Photocatalysis Studies under Visible Light Irradiation with TiO2 Obtained by Pulsed Electric Field Assisted Sol-Gel Method

The objective of this thesis was to study the effect of pulsed electric field on the preparation of TiO2 nanoparticles via sol-gel method under the visible light irradiation. The literature part introduces properties of different TiO2 crystal forms and principle of photocatalysis. It was expected that pulsed electric field would have an influence on degradation for oxalic acid and formic acid. TiO2 samples were prepared by using three frequencies (50Hz, 294Hz, and 963Hz) and two treatment times (12 minutes and 24 minutes) of pulsed electric field. The photocatalytic activities of TiO2 samples produced with sol-gel method were also compared with the TiO2 particles made by previous study and with the commercial TiO2 powder Aeroxide® (Evonic Degussa GmbH) at the same condition. Results show that pulsed electric field does have an effect on degradation for oxalic acid and formic acid. Generally, higher photocatalytic activities for oxalic acid and formic acid were obtained with lower frequency and longer treatment time of pulsed electric field.

Role of the cardiac nerve in the adaptive changes of heart rate in response to an aversive stimulus in Megalobulimus mogianensis

The effect of an aversive stimulus represented by contact with a hot plate on the heart rate of Megalobulimus mogianensis was evaluated with electrocardiogram recording in intact snails (N = 8). All stimulated animals showed an increase in heart rate, with mean values ranging from 35.6 ± 1.2 (basal heart rate) to 43.8 ± 0.9 bpm (post-stimulation heart rate). The cardioacceleration was followed by gradual recovery of the basal heart rate, with mean recovery times varying from 4.3 ± 0.3 to 5.8 ± 0.6 min. Repetition of the stimulus did not affect the magnitude of variation nor did it influence the basal heart rate recovery time. To investigate the role of the cardiac nerve in mediating the heart rate alterations induced by the aversive stimulus, denervated (N = 8) and sham-operated (N = 8) animals were also tested. Although the aversive stimulus caused the heart rate to increase significantly in both experimental groups, the mean increase in heart rate in denervated animals (4.4 ± 0.4 bpm) was 57% of the value obtained in sham-operated animals (7.7 ± 1.3 bpm), indicating that the cardiac nerve is responsible for 43% of the cardioacceleration induced by the aversive stimulus. The cardioacceleration observed in denervated snails may be due to an increase in venous return promoted by the intense muscular activity associated with the withdrawal response. Humoral factors may also be involved. A probable delaying inhibitory effect of the cardiac nerve on the recuperation of the basal heart rate is suggested.

Vascular adaptive responses to physical exercise and to stress are affected differently by nandrolone administration

Androgenic anabolic steroid, physical exercise and stress induce cardiovascular adaptations including increased endothelial function. The present study investigated the effects of these conditions alone and in combination on the vascular responses of male Wistar rats. Exercise was started at 8 weeks of life (60-min swimming sessions 5 days per week for 8 weeks, while carrying a 5% body-weight load). One group received nandrolone (5 mg/kg, twice per week for 8 weeks, im). Acute immobilization stress (2 h) was induced immediately before the experimental protocol. Curves for noradrenaline were obtained for thoracic aorta, with and without endothelium from sedentary and trained rats, submitted or not to stress, treated or not with nandrolone. None of the procedures altered the vascular reactivity to noradrenaline in denuded aorta. In intact aorta, stress and exercise produced vascular adaptive responses characterized by endothelium-dependent hyporeactivity to noradrenaline. These conditions in combination did not potentiate the vascular adaptive response. Exercise-induced vascular adaptive response was abolished by nandrolone. In contrast, the aortal reactivity to noradrenaline of sedentary rats and the vascular adaptive response to stress of sedentary and trained rats were not affected by nandrolone. Maximum response for 7-10 rats/group (g): sedentary 3.8 ± 0.2 vs trained 3.0 ± 0.2*; sedentary/stress 2.7 ± 0.2 vs trained/stress 3.1 ± 0.1*; sedentary/nandrolone 3.6 ± 0.1 vs trained/nandrolone 3.8 ± 0.1; sedentary/stress/nandrolone 3.2 ± 0.1 vs trained/stress/nandrolone 2.5 ± 0.1*; *P < 0.05 compared to its respective control. Stress and physical exercise determine similar vascular adaptive response involving distinct mechanisms as indicated by the observation that only the physical exercise-induced adaptive response was abolished by nandrolone.

Pulsed ultrasound therapy accelerates the recovery of skeletal muscle damage induced by Bothrops jararacussu venom

We studied the effect of pulsed ultrasound therapy (UST) and antibothropic polyvalent antivenom (PAV) on the regeneration of mouse extensor digitorum longus muscle following damage by Bothrops jararacussu venom. Animals (Swiss male and female mice weighing 25.0 ± 5.0 g; 5 animals per group) received a perimuscular injection of venom (1 mg/kg) and treatment with UST was started 1 h later (1 min/day, 3 MHz, 0.3 W/cm², pulsed mode). Three and 28 days after injection, muscles were dissected and processed for light microscopy. The venom caused complete degeneration of muscle fibers. UST alone and combined with PAV (1.0 mL/kg) partially protected these fibers, whereas muscles receiving no treatment showed disorganized fascicules and fibers with reduced diameter. Treatment with UST and PAV decreased the effects of the venom on creatine kinase content and motor activity (approximately 75 and 48%, respectively). Sonication of the venom solution immediately before application decreased the in vivo and ex vivo myotoxic activities (approximately 60 and 50%, respectively). The present data show that UST counteracts some effects of B. jararacussu venom, causing structural and functional improvement of the regenerated muscle after venom injury.

Power and Performance Management Strategies on NoC-Based Multicore Platforms, Using DVFS, Adaptive Algorithm and Task Parallelism

This work presents synopsis of efficient strategies used in power managements for achieving the most economical power and energy consumption in multicore systems, FPGA and NoC Platforms. In this work, a practical approach was taken, in an effort to validate the significance of the proposed Adaptive Power Management Algorithm (APMA), proposed for system developed, for this thesis project. This system comprise arithmetic and logic unit, up and down counters, adder, state machine and multiplexer. The essence of carrying this project firstly, is to develop a system that will be used for this power management project. Secondly, to perform area and power synopsis of the system on these various scalable technology platforms, UMC 90nm nanotechnology 1.2v, UMC 90nm nanotechnology 1.32v and UMC 0.18 μmNanotechnology 1.80v, in order to examine the difference in area and power consumption of the system on the platforms. Thirdly, to explore various strategies that can be used to reducing system’s power consumption and to propose an adaptive power management algorithm that can be used to reduce the power consumption of the system. The strategies introduced in this work comprise Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS) and task parallelism. After the system development, it was run on FPGA board, basically NoC Platforms and on these various technology platforms UMC 90nm nanotechnology1.2v, UMC 90nm nanotechnology 1.32v and UMC180 nm nanotechnology 1.80v, the system synthesis was successfully accomplished, the simulated result analysis shows that the system meets all functional requirements, the power consumption and the area utilization were recorded and analyzed in chapter 7 of this work. This work extensively reviewed various strategies for managing power consumption which were quantitative research works by many researchers and companies, it's a mixture of study analysis and experimented lab works, it condensed and presents the whole basic concepts of power management strategy from quality technical papers.

Oxidation of Aqueous Thiosulfate Solutions by Pulsed Corona Discharge

The aim of this Master’s thesis focused on the oxidation of sodium thiosulfate using non thermal plasma technology as an advance oxidation process (AOP). By using this technology we can degrade certain toxic chemical compounds present in mining wastewaters as pollutants. Different concentrations of thiosulfate and pulse frequencies were used in the PCD experiments and the results in terms of various delivered energies (kWh/m3) and degradation kinetics were compared. Pulsed corona discharge is an energy efficient process compared to other oxidation processes using for the treatment of waste water pollutants. Due to its simplicity and low energy costs make it attractive in the field of waste water treatment processes. This technology of wastewater treatment has been tested mainly on pilot scale level and in future the attempts are to be focus on PCD investigations on larger process scale. In this research work of oxidation of thiosulfate using pulsed corona discharge, the main aim of this research was to study degradation of a studied toxic and not environmental friendly chemical compound. The focus of this research was to study the waste waters coming from the gold mines containing leachate compound thiosulfate. Literature review contained also gold leaching process when cyanide is used as the leachate. Another objective of this work was to compare PCD process with other processes based on their energy efficiencies. In the experimental part two concentrations of sodium thiosulfate, 1000ppm and 400ppm, were used. Two pulse generator frequencies of 833 and 200 pulses per second (pps) were used. The chemical analyses of the samples taken during semi-batch PCD oxidation process were analyzed by ion chromatographic (IC). It is observed after the analyses that among different frequencies and concentrations, the most suitable ones for the process is 200pps and 1000ppm respectively because the pollutants present in the waste water has more time to react with the OH radicals which are the oxidants and the process is energy efficient compared to other frequencies.

Real-time adaptive control of ultra-fast laser scribing process with spectrometer online monitoring

There exist several researches and applications about laser welding monitoring and parameter control but not a single one have been created for controlling of laser scribing processes. Laser scribing is considered to be very fast and accurate process and thus it would be necessary to develop accurate turning and monitoring system for such a process. This research focuses on finding out whether it would be possible to develop real-time adaptive control for ultra-fast laser scribing processes utilizing spectrometer online monitoring. The thesis accurately presents how control code for laser parameter tuning is developed using National Instrument's LabVIEW and how spectrometer is being utilized in online monitoring. Results are based on behavior of the control code and accuracy of the spectrometer monitoring when scribing different steel materials. Finally control code success is being evaluated and possible development ideas for future are presented.

Physiological reactivity and the perception of emotional stimuli as they relate to social adaptive functioning after traumatic brain injury / y Melonie Jane Hopkins.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often affects social adaptive functioning and these changes in social adaptability are usually associated with general damage to the frontal cortex. Recent evidence suggests that certain neurons within the orbitofrontal cortex appear to be specialized for the processing of faces and facial expressions. The orbitofrontal cortex also appears to be involved in self-initiated somatic activation to emotionally-charged stimuli. According to Somatic Marker Theory (Damasio, 1994), the reduced physiological activation fails to provide an individual with appropriate somatic cues to personally-relevant stimuli and this, in turn, may result in maladaptive behaviour. Given the susceptibility of the orbitofrontal cortex in TBI, it was hypothesized that impaired perception and reactivity to socially-relevant information might be responsible for some of the social difficulties encountered after TBL Fifteen persons who sustained a moderate to severe brain injury were compared to age and education matched Control participants. In the first study, both groups were presented with photographs of models displaying the major emotions and either asked to identify the emotions or simply view the faces passively. In a second study, participants were asked to select cards from decks that varied in terms of how much money could be won or lost. Those decks with higher losses were considered to be high-risk decks. Electrodermal activity was measured concurrently in both situations. Relative to Controls, TBI participants were found to have difficulty identifying expressions of surprise, sadness, anger, and fear. TBI persons were also found to be under-reactive, as measured by electrodermal activity, while passively viewing slides of negative expressions. No group difference,in reactivity to high-risk card decks was observed. The ability to identify emotions in the face and electrodermal reactivity to faces and to high-risk decks in the card game were examined in relationship to social monitoring and empathy as described by family members or friends on the Brock Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire (BAFQ). Difficulties identifying negative expressions (i.e., sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) predicted problems in monitoring social situations. As well, a modest relationship was observed between hypo-arousal to negative faces and problems with social monitoring. Finally, hypo-arousal in the anticipation of risk during the card game related to problems in empathy. In summary, these data are consistent with the view that alterations in the ability to perceive emotional expressions in the face and the disruption in arousal to personally-relevant information may be accounting for some of the difficulties in social adaptation often observed in persons who have sustained a TBI. Furthermore, these data provide modest support for Damasio's Somatic Marker Theory in that physiological reactivity to socially-relevant information has some value in predicting social function. Therefore, the assessment of TBI persons, particularly those with adaptive behavioural problems, should be expanded to determine whether alterations in perception and reactivity to socially-relevant stimuli have occurred. When this is the case, rehabilitative strategies aimed more specifically at these difficulties should be considered.

Pulsed laser deposition of YBa2Cu3O7-[delta]/PrBa2Cu3O7-[delta] /

The process of depositing thin films by the use of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) has become a more widely used technique for the growth of substances in a thin film form. Pulsed laser deposition allows for the stoichiometric film growth of the target which is of great significance in the deposition of High Temperature Superconducting materials. We will describe a system designed using an excimer laser and vaccum chamber in which thin films and superlattices of YBa2Cuj07_i, PrBa2Cu307_i, and YBajCujOr-j/ PrBajCusOr-^ were deposited on SrTiOs. Results of resistivity measurements using the four probe technique will be shown.

Preparation of SrMgx-Ru1-xO3 thin films by pulsed laser deposition /

SrMg^Rui-iOa thin films were made by using pulsed laser deposition on SrTiOa (100) substrates in either O2 or Ar atmosphere. The thin films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis, dc resistivity measurement, and dc magnetization measurement. The effect of Mg doping was observed. As soon as the amount of Mg increased in SrMg-cRui-iOa thin films, the magnetization decreased, and the resistivity increased. It had little effect on the Curie temperature (transition temperature). The magnetization states of SrMgiRui-iOa thin films, for x < 0.15, are similar to SrRuOs films. X-ray diffraction results for SrMga-Rui-iOa thin films made in oxygen showed that the films are epitaxial. The thin films could not be well made in Ar atmosphere during laser ablation as there was no clear peak of SrMg^Rui-iOa in x-ray diffraction results. Substrate temperatures had an effect on the resistivity of the films. The residual resistivity ratios were increased by increasing substrate temperature. It was observed that the thickness of thin films are another factor for film quality: Thin films were epitaxial, but thicker films were not epitaxial.

Carbohydrate refeeding rapidly reverses the adaptive upregulation of human skeletal muscle pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase following a high fat diet

The time course for the reversal of the adaptive increase in pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK) activity following a 6d high fat diet (HP: 4.2 ± 0.2 % carbohydrate; 75.6 ± 0.4 % fat; 19.5 ± 0.8 % protein) was investigated in human skeletal muscle (vastus lateralis). HF feeding increased PDK activity by 44% (from 0.081 ± 0.025 min"' to 0.247 ± 0.025 mm\p < 0.05). Following carbohydrate re-feeding, (88% carbohydrate; 5% fat; 7% protein), PDK activity had returned to baseline (0.111 ± 0.014 min"') within 3h of re-feeding. The active fraction of pyruvate dehydrognease (PDHa) was depressed following 6d of the HF diet (from 0.89 ± 0.21 mmol/min/kg WW to 0.32 ± 0.05 mmol/min/kg ww,p <0.05) and increased to pre-HF levels by 45 min of post re-feeding (0.74 ±0.19 mmol/min/kg ww) and remained elevated for 3h. Western blotting analysis of the PDK isoforms, PDK4 and PDK2, revealed a 31% increase in PDK4 protein content following the HF diet, with no change in PDK2 protein. This adaptive increase in PDK4 protein content was reversed with carbohydrate re-feeding. It was concluded that the adaptive up-regulation in PDK activity and PDK4 protein content was fiilly reversed by 3h following carbohydrate re-feeding.

The practical application of a meta-analysis of deinstitutionalization : adaptive behaviour outcomes and the piloting of a transitional questionnaire for adults with intellectual disabilities

This investigation examined the effects of de institutionalization on the adaptive behaviour and adjustment of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). In study 1, a meta-analysis was conducted with 23 studies on deinstitutionalization adaptive behaviour outcomes. Deinstitutionalization was associated with modest improvements in adaptive behaviour however outcomes varied across adaptive behaviour domains and other substantive variables. Clinical and service implications of these results were explicated. Noting the trends from the meta-analysis, study 2 used this information in refining and piloting an Agency Transition Survey used to evaluate community transitions for persons with ID. Information derived from the survey was found to be valuable and adequate for the effective evaluation of transitional success. Potential applications of the survey and meta-analysis results were illustrated.

Deinstitutionalization and its Effects on Social Inclusion, Choice-Making, Adaptive and Maladaptive Behavior for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: Case Studies Analysis

In the past three decades institutions for persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) have been downsizing and closing in Ontario, Canada. This trend is reflective of the changes that have occurred in society. As of March 2009 the last institution operated by the Ontario government for persons with ID closed, placing the remaining approximately 1000 persons into the community. The current study was an analysis of part of one study in a four-study research project, called the Facilities Initiative Study, to explore the impact of the closures on the lives of individuals who have been reintegrated into community settings. The goal of the current case study analysis was to describe the impact of changes in social inclusion, choice-making/autonomy, and adaptive/maladaptive functioning of four individuals prior to and following transition to the community. The results suggested that, in most cases, community integration was related to more social inclusion opportunities and autonomy in choice-making, a wider range of adaptive behaviors and fewer maladaptive behaviors. In some cases, the evidence suggested that some of these indices of quality of life were not improving. Overall, the study found that the differences observed were unique to each of the individuals who participated in the case study analysis. Some generalized themes were generated that can be applied to future deinstitutionalization endeavors.

Assessing the adaptive capacity of the Ontario wine industry to climate change: A case study

The global wine industry is experiencing the impacts of climate change. Canada’s major wine sector, the Ontario Wine Industry (OWI) is no exception to this trend. Warmer winter and summer temperatures are affecting wine production. The industry needs to adapt to these challenges, but their capacity for this is unclear. To date, only a limited number of studies exist regarding the adaptive capacity of the wine industry to climate change. Accordingly, this study developed an adaptive capacity assessment framework for the wine industry. The OWI became the case study for the implementation of the assessment framework. Data was obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to grape growers, winemakers and supporting institutions in Ontario. The results indicated the OWI has adaptive capacity capabilities in financial, institutional, political, technological, perceptions, knowledge, diversity and social capital resources areas. Based on the OWI case study, this framework provides an effective means of assessing regional wine industries’ capacity to adapt to climate change.