No / Effective integrated water management is a key component of the World Water Vision and the way in which aspirations for water equity may be realized. Part of the vision includes the promotion of sustainability of water systems and full accountability for their interaction with other urban systems. One major problem is that “sustainability” remains an elusive concept, although those involved with the provision of urban wastewater systems now recognize that decisions involving asset investment should use the “triple bottom line” approach to society, the economy, and the environment. The Sustainable Water Industry Asset Resource Decisions project has devised a flexible and adaptable framework of decision support processes that can be used to include the principles of sustainability more effectively. Decision mapping conducted at the outset of the project has shown that only a narrow range of criteria currently influence the outcome of asset investment decisions. This paper addresses the concepts of sustainability assessment and presents two case studies that illustrate how multicriteria decision support systems can enhance the assessment of the relative sustainability of a range of options when decisions are being made about wastewater asset investment.

No / One of the features of the post-Cold War era has been a remarkable growth in academic and policy attention devoted to the role played by economic actors and economic agendas in the inception and perpetuation of civil conflicts as well as in shaping the prospects for postconflict peacebuilding. This has incorporated a large and diverse range of themes ranging from the trading of specific conflict goods, the conflict dynamics resulting from the interaction of greed, feasibility, and grievance factors at the local level, the broader economic and governance challenges arising from what has been labelled the ‘resource curse’, and the even broader challenges produced by the interaction of local, regional, and global economic structures.

No description available.

We study optimal replacement and abandonment decisions for real assets, when both revenues and costs are uncertain and deteriorate with age. We develop an implicit representation of the renewal boundary as the solution to a set of simultaneous equations. This quasi-analytical method has the merit of computational ease and transparency. We show that the correlation between revenues and operating costs has a significant influence on the renewal boundary, and that the increase in revenue immediately following a renewal has a greater relative influence on the boundary than either operating cost or renewal cost. The quasi-analytical method is sufficiently flexible to deal with other real option models involving 2 variables.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T23:31:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_9960_TESE_CORRIGIDA_Final_Final_Final.PDF: 63 bytes, checksum: 3ea38291ad8fd952a88463b07e131833 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-25 / Inicialmente, uma revisão de literatura sobre formação de professores em ciências foi realizada, onde foram elencadas problemáticas, identificados objetivos, referenciais teóricos e categorizadas as conclusões dos artigos selecionados. Esta revisão motivou a seguinte questão de pesquisa: como construir com professores de ciências, em encontros coletivos, reflexões sobre suas práticas no sentido da busca de autonomia, de forma a lidar com suas resistências e tensões para desenvolver estratégias que efetivamente conseguissem utilizar na sala de aula? Neste sentido, foi elaborada uma formação de professores com o objetivo de analisar um processo coletivo de formação contínua de professores em serviço, onde pudessem refletir sobre suas práticas, favorecendo o diálogo entre a teoria e a prática na construção e desenvolvimento do ato pedagógico. Durante o processo de formação foi utilizado o Diagrama V (descrito em detalhes no texto); não como uma metodologia, mas como ferramenta de auxílio nos processos educativos. A formação continuada envolveu cinco professores de ciências de escolas da rede municipal do município de Cachoeiro de Itapemirim ES, que se encontravam na presença e participação do pesquisador, discutindo e tecendo o curso em uma perspectiva formativa e colaborativa. Os encontros presenciais ocorreram durante um semestre letivo, intercalados com a realização de atividades de planejamento em casa e atividades com os alunos na escola. Para a coleta de dados, todos os encontros foram gravados e as falas dos professores transcritas. Além disso, foram coletados os Diagramas V produzidos pelos professores e pelos alunos. As impressões dos alunos em relação às atividades desenvolvidas também foram coletadas, através de falas espontâneas dos mesmos e de textos produzidos. Estes dados foram analisados qualitativamente através da análise de conteúdo e observando os Movimentos Crítico Reflexivos da pesquisa-ação, escolhida como opção teóricometodológica no contexto da formação continuada de professores. Refletir coletivamente, com a construção de Diagramas V com os alunos foi uma prática assumida pelos professores. Eles se inseriram em um caminho onde puderam ser pesquisadores de sua própria prática, puderam conhecer uma nova estratégia de ensino e reconhecer tanto a validade dessa proposta em seus contextos de sala de aula, quanto ao seu potencial pessoal para elaborar e desenvolver inovações no ensino, onde o conceito de Movimento Reflexivo Crítico foi tendo presença marcante na medida em que os ciclos foram avançando. E, finalmente, além de se propor um conceito de Professor Autônomo, no contexto da Formação de Professores, é sugerido, também, uma adaptação e ampliação do Diagrama V de Gowin (1981). Teríamos agora o Diagrama M, fazendo alusão ao Movimento Reflexivo Crítico discutido teoricamente e percebido na prática desse trabalho de doutorado.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Continual and recalcitrant inflammation is an extremely common condition in the human prostate and has been found to be associated with a number of prostatic diseases including prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). While much has been described regarding prostate disease resulting from oxygen and nitrogen radicals during inflammation, proliferative mechanisms associated with repair and regeneration are less understood. The Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAP) family member survivin has been found to be overexpressed during inflammation and associated with prostate cancer progression. Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1/redox effector factor 1 (APE1/Ref-1) is a multifunctional protein that is essential in activating inflammatory transcription factors. Because APE1/Ref-1 is expressed and elevated in prostate cancer, we sought to characterize APE1/Ref-1 expression and activity in human prostate cancer cell lines and determine the effect of selective reduction-oxidation (redox) function inhibition on prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Due to the role of inflammatory transcriptional activators NFĸB and STAT3 in survivin protein expression, and APE1/Ref-1 redox activity regulating their transcriptional activity, we assessed selective inhibition of APE1/Ref-1’s redox function as a novel method to halt prostate cancer cell growth and survival. Our study demonstrates that survivin and APE1/Ref-1 are significantly higher in human prostate cancer specimens compared to noncancerous controls and that APE1/Ref-1 redox specific inhibition with small molecule inhibitors APX3330 and APX2009 decreases prostate cancer cell proliferation and induces cell cycle arrest. Inhibition of APE1/Ref-1 redox function significantly reduced NFĸB transcriptional activity, survivin mRNA and survivin protein levels. These data indicate that APE1/Ref-1 is a key regulator of survivin and a potentially viable target in prostate cancer.

No / This report covers experimental studies and numerical modelling of interfacial instability in the bi-layer coextrusion flow of two low-density polyethylene melts. Melt streams are converged at an angle of 30° to a common die land. Melt stream confluence was observed in two coextrusion die arrangements. In one die design, which we term ‘bifurcated’ the melt stream is split by a divider plate in the die after being delivered from a single extruder. In the other design melt streams are delivered to a die from two separate extruders. In each die design melt flow in the confluent region and die land to the die exit was observed through side windows of a visualization cell. Velocity ratios of the two melt streams were varied and layer thickness ratios producing wave type interfacial instability determined for each melt for a variety of flow conditions. Stress and velocity fields in the coextrusion arrangements were quantified using stress birefringence and particle image velocimetry techniques. Wave type interfacial instability occurred in the processing of the low-density polyethylene melts at specific, repeatable, stream layer ratios. The birefringent pattern in the confluence region and the beginning of the die land appeared stable even when the extrudate exhibited instability. However, disturbances were observed in the flow field near the exit of the die land. The study demonstrates conclusively it is possible for interfacial instability to occur in the coextrusion of the same melt. The study also shows that wave type interfacial instability in the coextrusion process is not caused by process perturbations of extruder screw rotation. Increased melt elasticity appears to promote this type of instability. A modified Leonov model and Flow 2000™ software was used to simulate the LDPE melt flows through these geometries. There was reasonable agreement between modelled at experimentally determined stress fields. Modelling however provided far more detailed stress gradient information than could be resolved from the optical techniques. A total normal stress difference (TNSD) sign criterion was used to predict the critical layer ratio for the onset of the interfacial instability in one die arrangement and good agreement between theory and experiment has been obtained.

No

A resistively loaded bowtie antenna, intended for applications in breast cancer detection, is adaptively modified through modelling and genetic optimization. The required wideband operating characteristic is achieved through manipulation of the resistive loading of the antenna structure, the number of wires, and their angular separation within the equivalent wire assembly. The results show an acceptable impedance bandwidth of 100.75%, with a challenge VSWR <; 2, over the interval from 3.3 GHz to 10.0 GHz. Feasibility studies were made on the antenna sensitivity for operation in a tissue-equivalent dielectric medium. The simulated and measured results are all in close agreement.

No / This article explores the need for a framework that will assist social workers to identify when religion and belief are significant in the lives and circumstances of service users and how to take sufficient account of these issues in specific pieces of practice. It outlines the Furness / Gilligan framework and suggests that such frameworks should be used as a part of any assessment, while also being potentially useful at all stages of intervention. It reports on feedback gathered by the authors from first and final MA Social Work students who were asked to pilot the framework. It analyses their responses, in the context of national and international literature. It concludes that such a framework provides the necessary structure and challenge to assist social workers in acknowledging and engaging with issues arising from religion and belief that otherwise may remain overlooked, ignored or avoided, regardless of how significant they are to service users.