Ill fares the land: the legal consequences of land confiscations by the Sandinista government of Nicaragua 1979-1990

This thesis analyzes the consequences of property confiscations and redistribution under the Sandinista (FSLN) government in Nicaragua of the 1980s. It covers the period from the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979 to the February 1990 FSLN electoral defeat and the following two months of the Piñata, when the outgoing Sandinista government quickly formalized possession of property by new owners, both formerly landless peasants and the elite. It also examines subsequent efforts to resolve outstanding property claims, with the focus on the Chamorro and later presidential administrations to 2007, when Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega and the FSLN returned to power. The main argument is that Sandinista leaders, largely from the same families that have dominated Nicaragua since the Colonial period, followed Nicaraguan traditions of using influence to distort the legal and political system to gain title to valuable properties. In contrast to partisan arguments in favor of one regime or another, here the methods of property transfer are analyzed by investigating in detail documentary evidence of illustrative cases that show the steps and individuals involved in these transactions, as well as more generally surveying other cases and the overall situation with property. The argument is tested by examining how the selected claimants’ properties were taken and who obtained them. The results indicate that Sandinista elites did obtain properties for their personal benefit, often in violation of their own legislation, but that this was largely consistent with the practice of other, non- Sandinista governments. After their electoral defeat, ongoing Sandinista influence in the organs of government influenced the restitution process, with claimants typically settling for compensation at a fraction of the market value, with the Nicaraguan state and people bearing the cost of paying for compensation bonds over the coming decades. Political influence undermined the restitution mechanism

Real Time Tone Mapping - Eine Evaluierung farbgetreuer Verfahren zur Luminanzkompression

Die neusten Fortschritte im Bereich Real Time Rendering ermög-lichen virtuelle Produktionsabläufe in weiten Teilen der Industrie. Diese Vorgehensweise setzt latenzfreies Arbeiten und eine akkurate Erscheinung voraus. Daher empfiehlt sich die Verwendung von HDR-Rendering für fotorealistische Ergebnisse und Tone Mapping für die passende Darstellung. Gleichwohl gibt es bisher nur wenige Publikationen, die sich mit echtzeitfähigem Tone Mapping beschäftigen. Zudem tendieren Tone Mapping Operatoren dazu, Farberscheinungseffekte zu erzeugen, die zu einer Diskrepanz zwischen dargestelltem und realem Produkt führen. Deshalb werden in dieser Thesis sieben Tone Mapping Operatoren bewertet, die unterschiedliche Ansätze zur Farbkorrektur beinhalten. Sie werden als Fragment Shader implementiert, um Echtzeitverarbeitung zu realisieren. Zusätzlich wird ihre Performance und die subjektive Akkuratesse der Ergebnisse gemessen. Im Ergebnis schneidet der FilmicTMO als global arbeitender Sigmoid-Operator am besten ab und wird für die weitere Verwendung empfohlen.Recent advances in real time rendering enable virtual production pipelines in a broad range of industries. These pipelines require a fast, latency-free handling in addition to the accurate appearance of results. This suggests the use of HDR rendering for photorealistic results and a tone mapping operator for a matched display. However, tone mapping of real time rendering has not been the focus of many publications to this day. Further more, tone mapping tends to cause image appearance effects, which leads to a change in the perception of colors and therefore a discrepancy between displayed and real world products. For this purpose, seven tone mapping operators with different approaches of color correction are evaluated in this thesis. They are implemented as fragment shader to realise real time processing. In addition, their performance and subjective accuracy is measured. As a result, the FilmicTMO as global sigmoid-based operator proceeds best and can be recommended for future work

Dureza da liga Ti-12Mo-13Nb após duplo envelhecimento

Ligas de Ti do tipo b estão sendo muito estudadas para aplicação biomédica por apresentarem um balanço de vantagens em relação às outras ligas de Ti, tais como alta resistência específica, excelente resistência à fadiga e, além disso, tendem a apresentar o menor módulo dentre todos os tipos de ligas. Contudo, para um material ser utilizado como implante ortopédico é necessário um balanço entre alta resistência e baixo módulo de elasticidade. Várias microestruturas podem ser obtidas por diferentes tratamentos de envelhecimento os quais influenciam várias propriedades das ligas e, portanto, um satisfatório tratamento de envelhecimento poderá resultar num melhor balanço entre baixo módulo de elasticidade e alta resistência. Há vários tratamentos de envelhecimento que podem ser realizados em uma liga β metaestável. Um destes é o duplo envelhecimento, que consiste em dois processos. Realiza-se um envelhecimento em uma temperatura em torno de 250 ºC que favoreça a precipitação da fase ω (isotérmica) e um subsequente envelhecimento numa temperatura maior para a precipitação de fase α. O foco deste envelhecimento é obter uma precipitação de fase α mais fina e uniforme. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a dureza da liga Ti-12Mo-13Nb após duplo envelhecimento. A liga Ti-12Mo-13Nb foi processada termomecanicamente e passou por um duplo envelhecimento que consistiu primeiramente num envelhecimento na temperatura de 300 ºC por 10 min, 4 e 24 h e um subsequente envelhecimento na temperatura de 500 ºC por 24 h. Como resultado foi observado que não houve variação significativa na dureza com a variação da fração volumétrica da fase ω durante o envelhecimento prévio

Efeito do duplo envelhecimento no módulo de elasticidade da liga Ti-12Mo-13Nb

Ligas de Ti do tipo b estão sendo muito estudadas para aplicação em dispositivos biomédicos por apresentarem um balanço de vantagens em relação às outras ligas de Ti. Contudo, para um material ser utilizado como implante ortopédico é necessário um balanço entre alta resistência e baixo módulo de elasticidade. Várias microestruturas podem ser obtidas por diferentes tratamentos de envelhecimento os quais influenciam várias propriedades das ligas e, portanto, um satisfatório tratamento de envelhecimento poderá resultar num melhor balanço entre baixo módulo de elasticidade e alta resistência. Há vários tratamentos de envelhecimento que podem ser realizados em uma liga β metaestável, um destes é o duplo envelhecimento. O foco deste envelhecimento é obter uma precipitação de fase α mais fina e uniforme. O Objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o efeito do duplo envelhecimento no módulo de elasticidade da liga Ti-12Mo-13Nb. A liga Ti-12Mo-13Nb foi processada termomecanicamente e passou por um duplo envelhecimento que consistiu primeiramente num envelhecimento na temperatura de 300 ºC por 10 min, 4 e 24 h e um subsequente envelhecimento na temperatura de 500 ºC por 24 h. Como resultado foi observado que não houve variação significativa no módulo de elasticidade com a variação da fração volumétrica da fase ω durante o envelhecimento prévio

Canine respiratory coronavirus employs caveolin-1-mediated pathway for internalization to HRT-18G cells

Canine respiratory coronavirus (CRCoV), identified in 2003, is a member of the Coronaviridae family. The virus is a betacoronavirus and a close relative of human coronavirus OC43 and bovine coronavirus. Here, we examined entry of CRCoV into human rectal tumor cells (HRT-18G cell line) by analyzing co-localization of single virus particles with cellular markers in the presence or absence of chemical inhibitors of pathways potentially involved in virus entry. We also targeted these pathways using siRNA. The results show that the virus hijacks caveolin-dependent endocytosis to enter cells via endocytic internalization

Lysosomotropic agents as HCV entry inhibitors

HCV has two envelop proteins named as E1 and E2 which play an important role in cell entry through two main pathways: direct fusion at the plasma membrane and receptor-mediated endocytosis. Fusion of the HCV envelope proteins is triggered by low pH within the endosome. Lysosomotropic agents (LA) such as Chloroquine and Ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) are the weak bases and penetrate in lysosome as protonated form and increase the intracellular pH. To investigate the antiviral effect of LA (Chloroquine and NH4Cl) on pH dependent endocytosis, HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp) of 1a and 3a genotype were produced and used to infect liver cells. The toxicological effects of Chloroquine and NH4Cl were tested in liver cells through MTT cell proliferation assay. For antiviral screening of Chloroquine and NH4Cl, liver cells were infected with HCVpp of 3a and 1a genotype in the presence or absence of different concentrations of Chloroquine and NH4Cl and there luciferase activity was determined by using a luminometer. The results demonstrated that Chloroquine and NH4Cl showed more than 50% reduction of virus infectivity at 50 μM and 10 mM concentrations respectively. These results suggest that inhibition of HCV at fusion step by increasing the lysosomal pH will be better option to treat chronic HCV

The Distressed Brain: A Group Blind Source Separation Analysis on Tinnitus

Background: Tinnitus, the perception of a sound without an external sound source, can lead to variable amounts of distress. Methodology: In a group of tinnitus patients with variable amounts of tinnitus related distress, as measured by the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), an electroencephalography (EEG) is performed, evaluating the patients ’ resting state electrical brain activity. This resting state electrical activity is compared with a control group and between patients with low (N = 30) and high distress (N = 25). The groups are homogeneous for tinnitus type, tinnitus duration or tinnitus laterality. A group blind source separation (BSS) analysis is performed using a large normative sample (N = 84), generating seven normative components to which high and low tinnitus patients are compared. A correlation analysis of the obtained normative components ’ relative power and distress is performed. Furthermore, the functional connectivity as reflected by lagged phase synchronization is analyzed between the brain areas defined by the components. Finally, a group BSS analysis on the Tinnitus group as a whole is performed. Conclusions: Tinnitus can be characterized by at least four BSS components, two of which are posterior cingulate based, one based on the subgenual anterior cingulate and one based on the parahippocampus. Only the subgenual component correlates with distress. When performed on a normative sample, group BSS reveals that distress is characterized by two anterior cingulate based components. Spectral analysis of these components demonstrates that distress in tinnitus is relate