VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
High-Spin States in 167Hf and 173,174W

High-spin states of the transitional nuclei $\sp{167}$Hf, $\sp{173}$W and $\sp{174}$W were studied by in-beam $\gamma$-ray spectroscopic techniques. The population of high-spin states in $\sp{167}$Hf was done through the heavy-ion reactions $\sp{155}$Gd($\sp{16}$O, 4n) and $\sp{146}$Nd($\sp{26}$Mg, 5n) while high-spin states of $\sp{173,174}$W were populated with the reaction $\sp{150}$Nd($\sp{30}$Si, 7n/6n). All three experiments were carried out at the Chalk River Laboratories using the 8$\pi\ \gamma$-ray spectrometer. Nuclear levels up to a spin of (73/2)$\hbar$ have been observed in $\sp{167}$Hf. Seven rotational bands have been identified in this nucleus; four of which were observed for the first time in this set of experiments. Two of the new bands are believed to be based on the highly non-yrast G(AB) and H(AB) quasi-particle configurations. At a rotational frequency of 0.5 MeV, the onset of the first quasi-proton alignment has been observed. A strong quasi-continuum ridge with a spacing of 58.1 $\pm$ 0.3 keV was observed in $\sp{173}$W and $\sp{174}$W when populated at high spin. The ridge is a factor of four times more intense than the sum of discrete bands over the same range of rotational frequencies. The strength of the ridge may be due to the large number of nearly degenerate proton orbitals lying above the Z = 73 gap occurring at a deformation $\beta\sb2 \approx 0.3.$ No evidence for hyperdeformation was found in either the Hf or W data sets.
Type I Interferon Signal Transduction

The Type I interferons (IFNs), including IFN-alpha, -beta and -omega (IFN-$\alpha/\beta/\omega),$ bind to a receptor consisting of the IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 transmembrane subunits and the intracellular kinases, Tyk2 and Jak1. Following ligand binding, the kinases activate the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins. STAT complexes formed in response to Type I IFNs regulate transcription by binding to enhancer elements in the promoters of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs). The interferon stimulated gene factor-3 (ISGF3), which consists of Stat2, Stat1 and an adapter protein, p48, binds to the interferon stimulated response element (ISRE). In addition, several other STAT complexes are formed that bind to the palindromic interferon response element (pIRE). The glycosphingolipids (GSLs) globotriaosylceramide (Gb$\sb3$) and galabiosylceramide (Gb$\sb2$) are receptors for the Escherichia coli derived subunit toxin, Verocytotoxin (VT-1). Interestingly, the Gb$\sb2$/Gb$\sb3$ binding subunit of VT-1 exhibits sequence identity with the extracellular region of IFNAR1. Consistent with earlier studies, evidence is provided that low levels of Gb$\sb2$/Gb$\sb3$ correlate with both a decreased responsiveness and binding capacity of cells for IFN-$\alpha.$ Using a fusion protein containing the extracellular domain of IFNAR1, preferential binding of IFNAR1 to Gb$\sb2$ was demonstrated. These results suggest that an association of IFNAR1 with Gb$\sb2$/Gb$\sb3$ facilitates receptor-mediated signaling. Exploiting the species specificity of the ligand-receptor interaction identified for Type I IFNs, experiments were conducted to elucidate the role of IFNAR1 in IFN-induced signaling. Murine cells expressing human IFNAR1 are deficient in the human Type I IFN response. However, murine cells containing human chromosome 21, encoding IFNAR1, are responsive to all human subtypes. The increased response may be explained in part by the chromosomal location of the second receptor chain, IFNAR2, on chromosome 21. Nevertheless, studies with human MRC-5 cells, expressing all known components of the Type I IFN signaling pathway, reveal that an additional factor(s) that modulates ligand binding, may be required for a full biological response. In an attempt to identify all DNA-binding STAT complexes formed in response to Type I IFNs, a biochemical procedure was developed, based on genomic DNA affinity chromatography (GDAC). Using this approach, an IFN-$\alpha$-inducible ISGF3-independent Stat2 containing STAT complex was identified. In parallel, coimmunoprecipitation studies revealed the IFN-dependent formation of both Stat2:1 and Stat2:3 complexes. The Stat2:1 complex exhibited pIRE binding activity in the mobility shift/Western assay. In studies that employed cyclic amplification and selection of targets (CASTing), the data indicate that Stat2:1 complexes bind with highest affinity to the consensus pIRE. Therefore, in addition to ISGF3, IFN-$\alpha$ activates multiple Stat2-containing STAT complexes that may regulate gene expression by binding to the pIRE.
Jeux enonciatifs et intertextuels dans le cycle indien de Marguerite Duras

Cette these presente une etude du cycle indien de Marguerite Duras (Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, Le vice-consul, L'Amour, La Femme du Gange et India Song), en s'appuyant sur les concepts de l'enonciation et de l'intertextualite. Deployant des dispositifs enonciatifs fort complexes, ces textes, dont chacun reprend essentiellement les memes noyaux diegetiques tout en les variant, sont d'une grande coherence intertextuelle. Puisque l'enonciation et l'intertextualite sont les traits formels les plus caracteristiques du cycle indien, l'objectif de cette these est double: d'une part, je me propose de mettre en lumiere le fonctionnement discursif des instances enonciatives et, d'autre part, j'etudie les divers liens intertextuels entre les textes. L'analyse detaillee se fait d'abord de facon diachronique, chacun des cinq chapitres etant consacres a un ouvrage. D'une instance enonciative singuliere, le "je" du premier roman (en concurrence avec d'autres enonciateurs), on arrive a de multiples instances polyphoniques dans l'avant-dernier et le dernier texte, tout en passant, au troisieme recit, par une enonciation apparemment neutre dont les marques sont si effacees qu'elle se situe au degre zero. Quant au deuxieme roman, il se caracterise par une mise en abyme de l'enonciation scripturale (la persona de l'ecrivain etant doublee par un scripteur a l'interieur du texte), et par de nombreux procedes autoreflexifs qui mettent en relief l'oralite. Dans la conclusion, l'analyse diachronique est completee par une etude synchronique traitant le cycle indien comme unite. Cette derniere partie revele que l'intertextualite interne est inextricablement reliee a l'enonciation, force motrice, qui modalise les reprises des noyaux diegetiques. Aussi la formule d'une enonciation intra-intertextuel le resume-t-elle le mieux les procedes sous-tendant les jeux enonciatifs et intertextuels du cycle indien.
On the Composition of Security Properties

This thesis presents a general theory of system composition for possibilistic security properties. It is shown that possibilistic security properties can be viewed as a predicate over the traces that are consistent with a low level observation $\rm\tau\sb{low}.$ We provide a uniform framework for analyzing and comparing these properties. We demonstrate how to determine what security property a system satisfies given the security properties satisfied by its constituent components. Also, we show how to construct a system that satisfies a desired security property. This analysis yields a condition that can be used to determine how a property may emerge under composition. We examine the reasons for the failure of feedback composition and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for determining when feedback composition will fail for all properties based on Generalized Noninterference. Unwinding theorems are given for a large class of security properties.
Mono(trimethylsilyl) bisketenes, cycloaddition and electrophilic addition reactions

The 1,2-bisketenes 2-phenyl-3-trimethylsilyl-1,3-butadiene-1,4-dione and 2,3-di-tert-butyl-1,3-butadiene-1,4-dione were generated by photolysis of the corresponding cyclobutenediones in yields of 87-99%, and 5-15%, respectively, as relatively long-lived intermediates at room temperature. The 2-ethoxy-3-trimethylsilyl 1,2-bisketene generated similarly was only observed as a transient species by time resolved infared spectroscopy. These bisketenes were not stable at high temperature and reformed the cyclobutenediones. 3,4-Di-tert-butylcyclobutenedione was also prepared by dehydrochlorination of the corresponding succinyl chloride at high temperature. The reactions of 1,2-bisketenes with nucleophiles such as alcohols and amines were studied and the reactions were found to go by stepwise processes, and in some cases the monoketene formed could be observed and even isolated. The reactions of bisketenes with electrophiles were studied. The reaction of 2,3-bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,3-butadiene-1,4-dione with bromine was found to occur by attack at C$\sb\alpha$ and resulted in a 1,4-addition. This 2,3-bis(trimethylsilyl) bisketene was also found to react with t-BuCl to give a monoalkyl substituted bisketene. Cycloaddition reactions of some 1,2-bisketenes were also studied, and those were found not to give Diels-Alder reactions with various dienophiles. 2,3-Bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,3-butadiene-1,4-dione was found to react with acetaldehyde give a ketenyl lactone which upon heating gave a vinyl ketene after loss of CO$\sb2$. The more reactive 2-phenyl-3-trimethylsilyl-1,3-butadiene-1,4-dione was found to react with electron-rich alkynes to give furanone derivatives under photolysis conditions or heating. With the reactive alkyne ethoxytrimethylsilylethyne 4+2 cycloaddition to form a benzoquinone was the major pathway. The reaction of bisketenes with diazo compounds gave furanone and cyclopentene-3,5-dione derivatives.
Changing Frames, Medium Matters in Selected Plays and Films of David Mamet

David Mamet is one of a small number of American playwrights who have successfully made the transition to the role of writer/director in mainstream American cinema. This thesis considers the influence of the distinct relationship between the controlling conventions and the unpredictable excess of the newly-adopted medium (or media-complex) of film upon Mamet's work. The first section of this thesis provides a brief survey of theoretical models of theatrical and cinematic production, reception, and signification. The second section explores a selection of plays which make explicit the playwright's understanding and practice of live (re)presentation: Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974), American Buffalo (1975), Edmond (1982), and The Shawl (1985). The third section considers Mamet's early pronouncements regarding writing for the cinema, and the two motion pictures which were conceived entirely as films, without theatrical heritage, on which Mamet acted as both writer and director: House of Games (1987) and Homicide (1991). What becomes evident through this research is Mamet's theatrical preoccupation with the conventional restraints of social performance and interaction. Repeatedly, Mamet's fictional (re)presentations enact the parallel potential for the transgression of convention inherent in the theatrical form. With The Shawl (1985) Mamet proposes an organic mode of performance that unites theatrical and social authenticity and efficacy. In contrast, Mamet's cinema protagonists are both consumed by deceitful narrative worlds and imprisoned within manipulated and highly restricted fields of view. In effect, the possession of the film characters by both narrative and medium duplicates the cinema spectator's experience within the over-determined yet "transparent" narrational manipulation of mainstream film. This thesis concludes that the work in theatre and film of David Mamet is strongly determined by his engagement with the governing conventions of each form. Through the contrast between the transgressive volatility of Mamet's theatrical exhibitionism and the voyeuristic passivity encouraged by his work for film, this study illustrates the powerful influence of medium selection on one author's creative expression, and identifies general theoretical implications for all such cross-medium authorship.
The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism

This thesis investigates the convergence of environmental and liberal economic norms in international environmental governance since 1972. It argues that the institutionalization of "sustainable development" at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) legitimated this evolution toward "liberal environmentalism." Norms of liberal environmentalism promote and maintain a liberal economic order with minimum disruptions to ecological systems. This compromise enabled environmental concerns to gain greater prominence on the international agenda. First, the thesis maps the evolution of norms to uncover patterns of environmental governance. Second, it explains why environmental governance developed as it did. The thesis traces the evolution of environmental norms through the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development report, and the 1992 UNCED. The focus on norms--which define, regulate and legitimate state (and other actors') identities, values, and behaviours--draws attention to the content of international governance. Hence, explanations for the observed normative developments address two questions: What actors and institutions carried ideas that led to liberal environmentalism? And,why did the ideas associated with such norms become institutionalized? After discounting power- and interest-based explanations, the thesis tests two explanations that focus on the causal role of ideas in international politics. It finds that an epistemic communities explanation, which focuses on the influence of a "scientific ecology" community of experts, fails in a crucial test for the approach. This result challenges the often assumed primacy of science in environmental governance. The thesis then introduces an alternative, socio-evolutionary, approach which draws on recent work on the evolution of international norms. It argues that to understand how new norms become institutionalized requires an analysis of the interaction of ideas and the social structure they encounter. Three factors determine the success of new ideas and the norms they support: the legitimacy of their source, their fitness with existing international social structure, and the degree to which key actors identify their social interests with those ideas. The findings contribute to the literature on ideas, norms, and international governance and to an understanding of continuity and change in international politics.
Three-dimensional Triangulated Boundary Element Meshing of Underground Excavations and Visualization of Analysis Data

In the design of an underground excavation, the engineer uses analyses to quantify and understand the interaction between excavation geometry, rock mass properties and stresses. The analyses are typically complicated by the need to consider variability of each model parameter's values, three-dimensional geometric effects, and the integration of information from multi-disciplinary datasets. A major goal of this thesis is therefore to rationalize the analysis process used to represent underground excavation geometry, conduct numerical stress analyses, and visualize analysis data. The first issue considered in this thesis is the modeling of underground excavation geometry for the purpose of performing three-dimensional boundary element stress analysis. Various geometric modeling algorithms and techniques are enhanced for the application to underground excavation geometry and the concurrent creation of a triangulated boundary element mesh. The second focus of this thesis is the visualization of underground mine datasets. In particular, a paradigm is developed that allows the efficient visualization of stress analysis data, in conjunction with other mine datasets such as seismic event locations, event density, event energy density and geotomographic velocity imaging datasets. Several examples are used in the thesis to illustrate practical application of the developed concepts.
Automatic Generation and Reduction of the Semi-fuzzy Knowledge Base in Symbolic Processing and Numerical Calculation

Typical fuzzy expert systems can only model human behavior on a rule-base level, but they cannot create the comprehensible rules which are difficult to acquire from experts. There is also a lack of logical dimension reduction method for the reduction of an existing rule base generated by experts or analytical modelling. We have proposed an inductive learning method with semantic intervals (SI) sufficiently approximated from normal convex fuzzy sets for generation (Zhao et al 1992) as well as reduction (Turksen and Zhao 1992) of the semi-fuzzy knowledge bases by using input-output data collected from objective processes. The validity of the approximation above is proved by the criterion of uncertainty compromise in approximation to adjacent fuzzy sets. The semi-fuzzy knowledge base consists of two main parts, i.e., a data base with the triangular semi-fuzzy sets (TSFSs) derived from the SI and a rule base containing the rule sets with the TSFSs. The SI plays a key role in symbolic processing for inductive learning. To explore the validation, verification for this automatic knowledge acquisition scheme, an equivalence between the inductive learning with SI and a valid pseudo-Boolean logic simplification is proved. Based on the equivalence, the reliability, implementability and learnability are analyzed and acknowledged for the automatic generation and reduction of the rules with the TSFSs. The TSFSs are functional numerical calculations of an inference engine. The interval valued compositional rule of inference (Turksen 1989) is extended as an adequate inference engine on the TSFSs to carry out the linguistic and numerical values. The advantage of introducing the SI with the associated TSFS (the SI-TSFS pair) is to integrate symbolic processing and numerical calculations. The reduced semi-fuzzy knowledge base is generated through the SI-TSFS pair to overcome the difficulty of the fuzzy logic simplification. Originally this difficulty exists in the conventional fuzzy qualitative modelling technique. Furthermore, the derivation of the SI-TSFS is consistent with the separation theorem (Zadeh 1965). In practical applications even when the condition for the equivalence is not satisfied, the proposed scheme can still provide the semi-fuzzy knowledge base with better testing results in both the classification and inference of a singleton numerical value. The proposed method has been shown to be successful in the modelling of continuous and discrete complex processes such as chemical vinylon synthesis, a repair parts service center, search and rescue satellite-aided tracking (SARSAT), human operation of a chemical plant and stock market activities.
Implementation of Practice Guidelines: A Case Study of Hormone Replacement Therapy

Practice guidelines may improve health care quality and reduce practice variation and costs, but strategies are needed to encourage physicians to comply with guideline goals. In May 1994, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) mailed guidelines on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to Canadian gynaecologists and general and family practitioners (GPs/FPs) and published them in the Society's journal. Distribution was accompanied by a Canada-wide media campaign. The study examined whether the SOGC's implementation strategy increased Ontario women's health care utilization and determined other factors related to physicians' HRT practice. The design consisted of: (1) an interrupted time-series quasi-experiment to examine the association between implementation of guidelines and dispensed prescriptions of estrogen and progestin, gynaecologic visits, and bone density tests; (2) a survey of Ontario gynaecologists and GPs on practice, sources of information, attitude toward guidelines, and demographic factors; and (3) a qualitative assessment of medical literature on HRT, other guidelines, and articles in the popular press and electronic media. Guideline distribution to physicians was associated with increases in new HRT prescriptions dispensed. There is indirect evidence that the communication campaign may have contributed to women asking more questions about HRT. There is evidence of lack of compliance with some guideline recommendations, and the guidelines did not seem to affect bone density testing. GPs/FPs were likelier to have changed their practice than gynaecologists, and a multiple logistic regression analysis found that the odds of a change in practice was greater if physicians thought their discussions with menopausal women on HRT had increased and that more women wanted to use HRT. The qualitative analysis showed that gynaecologists received considerable information on HRT in their medical journal, and other guidelines were not likely to have had an influence on Ontario physician practice regarding HRT. The public was exposed to positive and negative information on HRT, before, after, and during release of the guidelines. It is concluded that the physician arm of the SOGC implementation strategy had an immediate but temporary influence on Ontario physicians and that patient preference needs to be further explored in future guideline implementation strategies.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 Trans-activator of Transcription (HIV-1 Tat), Random Mutagenesis and Interaction with PKR

The etiologic agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, human immunodeficiency virus, encodes a regulatory protein termed "trans-activator of transcription" or Tat. The critical role that Tat plays in viral replication makes this protein an attractive drug discovery target, yet knowledge regarding the molecular basis for the actions of Tat is incomplete. A new method for random saturation mutagenesis was modelled by Monte Carlo simulation and then applied to the HIV-1 tat gene. Analysis of clones isolated from the resultant mutant tat cDNA library revealed the critical primary sequence requirements for Tat trans-activation. Two-exon Tat was shown to be phosphorylated on serine-62 and threonine-64 by the cellular protein kinase PKR, whereas one-exon Tat was found to inhibit PKR in eukaryotic cells, revealing a potential escape mechanism for HIV-1 from the antiviral effects of interferon.