Use of Dialdehyde Starch in Coating Color Formulation

A literature survey was conducted to determine what work, if any, had been done on dialdehyde starch as a coating adhesive. As a result of the survey, it was decided that experimental work would be started with the hope of overcoming some of the difficulties which confronted previous investigators and investigating further the use of dialdehyde starch as an adhesive. After experimental preparation and evaluation of the coated and aftertreated sheets, the following conclusions were formed: 1. The addition of ten percent borax buffered or bisulphite buffered dialdehyde starch to conventional oxidized starch increases the surface strength of the coating as well as the wet rub resistance. 2. Aftertreatment with the starch dispersions increases the surface strength of the coating and the wet rub resistance. 3. Bisulphite buffered dialdehyde starch is a better coating adhesive and waterproofer than borax buffered dialdehyde starch

The role of Follistatin-like 3 (Fstl3) in cardiac hypertrophy and remodelling

Follistatins are extracellular inhibitors of TGF-β family ligands like activin A, myostatin and bone morphogenetic proteins. Follistatin-like 3 (Fstl3) is a potent inhibitor of activin signalling and antagonises the cardioprotective role of activin A in the heart. The expression of Fstl3 is elevated in patients with heart failure and upregulated by hypertrophic stimuli in cardiomyocytes. However its role in cardiac remodelling is largely unknown. The aim of this thesis was to analyse the function of Fstl3 in the myocardium in response to hypertrophic stimuli using both in vivo and in vitro approaches. To explore the role of Fstl3 in cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac-specific Fstl3 knock-out mice (Fstl3 KO) were subjected to pressure overload induced by trans-aortic constriction. They showed attenuated cardiac hypertrophy and improved cardiac function compared to wild type littermate control mice. Knock-out of Fstl3 specifically from cardiomyocytes was sufficient to reduce the total expression of Fstl3 in the heart following pressure overload, implying that cardiomyocytes are the major source of Fstl3 in the heart after TAC. Fstl3 KO mice also showed reduced expression of typical hypertrophic markers including ANP, BNP, α-skeletal actin and β-MHC. Similarly, treatment of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes with Fstl3 resulted in hypertrophy as measured by increased cell size and protein synthesis. This was also accompanied by activation of p38 and JNK signalling pathways. Microarray analysis of ventricular samples from these mice indicated reduced expression of genes involved in protein binding and extracellular matrix. Verification by quantitative real-time RT-PCR revealed reduced expression of collagens and TGF- β1 in the myocardium, indicating reduced fibrosis. This was supported by histological analysis showing reduced interstitial fibrosis. As an in vitro model of pressure overload, cardiomyocytes were subjected to mechanical stretch, which elevated the expression of Fstl3. In order to explore the role of cardiomyocyte-derived Fstl3 in modulating fibroblast function, cardiac fibroblasts were treated with the conditioned medium from stretched cardiomyocytes and collagen synthesis was measured. Fstl3 was found to be necessary for conditioned medium to induce an increase in collagen synthesis in fibroblasts. Fstl3 was also shown to induce low levels of cell death in cardiac fibroblasts. In order to identify stretched cardiomyocyte derived factors necessary for Fstl3 action on fibroblast collagen synthesis, a yeast two hybrid analysis was undertaken. Results indicated that Fstl3 may act, at least in part, through binding to proteins of the extracellular matrix as well as pro-fibrotic factors, including connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). While CTGF did not affect fibroblast collagen synthesis in the presence of Fstl3, it inhibited Fstl3 induced cell death, indicating a protective role. In summary, data presented in this thesis demonstrates that Fstl3 is upregulated after cardiac injury and functions by activating the pro-hypertrophic and pro-fibrotic responses in the myocardium, making it an attractive therapeutic target for intervention of cardiac pathologies

Iwahori-Hecke algebras for Kac-Moody groups over local fields

We define the Iwahori-Hecke algebra for an almost split Kac-Moody group over a local non-archimedean field. We use the hovel associated to this situation, which is the analogue of the Bruhat-Tits building for a reductive group. The fixer K of some chamber in the standard apartment plays the role of the Iwahori subgroup. We can define the Iwahori-Hecke algebra as the algebra of some K-bi-invariant functions on the group with support consisting of a finite union of double classes. As two chambers in the hovel are not always in a same apartment, this support has to be in some large subsemigroup of the Kac-Moody group. In the split case, we prove that the structure constants of the multiplication in this algebra are polynomials in the cardinality of the residue field, with integer coefficients depending on the geometry of the standard apartment. We give a presentation of this algebra, similar to the Bernstein-Lusztig presentation in the reductive case, and embed it in a greater algebra, algebraically defined by the Bernstein-Lusztig presentation. In the affine case, this algebra contains the Cherednik's double affine Hecke algebra. Actually, our results apply to abstract "locally finite" hovels, so that we can define the Iwahori-Hecke algebra with unequal parameters.Comment: Version 2: Section on the extended affine case added, containing the relationship with the DAHAs, to appear in Pacific Journal of Mathematic

Indeterministic Handling of Uncertain Decisions in Duplicate Detection

In current research, duplicate detection is usually considered as a deterministic approach in which tuples are either declared as duplicates or not. However, most often it is not completely clear whether two tuples represent the same real-world entity or not. In deterministic approaches, however, this uncertainty is ignored, which in turn can lead to false decisions. In this paper, we present an indeterministic approach for handling uncertain decisions in a duplicate detection process by using a probabilistic target schema. Thus, instead of deciding between multiple possible worlds, all these worlds can be modeled in the resulting data. This approach minimizes the negative impacts of false decisions. Furthermore, the duplicate detection process becomes almost fully automatic and human effort can be reduced to a large extent. Unfortunately, a full-indeterministic approach is by definition too expensive (in time as well as in storage) and hence impractical. For that reason, we additionally introduce several semi-indeterministic methods for heuristically reducing the set of indeterministic handled decisions in a meaningful way

School Sanitation in Underserved Urban Areas in India

This paper discusses how GIZ is supporting the Ministry of Urban Development in improving the sanitation situation for the urban poor. It selected 47 schools in five Indian cities to significantly improve the sanitation conditions, aiming to build awareness and capacity. All schools showed measurable improvements on school sanitation at the end of the project

Symposium

Co-organised symposium

Symposium and screenings

Co-organisation of symposium and screenings, as part of the AHRC-funded Screening Nature Network