>Magister Scientiae - MSc / In South Africa, it is estimated that approximately 70% of the population frequently make use of traditional medicinal plants for their health care needs. The use of Lessertia frutescens by the various cultural groups in South Africa dates back to the earlier civilizations and continues to be used today to treat a multitude of ailments. To get the best results from a medicinal plant, one would need to ensure that the crude material is of good quality through interventions like being properly grown, well dried and correctly processed. This would add a measure of quality assurance, which will contribute towards the safety and efficacy aspect of herbal medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate what impact a particular season of harvest and the time in storage would have on the flavonoid and triterpenoid marker levels of Lessertia frutescens. To achieve this, the following was investigated: (1) storage variation of Lessertia frutescens leaves by comparing the results obtained from the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the flavonoids and triterpenoids, (2) seasonal variation of Lessertia frutescens leaves by comparing the results obtained from the HPLC analysis of the flavonoids and triterpenoids, (3) leaf and stem variation of Lessertia frutescens by comparing the results obtained from HPLC analysis of the flavonoids and triterpenoids. The hypotheses were: (1) the stored sample would indicate the same level of the biomarkers for the flavonoids and triterpenoids, as that of the freshly prepared sample, (2) the sample that was harvested during the summer season would indicate higher levels of the biomarkers of flavonoids and triterpenoids than the other three seasons, (3) the leaf sample would indicate the same level of the biomarkers for the flavonoids and triterpenoids, as that of the stem sample. An Agilent 1200 series HPLC was used for the determination of the flavonoids sutherlandin A and sutherlandin D as well as the triterpenoids sutherlandioside B and sutherlandioside D. Results show that for both sutherlandin A (summer: 3.67 ± 2.88 mg/ml; storage: 4.07 ± 2.88 mg/ml) and D (summer: 4.10 ± 1.06 mg/ml; storage: 4.25 ± 1.06 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the storage samples. For both sutherlandioside B (summer: 3.01 ± 0.39 mg/ml; storage: 2.82 ± 0.39 mg/ml) and D (summer: 5.82 ± 0.42 mg/ml; storage: 4.66 ± 0.42 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the fresh summer samples. For the seasonal comparison, results show that for sutherlandin A (summer: 3.67 ± 12.49 mg/ml; autumn: 4.75 ± 12.49 mg/ml; winter: 4.23 ± 12.49 mg/ml; spring: 6.56 ± 12.49 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the spring sample. For sutherlandin D (summer: 4.10 ± 10.32 mg/ml; autumn: 6.37 ± 10.32 mg/ml; winter: 5.25 ± 10.32 mg/ml; spring; 6.08 ± 10.32 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the autumn sample. For both sutherlandioside B (summer: 3.01 ± 7.19 mg/ml; autumn: 2.15 ± 7.19 mg/ml; winter: 2.89 ± 7.19 mg/ml; spring: 1.47 ± 7.19 mg/ml) and D (summer: 5.82 ± 14.48 mg/ml; autumn: 3.33 ± 14.48 mg/ml; winter: 4.23 ± 14.48 mg/ml; spring: 2.50 ± 14.48 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the autumn sample. For the summer leaf/stem comparison, results show that for sutherlandin A (leaf: 3.67 ± 8.18 mg/ml; stem: 4.67 ± 8.18 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the stem sample. For the sutherlandin D (leaf: 4.10 ± 4.81 mg/ml; stem: 3.31 ± 4.81 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the summer leaf sample. For both the sutherlandioside B (leaf: 3.01 ± 4.24 mg/ml; stem: 3.62 ± 4.24 mg/ml) and D (leaf: 5.82 ± 0.42 mg/ml; stem: 5.80 ± 0.42 mg/ml) show significantly (P < 0.0001) higher concentrations in the case of the stem samples.Results demonstrate that the production of secondary metabolites are influenced by environmental factors like seasonal harvesting, as indicated by the variation in the chemical constituent composition of Lessertia frutescens depending on the season collected in. Moreover, the storage of Lessertia frutescens for a period of one year resulted in an increase of two of the four constituents being monitored. There was slight variations in the chemical constituents, depending on whether the leaf or stem material of Lessertia frutescens was being used. Finally, the type of chemical constituent being monitored was also important in the consideration of this study. Therefore, this study can be seen as a starting point to further investigations of these aspects, which are of clinical, pharmacological and economic importance.

Magister Scientiae - MSc / The intention is to draw more specific connections between certain deconvolution methods and also to demonstrate the application of the statistical theory of estimation in the presence of measurement error. A parametric methodology for deconvolution when the underlying distribution is of the Pareto form is developed. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of the parameters of the convolved distributions is considered. Standard errors of the estimated parameters are calculated from the inverse Fisher&rsquo;s information matrix and a jackknife method. Probability-probability (P-P) plots and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) goodnessof- fit tests are used to evaluate the fit of the posited distribution. A bootstrapping method is used to calculate the critical values of the K-S test statistic, which are not available. / South Africa

La richesse moléculaire des végétaux constitue une source importante de molécules tinctoriales et bioactives d'origine naturelle, utilisées depuis toujours par les artisans et tradipraticiens dans le domaine artisanal et thérapeutique. Ces travaux contribuent principalement à l’étude chimique de cinq plantes tinctoriales : T. grandis, L. inermis, K. senegalensis, I. tinctoria et P. cyanescens, lesquelles représentent les plus employées par les artisans à l'issue d'une enquête ethnobotanique réalisée au Sud-Est du Bénin. Un essai d'optimisation des conditions d’extraction des colorants de T. grandis assistée par ultrasons a été effectué et comparée à trois autres techniques utilisées conventionnellement. Ce procédé a été établi comme le plus simple, rapide, efficace et donnant le rendement le plus important en colorants jaunes et rouges extraits des plantes étudiées, en comparaison aux extractions classiques. De la même manière, il a été mis au point un procédé d'extraction de l’indigotine par usage du dithionite de sodium. Il a pu être démontré que ce procédé permet d'extraire rapidement et efficacement cette molécule à partir de P. cyanescens comparativement à l'emploi de solvants organiques usuels. Une étude fondamentale sur l’identification des colorants extraits à partir des plantes étudiées a été effectuée. Une approche chromatographique utilisant la CLHP/UV-Vis a permis d’identifier la catéchine et l'épicatéchine ainsi que des acides phénoliques, constitutifs des tanins quantitativement caractéristiques des espèces K. senegalensis et L. inermis. En outre, la lawsone et des flavones ont été identifiées dans L. inermis. Il a été caractérisé en plus de la tectoquinone, trois autres anthraquinones Ta, Tb et Tc dont les structures n'ont pas été élucidées, à ce jour, ainsi que des flavonoïdes dont cinq n'ont jamais été décrits dans littérature de T. grandis. Quant aux plantes à indigo, elles se différencient non seulement par la teneur en indigoïdes issue de leurs divers extraits mais aussi par trois flavonoïdes identifiés spécifiquement dans P. cyanescens. L’ensemble de ces résultats expérimentaux a pu être appliqué avec succès à l’étude de colorants extraits à partir d'échantillons prélevés sur des objets du patrimoine notamment des masques, statuettes et textiles provenant de collections muséales, ce qui a contribué à la détermination de leur origine minérale et botanique. Par ailleurs, des tests chimiques sur des fractions plus ou moins enrichies en molécules colorantes issues des plantes étudiées ont permis l'évaluation des propriétés pharmacologiques réalisés in-vitro révélant une activité antioxydante et cytotoxique sur les cellules cancéreuses MCF-7 et IGROV / Molecular plant wealth is an important source of dyes and naturally occurring bioactive molecules, have always been used by artisans and crafts and traditional healers in the therapeutic field. This work contributes mainly to the chemical study of five dye plants: T. grandis, L. inermis, K. senegalensis, I. tinctoria and P. cyanescens, which represent the most used by the artisans at from a ethnobotanical study conducted in southeastern Benin. An optimization of the extraction conditions dyes from T. grandis assisted ultrasonic tests was carried out and compared with three other techniques conventionally used. This process has been established as the simplest, quick, efficient and providing the most important yield in yellow and red dyes extracted from plants studied, in comparison to conventional extractions. Similarly, a method of indigotine extraction using sodium dithionite has been developed. It could be shown that this method can extract quickly and efficiently indigotine from P. cyanescens compared to the use of conventional organic solvents. A fundamental study of the identification of dyes extracted from plants studied was performed. Chromatographic approach using HPLC / UV-Vis permits to identify catechin and epicatechin and phenolic acids, tannins constituent species characteristics quantitatively and K. senegalensis and L. inermis. Furthermore, lawsone and flavones have been identified in L. inermis. It was further characterized by the tectoquinone, three other anthraquinones Ta, Tb and Tc whose structures have not been elucidated and flavonoids which five were never been described in literature of T. grandis. As for indigo plants, they differ not only by the content of their various end indigoid extracts but also specifically identified by three flavonoids in P. cyanescens. All these experimental results have been successfully applied to the study of dyes extracted from samples of objects including heritage masks, statuettes and textiles from museum collections, which contributed to the determination of their mineral and botanical origin. Furthermore, evaluation of the pharmacological properties, by chemical tests in vitro and antioxidant showed cytotoxic activity on cancer cells MCF-7, IGROV and very important fraction of more or less enriched in the dye molecules from plants tested

Uma sequencia de vídeo pode ser adquirida de forma progressiva ou entrelaçada. No padrão de codificação de vídeo H.264/AVC os campos de uma imagem entrelaçada podem ser codificados em modo frame (campos top e bottom entrelaçados) ou em modo field (campos top e bottom agrupados separadamente). Quando a escolha é adaptativa para cada par de macro blocos a codificação é chamada de Macroblock Adaptive Frame- Field (MBAFF). Inovações na predição inter-quadro do H.264/AVC contribuíram significantemente para a performance do padrão alcançar o dobro da taxa de compressão do seu antecessor (ITU, 1994), ao custo de um grande aumento de complexidade computacional do CODEC. Dentro da predição inter-quadro, o bloco de compensação de movimento (MC) é responsável pela reconstrução de um bloco de pixels. No decodificador apresentado em (BONATTO, 2012) está integrada uma solução em hardware para o MC que suporta a maior parte do conjunto de ferramentas do perfil Main do H.264/AVC. A compensação de movimento pode ser dividida em predição de vetores e processamento de amostras. No processamento de amostras é realizada a interpolação e a ponderação de amostras. O módulo de ponderação de amostras, ou predição ponderada, utiliza fatores de escala para escalonar as amostras na saída do MC. Isso é muito útil quando há esvanecimento no vídeo. Inicialmente este trabalho apresenta um estudo do processo de compensação de movimento, segundo o padrão de codificação de vídeo H.264/AVC. São abordadas todas as ferramentas da predição inter-quadro, incluindo o tratamento de vídeo entrelaçado e todos os possíveis modos de codificação para o mesmo. A seguir é apresentada uma arquitetura em hardware para a predição ponderada do MC. Esta arquitetura atende o perfil main do H.264/AVC, que prevê a decodificação de imagens frame, field ou MBAFF. A arquitetura apresentada é baseada no compensador de movimento contido no decodificador apresentado em (BONATTO, 2012), que não tem suporte a predição ponderada e a vídeo entrelaçado. A arquitetura proposta é composta por dois módulos: Scale Factor Prediction (SFP) e Weighted Samples Prediction (WSP) . A arquitetura foi desenvolvida em linguagem VHDL e a simulação temporal mostrou que a mesma pode decodificar imagens MBAFF em tempo real @60i. Dessa forma, tornando-se uma ferramenta muito útil ao desenvolvimento de sistemas de codificação e decodificação em HW. Não foi encontrada, na literatura atual, uma solução em hardware para compensação de movimento do padrão H.264/AVC com suporte a codificação MBAFF. / A video sequence can be acquired in a progressive or interlaced mode. In the video coding H.264/AVC standard an interlaced picture can be encoded in frame mode (top and bottom fields interlaced) or field mode (top and bottom fields combined separately). When the choice for each pair of macro-blocks coding is adaptive, it is called Macroblock Adaptive Frame-Field (MBAFF). The innovations in the inter-frame prediction of H.264/AVC contributed significantly to the performance of the standard that achieved twice the compression ratio of its predecessor (ITU, 1994), at the cost of a large increase in computational complexity of the CODEC. In the inter-frame prediction, the motion compensation (MC) module is responsible for the reconstruction of a pixel's block. In the decoder shown in (BONATTO 2012) an integrated hardware solution to the MC is included which can decode most of the H.264/AVC main profile tools. The motion compensation can be divided into motion vectors prediction and sample processing. In the sample processing part, samples interpolation and weighting are performed. The weighted samples prediction module uses scale factors to weight the samples for generating the output pixels. This is useful in video fading. Initially, this work presents a study of the motion compensation process, according to the H.264/AVC standard. It covers all of inter-frame prediction tools, including all possible coding modes for interlaced video. A hardware architecture for the weighted samples prediction of MC is shown next. It is in compliance with the main profile of H.264/AVC standard, therefore it can decode frame, field and MBAFF pictures. The architecture presented is based on the motion compensator used in the (BONATTO, 2012) decoder, which does not support the weighted prediction and interlaced video. The purposed architecture is composed by two modules: Scale Factor Prediction (SFP) and Weighted Samples Prediction (WSP). The hardware implementation was described using VHDL and the timing simulation has shown that it can decode MBAFF pictures in real time @60i. Therefore, this is an useful tool for hardware CODEC development. Similar hardware solution for H.264/AVC weighted prediction that supports MBAFF coding was not found is previous works.

Orientador: Ronei Jesus Popi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T17:27:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maretto_DaniloAlthmann_D.pdf: 2617064 bytes, checksum: 1ebea2b6ab73ef552155cd9b79b6fd1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: O objetivo desta tese de doutorado foi de utilizar o algoritmo Máquinas de Vetores de Suporte (SVM) em problemas de classificação e calibração, onde algoritmos mais tradicionais (SIMCA e PLS, respectivamente) encontram problemas. Foram realizadas quatro aplicações utilizando dados de espectroscopia no infravermelho. Na primeira o SVM se mostrou ser uma ferramenta mais indicada para a determinação de Carbono e Nitrogênio em solo por NIR, quando estes elementos estão em solos sem que se saiba se há ou não a presença do mineral gipsita, obtendo concentrações desses elementos com erros consideravelmente menores do que a previsão feita pelo PLS. Na determinação da concentração de um mineral em polímero por NIR, que foi a segunda aplicação, o PLS conseguiu previsões com erros aceitáveis, entretanto, através da análise do teste F e o gráfico de erros absolutos das previsões, foi possível concluir que o modelo SVM conseguiu chegar a um modelo mais ajustado. Na terceira aplicação, que consistiu na classificação de bactérias quanto às condições de crescimento (temperaturas 30 ou 40°C e na presença ou ausência de fosfato) por MIR, o SIMCA não foi capaz de classificar corretamente a grande maioria das amostras enquanto o SVM produziu apenas uma previsão errada. E por fim, na última aplicação, que foi a diferenciação de nódulos cirróticos e de hepatocarcinoma por microespectroscopia MIR, a taxa das previsões corretas para os conjuntos de validação do SVM foram maiores do que do SIMCA. Nas quatro aplicações o SVM produziu resultados melhores do que o SIMCA e o PLS, mostrando que pode ser uma alternativa aos métodos mais tradicionais de classificação e calibração multivariada / Abstract: The objective of this thesis was to use the algorithm Support Vector Machines (SVM) in problems of classification and calibration, where more traditional algorithms (SIMCA and PLS, respectively) present problems. Four applications were developed using data for infrared spectra. In the first one, the SVM proved to be a most suitable tool for determination of carbon and nitrogen in soil by NIR, when these elements are in soils without knowledge whether or not the presence of the gypsum mineral, obtaining concentrations of these elements with errors considerably smaller than the estimated by the PLS. In the determination of the concentration of a mineral in a polymer by NIR, which was the second application, the PLS presented predictions with acceptable errors, however, by examining the F test and observing absolute errors of predictions, it was concluded that the SVM was able to reach a more adjusted model. In the third application, classification of bacteria on the different growth conditions (temperatures 30 or 40 ° C and in the presence or absence of phosphate) by MIR, the SIMCA was not able to correctly classify the majority of the samples while the SVM produced only one false prediction. Finally, in the last application, which was the differentiation of cirrhotic nodules and Hepatocellular carcinoma by infrared microspectroscopy, the rate of correct predictions for the validation of sets of SVM was higher than the SIMCA. In the four applications SVM produced better results than SIMCA and PLS, showing that it can be an alternative to the traditional algorithms for classification and multivariate calibration / Doutorado / Quimica Analitica / Doutor em Ciências

Orientador: Wilson de Figueiredo Jardim / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T18:04:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Campestrini_Iolana_D.pdf: 2742870 bytes, checksum: 20a25893a0acbb614cce027eda2bef08 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta a determinação de sete subprodutos da cocaína (COC), incluindo a benzoilecgonina (BE), em amostras de urina de usuários da droga. Com os dados obtidos foi avaliada a incerteza no cálculo da razão entre a BE e o somatório dos demais metabólitos da COC, sendo que a razão média encontrada foi utilizada para inferir sobre o consumo de COC aplicando a epidemiologia do esgoto. Os resultados dessa razão apresentaram grande amplitude de valores e mostrou elevada influência sobre estimativa do consumo. Apresenta, também, a avaliação da eficiência de remoção (ER) para a COC e BE nas estações de tratamento de esgoto (ETE) Anhumas e Capivari e da qualidade de mananciais e de águas de abastecimento do estado de São Paulo. Os melhores índices de remoção foram observados para a ETE Capivari, os quais variaram entre 96 e 99%. Tanto nas amostras de mananciais como nas amostras de água de abastecimento, a BE foi determinada em maiores concentrações do que a COC. Nos rios Piracicaba, Capivari e Anhumas observaram-se os maiores níveis de BE, os quais variaram entre 300 e 1000 ng L-1. Nas amostras de água de abastecimento do rio Capivari e do rio Atibaia foram determinadas as maiores concentrações de BE, chegando a 650 ng L-1. Para a análise dessas amostras foi utilizada a extração em fase sólida (SPE) seguida da cromatografia líquida acoplada à espectrometria de massas sequencial (LC-MS/MS). No geral, o método apresentou exatidão superior a 70%, com coeficiente de variação menor do que 15% no nível de ng L-1 / Abstract: This work describes the determination of seven cocaine (COC) metabolites, including the major one benzoylecgonine (BE), in urine of cocaine users. These determinations allowed the calculation of the ratio between BE concentration and the sum of the other COC metabolites concentration, as well as allowed an assessment of the uncertainty involved in this ratio. The ratios were used to estimate cocaine consumption applying sewage epidemiology yielding high amplitude of values among the ratios calculated. The work also presents COC and BE removal efficiency (RE) in two wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), namely Anhumas and Capiravi, where the best RE were obtained for the Capivari WWTP, which varied between 96% and 99%. Also the assessment of water quality, for both surface and drinking waters of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, was evaluated. The metabolite BE occurred more frequently and at higher concentrations when compared to COC, considering the same samples. For surface water, the highest BE concentrations were found in the Piracicaba, Capivari and Anhumas rivers, and the results varied from 300 to 1000 ng L -1. For drinking waters, the highest BE concentration was found in waters from Capivari and Atibaia rivers, at 650 ng L-1. Solid phase extraction and the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were used for the determination of the compounds. In general, the method presented accuracy above 70% and relative standard deviation below 15%, at ng L -1 level / Doutorado / Quimica Analitica / Doutora em Ciências

The unique floral biodiversity of Southern Africa would be reflected in the phenolic acid and flavonoid composition as well as the antioxidant activity of honeys from this region. In this exploratory investigation the total polyphenolic (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) content, antioxidant activity as well as the cellular protective effects of a selection of honeys collected in this region was evaluated. Thirteen honey samples representative of the Western Cape (WCa, WCb and WCc), Eastern Cape (ECa, ECb and ECc), South East Mozambique (SEMa, SEMb and SEMc) and Agricultural: A-E (Eucalyptus) (A-E1 and A-E2), A-L (Litchi) and A-O (Orange) were collected. These samples were subjected to physicochemical analysis, the antioxidant content (TPC and TFC) and both enzymatic (catalase activity) and non-enzymatic activity, using the 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC) assays was determined. From the DPPH, TEAC and ORAC data the Relative Antioxidant Capacity Index (RACI) was calculated. To determine whether high antioxidant activity translates into significant cellular protection, biological and cellular assays were undertaken. Using the pBR322 plasmid assay and the erythrocyte haemolysis assay the ability of honeys to protect against 2,2’-Azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) oxidative damage was evaluated. Further evaluation was undertaken in the SC-1 fibroblast cell line and the physiologically more relevant Caco-2 cell line. Toxicity and antioxidant effects were evaluated in the SC-1 cell line while antioxidant effects were only evaluated in the Caco-2 cell line. The long-term mitogenic and toxic effects were determined in the SC-1 cell line using the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), Neutral Red (NR) and Crystal Violet (CV) assays. Short term, total- and intracellular antioxidant effects were determined in both cell lines using the dichlorofluorescein diacetate assay (DCFH-DA) assay. For all cellular experiments honey at concentrations of 0.01% and 1% were used. The physiochemical properties of the honeys evaluated fulfilled the regulatory standards compiled in the Codex Alimentarius (CODEX STAN12-1981 revision 2001). The results were as follows: SEMb had the highest TPC (167.96 mg GAE/100g) and TFC (51.60 mg CE/100g) while A-E2 had the highest catalase (38.48 µmol H2O2/g) activity. RACI revealed that WCb had the highest antioxidant activity.SEMc showed the highest protection of plasmid DNA against oxidative-induced strand breaks while SEMa showed the highest protection of erythrocytes against AAPH-induced haemolysis. Although correlations were found between antioxidant content and antioxidant activity assays, no correlation was found these parameters and the biological assays. For the long-term cytotoxicity assay, AAPH showed significant cytoxicity at 0.78mM, 1.56mM and 0.28mM when measured using the MTT, NR and CV assays, respectively. Some honeys 4/13 and 3/13 showed a mitogenic effect at a concentration of 0.01% and 1% respectively. Toxic effects, were observed for 1/13 and 8/13 at 0.01% and 1% honey respectively. Toxicity after 72 h exposure varied from 10-30% (CV assay). The same concetrations of honey was used to determine the short-term, 2h, antioxidant effects in both the SC-1 and Caco-2 cell lines. No oxidative effect was found for all honeys at these concentrations. For the DCFH-DA assay using the SC-1 cell line at 1%, 12/13 and 7/13 honeys showed total and intracellular protection respectively. The highest extracellular protection was for SEMa (% Protection (%P) = 95) and SEMb (%P = 93). Intracellular protection was the highest for SEMc (%P = 21) and A-L (%P = 20). At 0.01%, 7/13 and 8/13 honeys exhibited total and intracellular protection, respectively. For both the highest protection was found for SEMc (%P = 43, total and %P = 30, intracellular). For the Caco-2 cell line at 1%, 11/13 and 4/13 showed total and intracellular protection, respectively. Of these the highest extracellular protection was for SEMb (% Protection (%P) = 90). Intracellular protection was the highest for ECa (%P = 28) and WCc (%P = 26). At 0.01%, 4/13 and 8/13 honeys showed total and intracellular protection respectively. The highest extracellular protection was found for SEMc (%P = 62) and intracellular protection was ECc (%P = 28). The SC-1 cell line was found to be the most sensitive to the antioxidant effects of honey compared to the Caco-2 cell line. The honeys SEMa, SEMb and SEMc showed protection against oxidative damage in both cell lines. In conclusion, the antioxidant activity of honeys from Southern Africa is of a high quality. The WC, SEM and EC honeys showed the highest antioxidant effects and could provide health benefits against diseases associated with oxidative stress as indicated by these results. Copyright / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Anatomy / unrestricted

The thesis deals with the processing of pure iron by Selective laser melting technology as a material with good electromagnetic properties. The main area is the optimization of the production of thin-walled samples, which monitor the influence of process parameters on the thickness and quality of the wall surfaces. In addition to the perpendicular walls, walls built at an angle of 45° are also examined. Another phase of the thesis is the determination of process parameters for bulk bodies to achieve the lowest porosity and high surface quality. An important part of the research is the application of acquired knowledge in the production of samples designed to test magnetic properties as well as part for a specific application. These considerations concern not only the setting of the printing parameters, but also the heat treatment and its influence on the magnetic and mechanical properties of the material. Mechanical properties were determined by tensile tests and hardness tests. All samples were made on a SLM 280HL using a 400W ytterbium laser.

The thesis apply to reliability problems approach of Voronoi tessellation, typically used in the field of samples designs evaluation and for Monte Carlo samples reweighing. It is shown, this general technique estimation converges to that of Importance Sampling method despite it does not rely on Importance Sampling's auxiliary density. Consequently, reliability analysis could be divided into sampling itself and assessment of simulation results. As an extension of this idea, adaptive statistical sampling using QHull library was attempted.

The diploma thesis is focused on the development of in-line micro-electromembrane extraction (EME) coupled to capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the analysis of selected drugs in body fluids. Up to now, direct coupling of EME to CE has been demonstrated on diluted river samples only [1]. Although the published set-up has been implemented within a commercial CE it suffers from several drawbacks that can have a negative impact on the analysis of samples with higher complexity. The instrumental arrangement presented in this thesis eliminates these deficiencies. The experimental part is based on the optimization of fundamental extraction and separation conditions for the analysis of model basic drugs (nortriptyline, haloperidol, loperamide) with the use of transient isotachophoresis (tITP) principle. The extraction conditions were optimized for electro-driven transport of basic analytes from complex matrices (urine) through free liquid membrane followed by injection step utilized by electrokinetic supercharging (EKS), which focused target analytes into the CE capillary. Optimized conditions have been applied on blood in the form of dry blood spots, which are highly attractive samples in the current clinical analysis. The repeatability of the measurements was