A flacidez e as rugas de expressão podem ser amenizadas com lifting facial ou implante no tecido subcutâneo da face de fios de poliuretano ou polipropileno. Sob determinadas condições microrganismos podem aderir sobre os fios e interagir com essas superfícies iniciando crescimento celular. O objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a aderência bacteriana aos fios de poliuretano e polipropileno por meio de microscopia eletrônica de varredura e métodos microbiológicos. Os fios foram seccionados em segmentos de 1,0 cm de comprimento e transferidos individualmente para tubos Falcon (50,0 mL) contendo caldo Mueller Hinton (15,0 mL), com 200 \'mü\'L da suspensão bacteriana (\'10 POT.8\' UFC/mL) preparada e, incubados por 1h e 30 minutos, 4, 24, 48, 72 e 120 horas. Após cada período de incubação, os corpos-de-prova foram lavados três vezes e introduzidos, separadamente, em 5,0 mL de solução salina esterilizada, sonicados a 40 kHZ por 8 minutos e homogeneizados em vortex por 10 segundos. Esta solução foi diluída (1/10 a 1/1000), da diluição 1/1000 uma alíquota de 0,1 mL foi plaqueada sobre Tryptic Soy Agar (TSA). As placas foram incubadas a 37 graus Celsius por 18 a 24 horas. Após o período de incubação, as células viáveis foram contadas e o resultado anotado em termos de unidades formadoras de colônia (UFC/mL). Os corpos-de-prova destinados à observação por microscópio eletrônico de varredura foram fixados em glutaraldeído, desidratados em séries de álcool, secos em centrífuga a vácuo metalizados com ouro. A avaliação quantitativa do crescimento de S. aureus sobre a superfície do poliuretano, após 1 hora e 30 minutos de contato, foi 4,0 \'+ OU -\' 0,0 log UFC/mL, S. epidermidis 4,07 \'+ OU -\' 0,10 log UFC/mL e P. aeruginosa 5,08 \'+ OU -\' 0,1410 log UFC/mL. Após 4-120 horas o número de células viáveis de S. aureus sobre a superfície do poliuretano foi 5,49 \'+ OU -\' 0,04 log UFC/mL, S. epidermidis 4,99 \'+ OU -\' 0,07 log UFC/mL e P. aeruginosa 6,52 \'+ OU -\' 0,03 log UFC/mL. A avaliação quantitativa do crescimento de S. aureus sobre a superfície do polipropileno, após 1 hora e 30 minutos de contato, foi 4,24 \'+ OU -\' 0,0 log UFC/mL, S. epidermidis 4,14 \'+ OU -\' 0,14 log UFC/mL e P. aeruginosa 5,77 \'+ OU -\' 0,05 log UFC/mL. Após 4 - 120 horas o número de células viáveis de S. aureus sobre a superfície do polipropileno o número de células viáveis de S. aureus foi de 5,96 \'+ OU -\' 0,07 log UFC/mL, S. epidermidis 4,96 \'+ OU -\' 0,06 log UFC/mL e P. aeruginosa 6,63 \'+ OU -\' 0,05 log UFC/mL. O número de células viáveis de S. aureus, S. epidermidis e P. aeruginosa sobre as superfícies de poliuretano e polipropileno foram significantemente diferentes (p<0,05). O biofilme foi observado sobre ambos fios (poliuretano e polipropileno) como demonstrado por meio de microscopia eletrônica de varredura. / Flabbiness and expression wrinkles can be helped by undergoing a face lifting or by implanting subcutaneous tissues of polyurethane or polypropylene threads. Under certain conditions microorganisms can attach themselves to the threads and interact with these surfaces initiating cellular growth. The goal of the present study was to evaluate bacterial attachment to polyurethane and polypropylene threads by means of scanning electron microscopy and microbiological method. The threads were sectioned into segments of 1.0 cm in length and inserted, one by one, into separated Falcon tubes (50 mL) containing Mueller Hinton broth (15 mL), with 200 \'mü\'L of the bacterial suspension (\'10 POT.8\' CFU/mL) prepared, and incubated for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at 4, 24, 48, 72 and 120 hour periods. After each incubation period, the coupons were rinsed three times and, inserted, one by one, into 5.0 mL of sterile physiological saline solution, sonicated at 40 kHz for 8 minutes and vortexed for 10 seconds. This solution was diluted three-fold (1/10 to 1/1000), from dilution the 1/1000 dilution an aliquot of 0.1 mL was plated onto Tryptic Soy agar (TSA). The plates were incubated at 37 Celsius degrees from 18 to 24 h. After the incubation periods, the viable bacteria were counted and the results noted in terms of colony forming units (CFU/mL). The coupons destined for scanning electron microscopy observations were fixed in glutaraldehyde, dehydrated in alcohol series, dried in vacuum centryfuge and metalized with gold. A quantitative evaluation was recorded of the growth of S. aureus on the surface of polyurethane, after 1h and 30 minutes of contact, the results shown 4.0 \'+ OU -\' 0.0 CFU/mL, S. epidermidis 4.07 \'+ OU -\' 0.1 CFU/mL and P. aeruginosa 5.08 \'+ OU -\' 0.14 CFU/mL. After 4 - 120 h the number of viable cells of S. aureus on polyurethane surfaces were 5.49 \'+ OU -\' 0.04 CFU/mL, S. epidermidis 4.99 \'+ OU -\' 0.07 CFU/mL and P. aeruginosa 6.52 \'+ OU -\' 0.03 CFU/mL. A quantitative evaluation was recorded of the growth of S. aureus on the surface of polypropylene after 1h and 30 minutes of contact, the results shown 4.24 \'+ OU -\' 0.20 CFU/mL, with S. epidermidis 4.14 \'+ OU -\' 0.1 CFU/mL and P. aeruginosa 5.77 \'+ OU -\' 0.05 CFU/mL. After 4 - 120 h the number of viable cells of S. aureus on polypropylene surfaces were 5.96 \'+ OU -\' 0.07 CFU/mL, S. epidermidis 4.96 \'+ OU -\' 0.07 CFU/mL and P. aeruginosa 6.63 \'+ OU -\' 0.05 CFU/mL. The number of viable cells of S. aureus, S. epidermidis, P. aeruginosa on polyurethane and polypropylene surfaces were significantly different (p<0.05). A biofilm was observed on both threads (polyurethane and polypropylene) as demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy.

La tendance des constructeurs pour le calcul scientifique est à l'imbrication de technologies permettant un degré de parallélisme toujours plus fort au sein d'une même machine : architecture NUMA, puces multicœurs, SMT. L'efficacité de l'exécution d'une application parallèle irrégulière sur de telles machines hiérarchiques repose alors sur la qualité de l'ordonnancement des tâches et du placement des données, pour éviter le plus possible les pénalités NUMA et les défauts de cache. Les systèmes d'exploitation actuels, pris au dépourvu car trop généralistes, laissent les concepteurs d'application contraints à « câbler » leurs programmes pour une machine donnée.<br /><br />Dans cette thèse, pour garantir une certaine portabilité des performances, nous définissons la notion de /bulle/ permettant d'exprimer la nature structurée du parallélisme du calcul, et nous modélisons l'architecture de la machine cible par une hiérarchie de listes de tâches. Une interface de programmation et des outils de débogage de haut niveau permettent alors de développer simplement des ordonnanceurs dédiés, efficaces et portables. Différents ordonnanceurs mettant en œuvre des approches variées ont été développés, en partie notamment par des stagiaires encadrés au sein de l'équipe, ce qui montre à la fois la puissance et la simplicité de l'interface. C'est ainsi une véritable plate-forme de développement et d'expérimentation d'ordonnanceurs à bulles qui a été intégrée au sein de la bibliothèque de threads utilisateur marcel. Le support OpenMP du compilateur GCC, GOMP, a été étendu pour utiliser cette bibliothèque et exprimer la nature structurée des sections parallèles imbriquées à l'aide de bulles. Avec la couche de compatibilité POSIX de marcel, ces supports ont permis de tester les différents ordonnanceurs à bulles développés, sur différentes applications. Les gains obtenus, de l'ordre de 20 à 40%, montrent l'intérêt de notre approche.

Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur la mobilité et la persistance des applications dans des environnements hétérogènes. Ces fonctions sont utiles à la répartition dynamique de charge dans les systèmes distribués, à la reconfiguration dynamique d'applications réparties ou à la mise en place de techniques de tolérance aux pannes. La mobilité et la persistance des applications ont largement été abordées au niveau du système d'exploitation ou au niveau du langage/modèle de programmation. Mais très peu de travaux ont été menés au niveau des machines virtuelles. L'objet de cette thèse est l'étude et la réalisation de fonctions de mobilité et de persistance dans la machine virtuelle Java. L'environnement Java fournit des outils pour la mobilité et la persistance du code et des données mais il n'adresse pas le problème de mobilité ni de persistance de l'état d'exécution des processus légers (threads). Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur la conception de tels services, une conception guidée par deux principes : la portabilité sur des environnements hétérogènes et le respect des performances des applications. Pour des besoins de performances, plusieurs efforts ont été faits par les concepteurs de Java en matière d'optimisation de l'exécution et de compilation à la volée. Notre solution permet de fournir des fonctions de mobilité et de persistance portables même en présence de compilation à la volée. Ceci est mis en oeuvre en reposant, d'une part, sur des techniques d'inférence dynamique du type des données sur la pile d'exécution à partir du code Java exécuté et, d'autre part, sur des techniques de dés-optimisation dynamique du code Java compilé à la volée. Nos services ont été réalisés via une extension de la machine virtuelle Java de Sun Microsystems. Ils sont opérationnels et ont pu être validés pour des besoins de tolérance aux pannes dans une plate-forme de metacomputing. Notre solution est actuellement l'unique approche qui est complète et qui élimine toute pénalité sur l'exécution des applications.

La tendance actuelle des constructeurs pour le calcul scientifique est à l'utilisation de grappes de machines dont les noeuds comportent un nombre de coeurs toujours plus grand. Le modèle basé uniquement sur MPI laisse peu à peu la place à des modèles mélangeant l'utilisation de threads et de MPI. Ce changement de modèle entraîne de nombreuses problématiques car les implémentations MPI n'ont pas été conçues pour supporter les applications multi-threadées. Dans cette thèse, afin de garantir le bon fonctionnement des communications, nous proposons un module logiciel faisant interagir l'ordonnanceur de threads et la bibliothèque de communication. Ce module, en collaborant avec l'ordonnanceur de threads, permet de faire progresser les communications en arrière-plan et d'assurer un haut niveau de réactivité, même lorsque la machine est surchargée.

Multi-threaded applications are needed to realize the full potential of new chip-multi-threaded machines. Such applications are very difficult to program and orchestrate correctly, and transactional memory has been proposed as a way of alleviating some of the programming difficulties. However, transactional memory can directly be applied only to critical sections, while conditional synchronization remains difficult to implement correctly and efficiently. This dissertation describes EasySync, a simple and inexpensive extension to transactional memory that allows arbitrary conditional synchronization to be expressed in a simple and composable way. Transactional memory eliminates the need to use locks and provides composability for critical sections: atomicity of a transaction is guaranteed regardless of how other code is written. EasySync provides the same benefits for conditional synchronizations: it eliminates the need to use conditional variables, and it guarantees wakeup of the waiting transaction when the real condition it is waiting for is satisfied, regardless of whether other code correctly signals that change. EasySync also allows transactional memory systems to efficiently provide lock-free and condition variable-free conditional critical regions and even more advanced synchronization primitives, such as guarded execution with arbitrary conditional or guard code. Because EasySync informs the hardware the that a thread is waiting, it allows simple and effective optimizations, such as stopping the execution of a thread until there is a change in the condition it is waiting for. Like transactional memory, EasySync is backward compatible with existing code, which we confirm by running unmodified Splash-2 applications linked with an EasySync-based synchronization library. We also re-write some of the synchronization in three Splash-2 applications, to take advantage of better code readability, and to replace spin-waiting with its more efficient EasySync equivalents. Our experimental evaluation shows that EasySync successfully eliminates processor activity while waiting, reducing the number of executed instructions by 8.6% on average in a 16-processor CMP. We also show that these savings increase with the number of processors, and also for applications written for transactional memory systems. Finally, EasySync imposes virtually no performance overheads, and can in fact improve performance.

Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) processors can issue multiple instructions from distinct processes or threads in the same cycle. This technique effectively increases the overall throughput by keeping the pipeline resources more occupied at the potential expense of reducing single thread performance due to resource sharing. In the software domain, an increasing number of Dynamically Linked Libraries (DLL) are used by applications and operating systems, providing better flexibility and modularity, and enabling code sharing. It is observed that a significant amount of execution time in software today is spent in executing standard DLL instructions, that are shared among multiple threads or processes. However, for an SMT processor with a virtually-indexed based cache implementation, existing instruction fetching mechanisms can induce unnecessary false cache misses caused by the DLL-based instructions, which were intended to be shared. This problem is more conspicuous when multiple independent threads are executing concurrently in an SMT processor. This work investigates an often-neglected form of contention between running threads in the I-TLB and I-cache caused by DLLs. To address these shortcomings, we propose a system level technique involving a light-weight modification in the microarchitecture and the OS. By exploiting the nature of the DLLs in our new architecture, we are able to reinstate physical sharing of the DLLs in an SMT machine. Using Microsoft Windows based applications, our simulation results show that the optimized instruction fetching mechanism can reduce the number of DLL misses up to 5.5 times and improve the instruction cache hit rates by up to 62%, resulting in upto 30% DLL IPC improvements and upto 15% overall IPC improvements.

<p>The aim of this study is to investigate how language is used, online, in a condescending way in order to make the recipient feel belittled. The research questions sought to find out what kind of linguistic strategies are used online in order to make language function in a derogatory way as well as the linguistic reactions these strategies evoke in the recipients. How this derogatory usage can be met by using specific linguistic strategies was also explored.</p><p>The study was conducted by performing qualitative discourse analysis based on the theoretical framework of Culpeper’s (1996) impoliteness theory. The data consisted of excerpts from four different threads in online discussion forums. The results indicate that there are several ways to insult someone, and that sarcasm, in particular, is heavily utilized in order to make language function in a derogatory manner.</p><p>The conclusion of the study is that phenomena such as the flouting of maxims, face-threatening acts, impoliteness strategies and flaming are all utilized when trying to belittle someone. All these linguistic strategies performed with the intention to insult people have proved to have a negative affect on people who are exposed to them. This affect can be detected through the linguistic reactions they rendered, for example: counter-attacks with insults of their own and refuting the insults.</p><p>The present study contributes to enlightening linguistic strategies which are being used in a derogatory way and as such might function to raise awareness of the power invested in language.</p>

published_or_final_version / Computer Science and Information Systems / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this story rug is to acquire a deeper understanding of 10 Navajo students' experiences as they journey toward college. Utilizing Indigenous theoretical frameworks including Tribal Critical Race Theory, Cultural Resilience, and Cultural Threads, this story rug centered attention on the systematic, structural forces and students' sources of strength that have shaped and continue to influence educational pathways for Navajo students. This story rug was guided by a qualitative mixed-method approach including Indigenous Storywork and narrative analysis. Through the assertion of the Navajo traditional oral story of the Twin Warriors, this story rug weaves in 10 Navajo students' experiences including the sociocultural and personal barriers, referred to as "monsters," that hindered their life and their college enrollment goals, how they internalized those "monsters," and then what were the sources of strength, referred to as "weapons," that guided them in life and toward college. The findings revealed systematic and personal monsters that intertwined within community, school, family, and self. The Financial Hardship Monster illustrated the struggles of poverty and its influence on students' educational aspirations. The Addiction Monster revealed how alcohol and drugs within community and family shaped students' pre-college journey. The Educational Deficit Monster uncovered Reservation schooling challenges that limited students' academic ability and college access. The final and more intimate monster, The Personal Struggles Monster, shed light on private and often unspoken challenges that students faced during a crucial time in the college-choice process. To overcome the monsters, students activated powerful weapons. The first set of weapons, Trusting Relationships and Vulnerability, entailed students' awareness of lessons learned during vulnerable moments and stories shared with mothers, grandmothers, and teachers. The Courage to Challenge Self weapons demonstrated that participation in college readiness opportunities and applying to high-stakes scholarships affirmed confidence that they were college material. The Transforming Obstacles to Positives weapons uncovered students' abilities to transform negative conditions into positive intentions, which motivated them to continue their journeys toward college. The final weapons, Faith in Spiritual Teachings, were spiritual and traditional teachings that reminded students that they were not alone and that they were unstoppable in proceeding toward college. This study underscored how context matters and penetrated in students' lives including systematic poverty, structural forces that fueled addiction, and systematic educational deficit and meritocracy ideologies. These stories have the power to transform discourses of deficiency to those of strength and honor for future Native student warriors and their educational attainment.