Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-114). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 103 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Acanthamoeba mannose-binding protein (AcMBP) is a virulence factor of the free-living amoeba, Acanthamoeba castellanii. It is crucial for the development of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK), a corneal infection that often causes blindness. AK is associated with contact lens use and contaminated water sources. Therapeutic unresponsiveness is attributed to similarities in the biological processes that Acanthamoeba shares with humans and its ability to form drug-resistant cysts. I aimed to characterise AcMBP as a basis for developing future drugs against Acanthamoeba. To start with, I carried out morphological studies on the two well-known life stages of Acanthamoeba and characterised a third stage: the protocysts. Mature cysts and protocysts could not interconvert directly, but always excysted to trophozoites. This is important because Acanthamoeba can potentially be trapped as protocysts, which are likely to be more susceptible to drugs. I also studied Acanthamoeba adhesion towards various surfaces and cytopathic activities towards cells (including human corneal epithelial cells). Whilst AcMBP was important for adhesion, it is not the only receptor involved. To gain structure/function information, I expressed the extracellular portion of AcMBP and three truncated fragments. AcMBP is a Ca2+-dependent lectin (~100 kDa) that binds to mannose. Ca2+ is essential for lectin activity and stability. The extracellular fragment is monomeric, indicating that trimerisation, shown previously, depends on the membrane-spanning and/or intracellular regions. Bioinformatics revealed that lectin activity is almost certainly located in a DUF 4114 domain (~10 kDa, DUF: domain of unknown function). N-terminal fragments, including the DUF4114 domain did not bind to mannose-Sepharose, suggesting that part of the cysteine-rich domain is also important. AcMBP bound to a variety of mammalian glycans so may have more than one lectin activity. Although attempts to crystallise AcMBP were unsuccessful, future structural analysis will be useful for defining the domains and determining how it binds to mannose.

Energy consumption in the home depends on appliance ownership and use, space heating systems, control set-points and hot water use. It represents a significant proportion of national demand in the UK. The factors that drive the level of consumption are a complex and interrelated mix of the numbers of people in the home, the building and system characteristics as well as the preferences for the internal environment and service choices of occupants. Reducing the energy demand in the domestic sector is critical to achieving the national 2050 carbon targets, as upward of 60% reduction in demand is assumed by many energy system scenarios and technology pathways. The uptake of reduction measures has been demonstrated to be quite ad hoc and intervention studies have demonstrated considerable variation in the results. Additionally, a limitation of many studies is that they only consider one intervention, whereas a more holistic approach to the assessment of the potential of reduction measures in specific homes may yield a better understanding of the likely impact of measures on the whole house consumption and indeed would shed light on the appropriateness of the assumptions that underpin the decisions that need to be made regarding the future energy supply system and demand strategies. This work presents a systematic approach to modelling potential reductions for a set of seven family homes, feeding back this information to householders and then evaluating the likely reduction potential based on their responses. Carried out through a combination of monitoring and semi-structured interviews, the approach develops a methodology to model energy reduction in specific homes using monitoring data and steady-state heat balance principles to determine ventilation heat loss, improving the assumptions within the energy model regarding those variables affected by human behaviour. The findings suggest that the anticipated reductions in end use energy demand in the domestic sector are possible, but that there is no `one size fits all' solution. A combination of retrofitting and lifestyle change is needed in most homes and smart home technology may potentially be useful in assisting the home owner to achieve reductions where they are attempting to strike a balance between energy efficiency, service and comfort.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:09:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:09:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / O emissor - 177Lu é um radioisótopo terapêutico promissor para o tratamento curativo de câncer usando proteínas marcadas. Possui meia-vida de 6,71 dias e energia - máxima e média de 421 e 133 keV, respectivamente, resultando na radiação de em uma pequena área do tecido. O decaimento é acompanhado pela emissão de raios-g com baixa energia de 208 keV (11%) e 113 keV (6,4%), adequados para a aquisição de imagens. O 177Lu pode ser produzido por dois métodos diferentes, diretamente, irradiando-se alvos naturais de óxido de lutécio (Lu2O3) (176Lu, 2,6%) ou em alvos de Lu2O3 enriquecidos (em 176Lu), e também indiretamente, irradiando-se os alvos de óxido de itérbio (Yb2O3), acompanhado pela separação radioquímica dos isótopos de lutécio e itérbio. O objetivo deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de um método de produção do 177Lu através de reação nuclear (n, g), tanto pelo método direto de produção, como pelo método indireto de produção. Foram irradiados alvos de óxido de lutécio e de itérbio para a avaliação da atividade produzida e a separação química do lutécio e do itérbio foi estudada utilizando diferentes resinas de troca de íons. Para a produção direta, o melhor resultado obtido foi utilizando o alvo Lu2O3 enriquecido em 39,6%. Já pelo método indireto de produção os melhores resultados obtidos foram com o processo de separação no qual se utiliza o -HIBA 0,25M como eluente. Pelos resultados obtidos é possível produzir o 177Lu de baixa atividade específica para o uso na marcação de moléculas destinadas ao alívio de dor óssea e para radiosinoviortese. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Prof. A.L. Nel

AFRIKAANS: Die doel met hierdie studie is om doeloriëntering, intra- en interpersoonlike klimaat as verskynsels te ondersoek en die dinamiese relasies tussen hierdie genoemde verskynsels na te vors. Die eerste fase van die studie is om met kwantitatiewe navorsing die relasies tussen die doeloriëntering van die sportdeelnemer en sy persepsies van die doeloriëntering van sy ouers en afrigter te bepaal, asook om die invloed van interpersoonlike verhoudinge (sportdeelnemer se verhouding met sy ouers en afrigter) op intrapersoonlike verhouding (sportdeelnemer se verhouding met homself) en doeloriëntering te ondersoek. Die gestandaardiseerde TEOSQ (Task and Ego Orientation Sport Questionnaire) van Duda (1989) en intra- en interpersoonlike verhoudingskaal van Minnaar (1997) is deur 112 manlike en vroulike Suid-Afrikaanse kompeterende sportdeelnemers tussen die ouderdomme van 17 en 25 jaar voltooi. Die result ate het die hipoteses ondersteun dat daar 'n positiewe verband tussen die doeloriëntering van ouers en afrigters met die doeloriëntering van die sportdeelnemer, asook tussen inter- en intrapersoonlike verhoudinge van die sportdeelnemer bestaan. Die hipotese dat daar 'n positiewe verband tussen 'n konstruktiewe intrapersoonlike verhouding en taakorientering bestaan en tussen 'n negatiewe intrapersoonlike verhouding en ego oriëntering by die sportdeelnemer, kon net ten dele bewys word. Die hipotese dat daar 'n korrelasie tussen interpersoonlike verhoudinge en die sportdeelnemer se doeloriëntering bestaan, kon nie bevestig word nie. Die tweede fase is om met kwalitatiewe navorsing bogenoemde verskynsels en relasies te ondersoek en te verstaan waar doeloriëntering vandaan kom en hoe doeloriëntering by die sportdeelnemer deur interaksie met ouers en afrigters vasgelê word. 'n Verdere doel van hierdie deel van die navorsing was om te bepaal watter verskynsel lê die grondslag vir die vorming van die ander, met ander woorde is intra- ¬en interpersoonlike verhoudinge spontane byprodukte van doeloriëntering of is doeloriëntering die byproduk van intra- en interpersoonlike verhoudinge. Data is verkry deur in-diepte onderhoude met sewe kompeterende sportdeelnemers te voer. Die onderhoude is op band opgeneem, na geskrewe teks oorgedra en ontleed. Vanweë die eksploratiewe aard van die navorsing is geen hipoteses vir hierdie deel van die studie gestel nie. Die resultate illustreer waarom en hoe die interaksie met ouers en afrigters die doeloriëntering van die sportdeelnemer beïinvloed en vorm. ENGLISH: The purpose of this study is to research goal orientation, intra- and interpersonal relations as constructs and to determine the dynamic relations between these phenomena. The first phase is to determine with quantitative research the relations between the goal orientation of the participant and his perception of the goal orientation of his parents and coach, and also to determine the influence of interpersonal relations (sport participants' relations with parents and coaches) on intrapersonal relations (the sport participant's relation with himself) and goal orientation. The standardized TEOSQ (Task and Ego Orientation Sport Questionnaire) of Duda (1989) and intra- and interpersonal relations scale of Minnaar (1997) were administered to 112 male and female South African competitive sport participants between the ages of 17 and 25 years. The results of the study confirmed the hypotheses that positive relations exist between goal orientation of parents/coaches and the sports participant, as well as between intra- and interpersonal relations of the participant. The hypothesis that a positive correlation exists between a constructive intrapersonal relation and task orientation as well as between a destructive intrapersonal relation and ego orientation in sport could only partially be verified. The hypothesis that a correlation exists between interpersonal relationships and goal orientation of the sport participant could not be verified. The second phase of the study is to further investigate the above findings with qualitative research to understand where and how goal orientation is formed by interaction between the sport participant and his parents and coach. Another goal of this part of the research was to determine which of the constructs forms the foundation for the other, in other words does intra- and interpersonal relations lead to goal orientation or does goal orientation lead to intra- and interpersonal relations. Seven competitive sport participants were interviewed for this part of the study. The interview was taped, transferred to text and then ana1ysed. Due to the exploratory nature of this research no hypotheses were set for this part of the study. Results illustrate how and why the interaction with parents and coaches influence the goal orientation of the sport participant. / Thesis (DPhil (Human Movement Science))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences / unrestricted

Recently adopted global marine protection targets aim to protect 10-30% of marine habitats within the next 3 to 5 years. However, these targets were adopted without prior assessment of their attainability. Moreover, our ability to monitor progress towards such targets has been constrained by a lack of robust data on marine protected areas (MPAs). In this thesis I present the results of the first explicitly marine-focused, global assessment of MPAs in relation to three global marine protection targets. Approximately 2.35 million km2, equivalent to 0.65% of the world’s oceans, are currently protected, and only 12% of that is ‘no-take’. Over the last two decades, the marine area protected globally has grown at ~5% per year. At this rate, even the most modest target is unlikely to be met for at least several decades. The utility of large-scale conservation targets has been repeatedly questioned, although mainly on ecological grounds. However, if, as is suggested here, their primary role is to motivate behavioural change, then a more serious problem is that they seem to be failing in this regard, too. I explore possible reasons for this and suggest two main problems: firstly, an as yet unmet need to develop a hierarchical system of targets that reflects the multi-scale and pluralistic nature of ecological and political systems; and secondly, feedback mechanisms between political will, perceived attainability, and target formulation which may impede implementation of the targets. Since the adoption of the global targets, no implementation strategy has been developed, which may also impede target attainment. In order to fill this gap, I applied a rarity-complementarity heuristic place prioritisation algorithm (PPA) to a dataset consisting of 1038 global species distributions with 0.5° latitude/longitude resolution, under ten scenarios devised to reflect the global targets. This is the first time that species distribution ranges of marine species have been used in a globally synthetic way, and is by far the largest application of a PPA to date. Global priority areas for protection are identified for each scenario, which may be used to identify where regional-scale protected areas network design efforts might be focused. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Master's thesis deals with the formation of business and marketing strategy with application to specific four-star hotel in Prague. First part is focused on basic definitions and importance of accommodation in tourism industry, followed by summary of theory needed for development of quality strategy. Practical part is dedicated to analysis of external and internal environment of the hotel, analysis of its competition and proposals to supplement the current business and marketing strategy.