein schnelles und sensitives Verfahren zum Nachweis von Pilz-DNS. Es werden für die Sensitivität einer PCR, hinsichtlich der Diagnosestellung einer IPI im Zeitraum der Datenerhebung, ein Wert von 59,3 % und eine Spezifität von 71,4 % ermittelt. Betrachtet man den Zeitrahmen von 14 Tagen nach Beginn der Aplasie, so kann eine höhere Sensitivität von 72,7 % eruiert werden, wie auch ein hoher negativ prädiktiver Wert von 91,7. Eine invasive Mykose bei Patienten mit mehrfach negativem PCR-Nachweis kann somit als unwahrscheinlich angesehen werden. Besonderes Augenmerk wird in der Studie auch auf das Erstellen eines Risikoprofils für die Patienten hinsichtlich einer invasiven Mykose gelegt. In Hinblick auf die Chemotherapie-Protokolle und -Zyklen wird ein Trend zur frühen Chemotherapie deutlich. Bei der Überprüfung der epidemiologischen Verteilung für Deutschland kann erstmals eine signifikant unterschiedliche jahreszeitliche Verteilung an IPI nachgewiesen werden. So kommt es im Sommer signifikant seltener zu einer invasiven Mykose. Hingegen ist das Risiko der Krankheitsentstehung in den Monaten September, Oktober und November hochsignifikant gesteigert. Dieses sollte bei zukünftigen epidemiologischen Untersuchungen aber eventuell auch zur engmaschigen Diagnostik und Indikation prophylaktischer und empirischer Therapien berücksichtigt werden. / IFI are a life threatening complication in immunsupressed patients and have an increased incidence after chemotherapy for treatment of acute leukaemia (AL). Due its clinical implication as well as to difficulties in diagnosis and the isolation of causal organism, patients most often receive empirical and increasingly prophylactic antifungal therapy (AFT). The best choice of indication and also pharmacoeconomy depend on the local incidence and otherwise applied AFT. Therefore further characterisation of patients at risk and the knowledge influencing factors are essential for improving antifungal approaches. Little is known about climatic influence and seasonal distribution of fungal infections. Here we describe an epidemiological single center evaluation of AFT, clinical diagnosed IFI and its temporal distribution in AL patients. In a prospective evaluation during 2005 to 2006 patients diagnosed with AL and expected neutropenia for more than 9 days after chemotherapy were included and observed for up to 6 months. Underlying disease, patient characteristics, radiological evidence of pulmonary infiltrates, IFI as well as time point and indication of AFT have been collected. 62 patients with AL have been included in the evaluation. For 27 an IFI has been diagnosed clinically but only in a minority a causal pathogen could be detected. 42 patients received AFT. No correlation between the kind of chemotherapy and IFI could be found. There had been a relevant difference in the seasonal distribution of IFI. Especially for patients enrolled between September to November a significant higher incidence of 92% (p 0,002) could be detected. A further aim was to assess the performance of PCR in terms of diagnosing invasive aspergillosis, and we succeeded in supporting the value of a negative PCR result for ruling out IA and thereby helping to limit empirical therapy to those patients who are most likely to have a n invasive fungal infection. IFI is often a clinical indication for antimicrobial therapy in patients suffering from AL. In this evaluation only in a minority of patients the infection and its causal organism could be proven. In the majority of cases an empirical or preemptive therapy was initiated. This emphasis the necessity to intensify diagnostic efforts (e.g. galactomannan testing, BAL) and to improve tests (e.g. PCR). For the first time a seasonal influence on IFI in Germany could be demonstrated showing a significant higher rate in autumn. This should be taken into account in future epidemiological evaluations and might be helpful for the differentiation of prophylactic or empiric AFT.

Stress can have influence on pain sensitivity, but the direction of its effects remains unclear. Previous research has reported both increased and decreased pain sensitivities under stress with different sensory tasks. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of stress on pain sensitivity using multiple psychological stressors in a relatively large sample of young men and women. Sixty-two participants were included, and pain thresholds, tolerance, and temporal summation were tested using thermal, mechanical, and dynamic tasks before and after stress. A condition of stress was induced by the Stroop task and a mental arithmetic task. On average, there were no significant differences between stress and no stress conditions. Although not significant, pressure thresholds and tolerance had a tendency to decrease under stress conditions, and thermal thresholds and tolerance had a tendency to increase under stress conditions. Temporal summation did not change regardless of condition. These findings suggest that individual differences in response to stress and type of task being completed may play a role in how stress affects pain sensitivity. / 2021-06-17T00:00:00Z

Quantitative Bestimmungen Anhand verschiedener Substanzen konnte im Rahmen dieser Arbeit gezeigt werden, dass die NMR-Spektroskopie in der Lage ist, Verunreinigungen von Arzneistoffen zu quantifizieren. Für das Antidepressivum Fluvoxamin ist im Arzneibuch eine Ionenpaarchroma-tographie vorgeschrieben, um die Verunreinigung des wirksamen E-Isomers durch das Z-Isomer zu quantifizieren. Ionenpaarchromatographischen Methoden mangelt es häufig an der Robustheit. Eine quantitative Auswertung der NMR-Spektren einer Mischung beider Isomere ist ohne aufwändige Probenvorbereitung möglich. In den 1H-NMR-Spektren der Mischung sind die Signale der Was-serstoffe beider Isomere an Position 2 gut voneinander getrennt. Werden diese quantitativ ausgewertet, dann ist es nach Optimierung insbesondere hinsichtlich der T1-Relaxationszeit möglich, den Anteil des Z-Isomers auf 0,2 % zu begrenzen. Auch für die Bestimmung der Abbauprodukte des Perphenazinenantats konnte gezeigt werden, dass die qNMR eine geeignete Methode darstellt. Perphenazine-nantat kann durch Esterhydrolyse gespalten werden. Zur Auswertung der 1H-NMR-Spektren wird der Vergleich der Integralflächen der Signale der Wasserstoffe an Position 21 des Perphenazins mit dem zusammenfallenden Signal der Wasserstoffe an Position 11 beider Substanzen herangezogen. Es konnte sowohl Perphenazin als Abbauprodukt des Esters als auch Perphena-zinenantat in Perphenazin quantifiziert werden. Zusätzlich kann der Bereich der aromatischen Wasserstoffe zu einer Aussage über die Oxidation genutzt werden. Bei der Oxidation des Schwefels im Phenothiazinring zum Sulfoxid und zum Sul-fon ändern sich die chemischen Verschiebungen der Wasserstoffkerne in diesem Ringsystem. Dadurch wird eine halbquantitative Aussage ermöglicht. Schließlich konnten die beiden Epimere Chinin und Chinidin jeweils als Verunrei-nigung des anderen Chinaalkaloides quantifiziert werden. Auch in diesem Fall lie-gen in den 1H-NMR-Spektren in DMSO-d6 von Mischungen dieser beiden Verbin-dungen Signale weit genug auseinander, um eine Quantifizierung zu ermöglichen. In beiden Fällen, der Bestimmung von Chinidin in Chinin und von Chinin in Chini-din konnte dies auf einem Niveau von 2,5% geschehen, was den Anforderungen der Arzneibücher entspricht. Gentamicinsulfat Die 1H-NMR-Spektroskopie wurde ebenfalls zur Charakterisierung der Zusam-mensetzung des Antibiotkums Gentamicin eingesetzt. Gentamicin, das fermentativ aus Micromonospora purpurea gewonnen wird, besteht aus verschiedenen Haupt- und Nebenkomponenten, deren Zusammensetzung je nach Fermentationsbedingungen schwankt. Nach einer Reihe von Todesfällen im Zusammenhang mit der Anwendung des Antibiotikums Gentamicin in den USA wurde vermutet, dass diese auf verschiede-ne Verunreinigungen zurückzuführen sind. In der aktuellen Arzneibuch-Monographie wird eine HPLC-Methode beschrieben, die zwar die Hauptkomponenten quantifizieren kann, aber nicht alle Nebenkomponenten gut abtrennt. Auch ist die gesamte Elutionszeit sehr lang, so dass spät eluierende Substanzen breite Peaks zeigen. Außerdem ist der benutzte gepulste amperometrische Detektor sehr empfindlich und die Methode insgesamt daher wenig robust. Unter Zuhilfenahme von ein- und zweidimensionalen Standardmesstechniken sowie selektiver TOCSY-Messungen konnten alle Signale in den 1H- und 13C-NMR-Spektren der Haupt- und Nebenkomponenten von Gentamicin vollständig zugeordnet werden. Dabei zeigte sich, dass der Bereich der anomeren Wasserstoffe sehr gut geeignet ist, Aussagen über die Reinheit und über das Verhältnis der Hauptkomponenten zueinander treffen zu können. In dem in der Abbildung gezeigten Ausschnitt aus einem 400 MHz-1H-NMR-Spektrum ist eine Integration der H20-Signale der Hauptkomponenten aufgrund mangelnder Trennung nicht möglich. Diese ist jedoch in 600 MHz-Spektren möglich. Auf diese Weise können die Verhältnisse der Hauptkomponenten zueinander bestimmt werden. Die so erhaltenen Ergebnisse zeigen eine sehr gute Übereinstimmung mit den aus einer MEKC-Trennung erhaltenen Daten. Das zeigt die sehr gute Ergänzung dieser beiden Methoden. Insgesamt wurden für diese Arbeit über 40 Gentamicin-Proben verschiedener Hersteller untersucht, miteinander verglichen und in verschiedene Gruppen einge-teilt. Als Leitverunreinigung hat sich dabei Sisomicin erwiesen. Daneben konnte der Vergleich der Verunreinigungsprofile Hinweise auf Handelswege geben. Unter den untersuchten Proben waren auch diejenigen, zu den Todesfällen führten. Die-se konnten den stark verunreinigten Gruppen zugeordnet werden. / Quantitative analysis It could be shown on the basis of different substances that the NMR spectroscopy is able to quantify impurities of pharmaceuticals. For the quantification of impurities of the antidepressive drug fluvoxamine the pharmacopoeia describes an ion-pair chromatographic method. Since the antide-pressive activity resides on the E-isomer the content of the Z-isomer has to be lim-ited. Since ion-pair chromatography often lacks of robustness, qNMR is an alterna-tive. The quantitative evaluation of 1H NMR spectra of a mixture of the two isomers is possible without extensive sample preparation. The signals of the hydrogens at position 2 of both isomers are well separated in the spectrum. If these are quantitative evaluated, under optimized conditions, e.g. with respect to T1-relaxation time, it is possible to limit the content of the Z-isomer to 0.2%. For analysis of degradation products of perphenazine enantate qNMR is a suitable method. Perphenazine enantate can be cleaved by ester hydrolysis. Using the integral area of the signal of the hydrogens at position 21 of per-phenazine in comparison to the integral area of the overlapping signals of the hydrogens at position 11 of both substances perphenazine and perphenazine enan-tate it was possible to quantify perphenazine as a degradation product of per-phenazine as well perphenazine enantate in perphenazine. Additionally the area of the aromatic hydrogens can be used for the analysis of the oxidation. The oxidation of the sulfur of the the phenothiazine-moiety to the sulfoxide and the sulfone changes the chemical shifts of the corresponding hydrogens. This enables a half-quantitative assessment. Finally it was possible to quantify the two epimers quinine and quinidine as an impurity in either drug. Again signals of both substances could be identified to be used for quantification. In both cases quinine as impurity of quinidine and vice versa the impurity can be limited to 2.5 per cent as required by the pharmacopeias. Gentamicin sulfate 1H-NMR spectroscopy was also used as an analytical method to characterize the composition of gentamicin. Gentamicin is produced from Micromonospora purpurea by fermentation and consists of different main and side components. The composition varies when applying different fermentation conditions. A number of deaths in connection with the application of the antibiotic drug gen-tamicin in the USA were reported. Different impurities were suspected to be re-sponsible for these deaths. In the current pharmacopoeia monograph an HPLC method is described which is able to quantify all main components but does not separate all side components. In addition, the total elution time is long. Thus late eluting substances show very broad peaks. Furthermore the used pulsed am-perometric detector is very sensitive and the method is not very robust over all. Using one- and two-dimensional routine NMR techniques and selective TOCSY experiments it was possible to assign all signals in the 1H- and 13C-NMR spectra of all main and side components. The area of the anomeric hydrogens is appropriate to evaluate the purity of gentamicin and the proportions between the main compo-nents. In the part of the 400 MHz 1H-NMR spectrum integration of the H20 signals of the main components is impossible due to the missing baseline separation. However, using 600 MHz spectra integration is possible. In this way the proportions between the main components can be determined. The results achieved in this way show good accordance to the results obtained with an MEKC separation. More than 40 gentamicin samples from different manufactures were studied, com-pared and divided into several groups, based on their impurity profile. As a lead impurity sisimocin has been identified. Besides that, the comparison of the impurity profiles enables to trace the trade ways. Some of the samples which led to the deaths were among the samples being classified in the impure groups.

Thesis advisor: Peter Ireland / Upon reaching the effective end of conventional monetary policy, the Zero-Lower Bound, the Federal Reserve Board began to utilize a non-conventional expansionary monetary policy involving Large Scale Asset Purchases. Under this policy, large quantities of agency and federal debt is purchased using the reserves of the Federal Reserve Bank’s balance sheet. This policy is frequently referred to as Quantitative Easing or, more simply, QE. This paper considers the effects and sustainability of the Federal Open Market Committee’s use of Large Scale Asset Purchases on the prices and yields of financial assets within the U.S. Financial Markets. Our analysis presents evidence that while QE was initially effective in lowering the yields of agency and federal debt, the downward pressure on yields was not sustainable over time. Additionally, we find that the effects of QE spilled-over into additional asset classes within the financial markets including corporate fixed-income and equities. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.