Understanding the molecular basis of the strength differences in skins used in leather manufacture : a dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Although skin structure and its physical properties have been extensively studied, little research has been devoted to understanding the links between them. A comprehensive study of the molecular components of four animal skins commonly used to manufacture shoes, clothing and furniture was therefore undertaken in order to attempt to identify a common indicator of skin strength. The molecular architecture of the protein components of each skin was analysed using polarising, confocal and transmission-electron microscopy (TEM), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and amino-acid and cross-link analysis; glycosaminoglycans were quantified and visualised using TEM; and, for the sake of completeness, total carbohydrate and lipid content were measured using a colorimetric assay and thin layer chromatography respectively. Differences in these properties were then related to different physical characteristics of each skin. The results showed that an individual mechanical property of skin such as tensile strength is complex and related to different combinations of molecular properties. For example, deer and cow skins are the strongest of the skins examined, however they derive their strength from different combinations of molecular properties. Cow skin collagen fibrils have the largest diameter, but deer skin fibrils have the smallest. On the other hand, the fibrils in deer skin frequently change direction, and have a “wavy” or crimped appearance in contrast to the fibrils in cow skin which are aligned in two main directions approximately 60 and 90 degrees apart, differences that are also reflected in the types and amount of their collagen crosslinks. Deer skin fibrils contain a higher proportion of trivalent crosslinks while cow skin fibrils contain a higher proportion of tetravalent links. For the two weaker skins, goat skin fibrils are more crimped than those of sheep skin, but both fibrils have diameters intermediate between those of cow- and deer skins and have lower mature to immature crosslink ratio. In deer skin, glycosaminoglycans are observed by TEM to link fibrils in regular arrays and are present in higher concentrations than in cow, sheep and goat skins. This study showed the relationship between the molecular structure of skin and its mechanical functions is complex, arising from different combinations of molecular features rather than just one

Livelihood coping strategies of women heads of households in Cairo\u27s informal settlements: The case of Izbet El Haggana

This study investigates the livelihood coping strategies of women heads of households in Cairo’s informal settlements. Its research problem centers on the premise that urban poverty is underestimated in Egypt, in addition, the growing rate of ‘urbanization’ is increasing the vulnerability of women heads of households. The study is focused on Cairo’s informal areas as they represent a shelter for millions of rural migrants to the city. Informal areas in Cairo generally called “ashwa’eyat” in Arabic are either stigmatized or rationalized, yet, the nature of their informality and proximity to the urban center, and sometimes, even government establishments make them a unique source for inquiry. The main research question that is posed by this research is an attempt to understand the impact of the vulnerable context on the livelihood coping strategies of women heads of households in those spaces that are autonomous from the state. This question is important in light of a historical moment in the Egypt that is challenging the relationship between the state and society, and the choice of this specific group is important because women face “double marginalization” in a vulnerable urban context. The thesis is using the sustainable livelihood approach as the foundational theoretical framework in approaching the subject of women heads of households in Cairo’s informal settlements that fits under the bigger context of urban poverty. The study used a qualitative approach in gathering data from Izbet El Haggana, the study area and one of Cairo’s largest informal settlements

Parallel distributed algorithms of the beta-model of the small world graphs

The research goal is to develop a large-scale agent-based simulation environment to support implementations of Internet simulation applications.The Small Worlds (SW) graphs are used to model Web sites and social networks of Internet users. Each vertex represents the identity of a simple agent. In order to cope with scalability issues, we have to consider distributed parallel processing. The focus of this paper is to present two parallel-distributed algorithms for the construction of a particular type of SW graph called Beta-model. The first algorithm serializes the graph construction, while the second constructs the graph in parallel

Oppressed female protagonists and their survival strategies: An ecofeminist perspective in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

The current study draws on the perspective of ecofeminism’s main premise, which states that the patriarchal ideology authorizes the oppression of women and many other marginalized groups, which leads to the actions of the legitimization of the destructions of nature. In both Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, one encounters a significant problem regarding the female characters’ responses to and association with the natural world. Upon reaching a critical point of view in their lives, the female characters in both novels begin to display a tremendous realization of the importance of nature. Therefore, they start striving and liberating themselves via ecofeminist values and attitudes from the prescribed gender roles imposed on them. For this very reason, the aim of the study is to examine the complexity of embedding natural aspects within these texts in the light of ecofeminist theoretical framework to unravel the motives that might have motivated both the writers and their female characters to adopt ecofeminist values. The descriptive qualitative method was employed in this study using the techniques of textual analysis. The findings of the current research demonstrated that most of the black female characters have been pushed to the periphery on the account of gender, race, and class. However, only some female characters in the novel survive spiritually and physically by utilizing ecofeminist ideology and strategies. While Morrison incorporated social and political stance, Alice Walker’s ecofeminist stance reflected political and, more importantly, spiritual attitudes. Both of them supported women who crave for freedom and emancipation from the shackles of discrimination and bondage. The oppression of women, children, people of colour, the poor and the environment is interwoven and therefore must be battled simultaneously. Future research should study the comparison of women’s nature writing to men’s nature writings, through ecofeminist perspective. Further the later works can also be a good source of ecofeminist critical research

Flexural and Shear Behavior of RC Concrete Beams Reinforced with Fiber Wire Mesh

 هذا البحثِ يهدف الى دراسة تأثير استخدام شبكة الاسلاك الليفية على خصائص الانحناء والقص للأعتاب الخرسانية المسلحة. ستة اعتاب خرسانية مسلحة (120*180*1220ملم) فحصتَ تحت عِدّة حالات تحميلِ. شبكة الاسلاك الليفية وضعت بطريقتين الاولى ثلاثة طبقات على شكل حرف Uحول مقطع العتبة , الثانية عبارة عن اربعة طبقات حول كل مقطع العتبة.نتائج  الفحص بينت ان ملائمة استخدام شبكة الاسلاك الليفية كتسليح اضافي للأعتاب الخرسانية المسلحة ويمكن ان تعطي زيادة بالحمل الاقصى(1.85-3.58%  في حالة الانحناء) و (17.7-23.7 % في حالة القص) بينما يمكن    ان تعطي زيادة بحمل  التشقق الاولي (7 %42.8 -85.في حالة الانحناء) و (41.2-76.5%   في حالة القص) . كذلك سلوك القص اصبح اكثر مطيليه عندما تم استخدام شبكة الاسلاك الليفية  في الاعتاب. تشققات الانكماش اختفت عندما تم استخدام شبكة الاسلاك الليفية حول كل مقطع العتبة.This work aims to study  the effect of using fiber wire mesh on the flexural and shear properties of RC concrete beams. Six reinforced concrete beams (120*180*1220mm) were tested under two load points. Fiber wire mesh was applied with two manners, first one is three layers as U shape around the section of the beam, the second one is four layers around overall section of beam. The test results indicated that using of fiber wire mesh as additional reinforcement can increase the ultimate load of about (1.85-3.58% in the case of flexural) and (17.7-23.7% in case of shear). Also,  results showed that an increasing in  first cracking  load is obtained from  (42.8-85.7% in case of flexural) and from (41.2-76.5% in case of shear). Also the shear behavior of beams becomes more ductile when the fiber wire mesh was used in beams. The cracks of shrinkage was disappeared when the fiber wire mesh surround the section of the beam.&nbsp

Evaluation of the Compton (Incoherent) and Rayleigh (Coherent) Differential Cross Sections of Scattering for Rhodium 103Rh45 and Tantalum181Ta73 by Employing CSC model

The differential cross section for the Rhodium and Tantalum has been calculated by using the Cross Section Calculations (CSC) in range of energy(1keV-1MeV) . This calculations based on the programming of the Klein-Nashina and Rayleigh Equations. Atomic form factors as well as the coherent functions in Fortran90 language Machine proved very fast an accurate results and the possibility of application of such model to obtain the total coefficient for any elements or compounds

Downlink Achievable Rate Analysis for FDD Massive MIMO Systems

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems with large-scale transmit antenna arrays, often called massive MIMO, are a very promising direction for 5G due to their ability to increase capacity and enhance both spectrum and energy efficiency. To get the benefit of massive MIMO systems, accurate downlink channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) is essential for downlink beamforming and resource allocation. Conventional approaches to obtain CSIT for FDD massive MIMO systems require downlink training and CSI feedback. However, such training will cause a large overhead for massive MIMO systems because of the large dimensionality of the channel matrix. In this dissertation, we improve the performance of FDD massive MIMO networks in terms of downlink training overhead reduction, by designing an efficient downlink beamforming method and developing a new algorithm to estimate the channel state information based on compressive sensing techniques. First, we design an efficient downlink beamforming method based on partial CSI. By exploiting the relationship between uplink direction of arrivals (DoAs) and downlink direction of departures (DoDs), we derive an expression for estimated downlink DoDs, which will be used for downlink beamforming. Second, By exploiting the sparsity structure of downlink channel matrix, we develop an algorithm that selects the best features from the measurement matrix to obtain efficient CSIT acquisition that can reduce the downlink training overhead compared with conventional LS/MMSE estimators. In both cases, we compare the performance of our proposed beamforming method with traditional methods in terms of downlink achievable rate and simulation results show that our proposed method outperform the traditional beamforming methods

Osler-Weber-Rendu (OWR) Disease and Heart Failure

OWR is a genetic disease, transmitted as an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by arteriovenous malformations predominantly involving the mucocutaneous epithelium. One of the significant complications is the development of arteriovenous fistulas in different organs like the liver and brain. One of the rarest complications of this arteriovenous conduit is a high-output heart failure. We would like to describe a 66 years old woman who was admitted with a high-output cardiac failure who deteriorated clinically and was treated successfully by conservative management